Page 12 of Vanishing Point
She looked away, gestured toward the kitchen. “Rosalie tricked me into coming. Her date fell through, and she said she couldn’t bear celebrating love alone. But she couldn’t bail on her boss’s engagement party, and Audra’s a big, mean stick-in-the-mud who hates parties, so Ihadto come and let Audra watch Magnolia.” She gestured over to where Rosalie was taking a shot with the bride-to-be. “I think she just wanted a designated driver.”
“She’s a tricky one.”
Vi laughed. “Yeah. I assume you know the bride or groom?”
“Both, kind of. Two of Dunne’s brothers are married to my cousins. You remember Zara and Hazeleigh, right?”
“Sure. The triplets.”
“Amberleigh passed away, so it’s just the two of them now. With my parents in Arizona, and their mom passed, I tend to be folded into the holiday celebrations, so I’ve gotten to know Dunne and Quinn. Besides, I deal with Quinn and her PIs, like your cousin, at work from time to time.”
“No escaping the ties in Bent County, is there?”
He wasn’t sure she said that disparagingly or with a kind of wistfulness. He’d never left, so he couldn’t really imagine. Maybe it was both. “You said you’ve been back for a while, and it’s taken me this long to run into you.”
“And now we’ve run into each other twice in two weeks.”
“Must be fate.”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes, but her smile didn’t dim. “You don’t believe in fate.”
“Didn’t.”
“Oh really? And what changed your mind?”
He thought about the stories he could tell, about people in this room alone. The horrible things they’d seen, butsomethinghad brought them to the other side. A better, happier side.
But those weren’t his stories to tell. Still, he had some of his own. And one even involved her, sort of.
“About eight years ago, when I was still a very young and eager deputy, two armed men stormed the station to free someone we had in holding. They were connected to the mob, on the search for their boss’s kid. It was a whole thing.”
“Clearly.”
“Anyway, seconds before they come in and fire the first shot, I was standing at the front desk talking to someone on the phone. I hung up, and I saw something out of the corner of my eye on the ground. A little flash of silver. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, probably, but it was a dime.”
He watched her face, the bolt of recognition that changed her expression from a little uncomfortable, to more invested.
“I remembered how you always said a dime was a sign from your grandfather saying hello. I didn’t think any spirits were saying hello to me, but still, because of your story I bent down and picked it up. The first shot—that likely would have got me in the head—missed me.” He could still remember the way the sound had exploded around them, just as his fingers had brushed the dime on the floor. “They still shot me—but in the side. It was bad, but I survived it.”
“That…wasn’t fate,” she said but was quiet. Maybe shaken.
In fairness, it was probably too much to bring up at a party when they’d barely seen each other in fifteen years. Because ithadbeen bad. The worst he’d ever been hurt, though not the first or last time. Still, he couldn’t deny that he always remembered that dime.
“Felt like fate to me.”
She blinked, then looked down and away. He should find something more casual to talk about. Something…about the old days or…the weather. “Can I grab you a drink? Maybe we can—”
She held up her phone. “I have to go call Audra and check in on Magnolia.”
Ouch.He nodded, and even though the rejection hurt, he kept his smile in place. “Sure.”
“It was…nice seeing you again,” she said, clearly just trying to be polite and not meaning itat all. Then she smiled a little and turned to walk away.
Well, it sucked, but he figured that was that.
But he watched her go, and she looked back over her shoulder. Their eyes meeting. He knew he should keep his big mouth shut, but history was a hell of a thing.
“You know I gave you my number, but I don’t have yours,” he said, across the few steps she’d taken away.
