The Family Gathering (Sullivan's Crossing #3)(69)

“I bet there was a lot more to it than that,” Dakota said. “You must have been so lonely.”

“I enjoyed my work. It might’ve been boring to most people but to me... Well, it was very important. I wasn’t just some techie. I was writing code.”

“Programming?” he asked.

“Sometimes. Analyzing. My work was with software.”

“Do you miss it?” he asked, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Sometimes,” she said. “But it was consuming and isolating and then when David... I suddenly realized I was much too alone. And I collapsed from within.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if my work ruined my marriage or my marriage ruined my work. I had such a terrible identity crisis. I’m never going to let myself get in that place again. From a shy and awkward girl to an abandoned wife with no one, with nothing. I had to start over.”

“You run that bar like a drill sergeant. And you’re animated. Outgoing. You have lots of family and friends now.”

“That was a really smart move for me, staying with my brother, helping with the bar and the boys. The bar is a social place—if I’m happy, the customers are happy, they look forward to coming in, they leave tips, they bring friends. And I’m getting that empty bubble inside filled with good people. My life has changed so many times—with the accident, with a marriage I couldn’t have been prepared for, to coming here. Thanks to Rob needing my help and pushing me, I became a much more confident person. But I’m not confident about making another marriage, Dakota. You’re going to have to understand.” She bit her bottom lip. “I’m sorry if I misled you into thinking I was some techie. It was more than that.”

“I have no trouble believing you’re smart, Sid. I knew that from the beginning. And I understand why you’re a commitmentphobe right now, after what you went through,” he said. “But I bet I’m not anything like him.”

She laughed. “There’s no question about it.”

“I do have secret ambitions, however,” he said.

“Oh? Do tell?”

“I’m having a good experience here, too. I don’t hate the garbage truck. I’ve had worse duty, believe me, and I love working with Lawrence. But I’m weighing some other options. Maybe the fire department. And I’m still interested in that teaching certificate.” He laughed. “Two important fields guaranteed to keep me from getting rich. Lucky for me, getting rich was never one of my major goals.” He pulled into the parking space at the soup kitchen. “We have lots of time, Sid. Would you like coffee and cake tonight when we’re done here?”

“I think so, yes,” she said. “You never asked me about my husband before.”

“We did a lot of our best talking while naked,” he reminded her. “I didn’t want to know anything about him then.”

“Wise,” she agreed.

*

Summer was full on the land as the Fourth of July weekend arrived. Dakota worked hard by day and had perfect evenings. He had dinner at the bar at least a couple of times a week, dinner with Cal, Maggie and Sully at least once a week, dropped in on Sierra a couple of times a week if he didn’t have dinner with her, and most nights Sid drove out to the cabin for the night. More and more of her personal items took up residence in his cabin: her shower gel, toothbrush, hairbrush, lotion, a few extra clothing items. He even drove back to Denver to briefly visit with Sedona in the hospital. She had wisely chosen to go back to the hospital where she had originally been diagnosed and was making progress.

His family was settled and he had a fantastic woman in his life. Things had not been this stable and hopeful in his memory. He’d even been kicking around the idea of a brief visit to Iowa to check on the folks, not so much because he thought they wanted him to visit, but it seemed like a good time to try to make peace with his childhood.

Then a very strange thing happened to remind him life was never uncomplicated. While he was in the bar having dinner, his car parked across the street right in front of the beauty shop, someone emptied a pile of hair clippings in the front seat. At first he couldn’t make out what it was but soon recognized it to be many colors of finely cut hair. By the time he discovered it, the salon was closed, lights off.

“Crazy,” he muttered. He suspected Alyssa, but he hadn’t seen her in weeks. Well, he saw her at a distance. He had no reason to think she was malicious, but who else had hair clippings to toss in a car?

He walked down the block and across the street to the police department. He found Officer Paul Castor holding down the fort. “How you doing, Paul?” he asked.

“Not bad,” he said.

“Let me ask you something—you have an issue with vandalism on the main street here?” Dakota said.

“Nah. It’s well lit, lots of business owners around, stores open. Why? You have a problem?”

He shook his head and laughed. “Someone dumped a pile of hair clippings on the driver’s seat of my car.”

Castor lifted his eyebrows.

“I know—pretty strange, isn’t it?”

“You have a fight with a barber?”

Dakota shook his head. “I guess you never heard that one before, huh?”

“Any damage?”

“No, just a slight mess. I’m going to have to take the car somewhere to get it vacuumed out.”