Everywhere She Goes

Cait squeezed his hand in a gentle warning. “Our salads are coming.”

He nodded and let her go. Except for the harsh lines in his face, he looked much as usual as he thanked the waitress.

“You know all your employees?” Cait asked.

He shook out his napkin. “I used to. These days, I still try, but I don’t get up to Bend or Sisters more than every couple of weeks. I have good managers and I watch the bottom line.”

She bit her lip. “So you think your father was involved in drug trafficking here in Angel Butte.”

“That’s a logical assumption,” he said flatly. “Probably small-time. According to Mom, he always talked about making enough money to start over somewhere. He wanted me to be proud of him, he said. I guess I’d like to think he wasn’t ruthless enough to climb the ladder.”

“You know for sure this was him?”

“Your brother called this afternoon. They were able to compare dental records.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, wanting to touch him again but sensing he needed to stay aloof, at least while they were in public.

He nodded acknowledgment. “Why don’t we eat? I didn’t get any lunch.”

They found things to talk about; they always did. They steered away from the subject of family, of the current mysteries that preoccupied the police department, even of city government. He told her he was working on one of the front bedrooms.

“Every time I strip molding, the whole house stinks for days,” he grumbled.

She almost asked if it was the child’s bedroom he was working on, but she refrained. Besides, if a family bought that house, at least a couple of the bedrooms would be for the children.

She mentioned a book she was in the middle of, and it turned out he’d read it and took pleasure in countering every argument the author had made. Arguing actually seemed to relax him, so she let herself enjoy it, too.

Not until they had finished dinner, walked back to city hall and were making the short drive to his house did she ask tentatively about his mother.

“Will you let her know?”

The car’s dark interior didn’t allow her to read his expression. “I suppose,” he said after a minute. “I don’t know that she’ll care one way or another, but I could be wrong.”

“She remarried? You said you have a stepfather?”

“Yeah, I think I was seven when she got married again. They’ve stuck it out, so I guess they’re happy enough.”

“I take it you’re not crazy about him.”

“No. We never had much of a relationship. He left the parenting to her.”

“I see.”

He angled a glance at her. “What about your mother? You haven’t mentioned a stepfather.”

“No. I’m not really sure why she never remarried. She’s still an attractive woman. She did date, but I don’t remember anyone being around long enough for me to think it was serious.”

She heard what Colin had said. What if she thought she’d found a great guy? Planned to leave Dad for him? And then it turns out he’s a crook. She’s O and two. Had Mom lost her ability to trust? Any desire even to try?

Would that happen to her eventually, too?

“I called my mother,” Cait said. “I hadn’t told her yet I was back in Angel Butte.”

He turned into his driveway and braked. “How’d she take it?”

“She was horrified. ‘You know what we escaped,’ she said.”

“But your father is long dead.” Noah sounded thoughtful.

“Which leaves me wondering if it was really Dad she was running from. I mentioned seeing Jerry, and I could tell that shocked her, too, and then I capped a fun conversation by telling her he’d been murdered and asking if she’d had any idea back then that he might be into something illegal.”

He chuckled and slid his hand around her nape, gently squeezing. “Went for broke, did you?”

Cait found herself smiling ruefully even as she turned her head to rub her cheek against the inside of his wrist. “There’s a whole lot I didn’t tell her. That when I was ten I saw her lover bury a body in the backyard of his rental house. And the biggie, that someone is trying to kill me.”