"Eat what you want," she replied. "Pancakes are coming up."
Despite Wyatt's claim, he took one bite and then another and for a few minutes there was silence in the kitchen as both males cleaned their plates. They were fast eaters. By the time the first pancakes were done, they were holding out empty plates.
She flipped a stack of cakes on each plate and handed over her two favorite syrups, maple and blueberry.
It felt good watching them eat. She'd missed feeding people. It was what she was good at. What she needed to get back to doing.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Ben said a moment later as he slid off the stool.
"It's down the hall," she told him.
Wyatt stood up as Ben left the room. "You don't have a back door, do you?"
"No, but it doesn't matter, because he's not going to run."
"How do you know that?"
"It's cold outside, and it's warm in here," she said practically. "And because as much as he doesn't like you, he knows there are worse people in the world. I also don't think he has anywhere to go. You need to take it a little easier on him. You scared him back in the alley. You went into attack mode. It was the first time I saw you as a cop."
He frowned. "I wasn't acting like a cop but as a desperate father."
"You were acting like both," she said.
"Well, that's who I am. I didn't hurt him, Adrianna."
"Just remember that he's not the one who took Stephanie. In fact, he's probably been taking care of your daughter."
Wyatt stared back at her. "I didn't think of it like that."
"When he comes back, let me talk to him. We need to gain his trust. Or we'll never find out anything."
Ben returned to the kitchen with a wary glance. "Can I go now?"
"Why don't you stay for a while?" she suggested. "You could sleep here if you wanted. It doesn't sound like your mom is home tonight."
"She might have come back."
"Or maybe not," she said.
Ben debated for a long minute. "All right, I'll stay."
"Good. I have some sweats that would probably fit you. Let me show you what I have," she added. "Maybe we could throw your clothes in the wash, too. I have to run a load anyway."
Ben followed her into the bedroom. She opened a drawer and pulled out sweat pants and a t-shirt. "Will these work?"
He shrugged as if he didn't care.
"You can change in the bathroom. If you want to take a shower, feel free."
"I'm going to leave in the morning," he said firmly.
"Of course you are," she said.
Ben took the clothes and shuffled into her bathroom. She smiled as she heard the shower go on and then returned to the kitchen. She was surprised to find Wyatt doing the dishes.
"I can do that," she said.
"You cooked. I'll clean."
"Well, all right," she said, sitting down on the stool. "Ben's taking a shower."
"I heard the water go on. You have a way with him."
"I understand where he's coming from."
"Proving again how much I need you," he said, offering her a brief, somewhat pinched smile.
"I know you're frustrated, Wyatt, but Ben has already given us a few more clues to follow, like the club where his mom and possibly Jennifer were working."
"A club that was shut down," he said. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Jen was working as a stripper. How else would she make money?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I'm staying here tonight, Adrianna. I'll sleep in the chair or on the floor. I can't take a chance that I'll come back in the morning and Ben will be gone."
"I understand."
"Thanks."
While Wyatt finished cleaning up the kitchen, she got some extra blankets out of her hall closet and put them on the couch. Then she went into her bedroom to pull the comforter down. A few minutes later, a decidedly cleaner Ben walked in wearing her sweats.
She took the pile of dirty clothes out of his hand. "I'll run these downstairs to the laundry room."
"You don't have to," he said.
"It's not a problem. Why don't you sleep in here, Ben? Wyatt and I have things to talk about."
"I can't take your bed."
"Sure you can."
He stared back at her, as if weighing her motives. "I know you're just being nice to me so I'll help you."
"Actually, I'm being nice to you because I want to help you," she replied. "When I was fourteen, I lived on the street for two months. I remember what it was like not to have a bed or a home or clean clothes."
"My mom is coming back," he said, as if to convince himself as much as her.
"I believe you."
"What about the cop?" Ben asked, tipping his head toward the other room. "Is he staying?"
"Yes, and he's not here as a cop. He's a worried father. He wants to find his little girl. He's afraid she's in danger."
"Emily said her father was dead."
"Maybe she thinks he is." She paused, seeing the exhaustion in Ben's eyes, but she had his attention, and she needed to press it. "How long has it been since you've seen your mom?"
"A couple of weeks."
"You've been alone all that time?"
He nodded.
"Does your mother know that Sara isn't with you?"
He shook his head. "She wasn't around when Emily's mom came."
She frowned. "Do you have any idea where your mom is?"
"I never know where she is, but usually she comes back after a few days. I'm kind of worried about her."
"I'll bet you are."
"Why was Emily staying with you? Why wasn't she with her mother?"
"Her mom had to go somewhere for a while."
"And you don't know what Emily's mom's name is?"
"I don't remember." He stretched out on his side on the bed. "Did you really live on the street?"
"Yes. My mom died when I was eleven, and I was put in some foster homes that didn't work out. I ran away from one of them."
"I was in a group home. It sucked."
She met his gaze. "Living on the streets can be worse, Ben."
"My mom is coming back," he said again, but there was even less confidence in his voice now.
