“Not at all.”
Barry came out onto the porch and assessed the situation. “Are you inviting her to the football game?”
“That’s Barry Small, my downstairs neighbor,” Joshua said to Mia. “My nephew’s playing football tonight at the high school. Wendy and I are going. She’s bringing apple cider, and Barry’s making some kind of vegetable casserole.” He smiled. “I hope you like eggplant.”
“It all sounds wonderful.”
“Good.”
“Thank you.” The tension seemed to go out of her. “I should have called, but I didn’t know if I’d get here and turn around and drive straight back to Washington.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Joshua said, liking the warmth that had come into her green eyes.
To Ethan’s mind, the tidy house in Tampa looked as if it belonged to a retired army brigadier general. Sherwin Hood had never really approved of his daughter’s choice of husband. That she’d gone off to Amsterdam on her own and was killed there, was, in her father’s mind, Ethan’s doing.
But some of the older man’s hatred and anger had dissipated, the hard edges of his grief worn down to a sense of loss that he’d fought learning to live with for as long as he could, until the memories of his first-born daughter had forced him to smile again.
At least, that was how he told it to Ethan over iced tea at the pool.
Felicity, Char’s younger sister, who hadn’t gone into the military, was a different matter. “There’s no good ruining your life because Char’s gone,” she said, following him out to the driveway. “She never hated you. She was an army brat, a career officer, herself. She always understood even when the mission came before her.”
“Felicity—”
“Don’t pretend now that it didn’t come first.” But there was no resentment in her dark eyes. “I wish I could blame you. It’d be easier somehow. But I’m living each day to its fullest. That’s what Char would have wanted—for both of us.”
“I’m sorry, Felicity. If I could have saved her—”
She smiled sadly. “You can’t save everyone. It’s been a year, Ethan. Love again. If you need my permission. If you need hers.”
On his way out, he saw Char’s picture on the living room wall, smiling, alone in her wedding dress. He blew her a kiss and said goodbye.
His brother in Texas called him on his cell phone at the airport. “Your marshal is here,” Luke said. “Deputy Longstreet. She says she’s on business and watching for snakes.”
“My flight’s boarding now.”
“Good. I’ll stall her until you get here.”
Twenty-Three
Juliet had to use her badge to get herself past the Carhills’ security people. She’d all but had to shoot Luke Brooker to get off the Brooker ranch. He’d tried to stall her with iced tea, the grand tour, the piano and small talk about snakes and quail-hunting before she finally told him to give up. “Don’t you want me to show you Ethan’s baby pictures?” he’d asked with a glint in his eye that reminded her of his younger brother.
If he’d been there, she’d have taken Ethan out to see the Carhills with her. Since he wasn’t, she went alone.
She loved the Brookers’ corner of west Texas. The grandness of the landscape, the big open sky and the sense of space and possibility. But Luke had said they’d known when Ethan was four that he wasn’t staying on the ranch. Juliet figured that was when he’d jumped out of his first plane.
Faye Carhill brought her into a formal living room decorated in shades of cream and gold. Juliet sat on a lush vanilla sofa, feeling inelegant in her functional skirt and jacket. “How’s Ham?” she asked.
“Oh, fine, fine.” Faye smiled nervously, smoothing her St. John Knits pants as she sat on a wing chair in a gold-and-cream brocade. “He’s here—out by the pool,” she said, casually, as if he weren’t recuperating from a horrible ordeal.
“Your husband?” Juliet asked.
“He’s in his library. He has calls to make.” She added awkwardly, “Business.”
“Is this where you got the ransom call—here at home?”
“Deputy Longstreet, is this an official visit? Should I have my attorney present?”
“You can have your attorney present if you want. Ham asked me to stop by some time and see him. I figured I would.”
“I’m sure you want to see Ethan, too.”
“He’s not in town.” There was a town—Luke Brooker had offered to show it to her. Juliet told him seeing a hunk of the Brooker ranch was enough for her; nonetheless she’d enjoyed his company. She returned her attention to Faye Carhill, and said, “I’m here about the five-million ransom demand that Matt Kelleher made.”