A Daughter's Trust

Sue turned away. “I do not want to see Grandma’s necklace.”

Grabbing her hand, Jenny pulled her down to the couch. Luke sat on her other side. “Grandma’s gone, sweetie,” her mom said.

“I know that.”

“Your father and I—” Jenny and Luke placed their hands over Sue’s “—we know how close you were to her, how badly you must be hurting.”

“I’m fine,” Sue said, not moving.

“We…oh, honey…” Jenny’s eyes filled with tears.

“What your mother is trying to say is that we understand and we’re here for you,” Luke stated.

“I know that.”

“Denial is the first stage of grief,” he continued.

Okay. She wasn’t denying anything. She just wasn’t like them, needing to cling to each other….

“We’re worried about you here all alone, with no one to see you through this difficult time.”

Sue jumped up. “Ma, Dad…” She stopped. Took a breath. Lessened the intensity of her tone. “Really, I’m going to be all right.”

They shared “the glance” again.

“Look, I promise I’ll stay in touch. And Belle’s here….”

“Just don’t underestimate the effect this is having on you.” The seriousness of Luke’s glance got her attention more than his earlier worry had. “You’re too much like me,” he said. “You take on more than you should. You think you can handle anything.”

What other option was there?

But she knew what her dad was saying. He’d retired early from his banking career because of stress-related high blood pressure. A condition that no longer existed, thank God.

“I’ll be careful, Dad. I promise.”

One thing she’d learned about herself several years ago, she wasn’t Wonder Woman.

DRESSED IN GYM SHORTS and a muscle shirt, the same clothes he’d worn lifting weights in the spare bedroom an hour before, Rick sat in the dark on the settee in his bedroom, looking out over the city from the wall of windows. The house wasn’t big. Wasn’t opulent. But it had these windows.

And a fenced-in grassy yard that had been perfect for a little girl to play in.

Ten forty-five.

Rick sat, looking for a plan.

It had something to do with the natural, sexy woman he couldn’t get out of his mind. But so far, the details wouldn’t come to him.

So he sat. He stared.

He hung on.

A move he’d perfected over the past few months.

When his cell rang, it took him a couple of rings to find the damn thing. In the master bath. On the counter. Where he’d left it when he’d stripped out of the jeans he’d worn that day.

He tripped over them as he grabbed the phone.

He recognized the number. Sue Bookman.