Garden of Secrets (9 page)

His officers and their girlfriends or wives were constantly inviting him over for dinner, a barbecue, someone’s birthday party, or another’s anniversary. He’d grown tired of saying no, not to mention a little lonely—especially since his marriage had broken up. He had a job in Angel’s Bay, but now he needed to make it a life.

When he entered the living room, he saw several of his off-duty officers and their significant others, as well as a half-dozen other people. He exchanged hellos, watched a few minutes of the game, and then decided to find some food.

“Chief, you made it,” Kara said, coming through the swinging door of the kitchen with a tray of cookies. “I’m so glad.”

“Those look good.”

“They’re from Lauren’s bakery, so they’re definitely good. But if you want real food first, there’s chili and sandwiches in the kitchen. Charlotte will show you where everything is.”

Judging by Kara’s smile, she’d either picked up on his interest in Charlotte, or Charlotte had said something. He’d rather not have anyone in his business, but Charlotte had a lot of friends in town. Anyone she dated would come under scrutiny.

Moving through the doorway, he found Charlotte sitting by the island counter next to a baby seat holding Kara’s adorable daughter, Faith. Charlotte was spinning a mobile of zoo animals and seemed to be having as much fun as the baby.

“Joe,” she said with a smile. “I thought you’d be here earlier.”

“I had some things to do.”

“Any news on Theresa?”

He shook his head. “Not yet.” He glanced around the kitchen, noting the stack of empty plates in the sink. “Is the food gone?”

“Not all. Kara made a killer chili. I’ll get you some, but you’ll have to take over entertainment duty. Kara told me to keep her daughter happy until she got back.”

“I can handle that,” he said, sitting on the stool she vacated. He gave the mobile a spin, watching as Faith’s eyes lit up, and she kicked out her little legs in pure delight. “Simple pleasures,” he murmured.
“Too bad we forget how to enjoy them when we grow up.”

“It is too bad,” Charlotte agreed as she ladled a generous portion of chili into a bowl. She set it down in front of him and slid a plate of corn bread across the counter. “What else do you need?”

“I’d love a cold beer.”

She reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a can. “You’re in luck. There’s a few left.”

“This is good,” he said, digging into the chili. “Much better than the one you and I made for the chili cookoff.”

“I never said I could cook. I thought you could.”

“I have a mother and a lot of sisters. They tend to dominate the kitchen on family occasions.”

“And what do the men do?”

“Watch sports, play pool in the basement, drink beers out on the patio.”

“Being a man is a pretty sweet deal in your family.”

He grinned. “I can’t lie. It’s not bad. Why don’t you cook, Charlotte? Your mother is the epitome of the perfect homemaker. I can’t imagine she didn’t teach you.”

Charlotte rested her forearms on the counter. “She tried to teach me, but I was all thumbs when it came to cooking and crafts. I’m better at stitching up people than at altering hemlines.”

He grimaced. “I can’t imagine doing that.”

“I wouldn’t take you for the queasy sort,” she said with a grin.

“I’m not a big fan of blood, although I’ve seen quite a bit of it.”

“I bet you have,” she said more seriously. “Have you ever shot someone?”

He wasn’t sure he wanted to answer, but there was something about Charlotte that always made him want to spill his guts. “A couple of times,” he admitted.

Her gaze softened. “Was it hard to pull the trigger?”

“No. It was instinct, training, self-defense.” Did that sound cold to her? “There’s no place for emotion when someone’s life is on the line. You know that as well as I do.”

She nodded with understanding. “Yes, I do. But sometimes later . . .”

“Yeah, that’s when it can get hard.” He paused. “Even the worst criminals have families—mothers who cry over their death, fathers who wish they’d done something differently, sisters, brothers, friends, who wonder how they could have stopped the worst from happening.”

“But the other side is that you were protecting someone else, or at the very least yourself.”

He took a sip of his beer. “Let’s talk about something else. How was your Christmas? You went to San Francisco, didn’t you?”

