so blithely tossing in the trash. And if Garrick was wrong, well, he would deal with that, too.
Phillips stared at him. “I’ve screwed up with her, haven’t I? I messed up everything. I made her feel awful. You’re right. She’s been so great this whole time. I know she’s lonely—anyone would be. I have to do better.” Tears filled his eyes. “I don’t want to lose her. I don’t want her to leave me.”
Garrick pointed to the door. “Then go fix this. Take the rest of the day off and make things right with your wife. I’ll see you tomorrow, Phillips.”
The kid nodded as he sprang to his feet and ran to the door. “Thanks, Captain.”
Garrick nodded, watching him go.
Hopefully the situation would work out between them. Thinking about Phillips and his wife made Garrick feel old and maybe a little bit broken. It was easy to give someone else advice, but much harder to know what to do yourself. He’d screwed up with his daughter, and he still had no idea what had gone wrong. His marriage to Sandy had failed, although there it was easier to see how things had turned and why they didn’t make it. As for Raine...
He drew in a breath, determined not to get caught up in the past again. It was done and there was no do-over allowed. Knowing what he knew now, he would have walked away as soon as he figured out the truth—assignment be damned. But he hadn’t had the benefit of foresight, so he’d gone on thinking he could handle it. That somehow he would keep it all from being a disaster. And then she’d died.
She’d died because she’d broken the rules. Their undercover fake relationship was never supposed to be more than a means to an end. They weren’t supposed to cross that line, and while he hadn’t, she had and in the end, she’d paid with her life.
CHAPTER THREE
“IT WAS SO GROSS, Mom,” Hunter said cheerfully as he unpacked pots and pan from the box and put them on the counter. “Jimmy threw up everywhere. His desk, the floor. He barfed all over Penny and she started crying. Then a couple of other kids barfed, and everyone started screaming and running out of the classroom.”
Wynn did her best not to picture the event. She was feeling perfectly fine and wanted to keep it that way. “What had he eaten?”
“An egg salad sandwich he’d had in his locker for three days!” Hunter sounded both shocked and impressed. “He said it smelled funny, and I told him to throw it out because you always said stuff with mayonnaise has to be kept cold, but he didn’t listen.”
“While I live to be proven right, I’m sorry about what happened.”
“The room still smells. We had to move to another classroom. They took Jimmy to the hospital. Byron texted and said he’s okay. They’ll keep him overnight and let him go home in the morning.”
“I feel sorry for your teacher. That isn’t something anyone wants to deal with.”
Hunter finished emptying the box. He flattened it and added it to the pile. “The person we should feel bad about is the janitor. He has to clean it all up.”
“An excellent point,” Wynn said, making a mental note to stop and get the janitor a Starbucks gift card on her way to work in the morning. “That’s not an easy job.”
“Especially when teenagers do dumb stuff like that.”
She held in a smile. “I’m glad you see it that way.”
Her handsome, fourteen-year-old son grinned at her. “I’m maturing, Mom.”
“I can tell.”
Hunter reached for a box of flatware. They were spending the afternoon at Garrick’s house, unpacking all the purchases while she waited on the furniture delivery. She had an easy week and had offered to accept the delivery scheduled between three and six. She already had the sheets in the dryer and a load of dishes going through the dishwasher.
She didn’t mind being neighborly, but she had to admit it felt a little strange to be in Garrick’s house, which was why she’d asked Hunter to help her with the unpacking. Having her kid around made the situation a little less weird. Plus now that he was, as he’d put it, “maturing,” she didn’t see him as much as she used to.
“Aside from the throwing up thing, it was a good day?” she asked.
“Uh-huh. I did great on my algebra test. I might even get an A.”
“Impressive.”
He glanced at her from the corner of his