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The first piece of business for Charley’s Wednesday morning was a phone call to Nicolas Black, Garfield’s newly elected chief of police. She needed to request the day off. Jason could have taken care of this for her. Some might have even considered that a perk of working together, but that wasn’t the way she operated. Her job, her responsibility, end of discussion. If Chief Black needed more details about her absence, Jason could provide those, but the initial request would come from her.
Once her day off was secured, Charley planned to join her friends at Soeurs Body Renaissance for her thrice weekly workout. Worry continued to nag, and getting physical with Mac and the others sounded like a great way to take her mind off what the rest of the day held. Her conscience pricked her. Worry isn’t trust.
She acknowledged that with a shrug. It wasn’t today she was anxious about, not really. But the consequences of the day... Not going there. Charley took a deep breath and did her best to force fifteen years of self-doubt out of her mind. She wasn’t unique. The fears that clawed at her must haunt every adoptive mother. She tried to take comfort in the shared insecurity and failed.
The door to Soeurs chimed softly when Charley pulled it open at ten ‘til seven. The owner, Mackenzie Soeurs, Mac to her friends, had her arm sunk to the elbow in the water of her huge aquarium, working a small algae scrapper back and forth on the glass.
“Hey, Charley. Go on up. Alex is already here. I’ll be up in a few.”
Charley waved and took the steps of the steep staircase up to the exercise room two at a time. She didn’t mind being a bit ahead of the others. It gave her a chance to get a good sweat started.
She slipped into the room. Alex was in the middle of the workout mats, doing some yoga stretches. She lifted her chin at Charley, and Charley nodded on her way to the free weights. It seemed they both had a pre-workout agenda, neither willing to interrupt the other. She took out a pair of ten pound weights and began a set of curls, eyes closed, focused on the repetition and her breathing.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Charley’s eyes snapped open, and the weight closest to her chin jerked upward in a dangerous arc. “Holy...” She lowered the barbell and stared at Alex. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Alex laughed. “Not really, but...” She narrowed her eyes. “Why are you so jumpy? I was concerned about the worry lines around your eyes and mouth, but now... What gives?”
Charley studied the petite woman standing in front of her. Alex’s arms were crossed, and she wore a determined expression. Any hope she’d entertained of enjoying an hour of exercise while not focusing on her problems evaporated.
Alex had a special radar when it came to reading her friends, a sort of empathy. The jury was still out on whether or not that had anything to do with her being their pastor’s wife. Charley decided to bluff her way out of it.
“I’m good.” She began moving the weights in alternating repetitions.
“Not buying it.” Alex looked at the door where the others would file through any minute. “You can spill it to me, or you can spill it to the group.” She grinned. “But you will spill it.”
“And you know this because...?”
“Because you need us to pray about whatever’s put those worry lines around your mouth, and because we’re sisters. We don’t keep secrets from each other.”
Charley gave her the point. Why argue when she was right. She let the weights fall to the padded floor. If anyone would understand, it would be Alex. “Melissa called me yesterday.”
“Melissa...” Alex’s mouth fell open. “Kinsley’s mother Melissa?”
“I’m Kinsley’s mother,” Charley snapped.
“Oh, Charley, of course you are, I just...I mean... Never mind what I mean. What did she want?”
“I don’t know. We’re having lunch.”
“No wonder you look like you were up all night.” Alex stepped closer and rubbed a hand up and down Charley’s arm. “You must be a wreck. I’ve always worried...” Her words bled away when Charley stiffened.
Charley leaned into Alex’s space. “Go ahead, finish it. You’ve always worried about what?”
Alex twisted her fingers at her waist. “It’s just...I mean... Keeping this a secret from Kinsley was never a good idea. I’ve always worried—”
“Back up there, girlfriend. Have I ever told you how to raise your boys?”
Alex shook her head.
“Then you need to keep your opinions and your nose to yourself.” Charley’s words grew shriller with each one. “I’ve got enough in my head today without your sanctimonious—”
The door to the exercise room banged open, and Mac stepped in. “Whoa, ladies.” She maneuvered herself into the narrow space between Charley and Alex. “Let’s take a breath.”
Charley took the suggested breath and turned away. “I’m out of here.” She turned to make good on her statement only to find Jesse, Randy, and Syd crowding the doorway.
“Wrong answer,” Randy said.
Jesse won the push and shove at the door and popped into the room. She pushed her glasses back into place. “We could hear you all the way downstairs.”
