man she'd tried to talk to today was closed off, bitter, and angry.
She sat in the SUV and closed her eyes. Brody King. Of all the people in the city, why did Brody have to be on this elite team? She opened her eyes and stared sightlessly at the back wall of the garage. It seemed like yesterday. The emotions were as raw today as they had been when he'd asked her to marry him. His proposal had come as such a shock. Shock? That day was like being at the epicenter of an 8.9 earthquake. Devastating, confusing, and absolutely terrifying. They'd never had serious talks about marriage. She’d had plans. Plans she'd described to him in detail. Marriage? Maybe, someday, but she hadn't been ready. She’d had her entire life in front of her, and she was getting out of Hope City. She’d wanted to experience things her mother never could. With her education, she’d had the world at her fingertips.
Enough. She grabbed her purse and headed into the garage where she locked her service weapon in a small handheld gun safe. The small safe entered the house with her, but only after she locked it. Safety wasn't something she'd ever compromise.
"Long day?" Dawn's voice came from the front room.
She kicked the door shut and put her purse on a hook in the small kitchen. "Exhausting." Her fingers dragged the elastic band from her hair and she slipped it onto her wrist so she wouldn't lose it. "Where's Gage?"
"He's at Johnny's. Birthday sleepover, remember?" Her half sister strolled into the kitchen and headed to the refrigerator. "Wine?"
"Please." She glanced at her watch and sighed, "Damn, it is Saturday, isn't it? I'm sorry. This case went down so fast, and there were complications..." She grabbed two wine glasses from the cupboard and sat them on the counter for her sister to fill.
Her sister's head snapped up. "Was someone hurt?"
"No, not those type of complications." She grabbed the glass of chardonnay and waited for her sister to put the bottle back in the fridge before they both headed to the sectional. She sat down and toed off her boots, wiggling her toes in relief.
"What type of complications?" Dawn aimed the remote and muted the program she'd been watching.
"I met my new team." She took a sip of the wine and shook her head.
"What? Are they misogynistic assholes?"
"No, everyone except the sergeant was very welcoming." She leaned forward and put her wine on the table.
"What crawled up his ass?"
She chuckled at her sister's comment. She was the office manager at one of Hope City's largest trucking companies, and the woman had learned to swear from the best.
"I believe that would be me."
"Huh? What are you talking about?”
"The sergeant? It's Brody."
Her sister's mouth dropped open and then snapped shut. "No. Oh, hell." Dawn stood up and started pacing, her hand clasped over her mouth. "What are we going to do?"
"Nothing. Sit down, Dawn. I'm too tired to watch you pace."
"But he could––"
"He could, but I'm not going to let it happen."
"How are you going to stop him?"
"By telling him the truth and working with him?"
"Right, okay. So, what? You're going to walk up to him and say, 'Oh, hey, listen after I walked away from your marriage proposal, I discovered I was pregnant with your child, and oh… gee whiz, I decided to keep it from you. Sorry, I was young and frightened and didn't think you'd mind not knowing you had a son!’” Dawn's voice reached glass-shattering levels by the time she'd finished her rant.
"Wrong! I went to that hospital. Over and over. I had to wait until after his family left—they weren’t exactly welcoming—but I sat with him until the ICU nurses forced me out of the room. You know I did. He was the one who refused to see me after he'd regained consciousness. I was standing in the hall outside his room when he told his brother there was nothing left between us, and he didn't want to see me! Months later, I went to his house. His mother told me he'd contact me if he wanted to talk.
“What was I supposed to do? Should I have pushed myself on him because I was pregnant, after I ran out on his proposal? After he'd almost been killed because he was chasing after me? After he told Brock he never wanted to see me again? Yeah, that's a hell of a way to start a family." She leaned forward and