wouldn’t mind turning Luke’s head if he came out Wednesday night too. “So if you’re planning an April wedding, how’s that going to affect the class schedule?”
“Marsh agreed I could cut back this semester to the hours I need to audit as prerequisites for the doctorate degree-that way I can stay with Marie while she’s having to make so many decisions about the gallery, and I’ll drive over for the two classes. I want time to prepare a proper wedding, and the house will take some planning together for what gets remodeled.”
“It sounds like a good compromise.”
“I can tell he was ready to get married when he listened to the ideas and said okay and didn’t even fuss particularly hard about it being some of my money that went into expanding his study and building on another bedroom upstairs, so I can have a room to use as a home office too.”
Amy followed Tracey downstairs, listening to the news, smiling at the joy she could hear in her sister’s voice, and worrying about the rushed way she had come. Tracey wasn’t dating Connor-any reporter would have picked up she had left the gallery with Connor, not Marsh. It was another reason to be curious, and that made reporters trouble.
Daniel was an interesting man. Amy watched him move around the living room Wednesday evening, talking with Marsh, then lingering in a conversation with Caroline, and thought he made a good fit. She liked him. No one had brought up the half-sister fact, and it was beginning to sting less. She personally never wanted to know her father’s name, and part of her was relieved she hadn’t been asked to absorb that shock too.
She studied Caroline as she spoke with Daniel and saw a slight flush on her friend’s face, animated in a really beautiful way. Caroline was elegant tonight and attracting attention from a guy wise enough to want to linger and get to know her better. They’d be a good couple, Amy thought, in a mind to think such thoughts. Marsh hadn’t let Tracey get more than a few feet from him all evening, and Connor was doing a reasonably good job getting Marie out of the awkward phase of dating to being comfortable with him. Amy hadn’t missed the way Connor had secured hold of her sister’s hand early in the evening and simply not let go.
“You look content tonight.”
She had a few seconds’ warning before Luke’s hands settled on her waist from behind.
She leaned against him. “I’m feeling very much the oldest sister at the moment, watching my chicks find new homes.”
He chuckled and leaned his head down beside hers. “Come for a walk. It’s a clear night outside, and I’m inclined to remember how to enjoy moonlight with a pretty lady, but that’s best done somewhere my cops are not going to notice.”
She let her hand slide down to take his. “I like the sound of that.”
Luke nodded to Caroline, and she nodded back. They stopped to get coats and then slipped outside.
“It’s brisk tonight.” Amy could see her breath, and her warm leather gloves became stiffer in the cold air.
“The moon makes up for it.”
Luke reached for her hand, and Amy moved comfortably to his side. They walked down the drive toward the main road.
“It’s been quiet out here so far?” Luke shined his torch over a couple rough bricks in the path.
“Yes. The place is beginning to feel like home. Caroline says we can use it another six weeks, if not ten. I’m going to miss it when it’s time to move on.”
“Your sisters certainly enjoyed the chance to come out. The guys said they were both impatient with the convoluted drives to get here.”
“They went separately to dinner and then diverted to here?”
“Yes. It seems best for security.”
“I think so.”
“I was thinking about options-if you’d like to take a trip next weekend. Maybe go over a county or two, do some driving for the day. We could start getting an idea of where might be a nice area to stay next.”
“I’d like that.”
He squeezed her hand. “Good. Are you getting used to the idea of Tracey getting married?”
Amy paused in their walk to look up at him. “Besides the fact she’s so incredibly young? She’s in her thirties, I know that, but inside she’s still sixteen. She knows what she wants, and I do like Marsh.”
“But?”
“Being a cop is just not that easy a profession on a wife-the waiting for a husband to get home when trouble has kept him late at the job, when the scanner chatter is about shots being fired.”
“I know the risks are real in this job, but being a cop also carries with it a partner at your side when that trouble arrives. For what it’s worth, I think Tracey is good for Marsh. He’s softer on the edges now; this job can push you toward being a cynic without that balance.”
She shivered even with the warmth of the coat, and he saw and turned them back the way they had come. “What about you, Amy? Could you handle being married to a cop?”
She smiled. “I think that may be too straightforward of a question to ask right now.”
He smiled back. “I know. Answer it anyway.”
She thought about it and shrugged. “I don’t know that I’m a cop’s wife material either or anyone’s wife material for that matter. You’re talking about social functions and school gatherings and PTA meetings and suburban living.”
He chuckled. “I’d say that’s a pretty interesting idea of what suburban life is like.”
“I was in the army for a decade, I’ve been playing hide-and-seek with real stakes for the years since, and for the next stage of my life I’m going to be a suburban housewife driving a minivan and trying to teach my kids not to shoot spitballs at the dogs? That image just doesn’t connect.”
He laughed at her words. “Spitballs at the dogs? Your own childhood is showing, I think. You worked as a retail associate at a mall jewelry store, and your friends from those years didn’t see you as particularly discontent with your life. You also have a healthy need to not have any more major surprises in your life.”
“Both true.”
“I’ll discount the concerns about suburban life then. What about the danger of the job?”
“Maybe it’s because I know and have tasted living with danger that it’s a different kind of burden to think about; not that a cop as a husband is such a big risk, but more that it will always be a risk. There is no peaceful expectation that a day will be quiet. You live life expecting trouble. I’ve been living that way for eight years.”
“It wears on you,” he said softly, understanding.
“Yes. This time the situation wasn’t my choice-” She hesitated. “I guess I’m glad I’m not being asked that decision right now. I don’t know what I would decide.”
They reached the rock path of the driveway, and Amy nodded to the left. “Let’s walk over to the study.” There was an enclosed study off the heated workshop, and she often retreated there during the afternoon to enjoy a book while she watched the dogs play together.
She unlocked the building, and they stepped back into warmth. A small light was on in the study, and she used it to cross over to the room and turn on the main lights. She slid off her coat and hung it on the coat-rack. The book she’d been reading that afternoon still rested on the small table beside the leisure chairs, and the throw Caroline had used across her feet rested folded on the couch. It was a guy’s study, lined with books and a nice desk against one wall, but also just comfortable space.
“So what was your reason for suggesting we sneak out again?” She settled her hands on Luke’s shoulders and smiled at him, having to tip her head back but finding it nice.
His hands stilled hers. “You are dressed up tonight like a princess. I thought I’d mention that.”
“I hoped you might have noticed,” she replied, encouraged by the quiet pleasure she saw in his gaze.
“And if I’m not mistaken that is the same perfume you were wearing three years ago.”
“I’m a creature of habit. Want to dance awhile? We could find some music.”
“I think we’re making our own at the moment, but we could try the dial on the radio,” he teased.
She grinned and didn’t bother to step away. “So are you going to kiss me or not?”
He laughed. “Probably. Someday. I’m thinking about it.”
“Good. So am I.” There was a deliberateness about him when it came to their relationship that she appreciated, even if the closest she’d get to a kiss tonight was the anticipation he’d take her up on the offer one
