Frailty of Things Page 4

  It rang twice as he walked through the door, then it went straight to voicemail. He hung up and smiled. If her phone had been turned off, it would have gone straight to voicemail—no, she was just ignoring him. Or trying to. It was kind of cute.

  He laid down on the bed and typed out a quick text message. “I’m in bed thinking of you.” Then he hit send. As expected, nothing came back. So he sent another, and another, and yet another. All along the same lines. Finally, he got a response.

  “Busy, go away,” she finally messaged.

  He laughed. “Where are you?” he typed.

  “Busy, go away.”

  “Busy where? Your brother is worried about you.”

  “My brother doesn’t worry.” She responded, and he could all but see her roll her eyes.

  “You’re right. He’s pissed he didn’t get to talk to you this morning. Where are you?”

  “Too bad. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

  “WHERE ARE YOU? BTW, I can keep bugging you all day.”

  There was a long pause before she responded. “I don’t doubt that. I’m at breakfast with some friends in Riverside. I’ll be home in a few hours.”

  He liked that he could hear her voice in his head as he read her messages, even if her tone was clearly one of annoyance.

  “See you then,” he typed and set his phone down. He knew Caleb hadn’t told him everything that was on his mind, and for a moment, Garret debated letting Caleb stew about Kit’s whereabouts just to get back at him for not telling him what they were really doing there. But then he realized he didn’t care all that much about what had brought them here, only that they were here now. Garret sent Caleb a quick text letting him know where Kit was and when she would be back—he could have gotten up and walked down to the lower level of the house, but Kit had excellent taste in beds, and he was rather enjoying the king-sized luxury. And he hadn’t really been kidding when he’d said he was thinking of her.

  CHAPTER 3

  “WHO WAS THAT?” Kit’s friend Vivienne DeMarco asked as she tucked a blanket around her five-month-old son, Jeffery. Kit looked at the baby lying comfortably in his baby seat—with his father’s green eyes and his mother’s dark hair, he was obviously going to be a heartbreaker when he got older. And as if agreeing with her thoughts, he flashed a big, toothless smile at her and waved his hands. She smiled back at the little flirt.

  “Who was who?” Kit asked as she reached over to tickle Jeffery’s belly. He let out a squeal and kicked his feet and, because she couldn’t help herself, she reach over, unclipped him, and lifted him onto her lap. With a delighted gurgle, he started playing with her hair.

  “Nice try, Kit. Who were all those texts from?” Jesse pressed. Jesse Baker was another one of her close friends gathered around the table for an early breakfast.

  “Where’s Emma this morning?” Kit asked, ignoring Jesse and Vivi’s questions. For a moment, it worked.

  “She and David are shoveling snow,” Jesse answered with a smile. Emma was Jesse and David’s soon-to-be-adopted daughter. At nearly two years old, Emma had dropped into their lives at a point in time when neither Jesse nor David had had any plans to raise more kids. Having both been young parents—David with a grown daughter and Jesse with two grown boys—they were just starting to enjoy having lives of their own for the first time. But life threw curveballs whenever it felt so inclined, and less than a year after meeting each other, Jesse and David were married and raising Emma.

  “But we knew that already,” Matty Kent, the third friend in their group, interjected with a pointed look. “Jesse said so when she sat down. Now, stop avoiding the question, because you know doing that just piques our curiosity even more. Who were those texts from?” Matty repeated as she grabbed Jesse’s cup of coffee and took a sip.

  “You know,” Kit said, watching Matty take a second sip of Jesse’s coffee before setting the cup down and sliding it back in front of their friend. “If you drink all of Jesse’s coffee, it’s kind of the same as having your own cup.” She glanced at Matty’s growing belly. At five-and-a-half-months pregnant, Matty looked fabulous—very pregnant, but fabulous.

  Matty shrugged. “I know, but this way when Dash,” she said, referring to her husband, “asks how much coffee I ordered, I can just say one cup and it will be the truth. Now, who were the texts from?”