She straightened. “Yes, we all went—my mother, Annie, and little Will. We visited my sister Doreen and her husband and kids. We rode the cable cars, went to Alcatraz, shopped in Union Square, did all the touristy things. And the rest of the time, we just
talked. It was great to see my sister—we reminisced a lot. Annie was very curious about how we’d grown up, so we told her every family story we could remember.” She gave a self-deprecating smile. “I didn’t come off too well in most of them. Doreen and my mother seem to remember every stupid mistake I made in my life. And the stories just get wilder year after year.”

“Family lore can never be believed.”

“Exactly.” Her expression turned wistful. “I do miss the past, though. Everything is different now. My dad is gone, and Jamie is in the Middle East somewhere. Holidays aren’t what they used to be.”

“I’m sorry your brother couldn’t get home for Christmas.”

“My mother was very upset about it. She adores Jamie. He’s still her baby boy, and she misses him so much. Sometimes when we video chat with him, I barely recognize him. He’s grown up so much, seen things I’m sure no one should ever see. But he loves the military. It was all he ever wanted to do. We were tripping over toy soldiers from the time he was in kindergarten.” She drew in a big breath, as if talking about Jamie was too stressful. “Can I get you some more chili?”

“No, thanks. I’m moving on to these chocolate things,” he said, reaching across the table for the dessert plate.

“Good choice.”

“Why are you hanging out in the kitchen? Not a football fan?”

“I was keeping Kara company, but she seems to have deserted me and her baby.”

Joe glanced over at Faith, who was fast asleep. “She doesn’t seem to be upset about it.”

Charlotte smiled. “She’s a sweet thing.”

“They always look like angels when they’re asleep.”

“True. I learned that when Annie was missing and Will screamed for hours on end, making me want to tear out my hair. But asleep, he was an angel.” Charlotte paused, a question in her eyes. “It’s not my business, Joe, but—”

“You’re going to ask anyway,” he finished, thinking he knew where she was about to go.

“Why didn’t you and Rachel have any kids?”

“A lot of reasons.”

“Any that you want to share?”

He hesitated. He wasn’t used to sharing details about his marriage. But his marriage was over; there was nothing left to protect. “We never wanted to have a baby at the same time. In the beginning, we waited because we didn’t have any money, but after a few years, I convinced Rachel that we should start trying. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Then she got busy with her career, and I wasn’t handling my own stress too well. Throwing a baby into the mix didn’t seem like the best idea.

“At some point, she went back on birth control, and I stopped asking. Maybe we somehow sensed that we weren’t going to stay together. I’m glad now that it didn’t happen, because I wouldn’t have
wanted to put my kid through a divorce.” Some days, though, he wondered if he’d missed his chance to be a father.

“Has it been difficult for you—the divorce?”

He nodded. “I don’t like to fail, and divorce is the ultimate failure.”

“But staying together—”

“Wouldn’t make the marriage any less of a failure,” he said. “That’s true, but it doesn’t feel that way.”

“Are you sure it’s really over?” she asked tentatively.

“Yes,” he said, holding her gaze. He didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding between them. “It’s over. Rachel knows that, and so do I. We got married too young. We grew up and apart. I wish her the best; I hope she can find someone to make her happy.”

“You’re hard on yourself,” Charlotte observed.

“So are you,” he pointed out. “Something we have in common.”

She nodded. “You’re right. I don’t like to fail, either.”

He got up and took his dishes to the sink, then moved next to her.

She tensed, her lips parting as their eyes met. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” he challenged, crowding her against the island counter.

“Like you want to go somewhere and get naked.”

He grinned as her cheeks pinked. He’d like to see
that rosy flush all over her body. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

“It’s a bad idea. A very bad idea.”

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

Before she could answer, the kitchen door swung open. Charlotte jerked away from him, busying herself with cleanup, while Kara and Colin and a crowd of people descended on them.

“We’re going to the park to play some football,” Colin told Joe. “Want to come?”

“I’m not dressed for it.”

“Go home and change. We’re meeting at Maple-wood Park in twenty minutes. That goes for you, too, Charlie.”

Joe turned to see Charlotte’s reaction. She was frowning and shaking her head.

“I don’t think so,” she replied. “The last time I played football with you, Colin, you said I threw like a girl.”

He grinned. “You do throw like a girl, but we need you to even out the teams. Lauren is in, Isabella, Tracy, Joanne . . . we need one more.”

