“I’m surprised you have my number,” Duke said.
“Nash gave it to me,” Stewart admitted. “I had to talk him into it.”
“Still in the ICU,” Duke informed him.
“I’ll be on the next plane out of Denver,” Stewart said with a whole lot of gusto. “There’s nothing more important than family.”
“Agreed.” So why wasn’t Duke believing the words coming out of his father’s mouth? Must be all the evidence of missed birthdays, Christmases and pretty much every other day that worked against Stewart.
“I can drop everything and head that way,” Stewart continued.
Duke didn’t respond. Instead, he waited for it...
“Because nothing is more important than ensuring my parents are going to be fine,” Stewart went on. If he kept at it, he might even sound convincing. “Oh, no. But...”
Here it comes...
“I just realized that I have a meeting this afternoon that I can’t miss,” Stewart said in a forlorn voice. “If I do, it could cost my business a whole lot of money. And what with the girls in college now.”
College that his father hadn’t seen fit to pay for Duke or either of his sisters. But also, the twins were long past college age. Who did Stewart think he was fooling?
“Do you think I should come now or wait until they’re up and around?” Stewart asked. Before Duke could answer, his dad continued, “Because I think they’ll need me the most once they’re home. Am I right?”
“Do whatever you want,” Duke said, not bothering to hide his disappointment. “They’re your parents.”
Leaving Mesa Point to go to college and then join the US Marshals Service was the best decision he could have made. There was nothing that could bring him back. A stab of guilt pierced his chest. Because he should have come back more to look after the two people who loved him the most.
“I’ll wait,” Stewart finally said after a dramatic pause. “If you think that’s best.”
Duke didn’t remember having an opinion that mattered to his father. “If that’s what you want to do.”
“It’s settled then,” Stewart said like they’d just solved world peace instead of him getting out of visiting his own parents in the hospital. “I’ll have my phone on me at all times. Text or call at any hour if there is any change in their conditions. Day or night.”
“Will do,” Duke said before ending the call.
He glanced over at Audrey, who was standing there with her hip against the granite counter, studying him intently. Their gazes connected. She jumped as if startled, then grabbed the cup from the machine and replaced it with a second one. After putting in a new pod, she brought his coffee over to him.
When he took the mug from her, their fingers grazed, causing electrical impulses to vibrate up his arm.
“I’m sorry about your dad,” she said with those intense emeralds looking right through him.
“It’s fine.”
AUDREY RETRIEVED HER coffee as soon as the machine was done beeping and whirring.
She joined Duke at the table, thinking there hadn’t been a day in three years since returning to Mesa point when she’d thought this moment might be possible. “I should inform the sheriff there could be someone in his town targeting one of his deputies.”
“Good idea,” he said.
Audrey excused herself and made the call. She relayed the facts about the motel raid and then mentioned the footprints. Ackerman mentioned teenagers but said he would inform the other deputies so everyone could be on alert just in case.
When the call to her boss was finished, she turned toward Duke. “How are you?”
“Fine,” he said before taking a sip of fresh coffee.
Her gaze fell to the droplet of coffee in the corner of his mouth. Two fines in the space of a couple of minutes was a very bad sign when it came to Duke. She took in a deep breath and forced her gaze to meet his eyes. “I mean it, Duke. How are you really?”
He sat there for a long moment before responding. Then he issued a sharp sigh. “You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“I’m tired,” he admitted. “I’ve been running on E for longer than I care to admit for reasons I don’t want to explain, and this happening to my grandparents has reset my clock in ways that I’m not yet ready to examine but know I’ll have to at some point.”
Audrey was stunned at the honesty. She appreciated the fact he didn’t sugarcoat the situation. So she made a confession of her own.
“I hate that your grandparents and your family are going through this, Duke. I really do. If not for spending a summer with them years ago, I don’t know how my life would have turned out.” She didn’t make eye contact with him. Couldn’t make eye contact with him. “Because I learned how two people should treat each other that summer, and that was a foreign concept to me. I’d never met two people more in love or good to each other in my life. And that’s why I still check on them. I owe them a debt of gratitude that they’ll never allow me to repay because they believe this is just what people do for each other. Imagine that concept.” She stopped long enough to take a sip of coffee, welcoming the burn on her throat.
“They always looked at you like one of their own,” he said as his gaze intensified on the rim of his coffee mug.
“Without them, I have no idea where I would have ended up,” she repeated. “Certainly not here in this cabin with a steady job.”
Duke was silent for a long moment. “You never told me how you ended up in Mesa Point in the first place when we were sixteen.”
She compressed her lips into a frown. “I don’t talk about the past.”
The hurt look in those brown eyes almost had her convinced she should change her mind.
What good would it do to dredge up those awful memories? The best she could hope for was to move on, focus on the future and try forgetting as much as possible. It had taken years for the nightmares to stop. Self-defense lessons gave her the confidence to be able to handle herself in almost any situation. Her job reminded her to stay vigilant.
