Playing for Keeps (47 page)

"I love you too, Mrs.
Cooper." He kissed her temple again.

Nick returned from the back. "I want you to have these." He held out a black jeweler's box.

She took it, opened it, and saw her diamond necklace and earrings. "Oh Nick! I couldn't."

"They were your birthday present. You should have them."

Maddie looked at him. "They'd make a nice payment toward Tommy's education. I really can't accept them. Or maybe Sarah would like—"

"No," he said firmly. "I don't want anybody wearing them but you. Take them, and I'll never know what you chose to do with them. You can sell them, or give them away. At least I'll know I gave them back to you."

Maddie snapped the box shut and put an arm around Nick's neck. She said softly, "I won't sell them, or give them away. They mean too much to me."

"Thank you," he mumbled, and they separated. He looked at his desk, and scooped up the pictures of Maddie's family. "Here are your pictures."

Maddie saw him tuck the picture of her alone under a stack of papers on his desk. She took the others. "Thanks." She stuck them in her purse.

Rob said, "If you'll give me the keys, I'll let you say goodbye. I need to go figure out if I can drive a
Lincoln."

She pulled the keys out and handed them over. "Nothing different about it."

Nick grinned. "Seats are probably a little softer on the butt than my old truck."

Maddie laughed. "Yeah, they are.
Rob has an old truck like you do. He drives it to work everyday."

Nick looked at her. "So glad to know he and I are nothing alike."

Rob chuckled. "Oh, Jesus, don't go there." He went and stood beside Nick's Harley. "This is another thing I've never driven." He ran his hand over the leather seat gently.

Nick stood next to him. "Now, you're missing out on something. You should try one. You and Maddie would love going for rides on it."

Rob looked the bike over and smiled at Nick. "Not much room for car seats on there. Maddie and I rarely go anywhere without at least two kids these days."

Nick nodded. "Maybe someday."

Rob nodded back. "Maybe."

Maddie put her hands on her hips. "Speaking of which, where
did
you leave my children?"

Rob
looked in the air and rubbed his chin. "What town was that? I'm not sure…"

She grabbed his jacket lapel and smiled. "Hartford or
Oklahoma City? I need to know how much grandparent-deprogramming I'll have to do."

"Oklahoma City. The lesser of two evils, I hope."

"Good." She nodded, and dusted off his jacket.

Rob
turned to Nick and extended his hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Nick. Good to finally put a face to the name."

Nick smiled and shook Rob's hand. "Glad to meet you, too. Very glad to see Maddie so happy. Good luck with…everything." He tossed a glance her way.

She laughed. "Think he needs luck, do you?"

"Couldn't hurt." Nick grinned.

Rob smiled. He looked at Maddie. "Take your time. I'll just go reset all the radio stations in the Lincoln." He walked out the big door.

Maddie laughed. "Thanks." She turned to Nick. "I need to use the bathroom, real quick."

"You know where it is." He motioned toward the back. "Help yourself."

Maddie used the bathroom and pulled her pantyhose off. She was itchy already, and wasn't going to drive the two hours back feeling uncomfortable. She walked out with them in her hand. "Hey, Nick, you need to get
Sarah down here to clean that bathroom. I don't think anyone's touched it since I cleaned it last."

"Ha!" he snorted. "She has better things to do than wait on me hand and foot like you used to. You spoiled me, that's for sure."

"I loved every minute of it."

He glanced at the stockings in her hand. "A going-away present for me?"

"Not quite." She laughed. "I've had these son-of-a-bitches on for hours, and I couldn't stand one more minute."

He chuckled. "You always said what you thought with me. I liked that. I just wish you could have done that with your old man."

"I'm so sorry, Nick. I hope you know how truly, truly sorry I am."

"Hey, like the man said, 'It's better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all'. It went something like that, didn't it?"

Maddie touched his cheek. "Hell, I don't know. I spent more time loving you during college than I did learning that shit."

He pulled her into his arms and they hugged. He whispered, "I can see you're happy. I hope you'll always stay that way."

She hugged him tightly. "Please tell me that
you're
happy. I want the truth, but I really, really want to hear you're happy."

"I'm happy, Maddie. She's a good woman, and she lets me tune her piano pretty regularly."

