Page 88 of Tracking Safety

For a moment neither said anything. The range hood hummed. The house slept on around them, unaware.

His mind drifted back in time to their late-night conversations when they were together. They’d run through their days. She’d been his partner, the woman he loved. The truth was, he’d never stopped loving her, despite everything that had happened between them.

Luke forced himself to snap from his thoughts. Thinking like this would get him nowhere. His only priority right now was keeping his family safe. Nothing else mattered.

“I’m sending this to Wes.” He picked her phone back up. “Maybe this is the lead he’s been chasing.”

“Maybe we’ll finally get some answers.”

He handed the phone back, his thoughts still racing. There were questions he hadn’t asked—questions that pressed down on him.

He studied Jenna’s face a moment before asking, “When this is over, what’s your plan?”

She stared up at him, a wrinkle of confusion on her brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean—do you stay? Go somewhere else? Start over again somewhere new?” He kept his voice even. “I need to know what I’m working with here, Jenna. The kids need to know.”

“I want to stay. If that’s even . . . if that’s something that’s possible.”

“I don’t know yet what’s possible.” He said it carefully because it was true. “But I needed to hear you say it.”

She nodded. Then, after a beat, she looked at him with something careful in her expression. “Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Did you—?” She paused, seeming to choose her words. “While I was gone . . . did you date anyone? I know I don’t have the right to ask, but⁠—”

“No,” he interrupted. “I didn’t.”

She absorbed his answer. Didn’t smile exactly, but something in her expression shifted. “I didn’t either. In case you were wondering.”

He hadn’t let himself wonder. But he was glad to know.

Neither of them said anything else for a moment. The house slept on around them, unaware.

“Try to get some sleep,” he said finally.

She nodded and pushed off the counter.

At the doorway she paused, just for a second, like she might say something else.

She didn’t. She just went.

He stood there in the dark kitchen a little longer, turning the night over in his mind—the photo, the text, the word wife that had slipped out before he could stop it, and the answer she’d just given him to a question he hadn’t asked.

No. She hadn’t dated anyone either.

He didn’t know what to do with that yet. But he couldn’t quite make himself put it down.

CHAPTER 36

Friday arrived blanketed in gray as the sky pressed low over the mountains like it hadn’t decided yet whether to rain.

Jenna had been up since before five. She’d showered and dressed in her nicest outfit. Then she’d sat on the edge of the bed and watched the window go from black to charcoal to flat pewter. She wanted to go support Naomi at the hearing.

She didn’t know what Luke would say. But she felt it in her bones that she should be there. Naomi had been good to her. The least she could do was to help support her also.

By seven the house was in motion, and Ruby was cooking bacon and eggs.