AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Bring me your towel.” Amanda set her glass on the stone next to her, and Zoe returned with her towel. Amanda dried her off as best as she could and wrapped the towel around her. “Okay, you’re good to head inside. Just watch your steps on the tile floor.”
“I’m not a baby.” Zoe hustled off, and the patio door slid shut a moment later.
“Don’t you just love this stage?” Kristen laughed. “They think they know everything but, oh, if they only knew how little they actually do.”
Amanda smiled. “Honestly? I love the spark.”
“By spark, you mean her defiant streak?”
“You call it defiant; I call it independent. It tells me I’ve done something right.” Though Zoe’s birth parents earned some credit too.
“Cheers to that.” Kristen extended her glass toward Amanda for a toast.
Amanda reciprocated, but her gaze was on her niece, Ava. Three months ago, Ava had been kidnapped by a killer. She didn’t show any signs that she was struggling with what she’d experienced, but Kristen had her speaking with a therapist once a week. Amanda had no doubt she’d bounce back though; she was one resilient kid and cop blood ran through her veins.
Zoe came back outside, and it was time to impart some bad news. Best to stop her before she jumped back into the pool. “Hey, Zoe,” Amanda called out. “It’s time to leave—”
“No.” A huge groan of protest accompanied dangling arms and sagging shoulders.
“Yes. Get dried off. You can talk with Ava poolside for a bit more, but I’ll be coming for you soon.”
“Fine,” Zoe huffed out and stomped toward her cousin, but so much for drying off more. She sat on the pool’s edge and put her legs in.
“You’re leaving so soon?” Kristen asked, disheartened.
“I need to get some rest. Tomorrow will be an early one.”
“Aren’t you on vacation until Monday?”
“Things change.”
“Why do this to yourself, Mandy?” This from her mother, Julie aka Jules, an unabashed eavesdropper.
“Do what, Mom?” Amanda regretted asking the moment the question left her lips. Besides, she already knew what the answer was going to be.
“Get yourself involved when you don’t have to.”
Amanda opened her mouth but snapped it shut. Her mother wouldn’t understand that there wasn’t always a choice—even after being married to a career cop. Unless she’d donned a badge, she couldn’t get how some cases could suck her in, leaving her powerless to resist.
“Your mom is right, kiddo,” her father said. “It seems to me you are involved. Possibly too much. You can’t take cases on personally, or they’ll topple your sanity.”
“It is what it is.” A blasé response, but it was accurate. She’d known when she signed up for this job there would be sacrifices. Following in her father’s footsteps, she anticipated there would be cases that kept her up at night. She remembered nights he roamed the house in the wee hours like a ghost.
“Guess you could look at it like that, but it’s best you allow yourself some separation between work and home.”
She appreciated her father’s words of caution and listened when he spoke. He’d been in her shoes. And despite some upsets, he mostly balanced work and play. She nodded, taking his words to heart, and flipped her legs over the lounger to get up.
Zoe looked over her shoulder then leaned in conspiratorially toward Ava’s ear. “Oh, no, here she comes.”
“And here she is,” Amanda said. Nothing like talking about yourself in third person… “Time to skedaddle.” She motioned with her arms for the girl to get up, which she did—reluctantly. Amanda fluffed the towel as best she could over the girl’s damp suit and limbs, adding one big tussle of her blond locks for good measure. “Time to change.” She pointed toward the house as if more direction was needed.
Zoe groaned but obeyed.
“How are you doing, Ava?” she asked her niece.
The teen’s eyes clouded. “I’m doing pretty good. Still have the odd nightmare.”
“It will get better. Remember you’re safe now.”
