Colton drove down the steep drive, then smiled over at her. “You look like you’re deep in thought.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Do you believe God saw your wife’s aneurysm before it ruptured?”
“Of course He did.” He stepped on the gas, pulling onto Fall Branch Road. “Nothing catches Him by surprise.”
“Then why didn’t he do anything to stop it? He’s all-powerful, right? He could have intervened but chose not to.”
“I don’t have all the answers. But I do know God is right here and will carry me through whatever trials I have to face.”
Jasmine chewed her lower lip. She’d never experienced that kind of faith. But something told her if she ever found it, the peace she’d sought all her life might be somewhere in the midst of it.
Colton eased to a stop at the end of the road, then turned right toward 64. “I’m not saying it’s been easy. It hasn’t. Losing Mandy is one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced, right up there with losing my mother.”
“And you believe God has helped you through it.”
He nodded. “I have no doubt. I’ve felt His presence, seen Him at work.”
“How?”
For several moments, he didn’t respond. The light ahead turned red, and he eased to a stop. When he finally looked at her, his eyes were serious, filled with meaning. “Most recently? I asked for someone big and mean and scary, and He sent me you.”
The words floored her. “You think God sent me?”
“Absolutely.” He craned his neck to look at his son in the rearview mirror. “Look at the change that’s happened in Liam in three short weeks.”
The light changed and Colton stepped on the gas. “You were exactly what he needed. I didn’t know that, but God did.”
She swallowed hard. He’d said she was what Liam needed. What about what Colton needed?
“So you believe God orchestrated events so I’d be the one to guard you two.”
“Without a doubt.”
She shook her head. “If He did all that, why not just seal up the aneurysm? Then the other stuff wouldn’t have been necessary.”
“Sometimes God stills the storm, like He did for the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. Other times He carries us through it.”
“Like He did for Paul and the other two-hundred-something passengers on the ship that wrecked.” She’d been listening. If she thought about it, she could probably even recite several of the pastor’s sermon points.
She crossed her arms. “The whole thing bugs me.”
“What bugs you?”
“How all this works. I mean, you’re a nice guy, a family man, church attender, a good, moral person. If God should spare anyone from having to go through something horrible, I would think it would be someone like you.”
“That’s not the way life works. At least not this life.”
And now he was going to tell her he had heaven to look forward to. Jasmine frowned. She’d always believed in an afterlife, but heaven had never felt real. It seemed more the stuff of fairy tales, a way to explain death to a child.
But when she looked over at Colton, he was well-grounded. That peace she coveted was evident on his face, along with a genuine acceptance of his circumstances. But there was more than that. A sense of contentment seemed to weave through his whole being.
He pulled up to his gate a short time later. “Stay with Liam. I’ll run in and get the potato salad.” That would be their contribution to the meal.
Brutus met Colton at the gate, wagging his tail. Although he was still playing the part of guard dog, he was getting to spend more time inside the house, and not just when the weather was bad. Though he’d tear apart anyone who threatened his pack, his gentleness with Liam warmed her heart.
After giving the dog two pats on the head, Colton jogged toward the house. Jasmine stepped from the SUV and scanned the surrounding woods, leaving the door open.
Liam’s voice came from inside the vehicle. “Jasmine?”
She leaned inside. “Jasmine’s right here, sweetie. I’m not going anywhere.”
Her assurances seemed to satisfy him. How was he going to handle it when she finally left for good? A vise clamped down on her chest.
That day was coming. Soon. Colton didn’t seem to be in any hurry to send her back to Atlanta. And she wasn’t in any hurry to go. Waiting to find out who the men were and why they’d attacked was a great reason to extend the assignment. Their names weren’t familiar to Colton. And neither of them was talking.
But detectives were working on it. Eventually they’d find the connection, and Colton would have to decide whether he and his son still needed her protection.
She turned in a slow circle, scanning her surroundings. She’d been identifying and guarding against threats for enough years to have developed a sixth sense. Now there was nothing, not even a blip on her radar. The danger here was over.
Colton stepped out the front door, then locked the dead bolt with the key. He was still taking precautions and probably would for the rest of his life. The experiences he’d had tended to leave a permanent mark.
He closed the gate, and she climbed back into the SUV. After sliding into the driver’s seat, he handed her the cold container. He’d said he’d pick up some potato salad somewhere. She’d insisted his friends deserved homemade.
“I’ve enjoyed getting to know Paige this week.”
Colton smiled. “I’m glad you two hit it off so well.”
Although she didn’t know Paige’s whole story, she’d learned enough to know they had a lot in common, including their dysfunctional childhoods. As adults, they shared that toughness that only comes with the struggle to survive. It wouldn’t take much for them to become best friends.
There was one difference between them, though. After a bunch of bad relationships, Paige had found the love of her life in Tanner.
Jasmine wasn’t there yet. She had the bad relationship part down pat, but finding true love seemed more of a distant dream.