She patted his leg. "You're not alone anymore. I should have done more to help you when I first met you. I'm sorry about that."
"I looked for you at the restaurant, but you didn't come back after those guys broke in."
She shook her head. "No, I didn't. I was scared."
"How come you were there tonight?"
"I was hoping you and the girls would come by." She took a moment and then added, "You're worried about Sara and Emily, aren't you?"
"I shouldn't be. They're probably fine. Probably having a great time together," he said bitterly.
"You must miss them."
He shrugged. "Sometimes they get scared at night. I don't know if Emily's mom will be around when that happens."
"Well, we're going to find them. And we're going to fix things."
"I don't know if you can," he said sleepily.
"What's your mom's name?" she asked.
"She wouldn't want me to tell you."
"Tell me anyway."
"Delilah Raymond," he said.
She let out a breath, feeling like she'd just cleared a hurdle. "Thank you."
"You can't turn me in," he told her, a plea in his eyes. "They'll put me in a home and last time I got beat up there."
"Let's take it one step at a time. I want to help you, Ben."
"Only until you find Emily," he said.
She looked into his jaded eyes and knew he'd been used before.
"And after, too," she said. "I told you I've been where you are. I'll do everything I can to help you."
"Can I go to sleep now?"
She nodded. "Yeah." She watched as he crawled under the covers, and then she walked to the door and turned out the light. As she closed the door behind her, she found Wyatt leaning against the wall outside t
he room.
He followed her into the living room.
She flopped down on the couch. "You heard everything?"
He sat on the chair across from her. "Yeah."
"It sounds like Ben's mother worked with Jennifer – if it's Jennifer and Steph that we're talking about. I wish we could be sure. But I guess we'll know when we find them. I think we'll get Ben's help," she said. "He wants to find his sister. He's worried about her. I don't get why Jen would take another kid with her."
"It doesn't make sense to me either, but I've never had much luck figuring out why Jen does anything. Maybe it was to appease Stephanie. God, she must be so scared. I can't imagine what she thinks. It sounds like Jen dropped her with this other woman and these kids without even a thought."
"We don't know anything for sure," she said quietly. "But we have new leads."
"Yeah, I wish I could do something now."
"The morning will be here before you know it." She yawned as the full day began to catch up with her. "You should go home, Wyatt. Ben fell asleep before his head hit the pillow. He's not going anywhere."
"I know, but I'm going to stay."
"Really? You won't be comfortable."
He leaned back in the chair stretching out as the footrest came up. "This is perfect. I could sleep here."
His words brought up an old memory. "That's what Will used to say. He bought me that chair for my birthday, but I think it was really a present for him." She smiled to herself. "Will insisted that I needed a recliner to watch TV. Never mind that I'm hardly ever home to watch television, and when I am home, I'm usually in the kitchen trying new recipes."
"How long were you and Will together?"
"We were friends for four and a half years and then one night we went to a party, had a lot of champagne and ended up in bed together. I thought at first it was a mistake. I really cared about Will as a friend, and I didn't know what would happen to our relationship. But Will was really happy and it all worked out. We became boyfriend/girlfriend."
"By default?" Wyatt asked.
"It wasn't like that exactly. Will wanted us to be together for a long time, but I'm not good at commitment or giving my heart away. Growing up the way I did, love was something that hurt. So I never wanted to put myself out there." She drew in a breath. "The night that Will was shot, Lindsay and I found a ring box in his pocket. It just fell out when we moved his jacket. She wanted to look at it, but I wouldn't let her. I couldn't believe that he was thinking of asking me to marry him. It was too fast, too soon."
"But you knew each other for four years," he pointed out.
"Five years by then," she admitted, "but we never talked about marriage. Will used to joke about living together, but even that wasn't serious, at least not on my part. I just can't imagine what he was thinking to buy me a ring."
"Maybe he wanted to lock things down, seal the deal, take it to the bank."
She frowned. "That's a lot of clichés in one sentence."
He gave her a tired smile. "You know what I mean. He might have sensed you weren't as committed as he was, because you weren't."
"I wanted to be." She thought back to that night. "For the first few weeks after he died, I kicked myself for putting him off. He wanted to talk to me and I took pizza out to the kids. I kept thinking if I'd had that conversation …"
"Then what? Would you have said yes?"
She thought for a moment. "I don't think I could have said yes. And if he'd asked me to marry him, and I'd said no, he would have died knowing that I didn't want to marry him. I guess I'm glad that didn't happen. But it's all horrible, because Will is dead, and he had a lot to live for, whether we were going to end up together or not. The real tragedy was his, not mine. And I am talking way too much."
"It sounds like those words have been rolling around in your head for a while."
"I feel guilty about so many things. Will was distracted that night. Lindsay commented on it. I don't know if he was thinking about getting up his nerve to ask me, or if there was something else going on. He hadn't locked the front door of the restaurant, and he was in charge of that. Something else was on his mind."
"Did you tell Inspector Burton that?" Wyatt asked.