Maddie laughed and put her forehead on his shoulder. "Thank God for that, huh?"

"I'm telling ya, you spoiled me in so many ways."

She kissed his cheek. They stayed cheek to cheek for a long moment, and he finally said, "Thanks for coming, Maddie. I'm really glad we got to talk."

"Me too. I think I can finally move forward without so much pain."

"I'm glad." He held her at arm's length then let her go. He patted his chest over his heart. "A part of you—right here, always."

She patted her chest and smiled at him. "Right back at ya, babe." She picked up her things and headed for the door, then turned to look at him. "You need to stop smoking. Your voice is raspy."

"I only smoked because you liked the taste." He shrugged.

"Yeah. Well, you can stop it now. Take care of yourself, Nick."

"You too, Maddie." He pushed a button and the garage door lowered behind her as she walked out.

Maddie knew he didn't want to see her leave. She felt slightly relieved, too. If she'd watched him as they drove away, she thought she might have cried. Instead, she looked toward the
Lincoln and saw Rob get out and look at her. She smiled at his gorgeous face, and hurried toward him.

He opened her door and she dropped all her things on the seat. She pulled him into her arms and he leaned her back against the hood of the car. "How you feeling?"

"Really good. I hope you understand why I had to do this."

"I do."

"And I hope you're not mad at me."

"I'm not. I love you, Maddie. I want you to be at peace."

"I think I finally am. This was the last thing eating at me."

He nuzzled her neck. "I thought I was the last thing eating you."

She chuckled and bent her neck so he could reach more skin. "You definitely were," she murmured. "And you were the last man to get me pregnant, too."

He continued kissing her neck as he said, "I may not have been the first, but I was definitely the last."

"You're right. And I'm not talking about Stacie."

He stopped kissing and pulled back. "Are you telling me…?"

Maddie nodded and smiled. "My stomach is about to blow up like a balloon, again."

"Oh my God!" He took her face in his hands and pulled her to him for a gentle kiss. "This is excellent news! I'm so happy!"

"Me too. But I don't think we should tell anyone back in Hartford this weekend. It doesn't seem appropriate."

He nodded, and then looked at the garage. "Did you tell Nick?"

She touched his face. "Only because I'm so happy about it, and I didn't want him sitting there smoking the whole time we talked."

"I thought it was pretty considerate of him to go smoke by the door."

She chuckled. "Yeah, he's usually not that way. I just wanted to tell him."

"All right. But this makes two times out of three that I wasn't the first person to find out you were pregnant. Every time from now on, I want to be first, okay?"

Maddie laughed. "Every time from now on, I promise."

He kissed her gently, and then moved her things aside so she could get in the car. He shut her door and went around to his side and got in. He adjusted the mirror and put on his sunglasses.

Maddie smiled over at him. "I'm not keen on the clean-shaven look, but this GQ style with the suit and tie is kind of sexy."

He grinned. "I was thinking that same thing about you in the fancy dress and stockings. Though I prefer the kind with the garter belt that I can unhook and roll down myself."

"Um." Maddie settled back in her seat. "We may have to play a little 'business executive and the naughty secretary' when we get home."

"I'm not sure I can wait that long." He looked at her.

She tossed her rolled up stockings at him.

He caught them, and clutched them to his heart.

"I know where there's a rest stop with some privacy. Think these seats recline all the way?"

He smiled. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Maddie grinned as she directed him on to the highway.

"And then," he said, "I think it's time for you to tell me about Nick."

"You never told me about your first time with Mary Lou What's-her-name."

Eyes on the road, he said, "That story takes exactly six minutes to tell. Three before the pants were unzipped, and three after."

Maddie laughed and swung her feet up on the dashboard.

He glanced at her sideways. "Why do I think the story of you and Nick is going to take every bit of the two hour drive we have ahead of us?"

She smiled at him. "Drive slow."

Rob
threw his head back and laughed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jamie Hill was born and raised in a beautiful, mid-sized town in Midwest, USA. At various times she wanted to be a veterinarian, teacher, cheerleader, TV star or a famous singer. The one thing she
always
wanted to be was a writer. Starting at about age ten, she penned romance as she envisioned it in one spiral notebook after another.