She slid a sideways glance toward Colton. His eyes were on the road ahead of him as he drove down Hilltop toward the four-lane. The tightness that his features had held since the day she met him had disappeared.
She’d found him attractive from the moment he’d walked up her driveway and insisted on helping her haul in buckets of paint. But his appeal went much deeper than his physical attractiveness.
He was kind, compassionate and selfless, the type of man who’d do anything for those he loved. He didn’t project the carefree abandon that his brother always seemed to display, but that wasn’t what drew her to him. He had depth, integrity. Even his faith tugged at her in a way she hadn’t expected.
What would it be like to be a permanent part of Colton’s and Liam’s lives? Was there even the slightest possibility that she could find with him what Paige had experienced with Tanner?
Colton braked at the stop sign at the end of Hilltop and looked over at her. His lips lifted in an amused smile. He’d caught her staring at him.
“And what are you thinking about now?”
Heat crept up her cheeks. No way was she going to admit the direction her thoughts had taken. Not only were her feelings for him unprofessional, putting them out there would make the rest of their interactions stiff and uncomfortable.
She shrugged. “I was thinking about how much more relaxed you look.”
Not a lie. In fact, that was the observation that had started her whole train of thought.
His smile deepened as he turned onto 64. “I’m feeling more relaxed. I’m not ready to totally let down my guard, but I’m not expecting someone to start shooting at me, either.”
He cast her a quick glance. “I owe you a lot.”
Their eyes had met for the briefest of moments, but the sincerity in his sent a surge of warmth through her insi
des. She shrugged. “Just doing my job.”
“You saved our lives, probably more than once. I want you to know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done.”
When he stopped in Bryce’s driveway a minute or so later, his phone was ringing. He frowned down at a number he apparently didn’t recognize. Moments after answering, the frown gave way to eagerness.
When he ended the call, he clipped the phone back onto his belt.
She looked at him with raised brows. “That sounded like good news.”
He nodded. “Perez was behind the attacks. The guys had several aliases, but they’re his brothers.”
“Do the detectives think there are others out there who want to see you dead?”
“No one can say for sure, but Perez doesn’t have any other relatives. Male ones, anyway. His father was killed by rival gang members when Perez was a boy, and he doesn’t have any other brothers.”
“Friends, acquaintances?”
“As near as they can tell, none close enough to put their own lives in jeopardy to do his dirty work. So it looks like, starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to go back home and move on to your next assignment.”
Jasmine studied him as he spoke. Did his shoulders slouch a little? No, that was her imagination. The news he’d gotten was cause for celebration.
He pulled the keys from the ignition. “Today you’re still on duty. And your assignment for the rest of the afternoon is to relax and have fun getting to know my friends.”
He stepped from the SUV, then leaned into the back to unbuckle Liam. “Are you ready to go in and see Aunt Andi and Uncle Bryce?” His tone was cheery. But it seemed forced.
Maybe he would be sad to see her go. Was it possible he was feeling at least some of what she’d been fighting?
No, she needed to stop trying to see things that weren’t there. Colton was still mourning the loss of his wife. And he wasn’t looking for a replacement. Even if he were, she’d never be able to fill Mandy’s shoes.
Perfect wife and perfect mother. She and Colton had probably had a near perfect marriage.
Jasmine had never even had a dating relationship that didn’t fall squarely into the realm of dysfunctional. If she couldn’t make men who were as messed up as she was happy, how would she have any hope of making Colton happy when she had to follow in the footsteps of a woman like Mandy?
She climbed from the SUV and walked with Colton toward the porch. This afternoon, she was going to do exactly what he’d ordered—relax and have a good time with his friends.
Tomorrow she’d head back to Atlanta. If Gunn didn’t have an immediate assignment, maybe she could get the work finished at the house. She’d been close when she’d had to pull off for the Gale assignment.
Maybe she could convince Gunn to give her the last two weeks of the vacation she’d earned. She’d again pour her time and energy into making the reality of her new house match the pictures she’d conjured in her mind. It would be fun watching it take shape and all come together.
She heaved a sigh. All her efforts to rouse some enthusiasm for her plans fell flat.
That was because everything she looked forward to involved leaving the man who made her dream of things she’d thought impossible and the little boy who’d stolen her heart.
* * *
Liam sat on the floor amid scattered toys and crumpled wrapping paper. Behind him, several hundred mini lights shone from the tree.
There was still one wrapped gift lying beneath. It had Jasmine’s name on it. After the cookout at Bryce’s, she’d packed her belongings and Colton had driven her back to Atlanta. He should have given it to her then, but he’d forgotten.
Or maybe the oversight was a subconscious effort to make sure he’d have to see her again.
He rose from the floor, where he’d helped Liam open his gifts, and collected the discarded paper. It was his first Christmas without Mandy, Liam’s first without his mother.
But it wasn’t Mandy that Liam had been asking for.
It was Jasmine.
