Perfect Paige

by Ines Saint

  Alex nodded. Glenn must be worried, because he wasn’t the apologizing type, and he certainly wasn’t worried about Paige.

  Hope came out then, and she immediately looked up at him. “She’s home. You happy now?”

  “Do I look happy?”

  “No. You look constipated.”

  He gave her a look. The three sisters had a tight bond. Hope had tried to hide it, but she’d been worried since the moment she’d caught them together that morning. “You’d know the look,” he answered, to keep things light.

  “Do you know what Glenn hated most about Paige?” she asked. He didn’t answer. “Me.” She smiled sweetly before shutting the door.

  Now that, he didn’t doubt.

  Chapter 10

  Early the next morning, Paige went over to her grandmother’s house with the excuse of chatting over breakfast, because Grandma Sherry had refused to allow her to clean.

  Apparently, Paige didn’t make a good detective, because her grandmother let out a loud, annoyed sigh and asked, “Is there something you’re looking for, Paige? Your eyes are everywhere but on me, and you haven’t heard a word I’ve said about the house that’s for sale behind us.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m distracted.” And tired and beat and a terrible detective. Out with it. “I was looking for your Ghostly Tenants of Spinning Hills tour notebook. It’s usually at the café, but it wasn’t there. Tyler has tons of questions now, and I wanted to read up before he gets home.”

  “Oh. It’s on my nightstand. I’ll get it.”

  Sure enough, minutes later, there it was. Paige closed her eyes for a moment, feeling foolish. But her grandmother was looking at her, so she pretended to leaf through it.

  Grandma Sherry gathered their plates and went off to the kitchen, talking along the way. “I keep meaning to take it back to the café, to study that old Ghosts of Dayton book we have there and see if I can add some new details to the tour during our downtime, but I keep forgetting. I left it on my nightstand next to my glasses to see if that would remind me.”

  Paige got up to help, but before she got to the kitchen, a big black SUV pulled into the driveway.

  “Oh.” Her grandmother looked crestfallen. “They’re early.”

  Paige closed her eyes. She was sick of all of it. “Why are they here?”

  “They need to search my house again.”

  She opened her eyes and walked over to hug her grandmother tight. None of this was her fault, and yet here she was, getting her house searched again. “Oh, Grandma, I’m so, so, so sorry.”

  “Nonsense. Don’t be sorry. This is exciting! And that Dr. Jerome Hess is a hottie. Ruby, Rosa, and I are having fun with all of it. Trust me. But I think you could use a break from all this. Go for a walk, or a run, or go check out the house I was telling you about.”

  Paige hesitated. “I don’t want to leave you alone here with the three of them.”

  “Don’t be silly. Look.” She gestured outside. Ruby and Rosa were coming up the walk, too. They were chattering and gesturing, and the agent she assumed was Jerome gave them both a big smile. He was a hottie. And they were having fun with it. “If you stay, you’ll ruin our fun. Now, go.”

  Paige left through the back door. The moment she stepped outside, she saw the house Cassie had told her was for sale. Something in her heart squeezed a little, and not in a painful way. It was the first good feeling she’d had that day. She’s always liked the stone Cape Cod bungalow behind her grandmother’s house. The house was cute, and it was mere yards away from one of her favorite people in the whole world. She crossed her grandmother’s garden, jumped over the fence that separated the two yards, and made her way up front.

  The entire house was made of stone, the trim around the windows was brick red, and the front door was a dark forest green. The front yard was low maintenance: all ground cover and shady trees. It is so pretty. But it was also too much, too soon.

  Only . . . what if it sold before she was ready? Sometimes life simply had to be grabbed by the horns. She’d done it before, whenever she’d had to.

  She texted her grandmother to see if she could get the code for the lockbox from Cassie or Sam Amador. It wouldn’t hurt to look and then run some numbers. Even if it wasn’t this house, she would eventually need to move out of the apartment.

  She looked around while she waited. Small kids were playing peewee football and soccer on the fields across the street. It would be the perfect place for a single mom to watch over her kids through the years, while also affording them some independence.

  Her new work shift was from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and her grandmother could easily come over to watch the kids for a bit when Paige left. She hadn’t wanted to ask for help . . . but she knew both the kids and her grandmother would enjoy the time together. And she’d have time to shower and rest up a bit before picking them up from school—which was also close.

  In no time flat, she had the code. But just as she was walking toward the door, Alex came ’round the back, too. She wanted to tell him to take a hike and stop intruding on her private time. But she wasn’t really mad. She was only confused.

  He’d had a towel waiting for her the day before, and there had been worry lines around his mouth and concern in his eyes.

  When she looked over at him, to tell him in the nicest, least-revealing way possible that she needed to be away from him, he was staring out over the playing fields and frowning. “Football’s started already?”

  “Yes.”

  “So Tyler is missing practice?”

  “It’s their dad’s turn with them. It can’t be helped.”

  “I guess it can’t.” Then he turned and smiled at her, green eyes bright and sparkly. When had they stopped looking dangerous? Probably the moment they’d become even more so. “I bet he’d love living across the street from a field where he could practice every day.”

