by Pandora Pine
Now he was sitting at Ten and Ronan’s kitchen table holding their little miss and feeding her a bottle. The baby was making happy little grunts as she drank down her breakfast. As for Faulk, he’d found his Zen.
“So, Faulkner,” Ten started, “how are things with you and Riordan?” The psychic wore a knowing smile.
“Is he reading my mind?” Faulk asked Ronan.
“Leave me out of this.” Ronan held his hands up.
Everly started grunting again when her bottle was empty.
“What a big girl you are,” Faulk cooed, sitting her up. He held a burp cloth in front of her and started rubbing her back. “You ate so good for Uncle Faulk. Yes, you did.”
“While I appreciate you feeding my baby, I know what you’re doing.” Ten deadpanned.
“Of course you know what I’m doing. You’re psychic!” Faulkner shot back.
“And you’re deflecting.” Tennyson did not sound amused.
“What was the question again?” Faulk grinned.
Everly let out a burp with some weight behind it. A bit of barf came along for the ride.
“Oh, no, sugar plum.” Faulk dabbed at her dainty mouth. “There. All clean. I bet your tummy feels better now.”
Ronan was grinning at Tennyson. “He’s a natural.”
“Yeah, a natural at evading my questions.” Ten rolled his dark eyes.
“That’s just plain offensive. Here I am providing excellent care to your child and you’re accusing me of being duplicitous.” Faulk shook his head. “Can you believe that, Everly?”
The baby responded with another burp. This one, thankfully, was dry.
“That’s right, honey, you tell your Daddy.” Faulk smiled brightly at Tennyson, who he was sure already knew what was going on with Riordan. “I had a lovely lunch with Riordan Quinn and his daughters yesterday.”
“I know that, Faulk.” Ten raised an eyebrow.
“You know that because someone told you or because of your voodoo?” Faulk didn’t need to be psychic to know which answer was correct.
“My voodoo.” Ten made air quotes over the last word.
Faulkner grinned. “If you know that, then why are you asking me?” That was the problem with Ten. He never knew when the psychic knew something or when he was digging deeper for the whole story.
“I know you spent time with him, but I don’t know any details.” Ten wore a Cheshire cat grin.
“I offered to take him and the girls to the Rainforest Café.” Faulk shrugged. “The kids had a great time.” He stood up and offered his butt to Ronan. “Grab my phone.” He winked at Ten.
“Uh, that’s my child your holding and my beloved husband is across the table and your asking me to play grab ass with you?” Ronan snorted.
“No, I’m asking you to grab my phone so I can show your nosy husband pictures from yesterday, but if you don’t want to see them…” Faulk trailed off. He knew both men wouldn’t be able to resist photographic proof of his day with Riordan and the girls.
“If you insist.” Ronan rolled his eyes before putting his left hand over them and reaching into Faulk’s back pocket with his thumb and forefinger. He pulled out the phone as if it were something that was going to rear back and take a bite out of him.
“Drama queen.” Faulk keyed in his password and pulled the pics up before sliding the phone to Tennyson.
“Thank you, Faulk.” Ten smiled at his husband. “I’ve been saying that for years, but no one will agree with me. I think they’re afraid of Ronan slapping on the cuffs.”
“That would be a gross abuse of power. Wouldn’t it, Sergeant O’Mara?” Faulk was referring to Ronan’s recent promotion.
“Bite me, Faulk. Let’s see those pics.” Ronan leaned over Ten’s shoulder. “Damn, those are cute kids.”
“I was thinking how cute Faulk and Riordan look together.” Ten gave Ronan a poke.
“Hmm…Maybe.” Ronan started to laugh.
“There’s something else here.” Ten’s fingers started tapping on the kitchen table making it look like he was playing the piano along with a tune only he could hear. “What’s going on with Isla?”
