Known By You (Veterans of Silver Ridge #5)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Elizabeth

W hen someone smiles and suggests everything happens for a reason, I instantly know three things about them.

First, they have a sunny view of the world and life.

Second, they’re likely someone for whom most things have worked out in their favor.

And third… they are diametrically different than me.

I would never be confused for an optimist. I’ve had my fair share of successes, but when factoring in parental divorce, failed personal relationships, a sister who was kidnapped—even if we’d recovered her quickly—and now the mess I found myself in, I didn’t think of myself as living a charmed life. Not to say I’d suffered—I had privilege up and down the street. But I didn’t feel the need to fit life events into a tidy puzzle where everything fit for a reason.

Sometimes, being a few minutes late doesn’t save you from a horrible car wreck. And relationships end because people don’t love each other anymore or don’t want to work hard enough to fix what broke. Sometimes, people simply don’t click long-term. Sometimes, a freaky fan thinks he has the right to kidnap someone.

Sometimes, work blows up in your face despite your best efforts.

These were consequences of choices, actions, and sometimes world events or outside forces. I refuse to believe they were all for a precious reason.

That said, as I stood staring at my baby sister, a tear slipping down her cheek, it felt a lot like she was the reason I’d come to Silverton. She beamed at me with her innocent smile that held so much love it made me ache as she slipped her bright scarf from around her neck.

“I’m so, so glad you’re here. Last summer, it was all such a blur, but now? It’s an absolute dream come true to have you here for more than a few days!”

She launched out of her seat, making quick work of sliding out of the booth, then yanking on my closest arm and hauling me into her embrace.

“Okay, Jojo. Point taken. You’re glad I’m here.” I chuckled through it, ignoring the pinch in my chest and shoving the way I’d neglected her for so many years to the back of my mind.

She released me after a few seconds longer than a normal person would, then slid back into her side of the cherry red booth. Catherine, the waitress who was also part of my sister’s girl squad here in Silverton, delivered our lunch.

“Here you go, ladies. Anything else I can get you?”

She smiled kindly at us. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her stunningly clear, pale skin fresh and without any makeup. She had the mountain girl natural beauty thing going for her in spades.

“This looks amazing, thank you,” Jo said with a grin.

“I’ll take some more coffee and would you top up the water, too? I’d appreciate it.” I held up my half-empty glass. I’d taken to guzzling water since arriving last night. Dehydration never helped jetlag, plus the altitude had me pretty miserable last summer when I came for a quick visit. I wanted the coffee for the caffeine and to warm my fingers, which still felt a bit frozen after my walk from the small apartment I rented.

Granted, I’d hardly been here long enough to adjust when I’d stopped in six-ish months ago. Not even quite a week. Now, though, I planned to be here at least a few months, both to help Saint Security bridge the gap while Jess Korbel-Rawlins dealt with her extreme morning sickness, and to… enjoy my wintry sabbatical from work.

Yeah. It’s a voluntary sabbatical and not a voluntold, paid leave of absence while your subordinate is drawn up on ethics charges that implicate you. Way to spin it.

The burn of frustration and betrayal lit in my chest, but I tamped it down and smiled at Catherine.

“Of course. I’ll keep both coming.”

She scuttled off to get my beverages, and I turned to see Jo eying me with a sly look. I didn’t get to spend much time with her, but I still recognized the expression as one to be wary of.

“Yes?”

“I’m just waiting for you to tell me why you’re here and how you’re taking more than a month off work and how it went when you showed up at Saint Security and, if we’re just going to put it all out there, what Kenny did when he saw you because I know he had a reaction based on seeing him at the signing.”

I huffed, the barrage of questions so like ten and twelve and fourteen-year-old Jo it hurt. We were sisters with a six-year age gap and had often been stuck in different phases of life. We’d stayed in touch fairly well considering I’d lived internationally for the majority of the last decade, but this instance made a wisp of memory blossom and wither at the same time.

Judging by the cant of her head and the way her eyes narrowed and flickered from one part of my face to another, she was trying to suss out the truth. It had been so rare for us to sit across from each other and talk. In truth, it was rare for me to sit and talk to anyone who wasn’t part of my working life. So maybe I should take this chance to connect—make an effort while I was here and let her in a little, knowing it would likely make her day. It was a small offering for the kindness and enthusiasm she’d shown me since we’d sat down.

I could give her some of the answers she wanted without creating a situation I had no control over, and so I did.

“I’m on sabbatical for up to three months depending on a few factors and it’s standard practice,” I said, but left out a few key details about when it was standard practice or the fact sabbatical wasn’t technically the right word. “And I’m here because I enjoyed this little town and seeing you and Dad. I like the Saint Security team, and when I reached out to Wilder Saint and Bruce Camden, they indicated I could fill a need.”

