Alone & Lonely, page 25
Amya shook her head. “No, unfortunately.”
“Think he’s ready?”
“Absolutely not.” Amya bristled. “But I don’t think he’ll be any more ready next semester or next year. We’re going to have to trust him at some point.”
“I’d rather not.”
Amya chuckled. “Wouldn’t we all.”
Curling a finger over the baby’s cheek, Amya smiled down at him. It was a sweet look, one that was lacking any barriers or walls. Grace hadn’t seen a look like that from Amya in far too long, and the fact it took a baby to bring it out of her puzzled Grace. They may have talked all weekend, but Grace still had a lot of making up to do and reparations to make.
Time was going to be her best friend. Which was a problem, because Grace had zero patience.
They both heard Doreen’s voice. With a glance to each other, they straightened. Grace stood up and opened the door to allow Doreen inside.
“Where did you find him?”
Grace snorted. “Johnson County. You going to bring him to Jonas?”
“If he agrees.”
“I think he will.”
Doreen took Grace’s old spot on the couch and looked the baby over. “He looks well enough.”
“He was well taken care of, despite being ripped from his mother’s arms as she lay dying.”
Amya shot Grace a look, and Grace shrugged, not understanding where the ire was coming from. It was true, even if it was a bit crass.
“I have his carseat so he can be transported, but I’ll need to keep the diaper bag for evidence.”
“Tell me what’s in there so we can try to keep him on the same formula if it was working.”
Grace dug through the bag, writing down the diaper brand and size and the formula on a sticky note from Amya’s desk. She handed it over and took the baby from Amya’s arms.
“When will the paternity test come back?” Grace asked.
“We’ll put a rush on it, so it should be by the end of the week. Did you…” Doreen looked them over. “Did you arrest her?”
“Not personally, but yes.”
“Good.” Relief washed through Doreen. “I suppose I’ll find out more when you let us know.”
“Yes.” Grace nodded. She leaned down and dropped a kiss on the baby’s cheek before sliding him into Doreen’s arms.
“Thinking about fostering a baby?”
“No,” Grace and Amya responded at the same time.
Doreen smirked at them. “Ah, well, I’ll keep sending you teenagers.”
“Great,” Grace muttered. “Just what we need in the house, more hormones.”
Amya gave Grace a hard look, and she shrugged. They bid Doreen farewell and suddenly the room felt empty. Amya nodded at Khloe and told her to take the rest of the day before shutting the door and effectively closing them in her office alone with no chance of interruption.
Warning bells went off in Grace’s head. Amya grabbed her upper arms and pulled her in tight, their lips locking. Thrown off, Grace took a second before she eased into the kiss. She relaxed as Amya wrapped arms around her neck and held her tight, not letting go as they deepened the embrace.
Finally Amya pulled away with an extra peck against Grace’s mouth. “I love you.”
“Love you, too, but what was that for?”
“For not being an idiot any longer.”
Chuckling, Grace shook her head. “Pretty sure I’m still an idiot.”
“Stop that.” Amya kissed her again.
Grace melted. She loved this side of Amya, the sweet side, the compassionate side. Nipping at Amya’s lip, Grace held her tightly. “What now?”
“Don’t you have a report to write up?”
Groaning, Grace closed her eyes and rested her head on Amya’s shoulder. “Do I have to?”
“Yes. I want you home at a reasonable hour tonight, thank you.”
“Oh, does that mean you have something special planned?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Amya walked her fingers up Grace’s chest to her nose before grinning. “The kids have something special planned.”
“What?”
“You’ll see.”
“Amya,” Grace whined. “You know I don’t like surprises.”
“You’ll like this one, I promise.”
“Is there an extra special Amya-only surprise after the kid surprise.”
Amya narrowed her eyes. “If you behave, there might be.”
“Yes!” Grace kissed Amya hard and passionately. She didn’t let go for the longest time before she pulled away and walked out of the office with a much lighter step. She nearly skipped down the long hallway to her unit.
