Last Chance

by Natalie Ann

  Trevor sighed. “Is she always like this?” he asked Max.

  “Always,” Max said. “Sometimes there’s no winning.”

  “Not true,” Riley said. “I just want to know what’s going on. It’s my life.”

  Not just her life, but he wasn’t going to say that in front of her brother. It was too personal right now. “We’re in this together. I tell you what I’m doing. I thought you didn’t want names and ranks,” he said, tilting his head.

  “What is he talking about?” Max asked.

  “Nothing important,” Riley said. “So Cole knows then, right?”

  “He does. Only because he was there when I went over. Your whole office is going to know tomorrow anyway. You might as well tell those closest to you.”

  Riley groaned and dropped her head back on the couch. “Do we really need to tell my office?”

  “Yes,” both Max and Trevor said at once.

  “Great. Just what I need. Both of you thinking the same way.”

  “Riley,” Quinn said. “I understand how hard this is. I did a lot of running in my life too. I kept a lot of it hidden from those around me. In the end, I was the one who got hurt. Trust everyone to be there for you. No one wants this over with more than you, we understand that. But it won’t end unless we work together.”

  “Finally, the voice of reason,” Trevor said.

  “I’m outnumbered here, aren’t I?” Riley asked.

  “No one is counting, Riley. Like Quinn said, we have to work together.” He walked over to her, pulled her up and into his arms. “I just want to keep you safe. Let me do my job.”

  “You better be damn good at your job,” she said, laughing.

  “I’m the best,” he said. He’d known all along there was a reason he felt the pull back here and he was holding that reason tight.

  Always Rush

  One week later, Riley might’ve still thought Trevor was the best, but they weren’t making much progress on the anonymous-bullcrap front. On their relationship front though, things seemed to be going somewhat smoothly.

  The meeting with his parents went better than expected. Trevor’s father, Bill, was harsher than Trevor. Not in a mean way, but just not as friendly. Cool might be the better word.

  Bill treated her well, was very professional, but she was expecting something more. Something more like Trevor’s personality. Something easygoing and laid back. A little bit of humor.

  But she got nothing. He was straitlaced and almost dry. He cracked a few smiles, laughed a time or two, but otherwise…boring.

  Sharon—Trevor’s mother—well, she was the opposite and it was very clear where Trevor and Kennedy got their personalities.

  The moment Riley walked into the room, Sharon rushed forward and hugged her like she was a long-lost child. “Oh, you poor girl. What you must be going through. Come in here and let’s talk it through. Trevor will make it right. He always does.”

  Riley was a little taken back by the welcome, then the few days that followed. They’d had multiple dinners with Trevor’s parents on nights when Trevor got home at a reasonable hour and wasn’t called out for nuisance calls. It was almost as if the department knew Bill and Sharon were in town and didn’t bother Trevor. Normally Trevor got calls all night long, but there were very few this week.

  Bill and Trevor talked shop and what was going on in Lake Placid. Catching up on news. Sharon pulled Riley aside and discussed family. His sisters, her brother, her parents, her practice. Anything personal that Sharon wanted to know, she had no problem asking. She didn’t even care if Riley thought it was too personal.

  “I’m sorry if I’m being nosy,” Sharon said one day. “Well, actually I’m not sorry, but I figured I should lead with that.” It was the humor that Trevor often had that made Riley smile. “Trevor has just had horrible luck when it comes to women.”

  Riley wasn’t sure how she wanted to respond to that, so she just said, “Kennedy told me a little about it. But please, I don’t want to know anything more.”

  That didn’t stop Sharon, though, from praising all of Trevor’s skills and good traits. “No one could appreciate him the way he deserved.”

  When Sharon eyed her hard, she said. “I appreciate Trevor for everything he’s done.”

  “Oh sweetie, that’s just him doing his job. I want to know more. I want to know what your thoughts are regarding my son. My firstborn. My baby.”

  Great. Mother’s guilt. She’d never gotten it from her parents and was surprised it affected her now as an adult. “I love Trevor,” she admitted. “He loves me. It’s only been a few months, but it’s there. It’s strong and it’s nice, and it’s everything I always wanted. But again, it’s only been a few months. We aren’t rushing anything.”

  “When it’s right, you rush. Always rush. No one knows what tomorrow is going to bring.”

  It was the last thing Riley wanted to hear. She’d never really rushed into anything in her life. She always traveled in the slow lane for her relationships. Never accelerating and never going over the speed limit.

  The fact that she and Trevor were essentially living together in such a short time made her feel like she was going a hundred in a school zone.

  It appeared she was the only one feeling that, though. Not only were Trevor’s parents looking at her like she was his savior, but her own parents were thinking Trevor was hers.

  They didn’t take the news as calmly as she had hoped in regards to what she’d been hiding. Her mother, who never overreacted or showed any lack of control over her emotions, was crying on the phone. Her father was just silent.

  Trevor had reached over and grabbed her hand, held it tight, and tried to reassure her during that call. She ended up hanging up the phone and Skyping with them online. She wanted them to see she was fine.

