“I love you, Mom,” Colette said.
Simone and Gemma echoed the sentiment.
“I love you all.” Gracie cupped a hand around Colette's cheek. “My daughter.” Then Simone. “My granddaughter.” Then Gemma. “My great-granddaughter. Love the people in your life with all that you have and all that you are. Show them grace. Forgive.”
They promised her that they would.
Fear had almost kept Gracie from living out her life with Paul. Fear had kept Gemma from telling Jude how she felt about him. That had been a mistake and the next time she saw him, she was going to shove fear away with both hands.
“Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart,” Gracie said, “for giving my love story back to me. I feel complete again.” She smoothed a tendril of ginger-white hair toward her bun. “If I forget again . . . ?”
“We'll be here,” Gemma said. “And your diaries will be here. To retell your story to you.”
ChapterTwenty-Five
Yesterday, Jude had arrived in Manhattan. Today, he and many others had put in a long day of preparation for tomorrow's meeting with Cedric. It was after nine, dark out, and he’d just let himself into his hotel room. It echoed with loneliness.
He switched on a lamp. Stripped off his suit jacket and tie. Emptied his pockets. Removed his holster and weapon. Moving to the window, he peered out at the scene. Tall buildings all around stacked with people. Lights in windows. Cars jammed into rare parking spots below. Strangers hurrying past.
He should probably eat something, but his body had gone past hunger and now he had no appetite.
If everything went according to plan, Cedric would sell Jude his secrets tomorrow. Then Jude could wrap things up here and return to Gemma, hopefully in under a week. Already, he couldn’t wait to get back to her.
Memories populated in his mind. How she'd looked that first day when he'd walked into her shop. The frozen moment before she'd pressed her lips to his in her kitchen. How her gray eyes sparkled when she wrinkled his shirts or tugged his tie out of place. The way she felt in his arms when he hugged her. Gemma laughing, cheeks pink, hair twining around him in the breeze.
It was as if his chemical makeup had shifted irrevocably. He had no hope of feeling whole or at peace until he was with her again.
The FBI had received approval to scour reservation records for Cedric Bettencourt and Vincent Dumas at the three hotels where Gemma had told them Cedric had stayed in the past—The Plaza, The Lowell, Henry House. They'd located a reservation for two rooms under Vincent Dumas's name at Henry House.
They’d have recording devices on Jude. But thanks to an order signed by a judge and the cooperation of Henry House management, their Tech Squad had also planted audio/visual equipment in Cedric and Vincent's rooms. The FBI was thorough. They'd learned over their decades of experience to prepare layers of surveillance.
In the room next door to Cedric's, they'd assembled monitors and speakers so that Shannon, Dixon, and more would be able to supervise the meet in real time and so that backup agents would have a place to wait until the buy was accomplished. As soon as that occurred, backup would move in to arrest Cedric and Vincent.
When Cedric had changed his mind about selling his secrets, it had seemed this op would remain unfinished. Now, thankfully, it looked like they might be able to see it through to completion.
Even so, low-level anxiety had begun to thrum in his veins, just as it had prior to his other UC ops. Trying to squash it was pointless, so he sought instead to coexist with it. It would sharpen his nerves and keep him alert. The anxiety meant he had a realistic understanding of the seriousness of the thing he was about to do.
* * *
Gemma was gazing out a window of her own. On the far side of the glass, light from her house gleamed on the night-dark surface of the lake.
All afternoon and evening, she'd been talking herself out of the idea of driving to New York. She had the strongest feeling that she should be there. Her intuition kept saying,Go. Over and over. This whole dangerous mess had fallen into Jude’s lap because ofhercousin.
Yet it would be crazy of her to drive to New York, right?
Right. There was nothing she could do to help the operation there. New York wasn't close by. And the FBI had expressly forbidden her from going. Jude himself had told her he wanted her to stay here.
Her phone rang, signaling a call from her mother.
“Hello?”
“I've been thinking, since our brunch with Gracie, that there's something I should tell you.”
“Oh?”God, let me not be the biological daughter of another man.
“Gracie shared her secrets with us, which made me feel sheepish because I've been keeping a little secret of my own from you.”
“Which is?”