With no sign of Paige, Grace sat at her desk and finished out her reports for the day, as much as she could without everyone else’s reports. She finished within two hours. She stared at the apology on her desk and glared at it. She’d bring it to Alonzo in the morning. She didn’t have the energy to deal with him tonight, not when he tried to get her to transfer to his unit every damn time.
The unit was nearly empty when she shut down her computer and cleaned up her desk. The plan she had would work. It had to, but more than that, it was what was right and what she should have done months ago. With her jacket over her shoulders, Grace walked out of Missing Persons, finally feeling like she was back to where she had been when she started there. It may have been short lived, but it might always be her favorite unit to work in.
Homicide
Grace had debated for at least two weeks how she was going to accomplish a transfer without permission from Paige. With everything that had happened, she was wary of any interaction with Paige, who was back in the office by the end of the previous week. She’d seemed calmed, but knowing Paige that could just be everything boiling underneath the surface.
Grace had even switched desks so she could watch Paige’s office and know when she was coming instead of being surprised by a hand on her shoulder or something. She shuddered at the thought. The week had been quiet, but it had only been a week since the incident. That didn’t leave Grace a whole lot of hope about what the future held. For all she knew IAB had finished their report and left it in the hands of the chief, which honestly wouldn’t surprise her. It was harassment, not some type of internal conspiracy like Humbard’s issue.
It was close to finishing time when Grace slipped from the room and walked down the hallway. The phone in her hand was hard against her palm as she squeezed it. She’d chosen a day that Amya wouldn’t be in the office on purpose. She needed to do this on her own, for them. She needed to take that step as much as she dragged her feet and didn’t necessarily want to. This was for them.
Homicide was a bustle of people, which meant they must have just caught a case. Their department was at least three times the size as Missing Persons, which didn’t surprise Grace. Link Abrams leaned over his desk, shoving his gun in his holster and grabbing something else. Grace smiled when she saw him. He’d been nothing but kind to her.
“Hey Abrams,” she said as she stopped near his desk.
“Halling?” He looked a little surprised when he faced her but didn’t give too much away at his shock. “We don’t have another case together, do we?”
She shook her head. “No, we don’t.”
He eyed her carefully, both eyebrows raised in question.
Grace gave in, knowing it would do any harm to let Abram know what was going on. “I thought I’d talk to your Captain.”
“About…?”
Her lips thinned. “Transferring.”
“Shouldn’t you talk to your Captain?”
Grace shrugged. She should. That was how policy worked, talk to both, but typically talk to her own first. But she couldn’t talk to Paige, and if Abrams didn’t know that, then at least the rumors of the brawl hadn’t made it too far out. That or he was just trying to be nice. She settled on nice. Thus far, everyone had known about the fight, even if it had happened on a weekend.
“Thought I’d talk to yours. You’d hinted he was interested in me transferring.”
“Yeah, but…” Link’s gaze shifted from her to the Captain’s door. “Nevermind. Go in.”
“No, tell me.” Grace crossed her arms, staring up at the man who was easily a foot taller than her, if not more.
Link’s jaw clenched and his posture became stiff. “He’s concerned about your record.”
“Which part of my record?”
“Don’t know. Didn’t ask.”
Grace’s stomach swirled in knots. “Right. Well, thanks for the heads up. I guess.”
“For the record, Halling. I’d love to work with you again.”
That caused a slight smile to appear. “You get a case?”
“Yeah.”
“Better get to it, then.”
Link raised both his hands and started to walk backward toward the door. “The dead wait for no one, don’t you know?”
Chuckling, Grace shook her head and walked toward the Captain’s office. She rapped her knuckles on the door and made sure to make eye contact as she waited to get his attention.
“Yes?” He glowered up at her.
She really had probably picked a bad time for this conversation, but she was there, and it had taken her weeks to get up the courage to do it, so she wasn’t backing down now. “Captain, I was wondering if you had a minute.”
His stern look told her he’d rather not, but he gestured to the chair in front of the desk. Grace shut the door, without being told, and sat down. Nerves swelled in her belly again, only this time they were far harder to control.
“Abram said at one point you were looking for some new detectives.”