When she's not working at the day job she loves, Jamie enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and watching movies (the scarier the better!) In her 'spare time' she can often be found writing, editing, or doing something more mundane like housework. After that, she's probably taking a nap. She loves to hear from readers, so feel free to drop her a line.

Website: http://www.jamiehill.biz/

ALSO PUBLISHED BY
BOOKS WE LOVE

Romantic Suspense (with a touch of heat!):

A Cop in the Family Series

Family Secrets
, Book 1

Family Ties
, Book 2

Family Honor, Book 3

On the Edge, a romantic suspense novella

Romance, Woman’s Fiction
:

Secrets and Lies

Impulsive
, a short story collection which includes

Three Wishes

Playing With Destiny

All That Jazz

High Maintenance

Please enjoy the first chapter of Family Secrets, the first book in the romantic suspense A Cop in the Family series, by Jamie Hill

She thought about stepping over the body, but that would be awkward while she held hands with the children. The body of Manny, the homeless guy who hung out by the door of her apartment building, lay spread across the entrance. There was no way around it.
Him
.

Crystal tugged the boys backwards, away from the body. They didn’t need to see him that way, but she supposed it was already too late. She could see in their little eyes that they were soaking up everything happening around them like sponges.

“Come on.” She led them to a bench a few steps away from the door. It was an old bus bench, from when the busses bothered to stop in the neighborhood. Now people dragged the bench wherever they wanted it. The past couple weeks it had been parked in front of her building.

Fat chance of finding a bus around here now.
Crystal pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and lit one up.

“Is he really dead?” a voice said softly from the bench next to her. Crystal looked from the child to Manny sadly.

“I guess so,” she replied. “Sorry, I know this is kind of scary for you.” She had a thought and looked over to the alley next to her building for the other man she knew was hiding there. “Hey Ralph! Did you check his pulse? I mean, maybe Manny just passed out or something.”

“Not me. No way, nuh-uh!” The little man skittered around in the shadows nervously. “Mrs. G, she touched him. She called the cops.”

“Yeah.” Crystal nodded and puffed on her cigarette. Mrs. Gianelli from apartment 1A would be the first neighbor to notice Manny and call it in. Crystal didn’t know anyone who kept a more watchful eye on a place. She supposed that came from having nothing to do all day but look out the window. Mrs. Gianelli was eighty-seven years old, and when she wasn’t peering out from behind her tattered curtains, Crystal knew she stared at the TV for hours on end. She wasn't sure which the old woman preferred. The myriad of crime shows on TV, or the real-life crime scene playing out on the sidewalk in front of her right now. Mrs. G. was probably having a heyday with her front row seat.

Crystal was sickened by the whole event. Manny had been mentally challenged, in some ways he'd acted just like the boys. He'd always been glad to see them, and they'd usually shared some superhero information tidbits with each other. Crystal sighed. She hated to see anything happen to someone so innocent. No, "innocent" wasn’t exactly the right word. She imagined Manny had seen a lot living on the streets as he had. But he'd seemed naïve and almost
childlike.
That was the word she wanted.

“Say, uh, Crystal…?” Ralph kept in the shadows next to the building but worked his way closer to her. He didn’t smell very good, but Crystal felt sorry for him. She suspected he wasn’t quite right in the head, either. But like Manny, Ralph was harmless and Crystal knew he’d sooner run from a fly than kill one.

“Oh, yeah.” Crystal looked down at the paper bag she absent-mindedly clutched in her hand. “Here you go.” She tossed the bag to him and he grabbed for it. “Roast beef today. It’s pretty good.”

He grinned and opened the sack. “Thanks.” He sunk back into the shadows as he ate.

Crystal took a drag on her cigarette and watched as two uniformed police officers approached Manny. They checked him for vital signs, then began asking Ralph questions. Ralph answered, shoving the last of the sandwich in his mouth and talking at the same time.

“Mrs. Gianelli?” A shadow came over the bench as a man stepped in front of Crystal and the children.

She inhaled the last of her smoke and dropped the butt on the sidewalk, grinding it out with the toe of her shoe. She looked up slowly at the cop in front of her. He wasn’t uniformed but even in faded jeans, a black t-shirt and a leather jacket, Crystal knew he was a cop. The small notepad and pen he held was one giveaway. The other was his eyes. He had a cop’s tired eyes. “Nope,” she finally answered after giving him the once-over. “You’ll find her in 1A. I live in 3G.”

