Finding Summer - Suzanne Halliday Page 0,167

years, but the acknowledgment of his prowess in the empty-handed and very deadly fighting system of the ninja held personal significance.

His lip curled into a natural sneer. “Not unlike Mr. Spock, I can put you on the floor with a single move. But I can’t defend against a gun so …” He shrugged. “If you can’t beat ’em, you have to join in.”

“Word,” Dottie muttered as she made to leave. “Say hi to Ned for me. When things wrap up after the holidays in Connecticut, he said he’d come back to the city. Jeremy has some properties for him to check out.”

“I can’t believe he’s thinking about splitting his time between Hawaii and the East Coast.”

“He misses you. And Stan. Sooner or later, one or both of you is going to settle down properly and add to the family tree. It’s only right your father gets to enjoy his sons and hopefully being a grandfather one day. Giselle robbed him of a real family. I’m glad she’s lost her power, and he can finally stop running.”

He didn’t respond, and she left right after. Settling down and having a family was the subject du jour. Stan brought up the subject nearly every time they talked. Now that his brother was free of the first Mrs. Wanamaker, he was open to finding something different. Something real.

For Arnie, his real had a name. Summer.

In his office, he swiveled in his chair and stared at the wall. When he gave it serious thought, Arnie saw a pattern in his life. A disturbing pattern where everything and everybody else came first over his needs.

Work took precedence over most things. What he did for NIGHTWIND and what he’d done in the past would always dominate his time.

Next on the list were the people who mattered.

He’d dropped everything for King and Dawn. Same for Jon and Lorelai.

And then there was Stan. Working on his brother’s situation accomplished a lot. It helped heal the cracks in their father and son dynamics and gave Darnell Senior a grandfatherly thrill.

Building shit for Ali on his free time and hanging out with a kindergarten kid made it glaringly clear his needs were at the bottom of his priority list. If he was serious about finding Summer, and he was, things had to change.

He made a snap decision. After the NIGHTWIND holiday party, he was going to tell King he needed more personal time beyond the Connecticut trip so he could go to California and pursue the destiny he’d been forced by duty to put on hold.

Yep. Seemed like a plan. But first, there was the matter of dinner with his dad. It had been a long time since the Wanamaker men were in the same city and in a good enough headspace to get together. He was looking forward to spending time with Stan, their dad, and Granddad. Not so much the extended family but one thing at a time.

“Gosh, I feel so bad for Joanne,” Summer murmured to Lynda as they finished packing luggage and Christmas presents into her car. She and the baby were headed to Barstow near Fort Irwin to spend family time with Reed.

“Yeah,” Joanne replied. The sadness in her voice matched the expression on her face. “Cy tried to keep things together while Jo’s mom received hospice care. Nobody expected her to rally. As the weeks dragged on, poor Jo lost it. And now?” Lynda shuddered. “To have it all end so dramatically and right at the holidays too is quite a kick in the head.”

They hugged. It was what you did when the grief of close friends hurt your heart.

“Are you going to be okay?” Summer stroked Lynda’s arm and searched her face. She didn’t like to see her friends—any of them—struggling. “We can stay if having us around helps. I don’t want you and Bud to be alone.”

Draping an arm around Summer’s shoulder, Lynda slow-walked them from the driveway into the house.

“Not to worry, honey. Brigit and our fur grandpups are coming to stay through New Year’s. They’ll be here when you get back from Barstow.”

At the door to her apartment, Summer quietly shared something that had been on her mind. “I don’t want the Sergeant Major to be upset that he hasn’t held up his end of this arrangement. When I talked to him the other day, he wouldn’t listen when I tried to tell him it’s okay. It’s perfectly understandable, considering what he and Joanne are going through. He has enough on