Safely Home

by Ruth Logan Herne

  “Exactly. Hey. How’s kindergarten going? Pretty sweet, huh?”

  Aiden’s expression turned dour.

  Cress sent Alex a look of question. He shrugged confusion. She squatted again. “What’s up, Dude? I thought you’d love kindergarten. Give you a chance to show your stuff, being such a smart little man.”

  He stared off a moment, his lower lip working, chin thrust out, eyes shadowed, then shrugged. “Sometimes the moms come to school.”

  But not his.

  Cress understood in a heartbeat. She nodded. “Dads can come to school too, can’t they?”

  Aiden shrugged. “Usually it’s moms.”

  Cress nodded, keeping her look wizened. “But it’s not like that’s a rule or something, right? That only moms can come to school. I know a lot of dads who love to visit, including yours. And the reason I know this is because my mom died when I was little. And when it was time for moms to come to school, I didn’t have one.”

  “For real?” He stared at her as if reasoning the adult before him as a motherless child.

  “Cross my heart. But sometimes my dad would come. And sometimes my Grandma or Grandpa. They knew it was different because my mom couldn’t be there, but they wanted me to know how much they loved me.”

  Aiden stepped back, the thought giving him pause. “My grandma could come sometimes, maybe. You think she would?”

  “Kiddo, I know she would.” Cress straightened and bestowed her wisest cop nod. “You check it out with your dad, but I know he loves to go to school. And your Grandma loves doing stuff with you guys. I bet we can work this out.”

  The common sense of that declaration wasn’t lost on the five year old. He nodded, empowered. “Sure. That’s right.”

  Alex grinned his appreciation to her and nodded Aiden’s way. “Cress is pretty smart. For a girl.”

  She shot him a scathing look that he answered with a laughing kiss. “And she’s pretty.”

  “And she can hang upside down,” offered Nick. “Just like the monkeys at the zoo.”

  “Hey.”

  Alex nudged her shoulder. “In his world, that’s a compliment.”

  “I’m honored. I think.” Cress labored to buckle Nick’s seat while Aiden snapped his harness into place with the expertise of a kid who’d done it for years. She laughed. “I need a self-help course to manage one of these contraptions and the five-year-old does it in four seconds flat without pinching his fingers. So unfair.”

  “We’ll have to get you into practice.”

  “For?” She tilted a look his way.

  He met her gaze, eyes gentle, his expression warm, staking his claim. “Future car seats.”

  Her chest tightened at the words, the look, the thoughts of forever. “I—”

  His grin disarmed her. “Just planting seeds, Detective. Nothing to get all cranked about.”

  “What if I want to get cranked?” She stepped away from the car, closed the back passenger door, and invaded his space. “What if the entire idea sounds wonderful beyond words?”

  “Then I’d wonder if I just stepped into an alternative universe with a pod-person Cress Dietrich look-alike who kinda-sorta likes me.”

  She grinned. “Let’s not go overboard, Counselor.”

  He touched his forehead to hers and then stepped back. “We wouldn’t want that.”

  “Not here, anyway.”

  The promise of overboard activity later in the evening encouraged a wink. “Think Gran will leave the front porch light off?”

  Cress burst out laughing. “No.”

  “I was afraid of that.” He leaned across the top of the car, his grin contagious.

  “Does she sleep sound?”

  “Not when you want her to.”

  “Doesn’t that figure?” He stood still, watching her, just smiling, until Aiden wondered what was taking so long.

  Alex climbed into his seat, bemused. “Sorry, kid.”

  Thoughts of doing this with a different kid, a little boy with Alex’s dark eyes and hints of copper in his hair…

  Are you jumping from the frying pan into the fire? Did you learn nothing from your last fiasco, Sweetums? What do you really know about this guy, other than he’s got the charm level hiked, he’s smart, good-looking, wears perfectly cut Armanis with the panache of Will Smith, and smells like the best thing going this side of heaven?

  Umm, hello? Aren’t you recovering from the less-than-sweet attentions of your last power-hungry man? And if Alex Westmore’s clothes, investments, office and land-holdings don’t scream ‘power-hungry’ in bold, bright letters, nothing does.

