LANA STARED AT CHIP. She’d never seen him so angry. Not even the night she informed him he was a suspect.
But she was pissed, too. How could he order her to give up her investigation? He knew how important it was to her, to her family.
She stood beside him, wrapping the sheet around her body “Come on, Chip. How can you ask me to give up?”
“Because it’s time. You’ve spent the past eight years obsessing about finding Dan’s murderer. That’s why you became a cop. You and I even went on a date so you could interrogate me. Remember? I was your number one suspect.”
She opened her mouth to rebut his words, but couldn’t think of anything to say. He’d spoken the truth, although the way he phrased it, she sounded like a wacko.
“Hell, you almost lost the job you love because you can’t let go.”
“Believe me, I want to forget, to move on.”
“Then do it.” Chip stepped toward the door.
“Not until I figure out what happened.”
When he turned his back on her, a sense of dread knotted her gut. Chip was leaving. Where was he going? Would he ever come back? Her father never had.
She didn’t want him to go, not like this. He’d become more important to her than any man or boy ever had.
She took a deep breath. “Okay. Chip, please calm down and listen to me. I do want to be with you.”
He turned, stepped toward her and got right in her face. His icy Viking gaze stared into hers.
“If that’s true, then you won’t have a problem with giving up your insane quest to find Dan’s murderer.”
She returned his stare. “I can’t do that,” she said.
“Again, why not?”
“Because I’m a cop.”
“You and I both know it’s not an official investigation and that you’ve been ordered to cease and desist.”
“I need to know what happened.”
“Why do you need to know?”
She stared at him, scrambling to remember why her search for justice was so important. Her mother, she had promised her mother.
Her mother had always given in to her father’s demands, taken his abuse, did whatever he told her until the day he left. She swallowed. No way could she start that pattern with Chip.
“You don’t have an answer.” He turned away from her again. “I’m done.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just what I said. Good luck. You’re on your own.” He reached for a T-shirt and then pulled it on.
“Oh, I see. You’re done protecting me. Is that it? Well, I don’t need your protection. I never did.”
“Whatever you say.” Chip shook his head and moved to his dresser, where he grabbed his keys and his wallet.
He was leaving again. She didn’t want him to go. All she had to do was say she’d end her investigation and he’d stay. Why couldn’t she do that?
Her sergeant had ordered her to let it go. What the hell is wrong with me?
“If you’d told me the truth in high school,” she shouted, “maybe things would be different.”
He turned back. “I should have told you Dan hit Cindy?”
She lifted her chin. “Yes.”
“How would that change anything?”
“Because secrets never do anyone any good.”
“You need to stop fooling yourself, Lana,” he said on the way to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To campus. I need to study.”
“But it’s 9:00 a.m. Let me make some coffee and we can talk some more.”
“What do you want to talk about, Lana?” Chip paused on the threshold and snapped his fingers. “Oh, I know. What you always want to talk about—the murder of Danny Lettino.”
“Chip.”
“You have no idea how sick I am of hearing that name. You need to let your brother rest in peace.”
Before he could move away, the door chime rang and they both turned to look in that direction.
“Who the hell is that at this hour?” Chip muttered.
“I don’t know,” Lana said. “Did you invite Gary over for the game?”
“Of course I did. The big, bad detective hasn’t finished interrogating him over Dan’s murder.”
Their eyes met and held. Chip sighed and looked away.
“But it’s too early,” he said. “The game isn’t until four.” His gaze raked her sheet-covered body. “You’d better get dressed.”
Lana spotted her clothing on the floor and scrambled to clothe herself while Chip went to answer the front door.
“Hey, Gary,” Chip said, his voice amazingly normal. “You want to come in?”
“No, man. I can’t stay.”
As she buttoned her blouse, Lana heard Chip step out onto the front porch.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Sorry, man,” Gary said, “but I’m not going to be able to make it over to watch the game today.”
“No problem,” Chip said. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” Gary said. “But something came up.”
Wondering what the hell came up, Lana moved onto the porch and stood next to Chip. She wanted to reach for his hand to maintain their ruse—although after last night it was a ruse no longer—but thought better of it. Gary looked as if he hadn’t slept all night, so he wouldn’t notice. His shirt was half tucked into his shorts and half out. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead, and he needed a shave.
“Hey, Lana,” Gary said. “Can’t make it this afternoon.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lana said. Why did Gary sound so nervous? “Maybe next week.”