She chewed the giant bite of burger she’d taken while I was speaking, so I did the same. Glorious. Europe had a lot of delicious food, but I deeply missed a few American classics, one of which was a greasy diner cheeseburger with American cheese. The other was Mexican food, which tended to be in the “good try” to “truly abysmal” range where I’d been, and I’d already helped myself to takeout from Guac for dinner last night.

“Mmkay, first, awkward to refer to our step-brother by his full name. Second, this begs at least five follow-up questions, not the least of which is ‘why would you go to work for Bruce and Wilder when you’re supposed to be sabbatical-ing’ but most important is—are you going to say anything about Kenny?”

She made a ridiculous face like she was begging me, eyes big—another throwback to when she tried to manipulate me with her cuteness.

There was no escaping this. I might as well execute. “He appeared very surprised to see me. Just like he did last summer. We didn’t speak. By the time a few others had finished welcoming me, he’d disappeared.”

Her dark brown eyes, the same color as mine, grew large. “Reeeeeeaaalllllllllly?”

I rolled my matching set. “Yeeeeesssss.”

The glare I received was nothing short of sisterly, but she spoke even as she rolled hers right back at me. “Okay, Lizzy, and are you ever going to tell me the deal there? I mean like… did you guys…”

She left off as though I’d fill in the blank with something salacious she could write about in her next novel. “What do you expect me to say?”

She chucked a fry at my plate as though it was a punishment. Foolish move—I would devour every fry in front of me and now I had a bonus fry. Sucker.

“Maybe that you dated? Hung out? Are secretly lovers and have been all along? That he’s pregnant with your baby and you’ve come back to be his baby mama? Literally anything will tell me more than what I know, which is that he whispered your name in a shocked kind of awe that said things, but I don’t know what, and I’m left chomping at the bit for more.”

With a cough, I almost spewed my recent bite of burger at her, but saved myself, and her, in a heroic effort before recovering. I guzzled the water Catherine had stealthily refilled, then glared at Jo. “You really shouldn’t say stuff like that out loud. If this is like any small town I’ve read about, the fact that Kenny is somehow pregnant with my baby will be in the paper tomorrow.”

She cackled. “Adorable. And this must mean you’ve been reading from the list I made you.”

I scowled. She’d made me a list of romance novels when I had mentioned finishing all of hers in a few weeks, after I found out she was romance author Josie Wade. And yes. I had been. And no, I wasn’t proud of it, but then I also wasn’t proud of that attitude because I didn’t like the idea anyone would feel ashamed to read one of Jojo’s books, so why should I feel bad reading anyone else’s?

I shouldn’t.

Didn’t mean I needed to give her the satisfaction, though.

“Maybe. My point is, what happened between me and Kenny was just shy of nothing.”

She let out a “ha!” and slapped the table. “That means there was something. ”

Shifting my focus to my now-cold coffee, I drank deep. It was coming on eight p.m. in the time zone I came from though just early afternoon here, and though I’d slept decently well last night, even made it all the way to three- thirty this morning before my first waking, I’d need the caffeine.

“We had a joint operation with the EMU a few years ago. Kenny was on the team we worked with. That’s all.” Mostly all.

And I wasn’t going to say anything else, or I knew what she’d say.

She’d bust out her romance writer brain and figure out a way to throw us together.

He didn’t want that, I didn’t need it… we were fine like this. Let him avoid me and I could give him space and we’d never have to face the awkward reality.

Truth was, it had been nothing. He’d been this gorgeous man-boy on a team of grown men and he’d asked me out. He’d been nice about it, not slimy, but I had… well, I’d laughed. Because he’d seemed so young. I wasn’t certain of the age difference between us, but he’d been this hot, cocky young spec ops soldier and I already felt like a grizzled creature at the ripe age of thirty.

So when hotshot jokester Barbie had approached, I’d laughed, taken the compliment, and that was the story.

Had he been the kind of attractive that felt unrealistic? Yes. Had I thought, “Maybe in my dreams”? Sure. And had I known that under no circumstances would I get involved with someone like him because my job was my first priority?

Yes, I did.

So I’d brushed it off, and I was certain he had, too. The coincidence of us meeting again ever, let alone here in this tiny town where my sister and dad had made their lives, only contributed to the surreality of living here.

Stepping on the plane to the US with no return ticket had felt odd enough. Arriving here and moving into an apartment instead of the inn or hotel had been another level of weird. Sitting across from my heart-eyed sister and talking about a man I barely knew who was now my coworker as though it factored into my life in any way? If I found out I was on the set of some alternate-universe reality TV show, I wouldn’t have been surprised. It all just felt so completely unreal.

One more facet of this time that made it all seem like I’d stepped between worlds: I no longer lived the life I’d chosen in the job I had. Right now, I couldn’t go back to it—wouldn’t know when until they told me. I was stuck in this purgatory, though so far, it was largely without punishment or anticipation. It was simply… in between.

I had the sense that I’d exit this version of life when I returned to work, but for now, I was wandering around in the dark. And as much as I regretted to admit it, I hated feeling lost.