  Unfortunately, that hadn’t helped any. All she saw was her mother clutching her father’s hand and him looking distraught. “I told you before to keep her safe, Trevor,” her father said. He got the father’s guilt.

  “I will,” Trevor had said.

  “Dad, we’re living together right now until this is over. Spending time at each other’s house.”

  “Just until this is over with?” her mother asked.

  That question had come out of the blue, and it wasn’t like her mother to pry at all. Then again, it wasn’t like her mother to cry in front of anyone, either. Guess she knew where she got that trait.

  “We’re just dealing with the here and now, Mom,” she said and disconnected the call after that, then turned to Trevor. “Sorry about that.”

  “For what?” he’d asked.

  “For putting you on the spot like that.”

  He grinned, pulled her in for another hug, and held her tight. “It’s a spot I want to be in right now.”

  ***

  “Your father and I are leaving tomorrow.”

  Trevor turned to look at his mother. Riley was sitting out on the deck with his father. They were actually talking, which was funny. His father wasn’t much of a talker, but Riley pulled him into as many conversations as she could. Either his father had softened in his retirement, or he was taken with Riley. He’d like to think it was a bit of both.

  “So soon?” Trevor asked, pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge. He’d come in to get one for Riley while his mother was cleaning up the kitchen after Sunday dinner. He’d been surprised Riley was willing to have another dinner with his family, but she’d agreed readily enough.

  He was starting to wonder if maybe she needed a break from his company, that she was fine sharing their time with others.

  “We’ve been here a week. I’ve got to get back to work and your father is missing tinkering with his bikes.”

  “That’s his job now,” Trevor said.

  “It’s his hobby that pays him. Still,” she said, smiling and pulling out a chair, then patting the table for him to sit also. “You two need some time alone. We’ve infringed on your space enough.”

>   “You aren’t in our way,” he argued.

  “You miss your lake, Trevor. I can see that and I’m sure Riley can, too. You’ve got that distant look in your eye like you did when you came home on leave from the army.”

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, not sure he was that easy to read.

  “You had it all planned out back then. Wanted to see the world and be this big hero. Bigger than your dad here in Lake Placid. I think you got there, got to be the hero you always wanted, and realized it wasn’t for you. Too much brutality and loss of life. And realized that what your father did was still deserving. And you could do it, too. And you do it better. We know that. But don’t tell him I told you that.”

  He hoped to God Riley couldn’t see what his mother just said. That she was right, but he never wanted to admit it. “That doesn’t explain why you think you should leave now.”

  “You’d rather be here, but you want her with you. She’d rather be alone with you, but then it’s keeping you from where you’re at peace. It’s better this way.”

  Peace. That was a good word for what he felt when he was here. What he felt when he came back today to visit with his parents while they were here and he was at Riley’s. “I don’t think Riley wants to be alone with me any more than she is,” he said, laughing.

  “You’re wrong. I see how she looks at you. I see how she touches you so innocently with a spark that makes you reach for her. You’re both trying to please the other and that’s what a relationship is about. But now you need to focus on just the two of you without the stress of this other business.”

  He snorted. “We have to deal with this other business. It can’t be pushed aside.” If he sounded frustrated, he didn’t care. It’d been over a week and nothing new had come up. No fingerprints on the envelopes that could be traced. No more flowers, and thankfully nothing else at all on that front. Not even any leads from Logan.

  “You’re right. It can’t. Learn to balance the two.” She reached her hand across and lay it on his. “Trevor, I always told you to take your time in life. Not to drive so fast to get somewhere. Those that wait get the prize in the end. You’ve waited long enough. It’s time to hit the gas and go claim your prize.”

  He never felt he took things slow. Not so slow that anyone noticed. He could move fast when he wanted and he had. It was just getting burned enough that made him hold his hand away from the fire.

  “I’d say I could be guilty of a few tickets in the past month, Mom.”

  “You’ve found your woman, Trevor. There’s no reason to worry about speeding tickets now.”

  “I’m just trying not to crash,” he said.

  “You’re going to. We all do. No one goes through life without a few crashes here and there.”

  “I’ve had my fair share.” He really didn’t know how they got on this subject and was hoping for a way to move past it.

  “You have. And you’ve picked yourself right back up and got a nice, shiny new vehicle.”

  He shook his head. His mother said the strangest things. “I don’t really think Riley would appreciate being compared to a new car.”

  “You’re probably right,” she said, standing up. “So take my advice and show her what she really means to you.”

  He thought he was, but maybe there was more that he could do. Something to take them away from the here and now. To give them some time to focus on them with no outside interference.

  More Relaxed

  “This was the best suggestion ever,” Riley said two weeks later. “I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull it off, but my office managed.”

  “Everything is going well there now?” Trevor asked.

  He knew Riley wasn’t happy about telling her office what was going on, but it had to be done.

  “Yeah. They’ve rallied behind me. I was afraid they were going to think I was some drama queen that jumped at her own shadow, but so far no one has said a word. They’re screening all the calls, opening all the mail, not accepting any packages unless they can see who it’s from. It’s been quiet and I’m glad. Maybe whoever it is, is giving up.”

