“You’re on nursing duty today?”
“Well, he’s out of my area of expertise, but I figured whining’s whining and he’s not all that different than the five-year-old that just scolded me on his way out the door.”
“I’m not whining.” Zach made a face as they walked into the living room. “I’m too drugged up to whine properly. Give it a week.”
“I can hardly wait.” Julia stage-whispered the words. “I can disappear and give you guys time to visit if you’ve got sensitive cop stuff you need to discuss.”
“We don’t, but thanks. Tanner, you want coffee? Tea? Piper made a pitcher of tea this morning because the long winter is getting on her nerves.”
“I’m sure it has nothing to do with the grumbling husband stuck in the living room.” Julia grinned at him from across the room and added, “I kind of love that you’re trapped. How mean is that? I can sling sisterly barbs in your direction and you’re pretty much helpless.”
Zach glowered at her, but Tanner saw the sparkle in his eyes as well, a look that said he loved his sister.
Tanner loved his sister, too. He and Neda did everything together as kids, and he’d even walked her down the aisle at her wedding. But now he shied away from her because she had two little ones. He was missing a lot of life in his self-imposed cocoon.
“Tanner. You told me you have a sister, right?” Zach asked.
“I did say that.”
“Is she a pain in the neck?”
“Definitely.”
“Does she bake you brownies with walnuts and chocolate chips?” Julia brought a plate over and set it on the small table they’d rigged next to Zach’s recliner. “And bring you the latest Sudoku puzzles to keep your mind sharp while you while away the next few months? And did she or did she not give you a gift subscription to Netflix?”
“Once I’m awake enough to watch anything, I’ll thank you.” Zach gave her a tired smile. “You know I’m grateful. Just a little grumpy and medicated.”
“Blah, blah, blah.” She leaned over and kissed Zach’s forehead, winked at Tanner and started to leave, but Zach called her back.
“Julia, sit a minute. I want to hear your plans for the clinic, and with Tanner helping—”
“Not necessary, but again, thank you for offering.” She shot a bright smile at Tanner, but he wasn’t about to be sloughed off. Helping out was something he wanted and needed to do, for his own peace of mind.
“I’m good for grunt work.” He said it mildly but made sure she knew he wasn’t about to budge. “So what’s the configuration you took to the town for approval?”
She looked trapped.
Good.
He might hate the idea of having a pregnancy center there. But he wasn’t against health care, so he’d swallow his personal misgivings and man up.
“A small reception area with about a dozen seats around the perimeter. Then a short hall with an exam room on either side, and one at the base of the hall.”
“T-shaped formation.”
“Yes. And an alcove for weigh-ins, drawing blood, entering notes into the system.”
“System?”
She nodded. “The grant covers a computer system that’s integrated with the main computer at the home office. We’ll be able to enter data from both sites.”
“Will the computers be locked up at night?”
She frowned.
“To thwart things like what happened four blocks away when Zach got hurt.” He indicated Zach with a glance. “Visible equipment makes you an easier target for thieves.”
“They’ll be built in, actually.”
“Hardwired?” Zach asked.
She stared at him blankly. “What does that mean?”
Zach laughed without thinking, then grimaced in pain. “That means built right into the electrical system. No plugs.”
“Yes. I’m sorry, I thought you realized, but we upgraded right after Jack was born so you haven’t seen the new computers. And these machines wouldn’t do anyone any good, actually.” She brought her attention back to Tanner. “They’re not meant for anything other than entering and transferring patient records, so why would anyone want to steal them?”
“First, you’re giving thieves way more credit for brains than most of them deserve,” Tanner told her. “And second, on the black market, everything has a price and a buyer, if for nothing else than to hold information hostage.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
Zach and Tanner spoke in unison. “Money.”
She pressed her lips together as reality hit home. “I guess that’s a risk we have to take.”
“Not if you go old-school and use paper at the clinic, then have someone update at the main office each day.”
“Who has time for that?” Julia directed the question to Zach but stared at Tanner.
“That’s what a lot of practices did until a few years ago,” he reminded. “I’m not telling you how to do your job, Julia, but I’m looking at this from a police perspective. Out of sight is always better. Lessen the temptation, you avoid the crime.”
“So we have to either hire a data input person to transfer files at the main office each day or risk a B and E”?
“If you have part-time personnel, couldn’t they tack an extra five hours onto their weekly schedule to upload daily information?”
Now she looked interested. “You know, that might work, Tanner. We have a couple of people who might benefit from those five extra hours. And if we didn’t have to expand the integrated system, we could use the money for something else.”
“Everyone’s happy that way.” Tanner reached for a brownie. “Would you care to join me in a celebratory brownie?”
She eyed the plate, then shook her head. “I’m going to pass.” She stood, glanced at her watch and said, “Actually, Zach, I’m going to head to the gym as long as Tanner’s here and the boys are with Dad. Call my cell if you need anything. Tanner, are you okay here for half an hour, give or take?”
He hoisted the tray of brownies. “Preseason baseball on cable and these. We’re good.”
She grabbed her purse, gave the brownies one last look and started for the door.
“When do we start demolition?”
