Page 115 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“Chamomile. It helps me sleep. I thought you might appreciate that.”

She sipped, and the liquid filled her middle, warming her immediately. “Thank you.”

Grace’s phone dinged. She glanced at it. “It’s Andrew wanting to know if you’re here. I assume Garrett asked him. Do you mind if I tell him, just to put their minds at ease?”

Aspen shrugged. She didn’t care what Garrett knew or didn’t know about her, not anymore.

Grace tapped on her phone’s screen and set it down. “There, that should?—”

It dinged again.

She glanced at it, then typed quickly. She didn’t look pleased.

A moment later, the doorbell rang.

Grace sighed. She tapped her phone screen once more, then turned it so Aspen could see. It was a camera view.

Garrett was standing on the stoop. Andrew was behind him, saying something. Andrew grabbed Garrett’s arm, but Garrett shrugged him off.

The bell rang again.

“I’ll get rid of him,” Grace said.

“No. It’s all right.” She was going to have to do this eventually. She walked across the living room to the front door and swung it open.

“Thank God you’re all right.” Garrett seemed genuinely relieved to see her.

Aspen had nothing to say to that.

“Look, I don’t know what you heard.”

Andrew was standing behind him, looking from him to her and back. “You want me to stay, Aspen?”

“He won’t be here long.” She turned back to Garrett. “I’ve already heard enough.”

Andrew stepped closer, gripped Garrett’s arm in some sort of guy-solidarity, then slid past Aspen into Grace’s house.

Aspen shoved her feet into the boots she’d left by the door and stepped out onto the concrete.

Grace handed out Aspen’s jacket. “Holler if you need us.”

Then, she left Aspen and Garrett alone.

Garrett said, “Listen, it’s not?—”

Aspen slipped on her coat. “You’ve been spying on me for your uncle, feeding him information about me.”

“He asked me to.” Garrett’s tone was pleading. “But I didn’t do it. I didn’t tell him anything about you except that you didn’t know where your mother was. I thought that was all he wanted to know. I thought if I told him you didn’t have any idea what happened to her, that he’d let it go. When he pressed the issue, I told him I wouldn’t betray your trust. I would never?—”

“But you did. You did pass along information about me.”

Garrett’s mouth opened. Then closed. A hard look filled his eyes. “I told him one thing, one thing only to get him off your back.”

“So you did itfor me? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what?—”

“Funny how your uncle still feelson my back.”

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