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She smiled, enjoying this new feeling, this new relationship with this man. She hadn’t been expecting it, and yet…she wasn’t going to question or analyze what she felt, especially now. “I almost forgot we’re not alone in the house.”
“That might not stop me next time.”
TWENTY-FOUR
When Lucy came down the stairs, she spotted Dillon in the dining room talking on his cell phone. She waved a greeting. Even after learning what happened with Morton’s plea agreement, it was good to see her brother home.
Dillon stared at Sean for a beat too long, and Lucy turned away, a bit sheepish, realizing that Kate probably already told him everything. Not only about Morton and the stalker, but also her involvement with Sean. A lot had happened in the time he’d been gone.
“I think I’ll make some coffee,” she said as Sean followed her into the kitchen.
Sean kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t worry. Your brother will soon love me,” he whispered in her ear.
She suppressed a laugh. “You think Jack will, too?”
Sean feigned fear. Maybe he wasn’t pretending. “He liked me before you fell for me; maybe that’ll mean something.” He winked at her.
Dillon walked in and said, “Kate told me about Cody. I’m so sorry, Lucy.”
Dillon didn’t mean to quash her good mood, but reality dampened her spirits.
“Yeah,” she said. “Me, too.” What else could she say? She was so drained right now that sleep was the only thing on her mind. But she suspected that the minute she lay down, she’d be running over every conversation she could remember between her and Cody, trying to identify signs she’d missed.
She rinsed out the coffee carafe and went about the business of making coffee, needing something to do with her hands.
Sean asked, “Where’s Kate?”
“On a call in her office.”
“I’m going to grab my laptop out of the car,” Sean said. He caught Lucy’s eye. He was thinking about the listening devices at WCF. She’d almost forgotten that she’d let him plant bugs earlier that evening.
After Sean left, Lucy thought Dillon was going to discuss having boys in her room—even though she was hardly a teenager anymore—but instead he said, “I’m really sorry we kept the plea information from you, Lucy.”
She scooped coffee into the filter. “I know. I’m not angry about it anymore, Dillon—you were gone for that part.” She glanced at him. “I just wished you had trusted me to be a grownup.”
“I do—”
“But back then I wasn’t?”
“Back then I wanted to protect you.”
She took a deep breath. “You can’t protect me. No one can. Life is like that. We just do the best we can. And I refuse to live in the past. I’m not the girl I was six years ago.”
“I know that.”
“There’s only so much we can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Unless we live in a panic room twenty-four/seven, we’ll never be one hundred percent safe one hundred percent of the time. But you know what puts us all in danger?”
“What?”
“Lies. Lack of information. Good intentions. I should have known that Morton was free, because then I would have had the information I needed to protect myself. If I had run into him without that knowledge, I would have been stunned. That hesitation could have been my undoing.”
Dillon’s blue-green eyes looked at her with the unconditional love of family. “Don’t underestimate yourself, Lucy.”
“I don’t.”
She poured water into the reservoir, closed the lid, and turned the coffeepot on.
“But—” he prompted.