“Thanks. Yeah, maybe. I’ll let you know.”
“Good enough,” Chip said.
“See you guys around.”
Lana stared at Gary’s retreating back as he hurried toward his car.
“Something weird is going on,” she said when he’d driven away.
Chip flicked her a look. “Yeah, you might say something very weird is going on in this neighborhood.”
He disappeared inside the house and she followed. He entered his bedroom.
“I’m going to make a pot of coffee,” she yelled.
He didn’t respond, but Chip never turned down coffee. She opened the can and began spooning fragrant grounds into his high-tech coffee machine.
He exited the bedroom carrying a stuffed backpack. He didn’t look at her as he said, “I’m going to the library.”
IN THE SHADE of an oak tree in her sister’s backyard later that afternoon, Lana took a swallow of white wine.
Beside her, on a comfortable swing, sipping her own vino, her sister listened to her sad story while her husband watched the game inside the house. Mike was napping, but Lana suspected that would only last until the first Dolphin touchdown, when Brady and his friends would loudly whoop their enthusiasm.
“So my wild night of passion ended on a disaster,” Lana said.
“Finally,” Sandy said, lifting her glass in a toast.
“Finally? That’s your response to my pathetic drama?”
“I always believed you and Chip were destined for each other,” Sandy said.
“Please. No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.” Sandy nodded. “So did Mom. Or she used to, anyway.”
“Apparently I was clueless in high school. How did you turn out so normal?”
Sandy gave her a hug. “Because I had an older sister to take care of me.”
“Thanks for that,” Lana said. They clinked glasses again.
“So, what are you going to do?” Sandy asked.
Lana sighed. “Good question. I wish I knew.”
“So you’re still clueless?”
Lana shot her sister a look. “Everyone is a comedian these days.”
Sandy laughed and said, “I think it’s obvious.”
“Yeah? What do you think I should do?”
“Marry Chip.”
“Oh, like marriage ever solved a woman’s problems.”
“You don’t ever want to get married?”
Lana shrugged.
“I know you want kids. Do you want to be a single mom?”
Lana didn’t answer. Yeah, she was definitely still clueless.
“Believe me,” Sandy said, “not all marriages are like our mother’s.”
“But what if I’m too much like her?”
“You’re not, and please don’t think that.”
“Remember how she moved us in with Fred Hoskins after knowing him a few months? That’s basically what I did with Chip.”
“You’ve known Chip forever.”
“But I hadn’t seen him in years.”
“Your mistake is trying to please Mom, to heal her.”
“Maybe. Why do I keep doing the wrong thing, falling for the wrong guy?”
“Chip isn’t the wrong guy.”
“He wants me to give up on solving Dan’s murder.”
“Good for him. Everyone, including your sergeant, wants you to stop trying to solve Danny’s murder. So why can’t you do that?”
“Because I promised Mom?”
“Mom has to want to get better herself or she never will. Why is it so important to you? Especially now that you get it that our brother wasn’t anybody’s Prince Charming.”
Lana shook her head, trying to understand her compulsion to know what had happened. Sure, Dan had been a kid and deserved justice, but why had she shouldered the responsibility of solving an eight-year-old murder? She loved Danny, but she didn’t much like him anymore. Not after all she had learned about him.
So why couldn’t she let him go?
Her discovery of the truth about Dan’s character hadn’t lessened her need to know. Strangely, quite the opposite. Learning who he’d been made her desire to pry loose the truth about his death even stronger. Not to get justice for a kid who had died too soon, but because she wanted to understand who she had been, why she hadn’t recognized what everyone else had.
Were her problems really about her father’s abandonment? She now considered it a blessing that he’d left. Had she been that screwed up?
Was she still?
God help her, was she making the same mistakes as her mother?
Lana shot her sister a glance and found Sandy studying her. “This may sound nuts, but I think it’s more about me than Danny.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone, including you, thought Dan was a jerk. What was wrong with me that I couldn’t see him for what he was?”
“And how will solving our brother’s murder, and possibly losing the career you’ve worked so hard for, make you understand that?”
“Maybe if I unravel all the pieces of the mystery, I’ll understand Dan and, hopefully, myself.”
“Please, Lana. It’s no big mystery,” Sandy stated. “People see what they want to see. And teenaged girls do really stupid things all the time.”
Lana laughed and reached for the buzzing cell phone in her pocket. “But what would giving up say about my character?”