He raised his eyebrow at her.
Grace’s mouth went dry, but she said what she’d come there to say. “I’d like to put my name in as an option.”
“Have you spoken with Delwin?”
Cold washed through Grace’s body. She answered honestly, “No.”
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Why are you coming to me?”
She had anticipated this line of questioning but hadn’t really come up with a good roundabout way to answer. She was a blunt person, and the idea of tiptoeing around what happened was not something she really wanted.
“Because I need to transfer, and I’ve held off long enough. While I love Missing Persons, and would love to stay there, I can’t with the current environment.”
The Captain cocked his head at her, and she knew he was trying to fish more information out of that line than what she’d given up.
“I have an offer to go to IAB, but I’d rather work Homicide. This last case was eye opening, and I think it’d be a good environment from what I’ve seen. You run a tight ship.” She was satisfied that she managed to toss in a compliment into that. “I’m not good with walking circles around people, sir. I would like to transfer to homicide.”
He sighed and gave her a hard stare. “I looked at your record, Halling, and while you have accolades from a lot of different supervisors, you also have had disciplinaries.”
“I’ve calmed from my days on the street.”
He gave a wry smile. “Have you?”
“Yes.” Grace dared to look him in the eyes, wanting him to know the last incident was an outlier. Yes, she had gotten into another fight, but it had been years since she’d found herself the center of one.
“I don’t have any positions for you.”
“Sir,” Grace pleaded. “Abrams had said you did.”
“And it’s been filled. Did you think you were the only candidate we were looking at?”
Shaking her head, she acquiesced. “No, I didn’t. I’d hoped there was still an opening.”
“Sorry, Halling.” He put his hands out. “But next time we have one, I’ll let you know.”
She grinned, fully. The honesty in his eyes was enough for her to trust he would. Until then, she was going to have to figure out what to do and how to continue to work in Missing Persons with Paige. She stared at the top of his desk, disturbed when he spoke again.
“Word of advice about Delwin.”
She glanced up at him, almost forgetting that Paige and transferred from Homicide to Missing Persons nearly two years before. She cocked her head at him, waiting for him to continue.
“Keep your head down, but if she ruffles your feathers, come down and talk to me.”
“Sir?”
“Delwin and I have an understanding, and if she crosses those lines, I know how to deal with her.”
Unsettled, Grace nodded at him. “Thank you, sir. And sorry to take up your time.”
Leaving Homicide was a let down. Grace walked through the halls, barely seeing anyone else. Now she really wished Amya had been there so they could talk after. Luckily, her work day was nearly done, and since Kit was done with school for the winter break, she could pick her up and they could go do something fun, something to take Grace’s mind off this disaster. Maybe she could even grab Peter on her way.
In her cruiser, she drove home and left the car running as she dashed inside. Ignoring the dogs, she walked straight to Peter’s door and knocked before opening it. He stared up at her from the bed. “Get dressed. You have two minutes.”
“What?”
“Do it, kid.” Shutting the door, Grace let the dogs out for a potty break, knowing it would take Peter more than two minutes. She was right. Ten minutes later, they were in the cruiser and heading toward Kit’s school.
With her kids in the car, Grace smiled as she gripped the wheel. She slowly moved through the pick up line, and as soon as she was on the street, Peter looked at her. “Where the hell are we going?”
Grace grinned broadly. “Anyone want ice cream?”
About the Author
Adrian J. Smith has been publishing since 2013 but has been writing nearly her entire life. With a focus on women loving women fiction, AJ jumps genres from action-packed police procedurals to the seedier life of vampires and witches to sweet romances with a May-December twist. She loves writing and reading about women in the midst of the ordinariness of life. Two of her novels, For by Grace and Memoir in the Making, received honorable mentions with the Rainbow Awards.
AJ currently lives in Cheyenne, WY, although she moves often and has lived all over the United States. She loves to travel to different countries and places. She currently plays the roles of author, wife, and mother to two rambunctious toddlers, occasional handy-woman. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Alone & Lonely
About the Author
Adrian J. Smith, Alone & Lonely
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“Think he’s ready?”