“Soon, but I have to check Dad’s schedule.”
He made a “call me” sign with his right hand. The move made her laugh, but it wasn’t hard to see the shadows in her eyes. She left and he turned to Zach. “Does she hate me?”
“Julia doesn’t hate anyone, not even her stupid ex-husband who cheated on her, made her feel like dirt, and ignored his kids for over two years and now expects her to jump through hoops so he can visit them.”
Tanner held up a hand. “I’m going to stop asking you questions because the meds have unhinged your tongue and your sister might kill you for telling me all that.”
“All what?”
Zach looked confused, which meant the meds were doing a number on him. Tanner grabbed the remote, turned on a preseason Pittsburgh game and settled into the wide-armed chair with the tray of brownies close. “Baseball it is, my friend.”
But Zach’s words ignited a curl of sympathy wrapped around a thread of anger. What kind of idiot cheated on a beautiful woman like Julia and ignored his kids? The thought of a father dismissing his children frustrated him. He’d never had the chance to carry, rock or play with baby Solomon.
A tiny part of him wondered, for just a moment, if maybe Sol and Ashley were together in heaven. If maybe, just maybe, she was holding their son in her arms, and whispering stories about his dad on Earth.
He shoved the sentimental thoughts away, but as he did, a cardinal lit on the tree outside Zach’s front window. The red bird danced, waved a wing, then danced on the branch again.
Beauty in everyday thing
s.
Ashley had talked about that all the time, and he thought she was being cute and fanciful, but right now, seeing the bird, imagining Sol tucked in Ashley’s arms made it almost seem possible.
The game came on and when he glanced back up, the cardinal was gone.
For a moment he’d felt hopeful, as if there might be more to this life than he believed.
But that was probably nonsense, whereas baseball was real, so he concentrated on team rivalries because he understood that.
Life and faith, intertwined? Not so much.
* * *
Sixty minutes of exercise did nothing but make Julia hungrier.
She’d ignored the brownies.
She’d turned away from the fresh hoagie bread her father brought home from the McKinney Dairy Farm store, baked daily by an Amish woman over on County Road 4.
She’d grabbed a pack of fresh veggies, told herself that cucumbers were the new chocolate, but it was no use. She needed coffee, good coffee, and she needed it now. The best place to find that was at Tina’s Corner Café. The popular gathering spot was now tucked into an expanded corner of The Pelican’s Nest, a family owned restaurant on the shores of Kirkwood Lake. No way was she going back home without a proper caffeine fix and maybe some girl talk. Knowing she was going to be working side by side with a grumpy cop and trying to analyze Vic’s moves made the company of other women essential.
She walked through the door, smiled at Tina, looked at Tina’s aunt Laura and promptly burst into tears.
“Julia! Sweetie, what is it?” Laura wrapped her arms around Julia and hugged her close. “Are you okay? Are the boys okay? Is it Zach? Or your father?”
Julia shook her head, tried to talk, failed miserably, then sighed when Tina handed over a fistful of tissues. “Men.” Tina muttered the word with typical Martinelli emphasis. “Can’t live with ’em. Can’t shoot ’em.”
“Which of course would be a dreadful sin,” added Laura, “but if some wretched man has broken your heart, honey, I’m not afraid to help make his life miserable, and I’ll do it in the most sincere manner a Sunday-school teaching woman can employ and stay right with God.”
Julia burst out laughing. The thought of sweet, mild-mannered Laura D’Allesandro taking up Julia’s cause sounded real good right now. “I’ll be fine, and yes, it’s a man. How did you know?” she asked, and Tina just rolled her eyes.
“Let’s just say I used to be familiar with the symptoms. Before Max, that is.” She smiled when she mentioned her husband’s name. “I’ve kissed a few frogs in my time.”
“Kiss a few toads, sweep our share of ashes,” Laura exclaimed with a quick swipe of a washcloth to the empty tables.
“But you didn’t marry the frogs,” Julia reminded Tina. “You waited for the prince to come along.”
Tina’s expression said otherwise. “I was engaged to one and almost engaged to the other. So pretty close, darling.”
“You’re among friends, now tell us. What’s going on?” Laura asked. “You’re never upset, you’re the most even-keeled, optimistic person I know. This has got to be really nasty to have you this riled up.”
“Coffee, first,” Tina inserted. “I think a caramel macchiato would be just right.”
Julia glanced up at the calorie board and hesitated.
Tina groaned.
Laura sighed. “Don’t tell me a pretty thing like you is worried about her weight? Because I’ll just fall down laughing.”
“And I’ll join her, and then there’ll be no one to make your coffee,” Tina continued. She reached out and grabbed Julia’s hands as Julia sank onto a counter stool. “I don’t know the story, but I’m going to guess he cheated on you and you’re trying to figure out why.”
Julia stared at her. “How did you know that?”
“Because women tend to assume it’s our fault first.” Tina moved back behind the counter and started building Julia’s drink. “We see their cheating as the result of our lack, instead of their choice to stray.”
