Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,53

for the kitchen.

Katie went to the bedroom and found the warm clothes neatly folded in the top drawer. She shed her badge and gun, leaving them on top of the dresser. The cold from the rain-soaked garments was beginning to invade her bones, causing uncontrollable trembling. Quickly peeling off her clothes, she pulled on the dry ones. Taking a towel from the bathroom and letting her hair down, she sat on the bed and began drying her hair. She felt better almost immediately.

Breathe…

On a small shelf between the dresser and nightstand, there were several old photographs. One was of his parents, she had always liked them; his mom was laughing, probably about something funny his dad had said. There were frequent barbecues and fun times at their house when she was a child, especially during the summer.

Another photo was of her and Chad—they must be about twelve years old. Katie didn’t remember the photo being taken, but they were in a tree house they had built that summer. Chad still looked the same; cute, happy, and with a mischievous look in his eye. Katie had decided that she wanted to cut her hair short because it always got in the way, and she wore shorts, a T-shirt, and sneakers without socks. Both of them smiled broadly at whoever took the photo.

There were more photos of family and friends, then one of him when he graduated with his EMT license along with a group photo of his firehouse #15.

Katie smiled as she thought how amazing and wonderful it had been to be a part of Chad’s life for so much of it.

Wandering about the room to spread the warmth around her body, she noticed a small notebook on the nightstand. She didn’t know what possessed her to pick it up, but she slowly opened it and flipped through the pages. Neatly folded newspaper articles and printed reports from the Internet about all the cases she had solved were tucked into the pages. There was an article in the Military Times from when she had completed training with Cisco.

It was touching that he had a scrapbook of her accomplishments. It made her realize how much Chad was a part of her life. They had lost touch when she had enlisted in the army, but he never stopped being there for her. She was so lucky, truly blessed, but didn’t really know it until that moment.

Katie looked out the bedroom door and could hear Chad moving around in the kitchen. She put the small scrapbook back on the nightstand. After laying out her wet clothes in the bathroom to dry, she returned to the living room.

Walking into the kitchen, the smell of warm spices filled the air. “What smells so good?” she said.

“It’s a blend of spicy tea leaves I made.”

“Wow, look at you. You buy a cottage and now are an herbalist and a chef.”

“Well, I confess. I learned this from Rob at work. His family is from India and he’s an amazing cook as well.”

He handed her a steaming mug.

“Thank you,” she said, carefully sipping the liquid. “Oh, wow, that’s delicious.”

“Knew you’d like it,” he said, smiling. “You look good in those.” He referred to the navy blue sweatshirt with the firehouse’s emblem on it she now sported.

Katie smiled back but then suddenly realized, “I have to take care of Cisco.”

“All taken care of,” he said.

“What? No, I need to get home.”

“Don’t worry. It’s all taken care of.”

“How?”

“I called McGaven and he and Denise were happy to go over and spend some time with Cisco. He knew where you hid a key. I think he said they were going to watch some action movies—Cisco’s favorite.”

“He did that?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“I’ve been… difficult to work with recently and I thought he was mad at me,” she said.

“If he was, I couldn’t tell.”

Katie looked down and was upset that she’d allowed things to be left the way they were at the office. “I… I don’t…”

Chad confronted her. “It’s okay. You need to relax and tell me what’s going on.” He steered her to the living room where they sat down.

Katie was overwhelmed and burdened with some of the most intense things, but she didn’t want to whine or dump her problems on anyone. But now, she found herself sitting in front of someone she loved, who was waiting for her to let it all out.

He sat patiently and sipped his tea.

She didn’t know how she did it, but the words came tumbling