“Absolutely not.” Amya bristled. “But I don’t think he’ll be any more ready next semester or next year. We’re going to have to trust him at some point.”
“I’d rather not.”
Amya chuckled. “Wouldn’t we all.”
Curling a finger over the baby’s cheek, Amya smiled down at him. It was a sweet look, one that was lacking any barriers or walls. Grace hadn’t seen a look like that from Amya in far too long, and the fact it took a baby to bring it out of her puzzled Grace. They may have talked all weekend, but Grace still had a lot of making up to do and reparations to make.
Time was going to be her best friend. Which was a problem, because Grace had zero patience.
They both heard Doreen’s voice. With a glance to each other, they straightened. Grace stood up and opened the door to allow Doreen inside.
“Where did you find him?”
Grace snorted. “Johnson County. You going to bring him to Jonas?”
“If he agrees.”
“I think he will.”
Doreen took Grace’s old spot on the couch and looked the baby over. “He looks well enough.”
“He was well taken care of, despite being ripped from his mother’s arms as she lay dying.”
Amya shot Grace a look, and Grace shrugged, not understanding where the ire was coming from. It was true, even if it was a bit crass.
“I have his carseat so he can be transported, but I’ll need to keep the diaper bag for evidence.”
“Tell me what’s in there so we can try to keep him on the same formula if it was working.”
Grace dug through the bag, writing down the diaper brand and size and the formula on a sticky note from Amya’s desk. She handed it over and took the baby from Amya’s arms.
“When will the paternity test come back?” Grace asked.
“We’ll put a rush on it, so it should be by the end of the week. Did you…” Doreen looked them over. “Did you arrest her?”
“Not personally, but yes.”
“Good.” Relief washed through Doreen. “I suppose I’ll find out more when you let us know.”
“Yes.” Grace nodded. She leaned down and dropped a kiss on the baby’s cheek before sliding him into Doreen’s arms.
“Thinking about fostering a baby?”
“No,” Grace and Amya responded at the same time.
Doreen smirked at them. “Ah, well, I’ll keep sending you teenagers.”
“Great,” Grace muttered. “Just what we need in the house, more hormones.”
Amya gave Grace a hard look, and she shrugged. They bid Doreen farewell and suddenly the room felt empty. Amya nodded at Khloe and told her to take the rest of the day before shutting the door and effectively closing them in her office alone with no chance of interruption.
Warning bells went off in Grace’s head. Amya grabbed her upper arms and pulled her in tight, their lips locking. Thrown off, Grace took a second before she eased into the kiss. She relaxed as Amya wrapped arms around her neck and held her tight, not letting go as they deepened the embrace.
Finally Amya pulled away with an extra peck against Grace’s mouth. “I love you.”
“Love you, too, but what was that for?”
“For not being an idiot any longer.”
Chuckling, Grace shook her head. “Pretty sure I’m still an idiot.”
“Stop that.” Amya kissed her again.
Grace melted. She loved this side of Amya, the sweet side, the compassionate side. Nipping at Amya’s lip, Grace held her tightly. “What now?”
“Don’t you have a report to write up?”
Groaning, Grace closed her eyes and rested her head on Amya’s shoulder. “Do I have to?”
“Yes. I want you home at a reasonable hour tonight, thank you.”
“Oh, does that mean you have something special planned?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Amya walked her fingers up Grace’s chest to her nose before grinning. “The kids have something special planned.”
“What?”
“You’ll see.”
“Amya,” Grace whined. “You know I don’t like surprises.”
“You’ll like this one, I promise.”
“Is there an extra special Amya-only surprise after the kid surprise.”
Amya narrowed her eyes. “If you behave, there might be.”
“Yes!” Grace kissed Amya hard and passionately. She didn’t let go for the longest time before she pulled away and walked out of the office with a much lighter step. She nearly skipped down the long hallway to her unit.
