What Might Have Been: Daniels Brother #4 (Daniels Brothers) (26 page)

“Once your assignment or whatever is done.”

Abby closed the magazine she’d been pretending to read. “I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.”

He nodded and looked out the window again.

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask why he’d wanted to know, but she didn’t. Abby was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to think about pleasant things. Her mind floated back to the last night she’d spent at Trent’s house. They’d finished their dinner, and then searched his movie collection.

A smile tugged at her lips when she remembered how little of the movie they’d actually watched.

She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew the flight attendant was waking her up. “Could you bring your seat into the upright position? We’re preparing to land.”

“Sure,” Abby mumbled.

She righted her seat and looked over to where Chris was sitting next to her. He hadn’t moved. He was still staring out the window.

“We can take a cab to the hotel,” she said as the plane came to a stop on the runway.

“Don’t you have an apartment here?”

“I do, but I’m subleasing it since I’m in Ohio for an extended period of time.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything more.

With their luggage in tow, they weaved their way through the airport and out to the passenger pickup area. There were people everywhere, coming and going. It took them a while to get a taxi, but eventually they made it to the front of the line. While Chris put the luggage in the trunk, Abby gave the cab driver the address to the hotel. Even though it had cost more, Abby had chosen a hotel in Brooklyn. It would be an easier commute to the gravesite that way.

Abby had booked them rooms on the same floor of the hotel to make it more convenient. She’d considered getting them connecting rooms, but thought better of it. Chris wasn’t exactly her biggest fan right now, and he might want a little more distance between them.

They came to her room first. He paused when she stopped in front of her door.

“This is me.”

Chris looked at the door, and then down at her. His brow furrowed slightly, but he didn’t say anything. He’d said maybe ten words to her since they’d left the airport.

“Do you want to meet for dinner?” she asked.

He turned his head to look down the hallway. “Okay. I’ll come by your room in about an hour.”

“All right.” Even their breakup hadn’t been this awkward.

Chris nodded, then continued on to his room roughly five doors down. He slipped his keycard in the slot and entered, leaving her standing alone in the hall.

Abby let herself into her room. She dropped her suitcase right inside the door and strolled over to the window. So much had changed since she’d last been in New York, yet the city itself hadn’t changed at all. That should have been comforting, but it wasn’t.

***

Trent was attempting to distract himself with work. After everyone else had left for the evening, he’d stayed at the office to go over old security footage. He’d been hoping to find something that would tie the missing mulch from before to the more recent thefts.

Much to his disappointment, nothing major had stood out to him. The only thing of interest he’d seen was when the camera had caught Trinity and her boyfriend getting busy against one of the sheds. Trent remembered having to sit down and have a rather awkward conversation with her. She’d apologized and explained that they’d had a big fight two weeks before and that her boyfriend had stopped by to say he was sorry. Lucky for Trent, he’d been paying extra special attention after the mulch had gone missing and had captured their reconciliation on camera. 

When he could no longer justify hanging around the office, he locked up and headed over to his parents’ house. Trent knew that eventually he’d have to go home, but he was putting it off. All he kept thinking about was Abby being in New York with Chris and here he was in Ohio, sitting on his hands.

He parked his truck along the curb—the driveway was already occupied by Elizabeth’s car. Trent hadn’t realized she would be there.

Just then, she came around the side of the house. She grinned. “Hey. I didn’t know you were stopping by tonight.”

“Same here. I figured you’d be at home waiting for Chris to call.”

Elizabeth strolled over to her car and removed a book from the center console. “He called me about a half hour ago.”

Trent waited to see if she’d leave him hanging. Abby had texted him to say they’d landed in New York, but that was the last he’d heard from her.

“He said the hotel they’re staying at is pretty nice. There was even a piece of chocolate on his pillow.” She seemed rather amused by that bit of information. Trent wondered if his brother had said something more about the chocolate that Elizabeth wasn’t sharing. Then again, if he had, that was probably information Trent was better off not knowing.

He cleared his throat as they walked toward the backyard. “Did he say how he and Abby are getting along?”

Elizabeth stopped and glanced over at him. “I got the impression that they haven’t said much to each other. Of course, I’m sure that has a lot to do with Chris.”

Trent placed a hand on her arm. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t want him saying anything he’s going to regret later. Abby hurt him. More than I think any of you know.” She hesitated. “Chris and I had just started talking about trying to have a baby a few months ago.”

“That’s great,” Trent said, genuinely happy for them.

The smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“What is it?”

She shook her head and sighed. “You know what happened with my first husband. That he used to knock me around.”

He nodded. While Trent didn’t know the details, he’d known it had been bad enough for her to risk her life leaving the bastard.

Elizabeth inhaled sharply. “I don’t want to go into the details, but getting pregnant might not be all that easy for us. So this . . . now . . .”

Trent was beginning to see the connection. He pulled Elizabeth in for a hug. “I’m sorry.”

She leaned into him for a few moments, and then took a step back. “Something tells me Abby is going to be in all our lives for the foreseeable future. Chris is going to have to deal with that, and learn to move past what happened. I’m guessing he’s taking that to the extreme and not saying much of anything.”

A small smile tugged at Trent’s lips. “Sounds like my brother.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “Doesn’t it, though?”

He spent the next two hours helping his dad weed the flower beds and trim some bushes. It felt good to get his hands dirty. He hadn’t been out with the guys since the theft and he missed it.

Trent had figured at some point during their work in the yard his dad would use the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with him, but he didn’t. Other than a few comments here and there about the plants themselves, his dad remained quiet. It was odd. Then again, maybe his father realized that Trent would rather work than talk at the moment.

When they had all the weeds plucked and the bushes tamed, the two men went inside to cool off. They found his mom and Elizabeth huddled together at the dining room table over some fabric.

