Waiting On You (Blue Heron #3)(111)

“Why?” Colleen asked.

“Because he was rude,” Lucas answered.

“I see. So he told you I slept with him?”

“I’d rather not discuss this in a bar.”

She sighed. “I own this bar, Spaniard. Try not to be too retro, okay? Sorry I wasn’t sitting home alone, knitting bandages for injured soldiers as I waited for you to come back to me.”

He gave her a hot look. She returned it, then went to the end of the bar to get someone a drink.

“Hi, Lucas.” Faith wriggled onto the stool next to him, Levi at her side. Probably a good thing Levi hadn’t been here five minutes ago, or Lucas might be on his way to the new holding cell at the police station. He took a breath and unclenched his jaw.

“The public safety building looks incredible,” Levi said. “Went up fast.”

Lucas nodded. The job had been easy compared to a fifty-seven-story skyscraper, and had gone without significant hiccups. As soon as the painters were done, the three emergency departments could start moving in.

“Hi, gorgeous!” Colleen said, leaning over the bar to kiss Faith. “How’s my godchild percolating in there?”

“So far, so good,” she said happily, and Levi touched her cheek.

Lucas remembered that feeling. The awe of having a baby on the way, the protectiveness over your woman.

The broken feeling in his chest when he saw Ellen, white and sobbing in the hospital.

He said a quick prayer that Faith and Levi wouldn’t know that sorrow. No one deserved that. And while he was at it, that Ellen and Steve’s twins would be healthy and hearty.

Colleen plopped his plate in front of him with a clatter, deliberate, he was sure. Probably another hearty dose of whatever evil hot sauce she’d used on his burger that time.

Then she reached over and messed up his hair. “Faith, have you ever seen hair as beautiful as this?” she asked, and just like that, she was done being mad.

“I’m partial to blonds myself,” Faith said. “But no, I haven’t. Unless it’s yours.”

“I’d ask you to stop sulking, Spaniard,” Colleen said, leaning down so he could get the full power of the view down her shirt, “but I think it’s kind of hot.”

He took a bite of the sandwich. It was excellent. No burning esophagus anywhere.

“Hey, bro!” Bryce stood in front of him, beaming. “Guess what! I got a job!” He offered his fist for a bump.

Lucas obliged. “Doing what?”

“Hi, Bryce,” Colleen said. “You want a beer?”

“Yeah! I’m celebrating! I’m employed.”

“That’s great,” she said, glancing down the busy bar as she pulled him an IPA. “What will you be doing?”

Bryce sat down and accepted his beer. “Menopause Boot Camp,” he announced proudly.

Lucas choked. “Wow. What does that entail, exactly?”

“Coll, it was your mom who gave me the idea,” Bryce said. “You know? All these old chicks starting to fall apart, complaining about their creaky knees and hot flashes, and I’m like, ‘Girls, you need to get out there a little more, get the blood flowing, right?’ and your mom says, ‘Bryce, if the instructor looked like you, I’d do it.’ So I’m like, ‘Dude, what an awesome idea!’ And she got all those other chicks to sign up. Isn’t that great?”

“I think my grandmother just joined that class,” Faith said.

“She did!” Bryce said. “What do you think, Lucas?”

As ever, his cousin wanted his approval. “Sounds good, buddy. You’ll be great at it.” He paused. “You need insurance and waivers and a place and all that.”

“I know,” he said. “Carlos Mendez said if I started working on getting certified as a personal trainer, he’d let me work out of the gym, so long as my clients joined.” He paused. “I’m not good at that much, but I know how to work out, and I like women.” He smiled and shrugged.

“Good for you, Bryce,” Lucas said.

“I think it’s genius,” Colleen said. “You could also call it Women Who Love Looking at Bryce. Half the town would join.”

“You could be grandfathered in,” Bryce said with a wink, and Lucas wasn’t sure, but for a second, Colleen looked almost...stricken.

But a moment later, she was laughing at something Faith said and flirting with an old guy in a flannel shirt.

Hannah O’Rourke came out of the kitchen. “Collie, Connor wants you.”

“Roger,” she said. She went into the kitchen, attracting a good amount of male attention, Lucas’s included.

At that moment, his phone buzzed. Rushing Creek.

“You’d better get here as soon as you can, Mr. Campbell,” said the nurse. “It looks like it’s time.”

* * *

“WE SHOULD TELL my mom,” Bryce objected as Lucas towed him down the hallway toward the hospice wing. “I’ll call her now.”

“There’s no time,” Lucas said. Didi and Joe had kept the divorce from Bryce as if he was a fragile eight-year-old. “Come on, buddy.”

For the past eleven days, Lucas had spent a lot of time in this room. He’d brought in photo albums, meticulously kept since Bryce’s birth onward, and listened as Joe told him who was who in the pictures, or described where they’d been—here’s the one from the Cascades...this was in Zion National Park. Oh, the river walk in San Antonio! And here’s when we were in France.