“When I got back, she told me the eye drop thing hadn’t worked. I thought I could live with having only part of her in my life. She began coming to see me in DC every Thursday afternoon because she knew he worked late that one day a week. But somehow he found out because two weeks ago she told me we couldn’t see each other anymore until I told him the truth and got him to let her go. So I called my brother and we agreed to meet at the Hotel Piermont where I always stayed when I came to town.”
I couldn’t help but feel his choice of lodging when he came to Sunset Ridge was fitting.
“So you decided to kill him in the woods right past the hotel and finally have Jessica all to yourself,” Alex said in a voice full of judgment.
“No, it wasn’t like that!” Jack protested, defensive for the first time since he’d begun talking about his affair with his brother’s wife. “It wasn’t. But as I was driving here something in me changed. I knew he wouldn’t let her go. I’m not even sure he loved her anymore, but he wouldn’t let me have her. I knew it. So I stopped at Cherise’s. I knew from talking to her that she’d be out of town at her sister’s, but my former sister-in-law still loved me, even if my brother had treated her like shit, so of course she said I could stay over when I asked.”
“So that’s how you got Cherise’s gun,” I wondered aloud.
“And you took her gun and shot your brother in the back,” Alex said, succinctly summarizing his crime.
Jack nodded and held me tighter to him. “Well, I guess all I need to know before we finish all this is how you figured it out since your lovely sidekick here had no clue what I’d done. Well, before this afternoon, I guess.”
“The chalk,” Alex said calmly.
“No way. How?”
“You left a fingerprint on the piece of chalk and we matched it to the fingerprints you left on your glass at McGuire’s.”
“A fingerprint on chalk. How?” Jack asked, his voice filled with an odd curiosity.
“Chalk isn’t just chalk. It’s covered in a very thin layer of plastic to hold the chalk together. You took all that care to not leave fingerprints on the gun or anywhere on your brother, but the extra effort you took to try to throw us off did you in,” Alex explained.
Jack slung his arm around my shoulders and whispered in my ear, “I see why you like him, Poppy. He’s sharp and quite the man. He’s got that whole knight in shining armor thing going for him too. I hope you can forgive me for using you through all this, though. I’ve never been like your partner here.”
I looked at Alex as Jack spoke and saw in his expression that now was my chance to get away, so I lifted my leg and kicked back into Jack’s shin. He screamed out in pain and Alex lunged for the gun as it dropped from his hand when he grabbed his injured leg. I jumped out of the way as Alex pushed him to the floor and aimed his gun at Jack head.
“Jack Reynolds, you’re under arrest for the murder of your brother, Lee Reynolds.”
Trying to get my wits about me, I relaxed for a moment as Alex recited Jack his rights and called the station for backup. Suddenly, I remembered my father still unconscious on the floor across the room. While Alex handcuffed our killer, I ran over to the couch and saw my father hadn’t seen anything that had happened, thankfully.
“Dad, can you hear me?” I said in his ear to wake him. “Are you okay?”
His eyelids slowly opened and he winced in pain, his hand immediately moving to the back of his head where a golf ball sized goose egg had formed. Dazed, he looked around and asked, “What happened?”
I looked back at Alex as he dragged Jack out to the police car that had just pulled up in front of my house and smiled. Turning to face my father, I kissed him on the forehead. “We just solved our case. That’s all. Oh, and you got hit on the head by our killer, one Jack Reynolds.”
“I’m sorry, Poppy. He forced me to call you and bring him here. I thought I could overpower him, but he hit me and I guess he knocked me out.”
Just like my father to think he could defeat the bad guy.
“It’s okay, Dad. We got him, so it’s all over now. How about I get you an ice pack and we sit on the couch until you feel better?”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
I helped him up to the couch and trotted off to the kitchen to get him that ice pack to stop the swelling. On my way back, I looked out the front door and saw Alex putting Jack into the back of the squad car.
As Craig drove off to the police station, Alex smiled up from the street. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted to talk to you. When all this is over, I’ll be back and we’ll have that talk.”
I wasn’t sure what I’d say when we had that talk, but I’d be there waiting for him like a partner should be.
Chapter Twenty
My father kissed me on the cheek and gave me one of those broad, Irish smiles that brought out the faded blue of his eyes. “Thanks for letting me stay until I got my wits back, but it’s about time I get back home and open the bar before my regulars think I’ve skipped town.”
I smiled at his devotion to souls most people in Sunset Ridge considered plain old drunks. They were his regulars, a group of men who were so much more than just guys who drank too often at McGuire’s. These men were people who cared about one another, even as much of the world had decided there wasn’t much to care about anymore. That my father worried about them was a testament to who he was far more than the business he ran.
“Did you ever finally convince Andrew to get that prostate exam or is he still being stubborn?”
Lifting his chin in pride, my father answered, “Oh, we got him to that doctor. It took a little prodding, but we all told him we weren’t going to lose him to some disease because he was embarrassed to go through what every one of us had already gone through.”
