by Becky Flade
“That puppy is adorable. I thought you were going to the pound to pick out a rescue.”
“He is. And we did. The staties broke up a puppy mill for inhumane treatment, among other charges, and all the rescued animals not requiring medical care were put up for adoption at the local shelter the same morning we visited.” Maggie handed her a glass of wine and tipped their glasses together. “I swear it took all my willpower not to walk out with as many of those gorgeous little monsters as I could fit in the car. Tala, on the other hand, showed amazing restraint. She zeroed in on Dixon the moment she set eyes on him.”
“I’ve never had a pet, but I imagine the babies are nearly as much work as the human variety.”
“Worse. You can’t put a puppy in a diaper. Never had any episodes of Tala pissing on my floor. Well, except that one time during potty training.” She laughed and drank. “However, he’s catching on faster than I would’ve thought. And he adores my little girl.”
“It’s obvious. And she’s crazy about him, too.” Henley took a sip and sighed. “This is heavenly. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. How’d it go at the doctor’s today?”
“You don’t already know? I thought that’s why I was allowed a glass of the vino.”
“Carter said you were looking forward to a glass. That’s all I know.”
“It was good. Neurologically, I’ve recovered from the concussion, and there are no signs of permanent damage from the gas exposure. I want to put it all in the past but can’t until we find out who’s responsible.”
“Are you moving back into your apartment?”
“Who’s asking? You or Carter?”
“I am. But I’d be surprised if he didn’t. It has to be on his mind.”
“Yes. I’m moving into the apartment.” Henley stood and paced, gesturing with her wine glass between sips. “I can’t stay with him. Mature, responsible people don’t jump into living together like that, no matter how I feel about him.”
“I did.” Maggie quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t want to live without Aidan more than I cared about propriety or the opinions of others.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“You didn’t. How could you know? And what’s right for one person isn’t right for another. Notice I’m not asking you about your feelings for Carter. But have you considered what it’s going to be like to sleep alone again?”
Henley stopped in her tracks. She felt the blush work up her neck and spread over her cheeks until her entire face was enflamed.
“What is it?” Maggie asked. “Is it the wine? Shit.”
“We haven’t slept together,” Henley whispered.
“Excuse me?” Maggie sat up straighter, her eyes wide. “There’s no way I heard you right.”
“You heard me.” Henley moved toward the house and ducked into the kitchen, hoping Maggie would let it go. “Don’t make me say it again.”
“You two seriously haven’t sealed the deal yet?” The door closed with a snap as Maggie followed her inside. “Holy shit. Why the fuck are you waiting? Youse have been dancing around one another for months now, and the sexual tension is thick enough that other people get singed. Aidan’s gotten lucky a couple times thanks to you guys.”
“He’s a gentleman, and I’ve got . . . issues.”
“Everyone has issues, sweetheart. Carter’s not just a gentleman—he’s a saint. You traveled together.”
“Different hotel rooms.”
“You’ve been staying at his place for more than a week now.”
“Different bedrooms.”
“You’re attracted to him, right?” Her enthusiastic response made Maggie laugh. “What’s the problem then? Wait. Are you gay? ’Cause if you’re carrying a torch for me, I’m afraid I’ve got bad news.”
“I’m not a lesbian. Stop trying to make me laugh. This is serious.”
“It’s not that serious unless you two make it.” Maggie sat. “Come tell Mama HotPants all about it.”
“What has Carter told you or Aidan about me?”
“Casanova hasn’t told us dick he didn’t think we needed to know. Said your story is yours to tell, not his, but we had nothing to worry about; you aren’t a threat. Which I’d been telling my thick-headed husband.” Maggie shrugged. “I figured you’d eventually tell me what mattered.”
Maggie nibbled from a tray of antipasto while Henley recounted her experience following the coma, allowing Maggie to draw the same conclusions most people did. She omitted her pregnancy. And she downplayed the mental-health issues that had followed her reemergence. She didn’t mention the clairsentience. Some things were too private, and twenty years of silence was a hard habit to break. However, over a second glass of wine and finger foods, she shared how the experience had guided her decision to become a psychiatrist and what led her to spend two years on the road.
