Cara eyed Kieran again as he lifted his sandwich and took a bite. He seemed to be lacking the spark he’d shown in their previous meetings. And him falling asleep like that in her office? Definitely strange. He didn’t strike her as someone who let his guard down like that.
In some ways, his listless movements echoed how she felt. After her emotional meltdown the night before, she’d had to pull herself together to lead her morning class with the same energy she usually exhibited.
“So, what do you do to get your mind off a difficult day?” Cara asked as she lifted her milkshake and took a sip.
Kieran angled her a brief look before focusing back on his food. “Usually I go running, but I already did that last night, and I think my body would hate me if I tried that again today. Sometimes I pray while I run, or I listen to music. If I don’t run, I read the Bible or listen to an encouraging podcast. I have a few that I don’t mind listening to over and over.” He looked at her again. “How about you?”
“I dance. My mom said that even when I was really little, music could always cheer me up. And she said that I could never sit still whenever I heard music. Fast or slow, I’d move to it.” She lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “That’s still the case for me, and sometimes dancing is the only way to set the emotions inside me free. Happy or sad, it’s the only way I can get them out.”
Kieran’s gaze was focused on her then, his half-eaten sandwich sitting in its container in front of him. “Do you perform anymore?”
“No. My dancing is a private thing now.” Something crossed his face, but it was gone in the blink of an eye. “The dancing I used to perform when I was part of the ballet company is completely different from my personal dancing. That was choreographed by someone else to fit a certain piece of music. That’s not how I like to dance anymore. I mean, I’ll show my ballet classes steps from a dance that I’ve performed, but for my own enjoyment, I don’t dance that way.”
He seemed to be about to say something, but instead, he just nodded like he understood, then he picked his sandwich up and took another bite. They ate in silence for a few minutes. It was a weighted silence, like they both had things they wanted to say or to ask, but something held them back. It was just shy of being uncomfortable, so Cara still felt an increasing pressure to say something to break the building awkwardness.
Kieran, however, didn’t seem bothered by the silence, but maybe that was because his thoughts were clearly elsewhere. Cara couldn’t help but wonder what had brought him to her door once again. She didn’t think for a minute that he’d just been wandering down Main Street and then decided to stop in and see how she was doing.
She paused mid-chew as she realized how much she liked that idea. She liked it way too much. The idea of him wandering down Main Street, saying hi to people as he went before coming into the studio to see her, was appealing.
As she sat there, it struck her that she didn’t actually know if he had a girlfriend or someone he was interested in. All she knew for certain was that he wasn’t married, and maybe from the way Missy had reacted, he didn’t have a girlfriend. Or at least not one that the town knew about.
Kieran had just finished his sandwich when his phone rang. Frowning, he pulled it out and stared at the screen for a moment before his expression cleared. He tapped the screen then lifted it to his ear.
“Hey, Mom.” The affection in his voice was unmistakable as was the way his expression softened as he spoke.
Cara shifted in her seat, not sure she should be listening as he talked with his mom. He didn’t seem to have any issue with it however, since he could have gotten up and left her office to take the call. She stared down at her food and tried not to make it obvious she was focused on his side of the conversation.
“Yep, I plan to be there. Did you need me to pick up anything for you?” He listened for a moment then said, “Send me a text with whatever you need. I’m not at my desk at the moment, so I can’t make a list.”
As she listened to Kieran talk to his mom, she could tell he loved her. Her mom had always said that how a man treated his mom was a good indicator of how he’d treat a wife. Cara knew it wasn’t a perfect way of determining that since every mother-son relationship was different, but if a man could be respectful and loving to his mother, it was a good sign.
Not that it matters, she reminded herself. It doesn’t matter. It can’t matter.
She concentrated on finishing her salad, then put her soup aside to take upstairs. It would be good for supper since she was already full and still had a class to teach that afternoon.
“Sorry,” Kieran said as he slid his phone back into his pocket. “My mom worries if I don’t answer the phone. If I hadn’t answered, she would have phoned Lisa, and then there would have been a BOLO put out on me.”
“A BOLO?”
“A be on the lookout. Basically, Lisa and my mom would be telling everyone to be on the lookout for me.” A smile lifted the corner of Kieran’s mouth. “It’s bad enough being in a small town, but being the single son of an overprotective mom in a small town is even worse.”
Cara could imagine how that would be. Her mom would have been just like that. She envied Kieran and his mom. She’d thought she’d have a lifetime with her mom, but that wasn’t how it had happened. And now, her mom was frozen in Cara’s memory at the age of fifty.
“Do you see your mom a lot?”
“I go to her place for dinner three or four times a week.” A smile tipped up the corners of his mouth. “And no, I don’t live with her.”
“I’m sure she must enjoy having you close by.”
“She does, and I’m glad I can be there to help her with things.”
Again she wondered where his dad was, but she figured that if he wanted her to know, he’d tell her. Just like if she wanted him to know more about her parents, she’d tell him. Not that that was going to happen.
