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“Your mom was in the medical field?” He’d never said. And at a children’s hospital... Her entire being tensed with the need to help him—because she was a nurse, too? Or had been. Before she’d left herself behind, invented a new life and become a pediatric PA.
She liked being a PA. As much as she’d liked being a nurse. Maybe even a little more. She so badly wanted to share that with Tad.
“Yeah. My father was an X-ray technician when they met. From what I can tell, he’s had a lot of different jobs since then.”
“Where’s your mother now?”
She wanted to know about his sister. Had to get back to that. But it felt like they needed a moment. Or at least he did.
“She’s gone, too. After Steffie died, she fell into a deep depression that she never really came out of. She died of an accidental overdose of prescription medications when I was in college.”
Miranda knew how horrible that felt—losing your mother. Couldn’t tell him that, either.
“Oh my God,” she said, watching as the children moved a few feet farther down the sand. Ethan wasn’t allowed in the water without her. So far, he was remembering that. A breeze blew against them, lifting tufts of Tad’s short brown hair. The ocean sounds could have taken his words, their conversation, away.
Instead, they seemed to be enclosed by it all.
“I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”
And yet...right there with them. Life had a way of doing that to you. No matter how many years passed, some things remained. Hurting you still.
“Tell me about the night your sister died.” He’d brought it up. As though he wanted her to know.
“She was watching a movie the last time I saw her. Eating popcorn. I went to my room, had my headphones on, listening to music. When I went out to tell her good-night, she was gone.”
“Gone?”
“From what they pieced together based on forensic evidence at the scene, and later a confession from the guy, the perp knocked at the door. A guy she knew from college. He’d had a crush on her, thought she returned his feelings. He said his car broke down and his cell was dead. Asked to use our phone. She went back to the couch. When he got off the phone, she offered him some popcorn. Apparently he made a move, she rejected him. Popcorn flew all over. Then he dragged her out of the house. Turned out his car was just fine, and parked at the curb. He’d just been looking for an excuse to spend time with her. But after her rejection, he lost it. He shoved her inside his car, drove her to a field, raped her, beat her to death and left her lying there. The neighbors heard her scream, called 911. I’d already discovered she was gone and had called, too, but by the time they found her it was too late.”
Oh. Just oh, God. He’d been in his room with headphones on. A fourteen-year-old man of the house. Coming out to see popcorn all over the living room.
There were no words. No way to fix this.
Sliding her hand into his, Miranda held on to him, hoping he’d know she was sharing his pain.
Hoping it helped.
* * *
“Look, I got three at once!” Ethan came running up from the wet sand, his hand outstretched, extricating Tad from an excruciating moment—and ripping him from a warmth he’d never experienced.
Miranda quickly pulled her hand from his and he tried to ignore the sense of loss as he bent to see the three sand crabs her son had in his hand.
“You want ’em?” Ethan asked him. “They don’t hurt people, do they, Mom?”
“Nope.” She shook her head, acting as though she’d just woken up from a nap. A little out of it, not completely with them.
Tad could relate. What in the hell had possessed him to tell her about Steffie? People knew, of course. And that his mother had died during the first year of his criminal justice degree studies. He’d moved from Michigan to complete his studies in North Carolina—choosing the state because he’d never been there and was offered an academic scholarship with work-study opportunity. Background checks told the facts.
They didn’t reveal the details he’d given Miranda.
He’d known he was getting in deep. That things were complicated. Nothing had prepared him for the jolt he’d felt when she slid her hand into his.
It was that feeling that prompted him to make another unscheduled call Sunday night after the picnic on the beach.
He and Miranda hadn’t had any more time alone after Ethan shared his sand crabs. The little guy had announced that he was hungry. They’d traipsed up the beach, cooked, played some three-way kickball in the sand, then headed home early because it was a school night and Ethan had to have a bath before bed.
