Path of Secrets

by D. F. Hart

  Donny placed a second pillow on the passenger seat, then sat down. “So much better. Now we can go.”

  The next several miles passed in a comfortable silence.

  “Hey, I had a question,” Donny said suddenly.

  “Whatcha got?” Lizzie said as she checked her side mirror before changing lanes.

  “Well, I know it’s kind of an out-of-the-blue topic,” he began, and she threw him a puzzled look.

  “What is?”

  “Kids.”

  “What about them?”

  “Have you ever thought about having kids?”

  “You mean, like, my kids? As in, be a mom?”

  Did he seriously just ask me how I feel about kids?

  “Well... yeah.”

  Yep, that’s pretty out-of-the-blue, all right....

  “Um...,” she fell silent for a moment as she searched for the right words. “To be honest, I kinda figured that ship had sailed without me. My main focus has always been the job, you know? And I’m already thirty-six, so....,” she glanced over at him, concerned. “Why do you ask? Do you want kids?”

  Donny sighed. “Yes, and no. I mean, do I think it would be cool to be a dad? Yeah, I do. But I turn forty-four next month, Lizzie. If I had a kid now, I’d be in my sixties when he or she graduated high school. I don’t know how to feel about that.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “That’s not unheard of, Donny. Lots of people have kids later in life.”

  “I know...I guess I just wanted to know how you felt about it.”

  “Huh. Something to talk about in more depth, for sure. For me, it’s not a simple answer. There’s a lot of moving pieces there. I mean, for starters, I can’t be a field agent and be pregnant, Donny.”

  “True,” he agreed. “And like I told you before, I would never ask you to give up your career. I know it’s your calling.”

  “Have you ever thought about channeling that ‘dad vibe’ into working with kids somehow? Coach a team or volunteer at the local youth center? Things like that?”

  “I hadn’t thought about any of those before,” he confessed.

  They both lapsed into an awkward silence.

  Donny gazed out the passenger window as he considered her suggestions.

  She’s got a point. I never even considered any alternatives, he acknowledged. But that’s not where my focus should be right this minute. What I really should be asking myself right now is– how dumb am I to bring up such a serious topic? What was I thinking? We’re in the process of moving her across country so she can take the next big step in her career, and I bring up children? Already? We just said ‘I love you’ for the first time two days ago! What is wrong with me?

  Meanwhile, Lizzie replayed the entire conversation on a repeating loop in her head as she drove.

  I don’t know what to do here... what if he decides he really wants children of his own? That’s right up there with marriage! Next-level, deep commitment type stuff. Am I comfortable with that? Am I even ready for all that? she asked herself as they continued south toward Green River and their next overnight stop.

  ***

  Joe returned to Trish’s house in the early afternoon, his eyes haunted and weary.

  “I’m not sure how much longer I want to do this,” he confided as he dug into the sandwich that she’d made for him. “I enjoy mentoring Pete and helping him get to where he wants to be, Trish. But I’m just not sure how many more murder cases or notifications to next of kin I can take.”

  “Rough one, huh,” she said softly, and he nodded.

  “Really rough,” he murmured.

  “Have you thought about your options, Joe? You don’t have to completely retire if you don’t want to.”

  “Yeah, I thought about that,” Joe replied, and squeezed her hand. “If I just retired from the force without anything to move on to, you and I both know I’d be bored within two weeks.”

  “Yep,” she agreed. “You’re so driven that you’d never be able to sit still for very long. But you’ve also got a lot of really valuable experience, honey. You’d be an excellent private investigator. Did you ever think about something like that?”

  “That hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s not a bad idea at all! I could probably get the licensing easily enough. And that way I could still work some cases with Nathan too, if I wanted.”

  “Exactly. Think it over. Whatever you choose to do, you’ve got my full support. Now,” Trish leaned closer, “I have an idea for our wedding I want to run by you.”

  “And that is?”

  “Keeping it simple. You and me and the Justice of the Peace, followed by a week-long tropical getaway,” she said. “I’ve already experienced the big formal wedding thing once. It was stressful, gaudy, and expensive, and I have no desire to go through all that again, do you?”

  He grinned. “At fifty-two? Not really.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Trish announced, and smiled. “We just need to get the license, book a date on the Justice’s court schedule, and decide where we want to travel afterward. So,” she continued, opening the laptop she’d brought to the table, “would you rather do an all-inclusive resort somewhere, or a cruise?”

  ***

  The awkward quiet that had settled in between Donny and Lizzie accompanied them all the way to Green River. It wasn’t until the city limit sign came into view that she spoke.

  “So, any ideas on where to spend the night?”

  He searched for hotels on Google, then replied, “Up ahead two miles is a La Quinta. I think that will do, don’t you?”

  “Should work fine,” Lizzie agreed, and navigated to the hotel’s parking lot.

  They parked the truck and walked side-by-side into the hotel’s lobby toward the reception desk. The clerk was friendly and expedient, and in mere moments they’d been handed room key cards and a small map of the room layouts.

  “What would you like for dinner?” Donny asked as they went back out to the truck to grab their overnight bags.

  “Order in a pizza? I’m in the mood to just relax and watch some TV.”