As Kieran finished his soup, he shared a bit more about his mom, and it dawned on Cara that it was possible that their mothers might have known each other as children. She didn’t mention that though, because digging up the past might put her life in jeopardy. Kieran was the only person she’d told about her mother’s time in New Hope, and she probably shouldn’t have done even that.
He’d finished his soup and was sipping on his milkshake when he suddenly stretched his leg out and reached into the pocket of his pants. Pulling something out, he put it on the desk in front of her.
“I originally came by to drop this off,” he said, sliding the USB toward her. “I was able to pull the file off of it, so I figured I’d bring it back to you.”
“You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
“Thank you. I have a meeting with all the involved parties this afternoon, and with that video as evidence, I’m hoping this case will be closed.”
“It seems that it’s a bit more complicated than it should be,” Cara commented.
Kieran scoffed. “Well, the unfortunate part is that the parties involved have had bad blood between them going back years and years.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really.” Kieran shook his head. “To hear people tell it, the woman who backed out of the parking spot has long held a grudge against the wife of the man who was driving the other car. Apparently she was supposed to marry that man, but when the other woman arrived in town, the man became absolutely smitten—not my word, just for the record—and ended their engagement so he could court the new woman.”
“How many years ago would that have been?”
“I would guess fifty or sixty? Like I said…long held grudge.”
“How did they survive being in the same town for that long?”
“No clue. And not just the same town, but the same church.”
“Did the woman ever marry someone else?”
“Yes, she did, and went on to have a family of her own, but her husband passed away a couple of years ago. It seems that his death brought the grudge back to the s
urface for her. Anyway, I just want to show them the video and tell them the case is closed. There wasn’t enough damage to warrant all this hoopla.” Kieran gave a huff of laughter. “This was not what I imagined I’d be doing back when I started on the force.”
“I’m sure your mom is happy that you’re dealing with those sorts of things instead of something more dangerous.”
Kieran looked away, his expression sobering. “Yeah. She is.”
Cara knew all about loving someone in a dangerous profession. She had asked her mom how she could love her papa, knowing that at any moment, someone could take him out. Even all these years later, she could remember her mom’s response.
I’d rather have your papa to love for a short time than to not have him at all.
Of course, in the end, it had been her papa who’d had to grieve the loss of the love of his life. But he, too, had said he was grateful for the years they’d had together, though Cara had seen the burden of guilt he’d carried, knowing it had been because of him that her mom had lost her life. It was no doubt why he’d been so determined to protect Cara.
“Well, I guess I’d better get back to work. Get myself ready for that meeting.” He sighed as he got to his feet. “I will be glad when this day’s over.”
He seemed a bit more at ease as he prepared to leave her office than when he’d arrived, which made her feel good, but she still wondered what had stressed him out so much.
“Don’t forget your cookies,” Cara said as she gathered up their trash.
“Oh, I don’t want to take them all. You need to keep a few for yourself.”
Cara thought about arguing, but honestly, she loved Norma’s cookies. She still had macarons upstairs in her fridge, but that didn’t stop her from taking a couple of the cookies from the bag before giving the rest to Kieran.
“Thanks for letting me hide out for a bit.” He picked up his hat, milkshake, and the bag with his cookies. “I needed a break from the office and didn’t feel like being out in public.”
Cara almost told him that he was welcome to come to hide out there anytime, but she bit her tongue. They were already treading a fine line that would be too easy to cross. She hadn’t had a serious boyfriend in a lot of years, but she didn’t think she was misreading his interest in her. Whether it was something serious or just in passing didn’t really matter.
She walked with him to the door and unlocked it, then, after saying goodbye, she locked it again and returned to her office. She didn’t linger to watch him walk away this time, though it took everything within her not to.
Unless another burglary occurred—or an accident in front of her studio—he didn’t have any reason to return. She knew that was for the best, even though it didn’t feel like it was.
CHAPTER TEN
Kieran took his time walking back to the office, sipping the milkshake Cara had brought back from Norma’s. He felt infinitely better now than he had when he’d made his way to the studio earlier.
The interview with Pete had been gut-wrenching. The man had walked in looking worn out, his face showing the strain of the last few weeks. It was apparent as he’d answered the detective’s initial questions that Pete had been eager to help the investigation.
As the questions became more invasive and pointed, Kieran had seen the bewilderment on Pete’s face. The man darted confused glances at him as he’d struggled to understand what the detective was inferring. Namely, that he was, in some way, responsible for his daughter’s disappearance.
Kieran had kept quiet once again because more than ever, he felt the need to know what direction the detective was moving in. However, with him treating everyone he interviewed as a suspect, Kieran was none the wiser. He could only imagine what the man would ask when he finally got around to interviewing Sheila’s mother, Coral.
