Page 27 of Operation Protector
“We need to lay out some boundaries,” Quinn said, clearly on his wife’s wavelength. “Grace coming here doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see a lot more of her.”
Ali frowned. “But he could be here.” She glanced at him again. “You could come any time. Or stay.”
And again he looked a little stunned, and she wondered what it must be like to feel so beaten down, so abandoned, that the concept of someone willingly helping was utterly foreign. Even in the worst days after Josh’s death she’d never felt that.
Hayley’s tone was understanding but firm as she explained. “It would be nice if you could see more of her while we’re working this out, but if she might let it out at an inopportune moment, it could blow everything.”
“But she already knows I’m involved,” Colby said. “That note…”
“Yes, but keeping a note quiet versus seeing her beloved daddy in person are two very different things,” Hayley said. “Plus, we don’t want Ms. Hollen or her helpers to see him here.”
Hayley was still watching Colby, and Ali knew she was sensing the same current of tension in him.
“We’ll get there, I promise,” Hayley said to him, “but we have to start slow. We have a lot of work to do, and some of it will be dead ends, until we find the right path. Are you okay with that?”
He grimaced. “You mean can I keep it reined in?” He looked from Hayley to Quinn and then to Ali. She thought she saw something flash in his eyes then, something she could only label as hope.
Then he looked back to Hayley. “I think I can. Now.”
Chapter 12
Colby took the mug of hot chocolate Ali handed him. It smelled luscious, and he’d noticed while she was making it that it was more than just heating up some milk and a mix. His first sip woke up every taste bud and seemed to warm him to his toes. She smiled, and he guessed his was the usual reaction to the chocolaty, cinnamony with-a-touch-of-marshmallow concoction.
He’d also noticed, as she’d handed him the mug, something he’d missed before. The lighting hadn’t been right, or his mind had been so totally otherwise occupied. But now he’d seen it, that slight indentation or line on her left ring finger. Like from a ring long worn but only recently removed. He wondered if perhaps that was why she was so understanding. Maybe she’d just been through a divorce of her own.
Hayley and Quinn were back on their phones again, arranging who knows what. He was still stunned at the evidence of the size and scope of Foxworth, and their apparent resources.
And it had all started with Ali and her pup, who was currently playing a futile came of tug-of-war with Cutter, who held the rope toy so carefully it was like he knew his playmate was younger and more fragile. As he obviously did, from their description of how he’d brought Ziggy to them.
Who would have ever thought bleeding all over that little mutt would have led to…this?
She came around the counter and sat on the stool to his right. Without really thinking about it, he looked down at that fingeragain. He’d been right, he could see the faint indentation and tan line. He doubted she got very tan, with her complexion that fit with the red tones in her hair, but it was still there, just barely.
He wanted to ask, even though he told himself it was none of his business, really. He could make up some reason, like asking if they needed to worry about her ex showing up, but he didn’t want to do that. But he couldn’t seem to quash his need to know.
“There was a ring there for a long time,” he finally said, making sure it wasn’t a question so she could ignore it if she wanted.
She turned her head to look at him. “Yes. Nearly ten years.”
“You did a lot better than I did,” he said wryly.
“If you call being a widow better.”
His eyes widened, and he felt his gut tighten as if she’d punched him. “I… I didn’t… I’m sorry. And I’m just going to shut up now, before I say something worse.”
“It’s all right. You had no way of knowing.”
He stared into her vivid green eyes, and even he couldn’t miss the pain there. But she didn’t seem on the verge of tears or anything, so he risked asking, “When…?”
“He was killed in a car accident four years ago. But I only took the ring off when I moved in here.”
“Is that…why you moved?”
She nodded. “I spent those years in the home we made together, unable to let go. But I finally realized I had to, or I was going to stay mired in misery forever.”
He tried to imagine what that would be like, to have a woman love you so much she couldn’t get past losing you. He couldn’t. He’d never even been close to that.
He tried to choose his words carefully, not wanting to step in it again with her. “While he was here, he was a lucky man. To have you, I mean.” He shook his head, that still sounded bad. “That was stupid, too. Shutting up now,” he muttered.
