She slid into the driver’s seat and then followed Sammy’s somewhat distracted directions to the small town of Bent, and a quaint little neighborhood right off the main drag.
“This one,” Sammy said, pointing to a pretty brick one-story.
Gard Fairhurst’s house was nothing that Lia would have imagined. It didn’t screamsingle male cop lives here, except for the patrol car sitting in the driveway. The sweet little brick ranch house on the main drag of Bent seemed more suited for a family. Sure, he didn’t have the pretty landscaping his neighbor did, but the yard was neat. His windows looked clean.
Lia had a feeling this incongruous house had to do with the girl sitting in her passenger seat. She pulled her car into Park on the curb just as a truck pulled into the drive next to the patrol car.
Gard immediately got out and skirted the truck. He had a splint on his nose—so he hadn’t been making anything up. There was an awful lot of blood on his T-shirt.
Something aboutthathad Lia getting out of her car at the same time as Sammy. Moving toward him with the strange thought she should…do something about it.
“Thanks for driving her,” Gard offered as Sammy rushed up to him.
“What happened?” Sammy demanded.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” He smiled down at Sammy, but between the splint on his nose and the clear pain in his eyes, it didn’t look like a happy smile. He slung an arm over her shoulders, but clearly Sammy wasn’t happy with the brush-off.
“What happened?” she said again, more seriously this time.
“Door to the nose, accidentally. I think. Wasn’t expecting it, obviously. It’s broken. It’ll heal.”
Sammy was staring at the blood on his shirt, and Lia couldn’t help but do the same. It wasa lotof blood.
“Thanks, Lia. Really. I owe—”
“Why did a door hit your face?” Sammy demanded, but her voice was squeaky, and Lia realized she was crying about the same time Gard did.
He squeezed her to his side. “Hey.Hey.It’s nothing. Really. I’ve had way worse.”
Which was not the thing to say, because Sammy started crying even harder.
Gard looked up at Lia helplessly. She sure as hell didn’t know what to do though. She was tempted to turn and run—get in her car andgo. Except her feet seem rooted to the spot, at the end of his driveway, looking at the blood on his shirt and the protective arm around his niece.
“You’re not in your uniform,” Sammy said, her voice squeaky. She sniffled as she pulled back from where she’d buried her head in his chest. She looked up at him—tears were all over her cheeks but there was something closer to accusation in her eyes. “You weren’t at work?”
Gard opened his mouth, but no words came out, and everything about Sammy’s demeanor changed. She stepped out from his arm, her expression mutinous.
“You were looking for Mom.”
Lia noted the girl didn’t sound happy about that. And Gard lookedguiltyas hell.
“Just…poking around.”
“Poking around and gettinghurt,” Sammy replied, backing away from him. “She’s using. She left. Just let it be.” Sammy whirled away, stormed inside, slammed the door behind her so it echoed into the quiet afternoon.
Lia felt frozen in place. This was…so none of her business. Why was she even here? “I, um, should go.”
“Yeah, look. I really appreciate it.” But he sounded so damn defeated.
Soft heart. Soft heart. Soft heart.
“She’s just upset you’re hurt.”
He sighed, glancing at the house. “Maybe, but she’s got every right to be pissed at me too. Dani…she’s struggled with substance abuse since she was Sammy’s age. These disappearing acts have been going on Sammy’s whole life. The family therapist has told me time and time again it’s not my job, or Sammy’s job, to fix it.”
But he wanted to. That much was written all over him.
And in spite of herself, or maybe because of herself and all the people she’d known and lost to various bad decisions, she stuck her nose into this mess even further.
