Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
That explained more.
“I hear you. But that’s not exactly upping stakes and leaving,” Harry pointed out.
“When I was ten, Dad could have had a for sale sign in the front yard for a year, and I probably wouldn’t have noticed it, but I definitely would have pitched a fit if I knew Dad was going to sell our place. Better to say you’re sorry than get in a discussion with a ten-year-old who doesn’t want to leave her friends.”
That tracked, though now they’d never really know why Sonny and Avery didn’t share with their daughter they were moving.
“Right. So what are you on to?” Harry asked.
“I don’t wanna say unless it doesn’t pan out. But we think we got a lock on the hotel where Sonny and Avery stayed here in Coeur d’Alene.”
So the twins were already in Idaho.
Fantastic.
He had no idea, after all this time, how the twins had managed to possibly track the Rainiers to a hotel, or why that might be important at this juncture. But he’d learned in dealing with the twins to give them their head and let them get on with it. The results rarely disappointed.
“I’m on my way to go tell Lillian the results of the tests,” Harry shared. “You find anything, I want to know so I can decide if she’ll want to know.”
“You got it.” There was a heavy pause before, “Don’t envy you, brother. Take care of you while you take care of her.”
“You’re heard. Thanks, Jace. Later.”
“Later.”
They disconnected and Harry shut down.
He stopped in Polly’s office on his way out.
“I’m gone,” he told her.
He knew word had gotten around when her eyes were somber as she looked at him.
“I’m sorry, honey,” she said gently. “So sorry for you and for Sonny and Av’s girl.”
He nodded, said no more, and noted a number of solemn eyes of his deputies and staff as he hoofed it out of the station.
He headed down the block, but he didn’t go to Lillian’s house.
He went to her neighbors.
He hit the doorbell and Ronetta opened it within seconds.
Tears hit her eyes the minute she clapped them on him.
“I need you,” he said the instant he clapped his on her.
Her voice was throaty when she bid, “Come in, she’s not home yet. I need to call George.”
She stepped back. He stepped in. She closed the door and went to her phone. He went to the window to keep a lookout for Lillian’s return.
He heard murmuring behind him.
It stopped and Ronetta was standing beside him.
“George is coming,” she said.
He looked down at her.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
Her gaze rose to his. “Sometimes, the world doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“You’re poorer, never having met them,” she declared.
“I know.”
Her lip trembled.
Harry slid an arm around her shoulders.
She gave him her weight.
“She’s going to come undone,” Ronetta warned.
“Reckon so.”
“George might too, just so you know. Sonny and my husband were two peas in a pod.”
“Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”
“Knew you were a good egg,” she said under her breath.
That felt good, but Harry didn’t reply.
Five minutes later, Lillian’s Subaru rolled up the street and into her drive.
Harry looked back down at Ronetta. “George know to come next door?”
She nodded.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
She shook her head, but said, “Let’s go.”
He watched her draw in a deep breath, and only when she let it go did he take his arm from her shoulders, and they walked to the door, out it, across her lawn, and Lillian’s.
They were walking up the front steps when Lillian opened her door.
Her gaze pinging between Harry and Ronetta, she otherwise didn’t move out of the doorway.
He stopped in front of her, and before he could say anything, she seemed to be walking, or even falling, back.
Swiftly, Harry reached out to catch her, but instead, she listed forward, put her hand on his chest, and her touch seared right through his uniform, right into his skin, doing this like a brand, one he’d wear with honor for the rest of his life.
Then she collapsed into him.
And the sobs came.
SEVENTEEN
The Best Ones
Harry
Harry bent and picked Lillian up, carrying her into the house.
He heard Ronetta close the door behind them as he walked Lillian to her couch and sat on it.
Considering her position in his arms, she landed in his lap. He intended to put her into the seat beside him, but her arms slid around his neck and she burrowed in close, so he left her where she was and tightened his hold on her.
Ronetta first put a box of tissues on the couch next to him, then she came back with two glasses of water and placed them on the tray on Lillian’s ottoman. She retreated, but Harry heard her murmuring from the back hall, and he suspected she was making more calls.
He shifted to get more comfortable, and when he did, Lillian latched on to his hair and yanked her face out of his neck to look at him.