Syd took up station against the wall, obviously deciding as the newbie of the group that her position should be that of silent observer for the time being.
Jessica Grey circled Charley and Alex, stooping to retrieve the weights. She handed them to Mac before facing her friends with her hands on her hips. She motioned to Miranda Page. “Close that door.”
Randy did as she was told and leaned against it.
“Now, what gives?” Jesse asked. “You two have been friends since college. I’ve known you to be fresh with each other, I’ve seen you irritated with each other, but you guys don’t fight. Not like this.”
Charley crossed her arms and turned away. “There’s a first time for everything.” Shame and resentment knotted in her stomach. She’d wished her words back the moment she saw Alex’s face twist with the pain of their impact. Jesse was right. Charley had never had a better friend than Alexandra Conklin. Alex knew her secrets and her fears. Alex had been there from the beginning, and she’d be there no matter what the next few days brought. She drew in a couple of deep breaths.
Sydney Patterson pushed herself away from the wall. “Come on, guys. Let’s get this workout started. I got into a pair of jeans I hadn’t worn in two years last night. I’m ready to sweat.”
Charley sent her a grateful look. “Great idea.” They’d workout, and they’d forget the confrontation. Things would go back to normal. And by the time their session ended, all would be forgotten. It’s not that easy. Charley ignored the thought that poked at her conscience as Mac started the music and led them in the first set of group stretches.
She moved with Mac and the others as the scene with Alex replayed in her head on a continuous loop. The tightness in her chest increased with every furtive glance in Alex’s direction. Her friend went through the motions with a stiffness to her posture that wasn’t Alex, and she stared straight ahead in tight-lipped concentration as if missing a move might doom her to a life without chocolate.
After five minutes Charley couldn’t stand it anymore. She stopped in the middle of the routine, crossed to the music station, and turned off the sound. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning to face her friends. Her gaze locked with Alex’s, and the thinly veiled hurt she saw there tore at her heart.
“I’m sorry.”
Alex closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around her friend. “Honey, you don’t owe me an apology. We all need to vent sometimes. If I were in your shoes, I’d be a puddle on the floor.”
“Somehow I doubt that, but thanks.” Charley stepped away but kept Alex’s hand tight in hers, drawing courage from the contact. “I owe all of you an apology and an explanation.” She motioned to the mats. “Let’s sit.”
She waited until all five of her friends had settled into a circle on the padded floor. A glance at Alex got her a reassuring nod, but all the encouragement in the world wouldn’t make her story any easier to tell. Jesse and Randy knew bits and pieces. Mac and Syd would need her to start at the beginning. And maybe starting at the beginning was a good thing. The more she ordered things in her own mind, the better prepared she’d be for lunch with Melissa.
Charley nodded at Jesse. “You’re right. Alex and I have known each other since our college days in Texas. She was the RA on our dorm floor.” She sent Alex a grin. “I’ll never forget the weekend we all moved in. A bunch of scared, wet-behind-the-ears, never-been-away-from-home freshmen. And there was Alex, looking more like a pixie in a fairy tale than an upperclassman, directing the chaos with the calm and wisdom we all needed.” She sent her petite friend a smile. “She hasn’t changed much.”
Alex smacked Charley on the shoulder and gave a snort of laughter. “Oh, you’re funny. I was only a sophomore and terrified at being even a little bit responsible for all you bickering, whiney, she-took-more-than-her-share-of-the-closet babies.”
Charley smiled at her longtime friend. “Good times.”
“The best.”
Mac leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “It must be wonderful to have that sort of lifelong friendship. You’re both very blessed.”
“Actually...” Charley bit her lip. “There were three of us. Alex, me, and Melissa Ryder. Melissa was my roommate. The three of us just...clicked. We spent the next three years joined at the hip.”
“What happened then?” Syd asked.
“I graduated,” Alex said. “I moved to Oklahoma City and took a teaching position.”
Mac frowned. “I didn’t know you were a teacher. How could I not know that?”
“Ancient history,” Alex said. “By the time I was twenty-four, I had a husband and twin baby boys. That was the end of my career.”
“And I got married,” Charley answered. “I met Jason on summer break between my second and third years. We were both studying criminology and had summer intern positions at the Texas State Bureau of Investigation. Our courtship wasn’t quite the whirlwind affair that Alex and Hunter enjoyed, but we did decide to get married right before our senior year. After that we moved into married housing at the university.”
“What happened to Melissa?” Jesse asked.
