#4--The Quiet Day--O’Connells

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  “Marcus is married, adopting that kid, and now about to be a father? Good for him. I’m happy for him,” Rex said, jumping in, all smiles. “Has to make your mom happy.”

  Luke just took in his team, who’d met his family only a handful of times but knew everything about them and then some. They all knew more about each other and their issues, their secrets, than their own families knew.

  Then everyone was up and started to the door, ready to hit their lockers and grab their bags, their guns, everything they’d need.

  “Luke, got a second?” Jess added before he could leave.

  “Sure,” he said, realizing it was only him and Jess left in the conference room.

  “Just wanted to give you a heads-up that the lead you asked Sienna to follow up on, the one about Raymond O’Connell, turned up nothing. Yes, Sienna was under the impression that I knew about the request. When she mentioned it to me, I knew the man had to be your dad, and I thought, ‘Now, what the hell is Luke doing?’ So now I’m asking, why are you having Sienna Parker, our CIA agent, look for your dad?”

  In that moment, Luke wanted nothing more than to pull Sienna aside and ask her what the hell she was doing.

  “You’ve known me a long time,” Luke said. “Fine, here it is. There’s just something about the fact that my father up and walked away from his family eighteen years ago that’s never sat right with me. We never heard from him again, and from what I’ve figured out, he vanished into thin air. Now, who does that? We have the resources, so yeah, I’ve been doing some homework. You going to bust me for that?”

  Jess glanced over to the door and back to him, but he didn’t say anything for another second. “Cut the crap, Luke. You can’t have Sienna doing personal investigating for you. Your dad evidently doesn’t want to be found—but then again, there could be another option.”

  “You mean that he could be dead?” Luke said. That was the thing he’d thought of over and over. If his father had disappeared and walked away, he was either dead or didn’t want to be found. “If he’s dead, how is it that I can’t find anything on him? The more I dig, the more holes I find.”

  Jess ran his hand over his chin. “Well, then maybe you have your answer.” He started to the door before turning back to him. “Luke, if you keep digging, the answers you find may not be the ones you want. Oh, and one more thing,” Jess said, his hand on the door. “Consider this your birthday present, me coming to you. Sienna’s doing you this favor, but then she came to me. You may want to ask yourself, what is she up to?”

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  The Holiday Bride

  All Trinity Cooper Wilde wanted was a quiet Christmas alone with her baby, a baby no one knows about but her twin sister, Dawn.

  * * *

  Dawn has warned Trinity that she needs to come clean and tell everyone about the baby, including the father, Garrett Franke, their former neighbor, whom Trinity has hated since tenth grade—with the exception of one night last year, a mistake.

  * * *

  Her family is starting to wonder why she hasn’t come home to visit in over six months, and Trinity knows time is running out. She plans to tell everyone, but she gets happily stuck in an unexpected snowstorm in her tiny cabin, located outside a small Idaho town.

  * * *

  Deputy Garrett Franke still can’t get Trinity out of his mind, especially considering he works side by side with her dad, Sheriff Logan Wilde. When Dawn unexpectedly pulls him aside one day, he allows her to convince him to drive out to a remote cabin in the middle of a snowstorm to check on her sister, whom no one has heard from since the storm hit.

  * * *

  That’s the thing about snowstorms: You never know who’ll show up at your door, and a baby isn’t the kind of secret that can stay that way for long.

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  The Holiday Bride, Chapter 1

  Why was it that her phone always rang exactly when the baby went down?

  Trinity raced across her cabin in her flannel pajamas and socks. Her cell phone, which she had forgotten to mute, was lit up on the butcher-block counter in the tiny kitchen, ringing like a fire alarm.

  “Ah, shit!” she muttered and winced as she stubbed her toe on the leg of a stool she hadn’t pushed in. She landed on the phone before it could ring a third time. “Hello?” she whispered, putting all the pissed-off tone she could muster into the word. She stared at the open door to the only bedroom, through which she could just make out the crib. Time stood still as she waited for the cry.

