Page 56 of Once Upon a Holidate
Joylyn paused, as if considering the suggestion. “Maybe. I spent Christmas Eve with him every year, and we would get up at five to see what Santa had left at his place. Then we went out for breakfast and got to my mom’s at about seven. He stayed all day. Even when he was married to Sandy, he did that with me.”
She finished the coffee cake. “He always took off the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and we always went up in the mountains to play in the snow. One year there just wasn’t any in the mountains outside of Phoenix so he drove us all the way to Utah so we could have our day.”
“Those are great memories.”
“They are.”
“You should talk to him.”
Joylyn stiffened. “What about?”
“The real reason you stopped seeing him. You’re angry because he hasn’t guessed what it is. Here’s my life secret—no one can read your mind, and if you’re waiting for that to happen, you’re going to be disappointed for the rest of your life. You love your dad and you miss him. The only way to fix the problem is to tell him what’s wrong.”
She thought Joylyn might burst into tears or start screaming or even run out of the room. Instead, she sucked in a breath and nodded.
“You’re right. I should do that. I don’t know if I can, but I need to try.”
Chapter Ten
Garrick was weary to the bone. His morning had started at three with an Amber Alert. The missing kid was a four-year-old boy who had been taken by his noncustodial father. While Happily Inc didn’t have a lot of crime, bad stuff happened everywhere. His officers had issued the alert and started patrolling the area, looking for the man’s car. The father’s violent past had added urgency to the search.
The department had been contacted by a concerned citizen who had heard screaming while on a morning run. Garrick had joined his officers on the edge of the desert and had found the boy and his dad, setting up camp. The father had defied the police order to put up his hands. Instead, he’d gone for his gun. When the shooting had stopped, two officers were injured, the man was dead, but the boy was safe. Traumatized, but safe.
Garrick had spent the rest of the day dealing with the paperwork that followed a situation like that. The boy had been bruised from a beating, but otherwise physically all right. Back in town, the mother had a black eye and a broken arm. Garrick had insisted that in addition to a medical checkup that theyboth got counseling to deal with the aftermath of what they’d been through. He didn’t believe killing a suspect was ever a positive outcome, but sometimes there wasn’t a choice and every now and then, he thought maybe the world was better off because of it. This was one of those days.
He’d spoken with all the officers involved in the shooting, visited the two injured officers at the hospital, been reassured they would be released in the morning and had given an accounting to the local TV station. Garrick told himself the kid and the mother were safe and that was what mattered, but he didn’t like the reminder that the world could be a dark place, even in Happily Inc.
By the time he got home, he wanted nothing more than a shower, a beer and a couple of hours of watching his favorite football team kick someone’s ass. Instead, he found his daughter pacing in the living room.
“I heard,” she said, staring at him wide-eyed. “About that man kidnapping his son. There was a shoot-out. Are you all right?”
She sounded worried, which felt kind of nice. Without thinking, he held open his arms, before remembering that for some reason, Joylyn didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. Only instead of rejecting him, she raced into his embrace and hung on tight.
“I was so scared,” she said.
“I’m fine. I wasn’t in any danger.”
He held her, aware of the differences in her body. Her huge belly got between them, reminding him that his little girl was a grown woman and soon to be a mother herself. He thought about how scared the boy’s mom had been and knew if something like that ever happened to Joylyn, he would move heaven and earth to keep her safe.
She stepped back. “Did you go to the shoot-out?” she asked.
“It wasn’t a shoot-out. It’s not like in the movies.”
She glared at him. “Did the suspect have a gun and did he fire at officers?”
“Yes.”
“Were any of them injured?”
Damn. “A couple.”
“So you were in danger.”
“I was coordinating the action. I wasn’t in the direct line of fire.”
“But you still could have been shot.”
“I suppose, but I wasn’t. I’m fine.”