“My sister is going to play?” Joe asked in surprise.

“Yeah, Isabella and Nick,” Colin answered. “Come on, Charlotte, we need you.”

“What about Kara?”

“I have to babysit,” Kara said. “You should play, Charlotte. You’re a fast runner.”

“Yeah, it’s the catching and the throwing I don’t care for.”

“What about you, Chief?” Colin asked. “Can we count on you?”

“If Charlotte’s in, I’m in.”

She made a face at him. “Don’t put it on me.”

“If you’re getting out of it, so am I.”

“Neither one of you is out of it,” Colin said firmly. “Go home, get changed, and we’ll meet at the park. It will be fun.”

“Charlotte, you can borrow some clothes and tennis shoes from me,” Kara interjected.

“I’ll meet you at the park,” Joe told her. He just hoped they were on opposite teams. If he was going to cover someone, he wanted it to be her.

Andrew dug his hands into his pockets as he stood next to Kara, watching the game. He’d arrived at the party just as everyone was heading out to play football. Since the teams were even, he’d been sidelined with Kara. She was one of his favorite people, but he didn’t like being out of the action while Joe was in the game. He couldn’t help but notice how often Joe and Charlotte seemed to be chasing after each other.

“What’s bugging you?” Kara asked. “You’ve sighed like three times in the last two minutes. Or should I guess?”

“You’re not encouraging that, are you?” he asked.

“You mean Charlotte and Joe? I’m not encouraging it. I’m not discouraging it, either. I’m neutral. I’m Switzerland.”

He frowned as he looked at her. “The chief is married, Kara.”

“Almost officially divorced,” she pointed out.

“
Almost
isn’t officially anything,” he grumbled. “What I don’t understand is why Charlotte would want to be someone’s second choice?”

Kara’s brows knit together. “I don’t think she’s looking at it that way, Andrew. Or any way, for that matter. Joe has been gone for almost a month. He just got back yesterday.”

“He’s been hanging around her for months. He used Annie’s disappearance as a way to get closer to her. Now he’s probably going to use this burglary at the mayor’s house to do the same thing.”

“Joe isn’t the problem, Andrew,” Kara said abruptly.

“What do you mean?” he asked, surprised at her tone.

“You’re the problem.”

“Me? What have I done?”

“It’s not what you’ve done; it’s who you are. You’re the guy who hurt her. You’re the bad boyfriend from the past. I know it was a long time ago, and everyone’s changed, and you’re a wonderful, respectable man now. But Charlotte may not see the guy you are now. She still sees the boy who broke her heart.”

“I couldn’t have broken her heart if she hadn’t loved me. And if she loved me once, she can love me again. I would think you, of all people, would understand, Kara. You married your high school sweet-heart.
I’m sure your relationship wasn’t perfect all the time. Colin must have made at least one or two dumb-ass moves in the past.”

“More than one or two,” she said with a soft smile. “I do get it, Andrew. But Charlotte is very guarded when it comes to love, and if you want her back, you’re going to have to work for it.”

“Then that’s what I’ll do.” He glanced back at the action in the park. “You need to get me into this game, Kara. I can’t fight for Charlotte if I’m on the sidelines.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know. Tell Colin he has a phone call or something. Then I’ll take his place.”

“You want me to lie to my husband?” she asked in mock astonishment. “What would the church elders think?”

“You’re not going to help me?”

“I’m thinking about it. First, tell me about Pamela.”

“Pamela?” he echoed, stalling for time.

“Charlotte said she’s back in town to see her sister. Do you think you’ll see her again?”

“I already have. She came by the church earlier.”

Kara raised an eyebrow. “That was quick.”

“There’s nothing between us, Kara.”

“What’s Pamela’s story? Is she married? Does she have a job? Where does she live?”

“We didn’t discuss her personal life. We just talked about Theresa. It was a short conversation.” He shifted his weight, watching the game for another
minute. “I feel like an idiot standing here. I should just go.”

“I thought you were going to fight.”

“How can I do that while she’s rolling around in the grass with him? Did anyone tell the chief this wasn’t tackle football?”

“Colin!” Kara shouted as the group headed into the next huddle. “Can you come here for a second?”