A screw in my chest tightens, a reminder of how much I’d hoped things would move in a positive direction today between Peony and her uncles. That this would be the start of the family Kenda envisioned when she wrote her final letter to me.
Lucas appears undaunted by her sudden change in demeanor, and he returns his attention to Zoe. It’s clear from the way Zoe and Kylie interact with him, any nervousness they’d once felt around him has gone.
Anyone who sees the way the three of them respond to each other would think they’re a family. A father with his two daughters.
Seconds later, Peony’s brow smooths out. She splashes the water again. Has Lucas done it—melted her distrust? I hold my breath, hoping it’s true.
As the afternoon moves on, Peony’s walls crumble. A large part of that is surely due to the way Kylie and Zoe respond to my father and brothers. The way the girls talk to them, play with them, laugh with them.
And I also credit the change due to the hockey game, with the toy sticks and the rubber ball, that broke out on the lawn a short time ago.
Peony taps the ball between the two small pylons that make up the goal. It slips past Troy, the goalie.
Kylie and Zoe cheer, and Kellan flashes Peony a quick, rare smile. She grins at him, as if realizing just how special the smile he’s gifted her is.
The game continues, with Mom declaring at the end that both sides are the victors. “Who wants their reward—strawberry ice cream?”
“Me! Me! Me!” both Kylie and Zoe excitedly respond, jumping up and down, waving their arms.
Peony mirrors their reaction, her legs pumping up and down, her feet never leaving the ground. But she doesn’t care. She’s giggling all the same, her sweet face glowing. The three girls rush over to the table with Mom.
“Any particular reason you were smelling like flowers when you first got here?” Lucas asks, eyebrow raised.
I frown, having no idea what he’s talking about.
Oh, shit.Zara’s bath salts. I didn’t consider that when I climbed into the water with her. I only noticedshesmelled incredible, like she always does, while I was reading to her.
My chuckle is forced, but it sounds somewhat genuine to my ears. Good enough to fool my brothers.
Lucas, Troy, and Kellan watch me, seemingly waiting for my reply.
“I didn’t smell like flowers.” I glance at Athena. She has moved near the back door, far enough away to not overhear us, and isn’t looking my way. She’s standing there like an outsider, a statue, worry carved into her expression.
Troy shoves his hands into his shorts pockets. “You did. You smelled like Zara.”
I huff out a laugh. “You’re imagining things. I went to see her because she’s sick, and I hugged her. Maybe her smell rubbed off on me, then.”
Sounds like a reasonable explanation. One that doesn’t involve me joining a naked Zara in her bathtub.
I turn my head again to check on Athena, to see if she’s still worried when there’s no reason to be. Peony is having a good time.
Athena is no longer standing where she was a second ago. No one is. And the side gate is now partially open.
Where the heck did she go?
45
GARRETT
The following Wednesday,I turn on the news, intending to watch it for only a few minutes. For a thriller author, it’s often a good source of inspiration for stories or scenes in a book.
Peony is in the kitchen, pretending to help Athena make dinner. Neither of them are paying attention to the TV, the volume turned low.
Athena hasn’t seemed quite as “off” over the past couple of days as she did at my parents’ house last Thursday. But even after I found her pacing on my parents’ driveway, working out a stitch in her side, she’s been twitchy.
A picture of a man in Marine dress uniform appears on the TV screen, and the single beat of my heart thuds so hard, my chest wall reels at the impact. I know that man.
Tyson had gotten the stomach flu during my final deployment. Instead of going on the mission he had been assigned to be part of, he’d stayed behind while he recovered. And I’d taken his spot. It was the mission that cost Cooper and Clarke their lives. Cost each of their families a son, a husband, a father.
