“But it makes them feel like they’re doing something productive.” He paused, wanting to change the subject. “So how did the shopping go at the mall?”
“I know that you’re changing the subject but I’m happy to oblige. Shopping went great. We found Brianna a really beautiful dress with some shoes and earrings to go with it. She’s going to look amazing and grown up. We’re going to have a special day on Saturday to get her hair and nails done.”
“She’s not grown up.”
Logan didn’t like this at all.
“She is growing up, Logan. She’s not a little girl anymore.”
“She’s not as grown up as she thinks she is.”
“That’s true but she’s not as young as you seem to think that she is. She’s a young woman now. In a few years, she and Colt will be off to college.”
Logan liked hearing about that even less. He couldn’t imagine his two children out in the world making adult decisions when they were really just kids.
“That’s in a few years. I’m talking about now.”
“Okay, what about now is bothering you? Is it that dress? The dance? The hair and nails? What exactly put a bee in your bonnet?”
Ava had a way of drilling down to the heart of a matter. She was doing it right now. Logan, however, wasn’t ready to put into words how he was feeling.
“She wears too much makeup. She’s only fifteen. She shouldn’t be wearing all of that stuff yet. And she shouldn’t be dating either.”
Ava was smiling. He had a feeling that she was laughing at him but too polite to show it.
“Why shouldn’t she? Because it gives her ideas?”
Rubbing his chin, Logan considered his reply carefully. This was an argument he wanted to actually win, although that was a rare occurrence. He wasn’t a stupid man but Ava usually came out on top.
“She shouldn’t be worrying about stuff like that for a long time yet. She has years to get dressed up and go to dances.”
Ava seemed to consider his words. “What about Colt? Should he not get these ideas either? Or is it just Brianna? And what should they be doing instead? Playing with toys? Because I don’t think we have those anymore. We gave them all away when the kids lost interest.”
“When did they stop playing with toys?”
Ava sighed as if she was getting tired of talking to him. Hell, she probably was.
“A long time ago. Can you just say what you’re really thinking? You’re afraid Brianna is going to go out on a date and have sex. That’s it, isn’t it? This is about sex.”
He didn’t even want his daughter’s name and the word “sex” in the same damn sentence.
“Clearly, you think it’s about sex.”
“I’m not the one acting like her wearing a pretty dress is a federal crime.”
“I’m not acting like that.”
“You are. Listen, I get it. Our kids are growing up, and that means that we’re getting older. I sometimes have issues with it but we can’t stop them from getting older. We can’t stop our children from dating—“
“They’re too young.”
Setting her wine glass on the small side table, Ava reached for Logan’s hand, entwining their fingers together. Even after all of these years, he still noticed how soft her skin was and how great she smelled. Like vanilla and rain.
“They’re going to be sixteen in three months, Logan. Sixteen years old. Even I was allowed to date at sixteen, although I had to be home by ten. I don’t think you want to be the kind of father that I had. Or do you? Have you decided that my dad is the role model that you want to emulate?”
That was a huge no.
“I don’t want her to have sex.”
There. He’d said it out loud. It was a thought he’d barely allowed himself to think but he’d said it.
“Ever?”
Ever sounded good.
“I suppose that’s an unreasonable request.”
She sighed again, and that meant he’d fucked up.
“Logan, are you upset about the possibility of Colt having sex?”
Leaning back in the chair, he groaned loudly, knowing that he was an asshole.
“Okay, I’m a sexist jerk. I don’t want my teenage daughter to have sex, and I’m not as worried about Colt. Colt can’t get pregnant. There. Are you happy now? You can tell all of your friends what an ass I am. I’m not happy about it either, by the way. I feel like a total jerk. I swore I wasn’t going to be like this but here I am. I’m living in the 1950s and I can’t help it.”
She gave him that wifely look that he knew so well. She was about to say something that was important and he’d better listen up.
“I’m worried about Brianna having sex as well—“
When he would have interrupted, she held up her hand and shook her head.
“No, let me finish. I’m worried about it but not for the reasons you are. You’re worried about boys being like you were. You know what you were thinking about when you were sixteen. What I’m worried about is Brianna’s tender feelings. She feels things so deeply, so passionately. If she sleeps with a young man, I have to believe it would be because she was in love with him. I worry about her getting her heart broken. But I also worry about Colt the same way. In some ways, he’s more of a romantic than Brianna. She can be extremely practical when she needs to be. Colt? His head is in the clouds a lot of the time. He could just as easily get his heart broken. And I know that if they cry, I’m going to cry too because I know that I can’t protect them from their first heartbreak. No matter how much I want to. And boy, Logan, I really want to.”
His beautiful wife’s eyes were shiny with tears and if there was one thing that always did Logan in it was his wife crying. He never wanted her to be sad if he could at all help it.
“I want to protect them the same way.”
It was hard to push the words out through the lump that had taken up residence in his throat.
“And we can’t,” Ava said softly. “That’s the hard part of parenting. Watching them go out into the world and getting smacked by reality. Make decisions that we wouldn’t make. Try things that we would never do. We can help get them ready but eventually they have to go out on their own. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for that. It’s good to worry, but we can’t stop them from spreading their wings. What’s the old saying? We’ve given them roots, now we have to give them wings.”
