Standoff, page 8
“How did you know I had a hankering for some of your brownies?”
One of the nurses had remarked that Daisy had wistfully bragged on them. “I think a little bird might have told me.”
As Daisy studied Brooke, a frown creased her face. “Are you sure you’re okay? I hate that I had to miss your father’s funeral.”
“He would have understood. And I’m fine. I know it’s going to take time.”
“He was such a big part of your life, but God’s grace will see you through.”
Brooke wasn’t sure she knew what that looked like. Or felt like. The question must have shown on her face.
“Right now you’re numb, and your dad’s death is hard to wrap your mind around,” Daisy said. “But always remember God loves you.”
Brooke walked to the window and stared out at the golden glow cast by the setting sun, her hands dropping to her sides. “I know that, but why did Dad have to die now? He wasn’t old enough to die.” She dug her nails into her palms.
For a minute the older woman didn’t reply. “You may never get that answer,” she said softly. “But it’s okay to ask God why.”
She turned. “You really think so?”
“Job did.” Daisy struggled off the bed, and using her walker, she shuffled to Brooke and slipped her arm around her waist. “God’s got this. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” she replied, leaning into Daisy. Brooke believed that deep down, but she missed her dad so much. She’d been his little girl, and he’d been her rock. “He’s probably fishing with Saint Peter right now,” she said with a shaky laugh.
For a minute neither of them spoke, then Daisy said, “When’s the big day?”
Brooke helped her friend back to the bed. “Tonight is my last official act before I move to the Parkway. The chief ranger hasn’t given me a start date since . . .” She bit her lip. “I expect it’ll be next week.”
“Who is your new chief?” Daisy asked.
“Dale Gallagher.” Her dad would have been her immediate boss as district ranger, but until the park service filled his position, Dale, as the chief ranger, would be in charge.
“I remember him. He used to live in Natchez.”
“Yeah. He and Dad were friends, and Mom is friends with Dale’s wife.”
“How is your mom? How’s she handling everything?”
“Like she always does. Full steam ahead.” Her mom was a force to be reckoned with and didn’t let anything stop her or even make her pause. “She’s in Knoxville helping Meghan and getting on with her life.”
Brooke cringed as her conscience pinched like a too-tight shoe. She wasn’t being fair. It’s just that she and her mom were like a jigsaw puzzle that had a piece missing. Turning to Daisy’s computer, she avoided her friend’s all-knowing eyes.
“I meant to ask earlier,” Daisy said, “have you heard back on the DNA test you and Meghan took?”
“Not yet. The brochure said six weeks, so it should come soon.” Brooke didn’t know if it was hormones or what, but finding their ancestral roots had become an obsession with Meghan after she discovered she was pregnant. Brooke had tried to tell her only one of them needed to take the test, but her sister insisted that she join a genealogy site and take the DNA test as well.
“Are you and Meghan still planning to fly to Europe next year?”
“England for sure, and Ireland if we can pinpoint the area where Dad’s ancestors originated from.” Both Mom and Dad were fourth-generation Americans, their great-great-grandparents having immigrated to America back in the late 1890s. They knew the area their mother’s relatives were from in England, but the only history their dad remembered was that his ancestors were from Ireland. Even though Meghan believed the genealogy site’s advertisement that they could pinpoint even the county their dad was from, Brooke wasn’t so sure.
“How does your mom feel about this?”
“I’m not sure if she even knows about it. I’m assuming Meghan must’ve told her, but she hasn’t mentioned it to me.”
“Just keep in mind, regardless of what you discover, your lineage doesn’t define you. Only God does that.”
“I know,” Brooke said as a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in,” Daisy said. Her eyes widened. “Luke! I thought you went back to Jackson yesterday. You could’ve let me know you were still here!”
“And spoil the surprise?” he said with laughter in his voice.
Brooke was glad she hadn’t said anything to Daisy about him still being here. She just wished she’d left before he arrived—being around him complicated her life, and not in a good way.
19
Brooke’s gaze collided with Luke’s. The surprise when he saw her morphed into . . . was that dismay? But then his lips curled upward in a smile.
“Hi again,” he said. “I didn’t see your car.”
She nodded. “I parked on the side.”
“You two have already seen each other?” When Brooke nodded, sparks flew from Daisy’s blue eyes. “And you never told me he was here!”
“He made me promise,” Brooke said. “I didn’t know he would take all day to come see you.”
“It’s not Brooke’s fault.” Luke gave his grandmother his thousand-watt smile.
Same old Luke, always thinking he could smile and make everything rosy, and he probably could with Daisy. But he did look good in a pullover shirt and jeans. Stop it. She checked her watch then leaned over and kissed Daisy’s cheek. “Y’all need to visit and I need to go. Do you want anything besides your mail when I come tomorrow?”
“I can’t think of anything, but thanks, honey. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Just get stronger and come home,” she replied and hurried toward the door. “Good to see you again,” she said and brushed past him, his crisp, clean-smelling cologne almost stopping her in her tracks. Brooke stiffened, warding off the memories.
“Wait,” he said. “Don’t go just yet.”