Maggie whistled. “You’re right, that’s a lot of baggage. Carter knows all this, I assume?” Maggie didn’t wait for an answer. “If it’s not a problem for him, I don’t see why you’d let it hang you up. He’s got plenty of his own luggage, which I’m sure you’re aware. I think you two are damn good for one another.”
“My sister thinks I’m poison.” Henley stared into her empty wine glass. “I don’t think that’s fair, but I also can’t argue with it. Your cabin was destroyed. I was attacked. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to Carter, too.”
“If he thinks you’re worth it, who are you to make that decision for him? My only question, and you don’t have to answer it, is what will you regret more: loving him or leaving him? Think about that.”
“But if not for me, there would be no danger.”
“That’s bullshit. Bullshit!” Maggie threw the tray of meats and cheeses on the counter. “You’re scared of getting hurt. But not at the hands of an anonymous boogeyman. You’re afraid to care about Carter, and me and my family, the McAlisters, all the other friends you’ve made here in the Cove. You’re making up excuses because you’re afraid to fight for what’s important to you.”
“I’ve lost everything important to me! And everyone I’ve loved,” Henley yelled. Her chair toppled as she stood. The table shook when she slammed her hands on the flat surface. “Damn right I’m scared.”
“Being scared is okay. Just don’t be stupid, Henley.” Maggie wrapped her arms around her from behind, laid her cheek on Henley’s back, and hugged her. “You’ve got people who care. People who will be your family if you let them. And there’s an incredible man out in my yard who stares at you like you are the only woman in the room. I should know; my Aidan looks at me that way. Not to mention Carter’s rockin’ hot body.”
“It’s all about sex with you, isn’t it?”
“Always.” Maggie left a loud, smacking kiss on her spine and released her. Henley turned her head away and wiped the unspilled tears from her eyes. “Remind me to tell you another time about my tragic past. It’s a doozy.”
“Will do.”
“How about pizza? I don’t feel like cooking.”
“Sounds perfect to me.”
“Great. I’ve got to run to the bathroom—the menu should be in the top drawer of my desk.”
Henley wandered into the room that Maggie and her husband used as an office instead of for dining, as the architect must have intended. The room held bookcases, children’s toys, a child-size desk, and two adult desks. One was ruthlessly organized, the other hopelessly cluttered. Henley didn’t need direction to know which belonged to whom, although as she neared, she could tell the clutter wasn’t random. It was a perfect microcosm of how Maggie’s mind worked. Henley doubted she’d ever met anyone as self-aware as Maggie O’Connell Gael.
Henley pulled open the top drawer, and her eye fell on an open notepad. She stared. She knew what she saw, but didn’t believe it.
• • •
Carter watched as Aidan’s little girl and the pup frolicked. Dublin lay a few feet away, his older bo
dy exhausted and panting with the previous exertion. Carter noticed the dog had his own watchful eye on the children, as it were. Carter tilted his face to catch the full blast of the late-evening sun, as though pulling strength from it. He turned toward Aidan. The man’s expression revealed little.
“How’s the investigation going?” Aidan asked, as though in response to Carter’s appraisal. He didn’t face Carter, keeping his hooded gaze on Tala. But Carter knew after all these years that Aidan didn’t need eye contact to get a point across.
“Stalled.” Carter’s frustration bled through in his tone. He hadn’t learned anything new. Henley still refused to give him the name of that patient, and his contacts hadn’t found anything yet.
“You’re sure it wasn’t Doug?”
“He’s alibied solid from the time Henley returned to the apartment through when I found her. It’s not Doug, thank God. And the kid took my looking into him like a pro, though I know it hurt his feelings.” Voices carried in the meadow. The two men were aware and spoke in hushed tones because of it. “To be honest, Aidan, I don’t think it’s a local.”
“Why not?”
Carter listed his reasons. Aidan played devil’s advocate, looking for holes in Carter’s investigation. Finally, Aidan nodded. “Okay, so it’s not a local. And we know the only new addition to the community is Henley. You’re sure she’s not doing this herself?”
