Page 76 of The Last Love Song
“Already?” She looked at Heather. “We were having a great talk.”
“I think your brother wants to talk to her more.” Sam headed for the door. “’Night, Heather.”
Gabriella stood with a sigh, although she leaned back to squeeze Heather’s shoulder. “Don’t forget what I said.”
Heather rose. “Of course. So good to see you again.”
They hugged in the way women who hardly knew each other would. But even as he thought as much, he couldn’t deny a warmth in his chest to sense an accord between two of the people he cared most about in the world. He’d always admired the closeness of Heather’s family, even if she thought it was too much sometimes.
The room quieted in a hurry after Sam and Gabriella left.
“I should probably get back, too.” Heather drifted closer to him, peering at him through her lashes. “Bethany and Nina will wonder where I’ve gone.”
“They didn’t look terribly concerned about you when I walked up.” He remembered the way her sisters-in-law had scattered to the breeze. “Do you want to text them and tell them I’ll take you home?”
“I’d really like that.” She paused a few inches away from him and he couldn’t resist folding her in his arms.
Taking a taste of her neck.
“I should grab my phone, though,” she murmured in his ear. “As incredible as that feels.”
“Right.” He edged away. “Plus, I need to get you out of the Merchants Building. As charming as it might have been in a pinch.”
Laughing, Heather keyed in something on her phone.
“There. All yours.” She slid the device into her bag and closed the gap between them again.
And as much as he wanted to take her home and bring her to bed, he needed to tell her about the investigation.
“We found the missing money.”
She stopped midstride. “Is it bad news?” Her voice wobbled. “I’ve never thought my father would do something like that.”
He held her hands. Squeezed.
“Your father was a good man.” He knew that now more than ever. “It turns out he did take the money, Heather. But he put it back eventually. He just didn’t do a good job with the bookkeeping, so it made it tough to track it down.”
“He took it?” She half fell, half sat on the futon, their voices echoing in the mostly empty concrete-block structure.
“He borrowed it.” Zach had worked on a press release at home so he would get the words right when they met with the media tomorrow. “He used it for an experimental drug for your mom’s bipolar disorder. Well, experimental back then. I looked it up and it’s widely prescribed now to augment more traditional therapy. He imported a very expensive antipsychotic drug from overseas.”
Heather covered her eyes.
“Heather?”
“How are you going to tell that to the papers?” She dragged her hand down her face, tears glinting in her eyes. “People hear ‘antipsychotic’ and think my mother is…psychotic.”
“Intelligent people won’t. But you can review the press release I’m writing and we can use the wording that your family prefers.”
“You’d let me do that?”
“Of course. Sam won’t care. The money is found. It went back into the recreation department fund when your father restocked the softball league with all new bats, helmets and catchers’ equipment.”
“I remember when he bought all that stuff.” She sniffled. “I can’t believe he took money from the town.”
“Borrowed. His business was successful, but he needed cash for the purchase and pulled out whatever he could liquidate quickly.”
“It was wrong and he would have been the first to say it was wrong. But still, I’m touched he would take such a risk on medicine for my mom.” She raked her hair out of her eyes, blinking away tears. “He avoided home so much. I know her illness was hard on him. It makes me glad to think he really was trying to help her in his own way.”
