Page 8 of Callahan

Brian looked over my shoulder and murmured, “I’ll be damned. He really was going to ask her to marry him.”

“You seem surprised.”

“I am, a little. I think maybe they were keeping their relationship quiet because—”

“She’s not Catholic.”

“Yeah. His parents accept Lainey now, but I think that’s mainly so she’ll allow them to be in Conor’s life. I don’t think they’d be as welcoming if their grandson wasn’t involved. And I know if Lainey hadn’t agreed to let him be baptized in the church in October, Granny would have already snuck him off and had him baptized by Father Daniels.”

I laughed, but I got the feeling he was only half-joking.

His radio crackled with a dispatcher asking, “Sierra Four, what’s your twenty?”

Brian clicked the microphone clipped to his shoulder.

“Still at two thirty-seven Oak Street. I’ll be clearing shortly.” He looked at me and nodded toward the hall. “Come on. I probably should get back to work.”

Chapter Five

Lainey

The after-lunch crowd had thinned out to only the college student in the corner taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi. When she left, I brought Conor down to the bakery in his carrier after nursing him again.

Although he’d received his first round of vaccinations at his doctor’s appointment last week, I was hesitant to allow him around people since his little immune system was still developing.

Paulina had clocked out, so it was just me and my son. From his spot on the counter in his infant seat, Conor supervised me wiping the tables and chairs. I turned the music up and danced around, using the rag as a choreography prop, trying to get him to laugh.

My little dude didn’t know what to think when I grabbed the broom and used it as a microphone to belt out the lyrics to Bruno Mars’ “Runaway Baby,” as I bopped around to the beat.

While doing a spin move I thought would make any pop star envious, I noticed a man standing at the front of the store watching me with a grin and let out a scream.

I rushed to turn the volume down and his deep voice sounded amused when he said, “Please, don’t stop on my account.”

I caught sight of myself in the mirror on the wall. I wasn’t sure if my face was beet red from embarrassment or exertion from my performance. Maybe a little of both.

Still, I turned around with my best customer-service smile, trying to mask my mortification, then decided to just own it.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there!”

“I had a feeling…”

The man was the same one I’d seen walking along the sidewalk earlier. Because, of course it was. That’s how my luck ran. It couldn’t have been Mr. Morrison, the eighty-year-old man who owned the hardware store next door, who caught me making a fool out of myself. No, it had to be the handsome hottie.

He continued, “I didn’t want to interrupt.”

I really needed to get that damn door chime fixed.

****

Adam

Brian and I had pulled into a parking space in front of the bakery I’d noticed earlier. I hadn’t realized it was Lainey’s at the time, but Brian filled me in on the drive over about how she’d used some of the money Shawn had left her to buy it.

Before we even got out of the car, a woman in the front of a store two doors down from the bakery was waving madly at Brian trying to get the sergeant’s attention.

“I’ll be right in,” he’d told me as he gestured toward the bakery front.

I walked inside the shop, and there she was. The most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on. Dancing around, singing to her baby on the counter with reckless abandon.

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