  “Whoa, geez, did I wake you?”

  It was Dawn, her sister.

  Trinity pressed her hand to her chest, over the swell of her breasts, feeling grungy after having opted for sleep instead of a shower. In her pajamas, she felt the chill of the cabin. She needed to get more wood for the fire, too, considering she didn’t think it was still going.

  “Just got the baby down, and the phone just about woke her,” she said. “I was considering a shower even though I’d love nothing more than to grab a few more hours.” She groaned and caught a whiff of something off, then lifted her arm and realized it was her. Yup, the shower had now moved up the list of necessities.

  “Sleep?” said Dawn. “What the fuck, Trinity? You were supposed to be on the road, remember, for Christmas at Mom and Dad’s? You are not going to chicken out! Tell me you’re going to show up, please, because if you don’t, Mom and Dad are likely to drive up, and then they’ll know I’ve been lying to them. Mom told me just yesterday you were sounding unusually tired, and here’s me, having to cover your butt yet again. I said it was likely a deadline, because you’ve picked up a lot of new clients and are trying to accomplish the impossible, and you were probably pulling an all-nighter again. I swear I can feel my nose grow. I seriously wonder if she can tell I’m lying. Good thing Dad wasn’t there, because he’d have known for sure…”

  Trinity held the phone away from her ear, still not missing the rest of her sister’s rant. Boy, Dawn could get mad when she wanted to, and Trinity knew that the little secret she’d been keeping from everyone except her sister had only dug her into a hole she didn’t think she could get out of.

  Avoidance was just something she’d become really good at.

  “I’m coming,” she said. “I told you I would. I was just up most of the night with the baby, and I’m so damn tired I can feel it in my bones. I’m sure you don’t want me driving on these roads with a baby, ready to fall asleep.” She knew she was spreading it on thick, but at the same time, nervousness had been nipping at her butt again. If she could just find an excuse someone would buy, she’d be able to get out of going home to her parents’ place for Christmas. “So stop panicking. I promised I would come and face the music.”

  Right, the music—which was her parents and the fact that she had a baby only her sister knew about. Like, who did that?

  In fact, the baby’s father was the real issue: Garrett Franke, her dad’s deputy, whom she’d hated since the tenth grade. What had she been thinking? He was tall and dark haired, and she was a sucker for his drawl and smile.

  A momentary lapse. She’d not spoken to him once since their night together.

  “Look, if you’re that tired, I can come and get you,” Dawn said. “Even better, how about Mom or Dad—or, better yet, both? Then you can explain about the baby before you see everyone, and I won’t have to be there when they realize I’ve been lying to them for nine months! And while we’re at it, Trinity, you need to pick a name for the baby. I gave you my ideas already, so just pick one and go with it.”

  Dawn’s names were all from the list of the top forty in the country—Amelia, Joy, Iris, Kennedy…as if one of them would fit. Trinity strode over to the sink and reached for a glass, then turned on the tap and filled it with water. On the table sat her open laptop and notes from her current client’s website desi
gn, which was only in the beginning stages. Right, something else she still needed to do. She could finish if only she didn’t have to leave her cabin.

  There it was again, that wistful longing for a Christmas alone with her baby. Why did the thought appeal to her like the perfect present?

  “I told you I’m working on a name,” Trinity said. “It has to be perfect.”

  “You’re kidding, right? She’s six weeks old already. Just pick one,” Dawn said.

  There it was, the constant nagging. Dawn just didn’t get the fact that Trinity needed to take her time. She couldn’t be pushed. As with learning to swim, she couldn’t jump in the deep end of the pool; she needed to wade in carefully to make sure nothing could go wrong.

  “Stop pushing, Dawn,” she said. “I already told you I’ll be there. You don’t need to come and get me. I just need to shower and grab some coffee…” And pack up any clean clothes she could find, considering having a new baby meant no laundry was getting done.

