Bryce Rolland stood in the doorway to his father’s office, his face half-obscured in the shadows. “What are you doing?”
Ian stepped in front of his son and stood up straighter. “I went to visit your dad, and he told me I could find the file here. Please, I was just looking for some answers.”
Bryce stepped forward, and Ian saw the tightness around the man’s eyes and the way his hands curled into tight fists. “You have no right to be here. This is my father’s old office, and you’re trespassing.”
“I wouldn’t need to if you were answering the phone.” Ian took a few steps forward, his hands held up on either side of him. “You’d want answers too. We weren’t going to take anything except for my mom’s file.”
Bryce’s nostrils flared, and his entire body was shaking. “Get out before I call the cops.”
Jeff ushered Dean away, and Jonathan sank his nails into Ian’s arm. In spite of his reluctance, Ian allowed himself to be led away, but he felt Bryce’s eyes on them the entire time. He didn’t breathe until he and Dean were in his car, with Jeff and Jonathan following closely behind.
Ian kept checking his mirrors and muttering. “That was too close.”
Dean released a deep, shaky breath. “What now?”
Ian exhaled and gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I honestly have no idea.”
Chapter Fifteen
Ian poked his head through the door. “You ready to go?”
Lucy was fastening on a pair of earrings and using her other hand to pat her hair. “Almost.”
Ian pushed the door open and stepped into their room. “You look beautiful, Luce.”
Butterflies erupted in his stomach at the sight of her in a long skirt with stockings, knee-length boots, and a soft, cream-colored sweater he’d gotten her a few Christmases ago. When she spun around to face him, a smile hovering on the edge of her lips, Ian stopped breathing altogether.
How did he get so lucky?
And how did she still take his breath away all these years later?
Lucy touched a hand to her hair. “What is it? Do I not look okay?”
Ian blinked and shook off the daze. “You look amazing. Even better than the day we first met.”
“You were the scrawniest freshman I’d ever seen.”
“Just think…if I hadn’t decided to take a few courses at the community college, we never would’ve met.”
“Unless I’d joined the police academy,” Lucy teased, pausing to toss her hair over her shoulders. “Can’t you just picture me in a uniform?”
“I think you’d look hot,” Ian offered with a grin. He held his arm out and waited for her to tuck her hand into the crook of his elbow. “And I can tell you all about it during dinner. We’re going to be late.”
Lucy allowed herself to be led out into the hallway. “You know we didn’t have to do anything, right?”
“It’s our anniversary. Of course, I was going to plan something.”
Because, for the first time in a while, they were in a good place, and Ian wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to show Lucy how much she meant to him.
Or to celebrate the day the two of them had agreed to be partners in life.
In silence, they descended the stairs and made a beeline for the door. Ian tried not to think of his mom’s case or the fact the trail had gone cold. When they got into the car, he kept his attention focused on his wife and the empty road ahead. A few blocks away, Ian pulled up into a spot overlooking the pier and the lines of people gathered outside the restaurants.
He pushed his way to the front and murmured his name.
The maître d’ led them past rows and rows of wooden tables, all of them with well-dressed couples laughing and smiling. They were seated at a table next to the window, overlooking the harbor and the half-shaped moon hanging low in the sky. Lucy took a menu from the waiter and hid her face behind it.
Ian glanced around at the cream-colored walls and the picture frames hung up on either side of him. Then he swung his gaze back to Lucy, who was trying to hide the fact she was on her phone. He ignored the low thrum of disappointment, picked up his own menu, and scanned it. Lucy barely said more than afew words to him when the waiter emerged and jotted down the order.