Ava was right. Wasn’t she always?
He still didn’t know how to do it. Watching his children grow up and leave might be the hardest thing he’d ever done. And that included putting a few serial killers behind bars.
When to let go, and when to hold on.
Maybe they were all learning that lesson together.
2
Brianna closed her bedroom door and flipped the lock. Her parents would never barge in; that wasn’t their style, but Colt was always coming into her room and lounging on her bed. His room was messy, his clothes strewn everywhere with several plates and cups on the floor and nightstand. It also smelled like a locker room, probably from all the dirty socks piled in the corners.
Her mom had a strict rule that she wouldn’t clean up after them anymore. She said that they were old enough to do that themselves. They had to keep their own rooms clean and tidy if they wanted that part of their allowance. Colt was constantly docked that five dollars every single week even though he’d freely admit that he preferred to hang out in Brianna’s clean, non-smelly room.
I don’t want him in here.
She loved her brother. For a long time he’d been her closest friend. But lately, she hadn’t liked him very much. He was hanging out with some new friends, guys who played sports and were loud and rowdy. Colt wanted to impress them and in Brianna’s opinion he was acting like an ass most of the time. Her mom said that it was the teenage hormones that made both her and him moody and emotional. Maybe it was true, but that didn’t mean that Colt had to act like he was better than her all the time. If he was goi
ng to be a jerk, then she wasn’t going to hang around him anymore.
Colt had been right about one thing today. Mom didn’t talk to Aunt Mary and she seemed fine.
Pulling off the plastic from her new dress, Brianna held it in front of her as she stood in front of her full-length mirror. She felt like a princess in it, the sapphire blue color almost the same shade as her eyes. It was sparkly and feminine and perfect. They’d even bought shoes and earrings to go with it.
And I have a date.
Daniel Jameson was sixteen and on the swim team. He had pale blond hair bleached from the chlorine, and soft brown eyes, with wide shoulders and an even wider smile. All the girls thought he was cute, too. Her own best friend had said that Brianna was “lucky” that Daniel had asked her to the dance.
She hung the dress up in her closet, tucking the shoes underneath it. The earrings were placed in her jewelry box for safety. She wouldn’t wear them until the dance. Once her new things were put away, she sat down at her laptop and logged into the server to see if her friend Katie was online as well.
Not there at the moment.
They’d met playing an online game and had become best friends. Katie was a few years older than Brianna but she’d never looked down on her because of it. She also had brothers so she was familiar with the struggles of dealing with siblings. They had a great deal in common. They loved the same books, music, television, and food.
There was a pounding on the door and that could only be one person. Colt.
“What do you want?” she yelled through the door.
“Let me in.”
“No.”
“C’mon, let me in. I know something you don’t.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“I do. Really. C’mon, open the door and I’ll tell you.”
“Give me a hint before I do.”
“Okay, Dad was talking to Uncle Tanner on the phone. I heard them.”
Uncle Tanner? It wasn’t unusual for their father to be talking to one of his best friends.
“So what? They talk all the time.”
“This involves us.”
Brianna had to admit she was curious.
Flipping open the lock, she opened the door, stepping back so he could come in. Colt immediately jumped on her bed, stretching out his legs and reclining on her pillows. He’d grown four inches in the last six months and now his feet went almost all the way to the end of the mattress. They used to be the same height but now he towered over her, only a few inches shorter than their dad.
“So…tell me.”
Colt gave her a cocky grin. “We’re going on a vacation as soon as school ends. I heard Dad talking to Uncle Tanner about surprising Mom with it.”
That sounded like Dad. He loved surprising Mom with fun stuff, although Mom was usually on to him. Because of that, surprises were rare in the Wright household. It was like her mother had eyes in the back of her head and the hearing of a wolf.
“That’s it? We’re going on vacation. Who cares about that? We go on vacation every summer.”
“I didn’t tell you all of it yet. We’re going with everyone. Tanner and Maddie, Kaylee and Reed, Seth and Presley. Those for sure. Maybe even Griffin and Jazz, Jared and Misty, and Rayne and Dare. I heard Dad say ‘the more the merrier’ which means the whole group.”
If Uncle Seth and Aunt Presley were going to be there, that meant…
Bennett Reilly, their oldest son. He was three years older than Brianna and in a completely different league. As in he didn’t think of Brianna in that way. He still saw her as a little girl while he was getting ready to graduate from high school. He would be going to college in the fall. He’d already been accepted to his first choice. Daniel was a boy. Ben was a man.
From the smirk on Colt’s face he knew what she was thinking. He’d given her a hard time two years ago when they’d gone to Montana to visit. Apparently, she’d been far too obvious about her feelings when she looked at Ben.
“He might not be there,” Colt said, watching her expression closely. “He’s grown up now and he might have a job over the summer. And a girlfriend. In fact, I’m sure he has a girlfriend.”
Brianna turned away, feeling her cheeks heat up. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. Where are we going? Did you hear Dad say?”
