Chapter 10
CADDO
By the time they got back from the lake, Seaton was half asleep.
He ended up carrying her from the bottom step of her porch into her bedroom.
It was strange how easily he was able to open the front door with one hand.
Having a nearly identical house made it easy.
That, and holding Seaton in his arms was just that comfortable.
Their last day of camping had been crazy fun. The children had finally become acclimated to the lake and the camp. They ran around like crazy and Seaton had been caught up in their mania. She'd played just as hard as they had.
Nearly everyone there had mentioned how great Seaton was with children.
The pointed looks and hearty slaps on his back only drove it home.
He knew where everyone expected their relationship to go and he hoped it would, too.
He just wasn't going to push Seaton in any way.
He wasn't even going to nudge her in that direction.
Once inside, he put Seaton on the bed, taking the time to take her blouse off, thankful she was wearing a sports bra under it and under her denim shorts she wore a pair of boxer briefs with cartoon pandas on it.
It left him smiling as he drew the blanket over her, but it was her half-asleep expression that stopped him from leaving.
"Can you stay?"
How could he say no?
Sam shed his button-down shirt, jeans, socks and shoes and ended up with a very warm, sleepy woman wrapped around him.
Her head tucked into the side of his neck.
It was different... very different from cuddling up in their tent, but he fell asleep just as well and enjoyed his rest even more with her draped over his body.
He woke up before dawn, his internal clock nudging him awake before the sunrise colored the skies above San Antonio.
Slowly disentangling himself from Seaton, he left her bed and made his way back home to shower and change before heading into the station house.
He had a smile on his face. How else could he be after spending a whole weekend with Seaton.
He did stop for a moment on his porch before leaving for work.
He looked up and down the street, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
It didn't stop him from feeling that there was something he wasn't quite seeing.
Something dark on the unseen horizon.
SEATON
When she woke up, she reached out an arm for Sam, but he wasn't there.
Grumbling, she turned onto her side and pulled Sam's pillow into her chest.
It still smelled like him, making her hug it closer and breathe in his scent.
Her phone chimed on the bedside table, and she reached out one arm to snag it off of the tabletop and bring it forward in front of her.
She saw a text message from Zharia.
Z: Hey! You're going to work today, too? Right?
Seaton typed out her reply message.
SB: Yep! I just have to get out of bed.
SB: UGH
Z: (Rolling on the Floor Laughing emoji) Same.
Her phone chimed and another message came in.
CHLOE: Do you want me to pick you up?
Another message pinged in.
Z: Need a ride?
Seaton rolled onto her back and smiled up at the ceiling as she held the phone to her chest.
Moving in next to Sam had been the best thing to ever happen to her.
Not only did she have emotional support from him, but she had also found a whole pile of friends. And she had a job that she liked! Working at the Lone Star Diner was fun. Sometime crazy hectic. Often times CHAOS. Yes, in all CAPS.
But she liked the people.
She liked the work.
And most importantly, she'd fallen in love and was loved in return.
Her phone pinged twice and she knew she likely had messages from both Zharia and Chloe checking in.
Closing her eyes, she pictured her area of San Antonio.
It would be a little out of the way for Chloe to drive to pick her up.
On the other hand, Zharia could easily swing by to pick her up.
She messaged both of her friends and Zharia responded that she was on her way.
With a happy sigh, she headed into the bathroom to get ready, humming along to a melody in her head.
Friends.
She smiled widened and her whole heart filled with happiness.
DARYL
He drove down the street toward her house just as car moved in the opposite direction.
He caught a glimpse through the windshield and almost jammed on the brakes of the car.
Seaton.
He kept driving, looking in the rear-view mirror.
It was her.
Seaton.
He slowed and stopped in front of Seaton's house and looked around.
The street was dead.
There weren't any kids.
No pets.
Empty.
It rankled.
She'd moved so far from him.
The street was plain.
Cookie cutter.
Utterly boring.
She'd lived better with him.
Seaton just didn't understand it the way he understood it.
She just needed to listen to him.
And maybe...
She just needed to let him lead her in the right direction.
He left his engine running as he got out and moved toward her front door.
He smiled, feeling a little better.
No security cameras.
Still, he'd changed his car to avoid being seen and recognized.
He had an Audi now.
Something more elegant than before.
Seaton would see that he was making changes.
He took out his phone and put in a call to his attorney.
"Hayes? Yes... I need some information."
He heard his attorney sighing on the other end of the phone call. "What's going on? You're not going to do anything I have to report to the police, are you?"
Daryl grinned, but he only did that because he couldn't punch his attorney through the phone.
Busybody.
"I just wanted to check and see if there was any updated information on Seaton."
"Your ex?" His attorney's voice sounded tight. "It's really better for you if you don't even think about her."
"You're not my mother, Hayes."
"I'm not trying to be your mother. I'm trying to keep you out of jail. And you need to put any thoughts of your ex firmly behind you."
This was all her fault.
"Her name," Daryl ground out between his teeth, "is Seaton. I don't need to call her anything else."
The weighty sigh on the other side of the call felt like it was on his shoulders.
"We talked about this, Daryl. You need to distance yourself. If you break the TRO-"
"Hayes," he huffed out a breath as he leaned to one side and looked through her window, "don't worry about that. I'm not going to do anything wrong. I just need some information."
The silence on the other end of the call was deafening.
"I just need to know where she's working."
"Mister Buchanan."
Daryl heard the other man's tone.
He heard the warning.
But he didn't care.
He'd gotten a warning from the judge, but the judge didn't understand get it.