“And you would be?” he asked pleasantly.

She looked him up and down again. “Isn’t it customary for the policeman to introduce himself first? Show a badge and that sort of thing? Especially one who doesn’t even bother with a uniform.”

His eyes flashed irritation for a moment, but it passed quickly and Crystal could read amusement in them now. He pulled out his badge and held it in front of her face. “Apologies, ma’am. Detective Jack Dunlevy, Wichita Police Department.”

She pretended to inspect the badge, and then leaned back and nodded. “Thank you. I’m Crystal Cartwright. As I said, I live in 3G. I was on my way home from work when I discovered Manny…this way.” She glanced at the body that the uniformed officers were now frisking.

The detective returned his badge to his breast pocket and began writing on his notepad. “Cartwright. A long way from the Ponderosa, aren’t you?”

She lit another cigarette and blew the smoke up toward his face. “Good one. You can bet I’ve never heard that before.”

He smiled at her, and the grin took the rough edge off his features. He was actually quite handsome, with shaggy brown hair that curled around his collar as if overdue for a trim. When he smiled his eyes became a melting chocolate brown and didn’t seem so tired. He had a comforting look about him, which probably came in handy in his line of work.

“So you’re just getting off work?” He made some notes in his notebook.

“Yeah.”

“And you knew…” he nodded to the corpse that was still being poked and prodded in the doorway of the apartment building.

“Manny,” Crystal replied.

“Manny,” he repeated and wrote. “Any last name?”

She smiled at him coolly and answered, “I’m sure he had one. I just wouldn’t know it. We weren’t close.”

“Oh, so you and Manny never…” He looked at her sarcastically.

Crystal stood up to blow the last puff of smoke a little closer to his face. Even standing she missed, as the detective stood six feet or taller and she was lucky to hit five foot six in heels. Today she was wearing her sensible restaurant flats, so the smoke hit him at about chest level. She ground out the cigarette butt with her toe and looked up at him. “No, Manny and I
never
…” she repeated. “This uniform I’m wearing indicates I’m a waitress, not a frigging hooker.” She looked toward Manny and shivered as someone covered his body with a tarp. Turning back to the cop, she said, “But if I was, I think I might be able to do better than Manny, God rest his soul. Don’t you?”

Dunlevy smiled again. “Oh yeah, I definitely do.” His gaze lowered from her face down, and back up again. “So you knew Manny from his hanging around the block?”

“Yeah. He pretty much lived by our door. He showered regularly at Sister Theresa’s shelter a couple blocks over, so he actually smelled better than…” She eyed Ralph in the shadows, still watching the goings-on. “Most of the homeless guys. He told me once he didn’t like sleeping there, though, because people stole his stuff.”

“At Sister Theresa’s?” Dunlevy asked skeptically.

“Yeah.”  She chuckled. “Ironic, eh? I don’t think Manny had much, but he had good shoes. I know that. He was proud of them.”

Dunlevy looked toward the body, where stocking feet stuck out from under the tarp. “Doesn’t appear that he had
any
shoes today.”

She shrugged. “Maybe Ralph has some new shoes. I guess Manny won’t need them now.”

He looked back at her. “Ralph?”

She nodded toward the man cringing next to her building. “Another street-dweller. He doesn’t hang around here as much as Manny, but everybody knows him.” She looked at Dunlevy and ran a finger across the tip of her nose. “I’m not sure Ralph is aware of the amenities at Sister Theresa’s.”

He nodded and made more notes. They both looked at the body for a moment, then the detective said, “Do you think Manny had any enemies?”

She shrugged again. “I can’t believe he did. He was harmless, as far as I knew. He kept an eye on the building, and we all sort of looked out for him. In the wintertime we’d let him sleep inside in the hallway. I’d bring him a sandwich from the diner after work. Stuff like that.”

“What diner would that be?” He didn’t look up, just continued taking notes.

“Moe’s, on South Broadway, a couple blocks from here.”

He nodded as he wrote, and they heard a small voice speak up. “They have good pie.”

He looked around the woman to the smaller of the two boys, who had been sitting on the bench in silence. “Is that so? Good pie, you say? I may have to check it out.”