Smiling, Faulk shook his head. He knew sooner or later Ten would hit the nail on the head. “She’s talking to and seeing Stephen. Until I had a little talk with Riordan yesterday, he was starting to think his daughter was…” How did he say that Riordan thought his four-year-old was crazy? Shit, this was harder than he thought it would be.
“Suffering from some kind of mental illness?” Ten offered gently.
Faulk nodded. “It was gutting to see the look on Riordan’s face. I told him about my time at West Side Magick and what I’d learned from you about how sensitive kids are to spirit.”
A bright smile blossomed over Tennyson’s face. “Do you think Riordan believed you?”
“He looked relieved, that was for sure. I told him all about the kind of work you and the others do and he looked like he was thinking that over. He also mentioned that maybe Macy is seeing Stephen too. She sometimes babbles when she’s alone in her crib, laughing and saying Papa.”
Ten nodded. “It sounds like she’s seeing Stephen for sure, but Isla told you she’s seeing and speaking to him?”
“Yes. He’s telling her that he loves her and she’s still his little ladybug.”
“That poor baby.” Ten shook his head. He reached out to set a hand on Everly.
“Isla told me the reason for her stage fright was that she didn’t see Stephen at the recital.” Faulk’s heart had broken for her.
Ten was flipping through the pics on Faulk’s phone. “You know what’s the most interesting thing here?” He looked up at Faulkner. There was a fascinated look in his dark eyes.
“What’s that?” Faulk had to admit the psychic had piqued his curiosity.
“This.” Ten flipped the phone around to show him a picture.
It was an image of him and Isla together on the day of the recital. It was taken after he’d given her the pink roses. They were both leaning over the blooms to sniff them. It was really a sweet picture.
Faulk supposed there were a few reasons why Ten would find the photo interesting. First of all, it didn’t look like he and Isla had just met each other. Secondly, it had been Isla who asked him to snap this pic of them. He wanted to hear what Ten’s thoughts were. “Tell me,” he urged.
“Isla’s wearing her ballerina outfit.” Ten’s Cheshire cat grin was back.
Faulkner blinked at him. Whatever he’d been thinking Ten was going to say, this wasn’t it. What did Isla’s outfit have to do with anything? “I don’t understand.”
Ten turned to Ronan. He was wearing an expectant look on his face.
Ronan narrowed his eyes. Faulk could see the wheels turning in his mind. There was obviously something big here that both of them were missing. What on earth was it?
“Oh!” He looked at Ten wide-eyed. “I remember now!”
Both men turned to Faulk, who was still drawing a blank. Shit, why couldn’t he remember this important thing? “Help me out here, guys.”
“When we first met back in August, I read you. Do you remember what I saw?” Ten leaned forward over the table.
“Ballet slippers!” Faulk blurted out. “All you could see in my future were the slippers. When Carson’s mother, Bertha, tried to read me, that’s all she saw too.” Bertha Craig was the founder of West Side Magick. She’d passed from breast cancer three years ago. Faulk had never met her, but she’d been kind enough to take a peek into his future.
He came back to the present and what Ten was saying about what Isla was wearing. “Do you really think this is what you were seeing back then or is this one giant coincidence?”
“I’ll answer your question with one of my own. If this prediction had been for someone else, a complete stranger, let’s say, and you saw a picture of that person six months later with a ballerina, what would you think?”
“That your prediction had been spot on.” It was
n’t a hard leap to make. What was odd was that he’d forgotten Tennyson’s words in the first place.
Back in August when Ten delivered his prophecy, the words had been all he’d been able to think about. Then the situation with Vito Dragonni had heated up, sending them all into protective custody. When the case finally wrapped up and Faulk’s life got back to some semblance of order, the ballet slippers had come back to him, but he hadn’t seen any in his everyday life.
Over the last few months when there had been no ballerinas and no slippers entering his life, he thought less and less about it until he’d forgotten about it altogether.
“So, what does this mean? Am I supposed to be a part of Isla’s life? Part of Riordan’s?” Faulk felt a fluttering of butterflies in his stomach.