With no sign of Paige, Grace sat at her desk and finished out her reports for the day, as much as she could without everyone else’s reports. She finished within two hours. She stared at the apology on her desk and glared at it. She’d bring it to Alonzo in the morning. She didn’t have the energy to deal with him tonight, not when he tried to get her to transfer to his unit every damn time.
The unit was nearly empty when she shut down her computer and cleaned up her desk. The plan she had would work. It had to, but more than that, it was what was right and what she should have done months ago. With her jacket over her shoulders, Grace walked out of Missing Persons, finally feeling like she was back to where she had been when she started there. It may have been short lived, but it might always be her favorite unit to work in.
Homicide
Grace had debated for at least two weeks how she was going to accomplish a transfer without permission from Paige. With everything that had happened, she was wary of any interaction with Paige, who was back in the office by the end of the previous week. She’d seemed calmed, but knowing Paige that could just be everything boiling underneath the surface.
Grace had even switched desks so she could watch Paige’s office and know when she was coming instead of being surprised by a hand on her shoulder or something. She shuddered at the thought. The week had been quiet, but it had only been a week since the incident. That didn’t leave Grace a whole lot of hope about what the future held. For all she knew IAB had finished their report and left it in the hands of the chief, which honestly wouldn’t surprise her. It was harassment, not some type of internal conspiracy like Humbard’s issue.
It was close to finishing time when Grace slipped from the room and walked down the hallway. The phone in her hand was hard against her palm as she squeezed it. She’d chosen a day that Amya wouldn’t be in the office on purpose. She needed to do this on her own, for them. She needed to take that step as much as she dragged her feet and didn’t necessarily want to. This was for them.
Homicide was a bustle of people, which meant they must have just caught a case. Their department was at least three times the size as Missing Persons, which didn’t surprise Grace. Link Abrams leaned over his desk, shoving his gun in his holster and grabbing something else. Grace smiled when she saw him. He’d been nothing but kind to her.
“Hey Abrams,” she said as she stopped near his desk.
“Halling?” He looked a little surprised when he faced her but didn’t give too much away at his shock. “We don’t have another case together, do we?”
She shook her head. “No, we don’t.”
He eyed her carefully, both eyebrows raised in question.
Grace gave in, knowing it would do any harm to let Abram know what was going on. “I thought I’d talk to your Captain.”
“About…?”
Her lips thinned. “Transferring.”
“Shouldn’t you talk to your Captain?”
Grace shrugged. She should. That was how policy worked, talk to both, but typically talk to her own first. But she couldn’t talk to Paige, and if Abrams didn’t know that, then at least the rumors of the brawl hadn’t made it too far out. That or he was just trying to be nice. She settled on nice. Thus far, everyone had known about the fight, even if it had happened on a weekend.
“Thought I’d talk to yours. You’d hinted he was interested in me transferring.”
“Yeah, but…” Link’s gaze shifted from her to the Captain’s door. “Nevermind. Go in.”
“No, tell me.” Grace crossed her arms, staring up at the man who was easily a foot taller than her, if not more.
Link’s jaw clenched and his posture became stiff. “He’s concerned about your record.”
“Which part of my record?”
“Don’t know. Didn’t ask.”
Grace’s stomach swirled in knots. “Right. Well, thanks for the heads up. I guess.”
“For the record, Halling. I’d love to work with you again.”
That caused a slight smile to appear. “You get a case?”
“Yeah.”
“Better get to it, then.”
Link raised both his hands and started to walk backward toward the door. “The dead wait for no one, don’t you know?”
Chuckling, Grace shook her head and walked toward the Captain’s office. She rapped her knuckles on the door and made sure to make eye contact as she waited to get his attention.
“Yes?” He glowered up at her.
She really had probably picked a bad time for this conversation, but she was there, and it had taken her weeks to get up the courage to do it, so she wasn’t backing down now. “Captain, I was wondering if you had a minute.”
His stern look told her he’d rather not, but he gestured to the chair in front of the desk. Grace shut the door, without being told, and sat down. Nerves swelled in her belly again, only this time they were far harder to control.
“Abram said at one point you were looking for some new detectives.”
