Page 106 of Callahan

“No, not yet.”

No sooner had he said the words than the sound of glass shattering came from downstairs.

Adam didn’t hesitate and bolted out the door like a shot. Hugh’s reflexes were a little slower, but he quickly followed after him.

I wavered, wondering if I should go down, too. It wasmybakery, after all.

Teresa held out her arms. “I’ll wait up here with him.”

“Thank you.”

With some trepidation, I made my way downstairs and into the bakery. The sight made me wish I hadn’t. In fact, it made me want to cry.

My beautiful picture window, the one I’d just had decaled with “Beaumont’s Bakery,” had been smashed. Shards of glass were everywhere. I noticed a “B” and an “A” on the pieces of glass on the floor.

“What happened?”

Adam had the phone to his ear and nodded to a rock with a yellow piece of paper rubber banded around it lying among the glass.

I leaned down to pick it up, and Adam stopped his phone conversation mid-sentence to tell me, “Don’t touch anything!”

I stood and defensively held my hands up at my chest, as if to show I hadn’t touched it.

Hugh put his arm around my shoulder and side-hugged me.

“I’m sorry, kiddo. This is nuts. I don’t think you should stay here until whoever did this is caught.”

Before I could answer, Adam approached us, having ended his call, and said, “Brian and Angus are on their way. They’ve already got the officers on patrol canvassing the area to see if anyone saw anything or if there are cameras in the area that might have recorded something.”

Hugh nodded. “That’s good. I was telling Lainey she shouldn’t stay here until whoever did this is caught.”

“I agree. Brian is bringing his truck so you can take some of your and Conor’s stuff to his place.”

I felt my spine stiffen.

“Hold on a second. I appreciate that everyone’s concerned about mine and my son’s safety. But you can’t just go around making decisions about my life without even consulting with me. Do you know how insulting that is?”

Adam’s shoulders dropped.

“You know what? You’re absolutely right. We went into crisis management mode, and assumed you’d be on board. But I should have talked to you and asked what you thought. So, let me try again. Do you want to take some of your and Conor’s things and stay at Brian’s?”

Hugh added gently, “I didn’t mean to overstep. You’re welcome at our house, too. We have a nursery already set up and you could stay in Shawn’s room.”

Now I felt like a jerk for throwing a fit when I knew they were simply looking out for me.

But I had my pride.

“Let me think about it. I’ve had a lot of information thrown at me at once, and I need time to process it. I have to call Earl, my landlord, about what we can do to file an insurance claim and get a new window installed asap. I need to figure out what I’m going to do with the bakery until the window gets replaced. No one’s going to want to come here with the front window boardedup. And on top of all that, the last thing I want to do is disrupt Conor’s schedule.”

I knew the argument was that a little schedule disruption was better than something bad happening to him. And I could tell by the way Adam clenched his jaw, that he was itching to argue exactly that. But he didn’t say anything other than, “Think about it, okay?”

So, I managed to walk outside to call Earl with a little of my dignity intact. And I appreciated Adam and Hugh for allowing me to do that.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Adam

Brian showed up in his personal truck, wearing the jeans and polo he’d had on earlier. But he’d thrown on a bulletproof vest that read “POLICE” on the back and held his badge and gun, so I guess that meant he was there in an official police capacity.

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