“There you are.” His mom made it sound as if they’d wandered off or something. “We wanted to ask your opinion.”

Elizabeth held a piece of blue fabric against her shoulder. “What do you think of the color?”

“For what?” Trent asked.

“Curtains.” His mother scraped the chair against the floor as she got up and went to the refrigerator. “Elizabeth is thinking of making some curtains for the spare bedroom.”

“Looks good to me,” his dad grunted, only half-paying attention. He was more concerned with the two glasses of lemonade his wife was pouring.

“Me, too,” Trent agreed. He wasn’t exactly sure what type of input they wanted from two guys who knew nothing about décor. That was more Abby’s thing.

Elizabeth wasn’t deterred. “You don’t think it should be darker or lighter?”

Trent pulled out a chair and sat down, thanking his mom for the glass of lemonade she placed in front of him.

Marilyn retook her seat next to Elizabeth. “I think it will work fine. Just add a few dark blue accent pillows in the room and it will be perfect. I might even have some fabric you can use for those as well, if you’re interested.”

The two women went on to talk about patterns and fabric swatches that meant nothing to Trent. It was seriously enough to make one’s eyes glaze over.

After a few minutes, his dad caught Trent’s gaze and tilted his head toward the living room. Nodding, they both stood.

“Where do you think you’re going?” his mom asked.

Mike bent down and kissed the top of his wife’s head. “We’re going to see if there’s a game on. Give you ladies some privacy.”

To her credit, all she did was give them a look that said she wasn’t fooled as they hustled out of the room.

Trent didn’t end up leaving his parents’ house until after nine. He and his dad had settled on watching some preseason roundup, since there wasn’t a game worth watching on television. There was footage of his younger brother, Gage, throwing the football to one of his teammates during spring training.

It had been a way to kill time, but eventually he had to give up and go home.

He was climbing into bed that night when his phone beeped, notifying him of a text message.

Are you awake? – Abby

Yes. Everything okay? – Trent

The next thing he knew, his phone was ringing.

“I’m sorry to call so late,” she said as soon as he answered the call. “I just wanted to talk to you. Hear your voice, I guess.”

“I’m glad you called.” He’d been worried about her all day. “How are things going in New York?”

“Not too bad, I guess. Chris isn’t saying much. I’m trying to go with the flow and not push him.”

Trent leaned back against the headboard and stretched out his long legs. “Probably wise.”

“How are things there? Any news on your thief?”

“I’m not sure you could say it’s progress, but I spent some time tonight going over some old surveillance footage. Not much there, other than I got to witness my office manager making out with her boyfriend again.” He shivered at the memory.

“She was making out with her boyfriend at work?” Abby asked.

“It was a few years ago, and we talked about it after it happened. Apparently they’d had a big fight a couple of weeks before and he came by to apologize.”

“Sounds like a nice apology.”

He laughed. “Yeah.”

“So if it was years ago, what made you go back through all that video?”

“The reason I put the cameras up in the first place was because we had some bags of mulch go missing. It didn’t happen again, so I figured whoever it was, they were either satisfied with what they got the first time around, or saw the camera and thought better of it.”

“Makes sense.”

“Then about three weeks ago, we had some mulch disappear again. I was hoping that maybe I’d see something on the video I’d missed the first time around.” Trent shrugged even though she couldn’t see him. “It was a long shot, but I was hoping.”

“You don’t think . . .”

She didn’t finish her sentence.

“I don’t think what?” he asked.

“Never mind. It’s none of my business.”

“Abby, what is it? Tell me.”

“Well, I was just thinking. I know you said you don’t think Trinity would do something like that, but what about her boyfriend? Is she still seeing him? He’s obviously been there, and if they were in the yard fooling around, chances are that he’d at least have an idea of where everything is. Maybe not as good as you or the rest of your employees, but enough. And if they got caught, I would think Trinity probably told him about the camera.”

A smile spread across Trent’s face. “It makes sense. I hadn’t thought about it that way before.”

She was quiet for several moments. “I hope I’m wrong.”

So did he. Because if Abby was right, if it was Trinity’s boyfriend—or ex-boyfriend for that matter—his office manager was going to blame herself. Even if she didn’t have anything to do with it.

Chapter 21

On Saturday morning Abby went about her routine of getting ready, her thoughts more on her conversation with Trent last night than on what she was doing. They’d talked on the phone until almost midnight. It had been nice to hear his comforting voice on the other end of the line, even if he was six hundred miles away.

They’d made plans to go see a football game. With everything going on, Trent asking her to go to a game had struck her as funny and she’d dissolved into a fit of laughter. He’d patiently waited for her to get herself back under control, and then changed the tone of the conversation completely by saying he missed her.

Abby sat down at the end of her bed and sighed. Things with Trent were getting really serious, really fast. Logically she knew she should walk away, but the thought of doing that made her heart ache.

She turned the television on and flipped through the channels. Today was the day. She was taking Chris to see Kaylee’s grave. He’d be there to pick her up any second.

A knot formed in her throat thinking about visiting her daughter’s grave with Chris. He’d been so quiet last night when they met for dinner.

The news droned on about some jewelry store robbery that had happened overnight. She was only half paying attention, too worried about how the day would go.

There was a knock at the door—two sharp raps. Chris. He’d done the same the night before.

She turned the television off and tossed the remote on the bed before making her way over to the door and looking through the peephole. Chris stood in the hallway, looking as uncomfortable as she felt.

She unlatched the chain and opened the door. “Morning.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Just let me grab my purse.”

They stopped in the hotel restaurant for a quick breakfast. Chris was as stoic as he had been the night before. She tried to give him his space, but it would have been easier if he’d yelled at her. The silence was getting to Abby.