Page 90 of Red Marked

“We have a second person on our list.” He puts the car in gear. “The one who went quiet after the bombing. We should probably check him out. We can come back here if need be.”

I nod.

He pulls out. We drive back along the coast road, and I realize how close we are to the house I grew up in.

“Can we go via my parents’ place? I mean, I know I can’t go and talk to them, but maybe I’ll catch a glimpse.” I glance at my watch. “My mother is normally in the garden on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. I’m not sure if she still gardens on those days, but…” I long to see them.

“Of course. I get it. I’d feel exactly the same.”

“Thank you.” I look along the road to get my bearings. “Take this turnoff,” I tell him. I direct Flint over the next few minutes, and then we’re pulling up across from my old house.

A sob is torn from me when I see my mom on her knees in front of a flower bed with a trowel in her hand.

She’s in a wide hat and gloves. She sits back on her heels to look at whatever she’s just planted. I see her face, and I start crying.

“Oh my gosh,” I say through my tears. “It’s my mom.”

She hasn’t changed at all.

“She loves gardening.” I wipe my face. “That corner by the fence used to be grass until she got ahold of it. That tree has doubled in size.” I wipe more tears away. “I’ve missed out on so much.”

The front door opens. My father comes down the steps with a glass of something cold in his hand. His hair has gone a little gray at the sides, but otherwise, he’s the same too.

My breath hitches, and more tears fall.

He walks across the lawn and holds the glass out, and my mother pulls a glove off, takes it, and drinks. She smiles up at him from under the hat. He says something. I can’t hear it from here, but I know that look on his face. He’s teasing her. She laughs and swats his leg with the glove, and he bends down and kisses her. Then he takes the empty glass and goes back inside.

“I can only begin to imagine how hard it must be.” Flint looks at me.

My dad reaches the door. He turns and blows a kiss at my mother. She laughs and blows one back.

“I forgot how nauseating they are.” I laugh through my tears, watching my father go inside and my mother get back to gardening.

“I have friends who are just as bad,” Flint says.

“That’s what I want one day. I told myself I would never settle.”

“Do you want to go and stalk the male you were with?” He says it lightly. “We’ve got the car. We’ve got the time.”

I shake my head. “He will be at work. Let’s go and interview our second suspect.”

He starts the car. “Okay then. I take it that it was serious. You and him?”

I nod. “We were three weeks away from our mating ceremony when the whole thing went down.”

Flint is silent for a beat. “He will have been devastated.”

“Yeah…I think so. Jett asked me to marry him four times before I finally said yes.”

“Four times?” Flint gives me a look. “He was very serious about you.”

He pulls out onto the street. I don’t look back, because if I do, I’ll ask him to stop.

“Why were you so hesitant?” He holds up a hand. “Don’t answer that. It’s none of my business.”

“It’s tough having parents like mine. They’re a hard act to follow. I guess I wasn’t sure for a while whether Jett and I were soulmates.”

“I’m glad you finally accepted.” Flint laughs softly. “I’m not so sure the concept of soulmates even exists. If you meet someone you’re attracted to and who you get along with, that should be enough to make a good relationship.”