Home > Lost & Found (PASS #4)(4)

Lost & Found (PASS #4)(4)
Author: Freya Barker

“Hang on.” He’s out of his seat and opening the back door in a flash. “Turn your back.”

I realize my mistake the moment I feel the corset release. In a quick move I clamp the front to my chest.

“Shit.”

“Gimme a sec.”

I hear rustling behind me and then a white dress shirt is draped over my shoulders. Slipping my arms through the still warm sleeves, I fasten a few buttons before turning to face him. He’s pulling his jacket back on over his undershirt.

“Thank you so much. I was getting light-headed with the lack of oxygen.”

Sam grins wide.

“No problem. Anything else before we head to Deer Creek?”

Now it’s my turn to grin wide.

“The biggest, greasiest cheeseburger you can find me.”

 

 

Yanis

 

I drag the bin I filled with garden waste to the composting pile at the edge of my property behind the house.

Good way to kill off a weekend, gardening. When I first built the house, I contracted a landscaping company to put in the garden and maintain it for one year. Since then, I’ve done the work myself, even putting in a vegetable garden this spring.

I’ve discovered it’s relaxing, a good way to unwind and still be productive. It’s my well-kept secret, if my guys ever found out I spend my time off weeding and pruning, they’d never let me live it down.

Not to mention it gets me out of the house. I’d gone from living in a condo downtown to this remote and rambling, three-bedroom house where it can get lonely. My own fault, since I don’t exactly socialize. Last night’s fiasco is a prime example why.

I should’ve let sleeping dogs lie, that much became clear over dinner. Hell, I could read the hope in her eyes when she sat down in the booth across from me, and I felt guilty as hell for putting it there. So I manned up, had an uncomfortable conversation that hurt a good woman, and dropped her back at her apartment an hour later, reminded why I do better on my own.

My sister-in-law is of a different opinion, as she made clear when she called this morning. She invited me over for steaks and beers tonight and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Willa is a tricky one. First of all, my brother tells her everything, and furthermore she’s a social worker and is trained to assess people. She clearly isn’t above using her knowledge and insight to guilt me into accepting.

I dump my load on the pile and stop to take in the raw beauty of the high desert lands I border onto. Then I head inside for a quick shower or else I’ll be late. Dimas and Willa live on the opposite end of town, south of the river.

The door is left open a crack when I walk up to their house. I push it open and step inside.

“We’re in the back!” Willa calls out from the kitchen.

She’s at the sink with the faucet running, washing vegetables, when I walk up behind her.

“Hey.” I bend down and kiss her cheek. “What’s the occasion?”

She twists her head and shoots me a big grin.

“All in good time. Grab a beer and take one out for your brother. I’ll be a few minutes.”

Outside Dimas is scraping the grill clean. He grins at me when I hand him his beer.

“What did she threaten you with?” he asks right off the bat.

“Like I’m gonna tell you. You’ll just use it for leverage. All I’ll say is you better stay on the good side of that woman in there. She’s scary.”

Not a chance in hell I’ll share how she somehow saw me parked across from Bree’s apartment a few months ago.

It was a low moment. Bree had just come back from an assignment in Kenya I sent her on—she hadn’t been happy about that one either—and word around the office was she had a hot date with a guy she met on her flight home. I just wanted a glimpse of her, to assure myself she was okay, but ended up parked outside her apartment until I saw her getting dropped off. The guy was driving some fucking European piece of trash car he probably spent way too much money on, but at least he walked her to the door. I noticed, with some gratification, Bree quickly turned her cheek when the guy went in for a goodnight kiss.

I was out there until I saw the lights go off in her apartment before I drove home.

Not one of my finer moments, and I have no idea how the hell Willa found out about it.

“So what’s the occasion?” I ask again when we finish dinner.

My brother and his wife share a goofy look and I’m hoping it means what I think it does. Dimas let it drop he and Willa had been trying to get pregnant, without success. Last I heard they were looking at a fertility clinic, but it’s not really the kind of topic he and I talk about. I only know because Lena shares some of that stuff with me.

“We’re gonna be parents,” Dimas shares, grinning like a fool.

“That’s great news. Congratulations, guys.”

I get up and walk around the table to give him a brotherly slap on the back, before turning to Willa and giving her a proper hug.

“When are you due?”

The moment the words are out of my mouth, I want to take them back when I see the pain flash over Willa’s face.

“We’re adopting,” my brother says, walking up behind his wife and slipping his arms around her. “It’s a little boy.”

“I…I had no idea.”

“It’s still all fairly new to us too,” she says smiling. “And we weren’t sure if it was going to happen, so we didn’t want to get everyone else’s hopes up as well.”

“Doesn’t adoption take a long time?”

“Under normal circumstance, yes,” Dimas shares. “But Julie—the baby’s mother—is a friend of Willa’s sister, Connie. She’s single, found herself pregnant, and was intending to have the baby on her own. Five months into the pregnancy she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”

“Jesus…” I hiss, feeling for the woman.

“She opted for no treatments until after the baby was born, knowing full well what the risk would be,” Willa takes over. “Connie went to see her a few times in the hospital and mentioned at some point Dimi and I were having trouble getting pregnant, so Julie asked to see us. That was six weeks ago.”

“I guess she already knew she wouldn’t make it,” my brother continues. “But she wanted to have a say in what happened to her baby after she was gone.” He looks down at his wife, who sheds a few tears. “We didn’t have to think about it, we immediately agreed. Connie got Hank involved to draw up the necessary paperwork.”

Good. Hank Fredericks is a jack of all trades when it comes to the law and has been on PASS retainer for the past ten years or so. He would make sure any arrangement is airtight.

“Julie is deteriorating quickly, so they’re planning to deliver the baby by C-section on Tuesday. You’re going to be an uncle.”

Those words play over and over in my mind as I drive home. Our parents will be over the moon one of us finally gives them a grandchild to fawn over. I think they’ve long given up on looking at me for offspring. The thought leaves me grim.

Once home, I flip the TV on for a bit of distraction and catch the entertainment section of the news. The flash of a red carpet catches my eye and I turn up the volume to listen to the anchor talk about the movie premiere I sent Bree to attend. They show a couple of actors arriving and then another limo pulling up. I recognize Roddy Cantrell getting out and reaching his hand out for someone.

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