As her words registered my frown deepened. “Wait? What about your reasons? We agreed to give up Dom together. We agreed he would have a better life with parents who could provide for him.”
She nodded. “That was part of it, yes. Definitely. But there was more. I knew you would’ve kept him if I decided I wanted to. And I couldn’t be selfish. Dom needed a better life and…”
Her voice trailed off and tears rolled down her cheeks. Whatever she needed to say had obviously been eating at her for a long time. Fifteen years, if I had to guess. “And what, sweetheart?”
“You had a full ride to an Ivy League school. You wanted to be a doctor.”
I heard the words. They were all in the correct order and the sentence made sense. Still, I had trouble understanding what she was saying. “What did that have to do with anything? I don’t understand.”
“If we kept him, you would’ve stayed and not fulfilled your dream.” She swiped at her cheeks. “No one turns down an Ivy League education and you would have. I didn’t want to be the reason you gave up on your dream.”
Do not lose your temper. Breathe.
“Rebecca Louise Salinger. That was not your decision to make.” My voice went cold as I stood from the couch. “I understood what you wanted. What yousaidyou wanted. I wanted to give Dom the best life he could have. I wanted him to have two loving parents who knew what they were doing. The idea of him having parents who could provide for him. A father who wasn’t reliant on his girlfriend’s family for love and support. I wanted him to have all the things I couldn’t provide for him. Those were the reasons I went along with your decision.”
“You think I didn’t want that?” She stood and faced me. I’d always loved how tall she was. When she wore heels, we were eye-to-eye. At that moment, in her flats, she needed to look up at me a little. Fear and trepidation swirled in those pretty brown eyes. “I wanted those things too. And under different circumstances, we could’ve provided for him.”
“The circumstances were different, Bex.” I turned away from her and moved to the window. “We did have your family. I had gotten into SoCal, I had options.”
“But Columbia was your dream.”
“I was seventeen and from the wrong side of town, everything was a fucking dream.” I turned to her and shoved my hands in my pockets. “All I wanted was to spend the rest of my life with you. Whether we would struggle because we were on different coasts, or hell, different countries considering yourcareer, or we’d struggle because we were raising a kid and had no business being parents, didn’t matter to me. We were going to struggle. And then you made the choice and we agreed, it didn’t matter what we wanted, Dom needed a better life.”
That situation was undisputed. But there was more at play. My life had been manipulated. Granted, it worked in my favor and I knew I needed to be grateful for that. Still, I would give up all the experiences and the women of New York. I would’ve gotten my degree and been a small-town GP. But then…
My anger softened. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her forehead. She was good at her job and had saved numerous lives. “I didn’t want you to give up your dream either. You got to be a Ranger, Bex.”
That was the truth. And I needed to face that. Very few women got to be Rangers. The Bayers gave us that. Yes, I wanted Dom to have the best life he could. And with the Bayers he certainly did. The couple had been wealthy. A thought struck me.
“Bex, no one said but does anyone suspect a financial motive for the crime.”
“Not that I know of. Dorian Bayer’s money was tied up in a trust of some kind. No one could get to it.”
Yeah, the last thing Dom needed was to be targeted for his money.
Chapter Nineteen
BEX
It was time I got back into a regular work schedule. I was a Team Leader and couldn’t stay away for too much longer. Still there was no denying I was in over my head. Juggling parenthood while still trying to my job was not easy. Not to mention my job was so similar to what I did in the army. Salinger Security was easier because there was less misogyny to deal with but outside of the company – law enforcement and especially the general public – didn’t think I could do the job as well as a man.
I needed some perspective. Or a pep talk. Specifically from someone who had been through it all. My fingers scrolled to her number before I even formed the thought fully.
Aspen Mesmar, or Temple since she’d been married for quite some time, picked up on the second ring. “Well, as I live and breathe. Bex Salinger is still alive.”
“Hahaha.” My lips kicked up into a smile automatically. Yeah, it had been a hot minute since we got in touch. “We knew this would happen.”
There weren’t many female Rangers. When I started there was less than a handful. Aspen wasn’t a Ranger but she was a medic attached to a Ranger Unit for a while. As a result we’d spent a lot of training hours together. When she met herhusband, Brain, and then didn’t re-enlist, I missed her and her advice terribly. We still met for coffee regularly, but it wasn’t the same as seeing her every day.
Then when I left Texas, we promised to stay in touch. And we did. Just not as often as I would like.
“Yeah.” I heard her take a deep breath as she dropped her voice. “I take it this is not social call.”
“Well. Ugh.” I slumped back in my chair. “Not really. But also, I don’t want to burden you. You probably have enough on your plate.”
Aspen let out a huff. “Please. Give me something to think about other than alphabet soup and CPR. Conversations with adults who make smart choices are few. My husband doesn’t count because his smarts is something different.”
I laughed and told her all about what had been happening lately. Dom and his attitude and the asshole after him. Landon not speaking, but still managing to throw a tantrum when he needed to. What was happening with Logan and my family. All of it.