“I’m glad you guys take care of one another, Dad. They’re good guys, your regulars.”
He nodded and turned to open my kitchen door before he stopped and looked back at me. “I think that’s why I like your partner so much. You know that?”
Unsure what he meant, I shook my head. “No, Dad. What do you mean?”
“You and Alex, you take care of one another. He came over here tonight because you were on his mind. If he hadn’t, I don’t know that you and I would be standing here talking like this. And I know you take care of him too.”
“We’re just partners, Dad. Nothing else,” I said, attempting to convince myself as much as him.
“Well, you two are great partners. Don’t forget that, Poppy.”
I kissed him goodbye again and gently ran my fingertips over the slowly shrinking goose egg on the back of his head. “I won’t, Dad. You sure you don’t want me to give you a ride back to your place?”
He waved off my suggestion. “No. I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Rest up tonight. You deserve it, Elizabeth.”
I watched my father walk down the stairs from my kitchen door and down my driveway until he was swallowed up by the darkness and thanked God he’d survived Jack Reynolds’ attack.
As I closed the door to head back into the living room to curl up on my favorite chair for the night, a stab of regret jabbed me for being the reason my father ended up in danger in the first place. On her death bed, my mother had made me promise I’d look out for him just as she’d made him make the same promise about me. I’d never forgotten that, yet my desire for romance with Jack Reynolds had made me go back on that promise, even if it was unintentionally.
Looking up, I silently apologized for my foolishness and hoped my mother understood. In my haste to get to know a man, I’d let him get close to the most important man in my life. For that, I prayed she saw it hadn’t been because of thoughtlessness.
My phone vibrated across the coffee table in front of me, and leaning down to read the message, I saw it was from Alex. As usual, he said very little, but the four simple words he’d sent me said it all.
We need to
talk.
My fingers trembled as they hovered over the tiny keyboard on my phone. We did need to talk, but I didn’t know what I’d say or what he’d say. Was he going to tell me he wanted us to be more than just work partners? I still couldn’t bring myself to think of that without a spike of fear exploding inside me every time, not from us getting together but from what might happen if it all went bad.
While my thoughts marched through my mind, I typed back a message and hoped when the time came that I’d make the right decision.
I’m here. Come over when you’re finished.
His response came immediately.
I’m outside your door.
Then I heard a knock that made my heart leap in my chest. I wasn’t sure I was ready to have this conversation, but it couldn’t be put off. Whatever we had to say, now was the time.
I opened my front door to see Alex standing there in the same clothes he’d worn a few hours earlier when he came to talk to me and ended up saving my life. Again. His expression was the same calm one I usually saw, but I had a sense underneath that façade he was a swirl of emotions like I was.
Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.
“Hey, did everything work out at the station?” I asked lamely, grasping for something to say that didn’t have to do with us and that kiss.
“Yeah, it went fine. We have Jessica there too, and she’s confessed to dosing Lee with the eye drops and getting the money every month from Jack. She probably won’t be charged with attempted murder, though, since the eye drops were never going to do much more than make him sick to his stomach.”
“True.”
I stood there looking out at him as the truth of what Jack and Jessica had done for love hit me. Both had been willing to kill a man who by all accounts had never done anything to his wife but adore her. Jessica’s selfishness in wanting to have her cake and eat it too had set into motion a series of events that ended with poor Lee Reynolds’ death, and for what? Now Jack and Jessica would never spend another day together again.
All of that had happened because of love. I suddenly hated the idea.
“Can I come in or do you want to continue having this discussion on your front porch?” Alex asked, rousing me from my thoughts about love and the destruction it wrought.
I stepped back and opened the door for him to come in. “Sure. Let’s talk in the living room.”
We walked to the couch and sat down next to one another. My brain noted that was the first time we’d ever done that. Usually Alex sat across from me on another piece of furniture when we sat together anywhere.
As my mind fixated on tiny details to avoid the bigger issues he was there to discuss, he turned to face me, making the cushion I sat on sink toward him. I caught myself just before I slid into his legs, hating how physics and my furniture had chosen to work against me in my effort to remain aloof.
“I thought we should talk about what happened earlier,” Alex said in a low voice bristling with emotion.
I struggled to sit normally as I nodded. “Yeah, I guess we should.”
Suddenly I understood how my father’s friend Andrew felt about his prostate exam. I didn’t want to talk about that kiss any more than he had wanted to hear the snap of that glove on his doctor’s hand or what would follow.
Alex swallowed hard and said, “You know I care about you, Poppy. I don’t have to tell you that.”
A strange tone sat under his words. I couldn’t be sure, but he sounded like the next words out of his mouth would be to explain to me how he’d made a mistake by kissing me. In a flash, I changed from not being sure I wanted more with him to being offended he might not want that from me.
“Sure. Sure. I know that,” I mumbled, waiting for the next thing he’d say.
“It’s just that I’d hate to make a mistake that we couldn’t come back from. I don’t want to repeat the mistake I made with Bethany.”
