All I Want(79)

Parker smiled. “Welcome to grownup land.”

Amory executed an impressive eye roll that would’ve made Zoe laugh in a normal situation. She really loved watching brother and sister, loved the easy rapport, the obvious love and affection between them.

Loved him . . .





Twenty-eight




It was difficult for Parker to play travel guide for his sister with so much on his mind, not the least of which was Zoe and how for every minute he spent with her he wanted more minutes.

Hours.

Days.

Weeks . . .

For most of his grown-up life he’d gotten through the demands of his job by living one minute to the next, not looking back and not looking ahead either, at least not past the current case.

And now he couldn’t see any cases in his future, which brought on a whole new level of what-the-f*ckery because his job had been his life so long he wasn’t sure he knew how to live without it.

But once Zoe flew them to Glacier Park and Amory and Henry got their first sight of snow, everything else sort of faded away. He knew he would never forget the sheer jubilation in Amory’s face as she scooped up a handful and threw it at Henry.

Henry, much gentler than she, simply pulled her in for a cold, icy hug that had Amory laughing out loud and tackling them both to the snow.

“Make snow angels!” Amory yelled, commanding everyone around her. “Henry, make one for your nana who’s sitting on a cloud watching us!”

“Henry’s aunt died a few months back,” Parker explained to Zoe. “She was his caregiver.”

“Who watches after him now?” Zoe asked.

“He has no other family.”

“No one? He’s got no one?” Zoe asked, clearly dismayed by this. “Who helps him if he needs it?”

“He’s hanging in there,” Parker said. “He got his GED and is thinking about taking some night classes at the local community college.”

Zoe turned from the sight of Henry and Amory making snow angels and laughing like children and stared up at Parker. “It’s you,” she said softly. “He has you. You’ve been looking after him, haven’t you?”

Parker lifted a shoulder. So he had a soft spot for the kid and helped out monetarily, making sure he was okay in the home he shared with other disabled adults and that he had food and everything he needed. “He’s a good guy. And he’s good to Amory. He makes sure she’s got what she needs and I do the same for him. It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a very big deal,” Zoe said softly. “You love someone, you take care of them. You don’t walk away and move on. You keep in touch. You let them know that even though maybe you can’t be with them, they’re on your mind. It’s called caring, Parker, and whether you want to admit it or not, you know how to do it, and in fact you do it better than most.”

He inhaled a deep breath. “Zoe—”

“No,” she said. “I know what you’re going to say, and I don’t need to hear it again.” She looked at him for a long time, her eyes shining with emotion that wasn’t all that hard to read and made his heart squeeze painfully.

She had no idea what he was going to say; she couldn’t. Because he didn’t know, either. Still, intending to try, he opened his mouth—

And a snowball hit him right in the face.

Amory grinned wide. “Parker and Zoe standing in the snow,” she said in a singsong voice. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G . . .”

Parker crouched down to make his own arsenal while above him he heard Zoe say, “I’m not his girlfriend.”

For the third time.

Not that he was keeping track or anything. Hoisting two huge snowballs, he threw one at Amory as she squealed and tried to outrun it—she couldn’t—and then used his second snowball to nail Zoe.

It was the last thing he did before being jumped by both of them and tackled down to the ground, where he got snow in places that no one should get snow.

They landed in Sunshine fairly late. The plan was to keep Amory and Henry until the morning, when Parker would drive them to the Coeur d’Alene airport and put them on a plane home.

When they all walked into the reception hangar, Parker saw Kel standing at the front desk looking tense. He had another officer with him. Both locked eyes on Parker.

Parker slowed and pulled Amory aside. “Remember when you told me you called Mom and Dad?”

“Uh-huh.”

Amory was a lot of things, and guileless was one of them. She didn’t have a poker face and she couldn’t lie worth shit. She just didn’t have the conscience for it.

Which was why he knew he’d been had; it was all over her face. “You didn’t call them, did you?”

“I did,” she said, and then her face crumpled with guilt. “Just not today.”

“What’s wrong?” Zoe asked quietly, eyes on Kel.

“I don’t know.” Parker ruffled his sister’s hair. “Stay here, Am, with Zoe and Henry.” And then he walked toward Kel.

Kel came forward to meet him. “Hey, turns out you were right about Carver going back to the scene of the crime. Only it wasn’t Carver himself. He’d sent back two of his militia to see if the coast was clear and we nabbed them. They squealed like good little pigs and gave up the rest of the militia’s scattered whereabouts and we found Carver with two of them holed up.”