Page 23 of No Love Lost

Troy took over the conversation, giving him a moment to compose himself. Then he introduced his girlfriend, Piper, and Sean’s Branna.

The group took the booth behind Heath, and he shifted to lean his back against the window so he could keep involved with the conversations.

Nina kept grinning at him and saying things. I’m so glad I liked you before I got to meet you. Mom was right about you.

His heart was going to burst right in the middle of a Scottish diner serving tacos.

Addy was glad that she didn’t need to contribute much to the conversation. Her mind was reeling.

Heath was the Slick she’d heard about for years. Years. And she’d never known it was him. It seemed impossible that she hadn’t seen a picture of the men’s army team. Impossible that no one had used his real name.

When Nina popped out of the booth to greet a friend, Heath turned in his seat and took her hand across the table. “You okay?”

She automatically nodded, but then she shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve been hearing these stories for years. Why didn’t I ever ask what Slick’s real name was? How did I never see a photo of the whole group? We could have brought you into our lives years ago.”

His face reflected her sorrow. “Maybe it was meant to be this way. Maybe we wouldn’t have been ready to believe each other.”

Her eyes flooded, and she ducked her head. Heath knew because, of course he did. He held her hand and rubbed her fingers while she pulled herself together. No sobbing in public. Heath’s touch grounded her, and it didn’t take long for her to suck back the tears.

Her heart was warm. Nina was right. They’d liked him before they knew him. While Heath and Nina hadn’t had the chance to make memories together, her daughter still had some memories about her dad to cherish.

When Nina bounced back, the group moved the conversation to lighter topics, although his Army buddies made a point to talk Heath up at every turn. They were really great people.

Their paths had been overlapping in recent years and it was overwhelming her that if she’d only heard his name mentioned even once, it would have changed everything. But the guys used call signs when they talked about their Army days. Actually, they still used them enough that she knew the only one from their team who wasn’t in Phail was Scooby. He’d lost his K-9 partner overseas, and all the men were worried about him.

They’d been worried about Slick, too. Worried that his life in the financial world didn’t fulfill him. Concerned because they knew Slick’s family were racist snobs who he mostly ignored and who mostly ignored him because he didn’t follow in their footsteps. Which left him with no true family.

They’d also worried about his heart. Because they knew he’d been ghosted by a girl he’d loved when his parents had insisted he join the Army on his eighteenth birthday.

She’d known all of that about him. If she’d put the name and the background together, she might have reached out years earlier. He and Nina might have had more years together.

Guilt swamped her, but she tried to battle it down. They couldn’t change the past and she had enough regrets without adding more. Maybe it was time to branch out into writing for adults. She could pour a lot of this story into fiction, and perhaps that would help her deal with the pain.

She’d done that with her blog, A Kid Having A Kid. It had been a way of writing about her fears and hopes when she’d been alone. The response to it had blown her away. So many people who’d been living in the same situation. So many people who’d survived it.

The blog had grown quickly until she’d gained sponsors. Then, a book deal. Her world had changed. Not in a buy a mansion and travel the world way. It had been much better than that.

Those things had given her an income she enjoyed in addition to her serving jobs. It had also given her the nudge she’d needed to try her hand at writing for publication.

Her choices had been influenced by Nina. Baby board books for Ojibwe parents. Story books about brave girls exploring the world. A middle-grade series about an Indigenous girl, Bini, who solves mysteries with her friends. And now her new series aimed at teens based on Zigi, who lived in a future world.

None of those projects had made her rich, but they paid the bills and gave her joy at the same time. Not everyone was that lucky.

But she would have been luckier if she’d figured out Slick’s story earlier. She was a storyteller, and therein lay the guilt. She should have at least questioned the background. Although she wouldn’t have known Heath thought she’d ghosted him.

Below the diner table, Heath nudged her foot and brought her back to the conversation around her. Nina and the others were used to her being quiet. Heath knew, too.

But the soft smile he aimed her way proved he knew the direction of her thoughts. The regrets. He mouthed the words, it’s all good.

That had her smiling back. If he believed it, she would try to as well.

Nina turned to her. “Do you need to get more words in this afternoon, or do you think we could show Slick around the town?”

The slight emphasis on Slick had Addison smiling. Her bright daughter had figured out how to get around the Dad/Heath dilemma all on her own. That didn’t surprise her in the least.

“I got a lot done while you were working with Kimi, so I’m free for the rest of the day.” In reality, she wasn’t sure if she’d met her word count goal for the day, but it wouldn’t matter. She’d stay up later or get up early if she had to. Helping Heath and Nina build a relationship was the most important thing.

When the two of them grinned at her, she laughed. “Your smiles are exactly the same.”

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