  He nodded once but did not speak again until they were in the room they’d rented. As they set their suitcases down, Donny ran his hands through his hair and sighed.

  “Look,” he began, “about earlier...”

  “Yeah, what was that?” Lizzie interrupted. “You said an out-of-the-blue topic, but I admit I had no idea you were about to bring up having a family.”

  “If it helps any, I blindsided myself with it, too,” he admitted, and watched Lizzie arch an eyebrow. “No, seriously. I don’t know what came over me, and I damn sure have no idea why I thought talking about kids so soon would be a good idea. My only defense at all is that you fascinate me, Lizzie, and I want to know every single thing about you.”

  “Okay, but I think maybe we should have built up to that level of question?” she retorted. “Start small, work our way up? Not to mention, you didn’t sound sure about it yourself.”

  “Because I’m not,” Donny said truthfully. “I never even thought about having kids until recently.”

  “What brought it up?”

  He gazed at her intently.

  “Wait. Dating me brought it up?”

  “Yes,” Donny finally said after a long moment.

  “O...kay...,” Lizzie answered. “But here’s the deal. You and I don’t even live in the same state right now. I’m about to go through five months of intensive training, then start a brand-new career in Texas. You’re based in Colorado. Not only that, but we’re still really, really early into this, Donny. I mean, we just took our relationship up to level two. Kids are like, level six or something.”

  “I know that. I do,” he assured her. “And I’m not trying to rush either of us into anything, I swear. It just... it popped into my head and before I knew what I was doing it was coming out of my mouth, and I’m truly sorry that I freaked us both out.”

  “You did. You did freak me out,” Lizzie told him. “But no
w, I’m also worried. Because I love you, and I think we have a great thing going here. But what happens if one of us decides that they really do want kids, and the other one decides that they don’t? What do we do then?”

  “We keep the lines of communication open, and we talk it out,” Donny answered as he approached her and took her in his arms. “And I can tell you right now - I’m not walking away from you, Lizzie. I refuse to. I am in love with you - you’re everything I’ve ever wanted. Kids or no kids, my place is with you.”

  “For what it’s worth, I think you’d make a great dad,” she murmured against his chest. “And I don’t want to see you throw away that chance.”

  “Lizzie,” he said tenderly, and waited until she lifted her head to look at him. “This – us – means more to me than you’ll ever know. I’m with you, and I’m not going anywhere. You were so right about volunteering and mentoring. I’d never even thought about those things.”

  She swallowed hard.

  “Besides, I may coach or volunteer and then decide that trying to raise kids is definitely not for me,” Donny continued. “Keep in mind, I haven’t even decided for myself about it all yet.”

  “So... mark us both as undecided for now, and table this talk for later?”

  “Absolutely,” he agreed. “Now, what would you like on your pizza?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  By the following evening Lizzie and Donny had made it to Santa Rosa, and by Tuesday afternoon they had taken the SUV off the tow dolly and backed the moving truck up into the driveway of Lizzie’s childhood home in Pantego, Texas.

  “Nice to be back here,” she said as she gazed at the familiar structure. “I missed this place.”

  She sighed and turned to Donny.

  “So, I think we probably ought to go in first, look at Dad’s stuff, see what needs to stay in the house and what needs to move to storage, right?”

  “Yep,” he agreed. “And this will get interesting with just two of us.”

  “About that,” Lizzie said with a smile. “Faith and Rick should be here any minute. Rick asked Micah to cover at the bookstore so they could come help us lug stuff around.”

  “Nice!”

  A few minutes later Faith and Rick pulled up at the curb, with Faith leaping out of the truck almost before it came to a complete stop.

  “Bestie!” she called out and moved quickly to wrap Lizzie in a huge hug. “It’s so good to see you! I missed you.”

  “I missed you too,” Lizzie managed through her sudden and unexpected tears of happiness.

  My life is so full, she thought. I am so blessed.

  “No ma’am,” Faith admonished, tears starting to brim in her own eyes. “No crying, or I’ll start too.”

  Lizzie laughed. “Always know just what to say, don’t you?”

  “Hey guys,” Rick called out as he approached. “Lizzie, Faith has been so excited about today. It’s all she’s talked about for a week.”

  Lizzie moved to hug him too, then stepped back as Rick and Donny did their usual ‘bro-hug’ thing.

  “It’s not all I’ve talked about,” Faith said with an exaggerated eye-roll before grinning and whispering to Lizzie, “but I may have mentioned it a couple times here and there.”

  “Oh! I almost forgot, be right back,” she gasped suddenly, and moved quickly back to Rick’s truck. She returned a few moments later with takeout bags.

  “We brought food, too,” Faith revealed. “Chinese from your favorite place.”

  “How much daylight do we have left to work with?” Donny asked.

  “About four hours,” Rick told him.

  “Guess we’d better get started, then. Eat first?” Lizzie suggested.

  “Sure. Fried rice is better when it’s hot,” Donny chimed in.

  Forty minutes later they’d finished the meal and determined what pieces of Frank Zimmerman’s furniture would be staying. Then the work began to move those things destined for donation outside and replace them with Lizzie’s furniture from the moving truck.

