Hometown Love (Love on the North Shore #2)(11)

“Emergency at work. I need to go in. Erin’s on her way to New York to see her in-laws and neither my mother nor father are answering. I need to find someone to watch Grace.”

Mack worked as a task force officer with the FBI now, and if he was getting called in on his day off, it must be serious. “She can stay with me. I’m leaving here at one when Ty comes in,” she said, referring to her assistant manager.

Mack considered her offer. “I don’t know when I’ll be home.”

“I can keep trying your mom and bring Grace over if I get her.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Don’t worry about it.”

Relief replaced the concern on Mack’s face and he knelt down in front of Grace. “As much as I’d rather stay with you, I need to go into work. You be a good girl for Jessie. We’ll get decals and paint tomorrow.”

“I’ll be good. Promise,” Grace answered, all the excitement from earlier exiting her body.

“My cell number is on here.” Mack handed Jessie a business card he pulled from his wallet. “Text me if you bring her to my mom’s house. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll pick her up at your house. Are you still at your grandparent’s place?”

Without looking at the card, she slipped it into her jeans pocket. “No, I live in the apartment building next to the Jade Orient on the second floor.”

“Okay. Thanks again. I owe you one, Jessie.” Then after giving Grace a kiss and hug, he hurried out the door.

Oh, man she’d love to collect on that promise.



***



The phone call that morning from his ex-wife should have given him an idea of how the rest of his day would play out. For the most part, Bethany called every Thursday to talk to Grace and then arranged to see her once or twice a month. Since today was Sunday, he’d known something was up as soon as he saw the call was from her. Sure enough she’d called to let him know she couldn’t see Grace this upcoming weekend as planned. This was the second time in a row she’d canceled. The last time Grace had seen her mother had been almost five weeks ago. Much to his gratitude, Grace had taken the news well this morning, perhaps because Bethany’s behavior wasn’t anything new. Since their initial separation, she often canceled planned visits. Even before the divorce, she’d not been what he’d call a hands-on mother. While during the week they had both worked and Grace had gone to daycare, on the weekend Bethany had often gone shopping or spent time with friends rather than with him and Grace. When Grace had taken swim lessons at the local gym, he’d been the one to take her most Saturday mornings. Yeah, Grace had spent her entire life coming in second place in her mother’s life, which explained why she’d handled Bethany’s absence so well.

Nope, the change in plans hadn’t been the thing to set Grace off into a thirty minute long temper tantrum, a fit that might not have been so bad if she had not gone to bed so late two nights in a row. He should’ve anticipated the meltdown the moment she asked about the dog again. Instead of flat-out saying no, he should have said he’d think about it. Those simple words would have allowed him to bypass the resulting fit. He hated to lie to his daughter though, and while he was open to getting a dog at some point, it was not happening this month.


The icing on the cake had been the phone call from his supervisor. The lieutenant governor’s sixteen-year-old daughter hadn’t been seen since going to a friend’s house the night before and all hands were being called in to look for her. So rather than spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon with his daughter, he spent much of the day talking to a sixteen-year-old’s friends and canvassing the area where she’d last been seen. At least they’d found her safe, not abducted like her parents feared, but with her college-age boyfriend.

Leaving the highway behind, Mack headed toward North Salem. He didn’t want to entertain the idea of Grace pulling a stunt like the lieutenant governor’s daughter had. When he hit a red light, Mack checked his cell phone again. Several times already he’d checked, expecting a message from Jessie telling him she’d dropped Grace off with his parents, but despite the late hour, he still hadn’t gotten one.

Thank God she’d been around today. If she hadn’t offered to watch Grace, he didn’t know who he would have called with his parents MIA and his sister away. Sure, he had several good friends in town, but they were all single guys who wouldn’t know what to do with a five-and-half-year-old girl. In the past, before they’d moved back, he’d relied on Tonya, the analyst who lived in the condo next to theirs and worked in his office. She and her husband had children of their own, but those kids were in high school. As much as he liked Tonya and her family he always felt guilty when he had to drop Grace off with them. Not having to rely on his neighbor like that had been just one of the many benefits of moving home.

He could see lights in several windows on the second floor when he pulled up in front of Jessie’s apartment. As soon as he opened his car door, he got a whiff of Chinese food from the restaurant next door and his stomach rumbled. He’d grabbed a fast food burger around one, but that had been nine hours ago. Food would have to wait until he got home. Jessie had been babysitting Grace since late that morning.

The stairs creaked as he took them two at a time. On the second floor landing, he found two apartment doors. Jessie hadn’t said which was hers and he glanced between them before he picked one. The door on the right was a solid green with no decoration of any kind except for the gold A in the center. The other however had a border of tiny white flowers stenciled all the way around it and a wooden doorplate, which read Welcome just below the peephole. The Jessie he remembered from high school would’ve taken the time to stencil in flowers.