The man who reeked of alcohol in the next cell over grumbled in his sleep for a moment, his eyes opening wide and confused. But it didn’t last long. Within a minute, he dropped back into a heavy sleep. Snoring resumed. Kinley didn’t have enough brain power to care who he was.
“I was there, you know,” Melba directed at Kinley. “The day you were born. Patty, too. Cassidy tried to pull one over on me, put Lee’s name on the birth certificate. Thought I wouldn’t know about it until it was too late. But I expected her to try something like that. I couldn’t have her coming after our family for child support, soiling our reputation. I promised to ruin her—and her whole family—if she crossed me again.”
Lee’s expression soured. “Mom, you’re unbelievable.”
Kinley dropped onto the bench inside her cell, for once relieved to be behind bars. Anger coursed through her veins. If she were free, she’d react unpredictably. “Is that why you hated my mom so much? Because ofme?”
“Mom, let’s go. My office, now.” Lee made a path for Melba, escorting her back to the hallway. He stopped in the doorway, looking at Ryder. “Drop the charges. I don’t want any of this following her back to her unit. Kinley’s free to go.”
Adrenaline had to be the only thing keeping Kinley from bursting into a waterfall of tears. A bundle of emotions she couldn’t pretend to identify mixed and jumbled inside her. When Ryder popped open the cell, she fell into his arms.
“I’m sorry, Ryder.” After betraying his trust, she didn’t feel deserving of his comfort, but he offered it anyway.
“Let’s get you home, Kin.”
“What about that guy?” She pointed to the snoring man in the other cell. Surely, he was why Ryder had been called to city hall to begin with.
“He can wait. Nothing is more important than taking care of you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Kinley
The last place Kinley expected to spend her final morning in Sunset Ridge was Moosecakes with Lee Daniels. Though he gave her the previous evening to digest everything—and no doubt needed it for himself—he was insistent on seeing her before she left.
“I don’t expect you to call me Dad or anything,” he said with an incredulous laugh once pancake orders were in. “But I have to admit, I always secretly wished you were mine.”
Years of animosity between them had hardly faded overnight, but Kinley softened more than she expected. She’d read Mom’s letter over and over last night, until her eyes dropped closed. Hints of love were sprinkled in every sentence. If Mom felt that deeply about the man, he couldn’t be all bad. “I guess I should finally apologize for the firework incident.”
Lee chuckled. “You gave us quite the scare. Sawyer gets a kick out of telling that story to his boy.”
“You have a grandkid.” The reality of this complicated situation had only begun to sink in. Lee married—and divorced. A grown son with his own family. “I-I guess that means I have a brother?”
“In time,” Lee reassured.
The server delivered two plates of moose-shaped pancakes and a syrup decanter. “Can I get more coffee?” Kinley asked. She’d need it to survive not only her final hours in town, but the trip to Anchorage to catch her flight.
“I loved your mother with all my heart, Kinley. She was everything to me.”
She cut into her pancake slowly as the questions raced through her mind louder than ever before, but she waited to give Lee the chance to answer some of them without the interrogation she longed to launch at him.
“We had plans to run away together. Bet you can guess how my mom felt about that. She found the plane tickets.” Lee sipped on his coffee. “That was only days before I found out Cassidy was expecting. I should’ve known your mom would’ve never been unfaithful. We loved each other too much. I was young. Hurt.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m still processing all this.”
“That necklace.” Lee pointed his fork at her neck. “I gave that to her days before we were supposed to leave. After she told me it was over, I never saw her wear it again. I thought she pawned it. Thought it was her way of telling me it was really over.”
Why Lee shredded Kinley’s citation the other day made more sense. “What now?”
“We take one day at a time. I know you have people you want to spend time with before you leave, but I’d love to hear about your life while we finish up.”
Talking about her time in the Army was effortless, and a capable distraction from deep emotions she wasn’t ready to face. It’d take her weeks, maybe months, to adjust to all this. For the first time since she kissed Ryder out by the lake, Kinley was relieved she’d have a few thousand miles between her and this town to process it all.
“A pilot, wow! You certainly have your mother’s passionate spirit. You really enjoy that whole military life, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I really do. Strange, huh?” The praise felt oddly good coming from a man who’d only ever looked at her as though she was trouble. “I haven’t decided about flight school yet,” she admitted.Or even staying in. “I’ll have to figure it out on the way back.” If she didn’t sign reenlistment paperwork at her appointment tomorrow, Kinley would need to make a new plan by the end of the summer. What had seemed such a simple answer these past few days plagued her more now. She loved being in the Army and the opportunities she’d been given because of it. Telling Lee about the different places she’d been as they finished up reminded her of that.
Just outside the door, Lee stopped her. “I won’t ask you to give me a hug or anything,” he said, “but I’d like to keep in touch, Kinley.”