Rage filled Carter. “She was in Philadelphia with me when the fire at the cabin was lit. It wasn’t her. I can’t believe you would suggest it. And by the way, she thinks it could be you.”
“Sorry, bro, but I had to ask. She thinks it’s me? That’s almost funny.” Carter didn’t think Aidan looked amused. “Whoever he is, he’s not in town. Which means he’s holed up elsewhere. Could it be someone she brought with her?”
“She didn’t ‘bring’ anyone with her. She’s not involved.” Carter’s hands had folded into fists.
Aidan had far different priorities than he did. His gaze fell to where Tala played with the dogs. So if Carter didn’t worry about Henley, protect her, who would?
“I’m not criticizing your woman; relax. I’m pointing out what I’m sure you already know. If it’s not a local, she was followed here. That means it’s a problem that originated somewhere else and as long as Henley’s in the Cove, here is where it’ll conclude. Henley strikes me as both smart and intuitive. I’d be surprised if she hasn’t already drawn the same conclusion.” Aidan took a slow, long step toward the house while whistling to catch his daughter’s attention.
“What I want to know is how you’ll find and capture this guy if he’s not from here, not staying here, and has unclear motives?” Aidan added.
“I’m waiting to hear from a contact at the FBI. But unless we get lucky, I’m going to have to catch him in the act.”
“People could get hurt.”
“I’m not going to let that happen.” He couldn’t. He wouldn’t fail this time. It wasn’t going to be like before.
Tala glanced back at them. Her eyes expressed her concern. No matter that they’d carried on their conversation in whispers, the Turnip knew something was wrong. “Look, Carter, you’re not the fucking Caped Crusader. It’s not all on you, all the time, to keep everyone safe. Life happens.”
“Are you serious right now? That’s more than a little hypocritical, Aidan.”
“I’m responsible for myself and my family. You take on too much, man.” Aidan put his hand on Carter’s shoulder. “Justin’s death nearly destroyed you. He was a cop. He knew the risks and accepted them because it was important to him. I had a lot of respect for Justin. I don’t think I could’ve walked away from my family every day not knowing if I’d come back to them. But he did because he believed in something bigger than himself. And you took his death as a personal failure. Blamed yourself as if you were the one that had shot him, like you were the one responsible for taking him away from his family.
“Now you’re the self-appointed protector of us all? How do you think you’ll survive the perception that you’ve failed that? You won’t. And I’m not about to sit and watch you implode again, while your family and my wife, and me, dammit, suffer along with you.” He squeezed and let go. “We love you. But you take on too much.”
Carter heard his own words to Henley in Aidan’s heartfelt advice. He hadn’t recognized the similarities before—had she? But Aidan was wrong; it wasn’t about pride. He wasn’t trying to right prior wrongs. He didn’t consider this his second chance to prove himself as a cop. This was about keeping Henley safe.
And keeping her with him.
“Is everything okay, Daddy?” Tala interrupted. Aidan grasped her underarms and threw her into the air, catching her with a skill Carter admired. She shrieked in delight. He understood Aidan’s position even if he didn’t agree with it.
“Everything is fine.” Her father tickled her, and she giggled, squirming in his arms. “Carter is funny.”
“He is. He makes me laugh all the time.” She placed her small hand on Carter’s shoulder, smiled at him, and batted her eyelashes. It was a feminine gesture, the innocent flirtation of a girl with a man she adored. But in that moment, Carter got a glimpse of the future. There was a day when Turnip would look at a potential partner in a similar, but much less innocent, fashion.
“You’re going to make all the boys swoon someday, Tee.” Carter tossed Aidan an understanding glance. And caught the man’s grimace. Yeah, he’d seen it too. Aidan’s baby was maturing.
“Yeah?” She appeared pleased with the idea. Her eyebrows pushed together. “What’s swoon mean? Is that good?”
“Not for your dad.” Carter winked, and Aidan punched his arm playfully. Carter held the door open, and the three entered the kitchen as Maggie whipped past in a blur.
