Page 75 of Family Bonds- Jarrett & Andi

Jack looked unsure of things. “I’m not sure everything needs to be told, but I can see in your eyes this is serious with him.”

“It is. Let’s just start small,” Jarrett said. “What’s your name? Your real name?”

“Colleen Andrea Huntington. My father’s name was US Marshal Luke Huntington. A hit was made on him and he was killed when Jack was home with food poisoning and he feels guilty that he wasn’t with my father when it happened.”

“Were you set up to not be with Luke?” Jarrett asked.

It was the first she’d heard that or even thought of it.

“That was the suspicion afterward, but no one knows for sure.”

“Who set you up?” she asked. “It’s not like you’d take food from a stranger. Though you eat out all the time. My father told me you guys were out the night before like you normally were. He didn’t get sick. He’d texted me hours before he died.”

She watched Jarrett staring at Jack. “Luke set you up to be out of the picture, didn’t he?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “My father wouldn’t do that.”

“Andi,” Jack said. “We don’t need to talk about this.”

“Yes,” she said. “We do. And having Jarrett here is going to help me get the real truth out of you. I think I deserve it.”

24

START SOMEWHERE

This wasn’t how Jarrett thought the day would go. Nor how he’d get all the truth and had a bad feeling that Andi was going to hear things for the first time too.

“You don’t look like a Colleen to me,” he said. He was looking at her and it wasn’t working.

He didn’t know if it had to do with the fact that he only knew her as Andi. Andrea didn’t even fit either, but at least it was part of her real name.

“I went by it for almost thirty years,” she said. “My paternal grandfatherdied when I was around eighteen. He used to tell me all the time I looked like his mother, Andrea. She was called Andi. No one called me it, but when I had to recreate myself, I thought why not? I didn’t think anyone would put it together.”

“And the name Benson?” he asked.

“Pulled out of a hat,” she said. “I threw all the last names of the mean girls in my grade in a hat and that is what came out. No one would think that if anyone was looking for me. Maybe they’d look at close friends or maiden names but not enemies.”

“Good point,” he said. “Someone start somewhere.”

Andi and Jack were looking back and forth at each other. “Start with my father and what happened to him, Jack. From your words because I’m learning things I hadn’t heard before and need to know.”

Jarrett turned to look at Jack but stood up and went over to sit on the couch, pulling Andi down next to him, their fingers threaded together.

He could see Jack didn’t care for that move, but he didn’t give two shits right now.

“Luke and I were partners for a few years. Hewasfifty-three when he died.”

“I was twenty-nine,” she said.

“I was thirty-six when Luke and I were paired up. I was new to the area and he took me in like a younger brother. I’ve known Andi for years. I was alone in a new area and spent a lot of time at their house.”

“You did,” she said. “And I trusted you and am not sure why I feel lied to.”

“I didn’t lie to you,” Jack said. “There were things I didn’t say because they wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome.”

“You don’t believe that,” Jarrett said.

“No,” Jack said. “I don’t believe that. And that is my guilt. But it wouldn’t have made a difference if Andi knew or not, as it wasn’t bringing Luke back.”

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