  The insistent voice nicked the bubble of Cress’s enthusiasm. Her conscience was right to advise caution. This was the same guy who engineered the dissolution of the family farm, her place of solace. The entire town had split feelings on Alex Westmore, some lauding his success, others seeing him as the downfall of the Midwest American farm. Funny, glib, and good-looking— but then so were the snake-oil salesmen who used to dog the Midwest. The product might be different but Alex Westmore made his living cashing in on other people’s sorrow. He held his cards close to his chest, and she’d tracked down a lot of bad guys who talked a good line, schmoozers to the max. She’d be foolish to forget that and she promised herself she’d never be fooled again.

  Keep telling yourself that, Cupcake, but when we end up in the emergency room again, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  “No.”

  “No?” Alex eased the car around the corner, flicked on his signal and pulled into a parking space down the road from Smithy’s Ice Cream Shop before turning her way, one brow raised in question. “No, what?”

  She’d spoken out loud. Cress shook her head, befuddled, scrambling for words.

  Alex’s eyes saw too much, too soon. Something in his bearing said he’d wait her out, wait ‘til she was ready, much like Audra, but admitting she was less than the strong, decisive detective she pretended to be was an embarrassment she’d rather forget. Except she couldn’t because the knowledge hounded her, every single day.

  He leaned over. “You okay?”

  “Fine.”

  Concern touched his eyes but a little smile softened his lips. “It’s just ice cream with a friend.”

  “And someone else’s kids.”

  “But they’re cute,” he supposed out loud.

  “And getting anxious.” Cress sent a quick smile to Nick, his expression wondering what the delay was.

  “We’ve got time, Cress.”

  Did they? Should they even consider moving forward with this? Or should she run, hard and fast, leaving the tangled mess of relationships behind. Her father, her stepmother, Aunt Sylvie. Alex.

  His name pressed the ‘pause’ button on running off. His stance, his stature, the quiet manner he wore in church, as if life and love and faith meant something to him, something more than a casual appearance. That commitment drew her, piquing her interest, touching notes of music she hadn’t heard in a long time.

  But then if this whole mixed up, crazy attraction to Alex came to naught, she’d be stuck in Watkins Ridge, seeing him day after day, thrust from one untenable situation into another by her own doing.

  Again.

  Only something told her she couldn’t handle it with Alex, occupying the same little town, the same streets, the same two-screen movie complex she’d grown up with. Not knowing he was nearby and not hers for the asking. How crazy was that when they’d just crossed paths weeks before?

  A thick finger rubbed the worry furrow from her brow. He leaned forward and followed the finger with a kiss to her forehead, his manner soothing and sexy all at once. But James and her father had schmoozed her too many times for Cress not to be jaded. Men were not always what they seemed, and she couldn’t afford any more mistakes. Not physically, not mentally, and with God as her witness, not emotionally.

  Alex chucked her under the chin. “You’re thinking too much. Turn off the detective switch for the next couple of hour
s and let’s just have fun. Okay?”

  He was right. She needed to trust, to hope, to calm the anger burbling inside her, but she didn’t know how to get to that place, that Cress.

  But for tonight she’d put all of it on hold. She climbed out of the car and gave him a reassuring smile as she helped Nick release his buckle. “Fun it is, Counselor.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  The words comforted her. He was willing to ease into whatever this was, wherever it led them.

  Simple gifts. Simple times. Simple moments to treasure.

  Cress surprised him and took his hand as they headed into the crowded ice cream store. Post-practice crowds were a given at Smithy’s, but no one cared about the long wait. It gave the locals time to visit, compare plays and strategies from team to team, keep up on the latest news in Watkins Ridge.

  With Alex holding firm to her hand, Cress was pretty sure they were about to become today’s news flash. Oddly enough, she didn’t mind in the least.

  *

  “Whoa, boy, you’re dripping big time.” Alex rescued Nick’s cone, slurped around it, re-shaped the ice cream with his tongue and handed it back.

  “What?” He met Cress’s skeeved-out look with one of surprise. “What’d I do?”

