Page 69 of Mine to Keep

“How about if I pick up a security system when I get off work tomorrow morning? There are some decent, inexpensive ones that are easy to install. I can do it first thing.”

“I can’t afford it right now,” she said.

“You can’t afford to have sleepless nights. It’s not good for you. It could affect your breast milk, and that wouldn’t be good for Zadie. I won’t buy anything that’s outrageous, and I will insist on you paying me back.”

She bit back a sob. She knew he was nothing like Timothy. Jamison was a good man. Flawed, but decent.

However, she couldn’t rely on anyone, especially a man. If she became too entangled with Jamison, he could use it against her. She didn’t want to believe he’d be that way, but she knew from experience that it was entirely possible.

“Jamison. I appreciate you and everything you’ve—”

“Bryn. We’re friends, right?”

“Yes,” she said, but how else would she answer that question. If she said no, she was a total bitch. If she hesitated, she might give him the wrong impression. She couldn’t afford to do that. “But even best friends don’t go out and buy this kind of gift—”

“It’s not a gift. You’re paying me back for it, remember? I’ll take money out of your paycheck and lead commissions.”

She could live with that. “Okay. It’s a deal.”

“Good. I’m sorry. There’s a call coming in. I’ve got to run. Text or call if you need anything at all. Promise?”

“Promise.” She ended the call and dropped her head back, rocking slowly. She wanted to believe that Jamison was a kind man. A true gentleman.

But it was hard when her late husband had started off much the same way.

Jamison satin the station’s break room on the final night of a seventy-two-hour shift. He picked at a muffin and sipped some tea. He generally didn’t like pulling anything longer than forty-eight hours, and it wasn’t often granted, but the flu had been going through the house, and they’d needed bodies. Other than pestering Bryn, Jamison hadn’t much else to do.

Well, that was a lie. He had quoted a deck and building a new dock on the canal. Both had accepted his bid, and he would start work on one tomorrow and the other next week. Plus, he still had to put the finishing touches on Bryn’s built-ins.

Taking on this extra shift was more about avoiding his family after Nancy’s party. He’d even stayed for another two hours after sulking on the beach, which had shocked everyone so much, they’d had no clue what to say to him. That had been kind of fun to see, his brothers approaching him all tongued-tied. That didn’t happen often.

Of course, then there had been his lunch with his mom. That still disturbed him, especially knowing that she planned to do an interview with Jon Kaplan. The subject matter might be about being a woman in what some considered a man’s job, but her life choices would be brought into it. There was no doubt about that.

He stared at his cell. He’d contemplated calling Bryn at least five times, but after the last text, she’d made it clear that she was fine. That she was no longer shaken from the morning’s events, and that Nathan had taken her statement. While she’d never seen the boy they had arrested, Nathan had told her that he worked at the local discount store and had been stealing from open cars and houses in the neighborhood for weeks.

But checking on her wasn’t the only reason he wanted to call her. He wanted to hear her voice, and that was a thought that terrified him on many levels. He hadn’t felt this way since he’d first started developing deep emotional ties to his ex-wife, and look where that’d landed him.

Not that Bryn was anything like Cheryl. Far from it. But that wasn’t the point.

The sound of feet shuffling across the floor pulled him from his thoughts. He glanced over his cell.

Troy.

Another relationship he was trying to mend. Only this one should be a lot easier. His family was complicated. You couldn’t choose family. He had no control over who he was blood-related to.

But his friends and brothers by choice? Those, he could pick to his heart’s content.

Troy had fucked up. There was no doubt about that. He’d shit on their friendship and broke the bro-code.

Worse, they worked together, and that had put the entire station on edge. The first few months after Jamison had separated from Cheryl, his captain had made sure that he and Troy were on opposite shifts. But that wasn’t fair to ask that to continue, and both he and Troy could set aside their differences. It never interfered with their job performance.

“Hey, man,” Troy said.

“What’s going on?” Jamison asked. He pretended that he was interested in the news program on the television that hung in the corner of the kitchen. The volume had been turned down, but he could still hear it.

“I’m starving all of a sudden. Do you know if there is any of that lasagna left?”

“I believe so,” Jamison said. “You can heat me up some while you’re at it. This muffin isn’t doing anything for me.”

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