  “He’s just looking out for you,” Kit pointed out. “And for good reason. How many cups have you had today?” she demanded as Jesse reached over and pulled Jeffery into her own lap. The baby’s attention immediately switched from Kit’s hair to Jesse’s necklace.

  “That was my last, I promise,” Matty said, eying Jesse and Vivi’s cups longingly. Kit studied her friend and knew that while she was probably drinking more coffee than many pregnant women, Matty would never do anything to jeopardize the twins she was carrying. So, with a smile and a shake of her head, Kit reached for her own cup—of tea, not coffee—and began to futz with it.

  “Uh oh, she’s futzing,” Matty said. Kit looked up to see three sets of eyes, well, four if she counted Jeffery, staring at her, waiting for an answer.

  “My brother came into town last night and Garret, his partner, is with him. They were just texting to find out where I am since I left this morning without saying where I was going,” she answered.

  Predictably, Jesse’s eyes lit up. She and Caleb had formed a unique kind of friendship when he’d helped her out of a sticky situation last fall. Her brother wasn’t the most social of creatures, and hadn’t endeared himself to David when he’d all but accused David of being involved in the several attacks on Jesse, but something between Caleb and Jesse had just clicked. Not in a sexual way, of course—not in the same way things had clicked between Kit and Garret.

  “How is he? Will he be staying for long? He needs to come by and meet Emma,” Jesse said.

  “Caleb never stays around for long,” Vivi pointed out.

  “Or comes for no reason,” Matty added. “So what’s going on? Is everything okay?”

  Before Caleb had come to town last fall, Kit hadn’t talked too much about him to her friends. She and her brother had been more or less estranged for years, so she’d had very little to say. But after he’d come and met her friends, and helped Jesse, they’d asked questions—not so much about him, per se, but about her relationship with him and why they weren’t close. Kit had done her best not to reveal too much about that piece of her past and had, instead, provided basic facts. Like the fact that Caleb rarely came around and that, when he did, she never knew when, why, or how long he would stay.

  Kit shrugged, “I don’t actually know why he’s here. He just showed up last night and said we needed to talk. I haven’t seen him since that day—that day,” she paused and looked at Jesse.

  That day when Jesse’s deceased husband’s former mistress had kidnapped her son and then tried to blow them all up. With Caleb and Garret’s help, they’d each made it out alive and mostly in one piece. Marcus Brown, one of the police officers involved, had been severely burned and injured, and it had been touch and go for a while, but he was now well on the way to recovery—not a full recovery, but a good one, given all his injuries. So while the story had the best kind of ending it could, considering what had happened, it still wasn’t something any of them looked back on fondly.

  Kit was brought back to the conversation at hand when Jesse reached over to give her hand a squeeze, then asked, “Where did he go?”

  “And who is his partner?” Matty joined in. “Call me crazy, but my guess is that the blush that crept up your neck a while back wasn’t from a message your brother texted you.”

  Kit tried to glare at her friend, but Matty was unrepentant and just grinned back.

  “I remember Ian saying something about Caleb having a partner, but well, Jeffery came along so unexpectedly that I never bothered to ask after that,” Vivi added. Ian, Vivi’s husband and the county sheriff, had been there that day too. But when Marcus had been in
jured, he and Vivi had followed him down to the burn unit in New York City. Who knows if it was the stress of that day or just Jeffery being impatient, but while they were waiting for word on Marcus, Vivi had gone into labor four weeks early. Thankfully, Jeffery was more than ready to come out and hadn’t even had to spend a night in the NICU.

  “So who is this masked man?” Matty pressed, again with a grin.

  Kit rolled her eyes. “What are you, fifteen?” she teased.

  Matty waggled her eyebrows as Kit scooted her chair in to let two men from the next table over pass by.

  “Good god, you’re a menace,” Kit muttered.

  Matty grinned “And by the way, those guys that just left were talking about you,” she added with a nod toward the two men who had made their way past her chair and were now exiting the restaurant.

  Kit frowned. “How do you know?” she asked.