  “I know. Look, if you’ll excuse me, I want to have a look inside.”

  “Mind if I join you? I want to ask you a few things about your conversation with Glenn yesterday.”

  “Wow. You never stop, do you?”

  He looked pained. “I’m in a time crunch, you know that. Don’t you want all of this to be over with?”

  She sighed. Of course she wanted it all to be over with. “Fine. Come in and ask while I look around.”

  The arched, rustic wood door opened up to a small foyer, with two big rooms to the left and right. Ahead, a small hallway led to a kitchen on the left and a living room to the right. In the middle, French doors led out to a paved patio and yard.

  Nothing could make her stop smiling at the entire view. Tons of light. Hand-scraped hardwood floors. Cherrywood trim. She walked on, almost afraid to see the kitchen. All she could see from the front was cream and brown quartz on a sage-colored island. She cooked and baked a lot. The kitchen could break the spell, or pull her completely under its power.

  She smiled. It was beautiful. Beige and sage. Never would she have taken the risk to choose those options for a kitchen, but it was endlessly appealing. Beyond the kitchen, stairs were tucked away into a cozy cove. She made her way up to find two good-sized rooms and a bathroom, along with a master suite.

  * * *

  Alex looked around. It seemed wrong to question Paige. She’d been in a trancelike state since she’d walked in. It was like he wasn’t even there.

  Some of the people he’d questioned around town had invited him into their homes, and he’d seen both outdated and renovated interiors. All the houses were charming in their own way, and he’d seen plenty of impressive, but outdated houses while growing up in an older inner-city neighborhood.

  But he’d never seen anything like the renovated houses in Spinning Hills. Old and new blending perfectly together in a way that honored both the past and the now. It was corny to think it, but it was true.

  Paige began murmuring to herself, and he hid a smile. He caught a few numbers, and he gathered she was figuring out whether she’d be able to
afford it. He hoped so. He’d felt bad when he’d realized Tyler was missing practice. But it was what it was.

  His own parents had died when he was one, so he’d never known what it was like to have a dad coach him or cheer him on, but still he’d never missed a practice. His grandmother and great-aunt hadn’t made it to many games, and he’d been okay with it. They were different, and he’d understood it early on. Their lives didn’t revolve around him, and his didn’t revolve around them. That they all cared for one another was a fact, not something to be proved. The independence had served him well.

  But it had made him uncomfortable with demonstrations of love. At least, that’s what they’d told him during his psychological fitness-for-duty evaluation at the academy. Ultimately, though, he was declared perfectly fit for duty, and that was what mattered.

  They toured the basement, part of which she murmured would make a perfect playroom. There was plenty of space for both kids to have small play areas, plus space left over for shared activities, like watching TV. Alex pictured a foosball table, a sixty-inch flat-screen, and comfortable recliners. When he caught himself rearranging imaginary furniture, he went outside to wait.

  A kid was throwing a football all wrong. Alex itched to correct him. Tyler had learned from him, after all. He might make a good coach. His American grandparents had been after him to volunteer for years, but he’d been too busy with SWAT and then FBI cases.

  Maybe it was time to honor the people who had stepped up to fill the holes in his life when he’d been growing up by giving back. Many of his friends’ parents had cared about him and supported him through the years, for no reason other than they thought he was a good kid.

  Paige came out then. Something in his chest flitted about. And that made him about as exasperated with himself as he’d ever been. He vowed to keep it all business.

  Dan had said one of his crew members, Dave, had been working late when he’d seen a man in a Reds baseball cap, walking a Pomeranian, just outside a house they were renovating on Lion’s Lane, a cul-de-sac.

  Alex called Dave, who said a man who matched Glenn’s description had been staring up at the house, but had walked on the moment he realized there was someone inside. The crew member had called out and told him that if he was interested in the house, they were almost done with it. The floors were always the last step. Glenn had stopped for a moment, as if he was thinking about it, and then thanked Dave and continued to walk away.

  It was a piece of the puzzle. Experience had taught him it would all add up as soon as he could find the missing pieces and place them in their appropriate place. That morning, he’d gotten up at five to search the café again. They now knew Glenn had been inside, and it meant he’d most likely taken something, but it was often harder to figure out what was missing than to find a clue.

  Paige began talking, as if she needed to think out loud. “It’s perfect, isn’t it? I think I can afford it, the yard and stone is low-maintenance, the playing fields are right out front, the schools are all within walking distance, and Grandma Sherry lives right out back. She can help me out with the kids in the mornings, and I can help her with anything she needs. I can do her grocery shopping and mow both our yards. And there’s an apartment above the garage, for Hope and Gracie to stay when they visit . . .”

  He cleared his throat. God, he hated to do this to her, but he’d already been standing idly outside while Boyd and Hess worked. It didn’t sit well with him, and time wasn’t on his side anyway. “I need to get back to your grandmother’s house, Paige. Can you tell me about yesterday? Remember that even the smallest details could prove important.”

  Paige looked at him as if he’d slapped her hand and scolded her.