The boy nodded solemnly.

Crystal looked at the child. Six years old, with shaggy brown hair and two missing front teeth, he was an adorable sight.

Dunlevy squinted at him. “Did you file a report with the police on those missing teeth? Can you even eat pie with no teeth?”

“I have teeth!” He grinned and bared his lips to show the rest.

“Oh, well, good.” Dunlevy continued to write. “And what would your name be? For the report.”

In a shaky voice the smaller of the two boys said, “Devon Erickson.”

Dunlevy nodded officially as he wrote it down. He glanced at the other child, seated next to Devon. “What about you, young man? Got anything to add to the report?”

Crystal glanced at him. He sported the same scruffy hair as his brother. They shared similar facial features, but the two boys were quite different. Devon still carried the naiveté that came with youth. Mark, at age eight, had seen more of life and was, sadly, more sullen about things.

The boy shook his head without speaking.

“What’s your name?” Dunlevy asked gently.

“I don’t got nothing to add to the report.”

Dunlevy smiled. “You don’t like the pie?”

“I like the chocolate cake,” he answered.

“Well, there you go.” He wrote on his notepad “…chocolate cake.” He looked back at the boy. “And your name?”

“Mark Erickson.”

“Very good.” Dunlevy nodded and wrote.

Crystal looked over at Manny once again. “Any idea when they’ll be able to take him out of here? I’d like to go home.”

Dunlevy followed her gaze to the entryway and replied, “They should have the body removed pretty quickly now.”

She shivered again and hugged her arms to herself. “The body. Until a few hours ago, he was a person.”

Dunlevy studied her. “Thought you and Manny weren’t close.”

She looked him in the eye. “We weren’t. But he was a person, for crissakes. That ought to mean something.”

Dunlevy closed his notebook and shoved it in his pocket. He swore silently to himself and glanced at her almost sheepishly. “After eighteen years on the force, the last twelve of them as a homicide detective, I’ve seen lots of bodies. I promised myself a long time ago that I’d always remember the victims were
people
before they were vics.” He smiled. “Sorry. These days I’m lucky to remember to get out of bed in the morning.”

Crystal cocked her head, trying to figure him out. An imposing figure, he hadn’t turned out to be as obnoxious as she’d first thought. There was something appealing about the man. Before she could dwell on it, Manny’s body was carefully removed and the police were wrapping up their initial investigation.

As soon as she was allowed, Crystal hauled the boys up the stairs, relieved to finally go home. She thought once again about the detective with the melting brown eyes. He’d been ticked off when the uniformed officers didn’t have anything for the kids in their car besides tiny little teddy bears. Police were supposed to carry something for children involved in traumatic situations, but Dunlevy sensed these boys were too old to appreciate the bears. He promised to bring them something better the next time he was back around. Crystal sighed. Him coming ‘back around’ meant more questions for her, but she didn’t mind all that much. She had nothing to hide, and he wasn’t exactly hard to look at.

She unlocked her apartment door and ushered the children inside. “Do you have homework?”

“Not much,” Mark said, and tossed his backpack on the floor. “Couldn’t we watch
a little
TV first,
please
?”

“You know your daddy likes you to have all your homework done before you watch anything.” Crystal looked into the big, begging eyes of both boys staring back at her. They’d been through a lot this afternoon, and they behaved wonderfully. Maybe a little TV wouldn’t hurt. “A half hour,” she told them, and they hugged her legs quickly before running to the set and grabbing the remote.

She smiled at them and made a mental note to watch the time. They’d stare at the TV all night if she let them. In her room, she closed the door so she could change clothes. She tugged her blue, plaid waitress uniform off and tossed it into the hamper in the corner. Crystal grabbed jeans and a sweater and slipped into them. She released the clip from her hair and let it fall down around her shoulders. It was wild and unruly and she thought often about cutting it off. But when she looked in the mirror she couldn’t help liking the way the natural red locks framed her face, and fell on her shoulders. It made her feel good, and if she was honest with herself, it made her feel feminine. Crystal sighed.
Maybe someday I’ll have enough self-assurance to do what I want with my hair.
Confidence had never been her strong suit. Still maybe someday…she sighed again.
Dream on
.