  “And were they saying anything interesting?” Jesse added, her eyes sparkling.

  “They were speaking Spanish and saying they wouldn’t mind being in London with you but thought Rome would be too distracting for their taste,” Matty supplied.

  Kit frowned; it felt disconcerting to know those men had been eavesdropping on her conversation with her friends when she’d been discussing her travel plans. Of course, people eavesdropped all the time, and if they were sitting less than five feet away, like those two men had been, it was probably not even intentional. But still, it surprised Kit that they’d spoken about her in such a way. Having traveled as much as she had, she always assumed that at least someone around her would speak English and be able to understand what she was saying—the good, the bad, and the inappropriate. Apparently, not everyone made the same assumption.

  “I don’t even know what that means,” Vivi said. “How can Rome be too distracting?”

  “You, my friend, have no imagination. London is gray and drab this time of year, Rome is not,” Matty offered.

  “And?” Vivi prompted.

  Matty turned to Jesse, “Is this what I can expect after these babies are born? That any kind of sexual adventurousness just up and disappears?”

  Jesse laughed. “No, on the contrary, actually. I just think that maybe you and Vivi have different ideas about what that might mean.”

  Vivi arched an eyebrow at Matty, who laughed. “When it’s gray and drab outside, what better to do than hole up in a hotel all day, if you get what I mean,” Matty elaborated.

  Vivi huffed a laugh. “Yes, I do actually get that,” she said. “I’m just not sure why Rome would be different.”

  “Because it’s not as gray as London and it’s a great walking city,” Kit jumped in. “That’s not to say London isn’t, but Rome is seductive; it makes you want to be out and about, seeing, tasting, and touching it.” Rome was and would always be one of her favorite cities.

  “You make it sound like Rome itself would compete with any lover,” Vivi said with a smile.

  Kit thought back to all the times she’d been to the city. She’d never really thought of it that way, but what Vivi had said actually had a bit of truth in it. Kit inclined her head in agreement, but then added, “Of course, any lover worth his salt would know how to use the city as part of his own seduction, rather than compete with it.”

  “So, speaking of lovers?” Matty pushed with a not-so-subtle smile, bringing the topic back to Garret.

  Kit shook her head, laughed, then let out a deep breath. “Garret Cantona is my brother’s partner. He was here last fall. We met then,” she finally supplied, knowing her friends would never drop the subject unless she complied with their demands.

  “You met or you met met?” Vivi asked, an eyebrow arched.

  “We met met, but we didn’t, uh,” she paused for a moment, “we didn’t meet meet, if you know what I mean.”

  “Meaning you made out with him but didn’t have sex,” Matty clarified. “Or at least not hot monkey sex. Judging by the blush creeping up your neck again, I’d wager there was some sex involved.”

  Kit tried to glare at her friend again, but Vivi and Jesse jumped in.

  “You didn’t tell me anything,” Jesse said.

  “You didn’t tell any of us,” Vivi added.

  Kit held up her hand to ward off further comments. After a moment, her friends seemed to comply. When they were all quiet, she spoke. “Look, I didn’t tell anyone because I never heard from him again after he was here for those few days. My brother has no idea—I suspect if he did, he wouldn’t have brought Garret back into my house. And as for not telling you guys, well, there was a lot going on back then, if you recall,” she gave them each a pointed look. “Jeffery had arrived,” she said, looking at Vivi. “And you and David got married and were in the middle of starting the adoption process,” she said, looking at Jesse. “And you,” she directed her gaze at at Matty, “you were newly pregnant and barfing your guts up about every fifteen minutes.”

  Matty turned a little green at the reminder of just how sick she’d been that first trimester. “It just didn’t seem like a big deal considering everything else that was going on,” Kit continued. “Especially since I didn’t hear from him.” But saying those words out loud made it clear to her just how big of a deal it had been. Because she remembered how much she had missed him after he’d left so suddenly. She hadn’t known him long, but during those first few days and weeks after he’d gone, she’d craved his company and wanted it like nothing else. But then the weeks had turned into months and her memories had turned into reminders—reminders of just why someone like Garret didn’t fit into her carefully constructed life.

