Chapter Two
After the kids were tucked in for the evening, Lianna lay belly down on her fluffy white bedding. Sauvignon Blanc in hand, legs bent at the knee, she giggled like a teenager into her phone. The weekly FaceTime group consisted of Lianna, plus her three best friends Maisy, Isabela, and Sammie. The four women met while in law school and had remained as thick as thieves since. The weekly chat was their middle-aged version of ladies’ night. Sammie was just bringing the group up to speed on her most recent date.
“He was cute and normal. Well, normal for a lawyer, but so boring. And the real kicker—he thinks I’m into him. I should have cut him off when he was twenty minutes into his spiel on why estate planning should be done in your thirties.” she said with a sigh.
“Maybe he was nervous. Give him another chance,” offered Lianna.
“Another chance? To what, develop a personality?” Sammie huffed. “Do you guys ever just want to slap yourself?”
Stifling a laugh, Lianna said, “If it makes you feel any better, I’m crushing on a man who would like to slap me , so there’s that.”
“Just tell him how you feel. Or ask him out or, I don’t know, just jump on top of him and have your way.” Isabela said.
Lianna did laugh this time. “I haven’t practiced law in a while, but I’m pretty sure that’s still assault.”
Maisy jumped in. “I know a pretty good lawyer who can plead temporary insanity for you.”
“I must be insane,” Lianna said, “but not the temporary kind.
Lianna laughed for about the hundredth time since starting the call, which is exactly why she needed these ladies. In the initial months after becoming involuntarily single again, she’d felt empty and not for the reasons she thought she would.
Lianna and Scott had gotten engaged during her last year of law school. As an intelligent woman, Lianna realized that she was too young to settle down. But it wasn’t every day you hit the fiancé lottery, and she had hit it with Scott Bennett.
While her fiancé had a trust fund so big it would make the Hiltons jealous, money wasn’t what had appealed to Lianna. She was marrying into a family, a large, respected, and successful family. Growing up the only child of two parents who viewed their careers first and her second, the family part was what got her heart racing.
The fact that she was offered a coveted position in the Bennett family corporation running their community relations department sealed the deal. Scott had convinced her to defer taking the Bar exam indefinitely.
They had been married for almost five years. Only her closest friends knew that Lianna’s relationship was not in a healthy place before Scott passed. After his death, she still felt cheated, lied to, and angry. It seemed wrong to harbor those feelings for someone who could no longer defend themselves.
She was furious with no one to take it out on. Losing Scott made her feel despicable, because while she would do absolutely anything to give her children their father back, she didn’t want her husband back. Those dueling thoughts almost sent her over the edge.
The man she married was long gone, and she had operated as a single parent in many ways before the car crash that took him from Earth. Scott and Lianna wouldn’t have made it had he survived. Although she would never truly know, she was a widower not a divorcee. How she longed for it to be the other way around.
Sometimes, in her worst moments, she felt blame that she ended up benefitting from a failed marriage. She got the kids, the house, a stake in the family business, and a huge insurance payout. In those same moments, she fully understood why Darren despised her. She had harbored enormous guilt, but slowly, with the help of the three women on the phone, she started to find herself again. Not as a mother or a widower, but as a woman.
The guilt was being replaced with hope and the loneliness with longing. Lianna sometimes questioned her decision to go to law school, considering she was a single mom working part-time at a job that had been gifted. However, if the only thing she gained out of those three years were these three ladies, then it was worth it.
“Li, are you?” Izzy brought Lianna’s head out of the clouds and back to the conversation.
“I’m sorry, am I what?”
“Are you still getting those disturbing calls?”
Lianna had called Isabela in the middle of the night after the fifth straight 2:00 AM phone call. It was always the same—deep breathing, then the line would go dead. It made her feel silly because while it sounded juvenile, being on the receiving end of those calls was unnerving.
“Yes. They stopped for a few nights, but then started again last night. I guessed they missed my voice.”
“Weird.” Isabela said.