  “You licked his ice cream?”

  “It was dripping.”

  “That’s why they make bowls, isn’t it? So little kids don’t drip and grown-ups don’t have to lick their soggy cones?”

  He grinned. “Wasn’t soggy yet, but it will be. Bowls spoil the fun. Cones are a rite of passage. And it’s a baby cone, so he’ll be done with it any minute.”

  “Spit-swapping with a three-year-old isn’t beguiling.”

  “No?”

  “Ugh.”

  He leaned closer, until his lips touched her ear, feather light, the hint of chocolate marshmallow breath delightfully summer in the early days of fall. Whatever he was about to say got cut off as a big woman approached them, battle make-up in place right down to thick black eyeliner and dime-store mascara highlighting lavender frost cream eye shadow and pencil-thin brows.

  Missy, the sea witch look-alike from the local police office. Great.

  “You’ve got Mac’s boys, I see.” She leaned in, offering a hefty view of overpowering cleavage untamed by her v-neck short-sleeved shirt, making Cress wonder what made her think that was in any way, shape or form attractive.

  Maybe she couldn’t afford mirrors.

  And had no friends.

  Because a friend would have told her just how bad the entire combination came off to the general public. Then Missy opened her mouth and Cress realized why she had no friends.

  “Such a shame about their mother, isn’t it?” she hissed as if the boys wouldn’t hear her lower tone.

  Except they were sitting right there, all ears, intent.

  Alex stood. “She’s doing fine, actually. And so are the boys.”

  Missy was not to be deterred. She pointed Aiden’s way. “Really? I heard this little guy’s been getting all upset at school, every time Jacinda goes in to help in the class. Jacinda’s my daughter,” she explained to Cress, as if Cress cared. Right now all she wanted to do was usher the boys away from this creature, and step back forty-five seconds to Alex whispering in her ear.

  Nope.

  “Missy, that’s enough.” Alex didn’t raise his voice, but his tone commanded respect. He shook his head. “I used to get upset sometimes at school, too. It happens, right, Bud?”

  Aiden looked troubled by the unexpected twist in conversation, his lower lip jutting, his brow furrowed. “I guess.”

  Missy was either stellar at misreading social cues or bent on making them all suffer. “Like that’s a wonder with your father’s drinkin’ an’ all, carryin’ on behind your mother’s back, then causin’ trouble with the law left and right.”

  Alex’s face transformed. His shoulders rounded, rock-hard. His neck clenched. His gaze went hard and tight, as if spoiling for a fight.

  Cress stood, grabbed Nick’s hand and pushed her way past Missy, then turned and extended a quick hand to Aiden. “Dudes, come on, I can’t believe I forgot. I have to be home to help Gran right now. Let’s hit the road.”

  Her choice of words encouraged a tentative nod from Aiden. He slipped a hand into hers, obviously preferring her company to that of the Sea Witch.

  Smart kid.

  With her hands tied to little fingers, Cress broke the standoff by leaning into Alex’s shoulder, her hair brushing his chin. “Alex. Gotta go.”

  Her strategy worked. Alex stepped back, breathed, then turned and walked to the door. He swung it open, face set, shoulders back, eyes shadowed, his expression hinting stark defeat. The urge to turn and duke it out with the older woman in a reality-show girl-to-girl smack-down swept Cress.

  Luckily she hadn’t given into an urge like that since eighth grade, but the temptation bit hard, her need to defend Alex and the cubs quite bearish.

  Only they weren’t her cubs.

  But since the nearest thing they had to a mother right now was tramping it up in mid-Florida, Cress was okay with stepping in to do the job. Temporarily, of course.

  Alex’s quick stride put him ahead of them by several paces. Finally he stopped, his gaze turned out, his breath slowing.

  He turned. “Sorry.”

  Cress bristled. “You have nothing to be sorry about, unlike the creature from the Black Lagoon in there.”

  Alex slanted a warning glance toward the boys.

  Cress growled inside while she worked to put a fresh smile in place. Biting her tongue around impressionable children did not come easy.