  He felt like a jerk. Here she was, all happy she’d found a possible home, and he couldn’t even let her enjoy the moment. “I just—”

  “You just want to get this over with. I know. You’re not the only one.” Her eyes were like ice. “Here’s my report, Agent Hooke. Glenn called me to tell me that I didn’t have to file a restraining order, that all he wanted to do was co-parent amicably. That he only yelled at me because he still has feelings for me and he hates that the FBI is using me and the kids. Then he switched to telling me I shouldn’t allow that, but he knows I love the kids more than anything, which is why I put up with him for so long, and that I’ll do the right thing. All of it sounded insincere. But then I called him out on not even being with the kids then, and his tone switched. He said his dad was picking on him in his way, as usual, that he couldn’t wait for all this to be over with, that he wanted his own place, away from his parents. I know he was being truthful then.”

  Alex already knew Glenn hadn’t been with the kids from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. “How did you know he wasn’t with the kids?” And again that inner voice wanted to know more, like why she had been all damp and muddy, with tear-streaked cheeks.

  “I went back to our old house to pick up some tennis shoes. I caught him there with Jasmine, but I hid and they didn’t realize I was there.”

  His throat worked. Glenn was the epitome of a grade-A jerk. And now here he was, making her relive what must’ve been an incredibly difficult moment. “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you really? Or do you now need me to give you a blow-by-blow account of that, too?”

  “I am sorry, Paige.” He tried to catch her eyes and show her he was being sincere, when a hard blow to his head nearly knocked him over. He looked up, but instantly felt nauseous. Paige became fuzzy, and then there were two of her.

  “Monkey brain!” he heard her exclaim.

  He blinked. Everything was going dark. “You’re the monkey brain,” he said, his words sounding slurred to his ears. And then everything went dark.

  * * *

  Alex opened his eyes and looked around. He was lying in a bed, surrounded by white curtains. Jerome, Boyd, Sherry, his grandmother, and his great-aunt were all staring down at him.

  Paige was sitting beside him. She looked concerned. That was nice. His eyes drifted closed.

  “I think he’s coming to,” Paige said. Her hand touched his cheek. That was nice, too.

  “He is okay. I knew it is so,” said his grandmother. She always knew it was so. She knew everything.

  “A blow to head. One for the Rrrrussians!” came his great-aunt’s voice.

  “Are you seriously happy your nephew took a blow to the head?” another accented voice asked. Rosa was there, too? Where was he? The United Nations? He tried to open his eyes again.

  “Not happy. But is proof my tarot say truth.” His great-aunt’s face swam before him. Of course she wasn’t happy. Happy was a buzzword Americans used.

  “It could also be interpreted as a near-death experience,” Sherry said, sounding amused. “That would make Ruby’s tarot reading correct, as well.”

  “Seriously? Out. Everyone out.” It was Paige again.

  Alex began to chuckle. Paige ordering his grandmother and great-aunt around. That was funny.

  “No,” his grandmother stated.

  “I’m a nurse. I know what’s good for him. All of you sneaking in here to stare at him—and then argue the moment he shows any signs of life—is not what’s best. I’ll have the doctor call security if I have to.”

  “So many threats. Can’t we all just get along?” Alex asked.

  Someone came close. The light from above blurred his vision. All he could make out were translucent blue eyes peering into his own. “Alex, an Osage orange fell on you. You could be concussed. You need to rest.”

  “Are you an angel?” He blinked up at the voice.

  “Uh, no. I’m Paige.”

  “I know. Paige,” he repeated. “Don’t go,” he begged. His head hurt like the devil.

  “Oh. Um, okay.”

  “I have work . . .” His eyes began to feel heavy again. A male voice he didn’t recognize reached him. A white coat drew near. He was so tired...

  When he opened his eyes again, only Paige was there. “Where’s
everyone else?”

  “They left when they were sure you were okay. Boyd ordered a CT scan.”

  “Boyd ordered?”

  Paige leaned in. “The ER doctor is still seething about it—mumbling about how they were planning to do one anyway, and there’s no need for the FBI to go around flashing their badges.”

  “I’m in the ER? Why? I don’t have time for this.”

  “Settle down. We’ll leave soon. You took a mean blow to the head.” She smiled. “You called me a monkey brain.”

  “So you hit me on the head?”

  “No. An Osage orange fell from a tree and hit you hard on the head. Everyone here calls it a monkey brain, so that’s what I yelled to warn you. But I was too late, you were already fainting.” She spoke slowly, carefully enunciating every word. It was the way some people spoke to his great-aunt and grandmother, and it bugged the hell out of him. He’d merely taken a blow to the head—but he still knew English, damn it.

  “I know what everyone here calls it, I grew up here, too, remember? And I did not faint.” He shot up, but it hurt his head, and he had to lie down again. “I fell. I remember it now. It knocked me over and I fell.” She looked like she was enjoying his pain. “Why are you here, anyway?”

  “You begged me to stay.”

  He sent her a withering look. “I did not beg you to stay.”

  “You did. You called me an angel.”

  “The light above made it look like there was a halo around you.”

  “That’s exactly why everyone thought you said it.”

  Crap. “I said that in front of everyone?”

  “Yes.” Her eyes sparkled with humor. She was so damn pretty. It was hard not to stare. Maybe he was concussed.