“They haven’t narrowed it down. Either the beach or some boring educational history trip to Boston or Williamsburg. Something like that. Personally, I’d rather go to the beach.”
“You just want to see girls in bikinis.”
Colt waggled his eyebrows. “I won’t deny it.”
“If we go to the beach, I bet we see Uncle Evan and Aunt Josie, too.”
“And maybe you’ll see Ben.”
Colt was calling her out. She wasn’t falling for it.
“We’ll probably see everyone, I would imagine.”
“And Ben.”
Brianna ignored her brother. He was trying to play a game with her and he wasn’t going to win.
“Did you hear me?”
Brianna rolled her eyes. “Of course, I heard you. I’m standing right here.”
“I said that you might see Ben.”
“I heard you. What is it that you want me to say?”
Colt rolled up to a sitting position, his expression sulky. “You’re no fun anymore. I was just joking with you.”
He wasn’t.
“I guess you’re not very funny then.”
That would get him. Colt thought he was hilarious.
He stood, his lip curled in derision. “How would you know? You don’t even know what fun is. You just sit in your room and play on your laptop.”
“As compared to you who sits in the living room and plays on your PlayStation?”
He muttered something under his breath that Brianna couldn’t make out before stomping out of the room and slamming the door behind him. He always slammed doors even if he wasn’t mad. Their mom was always after him, telling him to be more careful with things.
Brianna had decided some time ago that she was simply going to ignore her brother. Just because they were twins didn’t mean that they had to hang out together or be friends. Especially if he was an asshole.
Locking the door behind him, Brianna checked her laptop again for Katie. This time she was there.
I can’t wait to tell her about my new dress.
And Ben Reilly.
The basement was empty now. He’d dumped Tanner’s body in a ravine far from home. He’d arrived at the site at night but was back at the house when the sun came up. He’d spent the day scrubbing the basement clean with hot water and bleach until there was no sign that anyone had ever been there.
He was already beginning to feel the tension again.
It was coming more quickly than the last time, and he didn’t want to give in. Not yet. He wanted to be able to savor the moment. Enjoy it.
Closing the door to the now pristine basement, he grabbed a soda from the refrigerator and sat down in front of the television. His arms and back ached slightly from his labors so he propped his feet onto the coffee table in front of him. He flipped through the channels but there wasn’t anything that he really wanted to watch. He settled on a news program, the cheerful man talking about how it was going to rain next week.
He dozed off for a few minutes, his eyelids heavy. When he woke, the weatherman had been replaced by a woman talking about baseball.
Sitting up, he stretched his arms over his head and yawned, his gaze landing on the photo album on the table. He reached for it, settling it on his lap and opened to the first page where a newspaper clipping was tucked. He retrieved a pen from the coffee table and then unfolded the clipping, displaying a smiling middle-aged man in the photograph. With the pen, he made an X over the man’s face.
Tanner Marks. Complete.
He turned the page and studied the face that looked back at him. Younger than Tanner. Not smiling. More serious.
Jared Monroe.
&
nbsp; 3
It had been a long, hectic day and Ava was dreaming of sitting on the couch with some takeout food and a glass of wine. Brianna and Colt were getting ready to go to the dance and she’d been running back and forth between their rooms for the last hour. Brianna needed help with her shoes and Colt needed help with the tie. Then there had been a hair emergency, and Colt didn’t know how to use his dad’s cufflinks.
Yes, Colt was going, too.
After telling his sister that the dance was only for losers, he’d somehow been roped into being the fourth on a double date with his best friend, his best friend’s girlfriend, and her best friend. Which had meant that he’d needed to rent a tuxedo.
What Ava knew about tuxedos she could have put on the head of a pin but like a good mom she’d driven Colt to the rental store and let him pick one out. Well…she’d vetoed the first one he’d chosen, a dark maroon velvet number that looked like it belonged on a lounge singer in Vegas. She’d been relieved when his second choice was a far more stylish - and conservative - black on black number. She had to admit that he looked devastatingly handsome in it. She imagined this is what Logan would have looked like going to a formal school dance as a teenager.
If Logan had done something like that. Ava wasn’t much better. She had only attended one school dance and that was her senior year. It had been the homecoming dance so it wasn’t quite as formal. She’d worn a new dress and her date had worn his Sunday church suit. They’d danced, drank punch, and been home by eleven. Her dad had wanted her home by ten but her mother had convinced him to let her have the extra hour.
Her father was waiting on the front porch when they’d arrived. No chance for a goodnight kiss, which she assumed was the entire point of his presence.
The ring of the doorbell stopped her in her tracks halfway between her two children’s rooms. A glance at her watch told the tale. It was almost time to leave for the dance and her husband wasn’t home yet.
It wasn’t that uncommon of an occurrence. Logan worked late all the time. When he wasn’t at the office, he would be in the den poring over files or digging into some scumbag’s digital history. He’d poke his head out now and then but for the most part she’d become used to the workaholic he’d morphed into. He hadn’t been like that when they were married but things had changed subtly over the years. She couldn’t quite pinpoint when it had all started to change…
Forgiven Justice (Cowboy Justice Association Book 14) Page 2