So, in addition to feeling worn out from his restless night, he’d been feeling slightly ill from the whole interview. He hadn’t anticipated that the visit to Cara’s to drop off the USB would change any of that. But when she’d offered to get them lunch, he hadn’t had any desire to say no.
The quiet of Cara’s office, along with the soft lavender scent that drifted in the air, had unwound the knot of tension he’d been carrying around since the previous night. He hadn’t planned to fall asleep, just to close his eyes for a few minutes, but even though it had been super short, the catnap had been refreshing. And spending some time with Cara was just icing on the cake.
There had been nothing spectacular about their time together, but it had been nice to talk with her, especially after the disaster of a morning he’d had to endure. The break had been rejuvenating, allowing him to consider the meeting that afternoon without the dread he’d been harboring. Good food, good company, and a catnap had helped to turn his day around, and he didn’t plan to let the bickering of the people involved in the bumper tap bring him down.
He had to remind himself of that when he walked into the small conference room Lisa had set up for the meeting. He’d been able to hear the arguing all the way down the hall, and it only increased as he stepped into the room. Lisa was there, but she made no move to interrupt the heated discussion going on between the two groups.
The involved parties were on opposite sides of the table, but judging from the way they were shouting at each other, you would have thought they were on opposite sides of the building. Even his presence in the room didn’t quiet them down.
With a sigh, Kieran made his way to the head of the table beside the television that was cued up to play the footage Cara had given him. Crossing his arms, he waited…and waited. When they still didn’t quiet down, he turned and pressed a button to begin playing the footage.
“Where did you get that?” a shrill voice asked, plunging the whole room into silence.
“This footage was taken from a security camera mounted in front of where the accident occurred.” Kieran let the footage of the event run all the way through. “Do I need to play it again, or should we just consider this matter settled?”
Voices erupted again, and Kieran fought the urge to roll his eyes. Finally, the man who’d been driving the car that had been struck leaned over and said something to his wife. The two of them then got to their feet before looking to where Kieran stood. The man gave Kieran a nod, then offered his wife his arm. The family members that had come with them stopped their angry discord with the opposite side of the table.
With a quick glance amongst themselves, they got up and followed the man and his wife, leaving the other driver and her family to stare after them. The woman turned to Kieran, and when it looked like she was going to argue with him, he arched a brow at her. With a huff, she snatched up her purse and got to her feet. Not saying a word to the people who’d come with her, she stormed from the room.
Kieran waited to see if her family would say anything to him, but they also just collected their things and left, Lisa trailing behind them. He breathed a sigh of relief then made his way back to his office.
It wasn’t that he minded dealing with the residents of his town, but when his time was wasted because a decades-old feud refused to allow a cut and dried case to settle, he wasn’t having any of it. And now that it was over, he was only too happy to retreat to his office and focus on more important things—like the speech he was going to be giving to one of the classes at the elementary school the following week. It was one of the parts of the job that he really enjoyed.
He usually spoke at one of the town’s three schools every other month or so. And when the career symposium at the high school rolled around in the new year, he’d be there to speak to the students about the jobs available in his field. He’d joined the force because of his dad and his uncle, but he hoped to influence some of the kids to consider a career in law enforcement.
Though Kieran enjoyed the actual policing side of things, he really liked the community outreach side as well. He liked meeting with the people of his town when they weren’t stressed out about something that had happ
ened to them or a loved one. It was fun to chat about something other than a crime.
It was a bit odd that in all his interactions over the past couple of years, he hadn’t spoken with Cara. Given that they both worked on the same street, just a couple of blocks from each other, and frequented a lot of the same places, it was strange that their paths hadn’t crossed more than just a glance across a room or seeing each other on the opposite side of the street.
If he didn’t know better, he might have thought she had gone out of her way to avoid him. But then, he didn’t really know better, did he? If he hadn’t approached her, it was likely that they would still be like two ships passing in the dark. Cara had definitely been reserved during the first couple of times he’d visited the studio, but his visit that day had been different. Though they hadn’t had a long, personal conversation, for the first time, she seemed more relaxed with him.
Kieran sighed as he found himself wondering what she’d say if he asked her out. He wasn’t sure how to broach the subject of his job and a potential future without scaring her off before they even went out for the first time. It wasn’t like he could just say, “Oh, by the way, how do you feel about having a relationship—and potentially marrying—a cop?” before asking her out on a date.
He’d discovered early on that he fell for a woman way too quickly. While some men might be able to go out with someone for a couple months or more, and then if things didn’t work out, they could just walk away, Kieran wasn’t like that. He had to really like someone before he even asked them out, and from that point on, things tended to move quickly for him.
His interest in Cara was piqued, and he was already wondering about a possible future with her. The unfortunate part was that even if she said she was fine with dating a cop, her decision could change at a later date. That’s how it had happened with Toni. Despite all her assurances that she was fine with it, when push came to shove, she’d walked away.
Because of Him: A Christian Romance (New Hope Falls Book 2) Page 9