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“Your father always has ice cream.”

She pulled her phone out, passed it to her mother to pick her order, then clicked on hers and placed it. “My treat for the win. Or my celebration.”

“Thatta girl. While we wait, why don’t you tell me what is really on your mind?”

She scrunched her nose and swirled the wine around some while she debated going down this road.

It’d open the door wide for more questions that she wasn’t prepared to answer.

But there was no one else she could talk to about it.

So it was this, or sit on it. She’d sat on things way too long in her life.

If she couldn’t push the conversation now, she wasn’t sure when she’d be able to.

And life was chasing her down in the rearview mirror.

“I met with Colson Ryder earlier in the week. He was on the case for one crime in the case earlier in the year.”

“I remember.”

Her mother rarely forgot anything.

“He looks good,” she said, sipping more wine and wiggling her eyebrows.

Her mother would appreciate that.

“He is a treat. Still charming as always.”

“Yeah. I always liked him.”

“You like many people,” her mother said. “Or you let no one know if you don’t.”

She prided herself on having the ability to keep her true thoughts on lockdown.

“But I’m always honest with family.”

“You remained friendly with him for years,” her mother pointed out.

“I did. Did you know he had custody of his half-sister?”

“I might have heard that from your father a few years ago. Dad was gone from the force when Robert passed, but you know he still talks to many there.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“First of all, there wasn’t much to say about it. It was right after Robert died. I’d heard that there was a young child that Robert had later in life and that the mother wasn’t around and she was staying with Colson while the mom was located.”

“Not sure if that ever happened because today when we were meeting I mentioned how I was surprised that he left sex crimes and went to the fraud division. He was just always so... full of energy. I can’t see him exchanging chasing down bad guys by pounding out frustration on a keyboard.”

“It’s more than that and you know it. Organized crime falls under fraud.”

“I know. He said he had to change because of Bella. I thought it was a new woman in his life.”

“And you were a tad bit jealous?”

“I have nothing to be jealous about,” she argued, then lifted her chin to add more to her defense.

“That protest came out way too fast and too strong.”