At least, he’d asked for her Sunday night and most of the day yesterday. By last night, he’d stopped. Because he’d stopped talking altogether.
This was what he’d been afraid of. He hadn’t wanted his son getting attached to her. But it had happened anyway. And now Liam had lost a second mother figure.
After throwing away the paper, he returned to the living room and stared out the front window. The sun was still low on the horizon, hidden behind the trees. He moved away and squatted next to his son. “How about some breakfast?”
Liam loaded a double handful of plastic rocks onto the dump truck without looking up. When he pressed the button on the side, the bed rose and the rocks tumbled onto the rug.
Colton tried again. “We’ll have pancakes, your favorite.”
Liam’s eyes met his, and his chest clenched at the vacancy he saw there.
He ruffled Liam’s hair. “I’ll make you a Mickey Mouse one. Would you like that?”
Liam nodded, and Colton rose. On his way through the room, he stopped at the coffee table. A sterling silver bookmark lay on the polished oak surface, engraved with the words Keep the Faith.
When he’d pulled Liam’s gifts out from beneath the tree, he’d found a small wrapped box with his name on it. The tag said, “Thanks for letting me be a part of your family. Jaz.”
Since she’d spent most of the past two weeks sequestered in the house with Liam, she had to have gotten some help. Probably from Paige. That made the gift all the more thoughtful.
He was going to miss her. Actually, he’d started missing her five minutes after she left. Her going home didn’t just leave a hole in his son’s life. It also left a hole in his own.
He trudged into the kitchen. No need to feign the excitement he was trying to display for his son’s benefit. He plugged in the griddle and pulled the pancake mix from the cupboard. An easy meal.
Christmas dinner was going to be even more effortless. It was in the fridge, waiting to be moved to the oven and warmed. He’d picked it up at Ingles yesterday. Instead of turkey, he’d selected a Cornish game hen. A ten-pound turkey was a little overkill for one man and a thirty-pound boy.
But it was going to be just the two of them. Bryce and Andi were having Christmas dinner with Andi’s family in Asheville, and Tanner and Paige, both without any real family connections, had left yesterday morning for a week in a Florida beach condo.
Not that he hadn’t had other invitations. He had. Mandy’s parents had invited him to spend the holidays in Montana. His own had asked him to come to New York to be with them and his grandparents. He’d even gotten invitations from a couple of his Atlanta friends, the most insistent coming from his former coworker Doug.
As Colton added the wet ingredients, sounds of play came from the living room. There was no chatter, or vocalizing of any kind, just the hum of the mechanism that raised the dump truck bed and the muffled clatter of plastic rocks.
Colton had just ladled the first spoonful of batter onto the griddle when his phone rang. Doug’s voice came through the line, a little subdued.
“I’m hesitant to wish you a merry Christmas, but I’m praying it’s a little easier than we’d expect.”
“Thanks.” He added two dollops of batter to the larger one to form Mickey’s ears. “At least I no longer have someone trying to kill me.” He’d spoken with Doug while Jasmine was still in the hospital, letting him know what had happened.
“That should make for at least a little Christmas cheer. Have you learned who they were?”
“Perez’s brothers.”
“Oh, no. How—”
The line went silent. “Doug?”
When his friend spoke, his voice was tight. “Did you get a gift basket delivery a few days after you left?”
“No. Why?”
�
�I might know how they found you. Friday, I got a card in the mail from the victim’s family in a case I just tried, thanking me for all my efforts. A new intern we have was there when I opened it. He said we probably get that a lot.”
Doug drew in a deep breath and continued. “He said someone tried to deliver one of those candy-and-nut gift baskets to you three weeks or so ago. When he said you were no longer working there, the delivery person asked if he knew where you’d gone. He said he thought you’d gone to Cherokee County, North Carolina, but wasn’t sure.”
Colton leaned against the counter, the pieces falling into place. No wonder they’d found him so quickly. The first time he’d left, it had been different. Most of the office staff knew where he’d gone, but even if that information had gotten back to Perez, his brothers had probably decided against following him to Montana, knowing he’d be back eventually.
Colton created another Mickey Mouse, then started four more pancakes cooking, boring round ones. By the time the conversation was winding down, all six were golden brown and stacked on two plates.
Doug sighed. “Are you sure you don’t want to spend the day in Atlanta? We’d love for you to join us.”
“Thanks, but we’re just going to have a quiet Christmas at home.”
Doug came from a big family. At last count, there were going to be thirty people at his gathering. That was more chaos than Colton wanted to deal with.
After ending the call, he opened the fridge to remove the maple syrup from the door. Three covered containers sat on the second shelf. Christmas dinner.
He’d turned down Doug’s invitation because a gathering with thirty-plus people had sounded more grueling than fun. But three would be perfect.
He walked back to the counter where he’d left his phone. Jasmine didn’t have plans. He’d already asked what she was going to be doing. She’d reiterated that she’d never been big on holiday celebrations.
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