Page 4 of Vanishing Point
They werebothhealthy and safe. And no matter her failures, that was all that could matter.
Except in this moment, Vi’s high school sweetheart was feeding her baby medicine. On a dark street in the middle of their hometown.
Vi wished she could travel back in time. For a blinding, painful moment. She’d take their breakup moment over this one, and that had been…
Awful. Gut-wrenching. Because no amount of being foolish and eighteen and desperately in love with each other had allowed their dreams for a future to match.
What would her life have been like if she’d compromised?
The question nearly took her out at the knees. She’d crumble under the weight of all those what-ifs if she gave this any more time. “Thank you. Thank your friends for me. I really have to go.”
He handed the now-empty syringe and box to her. “They insisted.”
She swallowed at the lump in her throat. “Thanks.”
“Any time.”
He stepped back. Once. Twice. “Hope I see you around, Vi.” Then he turned and walked away.
She did not return the sentiment but noted he didn’t drive away until she did.
Chapter Two
Thomas didn’t consider himself a stick-in-the-mud. He’d learned in his years as a deputy and then a detective that, sometimes, a few rules had to be bent.
But if he looked Vi Reynolds up in the county’s computer system, he definitely wasn’t bending rules for the right reasons. Just to satisfy his curiosity. Which wasn’t right.
But he hadn’t been able to get the other night out of his head.
He knew fifteen years changed a person. Hell, he was hardly the guy he’d been at eighteen. Being a cop had changed him, hardened him in some ways, matured him in others. No doubt Vi had gone through her fair share of growing up and maturing in fifteen years.
But she’d seemed sad. Beat down. More than just because of a screaming baby. Like life had been considerably unkind.
Which shouldn’t matter to him. They hadn’t kept in touch. He didn’t know her anymore. Hell, she had a kid and probably a husband.
But the interaction had settled inside of him, like yet another regret when it came to her.
Now she was back, or near Sunrise anyway, where she’d always claimed she didn’t want to be.
He hadn’t been able to leave back then—in high school he’d worked hard to complete a program to go to community college for free. He’d had a plan to move straight into the policeacademy once he turned twenty-one. He hadn’t been able to afford to go anywhere else.
Vi’d had big dreams and a full ride to Clemson. Premed. Get out of small-town Wyoming. Get away from her parents’ constant fighting. Build her own big, beautiful, amazing life.
He had loved her, wanted her to have all those things, but he knew he didn’t fit in her plans. The end had been hard, but he’d always been pretty certain it was the right thing for both of them, no matter how hard.
Over the years, when none of his relationships had worked out, he’d always wondered what might have been different if he’d been able to find a way. Move almost across the country with nothing in his pocket, make something work.
But mostly, he felt he’d ended up right where he should, so how could he regret the choices that had led him there?
“Going to stare at that screen any longer?”
Thomas looked up from his laptop to his current partner, standing in the doorway of their shared office.
Copeland Beckett was a rare out-of-state transfer. Most Bent County deputies were homegrown, or at least from Wyoming, and that meant those in charge tended to be Bent County natives and tended to promote from within their community.
But when Laurel had gone out on maternity leaveagain, Sheriff Buckley had decided Copeland—what with his big-city experience in Denver—should take her place in the detective bureau.
Bent County was growing, and with growth came more complicated cases. Thomas wouldn’t be surprised if by the time Laurel got back, they’d have to be a three-person department.
