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“Hey, can’t sleep?” I pushed my chair back and beckoned her to me, loving how she didn’t hesitate and walked forward, settling into my lap.
“I was worried about you. You aren’t getting enough rest.” Her palm cradled my cheek and her thumb swept the space underneath my eye where I knew dark circles were prominent. Her touch was soothing and I leaned into it, wanting to absorb her goodness. Lily tried to hide her yawn behind her hand.
“I’m sorry I woke you up, sweetheart. Go back to bed and I’ll be there soon.”
“No.”
My brows jumped at the firmness in her voice, “No?”
“No. I’m tired of waking up and you not being in the bed with me. Tell me how I can help.”
When Daisy came along, I told myself thousands of times that I was okay doing everything on my own. Parenting is hard work but we got into a routine that worked for us, where we were happy.
One of the harder aspects of being a single parent that no one tells you about is that you don’t have your person. That partner that cares about your well-being as much as your child’s. Someone to worry about you when you leave bed in the middle of the night. Fuck, it felt good to have Lily worrying about me.
The urge to walk her back to our bedroom and tuck her in, keeping her from the ugliness that was such a large part of my world was strong. But Lily knew that ugliness all too well, didn’t she? One look at her determination and pride for her endurance swelled inside of me.
“Okay, sweetheart,” I turned my chair back toward the computer screen. “This is the footage from the curb store that sold the phone. Maybe you’ll notice something I’ve missed.” I showed her how to work the program on the computer and she shooed me out of my own desk chair, intently staring at the screen. “Guess I’ll go make some coffee since we’re both awake.”
After starting the coffee, I decided a snack was just what we needed to keep us going. Luckily, I kept the James household well stocked in frozen pizza. While the oven was preheating, I filled my largest mugs with fresh coffee and grabbed the vanilla creamer out of the fridge that was Lily’s favorite. I snagged a cookie she’d brought home from the bakery today and leaned against the counter while I ate it.
“Grayson? Can you come here for a minute?”
Holding both mugs in my left hand, I shoved the rest of the cookie in my mouth and walked back to my office. Lily was squinting at the monitor as she chewed on her bottom lip. Setting the mugs down, I placed my hand on the back of the chair and leaned forward to see what she was looking at.
There was a man standing at the counter with his wallet out. I could tell from the surroundings that he was fairly tall, probably about my height and well-built with an expensive suit. A large watch took up most of his wrist and looked pricey. He certainly didn’t look like he would need a cheap phone from a gas station. Especially since he held a glinting smart phone up to his ear as he paid.
“Can we zoom in on his face?” I enhanced the picture as much as possible and slowed the video down so that we could move frame by frame. When I found the best angle of his face, I froze the image, making Lily gasp. “I know him.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I-I think so. I remember him. He’d come to our trailer about once a month during the last year that I was there. He always stood out because he wore a suit and drove this shiny black car with dark windows. You didn’t see fancy cars like that in the trailer park.”
“You’re sure it’s him?”
“Pretty sure. He scared the shit out of me, Grayson.” She shivered and I pulled her into my arms, wanting to remind us both that she was safe. “The guys that my father worked with were scary but one look at this guy and you knew he wasn’t just scary, he was dangerous. Whenever I saw his car, I’d go hide until he was gone.”
“Smart girl,” I kissed her temple and grabbed my phone off the desk, keeping her tucked closely to my side. “This is good, sweetheart. You just gave me a lead I can work with.”
“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Roe grumbled into the phone.
“Come upstairs, Lily just gave us a suspect.”
“Fuck, really? Okay, let me get dressed.” A feminine voice muffled in the background sounded very familiar. But what my team did in their private time was up to them and I was too excited at the prospect of finally having something to work with.
I ended the call feeling invigorated even though I hadn’t had a single sip of my coffee. “Go put on some pants, baby. I’m going to make a few more calls and get everyone over here.”
Lily looked as excited as I felt when she rushed out of the room. With any luck this would all be over soon.
23
LILY
“Damnit.” I slammed the pastry bag full of delicious chocolate icing down and braced both hands on the table, taking deep breaths and trying to call on my inner calm.
Jo had convinced me to start taking yoga classes with her. Winnie used to go but now that she was ‘bigger than a rhinoceros on steroids and hadn’t seen her feet in three damn weeks,’ her words, I was the lucky recipient of her annual yoga pass.
I couldn’t complain about my newfound flexibility, Grayson certainly wasn’t complaining either, but the inner calm mantra was bullshit.