“I would say teenagers, but that takes commitment calling at the same time every night,” Sammie said. “Why don’t you just block the number?”
“They spoofed my cell number.” Lianna pushed on, “I’ve already reported it to my cell phone company. Essentially there is nothing they can do about it except report it to the Anti-Fraud Center, which probably has a list of complaints a mile long.”
Sammie’s brows pinched together. “If they call again you may want to think about filing that report.”
“It just feels like a waste of time. Especially when there is a woman missing. Imagine how pathetic I’ll sound saying I’m getting creepy phone calls. They did give me the option of changing my cell number, but that’s just another headache I don’t have time for.”
“That’s frustrating. I guess that’s the point,” Isabela said.
“I guess,” Lianna sighed.
“Still no updates on the missing woman? Her son goes to Harris and Annie’s school, right?” Maisey asked.
“Yes, it’s so sad. Poor kid is in seventh grade. Apparently, he came home one afternoon, and the front door was open. No sign of her, no sign of a struggle and nothing was missing. They found her purse and wallet at home. It’s as if she walked off and vanished into thin air.”
“That’s terrifying, Lianna!” Maisey said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Promise us that you’re being careful.” Isabela urged.
“I promise. I will call the phone company again and see if there are any additional steps I can take. I’m already on the “no call list,” but possibly they can trace where the calls are coming from. I’ll put a reminder in my calendar to call in the morning.”
That seemed to appease the girls and for the remainder of the conversation they fortunately moved onto lighter topics. Lianna was always a bit melancholy when the calls ended. The heavy weight of solitude would blanket her. Fortunately, she would see Isabela in person over the weekend. Her friend lived a quick two-hour drive down I-5 in Seattle. Their bi-weekly coffee dates were her therapy.
Changing into pajamas, Lianna went through her new nightly routine. Besides brushing her teeth, she checked every window and door to make sure they were locked. Settling into bed with a book, she reached over and turned the phone ringer to silent. If she couldn’t hear the prank calls then they didn’t happen, right?
****
Gabe tucked the blue and white flannel sheets up to Jacob’s sweet little chin. For the third time, the boy promptly pulled the sheets back down. Sighing in defeat, Gabe tried distraction.
“Nice job at practice tonight, bud. You’ve got the jet sweep figured out.”
“It’s so easy.”
“Well, it’s not easy for everyone. You practice hard so you should be proud of yourself for getting it right. Now go to sleep so you can wake up with a beard like mine in the morning.”
Gabe ruffled the boy’s hair, trying one final time to pull the sheets up and succeeding. Jacob closed his eyes in fake sleep.
Gabe was almost to the door before Jacob whispered the question.
“When my mom gets better will she be like Harris’s mom?”
Gabe froze, his stomach sinking into his sneakers. It was what always happened when Jacob brought up his mom. Gabe knew time was running out on the tales he told the boy about Megan. The little guy was starting to connect some dots and question why his absentee mom was different than everyone else’s. The easiest way to explain it to a six-year-old’s brain, was that his mom wanted to be with him but was sick. Gabe’s explanation left a lot to be desired, but Megan was technically sick.
“Probably not.” Gabe tried to be honest as often as possible. “But we’ll be fine just like always. Plus, once you have that beard, nothing will stop us from taking over the world. Okay, my man?”
Jacob seemed to consider his words, remaining silent for several seconds.
“When I have my beard can I stop going to school and catch bad guys with you?” the boy finally asked.
“Sounds like a deal to me,” Gabe exhaled, happy to have appeased Jake for now.
“Can Harris come, too?”
“Only if he has his beard.”
“Awesome,” Jacob muttered under his breath, rolling over to surely dream of playing superhero.
“Goodnight, Jacob.”
“Goodnight, Dad.”
Silently closing his son’s door, both relief and guilt nagged at Gabe. Jacob deserved more answers, but Gabe didn’t have it in him tonight. Or any other night for that matter.