The judge didn't understand that once he got Seaton back in his house, things would be just fine.
She'd buckle under.
She'd listen to him.
They'd be back to normal.
He looked around at the street, glaring at every stupid cookie cutter house.
He was a man built for grand things.
He just needed a woman who'd do what he wanted.
And Seaton?
He'd have her back home.
Sooner rather than later.
Smiling, he reached into his pocket for his keys and his eyes narrowed when his fingertips hit something round instead of pointed.
Lifting it out of his pocket, he knew in an instant what it was.
He pulled it out of his pocket and smiled.
His father's lighter.
Engraved with his father's initials which were also his.
DB
Intricate filigree curled around the letters and gave it an elegant look.
Seaton would know it in an instant.
He'd used it to burn some of her things.
Hell, he'd even held it close to her skin a time or two.
Threatening her with pain got her attention.
He turned it over in his hand and flicked open the top.
With his thumb, he flicked the wheel and watched a flame spring up.
Bending down to the chairs on the porch, he touched the flame to one of the cushions.
It took a second, but the flame caught and licked at the fabric, hungry for more fuel.
One seat cushion caught.
He touched it to the cushion at the back of the seat.
It caught, too.
"Well," he muttered to himself, "this is almost like destiny, isn't it?"
He walked over to the other chair and set those cushions on fire before he walked away back to his car.
He admired his handiwork for a moment and then he drove away.
His phone chimed as she pulled away from the curb.
Looking down at the screen he saw a text appear from his attorney.
BLOODSUCKING LAWYER: You shouldn’t even be in the area of San Antonio where she lives and works. You’ve been told this. Which is why I didn’t give you the addresses for her work and home.
BLOODSUCKING LAWYER: But… I know you and when you ask a question, you want an answer even when it doesn’t matter
BLOODSUCKING LAWYER: The court's TRO states her home address 1627 Meadow Court and her workplace Lone Star Diner 227 Longley Street
"Lone Star Diner..."
He lifted his phone and touched on the address for the Lone Star Diner.
His MAPS APP opened and he followed the directions it spat out through the speaker on his phone.
It was really going to be nice to see Seaton again.
She owed him and he was going to get what he was owed.
CADDO
Cowboy walked past Sam and shook his head.
Sam only noticed it because he was only pretending to read the newsletter from the San Antonio Fire Department.
He turned his chair so he could see Cowboy clearly. "What's going on, Lieutenant?"
Cowboy pulled out a chair and turned it around, sitting on it like he'd sit in a saddle.
"I've just got... a feeling."
Sam set down the newsletter and nodded. "I get it." He blew out a breath and slouched back against his chair.
SEATON
When she was given her break, she went to the back and sat down on an over-turned bucket and stretched her legs out.
Yun Abe looked up from the fryer and gave her a smile. "You look... exhausted."
Seaton beamed at him. "It's a good kind of exhausted.
" She wiggled her toes in her new clogs that Sam had bought for her.
"I've been working hard every night making more stock for that craft fair I'm participating in and thanks to you with your friend at the care home I have orders coming out of my ears! "
Yun nodded, looking like a sage at the top of a mountain. "Good people deserve good things."
Seaton felt her heart swelling in her chest. "Then you must be up to your neck in good things, Mister Abe."
He sighed, shaking his head. "Yun. Please call me Yun."
Seaton's shoulders shook with silent laughter. It seemed simple enough, but she was always nervous. She’d heard a number of people pronounce it as YOU with an N at the end. "Yun."
"See?" He lifted his spatula with a flourish. "It's not that hard, was it?"
"Hey!"
Seaton turned to look at Chloe as she leaned in through the pass opening.
"Y'all should look out the front windows."
Yun picked up two plates and set them on the pass in front of her. "You know I don't have time, Chloe."
She picked up the plates and gave him a big toothy grin as the tipped her head in the directions of the front windows. "I looked out the window, and I can see smoke coming up from somewhere in that direction. I can't tell how close it is, but it seems like it came up all of a sudden."
Seaton got up from the bucket when the front door jingled and kept jingling.
It sounded like they had some new customers.
Yun turned and looked at her, frowning. "You still have a few minutes of your break left."
She grinned. "I'm good. Besides, part of my backside was about to fall asleep."
Yun waved her on with a laugh. "You can take more break time later."
"Thanks, Yun!"
"Ay!" He chuckled as she walked out.
Seaton could see what Chloe was talking about as she looked out the front wall of windows at the Lone Star Diner.
The smoke Chloe mentioned was easy to see.
It was dark and the color of it, against the blue sky, looked like trouble.
Shaking her head, she went to the first table with new customers. "Hey, I'm Seaton. Welcome to the Lone Star Diner. What can I get you to drink while you look at our menu?"
DARYL
Daryl pulled into the parking lot of the Lone Start Diner and did a slow crawl from one end to the other. No one seemed to notice that he was there.
That was both a relief and a frustration.
Still, he got what he wanted a few seconds in.
Seaton was standing at a table by the window.
Three ladies at the table, all of them must have been in their seventies.
White hair and all.
That was good for him.
He didn't want her around other men.
He didn't want them to get any ideas.
He had plenty of ideas of his own.
Daryl pulled into a spot in the far corner of the lot and adjusted the rear-view mirror to see the big wall of windows at the front of the diner. Where he was, he could see almost all of the area where the tables were.
That was even better.
He needed to be there when it was time for her to leave.
She wasn't going to be leaving alone.
He was going to be there to bring her home.