Bobby usually called on his lunch break, at eleven-fifteen.
It was only ten-thirty.
Bobby MacKenna was Riley’s vice principal during the school year. During the summer he helped out with his family’s business—house painting. We’d been “dating” for almost six weeks now.
One of these days he was going to want to sleep with me.
Okay, okay. I needed to reword that. One of these days he was going to get sick of waiting for me to let him sleep with me.
I just hadn’t been ready. How on earth could I let another man share my bed when I still had feelings for Kevin?
Homicide detective Kevin Quinn. Who in ten days would be my ex-husband.
Granted, I didn’t quite know what those feelings were, but they were there. And until I figured them out, it wouldn’t be fair to Bobby to pursue anything deeper, and it wouldn’t be fair to me.
Then I thought about losing him, and my heart ached.
Jeez. A girl couldn’t win.
“Nina?”
18
Heather Webber
I turned and found Tam in the doorway, twisting her hands over her extended belly.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “The baby? Now?”
“No, no. I’m fine,” she said, looking anything but.
My heart sank to my toes. “Then what?”
“There’s been an accident. With Riley.”
Three
White-knuckled, Tam clenched the steering wheel. “He’s fine. Just fine. Everything’s fine.”
She drove because I was still shaking. My hands, my legs . . . Even my teeth chattered.
Riley.
“Tell me again what Mr. Cabrera said?”
“Some sort of car accident, Nina. Riley was on his skateboard. He’ll be fine. Just fine.”
“Was he wearing his helmet?” I couldn’t count the number of times I had to remind him to wear that helmet. He hated it. Called it “not cool.”
Better not cool than dead, I’d told him.
Tam swerved out of the high-speed lane, into the center lane, and back into the left lane on I-275 eastbound. Horns honked in our wake. “I don’t know.” She pressed harder on the gas pedal.
“Oh no,” she said.
“What?”
Then I heard it. The too familiar
Heather Webber
car. I spun to look out the back window. Sure enough, a silver cruiser was right behind us.
Tam slowed and pulled off onto the berm. “Let me take care of this,” she said, fluffing her curls.
With all the praying I was doing today, I definitely needed to visit St. Valentine’s soon. Maybe I ought to make an appointment to see Father Keesler. I would need a while.
Tam’s window slid down and she looked out at the officer peering in.
“Where’s the fire?” he asked.
Original, I couldn’t help but think sarcastically, but luckily kept my big mouth shut.
“Not fire, officer, water.”
“Water?” he questioned.
“Mine broke! The baby’s coming!” She motioned to her rather large belly. “I feel like I need to push!”
Tam was brilliant! I have excellent taste in employees.
Then I remembered Jean-Claude. Okay, somewhat excellent taste.
“Yes,” I said, “we really need to get to the hospital, officer.”