There was something in his tone that made her sit up straight. "Why would I?"
"The unlocked door. Is it possible that Will might have made a deal with someone to leave the door open?"
She stared at him in shock. "You're saying that Will was part of the robbery? He's dead." She was horrified by the accusation, and she jumped to her feet. "That is absolutely ridiculous. I can't believe you would say that."
His gaze was even and unapologetic. "I didn't know him. I'm just looking at the facts."
"He didn't lock the door, because he was thinking about something else. There was no ulterior motive."
"You don't know what he was thinking about," Wyatt pointed out. "Therefore, you don't know if there was an ulterior motive."
She really hated his logic. "I knew Will. I knew what kind of man he was. And besides, if he was involved, why would they shoot him?"
Wyatt tipped his head. "That probably means he wasn't involved."
"Exactly." She sent him an annoyed look as she sat down on the edge of the couch. "I can't believe you made me doubt him."
"I didn't make you doubt him. You had questions. You just never said them out loud until now."
Wyatt was right. She had thought about Will's odd behavior that night and wondered what had been behind his distraction. "Well, I'm never going to know the answers," she said. She leaned back against the cushions and added. "I asked Inspector Burton if they'd checked Will's phone, and he told me that the only calls he'd made or received had been to his parents."
"Would that have been unusual?"
"Yes. They were not close. All I can think is that he told them he was going to ask me to marry him, and perhaps they didn't have the reaction he hoped for." She had a feeling they would have told Will he was out of his mind to marry her.
"Or you're just imagining that because you don't think they liked you."
"I know they didn't like me. They wanted him with anyone but me."
"Oh, come on, you're not that bad," he said with a smile.
"Gee, thanks."
"Did you ask his parents about the calls?"
"I didn't want to upset them any further. They just lost their son. It didn't seem appropriate."
"It's been a few months. Maybe it's time to make that call now."
"For what purpose?"
"Closure?" he suggested.
"Maybe. Or would it just raise more questions in my mind?"
"I can't answer that, Adrianna."
"You're so honest and direct," she said. "You don't ever sugar coat things, do you?"
"I don't like sugar, except on my cereal."
She smiled. "I could turn you on to some really good granola, raisin, nut cereal that's really healthy."
He grinned back at her, a devilish light in his eyes. "You could turn me on, but it wouldn't be with cereal."
She picked up the throw pillow next to her and tossed it at him. "Don't start."
"Starting doesn't seem to be a problem …"
The teasing light faded from his eyes. "I don't want to talk about that."
"It's odd that you don't. I thought women loved to talk about stuff like that."
Maybe she would have wanted to talk about it if she hadn't felt so conflicted inside, if she hadn't enjoyed kissing him so much, if this was any other time but this time. "We both have a lot on our plate right now. We don't need to complicate things."
"I think we already did. But I'm good with not talking." He settled back more comfortably in the recliner. "I should get one of these for my house."
"You should," she agreed. Wyatt was only following her lead in changing the subject, but suddenly she wanted to change it back. Unfortunately, Wyatt now seemed to be more interested in her remote.
"Do you mind if I turn on
the television?" he asked. "I'll mute it. I'm just too wired to go to sleep."
"Go right ahead, and you can play the sound. I can sleep through anything. To be honest, I like the noise and the company. It's been too quiet here the last few months." She was about to stretch out on the couch when she remembered something. "Damn I was supposed to start the laundry."
"You can do it tomorrow. It will give Ben a reason to stay here longer."
"That's true."
As Wyatt turned on the television, she rolled over on to her side, facing the back of the couch. She tried to relax, but her body had tensed up when Wyatt had teased her about turning him on. It was crazy to think of him in any other terms than friendship – if they were even friends. They were more like helpers or partners.
But he was remarkably easy to talk to and a good sounding board. He was smart and practical and didn't give her any bullshit, and she liked that about him. Sometimes, however, he was a little too honest. She thought about their conversation regarding Will and the unlocked door, and his suggestion that she contact Will's parents for answers. She had considered that, but would it really be worthwhile?
She knew Will hadn't had anything to do with the robbery. And she also knew that she would not have married him even if he'd asked her. So where did that leave her? What did she really need to know?
What she needed to do was let go of the past and move on, and maybe she could do that now. Hearing her doubts out loud had made them seem very unimportant.
As she listened to the sounds of late night comedy, she let her mind drift. She felt safe and warm and reassured by Wyatt's presence. For the first time in a long time, she actually felt like she might sleep.
Chapter Ten
Wyatt woke up just after seven, the television in Adrianna's living room still on mute. He'd meant to stay awake just in case Ben got it in his head to take off in the middle of the night, but exhaustion had overtaken him. He glanced across the room. Adrianna was curled up on the couch, fast asleep. Her cheeks were a rosy pink, her lips parted ever so slightly, her hair falling around her face and shoulders in soft, tumbling waves. His body hardened, and he was taken right back to the night before when he'd kissed those lips and ran his hand through that hair on two separate occasions. And neither one had been enough. He wanted more.
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