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And she was half afraid she missed him. For real.
“Ah, the small-town life. How I wish it was mine. I think you should strip that seriously gorgeous man naked, make a dozen babies, and enjoy life while you still can. Before something bad happens and life starts to get dark and scary and a little sucky again.”
There was a world of hurt in Sydney’s light-brown eyes. Zoey side-hugged her quickly. “It gets better, Syd. I’m almost certain of it.”
“So, now that I have you here, let’s see what we’ve got so far.” Sydney pulled up a window on the large monitor behind her computer. “The clinic names are here. I’ve found two records with a Cole G. Davis. They somewhat match up with what we have so far. Then he sort of disappears, actually. And I found records for a Saint Daviess. Born approximately fourteen months before Paige. The last name and the doctor who signed off on the delivery match up—a Dr. Daniels, at FCGH, surprise, surprise. That perv dude stuck his hands down Jillian’s scrubs pants once. And the mother is listed as a Dee Daviess. As in D-e-e. It could potentially be another alias. Or a nickname for Denise. I’m going to keep digging.”
“While sitting down, taking it easy.” She shot that look she’d used on bratty twelve-year-old sisters at Sydney. The twenty-two-year-old would probably just ignore it.
“It’s been five days. I canmovenow. I’m sore, but…the alternative is dead, so I’m counting my blessings.” Sydney shot her a rueful look. “Can’t keep a Beck girl down. I think we’ve more than proventhat.”
“No kidding. Call me if you find anything else.”
“Will do. As for you—go find that seriously sexy sheriff. I think you’ll regret it if you don’t.”
The thing was, Zoey decided as she headed back across the street to the house Luc had built, she was almost convinced Sydney was right.
She was just too scared to admit it.
* * *
After Zoey left Sydney,she headed home. To the big, shiny smarthouse her brother refused to admit he had built for her.
It didn’t feel ashomeas her house in Garrity. Not at all.
Her she was, beingkeptby her brother. It was going to take her a while to reconcile to that.
For Pen. It was for Pen—Pen felt safe here, could flourish and thrive here. She had to remember that—it was for Pen.
And for Zoey to know the little boy she could see riding a plastic toddler car up and down the sidewalk right now from the window. His mother waddled along behind him, her dark-red hair shockingly bright in the sun. Her brother’s wife would deliver their second son around Christmas.
Zoey would be close enough to watch those little boys grow. To beAunt Zoey.To hold them every day, if that was what she wanted.
They were her family.
Herfamily.
She was trying so hard to feel like she belonged. Sweeneybeep-beepedat her. He waved and grinned. His aunt Sydney’s grin. He had hair the same color as Zoey’s, eyes the same shade as Pen’s—but his smiling little face was Sydney’s all over again.
Zoey waved back and watched him for a moment.
He was so beautiful.
She stood there for a long time. Just thinking.
Thinking about Sweeney and about what Sydney had said.
When the time was right, would Zoey take that step off the ledge? Go for what Rafe and Jillian had? Build a family of her own? Besides Pen, besides the siblings’ families she was forcing herself to not pull back from, out of fear?
She didn’t know if she could do it.
Maybe that scared her more than she wanted to admit—the fear that she would be too afraid to even try? When the right moment came along.
Maybe she was just confusing herself even more.
Maybe Murdoch Michael Lake had something to do with that. With how unsettled she’d felt for the last five days. Hell, who was she kidding? Sheknewthat man was behind most of it.
She’d spent her entire life feeling like she was on theedgeof real families. Except for Pen.