  Nick squeezed her hand. “Thank you for the ice cweam, Cwess.”

  His look of trust melted her anger. So sweet. So innocent. So young.

  Visions of the boy she’d seen in the grocery tweaked her. She’d call Felix when she got home, see if he’d turned up anything. She’d check with the sheriff’s too, see if they’d had any luck.

  Her mind sorted various possibilities explaining the relationship between boy and the ill-tempered old woman.

  Her gut refused to buy into lame excuses, and Cress’s gut never steered her wrong. Not in police work, anyway.

  Affairs of the heart?

  Whole different matter.

  But improving? Maybe?

  Alex stepped forward. “Thanks for what you did.”

  She smiled, his praise warming her cheeks, her heart. “It was nothing, Counselor.”

  He touched a hand to the curve of her face, a fingertip caress, warm. Light. Evocative. “Oh, it was something, Detective.” His smile helped erase the pain of old memories, old times, things best left forgotten. Or at least back-burnered. Cress was smart enough to understand people never forgot those things, not really. But she was tough enough to know you could learn to deal with them and move forward. Now if she could just grasp that lesson on a more personal level.

  Seeing Carl on Friday would help. Alex was right. She needed to do this. Facing Carl was the first big step.

  She had no desire to see James. One hurdle at a time. Better all around.

  Once the boys were safely tucked in with Mac’s mother, Alex headed back across town, toward Gran’s. Gone was the teasing banter they’d enjoyed earlier, dulled by Missy’s thoughtless words. As Alex pulled into Gran’s drive, the front porch light clicked on.

  Motion detector-activated? Or was Gran watching and waiting, not wanting to waste one amp of electricity?

  More likely.

  Probably just as well. Thoughts of cuddling on the front porch swing had dimmed with the ice cream store encounter. Cress found herself wishing there was some way to soften Alex’s angst, to soothe the anger of old reminders and past wrongs. Cozy up by a warm fire and just hold him, let him know it didn’t matter. None of it mattered, not anymore.

  *

  “Can we talk a minute? Here?” Alex motioned to the front seat of the car once he’d parked in Gran’s d
riveway. He didn’t want to have this conversation on Gran’s front porch. Even with the cooling night temps, someone could overhear and he had no desire to feed old fires.

  “Of course.” Cress turned his way, but waited quietly, a move he appreciated.

  “Missy’s father was one of the cops implicated in my father’s death.”

  Cress drew a deep breath and reached for his hand. “I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”

  “It was a long time ago.” His shrug said that should be the end of it, old news. His shadowed gaze said something else.

  “All the more reason she should shut her big mouth and leave it in the past.”

  Quick amusement lightened Alex’s look. “Down, girl.”

  Her scowl said she was ready to leap to his defense, a nice turnaround from a month ago. Which made it a good time to mention he’d done some avenging of his own. “I hated them for a long time, Cress. And yet, I had no love lost for my father, so it made little sense to hate them. But I did. My father wasn’t a good person, he was a mean drunk, and he made trouble in the town. In spite of that, he didn’t deserve to be dropped off over the county line with life-threatening injuries.”

  “No one was ever convicted of wrongdoing, were they?”

  “No. Evidence disappeared or was tainted and inadmissible. But I knew who was involved and my first major buy-and-sell was Missy’s childhood home. And then I did the same to one of the other cops when they fell on hard times. Left them scrambling to begin again, my own version of civil justice.”

  “That had to feel good.”

  He’d thought so too, at the time, but he was mistaken. It hadn’t felt good at all. It felt— wrong. Because it was wrong. “If I had it to do all over again, I’d have let it go. I wasn’t a big enough man to see that eight years ago. I am, now.”

  “You took care of things legally.” Cress offered the protest in a no-nonsense cop-like voice. “You broke no laws, and you taught a much-needed lesson to guys who dishonored the badge. How can that be wrong?” Her expression said she was behind his actions, one-hundred percent.

  “To err is human…” He dropped the partial quote into the cool night air. “I realized I wanted to be a better person than that. And that my mother raised me to be a better person than that, a guy with a vengeance, on a mission.”