Everything in her said to keep walking, that the more she was around him, the more it complicated her fledgling relationship with Jeremy, but she found herself pausing.
“Surely you can stay a minute or two longer,” Daisy said.
Brooke glanced out the window. It was hard to tell Daisy no, and more than likely she would keep bumping into Luke again if he stayed any length of time. Just keep him at arm’s length. “Maybe five minutes. I still have a few things to do at Fort Rosalie.”
“Did you get the rest of the things in your dad’s office put back?” he asked.
She shot him a warning look. “Yeah.”
“And you set the alarm when you left?”
“Yes,” she said, a little sharper than necessary.
“What are you two talking about?” Daisy asked.
“Why don’t you tell her, Luke?” Since he was so dense.
When he finished, Daisy shook her head. “Do you need to stay at the house by yourself?”
“I have a gun.”
“I’m sorry. I know that. You’ll be just fine.” She turned to her grandson. “You’ll make sure of that, right?”
Brooke dropped her head. Did no one think she could take care of herself? She was tired of this discussion.
“How long are you staying?” Daisy asked.
“It’s flexible,” he said.
His grandmother frowned. “Since when? Greene, Blanchard, and McCoy have never been able to do without you very long.”
“Greene, Blanchard, and what?” Brooke asked. “I thought you worked at Dave’s Bar—”
“Whatever made you think he worked at a bar?” Daisy asked. “He’s one of GB&M’s top accountants.”
One look at Luke was enough to know that he didn’t want Daisy to know he worked at a bar. She understood his concern, but at some point he needed to tell his grandmother the truth. For tonight, though, she went along with him. “I must be thinking of someone else.”
“Must be,” he murmured.
“And he works way too many hours,” Daisy said, and then shot Luke a questioning gaze. “How did you get away?”
“Told them I needed a few days off to come check on you. Maybe get you moved into assisted living.”
“What?” Daisy and Brooke spoke at the same time.
“She is so not ready for assisted living!” Brooke totally regretted helping him out a few seconds ago. “Not once she recovers from this knee surgery.”
Luke took a step back and held up his hands. “It’s just a thought.” He pointedly eyed his grandmother’s swollen knee with staples across the top. “One you really need to think about.”
The older woman seemed to shrink before Brooke’s eyes. She clenched her jaw. Luke should know that moving Daisy out of the home she’d been in for over fifty years would kill her.
“Time for me to go,” she said. Brooke didn’t want to say something she shouldn’t. She leaned to hug Daisy once again. “Not happening,” she whispered. “So don’t worry.”
Daisy responded to Brooke’s reassuring smile with a tentative one of her own. “Have fun tonight,” she said, her voice teary.
Brooke turned to Luke. “Want to walk me to my car?” she asked, keeping her voice even.
“Sure.” After they closed the door behind them, he said, “You said something about helping to set up at Rosalie. What’s happening there?”
“A meteor-gazing event.” She bit the words off and then glanced at him, her heart reacting with a flurry of beats when she noticed how his shoulders filled out his short-sleeved shirt. Had Luke been that buff four months ago when she ran into him in Jackson?
She replayed their meeting in her mind—he’d been wearing a loose-fitting shirt and cargo pants, and her attention had been more on his hair and beard than any muscles he might have had.
Refocus. “Sorry, didn’t mean to take your head off, but I will if you try to railroad your grandmother out of her house.”
“She’s eighty,” Luke said. “I’m worried about her. The last few times I’ve talked with her, I’ve noticed her memory isn’t what it used to be.”
“That happens to everyone, and Daisy doesn’t act a day over seventy,” she said. “And why did you lie to her about what you do for a living?”
“She wouldn’t think tending bar was respectable,” he said and tilted his head. “Why did you back me up?”
“Because . . .” His blue eyes twinkled, and she bit back the retort on her lips. “For the same reason.”
“We seem to have something in common.” He held the door open for her and then followed her outside. “I see the clouds are breaking up. Should be clear skies for your event.”
She turned and faced Luke, poking him in the chest. “Don’t change the subject. And don’t think you can ride in here on your high horse and order Daisy around. Especially since I’m sure I could count on one hand how many times you’ve been to see her in the last year. And even then, you were in and out so fast you made her head spin. You have no idea what she can or cannot do.”
20
Whoa!” Luke backed up, wincing at Brooke’s sharp jabs to his chest. Her vocal barbs hurt as well. But she had a point that he agreed with. He’d tried to tell his dad that Daisy wasn’t ready for assisted living.
She planted her feet and crossed her arms. “You could also come see her more often than you do. How many times have you been here since her birthday in January?”
“I’m sorry I’ve been AWOL, but it couldn’t be helped.” He hadn’t told anyone he’d spent February in the hospital, and while he had been in and out of Natchez the last four months, 99 percent of the time it had been at night well after Daisy had gone to bed. Working undercover and buying drugs from Sonny wasn’t conducive to spending time with family, especially when it could put the family in jeopardy. “I phone her at least once a week.”
“A phone call isn’t the same thing as being here in the flesh. It’s not like you live thousands of miles away.” In spite of her tone and words, her rigid stance relaxed and she dropped her arms.