“Good timing. Pizza’s here,” she sing-songed over her shoulder. Tala’s whoop was loud enough to make his ears ring. Dixon yapped, and a reinvigorated Dublin joined in as the animals scampered around the kitchen table. Henley had wandered into the room. When she tried to pass him, he pulled her into his arms for a kiss. He felt as though he’d been waiting for her forever.
“Not in my kitchen.” Carter accepted the beer Aidan offered with the reprimand, while Tala joined Maggie in a girly round of “ahhs.”
“Wash your hands. All of you. And no feeding the dogs from the table,” Maggie admonished as Tala snuck a piece of pepperoni to the pup.
“But, Mom, it’s not fair if Dublin doesn’t get one too.”
The dog looked at Maggie with as pitiful a glance as Carter had ever seen. He laughed and crossed to the sink as Maggie fed his old hound a pepperoni. With his hands clean, he joined Henley at the table. A slice of pizza sat on the paper plate before her, untouched. And he realized she hadn’t spoken since he’d come inside.
“Hey.” He leaned in and whispered, “Is everything okay?”
She didn’t answer him. Henley picked up her slice and put it back down. “Maggie?”
“Hmm?” she answered while serving pizza to Tala.
“I saw you had some notes in the other room. About the Ojibwe tribes.” Carter frowned. Something in Henley’s voice wasn’t right.
“Oh, that. Yeah, I’m researching the Ojibwe currently inhabiting Minnesota as well as their historical origins.” Maggie looked up as she sat; Carter wondered if she had also caught the odd note in Henley’s tone. “Not many people have heard of them, including their fellow Minnesotans. They’re just not as well-known as the Iroquois or the Cherokee. Have you heard of them?”
Carter watched the group. Henley looked dazed, Maggie curious. But Aidan stood frozen between the sink and the table. Something was going on here. Some undercurrent. The dogs whined under the table. They sensed it, too. He’d been in one too many situations as a police officer not to know when things were about to get ugly. He braced a hand on the table, his other reached for Henley.
“I knew a boy once, a long time ago. In college. He was Ojibwe. Grew up o
n a reservation near Lake Leech.” Henley’s quiet, careful response echoed in Carter’s ears. A knot formed in his gut and acid filled his throat as a sudden clarity chilled him. Jacob.
“What was his name?” Aidan hollered. He streaked toward Henley. Knocking Carter to the ground, Aidan grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her to her feet, her chair toppling over to land near where Carter struggled to stand. Aidan shook her when she hesitated. “The boy you knew, what was his name?”
“Take your fucking hands off her!” Carter shouted as he stood. He barely noticed Maggie ushering Tala from the room. Everything dimmed but the sound of his blood rushing as his heart raced. He pried Aidan’s fingers from her. She fell back a step, and Carter pushed between them, shoving Aidan back with both hands. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Did you go to Ohio State? Did you?” Aidan shouted.
“Yes,” Henley whispered. Aidan roared. Carter braced himself, prepared to take the impact as Aidan came at Henley again.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Aidan?”
Henley didn’t hide. She stayed behind him, but she stepped to the side and faced Aidan. “His name was Jacob. Jacob Ashlock of the—”
“Clearwater clan,” Aidan finished her sentence. He visibly shook. “It was you. You were the girl who made him snap. It’s your fault my girlfriend and our baby died.”
“Baby?” she whispered. Henley turned tear-filled eyes to Carter. “They never said anything about a baby.”
“She was pregnant with my child,” Aidan spat at her.
“Aidan, honey . . . ” Carter hadn’t seen or heard Maggie come back into the room. But suddenly she was there, her hand on Aidan as she attempted to soothe him. Carter was appalled to see the stricken look on Maggie’s face when Aidan shrugged away from her touch.
“I didn’t know.” The tears in Henley’s eyes spilled down her cheeks. Carter ached for her. Jacob was still managing to hurt her after all these years. He wanted to pummel Aidan for everything she’d been through. “I didn’t know.” Her eyes pleaded for Carter to believe her. “When I woke up, they told me Jacob was dead. That he’d killed his fiancée. They never mentioned Aidan or a baby. I didn’t know.”