“She...umm...” Charley exchanged a look with Alex. “She dropped out of school. I didn’t see her again for almost three years.”
“That’s a lot like me and Haley,” Randy said, a reference to the high school friend who’d coaxed Randy to Garfield and moved on with her own life a couple of years later. “Life gets in the way sometimes, but it’s a good thing when you find old friends again. Did you guys stay in touch this time?”
“Not really.” Charley stared at the mat.
“Get it off your chest,” Alex urged. “It’s not like you’re confessing to murder.”
Charley blew out a breath. “Once Jason and I graduated, we both took jobs at the police department in Four Corners Texas.”
“Where’s that?” Mac asked.
“Little place south of interstate ten. I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. We hadn’t either until we applied for jobs on their police force. Its population was less than fifteen thousand. They needed two people on their PD, and they didn’t care that we were a couple. It was ideal for us, the perfect place to get our feet wet as real cops.” Charley shoved her hand through her hair. “Perfect until the night I was almost forced to arrest a very pregnant Melissa Ryder.”
Randy straightened. “I didn’t see that coming.”
“You and me both,” Charley said.
“What happened?” Syd asked.
“Routine traffic stop, or at least that’s the way I reported it. The truth was a whole lot more complicated. I stopped a car for doing eighty in a fifty. That was automatic impoundment and a hefty fine. The fact that the car was all over the road told me the driver was drunk...or high, so add a night spent in jail. When Melissa climbed out of that car, you could have knocked me over with a hummingbird feather. She was a mess, too drunk to stand up, much less drive, tears streaming down her face, and so pregnant I wasn’t sure how she’d fit behind the wheel.”
Mac shifted on the mat. “What did you do?”
Charley pushed herself to her feet and circled the room, talking as she walked. “I wasn’t sure what I should do. I mean...I knew what my training told me to do, but the thought of that just about broke my heart.” She paused when she came to the corner where a well-worn punching bag hung. Something Mac provided in deference to Charley and her occasional need for a more strenuous workout than the others were interested in. She gave it a quick series of punches before continuing. “Once Melissa recognized me, she was hanging all over me, talking about trying to work up the courage to drive her car into a tree.”
Multiple gasps met her statement.
“I moved her car off the road, poured her into the back of my patrol car, and took her home with me.”
“And you called me,” Alex added.
Charley stopped and smiled down at her friend. “And you came.”
“I couldn’t ignore either of you.” Alex continued the story. “By the time I got there, Melissa was just waking up from a two-day nap and not in the mood to talk to either of us. It took a hot shower and a good meal to get her talking.”
“And once that happened, we couldn’t shut her up. Answers poured out of her faster than we could ask the questions.” Charley came back to her friends and reclaimed her spot. “Melissa had no job, no money, and no idea how she’d ended up in Four Corners.”
“God thing,” Alex provided.
“No question about that.” Charley agreed. “There’s no need to go into the details of Melissa’s life since she left school other than to say it wasn’t pretty. By the time we were together again, she was six weeks away from giving birth to a baby she didn’t want and had no idea who the father might be. She left us with that bit of info and went back to bed. When she woke up the second time, she said she’d come up with the perfect solution.”
Alex put an arm around Charley’s shoulder. “It was.”
Charley bowed her head. “Yeah. What Melissa and Alex didn’t know was that Jason and I had been trying to get pregnant for a couple of years. We never had any luck.”
Mac drew in a sharp breath. “Kinsley...”
“By the time Melissa had the baby, we had all the paperwork in place for a private adoption.” Charley confirmed. “We brought Kinsley home from the hospital, and Melissa took off without a word. We stayed in Four Corners for about a year, and when Alex mentioned that Garfield was looking to expand its police department, we applied. We’ve been here for almost fourteen years.”
“That’s amazing,” Randy said. “But it doesn’t explain why you two were about to hurt each other a few minutes ago.”
Charley closed her eyes. “Because we’ve never told Kinsley she’s adopted.”
“A decision that’s always concerned me,” Alex whispered.
“It wasn’t a conscious decision. We always meant to tell her. It’s just never been the right time.”
Syd frowned. “I still don’t get it. Alex is entitled to her opinion, but you’re her mother. What’s changed?”
“Melissa called last night. First time I’ve talked to her since the day she took off. She wants a meeting today.”
Eyebrows rose, chins dropped, and shocked exclamations twittered around the room.
“Jason and I always thought we would tell her tomorrow. It terrifies me to think that tomorrow might be today.”