Exhaustion took hold, as he sluggishly headed down the stairs. Grabbing a water bottle and a banana, Gabe collapsed onto the couch. Thursdays were great for two reasons. One, Thursday night football was on TV. The second reason was driving Harris to football practice. As much as Gabe was fond of Harris, it was much more about seeing a smile from the woman Harris belonged to.
In the time he’d known Lianna, Gabe had come to appreciate many of her characteristics. The freckles that so uniquely dotted honey skin, were a beautiful result of her mixed-race heritage. Those expressive almond eyes that always seemed to read him, the way she over talked when she was nervous. But her smile was right up there at the top. Not that he was responsible for evoking many of those smiles. In fact, he seemed to do everything in his power to wipe those smiles right off her beautiful face lately. He handled his interactions with her like a fourth grader trapped in an old man’s body.
That was another problem. Gabe was on the tail end of his thirties. Closing in on the big four-oh. He guessed that must be several years Lianna’s senior. Among other reasons, he doubted she wanted to spend date nights with someone who could almost qualify for the early bird senior discount at dinner.
Until a few weeks ago, they had started to grow close. Gabe and Jacob accepted almost weekly Sunday night dinner invitations. The three kids would run about alternating playing and fighting, while he sat at the kitchen island chatting with her. They shared a love of football, so it was always on the TV in the background.
Combined with the smell of something delicious in the oven, Sundays had quickly become his favorite day of the week. Lianna would ask him about his caseload at work and with her legal knowledge she was easy to talk to. As a sergeant in Vancouver PD’s Major Crimes Unit, he never had a lack of stories for her. The electricity that buzzed between them was palpable, and in his weakest moments he considered being foolish enough to ask her for an adults only dinner.
Then one day, he got a taste of what it would be like to let himself get too close. The boys were working on a science project building a volcano. When Jacob got overzealous with the vinegar, it erupted all over the kitchen. The kids immediately took off in the opposite direction, but when Lianna just stood there in the line of fire, gaping, he reacted.
Acting as if it were Mount Vesuvius and not merely a laundry headache, Gabe grabbed her waist and pulled her into him. And damn if it didn’t feel like the most natural thing in the world. She clung to his shirt, her body quaking with laughter. Time slowed and Gabe knew right then he was done for. Lianna had the power to crumble him. It was an innate knowledge he felt from the top of his head to the ends of his toes.
He still remembered every detail. His gaze traveling down to her mouth. The overwhelming compulsion to kiss her, despite all the reasons he shouldn’t. Lianna whispering his name, her lips parting. Just as Gabe began to lower his head,
“You’re going to be in trouble!”
The sounds of the kids’ squeals snapped him out of the hypnotic trance she had him in. Until that moment, he hadn’t admitted to himself the depth of his attraction to Lianna. If he didn’t back off, he was moments away from plunging over the crest of something terrifying, something real. Gabe didn’t know how to do real because his life was based on a lie.
Clearing his throat, he removed his hands from her waist. “Are you okay?”
Pausing for a second, she forced a laugh. “Yes, it’s just baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap. My kitchen has never been cleaner.”
Gabe nodded, words failing him in the moment. Instead, he decided to tuck tail and run.
“Boys, get in here and get this mess cleaned up,” his voice had boomed.
That was the last time he stepped foot in her home. It had taken all his willpower to push her away, both physically and emotionally. He thought maintaining some distance from her would subdue his feelings, but it only made his longing for her more intense.
Just the glimpse of her coming to the door earlier that evening, made him crave her so badly that he ached. If only he could pause time and hold her, absorbing all that comfort she radiated. Lianna had such a warmth to her, she always felt like home to him. Like a happy, healthy home. A home he longed for, a home he had never known. So, as any rational adult would do, he acted like a complete jerk whenever she was near.
The Seahawks fumbled the football onscreen, and it snapped him out of his pity party. The Hawks were having a horrible start to the season and that was good. Anger was much easier to handle than longing, regret, and the multitude of other emotions he felt when it came to Lianna. He knew he could never truly have her. It was a risk he just couldn’t take.