Page 74 of Long Road Home

Kenna held the phone to her ear, the screen cold on her cheek. Even behind sunglasses, the glare from the sun reflecting off a fresh blanket of snow was nearly blinding.

“Did you think about what I said?” Theo asked.

“About appreciating what I have, not worrying about losing it?” She scanned the sky, leaning back against the sheriff’s department cruiser. “I’m trying to do that, but his plane hasn’t landed yet.”

He chuckled. “I’ll distract you then.”

“Please tell me you got Forrest’s alibi.” She bounced one knee, and switched to looking at the small buildings in this tiny airport. Two hangars. One office building, single story that looked like a trailer or portable classroom at best. The air traffic control tower was basically a shack.

“The lawyer told me to leave it alone.”

“In a way that makes you confident he’s got this handled?” She’d been over to the sheriff’s office once, last night. Forrest had been talking to the psychologist who worked in town. Dr. Jennifer Rayland, the deputy’s mother. She’d offered to buy the lawyer a cup of coffee, but he’d been headed back to his hotel room to get to work and they’d barely spoken. He’d better be worth every single penny of the considerable amount of money she was paying him.

“But I’m not gonna let this go,” Theo said.

Kenna didn’t plan to either. She’d been resting physically the past two days, but hadn’t quit working. “Did you tell him who you are?”

Theo chuckled. “That would’ve been fun.”

“We need to find someone who saw her nowhere near the diner anytime around the morning. So there’s no possible way she could’ve done it. There has to be a way to prove she didn’t do it.”

“Beyond a reasonable doubt.” Theo made a noise in his throat.

The lawyer, Lucas Amrand, might be fighting it, but it wouldn’t be long before Forrest was transferred to jail. She shouldn’t be behind bars in the first place. Kenna couldn’t imagine what her friend was going through. Having her freedom taken away like that—especially if she was innocent. Forrest lived life on her terms, alone with her grief in a way that meant she could find contentment in what she had left.

Kenna had been the same way for a long time. She had a wider circle now, but Forrest seemed to be stuck where Kenna lived after Bradley’s death. Going through the motions settled into routine, which became her way of life.

Peace looked different for everyone.

Healing didn’t always mean a person returned to who they had been before life tore them apart. Maybe it wasn’tsupposed to happen that way at all. Kenna was different now. There was no way she could be who she’d been years ago.

Even God made everything new—and everyone—so He had to understand that things changed. They needed to. The same way they did naturally with new seasons. This snow would melt. Plants would grow. Life went on, and things never stayed the way they were.

An airplane that had been sitting at the end of the runway revved its engines and started to pick up speed, a prop plane that would seat four at most. The kind of thing she’d be scared to fly in because it was so small. She preferred the huge airliners that went across the Atlantic.

Maybe Jax wanted to explore Europe with her. She could show him the places she’d gone with her dad before he disappeared for three days on a case, and she had to stay in the hotel room.

The airplane buzzed down the runway, sliding sideways. She winced, but it caught traction and took off.

“Where are you?” Theo asked. “That sounded like a plane.”

“Because it was. I’m running an errand for Sheriff Gingrich. Picking up my boyfriend from the airport.” And boy, that sounded weird to say out loud. “And getting a break from Kobrinsky’s cooking, his furniture, and the smell of his bathroom, all in one.”

Theo should’ve laughed but didn’t. Instead, he said, “Be careful.”

Kenna touched the badge hanging in front of her jacket. “No kidding. You could at least call the marshals. Find out who this guy is.”

“Operation like that? No one knows except his handlers. Which makes me wonder how your boy got a ride on the same plane.”

“The sheriff vouched for him, said he’s part of the escort detail.” Other than that, she had no idea how this all came together. While Jax was debriefing her late at night, she’d fallen asleep partway through when the pain meds she’d grudgingly taken kicked in. She hadn’t asked the next day.

“So they have extra manpower. Probably someone your boy ran into who knows him. Otherwise, they wouldn’t take someone’s word for it.”

“His name is Special Agent Jaxton, not my ‘boy.’”

“And that’s with anX, notc-k-s, right?”

Kenna frowned.

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