  “But he was manically texting you just now,” Jesse pointed out.

  Kit forced air into her lungs, fighting against the weight of her memories—she didn’t want her friends to catch a glimpse of how much Garret affected her. If they saw it, she might have to face it herself.

  So she slowly exhaled and gave what she hoped would come across as a lighthearted shrug. “Like I said, he and my brother are just looking out for me,” she said. “I have no idea what Caleb wants to talk to me about, but I should probably get home and have it out with him. I told him we could talk tonight, but then I had to rearrange my trip to Europe and I now leave tonight. He’s not going to like that.”

  “Your brother doesn’t like anything that doesn’t go according to his plans,” Jesse pointed out in support. Kit smiled because what Jesse had said was true, but also because her friends were letting her change the subject.

  Vivi laughed, “Yeah, I know a thing or two about men who are addicted to plans,” she added. Ian was notorious for making plans. “But the good news is planners can generally re-plan so don’t feel too bad about upsetting him.”

  “And besides, it’s not as though he called and made plans with you. I mean really, he can hardly expect you to put your life on hold for him,” Matty offered, making Kit smile again. Actually, all her friends made her smile.

  Gathering her hat, gloves, and jacket, she rose from her seat. “I love you guys. I’ll be in touch when I get back from Europe.”

  “I want pictures of the event, including some of you in all your finery,” Matty, a fellow writer, said as Kit donned her gear.

  “And then when you get back, I want to hear just how you met met, but didn’t meet meet, Garret Cantona,” Vivi added with a glint in her eye.

  “I think we all want to hear that,” Jesse said.

  “Prurient, all of you,” Kit responded with a laugh. “Love you all, and I’ll see you next week.”

  Holding the warmth of her friendships close, she stepped out into the cold and went to face her day.

  Before heading home, however, she had one more stop to make. Pulling onto Main Street back in Windsor, Kit scouted for a parking spot as close to the police station as possible. She liked the winter, but walking on frozen sidewalks wasn’t her favorite thing. And though there weren’t a lot of cars out this early in the morning, since most of the stores didn’t open until ten, the
snow banks left by the plows seemed to take up half the street, leaving scant room for parking.

  Half a block from the station, she found a spot and pulled in. Three minutes later, she was entering the building, stomping her boots more out of habit than to rid them of any accumulated snow.

  “Hi, Sharon,” she said to the receptionist. “I’m here to see—”

  “Me, I take it,” Carly Drummond said, walking out of her office into the main room.

  Kit smiled at her friend. “I am.” Taking off her jacket, she followed Carly into her office and shut the door behind her.

  “How are you?” Kit asked as they both took seats.

  Five months ago, Carly had become the acting deputy chief of police. At twenty-nine, she was the youngest person—and the only woman—ever to hold the position. Kit had always sensed that Carly had some misgivings about her choice of careers—even when she’d been just an officer. But then Carly’d had the deputy chief position thrust upon her when Marcus Brown, the previous deputy chief, had been injured and, well, the additional responsibility seemed to exacerbate the somewhat edgy, dissatisfied energy Carly emanated at times. She was good at her job, Kit knew this from talking to Vivi and Ian, both of whom worked in law enforcement, but she never seemed very comfortable with it.

  Carly shrugged. “I’m fine. You know, Vic is being Vic,” she answered, referring to the current chief of police. “And I saw Marcus last night,” she added.

  “How is he? Still in Albany?” Kit asked. Marcus was still technically the deputy chief, and Carly’s role, though five months and running, was temporary while he was on a leave of absence as he recovered.

  Carly nodded. “He is. The Albany Police Department has given him some administrative tasks, and he’s actually been spending some time at the state lab with Vivi and Dr. Buckley, the director. He’s edgy though; he wants to get back to work.”

  It was interesting to Kit that Carly had used the same words to describe Marcus’s desire to get back to work that Kit would use to describe Carly’s potential desire to get out of it.