Page 96 of Crosshairs

Even so, he put his body between her and the road and guided her to his Tahoe. “Rose’s house?”

“I guess, although I don’t think I can eat. I’d rather go to the hospital and check on Cora and Drew and then stop by Connie Hanover’s room and talk to her.”

“I think your grandmother is expecting you at her house,” he said as she climbed in the passenger seat.

“I know.”

The defeat in her voice pierced him. He shut her door and walked to the driver’s side and slid across the seat. “You want to talk about what happened in there?”

“No.”

O-kay. Without another word, he started the SUV and drove to Rose’s with the patrol car following them. “Good service,” he said.

“I suppose. Are you going to eat with us?”

“Hadn’t planned on it, but if that’s an invitation, I accept.”

That got a tiny smile from her. “Gran will expect you to stay. Along with Shawn.”

“Shawn?”

“The police officer.”

He hadn’t known his name, and Ainsley was right—Rose would want the officer to come in and eat. The faint aroma of cinnamon and baked apples greeted them when they entered through the back door to the kitchen. “Something smells good,” he said.

“Gran made an apple pie.” Her phone dinged, and she fishedit out of her purse. “She will be fifteen minutes late,” Ainsley said, looking up.

Linc suspected she was giving them time to talk. “Feel like talking about what happened back at church now?”

“No.” She turned and stared out the window. After a minute, she released a breath. “If I’d had any idea anyone would ask me to sing, I would’ve stayed home.”

“Is there something wrong with your voice?” he asked.

“Other than I can’t sing? No.”

He tried again. “You’ve always had a beautiful voice. What happened?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “The doctors don’t know.” She grabbed a napkin from the table and blotted her eyes. “You really want to hear this?”

“I do.”

Ainsley got a glass of water from the tap and took a sip. “It was supposed to be my big break,” she said, her back to him. “I’d worked my way up to singing duets with the lead singer, and they were going to let me do a solo near the end of the show. Halfway through the song, my voice cracked and then no sound came out of my mouth.”

He’d expected anything but this. “I’m sorry.”

She hugged her arms to her waist and continued like she hadn’t heard him. “I rested my voice for a month and then another month, but it didn’t help. That’s when my agent cut me loose.” She turned to him with tears in her eyes again. “And now you know the whole truth. You and Dad were right. I didn’t have what it takes to be a singer.”

Ainsley looked so miserable he wanted to take her in his arms. Instead, he said, “How do you know after all this time your voice will fail you?”

“Don’t you think I’ve tried? Not as much as I did early on, but it doesn’t make any difference—my voice still cracks. I can’t hold a note.”

He didn’t know what to say. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not that I want to sing professionally again. I’d just like to sing, like today at church.”

He never expected to see Ainsley broken like this. And some of it was his fault. “I had no right to tell you what to do,” he said softly. “I was being selfish.”

Ainsley raised her gaze, a question in her eyes. “I don’t understand.”

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