She was such a homely little thing with her father’s round cheeks and overly large lips. But her eyes…she was a sweet little girl who was very friendly. “Hi, Angie, how are you?”
“Being pulled in a million directions, and loving it,” Angie said with a tired smile. “You look gorgeous, by the way. I can’t remember the last time I looked gorgeous. Probably four kids, a nursing degree, and one divorce ago.”
“Don’t be silly. You are definitely gorgeous right now. Far more than I am. I feel like the FBI’s leftover bin right now.” Angie was a very pretty woman, but it was the love and joy in her eyes when she looked at her daughters that made her truly beautiful. “I could never get away with wearing that color. I’d look like a clown, but on you—gorgeous.”
They laughed together. Jac took Angie’s youngest daughter onto her own lap, while the middle girl sat with her nose buried in a book that looked to be about fairies. The middle Anderson girl was as beautiful as her mother—and not interested in sports at all. Jac had a bag of books in her hall closet, books that she’d found at a flea market in Wyoming for the little girl. She’d been meaning to give them to Angie’s ex-husband to pass on.
“I hate to ask, but…I need to call Andy. Find out where he is. Abbie is going to be asking where her dad is. He always makes her games. I…I’m a bit worried. Andy’s obsessive about not being late. He always texts me if he’s going to be late. Even now.”
“Sure. I’ll keep these two under control.”
Angie stepped outside to make her call. Jac kept up a running conversation as much as possible with the Andersons’ three-year-old, while the six-year-old just kept reading.
Some of the tension filling Jac eased. Friends, families, the smell of the concession stand being ran by older siblings and parents—it was beautiful. Normal.
Free of the darkness that normally surrounded her workdays.
Sometimes, life at PAVAD could get pretty dark. Her last case had been dark—that was for sure.
She’d just finished a case where an eleven-year-old would never see the sun again. He’d been blinded by his own cousin and nearly killed. Jac’s team had arrived just in time to save his life.
Not something she would ever forget.
When the little girls’ basketball game at Brynlock Academy ended, Jac excused herself from the Andersons and headed down to where the green team was congregating.
She had an eight-year-old to catch.
The high school teams would be playing soon—and the crowd would double. She wanted to find Emery and get a spot closer to the action. Emery loved watching the teenagers play. She had a well-known crush on Simon Brockman, one of the star players.
She’d buy Emery dinner at the concession stand, say hello to a few friends from work who also had kids at the school, and get Emery distracted by getting to stay at the high school basketball game—which would end well after her normal bedtime.
Before Emery got worried that her father wasn’t there to take her home.
Max very rarely missed Emery’s games. It was a promise he’d made to his daughter years ago. One Jac had done her best to help him keep. It had been weeks since she’d been to one of Emery’s sports events, since she’d been with the little girl.
Tonight’s phone call had come completely out of the blue. He almost hadn’t caught her at all. Emery’s father had been desperate. Jac had been his last resort. That had come through loud and clear.
Max Jones, her former partner, had been avoiding her. In every way he possibly could.
That big stinking coward. She’d like to take his size thirteens and shove one right up his chickeny rear end for this.
But here she was now. Watching over his daughter, like she had so many times before.
Emery needed her; that was all it had taken to have Jac dropping her plans and rushing to the school. She came up behind a familiar strawberry-blond kid wearing the number 17 on her jersey. She tapped the little girl on the shoulder. “Hey, kid Jones.”
Emery turned. Her eyes, a clear blue, widened. “Jac! Jac! You’re here!”
Jac found her arms full of wiggling, sweaty little girl. She tightened the hug just a bit. She’d missed this kid so much.
Jac looked over Emery’s hair at the crowd surrounding her. The coach was eyeing her with suspicion. Jac couldn’t recall meeting her before. Jac pulled her badge free. “I’m Agent Jaclyn Jones. I’m here to pick up Emery. Her father got called in to work.”
“I...no one called me about it. Are you her mother?” The woman eyed her appraisingly.
Jac shook her head. Jac knew the protocol for the school’s events, and she understood how important it was. “I have permissions on file with the school. Her father is waiting for a phone call if there is a problem.”
“There won’t be,” a voice said from behind the coach. Jac recognized the school principal, a woman around her own age she’d met many times before. “Emery’s father called me a few minutes ago to ensure we knew Jaclyn had permission to pick Emery up this evening. Hello, Jaclyn. How have you been?”
Jac made small talk with the principal and a few of the other mothers while she waited for Emery to get changed out of her basketball shoes and grab her bag. Before she knew it, she found herself agreeing to volunteer at the next field trip, after the winter holiday break.
She’d have to make certain to put in for comp time, but she had plenty accumulated. She was an old hat at field trips now that Emery was in the third grade.
The principal, Jayda, was an extremely persuasive woman when she wanted to be. Jac made plans to call Rachel or Julie and finalize those plans. She’d volunteered with both of them before, and they usually split responsibilities for the group. They worked well together, playing off