  He didn’t think so, but didn’t want to put a damper on their weekend. “I’m glad. I’m also glad they were able to reschedule your appointments so we could leave earlier today.”

  They were on their way to Vermont for the weekend. Their first trip away together. They both needed it right now. Both were on edge, but for different reasons.

  “Christy would have canceled everything for the day if she could, but I told her to keep the morning ones. She has a soft spot for you,” Riley said, running her hand on his thigh, then patting it.

  He took his hand off the steering wheel and lay it on hers. “That’s because she hopes I’ll toss out her next ticket.”

  “Does that happen a lot? Because it’s such a small area, people try to get out of things because they know you?”

  “It happens, but not as often as you think. Most people get tickets reduced anyway, but if someone is a repeat offender, they have less of a chance of getting anything reduced with me.”

  “So not too many people can get anything by you,” she said, snickering a little.

  He was happy to see her so relaxed now. This trip was exactly what they both needed.

  “Not really. Not at all with my father, so they know I’m more lenient. Still, no one pushes too much. If I saw Max speeding, I’d pull him over. If he was on the way to an emergency, I’d give him an escort. If he was just driving fast because he wanted to, and it was his first time, I’d give him a warning. Second time, a ticket.”

  “I’ll make sure Max is aware of that,” she said, winking at him.

  “I’m not too worried. I’ve got a feeling that Max doesn’t speed. He seems like a straight arrow to me.”

  “He’s always been the good kid in the house. Me, not so much. Seems trouble follows me around no matter how much I dodge behind doors.”

  “I doubt trouble follows you as much as you think. Life just gets in the way and sometimes things happen without us realizing it. This seems like one of those times.”

  “How do you know I’m not some wild flirt that brought this upon myself?” she asked him.

  He wanted to laugh but didn’t. “I know. Trust me, I do.”

  She smiled at him, a softness he hadn’t seen in a long time. Maybe never. And he listened to his mother and pushed his foot on the accelerator some more.

  ***

  Riley looked over and saw Trevor smile back at her. He seemed more relaxed than he’d been in a week. As much as she was glad she got to meet his parents, she had been happy for them to leave.

  Her own parents had never demanded as much time as his did. She didn’t see her parents much either now. Of course, she lived in the same city as her parents before. Now they were driving her insane calling and texting daily. Maybe she was being harsh.

  “Are you going to miss your parents?” she asked.

  “Sure. But we talk a few times a week. They’ll be back for the holidays. They normally don’t come in the summer, but made an exception.”

  “Because of me?” she asked, shocked.

  “Well, sort of. My father wanted to see what I had gathered and it was easier here in person. My mother wanted to meet you.”

  She didn’t like the grin on his face. “And…did she tell you what she thought of me?”

  “She did,” he said, turning and looking back at the road.

  “What did she say?” she asked. She couldn’t remember the last time she had to ask someone what they thought of her. The last time she even cared.

  Most of her life, she did things for her and her only. She’d take other’s opinions into consideration, sure. She never tried to hurt anyone or step on someone. But she put her job and her career first and foremost. Always. Now it seemed that wasn’t happening anymore.

  And it didn’t bother her one bit to feel that way.

  “She told me to step on the gas.”

/>   “What does that mean?” she asked.

  He smirked at her. “She likes you. A lot. Thinks I’ve waited long enough.”

  “For what?”

  “Do you really want to know?”

  He wasn’t grinning right now. He looked more serious than she’d seen him before. “Maybe not.”

  “I didn’t think so. We’ve got time yet.”

  She let it go. She knew better than to ask anything else. He was right. They had time. “All I want to focus on is this weekend.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me. I figured we’d check in at the hotel, get some dinner, maybe sightsee, and then toss the hotel bed around.”

  She laughed. “I can get on board with that. Do you know what trails we’re hiking on tomorrow? Anything you’ve been on before?”

  “No. Saturday’s is a guided tour. Sunday we can choose from a few different ones if you want.”

  “Or we can go shopping,” she said.

  “I thought you liked hiking.”

  “I do. I love it. I love to get out and see nature. But I’ve found I don’t have far to go for it anymore. I’ve got it all right on your deck.”

  He turned sharply and looked at her. “You like it there?”

  “More than I thought I would.”

  She loved her townhouse. Loved all the work she’d put into it to make it hers. But she found she was more relaxed on the lake. She was finding out more about herself than she ever thought she would. This move was right and exactly where she needed to be.

  “Do you want to stay there next week since we spent this past week at your place?”

  “We can. It’s where you prefer to be, isn’t it?”

  “I just want to be where you are. But I won’t lie and say that I don’t feel more comfortable on the lake.”

  “You mean your own bed,” she said.

  “Nah. I like your bed just fine. It’s the lake. The water. The air around me. I can sleep anywhere and be fine for short periods of time. It’s all about the environment, though.”

  “So you’d rather be at your house than mine?”