Page 32 of Rescued Faith

“The important thing is, what are you doing about your lady love being back?” Logan’s taunting tone didn’t improve Bryce’s mood.

“Not doing anything but my job. It doesn’t matter to me at all that she’s here.” He set the air tank he’d been checking back on the shelf.

“We shared a womb. I think I know you well enough to know when you’re lying. Maybe even to yourself.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He reached for another tank.

“Nice try. She messed you up.”

Logan would know. He’d been there in the aftermath. Trying to keep Bryce in line when he went on a wild spree doing things he shouldn’t do to forget her. Driving him home when he was too drunk to drive. Helping him find the truth and the light when everything went so very dark.

He let the weight of the tank fall and set it on the floor. “Look, I thought we had a good thing going.” Really good. He’d been picturing them together, considering something long-term. Permanent even. “And then she left. End of story.”

“You let her go. Without a fight.”

“Do you know how many times I tried to call or text her? She blocked me. I never heard from her again. After a month of that, I got the hint. She’d moved on. And I did too.” He checked the air pressure, wrote it down.

“Funny. I remember it differently. But you know, I’m not sure that you would’ve come to faith if she hadn’t left. Maybe there was a reason for all of this.”

“Then why is she back now? Is this supposed to be some kind of test? See if I’ve really changed?”

“I don’t think God works like that. Why did she say she’s back?”

The air tank clanked as he set it back on the shelf. “She’s working a case. Staying with her sister who moved out here.”

“Think you’ll give it another go?”

“No way. I mean, she’s great. But obviously whatever we had is long gone. But I do have to work with her. We were both recruited for this task force. Trying to figure out why we have a string of explosions and why some girl Penny is chasing down brought a bag of Glock clips to Last Chance.”

“So you have to investigate with her?”

“Yup.”

“And how’s that going?”

Bryce leaned against the truck. “I don’t know. I’m trying to play it cool. And she did apologize for leaving without a word. I even explained about Ashlee.”

“What did she say?”

“Not much. She said she believed me.”

“So maybe this is all about you getting some closure. And you can move on.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

Closure. Moving on. Bryce didn’t like the sound of those words at all. But they made sense. Did that mean he was destined to spend the rest of his life with someone like Sarai? Someone bland and boring? And…wait. He needed to tell Logan.

“Speaking of old flames, you should hear about Jamie Winters.”

“What about her?” Logan’s voice was strained.

Bryce could practically see the hackles rising on his twin.

If Logan wanted to talk about broken hearts and past relationships, Bryce at least had a little ammunition of his own. “You sure you wanna know? You two are ancient history, right?”

“Spill it. Now.” Bryce pictured Logan, hands probably fisted, mouth tight, brown eyes drawn.

“Touchy, touchy. Relax. It’s not even that big of a deal. I ran into her the other night. She told me she’s leaving Last Chance. I thought you’d wanna know.”

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