The two mentions of the word mistake and Bethany’s name hit my brain like three successive sledgehammer blows. Stunned, I tried to not let my face show how hurt I felt hearing being with me compared to a mistake and even worse, compared to his relationship with Bethany.
I stammered out, “Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, I can certainly see that, I guess. Sure.”
I absolutely could not see how our getting together would be a mistake, at least not in the way he was saying it. And saying anything we might be could ever be like the superficial nothing relationship he’d had with Bethany? I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, “How could you think so little of me?”
Of course, I didn’t. He wouldn’t understand it if I did anyway. He had no idea of how many times I’d stewed in my jealousy over them being together, hating that someone I cared about had chosen her of all people to date.
So I channeled all my courage into one sentence I couldn’t believe I was saying. “You know, Alex, that kiss doesn’t have to mean anything. We can just forget it. It’s not like we can’t do that.”
His brown eyes instantly filled with a look of hurt. “Forget it? Is that what you want to do?”
And there it was all on my shoulders. Whatever might come from that one incredible, knee-buckling kiss could cease to exist with just a simple statement from me. All I had to say was I could forget it and act like it never happened.
The problem was I couldn’t. From the minute Alex walked out of my house with Jack in handcuffs and our case was over, I’d had two thoughts occupying my brain. The first was would my father be okay, and the second was a replay of how Alex’s lips felt on mine as he kissed me out in my driveway.
No kiss had ever held as much promise and as much threat to my future. He had no idea how impossible it would be for me to ever forget that kiss.
Knowing he waited for an answer, I focused my gaze on my hands as they sat in my lap and mumbled, “I’m not sure I could, to be honest.”
The sound of a quiet sigh made me look up at him, and I saw those lips that had kissed mine and made my legs feel like jelly spread into a smile that lit up his face. I guess he couldn’t forget that kiss either.
“So we don’t forget it,” he said in a way that sounded like a formal declaration.
“I need to know whatever happens or doesn’t happen won’t affect us working together, Alex. Getting to work with you on cases means a lot to me, more than you can probably understand and more than I can probably explain. I don’t want to lose that.”
His expression grew serious. Knitting his brows, he frowned and asked, “Why would you lose that?”
Before I could form the right answer, my brain and heart conspired together and sent a stream of worries out of my mouth. “Because what if we do take this further and then you realize that I’m not different than Bethany—that you aren’t ready for anything with me either? I don’t think I’m anything like her and whatever we might be would be anything like that, but what if the end result is the same? And then after you don’t want to feel awkward at work so you decide that working with me can’t happen anymore. I would hate for that to happen.”
At the touch of his hand, I stopped my rambling and looked down at where his fingers met mine. That was the kind of effect he had on me. One touch and everything in my mind simply dissolved into nothingness compared to how his skin on mine made me feel.
“Is that what you’re worried about? I wouldn’t do that to you, Poppy. You’re my best friend, the person I’m closest to in this world. I’d miss you as much as you’d miss me if we didn’t work together. Probably more since you have other people in your life to fill the void. I have no one.”
I closed my eyes and hung my head, overwhelmed by the feelings he brought out in me. His words touched my heart. The feel of his hand on mine made me crave more of him. It was like sensory overload, and I didn’t know if I wanted to run away or beg for more.
But I didn’t see anything of that in him as he sat there next to me practically making me crazy over him.
“Alex, why did you kiss me?”
/>
He didn’t answer but instead looked away, and I was sure he was merely taking the time to craft a kind response that wouldn’t hurt my feelings because I didn’t create the whirlwind of emotions in him like he did in me. I watched as he set his jaw and slowly turned back to face me with a look that made my heart skip a beat. Whatever I made him feel, I had a feeling it was written all over his face in the expression of anguish he wore.
“I stayed away from the world for a long time, Poppy. I hated myself for letting Helena die. I blamed myself. I decided I’d never take the chance that would happen ever again. So I closed myself off in that house away from everyone and for years I was alone.”
He stopped for a moment and I finished his thought with what he’d told me so many times before. “And then I showed up one night to trespass on your property.”
Alex smiled and nodded. “Then you showed up one night and everything changed. You brought me back to life, even though you never intended to do that. I’m a cop again because of you. I have a life again because of you. Why would I not want to kiss you?”
“So it was like a thank you kiss?” I asked, all at once sad and relieved, my brain not knowing what to think about all he’d said.
He leaned in toward me and pressed his forehead to mine as he whispered, “No, it wasn’t a thank you kiss. It was an I was worried you were hurt kiss. It was I didn’t want to think about a world without you in it kiss.”
I leaned back and looked into his eyes. “That’s some kiss,” I joked.
“It was, don’t you think?”
“It was.”
It had been a kiss that took my breath away, made my knees buckle, and made my brain whirl with possibilities and fears. Now that we’d talked about it, though, it was merely a kiss that I never wanted to forget because it had been with Alex.
“So what happens now?” I asked, knowing he no more had the answers than I did.
Arching one eyebrow, he grinned. “We do what we always do. We solve crimes. After that, I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to figure that out along the way.”
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