“Which is ridiculous, of course,” Laura chimed in. “What does God tell us about women in Proverbs 31? That a woman opens her hands to the poor and reaches out to the needy. That she works for her family, and provides for them? I don’t recall seeing anything about being a size six, Julia. Or trying to reform ourselves to win affection. Shouldn’t we be loved as God loves us? For ourselves?”
“It’s wonderful in theory.” Julia smiled at Tina when she set the steaming caramel coffee in front of her. “Unfortunately reality says something different these days.”
“My dose of today’s reality is to head to work.”
The sound of Tanner’s voice made all three ladies turn as he came around the corner from the main restaurant dining area.
Laura smiled. Clearly familiar with Tanner’s tastes, Tina called a greeting, grabbed a large to-go coffee cup and moved to the espresso machine.
Julia was glad she hadn’t been griping about Tanner when he walked in. She met his eyes as he approached the coffee counter. “Thanks for hanging with Zach this afternoon.”
“Piper’s stepmother came over to make sure he was doing okay. He drifted in and out of sleep the whole time I was there, which meant I could cheer for the Pirates and no one reamed me out. I found it oddly disappointing.”
“You’ll be safe for a while because he’ll be on heavy-duty pain meds for days.” Julia sipped her coffee, glad she hadn’t insisted on the plain black version. This amazing concoction was so much better. Or maybe it was her proximity to this puzzling man with soft but tough gray eyes. “But he’ll be glad you came by, Tanner.”
Tina extended his coffee across the curved wooden coffee bar and waved off his money. “You know better, even though you’re not at this end of the lake all that often,” she teased. “Coffee for cops is on the house.”
“You just want me to be nice to Max, since he’s new on the force.”
“After ten years of military special ops, I can assure you that Max Campbell has plenty of tricks up his sleeve,” Tina told him, “so I’d be careful treating him like a normal probie. Just a word to the wise.”
“I got to work with him last month.” Tanner raised his coffee cup in salute. “And he did okay. For a military guy.”
Tina laughed. “I won’t tell him you said so because I know how the loyalty game plays out. But just so you know, he spoke well of you, too.”
Tanner grinned. He turned back toward Julia. “According to your father, I’ll see you Tuesday night. Six o’clock. Your place.”
He aimed a smile at the two women behind Julia, then walked out. Julia read their expressions, and put up her hands. “It’s not what you think, even though he’s funny, gentle, sensitive and wretchedly good-looking.”
“It should be.” Laura exchanged a look with Tina, a look that said Tanner Reddington was positively swoon-worthy. “Oh, honey, I promise you. It should be.”
“I have enough on my plate right now.” Julia watched Tanner as he crossed the parking lot. Tall, square-shouldered and decisive, he looked as good from behind as he did from the front, but something in his reticence tripped mental red flags. She switched her attention back to the women. “For the moment I’m trying to figure out what my ex-husband is up to all of a sudden. There is no time in the world for that. Unfortunately.” She waved toward the door Tanner had just closed.
“Mmm-hmm.” Laura’s knowing smile said she wasn’t buying it. Tina’s said the same.
For a moment, Julia wondered if that gleam in Tanner’s eye went deeper than gentle amusement. Was he interested in her?
Of course not. He was always one step shy of rude during their conversations, and what she absolutely, positively did not want, ever again, was to have to prove herself to a man, because Laura was right. God’s command to man was to cherish wo
men, to love them as he loved the church.
She’d lived that failure once. She never wanted to face that outcome again.
Chapter Four
Tanner steered his car off of Main Street and onto Lower Lake Road.
Two years of silence.
Zach’s careless remark had been on his mind for over an hour. A beautiful woman, smart and funny, unafraid to joke around. Two kids. What kind of man walked away from that? Or ignored his kids?
It wasn’t his business. But the idea of someone ignoring their kids made him want to pummel something. For three long years he’d asked himself what he could have done differently.
Insisting that Ashley see a regular obstetrician instead of a midwife might have been a good start.
He knew that. He’d had misgivings from the beginning. He’d wanted a full-fledged doctor, the best available. Wouldn’t that have been the most sensible option? But Ashley had been so sure in her choices, so caught up in the research of natural methods. Would a different medical professional have seen signs of trouble before it had gone too far?
He didn’t know, but old regrets speared deep.
His cell phone interrupted his thoughts.
“Tanner, it’s Captain Steele. How’re you doing?”
Had the Troop A boss remembered the anniversary of his wife’s death, with all he had to do and oversee? Appreciation eased the weight on his chest. “Okay. Counting the hours. Breathing.”
Alex Steele’s voice deepened. “I know. I remember. You working today?”
“Got called in. Yesterday and today, so that’s better than sitting home. Pretending to be busy.”
“I intend to keep you busier,” Alex said. “We’re forming a collaborative task force to address the burglaries and increased drug use in your sector of Clearwater. You’re familiar with the neighborhoods and the people. We’ll be working with the Clearwater police and the sheriff’s office. You want in?”
“Absolutely, especially if it helps us get a lockdown on juvenile crime. It’s been an epidemic lately.”
“I want to jump on this so we have a head start before the weather gets nice,” Alex told him. “I’ll be in touch.”
Healing the Lawman's Heart Page 4