“The future is fluid,” Ten responded, folding his hands on the table.
“Don’t give me that shit, Ten.” Faulk grimaced, looking down at Everly, who was sleeping soundly in his arms. She had her left hand resting against the side of her face, almost in an, “Oh, dear” gesture. It was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
“There’s something here, Faulk, but I’m not sure what it is, and really, if I did know, would you want me to spoil it by telling you?” Ten’s look was genuine, he wasn’t being a dick here.
Faulk was twenty-nine years old. He was long past one-night stands and was looking to settle down. If Riordan Quinn was meant to be his forever love, he supposed it would be better to let it happen organically, rather than with some kind of advanced knowledge that everything was going to work out in the end, especially if this was going to be the last time he fell in love. “Okay, I see your point.”
“I had a feeling you would.” Ten laughed.
“Is he always smug like this?” Faulk snorted.
“Not always.” Ronan shook his head. “Sometimes he sleeps.”
“Very funny.” Ten rolled his eyes.
“Do you have any advice here?” He wanted to get that question in before the pair started to squabble in that cute way that they had. “About Isla, I mean.”
“You told Riordan we’re available to help. I think you’ve done all you can for now. My question for you is what’s your next move?”
Faulk had tossed and turned in bed thinking about that very thing last night. “I don’t know. I really like him. I mean we’ve only talked about his kids. We haven’t really talked much about ourselves.”
“What about asking him out on a date?” Ronan suggested.
“I’m not sure about his child care situation.” That had been another thought going through his mind. “Who would watch the kids?”
“That’s an easy fix. Just ask if you can bring dinner over for the two of you to share after the kids go to bed. That way Riordan doesn’t need a baby sitter and he’s home if one of them wakes up with a nightmare or needs him.” Ten was all smiles.
Faulk had to admit that was a really sweet idea. He never would have come up with that on his own. “Where did that idea come from?”
“It’s what Ronan and I do now. We make dates with each other for when Everly goes down for the night. Neither one of us were getting much sleep and no sex for the first two weeks she was home with us. So, we worked out a fixed schedule for her and started setting dates for dinners and sex. It worked, so we kept doing it.” Ten blushed. “Scheduling time, I mean, not having sex. Well, you know what I mean.”
Faulk knew what Ten meant. “That’s a great idea.” The wheels were already turning in his mind on how he could pull this off.
“Now that Uncle Faulk has gotten his fill of my baby and you’ve set his love life to rights, can we please get down to business here? Ronan rolled his eyes as if he were long-suffering.
“That’s our cue to leave.” Ten stood up from the table ready to take the baby from Faulk.
“Goodbye, little love. Uncle Faulk will see you soon.” He pressed a kiss to Everly’s forehead and handed her to Tennyson. “Oh, and by the way, I left a present for her on the hall table. Isla helped me pick it out at the Rainforest Café. She insisted that Everly was an elephant girl just like she and Macy.” He’d bought all three girls identical stuffed elephants at the gift shop. He’d also gotten them all Rainforest Café frames for the pics they’d taken with the animatronic elephants. He’d printed one of the pics last night and put it in his frame. From the outside looking in, they looked like a happy family.
He’d put the frame in his living room where he could see the picture when he was watching television. “Yes, Ronan, we can get down to business.” Faulk smiled at his Cold Case mentor. He was looking forward to discussing the Martinez case with Ronan. He’d gotten a lead on Friday that he thought might blow the case wide open.
After ten years of no news to report to the still grieving family of Matteo Martinez, Faulk hoped he’d finally be able to bring the teenager’s killer to justice.
9
Riordan
Four hours after the text message had come in, Riordan was still staring at it. [Take-out tonight after the girls are in bed?]
The message from Faulkner had come as a bit of a surprise in that Riordan hadn’t heard from the detective since they’d said goodbye yesterday in the restaurant parking lot. Not that he’d bothered to message Faulk either.
