Page 62 of Peaks and Promises

“Better be soon. You have a lot of explaining to do.”

“I know.”

Garrett dropped his hand and leaned down to look at me. “Ma’am. You have a nice day.”

“Thank you, Officer,” I said.

Straightening, he regarded Reese for a moment as he took a step back. “You really do have some explaining to do.”

“I know.” Reese’s voice had a hint of exasperation. “I will.”

Garrett nodded one last time, then walked back to his car.

Reese got in, and when the lights behind us stopped flashing, he took another deep breath.

“Of course Garrett would pull me over on my first day back.”

“That was one of your brothers, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s wild that you ran into him like that. Like you said, on the first day.”

He turned the engine back on. “Honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised. Tilikum is like that. Not running into one of them would be weird.”

“He seemed nice.”

“Yeah, Garrett’s a good guy. They all are.”

So why were you away so long?

I pressed my lips together, biting back the question. If he wanted to tell me, he would. I didn’t want to dig too far into his personal life. It wasn’t my business.

“Did you get a ticket?” Nate asked.

“Nope. He let me off with a warning.”

“Because he’s your brother?”

Reese grinned. “Pretty much.”

“That’s good,” Nate said. “When you got out of the car, I thought he might take you to jail.”

“I haven’t done anything to land myself in jail.”

“Promise?” Nate asked, his voice full of urgency.

Reese paused before pulling out onto the street, and instead of looking at him in the rearview, he twisted in his seat to face my son. “I’m not going to jail, chief. I promise.”

I put my hand over my heart. My poor little man.

“Okay,” he said.

“Well that was an interesting detour,” Reese said, turning to face forward. He pulled out onto the street. “But at least I can blame my brother for making us late.”

He drove a little farther, then turned onto a long gravel driveway with pine trees on either side. It curved up a hill, and at the top, we emerged into a clearing with the cutest log home I’d ever seen in my life.

Was it even real?