“I’m here now and I hope to make it up to her.”
For once Brooke seemed at a loss for words. “Well . . . okay, then, as long as you understand Daisy needs to stay right where she is. In her house.”
“You’re right, but I’m afraid with Mom and Dad in London, it’s only me. It’s hard, living in Jackson, especially with my hours. I can’t always drop what I’m doing and come check on her.”
“Hire someone.” She looked askance at him. “And that doesn’t make sense. How hard can it be to take time away from tending bar long enough to see about your grandmother only two hours away?”
If she only knew. “I’m here now,” he said. “I want to thank you for checking on her every day and picking up groceries and her medicine when she needs it, but you’re right. I need to hire someone to do it.”
“I don’t mind—”
“But it’s not your responsibility.”
“I do it because I want to.” Then she stared at him a minute before she shook her head as if to clear it. “Oh my goodness. Listen to me. You practically saved my life last night, and here I am reading you the riot act.”
“No big deal.” One thing for sure, Brooke was passionate about the things she believed in. “But when did you and my grandmother get to be such good friends?”
Brooke looked back toward the rehab building. “It’s hard to say. We always connected, even when I was a little girl. She listened to me. I mean, really listened. She made me feel like my thoughts were important. Then after you left that last summer, Daisy and I just gravitated to each other. She was lonely, and Mom and I weren’t getting along on anything. Daisy was my sounding board.” She brought her gaze back to him. “I guess she’s the grandmother I never had.”
He nodded. “I don’t mind sharing her. She’s always been my biggest booster, especially after Annapolis. Chewed my dad out after he blew his stack, not that it helped any. Looking back now, I don’t blame him for being upset.”
“What are your folks doing in London?”
“The first secretary to the ambassador is retiring at the end of the year, and I think Dad’s going after his appointment.” He would get it, too, and probably one day would be ambassador to England. Maybe he’d be happy then and get off Luke’s case. He cocked his head. “Do you think you’re doing the right thing, switching careers?”
“Why not?”
“Maybe because you never talked about being a law enforcement ranger when we were kids—it was always about becoming an interpretive ranger. It’s dangerous, anyway.”
“Driving across town can be dangerous.”
“Don’t give me that old cliché,” he said and studied her. “You’ve moved up the ladder on the interpretive side. If you go the law enforcement route, you’ll start off as a rookie.”
“You sound like my dad,” she said. “And how do you know that I’m moving up the ladder?”
“Your dad and Daisy,” Luke said. “They both were proud of your accomplishments.”
She stared down at her feet where she toed a rough spot on the pavement.
Suddenly, the alarm on her watch went off. “Oh! I have to get to Fort Rosalie.”
Fort Rosalie. He’d decided to intercept Kyle Marlar there, but he’d have to make sure she didn’t see him. “I’m glad I got to see you again tonight.”
Her warm brown eyes held his, making it hard to breathe. The chemistry between them was still there—at least for him. He’d have to be careful not to let his feelings for her get out of hand. Luke nodded toward the building. “And I better get back and visit with Daisy.”
Brooke stood straighter and taller, looking very official in her uniform. “Just don’t go trying to run over Daisy—she’s not ready to leave her home.”
“I’d never hurt my grandmother.”
Brooke caught his gaze and held it. “I’m sure you wouldn’t intentionally, but sometimes what one person thinks is best for someone else isn’t what they really need.” She turned to walk away then hesitated and stepped closer to him.
“I am glad to see you, and this is for last night,” she said, hugging him.
Brooke’s light fragrance reminded him of the good times he’d shared with her. He almost wished he hadn’t told Jeremy Steele they were only friends. Suddenly she pulled away, and the look on her face told him she’d remembered those days too.
“I better be going,” she said, her cheeks flushing.
“While I’m staying at Daisy’s, you don’t have to pick up her mail.”
“But I want to,” she said. “And it’s no problem. She likes getting her mail every day, and I don’t trust you to remember to take it to her.”
“Just because I didn’t finish at Annapolis doesn’t mean I’m not trustworthy,” he called after her as she walked to her car.
“Never said that.” Once in the driver’s seat, she rolled down the window. “You’re looking fit. Been working out?”
“Something like that.”
“I meant to tell you last night—you look a whole lot better than the last time I saw you,” she said, “especially since you shaved that horrid beard and got a haircut.”
He just grinned at her. “You look terrific too.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Thanks, see you around.”
Luke stood in the shadows of the nursing home until her taillights disappeared around the corner, his thoughts on their accidental meeting in Jackson four months ago. He rubbed the back of his neck and let his hand trail down his shaved jaw, remembering how at first he’d missed the long hair and beard he’d worn for so long. But he hadn’t expected to feel naked. When he worked undercover, his disguises had always been a barrier between him and the world he infiltrated.
A blast of cool air met him when he entered the rehab again, chilling Luke. When he tapped on his grandmother’s door, her voice was strong when she bid him to come in. Maybe like Brooke said, Daisy wasn’t ready for assisted living just yet. He could at least try to convince his father of that during their next call.
“You need to ask that girl on a date,” Daisy said.
