Page 71 of The Last Promise You Made

“What?”

“What exactly do you hold holy, Gia?”

My breath caught at the simple challenge. “I love my family just as much as you love yours.”

“You run around the globe, lying to them about what you do. That doesn’t exactly scream love.”

I was determined not to let him rile me up. He was hurting and frustrated, and I was an easy target. “I don’t tell them about my job because it protects them and me. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be at their side in a heartbeat if they needed me. It doesn’t mean I’d stand by and just watch if they were under fire. Hell, I used a bunch of my CIA contacts to help Holden from behind the scenes when shit went down with The Painted Daisies in Colombia, even if he didn’t know I did.”

“Somehow, that isn’t the reassurance you think it is,” Ryder said darkly.

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Bottom line, asshole, is I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Enrique is here, and he isn’t going anywhere. You do what you gotta do. Whether that’s staying with Addy or going to check on your mama and your uncle, that’s up to you.”

I spun on my heel and moved around the counter to where the little girls were putting some of the finished cookies into a Tupperware container. “Looks like Mila is coming back to Ryder’s with us.”

“Yes!” Mila cheered, doing a little dance. “Sleepover!” She looked at Ryder and asked, “Does that mean I get ice cream for breakfast again?”

“After the way you sold me out to your dad, no way,” Ryder said, forcing his voice lighter. “Go grab your things, and I’ll get the spare booster seat from the mudroom.”

“Come on, Addy!” Mila grabbed Addy’s hand, and the two girls went running out of the room, their feet pounding on the stairs.

? ? ?

After gorging on pizza and chocolate crinkles and playing more board games than I had in over a decade, Ryder and I tucked the girls into the queen-sized bed in Addy’s room. Even with the comforter pulled over her, Mila still chattered away. I thought she’d probably talk until she fell asleep mid-sentence, but Addy seemed comforted by having the other child with her. She’d still put her backpack on the floor by the bed with her shoes next to it, ready to run, but at least she hadn’t disappeared under the bed or flattened herself under the covers. Instead, she’d rolled on her side, her stuffed animal touching Mila’s unicorns.

It was the sweetest image I’d seen in a really long time, tugging at pieces of me I hadn’t known existed. I still didn’t think I wanted to have kids. Babies and diapers and breastfeeding didn’t appeal to me, but taking care of little kids this age who could walk and talk and use the bathroom on their own…I didn’t mind it so much. The hug Mila had given me, unbidden and unasked, had felt like pure love.

Addy had watched the hug, eyes turning shadowy, and then she’d offered both Ryder and me each a one-armed loose hug. It was tentative and brief, but it had still been a hug. Tears had pricked my eyes, and when I’d looked over at Ryder, his jaw had been clenched tight with his eyes blinking fast.

After we left them, he made his way down to the game room, and I followed. We slowly picked up the empty pizza boxes, cups, and game pieces that were scattered around. Enrique had taken the first shift outside, and I was going to switch places with him in a few hours. Knowing Addy’s existence wasn’t being kept as secret as I’d hoped it was, none of the team would just rely on Ryder’s top-of-the-line alarm system to protect her.

While we cleaned up, I told Ryder what Rianne had explained about selective mutism and Addy needing therapy.

“I know it’s not possible right now, but I just thought you should be aware.”

Before he could reply, his phone buzzed, and he looked down at it with a frown.

“If you need to go, we’ll be okay,” I said.

He did that thing he and Maddox both did when thinking or upset—he rubbed a hand over his beard. “Uncle Phil isn’t doing well. He hasn’t regained consciousness, and McKenna says he might not.”

I stuffed the last of the boxes into the green garbage bag he was holding. “I’m sorry. Were you close to him?”

“Uncle Phil is actually my mama’s uncle. But you probably knew that from investigating us.”

I didn’t reply. Yes, I knew the basics, but it wasn’t the same as knowing the emotions and connections that went with the dotted lines connecting people. I didn’t say anything, and Ryder turned away, tying the knot on the green bag, setting it aside, and moving on to putting the board games away. Addy’s Switch was on the coffee table, and I piled it in the cupboard with the other gaming devices.

“Mama never knew her dad, so Phil was the only man in her life as a kid. He and Granny ran the bar together right up until she died. Uncle Phil can do and say some pretty inappropriate things, and I think Maddox has had to talk to him a few times about complaints lobbed his way. Mama says Granny was the only one who could keep him in check, and once she was gone, there was no one holding him to a higher standard, you know?”

“But you all still liked him,” I said because I’d never sensed any hostility or tension between the Hatleys and their great uncle.

“He was always good to us. When we were little, and things got tight at the ranch, Mama would help out at the bar, and he’d give her more money than she’d earned. He was always sliding cash to us kids too. We spent hours playing in the shed out back of the bar. McFlannigan’s wasn’t quite a second home to us, but it was comfortable. Still is.”

While I hadn’t lived in one place longer than five years growing up, I’d spent many holidays and summer vacations with my grandparents on their farm in upstate New York. It wasn’t home, but just like Ryder said, it had been comfortable. And even though it hadn’t been in our family for generations, it was still a place Holden and I had felt loved and safe.

“Your family has been in Willow Creek a long time. I’m not sure what that’s like. The longest my family has been anywhere is my grandparents’ apple farm in Grand Orchard, and they bought that early in their marriage. The Kents have always been nomads.”

“The Hatleys have been here since the 1800s, and the McFlannigans since 1910. When my parents got married, it was like the town’s opposing royalty joining together. Not quite a Hatfield and McCoy situation, but definitely white and dark knights. Half the town thought Mama got pregnant just to trap Dad, but the other half could see they were soulmates. No matter what they believed, everyone showed up when they got married the summer after high school.”

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