Page 38 of Second Chances

“Burgers are on. They’ll be ready in about fifteen,” Rowan called over to him. “Make yourself at home.”

Todd glanced around and noticed Simona playing with CJ now.

“Looks like they mended things,” he said, sipping his beer as she took up a glass of wine and sipped.

“Yeah, their fights never last long.” She sighed.

“That’s good.” He shifted a little closer. “This is a nice surprise, having you two here today.”

Olivia smiled. “It’s the first day of the season. It’s a standing invitation. Rowan mentioned that he’d run into you at the hardware store and invited you when I got here. I would have, but…” She shrugged. “It wasn’t my place.”

“I’m just glad I needed a new O ring for the upstairs toilet,” he joked.

“Oh? Having issues with the bathrooms upstairs?”

“No, just a leaky toilet, which I fixed on my own.” He sighed. “After watching more than a dozen YouTube videos. The plumbers and electricians I hired are due to start work soon.”

She laughed. “You’ll get the hang of it.” She touched his arm and then glanced around. “No Ethan?”

“He’s around.” He nodded. “After running a complete background check on Rowan and, well, anyone else he’s related to, he determined it was safe enough for me to come today. Honestly, I think the text message was just a fluke. After talking to my commanding officer, we both agree that the threat I received didn’t fit the MO.”

“Oh?” She motioned to a bench and they walked over to sit down under the shade of a large apple tree that held hundreds of small green apples not quite ready yet.

“Yeah, the message I received could have been from anyone. They found the burner phone it had been sent from in Georgia.” He felt her stiffen next to him but continued on. “The message was vague enough that it could have been sent to me by mistake.”

“What did it say?” she asked, her voice so low that he almost didn’t hear her.

He pulled out his phone and showed her the message.

“Found you.”

She closed her eyes and he watched in horror as all of the color left her cheeks.

“Hey, what’s all this?” he asked, gathering her in his arms.

“It’s from Brock,” she said into his shoulder. “That message is from my ex-husband.”

Chapter 11

Olivia felt all of her energy drain from her body. Her head felt light, and she was having a difficult time breathing. Had it been this hot outside earlier?

“Hey.” Todd’s voice sounded distant. “Focus on me,” he said in a soothing voice. Something cold was shoved into her hand, and Todd helped her sip the water.

She heard other voices, but it wasn’t until she heard Crystal’s soothing voice that she shook herself out of it and was able to speak. “There now, what’s going on here?”

“I’m… not sure,” Todd said.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked around and realized she was surrounded by concerned friends. Her makeshift family.

“I…” She swallowed and shook her head, then met Todd’s eyes. “Brock likes to play games.”

“Okay,” he said, a frown causing his eyebrows to furrow.

She swallowed. “Especially hide and seek. Found you. It’s his sick way of telling me that he’s found out something about me.” She motioned to her phone. She pulled up the screenshot of the text message that she’d received from Brock and handed it to Todd.

Todd read the words and sighed.

“You think Brock is the one who texted me?” he asked.