That kid was insatiable when it came to information. And she was quick, too.
Who had ever heard of a three-year-old being able to read already?
Frankie was already planning her next ‘bay-cation’. To California.
She was planning to take hermommythere very soon, so her mommy could see the ocean and pet a starfish. Her mommy would love to pet a starfish, Frankie was sure of it. Baby Ember had to go to California, too. Baby Ember needed to be with her mommy since she was a little baby. And sisters taked care of sisters no matter what.
Frankie wasHeatherthrough and through.
The baby looked just like Hope, though. And Crispin. Somehow, he’d ended up holding Heather’s youngest daughter multiple times. She’d be plopped into his arms, along with a bottle. He knew what he was supposed to do—and Daniel was too frightened not to do what he was told. By any of them. From Frankie on up.
The rest of the Colesons—they didn’t trust him. He’d have to be a fool to assume they did.
He heard a woman’s voice grumbling—from the refrigerator. From the wild blonde curls, he knew who it was. “Dr. Coleson-Greene?”
She yelped, and spun. A very beautiful woman stared back at him now. “Commander Butthead! You should be asleep. Not in my fam’s kitchen, while I am…dressed like this. Your body can’t really heal if you push yourself too hard. Of course, I know how cops like you are, though. I have learned, I have learned. We almost had to tape Miggy to the couch long enough for him to heal. We probably would have had better luck taping him to Hope’s bed, honestly, but well…that’s a little too kinky to think about, don’t you think? I’m not so sure Hope would even know what to do with a man like that if she found him right there in her bed waiting and everything.”
Miguel probably would be able to explain, Daniel was sure of it.Quickly.Considering.
Daniel hadn’tforgotten.He hadn’t been able to look at the gremlin the same since that night.
Joy shut the doors to the refrigerator. Then moved into the light. Daniel almost swallowed his tongue, seeing her more fully. She wore nothing but a tiny sunny yellow nightie. The kind designed to tempt a man to sin and thank the gods above while he did it.
The kind a man couldsee through.
He must have made some sort of noise. She looked down. “Oh, I’m so sorry. A little scandalous, isn’t it? This was the first thing I grabbed. I had…well…I had to borrow some scrubs from Eddie’s locker at the hospital and they were too long. Mom or Heather usually hem scrub pants for me or Samia, mine need washed, and Samia’s locker was empty and I was in a hurry, and I was soaked. I took a quick shower when I got back from the hospital but…Ithinkthis is Cashie’s, honestly. Yellow C on the tag. She loves yellow, says it’s such a sunny color. I am trying not to think about why that niece of mine needs something cut likethis,though—she is definitely not old enough to enjoy the results of it—well, come to think of it, I did have something very similar after I met Nick and I was the same age she is now, so…who am I to judge, considering the things I have done? Which…we will not discuss. You are not old enough or world wise enough forthatconversation. My Nick loved that old thing. I think I still have it in the back of my dresser at home. You don’t mind, do you? I can grab the matching silk robe…but, damn I am starving…Are you hungry? Want to share?” She shot him a beautiful smile. “We can…talk, just the two of us. Has it ever been just the two of us, alone? I don’t think it has.”
This woman was more diabolical than Heather or Hope. He had learned that early on. But…she was almost a decade older than Hope. Only three years younger than Daniel himself. And far more…experienced with men. She knew what she was doing, dressed like that.
He suspected the little blonde monster liked it, too. She was just as dangerous as her sisters. It took him half a moment to find his tongue—that silk was cutlow.“I’m good, but if you’d feel more comfortable with the robe…”
Please,let her grab a robe. Maybe one that went all the way to the floor and covered her to her neck. That would be a good place to start.
It had been alongtime for him. And even though he felt pathetically weak, he could make things work for a woman like this. He could definitely make things work for a woman like this.
“It’s awfully hot in here. I don’t mind if you don’t mind, okay? We’ll just keep it our little secret.” She shot him a wicked little look, one just designed to get a man all hot and bothered, and settled onto the bar stool at the kitchen island. Hot, was the only word he could really think of right now. Bothered. Definitely. She had a plate full enough to feed half of Major Crimes in front of her. “We are both mature adults here. I swear, I have missed more meals since transferring to FCGH than I want to think about. I think I have lost thirty pounds since then. I felt a little queasy this morning, actually, but now, I feel fine. Wide awake and totally starving. And of course, my kids will probably be up in like three hours, wantingmommy.So, tell me…Tell me about the great Daniel McKellen.”
“Why? I’m not that interesting.” Not as interesting as she was. She was slightly fuller figured than Hope—he was now very well aware of that—but not by much. Still…this woman was far more his age than Hope. Daniel was definitely recuperating just fine. At least parts of him were, apparently. “Not as much as you. Tell me, how did you meet Nick?”
That…that was one of things he was supposed to find out. About her husband. He had to remember that.
He’d reviewed the case file on her husband and his death, had even looked at Greene’s TSP jacket to see if there were anysigns he’d been involved in what Steve Wilson and his friends in Wichita Falls had been doing. As far as he could tell, Nick Greene had just been an innocent victim of Gregory Eastman, who happened to be a cop.
It was a cop’s widow looking back at him now, a look in those big dark eyes of hers.
All of Heather Coleson’s family, from her baby girl, all the way up to Bonnie, had those big brown eyes. With one exception: Crispin’s were heterochromic. Those eyes burned into a man forever.
“I met him when Heather and I were not quite twenty-four.” She sighed, then started eating. She was quiet a moment. “I was home from school. Samia and I had driven home together for the weekend. I was missing home, and so was she. Heather had worked for the TSP for about four months then. I opened the front door, before checking who it was—Sam had just left and I thought she’d forgotten something, and well…I had been in the process of changing clothes—and I ended up standing there, almost naked, in front of a hot man I did not know. Two of them, actually. Nick had his arm slung over Miguel’s shoulder, and Heather was helping keep him on his feet. The three of them were laughing like lunatics, battered and bruised. He looked at me and assured me he was just hamburger, not drunk. Then he looked down and saw what I wasnotwearing. The poor man turned bright red. I stopped. I thought…therehe is.The man just meant for me forever. Of course, my wonderful, shy little twinsie brought him right home to me just like a present. Heather is good at taking care of her family, after all, and making certain we all have what we need. They got him inside, and I played nursemaid all weekend. We just knew, Commander Butthead, we justknew.And…four kids later, I lost him. You know that story, too. Not…not the happy ending I had imagined. I miss him. So damned much sometimes. He was the love of mylife, and he was Heather and Miggy’s best friend. Those three were always together—it just amazes me Hope and Miggy never crossed paths before. Amazing. They lost Nick, too. He…had the kindest heart of any man I have ever…known. Good, honorable…a man a woman could trust and depend on. Not very many of them left out there. I think Miggy is the only one even in Finley Creek I could ever say the same about now. Hope really should snag and shag him, I think. Keep him for her very own.”
Daniel was not going to eventhinkabout Hope and shagging. Ever again.
“I am very sorry for what happened to him.” The pain in her big dark eyes—he wouldn’t forget it any time soon, either. So many people were hurting.
“We know who did it, and we think we knowwhy.” Her hand covered her stomach instinctively. “But those answers…I’ll have to tell my children those answers someday. Especially my baby girl. She’ll know…her daddy died to protect her. That’s a heavy load. And me…well, I’ll never forget the way that monster shouted that the price he paid was worth it. I never did figure out what he meant. I do know one thing: everydayI had with my Nick was a gift. And I treasure them completely.”
The price he’d paid was worth it.
She stared at him, just as intently as Heather did sometimes. “Have you ever felt like that with someone, Daniel?”