He raised his eyebrow at her.
Grace’s mouth went dry, but she said what she’d come there to say. “I’d like to put my name in as an option.”
“Have you spoken with Delwin?”
Cold washed through Grace’s body. She answered honestly, “No.”
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Why are you coming to me?”
She had anticipated this line of questioning but hadn’t really come up with a good roundabout way to answer. She was a blunt person, and the idea of tiptoeing around what happened was not something she really wanted.
“Because I need to transfer, and I’ve held off long enough. While I love Missing Persons, and would love to stay there, I can’t with the current environment.”
The Captain cocked his head at her, and she knew he was trying to fish more information out of that line than what she’d given up.
“I have an offer to go to IAB, but I’d rather work Homicide. This last case was eye opening, and I think it’d be a good environment from what I’ve seen. You run a tight ship.” She was satisfied that she managed to toss in a compliment into that. “I’m not good with walking circles around people, sir. I would like to transfer to homicide.”
He sighed and gave her a hard stare. “I looked at your record, Halling, and while you have accolades from a lot of different supervisors, you also have had disciplinaries.”
“I’ve calmed from my days on the street.”
He gave a wry smile. “Have you?”
“Yes.” Grace dared to look him in the eyes, wanting him to know the last incident was an outlier. Yes, she had gotten into another fight, but it had been years since she’d found herself the center of one.
“I don’t have any positions for you.”
“Sir,” Grace pleaded. “Abrams had said you did.”
“And it’s been filled. Did you think you were the only candidate we were looking at?”
Shaking her head, she acquiesced. “No, I didn’t. I’d hoped there was still an opening.”
“Sorry, Halling.” He put his hands out. “But next time we have one, I’ll let you know.”
She grinned, fully. The honesty in his eyes was enough for her to trust he would. Until then, she was going to have to figure out what to do and how to continue to work in Missing Persons with Paige. She stared at the top of his desk, disturbed when he spoke again.
“Word of advice about Delwin.”
She glanced up at him, almost forgetting that Paige and transferred from Homicide to Missing Persons nearly two years before. She cocked her head at him, waiting for him to continue.
“Keep your head down, but if she ruffles your feathers, come down and talk to me.”
“Sir?”
“Delwin and I have an understanding, and if she crosses those lines, I know how to deal with her.”
Unsettled, Grace nodded at him. “Thank you, sir. And sorry to take up your time.”
Leaving Homicide was a let down. Grace walked through the halls, barely seeing anyone else. Now she really wished Amya had been there so they could talk after. Luckily, her work day was nearly done, and since Kit was done with school for the winter break, she could pick her up and they could go do something fun, something to take Grace’s mind off this disaster. Maybe she could even grab Peter on her way.
In her cruiser, she drove home and left the car running as she dashed inside. Ignoring the dogs, she walked straight to Peter’s door and knocked before opening it. He stared up at her from the bed. “Get dressed. You have two minutes.”
“What?”
“Do it, kid.” Shutting the door, Grace let the dogs out for a potty break, knowing it would take Peter more than two minutes. She was right. Ten minutes later, they were in the cruiser and heading toward Kit’s school.
With her kids in the car, Grace smiled as she gripped the wheel. She slowly moved through the pick up line, and as soon as she was on the street, Peter looked at her. “Where the hell are we going?”
Grace grinned broadly. “Anyone want ice cream?”
About the Author
Adrian J. Smith has been publishing since 2013 but has been writing nearly her entire life. With a focus on women loving women fiction, AJ jumps genres from action-packed police procedurals to the seedier life of vampires and witches to sweet romances with a May-December twist. She loves writing and reading about women in the midst of the ordinariness of life. Two of her novels, For by Grace and Memoir in the Making, received honorable mentions with the Rainbow Awards.
AJ currently lives in Cheyenne, WY, although she moves often and has lived all over the United States. She loves to travel to different countries and places. She currently plays the roles of author, wife, and mother to two rambunctious toddlers, occasional handy-woman. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Alone & Lonely
About the Author
Adrian J. Smith, Alone & Lonely