Riordan spent the rest of Sunday getting ready for Monday. He’d done laundry and put it all away, but for the clothes the girls would wear the next day. He’d also made dinner and did all the dishes.
Once the kids were in bed, he’d spent the rest of the night thinking about their time at the restaurant. Faulk had been amazing with the girls, Isla especially. There was no debating that. While he’d been initially dismissive, and then worried over her claims of seeing her dead father, Faulk had listened to her and tried to explain what was going on in a way that a child her age could understand. He supposed part of it was the fact that Faulk knew more about this sort of thing than he did.
Faulk had been friends with the psychic crowd for six months and had learned as much as he could in that time. Riordan, on the other hand, had known Cole Craig for two years, thanks to Isla’s friendship with Laurel. Never once had he asked questions about Cole’s job or if he saw anything about his or the girls’ futures.
There was no sense thinking about that now. What was done was done. All Riordan could do now was look forward.
Currently, he was sitting in his office staring at the text message from Faulkner. There was no mistaking this was a date. Yes, it was at his house, but it was a date all the same. He wasn’t sure he was ready for that step.
The problem was that he didn’t really have anyone he could ask for advice either. All of his colleagues at the museum were strictly business associates. He supposed the closest person he had to a friend was Cole Craig. Grabbing his phone, he got up from his desk to shut and lock his office door. The last thing he needed was Ari or another colleague walking in on this non-professional conversation. Once the lock was engaged, he hit the button for Cole’s number.
“Hey, Riordan! How’s it going?” Cole sounded chipper as usual.
“Hi, Cole. Things are good. I’m good.” Riordan couldn’t help wondering if Cole already knew why he was calling.
“No, I don’t know why you’re calling, but I can tell you’re nervous about something, so it must be important to you.” There was an obvious grin in Cole’s voice.
Cole’s easy tone helped Riordan to relax a bit. They only ever spoke to each other about things involving their daughters, so he had to know something was up. Cole wasn’t necessarily using his mind powers.
“Oh, I’m totally using my mind powers.” Cole was laughing.
Okay, that was a little freaky. Riordan held back a laugh of his own. “It’s Faulkner Hayes.” Well, his cards were all out on the table now.
“I had a feeling that was the case.”
“Your mind powers again?” Riordan found himself grinning.
“No.” Cole’s tone had sobered. “It looked to me
like the two of you really hit it off after the recital when Faulk was talking to Isla. He was so impressed with you, by the way.”
“He was?” Riordan had to admit that was really sweet.
“We all were. I’ll be the first to admit I couldn’t have done what you did up there dancing like that, not even with my gift. I have no idea what the steps are, never mind how to make them. You’re a hero, Riordan. To your little girl and to the rest of us Dads in the audience. That was a real wake-up call to me that I can do better with Laurel.”
“Really? You’re a great Dad, Cole.”
The psychic on the other end of the phone sighed. “Laurel’s really been struggling since Brady was born. There’s been a lot of sibling rivalry and I don’t think I’ve handled it as well as I could have. Faulk’s been spending a lot of time with Laurel when he’s free and that’s helped, but it’s not the same as having time with me. I’ve been working so much.”
“I hear you. I’m in the same boat now that we’re a one income family…” Riordan trailed off. This call wasn’t meant to be a pity party. “Anyway, Faulk asked us to have lunch with him yesterday at the Rainforest Café. The girls had a blast.”
“So did you.” It wasn’t a question. “I’m not using my gift,” Cole clarified. “I can hear the smile in your voice.”
“It was a lot of fun. He’s a good guy.” Riordan had come to that realization early on.
“So, what’s the problem? I can hear that in your voice too.”
“Faulk asked if he could stop by tonight with take-out after the girls go to bed.” Riordan took a deep breath. “Yesterday, he said he wanted to go to lunch to get to know me as a friend, but this sounds a lot more like a date to me.”
“Okay,” Cole started, “it sounds to me like he wants to spend time getting to know you as a man and not as a Dad. Does that make sense?”