“Any time you need something for her to do, I’m happy to help. I can even have her help with inventory after hours or stuff like that. Doesn’t just have to be weekends.”
He studied her for a minute, an intense and uncomfortable study. She wanted to call it acoplook, but it wasn’t about cop things. It was about Sammy.
“That’s really kind, and I appreciate the offer, I do. But you don’t owe us anything.”
No, she didn’t. Not even an explanation, but here it came anyway. “Sometimes…you want to be the person you needed as a kid for someone else.”
His gaze held hers, serious. “Yeah, sometimes you do.”
The moment held. Just the two of them looking at each other—and he looked ridiculous with that metal splint on his face, but it didn’t seem to dilute all that piercing blue. Or the effect it had on her insides and their incessantflutteringwhen he was around.
She looked away. Pulled her phone out of her pocket and pulled up her contact information. She had to take a few steps forward to be close enough to hold it out to him.
“Here’s my phone number. My cell, not the bakery.”
He pulled out his own phone, poked at his screen a few times. “Here, can you put it in for me? This hurts like hell.”
Soft heart. Soft heart. Soft heart.She took his phone wordlessly, added herself as a new contact, then handed the phone back. “I’ll see you tomorrow…Gard.”
His mouth quirked to one side, no doubt that she’d finally used his first name, then he kind of winced, no doubt because his nose hurt. “See you tomorrow, Lia.”
Chapter Five
A little over a week passed quickly and surprisingly uneventfully—Gard got the splint off his nose and mostly healed up. He stopped looking for Dani, because if she had the address of a drug house on her computer, it was clear she’d just fallen back into old patterns.
It hurt, and he stillwantedto track her down, still worried she hadn’t contacted Sammy, but he couldn’t screw up his own life—or, more importantly, Sammy’s—to do it. Sammy getting so upset about his nose and him looking for Dani was a harsh reminder that he was all she had now, and he had to act accordingly.
Laurel would keep an eye out and an ear to the ground and let him know if she heard anything about Dani, but that was all Gard could allow himself. Sammy had to be his priority now.
So, he rearranged his schedule as best he could to be able to drive her where she needed to be and be around when she was home. He took her to family therapy, learned how to check her grades, tried to vet her rides that weren’t him, and, in the end, he let her spend way too much time at the Hope Town Bakery.
He worked around the system a little so that on the off chance they could locate Dani, get her into some rehab, she wouldn’t have ruined her shot at being in Sammy’s life, but he also knew even if she came back—it was going to be Gard’s responsibility to get Sammy through these last years of high school. So he didn’t plan for Dani’s return.
Just hoped.
Lia claimed Sammy didn’t cause any trouble at the bakery and was learning how to decorate cookies like a pro. Lia claimed she was anasset.
Gard chose to believe her, because what else was there to do? Lia saw Sammy as some kind of…karmic chance to be the help she’d never had as a teen, so if she was lying about Sammy behaving it was about that—not covering for Sammy.
Besides, Sammy had seemed so pleased when Lia had called her an asset. Sure, she was still moody and unpredictable but working at the bakery was having a positive effect on this transition period.
Gard tried to imagine what Lia Blair had been like as a teen. To hate cops. To sympathize with a girl who would steal. What hadshegone through?
Truth be told, he found himself thinking a little too much about Lia Blair.
If Sammy wasn’t involved, he’d have probably asked her out by now. He’d wormed his way under that original dislike and distrust, he liked to think. She called him Gard now. She even smiled at him on occasion.
And he liked the challenge—because he didn’t quite know what Lia Blair would say. She’d be tempted, he knew that—whatever she felt abouthimas a person, they were attracted to each other. But he was curious if she’d turn him down or take a chance.
But Sammy existed as a line he didn’t want to cross. So maybe he flirted, but he didn’t push it beyond that.
It was getting a little harder though. Because here he was, dropping some papers off at the sheriff’s department before he went off duty, excited to get to the bakery. Where he’d chat with Lia for ten minutes or so about Sammy’s progress, or sometimes he could get her off topic. The weather, the bakery, music, movies.
“Fairhurst, you got a minute?”
Gard turned from the mailboxes to see Detective Copeland Beckett striding toward him. Probably about a case, though Gard didn’t know of any active investigations the detectives were handling that involved him. Still, Gard was used to answering whatever questions the detectives had about calls he might have responded to.
“Sure, what’s up?”