  She would be driving right into the lion’s den, so to speak. She’d avoided Idaho Falls for just that reason. First, Garrett was there, and second, she knew when her parents found out about the baby, they would have a lot of questions she didn’t want to answer. Her dad would likely sit her down and start in with his cop interrogation until he found out the real reason she had wanted no one to know.

  “So you promise this time you’re coming?” Dawn said.

  What was it about being put on the spot that made her want to say no?

  “Yes, even though I want nothing more than a Christmas alone with my baby without having to sit through Dad’s interrogation or Mom’s freak-out over the fact that I had a baby and didn’t tell them. You said everyone’s going to be there, right? All Dad’s brothers, and Gram and Gramps and… That’s a lot of people, and they’re all going to be asking me the one thing I don’t want anyone to know: who the father is. You know, maybe Christmas isn’t the time for this.”

  “Don’t you dare,” Dawn said, and Trinity could feel the bite in her voice. Someone spoke in the background—she wasn’t sure who—before Dawn lowered her voice and said in a loud whisper, “You pack up that baby right now, and figure out a name for her by the time you get here. You get in that four by four and drive, because if you don’t, I will tell Mom and Dad…and then there’s Garrett.”

  Trinity didn’t miss the threat in her words. “Dawn, don’t tell Garrett,” she snapped. “You promised me you wouldn’t say anything, and I’m holding you to it. I do not want him to know.”

  “Fine,” Dawn replied. “I know what you said, but you can’t keep the baby a secret forever. You know that, and I know that. I can’t believe I let you talk me into saying nothing. A baby is a really big deal, and the thing about babies is that you can’t keep them a secret forever. You know it’s not going to take anyone, especially Garrett, too long to figure out from the timeframe that the baby is his. You’d best take the bull by the horns and come clean. He has a right to know, Trinity, no matter what. And then there’re Mom and Dad. You know they won’t let it go.”

  She squeezed the phone, furious at her sister, just as she heard the first cry and knew her shower was now going to have to wait. “Fine, but I’m not telling Garrett,” she said. “The baby’s awake now. I have to go…”

  She could hear her sister still talking as she disconnected the phone, furious at the guilt that she didn’t want to feel. After all, Garrett was her dad’s deputy, and hadn’t she heard that he was already hooking up with a friend of Dawn’s now?

  As she took in her quiet cabin, she wanted nothing more than to have a few more hours of peace and quiet alone with her baby before all hell broke loose and she had to face her mom and dad’s inquisition. Worse, she was dreading the minute her dad found out his deputy was in fact the baby’s father.

  The Holiday Bride, Chapter 2

  “Wow, it’s really coming down out there,” Dawn said as she dropped into the sheriff’s office. “Cars are spinning out of control, and it’s practically white-out conditions. Did you get all your Christmas shopping done?”

  Something about her was more quirky than usual today. Actually, scratch that. This was the third time Garrett had noticed her coming in, so he took a closer look as she pulled off her gloves and coat and brushed the snow from her short dark hair. Her striking green eyes weren’t filled with the usual mischief. Something was off.

  “Sure,” he replied and lifted his hand to show the Santa mug he was holding, which held stale coffee. It was his gift from the office exchange, from the matronly office manager, Rose. He had drawn the sheriff’s name, and he still wasn’t sure Logan had appreciated the book of random potty jokes, the first thing he’d seen in the dollar store—though Rose had made it clear that ten dollars was the limit and they would have to be creative. “You looking for your dad? Because he’s out on a call and asked me to hold down the office. Not sure how long he’ll be, Dawn.”

  She just made a face and shrugged. “No, I’m not here to see my dad. Thought I’d stop in and bug you, is all.”

  This was odd. He couldn’t help thinking she was up to something. “In the middle of a snowstorm?” he said, doing his best not to laugh. As she leaned against his desk, he could see she didn’t appreciate being called out. There was just something about her today that went beyond the usual Dawn weirdness.