“Oh, I don’t know. That you came to your senses, that you could follow the orders of your superior officers.”
“Yeah, there is that.” Lana checked the phone’s readout. What in the world?
“Who is it?” Sandy asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Chip’s mother.” Lana shot her sister a questioning look. “Why would Mrs. Peterson call me?”
“Answer and find out.”
“Mrs. Peterson?” Lana said into the phone.
“Lana, thank goodness you answered. I didn’t know what else to do, who to call.”
The panic in Mrs. Peterson’s voice made Lana jump from the swing. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to find Chip. Do you know where he is?”
“He said he was going to the library to study.”
“He’s not answering his phone.”
“He probably turned it off.” So he wouldn’t know if I called. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m at South Miami Hospital,” Mrs. Peterson said. “His father had a heart attack.”
AT A TABLE in the law school library, Chip stared at the open page of the book before him. He’d read the text at least three times but nothing stuck. Damn Lana. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
When would he get it she was a lost cause? Every time he told himself to forget her and tried to focus, the image of how sexy and gorgeous she’d looked last night in his bed crept into his brain, disrupting anything else.
Get over it. She can’t be with anyone as long as she obsesses about a ghost.
But would he ever get over Lana? He’d loved her forever. He’d basically been protecting her from ugly truths since they were kids. Yeah, and what good had that done?
He tapped his pen on the table. Maybe if he hadn’t tried to protect her, had just been honest with her, had told her the truth about her brother, things could have been different.
He’d never know. There were no do-overs in this life.
Why did he feel the need to protect her, anyway?
“Chip.”
He glanced up at the sound of his whispered name.
Lana stood before him, her dark eyes intent on him. He released a long breath. What was she doing here? They’d said enough to each other already. And how the hell did she find him? She must have searched the entire library—not an easy task—so whatever she wanted... Then he noticed the pinched expression around her beautiful lips.
Something was very wrong.
She took a quick glance around the area with troubled eyes and said in a quiet voice, “I need to talk to you.”
A student at the adjoining desk looked up with a frown at Lana’s words.
Chip rose to follow her out of the reading room, but she placed a hand on his arm and said, “Get your books.”
His gut tightened at her tone. With a growing sense of unease, he gathered his belongings, stuffed them inside his pack and followed her out of the library. He knew Lana. She wouldn’t have tracked him down unless it was something serious. Disastrous. Maybe something had happened to her mom or sister and she needed his help.
And of course he’d give her whatever she needed. No matter how much she disappointed him, he’d do whatever he could for her.
When they reached the front door, he reached around her and pushed it open. She met his gaze with a small smile and murmured her thanks.
Chip squinted when they reached the bright sunlight outside. She turned to face him and took a deep breath, her full breasts rising with the motion.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Your father is in South Miami Hospital.”
“My father?” he blurted, although he’d heard her clearly. That was so not what he’d expected her to say.
“Your mom called me when she couldn’t reach you.” Lana reached out and placed a gentle hand on his arm. “He’s had a heart attack.”
“My father?” he asked again. Apparently he couldn’t manage to say anything else.
“Yes, your dad. He’s in Cardiac ICU. Your mom needs you. I’ll take you to her.”
Chip swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. “How bad?”
“I don’t have any other details. Can you leave your car here for a while?”
Chip nodded, unable to focus on anything but the unbelievable idea that his father, a man who seldom even had a cold, was in the hospital. In an intensive care unit, no less.
“Good,” Lana said, “because I don’t think you should drive. I’ll take you.”
Without another word, he followed her to her vehicle. After he’d slid into the front seat he asked, “Is my sister already there?” He hated the idea that his mom was alone.
“I don’t know,” Lana answered. “I only talked to your mom briefly, just long enough to promise to find you.”
“You have no information about his condition?”
“I’m sorry, Chip. You can call her.”
“Of course.” He reached into his pack for his phone and turned it on. “I always shut down when I’m studying.”
“I know,” Lana said.
“God, poor Mom.”
“She understands.”
Chip shook his head and punched the speed dial for his mom’s phone, but his call went to voice mail after five rings.
“She’s not answering,” he said.
“Then she’s probably in conference with the doctor.”
Chip stared out the window. What if his father was dying? What were the last words he’d said to his dad? What if he didn’t get a chance to even say goodbye?
As if she knew what he was thinking, Lana said, “Your father is a strong, healthy man, Chip. Don’t give up hope.”