Page 23 of Question Everything

“You’re an official part of our family now, Mia, no matter what comes next. You have to be in the picture. Plus, it’s what I use each year for our holiday card. That’ll get the relatives in Galway talking now, won’t it?” She laughed out loud at her own thought.

Mia held Sarah and stepped into the frame. Sibby set the timer on the camera and after making sure that everyone could be seen, jumped into the group just before the shutter snapped. “Thanks, one and all. We can set off now. Boys, mind your father and don’t run into the street.”

The large, unruly group began its trek around the neighborhood, stopping and nearly every house where Sibby would greet everyone she met. Kyle marveled at his sister. Sheknew all her neighbors and had a kind word to say wherever they went, asking after the health of the more elderly residents and making each person feel cared for and special.

Kyle hung back a bit and waited for his brothers to join him

“So, brother, tell the truth. How was the range?” Tim asked, falling into step next to Kyle.

“You passed, so it couldn’t have been that terrible,” Conor added.

“It wasn’t,” Kyle replied. “I can still shoot. I just don’t want to.”

“Yeah, you know how that goes. It does take a minute. But you’ll be reinstated fully, now, and your gun is standard issue. Don’t worry. It’s like riding a bicycle, right?”

“I really don’t think your analogy applies, Conor. I could have killed that kid.” He shrugged.

“That won’t happen again, Kyle. We all know you. It was a horrible accident. Time to put it behind you,” Tim said.

“Now it’s just the matter of getting the formal notice, brother. You’re headed back to work any day,” Conor chimed in, giving Kyle a playful punch on the arm.

“Devon seems to think so. And I’m going to call the Chief and speak to him as well. I hope so, though. It’s been rough. I’ve been losing my mind. At least working on Mia’s case has been something.”

“Is that why you brought Mia home? As a distraction?” Tim kidded.

“Not funny, man. She had nowhere else to go.”

“But she’s all recovered now, right, no more headaches? What gives? Do you plan on waiting until she remembers who she is?” Conor asked, more seriously. “Do you like this chick or something?”

Kyle drew in a breath, not wanting to reveal the feelings he had for Mia that he’d yet admitted to himself. “The headacheshave stopped, but she still has no memory of her life before the accident. I’m just trying to help her out.”

“Right man, but playing house ain’t helping,” Tim said as they rounded a corner to the next street.

“Just as soon as she remembers, she’ll be on her way. Don’t you boys worry about it, or me for that matter. I can handle this.”

Tim cast a skeptical glance at Kyle. “If you say so, brother. It just seems to me that you’re getting a little too comfortable with this arrangement. I’ll assume you’re still sleeping on the pull-out couch in your office?”

“Of course I am,” Kyle replied. “Don’t you know me? Would I mess with a single mother like that?”

“That’s assuming that she is a single mother,” Conor said under his breath. “You don’t even know that for a fact.”

“Listen you two, I appreciate the concern, I do. But I have this situation under control. No need to discuss it further.”

Kyle hoped that was enough to close the uncomfortable discussion. The truth was that he did wish he wasn’t sleeping on the couch, but rather in his own bed, with Mia. He’d never let that happen. He didn’t know if she was unattached or if she had a husband out there searching for her, but he’d be lying if he didn’t admit, at least to himself, that he found her incredibly attractive. There were nights when he had to relieve himself of some of the sexual tension between them with his own right hand. Still, he'd never let this feeling he had for her go anywhere else despite wanting her warm body beneath his own.

Kyle turned his attention to his nephews, watching them dance up and down the block, each with a pillowcase growing fuller with each stop they made. Their excitement was infectious. Sibby pushed her youngest in a stroller as Mia pushed Sarah in hers, side by side, barely fitting within the confines of the sidewalk, heads tilted toward one another in deep conversation. Kyle knew that his sister longed for close female companionshiplike this, he only prayed that Sibby would be okay when Mia did finally leave. Thinking about it further, he hoped they’d both survive it.

His parents trailed behind the two women and his brother-in-law Geoff policed the street making sure that none of the children stepped into harm’s way. The late autumn sun was shining, not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky, and the leaves that had fallen, covering the pavement, crunched under their feet. It was the suburban ideal, a perfect Halloween afternoon and for a rare moment in time, Kyle wished it was his to claim.Maybe I’ll still have this one day. A wife. A child. A house near my family.

Just then the sound of Conor’s voice pulled him out of his own thoughts. “When you go back do you think they’ll give you a new assignment, or do they think you’ll start out on desk duty first?”

Kyle was about to answer when he saw a familiar looking black sedan slowly turn the corner and pull toward the curb. He looked up at Mia, laughing at something Sibby had said, blissfully unaware of the threatening vehicle so close to her and the baby. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. There were two burly men sitting in the front seat.He hadn’t seen them since the day they parked across the street from his house, the day he called for a patrol car to check the men out.This couldn’t be a coincidence. These men were looking for Mia and this time he was going to find out exactly what they wanted for himself.

He quietly pulled his brothers a step or two back from the larger group. “Listen guys, I think we have a bit of a problem. That car, the black town car. I think those men are after Mia. They were parked outside of my condo when she first arrived, but a couple of uniforms scared them off.”

He watched as his brothers both squared their shoulders at the same time. “Here for Mia? What does that mean? Tim asked.

“At first, I thought they might be private investigators, looking for her, you know, hired by her family. But a PI wouldn’t have been so quick to disappear, especially if his fee depended on finding his target. I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling about them, like those men are not on the up and up. Something tells me that they are working for someone who has an ulterior motive.”

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