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He could stay in Lake Bittersweet by himself, of course. Bliss would always have reasons to come back—a little cousin for the podling, for instance. Her sister. Her brother. He’d be able to see her consistently. Maybe she’d want to spend summers in Lake Bittersweet. Or maybe when the podling was older, she’d allow their child to stay with him for the summer.
No. That wouldn’t be enough for him. He wanted to be there for his baby one hundred percent—or at least whatever percent was available to him.
If only she would agree to marry him, or at least live with him. Why not? They’d been living together, more or less, during most of her pregnancy. It made sense to continue to do so after the baby was born. That way he could be the most helpful to her. He’d be available all the time, instead of only during prescheduled “daddy” sessions.
It was logical. It made sense.
He should present the idea to her. Maybe in spreadsheet format for that extra logical Granger touch.
That first proposal, right at the beginning of all this…maybe she’d rejected it because he hadn’t made a good enough case for getting married. He needed to do a better job of showing her how much sense it made.
While he lined up arguments for his plan, he kept running into people pushing Thomas’ job offer.
Alvin Carter, for instance. “It was my idea,” he said proudly. “That’s why I wanted you to talk to him this past winter. If you turn him down, it’ll make me look like a fool.”
“Going for the hard sell, huh?”
“We need you here. Remember that boy you busted messing with my place?”
“Yeah, what’s he up to now?”
“He came back and apologized to me. I asked him if his Mama made him do that, and he said no, it was something you said. Something about not breaking my heart. Anyway, he’s working here as a busboy now.”
Granger liked the idea that he’d made an impact on a young person’s life. That was new.
According to Jason, one of the town firefighters he’d gotten to know a little bit, that happened a lot when you were a first responder in a town like Lake Bittersweet.
Jason was one of those guys Granger had always envied. He had an easy way about him that made people relax in his presence—including Granger. Even though the local women referred to Jason as a heartthrob, it wasn’t in a bitter way. He was just the kind of guy that everyone liked. He had a kind word for everyone, showed up when anyone needed help, and got people smiling just by walking through the door.
More or less the opposite of Granger, in other words. When Granger walked through the door, people double-checked that they weren’t currently committing any crimes.
“You catch these young people when they’re just starting to get into trouble. You see which ones need some attention, some big brother-type bonding. It’s the best part about being a firefighter,” Jason confided. Granger had run into him at the SweetBitter Cafe when he’d treated himself to his first post-surgery foamed milk with a tiny touch of decaf espresso. “You’re going to love it.”
“Hm.” Granger grunted skeptically. His professional life had been more about holding criminals accountable. He’d never spent any time trying to prevent people from becoming criminals in the first place. But it certainly made sense to him. Hell, he might have gone down a bad path himself if he hadn’t joined the military on his eighteenth birthday. Even though he’d left after three years and applied to Quantico, it had given him structure and role models and stability. Three things that were entirely new to him.
Kids shouldn’t have to sign up to be soldiers to have those things. They should be a birthright.
“Do you think people around here would accept a total stranger coming in as constable?” he asked Jason.
The other man shot him a wry smile. “You helped save Gina Moretti. That makes you a full-on Lake Bittersweeter. And then you helped Alvin Carter out of some kind of fix. Let’s not forget the raccoon. Sorry to break it to you, but you’ll always be one of us now, like it or not.” He clapped Granger on the shoulder. His grip was surprisingly strong for such a generally easygoing and friendly dude.
“A Lake Bittersweeter, huh? That’s a thing?”
“We could use a better name,” Jason admitted. “But yeah, it’s a thing, and you’re one. Plus, you’re with Bliss, and any member of the Gault family is an automatic in.”
“I’m not—“ He cut himself off before he explained that he wasn’t part of the Gault family. If things went the way he hoped, he would be part of the family—by marriage.
Should he buy a ring? That would make it more formal, more real, right? But how could he do that without alerting the entire town of his intentions? Instead, he decided to make a ring. He’d learned to whittle in the Army, so whenever Bliss napped—which was a lot—he carved a ring from a piece of heartwood he found in the nearby woods.
As he whittled, he listed the pros and cons of getting married. The biggest “pro” was the baby. But in a way, the baby was also the biggest “con.” What if things didn’t work out? The child would have to go through a divorce. Would it be better not to take that chance?
Having never known his father, he’d never had to experience a parental breakup. To him, the absence of a father seemed much worse. But was that because of his own personal history?
Once he started down that path, his thoughts went in circles. Why had his father decided not to be at all involved? Did he even know about Granger? Why had his mother been so secretive? What had she hidden from him? What was so bad that she’d never wanted Granger to know? And how could he do the right thing for his child when he felt so at sea about his own origins? He was getting nowhere in his search for Gault’s former band members and roadies. Every lead turned into a dead end.
Day after day ticked past. He worked on the ring, he wrestled with his worries, he marshaled all his reasons, pro and con. He waited for the DNA results. Even though he didn’t think the elevator guy was much of a threat, he familiarized himself with the security system and downloaded the app to his phone.
Bliss finally stopped throwing up all the time. Instead, she slept a lot. When she was awake, she was ravenously hungry. He was supposed to be moving around as part of his recovery, so he volunteered to do the cooking.
