Page 145 of Trouble Comes in Threes

“No, but they’re working really hard to do just that.”

She was silent for a moment before she asked in a hushed voice. “Did my dad work for those bad men?”

My heart caught in my throat. I hated that she had to worry about that. “No, Ash. He worked for someone else, and those people are in prison too. I don’t think they’ll ever get out.”

“But my daddy will.”

“Yes. If he continues to be a model prisoner, there’s a chance he might get out a year before you graduate from high school.”

She was quiet again, the only sound the dough slapping against the counter. She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. “Do Mikey and me have to live with him when he gets out?”

My jaw dropped, and I wasn’t sure how to respond. Finally, I came to my senses. “You don’t want to live with him?”

She slowly shook her head. “He scares me.”

“Oh, Ash,” I said, covering her hand with my own. “Your daddy would never, ever hurt you.” I nearly told her that part of the reason he’d done what he’d done was to protect her and her brother, but she didn’t need that burden.

“I just want to live with you and Uncle Joe.”

“You and Mikey can live with us however long you want.” I smiled through my tears. “You can live with us until you’re forty-two, if you like.”

Her nose wrinkled. “That’s old.”

“Not as old as you think,” I said with a laugh. “But I want you and your brother to know that you are as important to us as Hope and Liam, and your home is with us for however long you want it to be. You may be my niece, but you’re just like a daughter to me. I will never, ever take your momma’s place, and I don’t want to try, but I love you all the same.”

She nodded slowly. “Do you think Momma would be mad if I called you Mom?”

My eyes and throat burned.

She hastily added. “It’s weird that me and Mikey call you Aunt Rose and Uncle Joe, but Hope and Liam call you Momma and Daddy.” She shrugged, trying to play it off. “It might be easier to say you’re my mom instead of telling people I live with my aunt.”

“I would be honored for you to call me Mom. And Joe would be thrilled for you to call him Dad. But just because you call us that doesn’t mean your Momma isn’t your Momma, and the same with your dad. Some people are lucky enough to have two moms and two dads.”

She nodded. We finished kneading the dough, then placed it in an oiled bowl and covered it with a tea towel. After Ashley washed the flour and dough off her hands, she wrapped her arms around me and said, “I love you, Mom.”

I choked back a sob and croaked out, “I love you too, Ash.”

Then she hurried out of the room, carrying a piece of my heart with her.

Chapter Thirty

The kids were exhausted by dinnertime. With their late night the day before and Uncle Albert and Witt keeping them busy on the farm, despite their short respite in the afternoon, they were practically falling asleep on their dinner plates.

Neely Kate and I got everyone bathed and tucked into bed. Muffy claimed her usual spot with Hope. Aunt Bessie and Uncle Albert, who weren’t used to all the excitement, called it an early night, leaving me, Neely Kate, and Witt to watch TV in the living room.

I’d been checking my phone all day, hoping to get updates from Joe, but he’d barely answered my texts throughout the day, except to send me mugshots of two men, asking if I’d seen them in any of my visions, specifically the one of Austin. They didn’t look familiar, and I told him so.

Jed had been just as quiet with Neely Kate, but around ten p.m., he called her. She got up and started to walk out of the room as she answered, but then stopped. “Yeah, they’re here. Hold on.” She sat on the arm of the sofa and put her phone on speaker. “Okay, they’re listening.”

“Joe’s about to make a couple of arrests,” Jed said.

I sat up straighter. “What? Who?”

“Joe and I have been doing our individual digging, and all the evidence points to Derby Sloan and his right-hand man, John Ballister. Sloan owns a gun the same caliber as the one used in the murders. Joe should get the ballistics report within the next few days, but Sloan and his buddy don’t have an alibi during the window when the forensic pathologist says the murders took place. In addition, Joe has witnesses that say Sloan was pissed at Harvey and Noah and had threatened to kill them.”

“What about Jeremiah?” I asked.

“Joe hasn’t directly tied Sloan to his murder yet, but with the other charges, that will give him time to build a case. We do know that Jeremiah had been to Sloan’s bar, so there’s every likelihood that the dealer roped him into his scheme too.”

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