  ***

  He stopped, saved his work, and stretched to relieve the stiffness that had set in from being hunched over a keyboard most of the day.

  So, the games will start in San Angelo, huh? Never been there. This ought to be interesting. And it will be nice to be able to put my marksman skills to use.

  The mere idea had him smiling.

  “Which reminds me, I need to practice with it first,” he muttered to himself. He opened a second browser window and called up all outdoor shooting ranges within a hundred-mile radius.

  He needed to get a better feel for the weapon he’d stolen from Grant Forrester’s display case; it just wouldn’t do to proceed without getting more familiar with his weapon’s firing characteristics first. He already knew from his research that the lever-action repeating rifle was rated for accuracy up to two hundred and fifty yards from the target - plenty of distance to take his shot and be able to get away undetected.

  He was counting on that ability. After all, what point was there in staging and playing such an elaborate game with only one round?

  The only question mark in it all was precisely where his ideal firing position would be on the big day, and he couldn’t decide that until he was onsite at the old fort. The pictures he’d found on the internet weren’t helpful at all for learning the layout or gauging distances.

  Better go down a day or two early and scope it out in person, he realized. I’m going to have to walk the land to make the best decision.

  He moved to the kitchen, fixed himself a sandwich, and returned to his computer to keep gathering data for his trip. The very expensive bugs he’d planted in Grant’s house, car, and cell phone were working beautifully alongside the sophisticated hack into Grant’s computer system. All of it was returning valuable information.

  That setup was worth every single penny, for sure, he told himself as he scrolled through results and ate his sandwich.

  ***

  Two hours in, they stopped for a break.

  “How much is left?” Faith asked before taking a long drink of water.

  “Another hour, tops,” Lizzie observed. “Then drive the truck to the storage place, unload it, and turn it in.”

  “And you guys aren’t heading out for Virginia until the twenty-seventh, right?”

  “Yep,” Lizzie confirmed. “We built in some time for us to relax and visit with everybody here before we have to get going again.”

  She looked around to make sure the men were out of earshot, then continued, “And it’s a good thing, too. I need to pick your brain about a conversation that Donny and I had on the way here.”

  “Sounds serious.”

  “It was definitely... unexpected, for sure.”

  “Well then. We’ll just have to make sure you and I have some girl time before you leave.”

  “You two ready to keep going? I think the truck rental place closes at eight,” Rick called out.

  “Then let’s get this done,” Lizzie answered, winking at Faith.

  ***

  By seven-ten Lizzie and Faith were in Lizzie’s SUV following Rick and Donny to the storage unit.

  “So, spill. What’s going on?” Faith said as soon as they’d shut their doors.

  “In a nutshell, Donny brought up kids,” Lizzie told her.

  “Wow. Already? Kinda soon, isn’t it?”

  “Exactly. And I said as much.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “He said he’s not even sure how he feels about having any, and he totally gets that he freaked me out by asking about it.”

  “So where did the conversation end?”

  “Well, we’re both undecided, and we both agree that it’s way too soon to talk about anything that big, so, we’ve shelved it for now.”

  “Okay, and – what are your thoughts on it?”

  “Honestly? I’m terrified,” Lizzie admitted to her best friend. “First of all, I’m shocked I’m even having talks like this. A
nd second of all, how the hell would I juggle a career as an FBI agent and being a mom? I can’t even begin to think how that would even be possible.”

  “So, you’d be interested in having kids with Donny?”

  Lizzie blinked rapidly. “Yes... no... I don’t know, Faith. What if I don’t and he does? I don’t want to break up, but I know that I’m not ready to make that kind of commitment. Being a parent... that’s a massively big responsibility.”

  Faith looked over to see Lizzie turning progressively paler.

  “You all right?”

  “I’d almost rather serve a warrant on someone that I know has guns and a temper than talk about kids and stuff,” Lizzie managed through clenched teeth. “The warrant stuff is much less scary.”

  “Wow, that’s saying something,” Faith observed. “Okay, so, set it on the back burner like you two agreed. Focus on getting through Quantico and getting settled in down here.”

  “That’s another thing,” Lizzie interjected. “I pointed out that he and I don’t even live in the same state.”

  “Yes, well, seems to me that part would need to be addressed before anything else,” Faith conceded.

  A few minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot of the storage unit complex.

  “Thanks for listening,” Lizzie said.

  “Anytime, Liz. That’s what best friends do,” Faith replied.

  “Hey, before the guys rejoin us, I’ve been meaning to ask you - have you two set a wedding date yet, or what?”

  “Not yet,” Faith’s reply was casual and even.

  “What are you waiting for?”

  “I...” Faith began to say but faltered.

  To be honest, I’m really not sure, she realized.

  Lizzie noticed her hesitation.

  “Huh,” Lizzie said. “Sounds like we both have some big questions to answer at some point.”

  ***

  “I’m so, so glad you’re here,” Bella said to Jandy Wednesday morning as she stared at the oversized turkey taking up an entire shelf of her refrigerator. “I’ve never cooked Thanksgiving dinner before, and to be honest, I’m a little intimidated right now. That bird is huge. It weighs more than Charlie!”