  The fax dinged and started spitting out paper, and he found himself taking in the way Dawn lingered as he walked over to it. Was she flirting? No, but she definitely wanted something. He said nothing.

  “So what are you and Lori doing for Christmas, again?” she said.

  He reached for the papers, seeing the notes from the sheriff a county over, an arrest report and a summary of road conditions. The unexpected storm wasn’t really unexpected, considering snow and white-out conditions were the norm every winter. He was prepared for a long Christmas of calls, likely all of them vehicle-related, because it seemed everyone forgot how to drive as soon as the first snowflake fell.

  He tossed Dawn a sideways glance. Something about her smile seemed off, something he couldn’t put his finger on. She was up to something. Maybe.

  “Nothing,” he replied. “I’m working over Christmas. Your dad needs someone to man the phones and the office, and that’s me. I drew the short straw. That’s the single life.”

  He and Lori were on the back burner, taking a break, considering she had suddenly wanted to change their casual relationship into a commitment, and that kind of said everything about where their relationship was going. At the same time, he wasn’t about to share anything from his personal life with Dawn, considering it would likely all go right to his boss, her dad.

  He’d already made the mistake of mixing business with pleasure once—with Trinity.

  “Hmm,” was all she said, and he took another second to look down at her. She was cute, attractive, slim, and the spitting image of her sister. He had to look away.

  “So what’s going on, Dawn? You want something?” he said as he walked the papers over to Rose’s empty desk. Seeing nothing urgent, he rested them in her inbox for her to deal with.

  “Just wanted to talk to you and catch up, is all,” she said. “We haven’t done that in quite a while. I only see you when I drop in to see Dad or when you’re out on patrol or something. I kind of miss that lopsided smile and all that handsomeness.”

  He dragged his gaze back over to her, and she flashed him another one of her cute smiles. She was wearing blue jeans, and her hiking boots were caked in snow.

  “You hitting on me there, Dawn?”

  The shock in her expression was priceless. “What? No!” She actually reached out and swatted his arm, and he was at least glad he had settled that issue. He blew out a breath of relief. “You think I want to be added to the list of ladies you can’t or won’t commit to? Seriously, Garrett, you may be a hot, confident, arrogant cop, and those pretty-boy features of yours may have all the women you date thinking that they can get
their hooks into you and find a way to settle you down, but I’m not one of them. Besides, aren’t you and Lori still an item?” She lifted her hands, and he took her in. She could be amusing at times, but something about the way she had said it and the way she kept prying had him trying to figure out what was really up with her.

  “Lori and I aren’t serious,” he said. “Everyone knows that. So if this isn’t you hitting on me, then what gives, Dawn? And aren’t you dating that rich dude again, Dwayne Do-gooder or whatever the hell his name is?”

  She was unimpressed. Then again, he recalled that her dad, the sheriff, had even asked him to run a background check on the guy. “You know his name is Hadley Reynolds,” Dawn said, “and we’re kind of taking a break.” She shrugged and slapped her gloves together, and he wasn’t sure what to make of her expression. “He’s in Germany right now, handling some crisis, and we decided to cool things down. Considering he hops on a plane every time some disaster happens, it makes it kind of difficult to build a relationship. More often than not, we’re in opposite time zones. When I call him, he’s asleep, and then he calls me back and it’s the middle of the night.”

  She forced one of those uncomfortable smiles to her face again, and this time he really looked at the way she was standing, her expression. Her casual dismissal didn’t seem all that convincing, and she was now gripping the cell phone she had pulled from her coat pocket, the second time she’d looked at it.

  “Okay, spill,” Garrett said. “Something’s up, and I hardly think you’re here just to chat. What’s really going on? And no more bullshit.” He tacked the snow report and notice of a road closure on the interstate up on the bulletin board and walked back over to his desk.