Chapter 5
Dan drove into his hometown of Lyntacky with his niece Ally beside him. His hand was healing well, and the bandage was just a small square now that his mother insisted on checking constantly.
He’d been out of town for two days on a course. Though he’d enjoyed some of it, other parts not so much, but it was done. He’d also had too much time to think about Leah Reynolds.
She was back, and not alone, and he needed to be ready to see her with another man. Rationally he knew, she must have been with someone in the last seven years, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to see them together.
“So did you miss me, squirt?” Dan dragged his thoughts back to the present and focused on his passenger. She shot him a smile. This kid, he thought. She was the best of all of them.
Two new babies had arrived in the family, and Dan loved them with everything he had inside him, but this kid was the first, and he’d played a hand in helping raise her. There would always be that bond.
Dark-haired, with an odd dress sense that she’d assured him was now cool, his niece was twelve and a half—the half being important, apparently—going on fifty years old.
She had an old soul, according to his mom, which he believed meant Ally had been here before, but he couldn’t be sure on that because he didn’t always understand what his mom was talking about…
. Actually, that was true of women in general.
“You were only gone two days, Uncle Dan, but I did miss you because you’re the only one now who doesn’t get all goo-goo-eyed around a woman and babies.
You make sense and don’t say things like, ‘I’ll ask Phoebe and let you know, kiddo.
’ Or ‘I’m sure Birdie will know the answer to that. ’” Ally rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, because your life is so hard, right? All these women entering it and softening up your uncles and dad must be tough,” he drawled. “And you don’t fool me. You love your baby brother.”
She giggled. “Leo’s cute.”
“Crazy how fast he and Sadie have grown. How was Nana while I was away?”
“Good. She said the house stays clean when you’re not there.”
“Harsh but true,” he said.
Dan still lived in the house he’d grown up in.
Officially, it was so his mom wouldn’t get lonely.
Unofficially, it was because he hadn’t done a load of laundry since high school.
Meals appeared, shirts got ironed, and the house never stayed dirty long—not because of him, but because his mom claimed his version of “helping” was a crime against cleanliness.
He pitched in when she let him, but there was no way he’d admit that to the rest of the family. They’d never let him live it down.
Being a cop meant odd hours and late shifts, and honestly, coming home to a full house was a lot better than coming home to an empty one.
“So what’s been happening, Ally? Fill me in on the gossip since I’ve been gone.” He refrained from asking her if she’d met anyone called Leah Reynolds.
“Are we getting hot chocolate, Uncle Dan?”
“Do you deserve hot chocolate?”
“Absolutely. I did all my chores this morning,” she said smiling. “How is your hand now?”
He knew that look. This kid could smile and get anything she wanted. She could also lie better than anyone he knew.
“It’s good. Now, what else aren’t you telling me? Remember, I’m the uncle who can see through your BS because I’m the second-best liar in the family.”
Also true, because people had no idea what went on inside Dan’s head unless he wanted them to. He’d been hiding his thoughts for years, even if his big brothers thought they could read him like a book.
Ally sighed. “So, you know Bobby?”
“Yup.” Dan swung into the street that would lead to the Beckers’ driveway. They’d set up a coffee hut there years ago before they were popular. You got good coffee, baking, and a side of advice, if you wanted it, and sometimes if you didn’t. “Bobby who wore a bow tie to your birthday twice?”
“Yeah, him. Well, I’m going to Mabel Tricker’s birthday, and she said she’s not inviting Bobby because he’s boring and not cool.”
“And what did you say to Mabel when she said that, Ally?”
“Nothing.” She was now looking out her window, not meeting his eyes.
“Don’t use that sullen tone with me, squirt, and I’m not the one in the wrong here.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. “How do you know I’ve done anything wrong?”
“I’m a cop with good intuition, plus your shoulders are up around your ears. Now tell me what else you said to this Mabel, who, by the way, sounds like a real peach.”
“She’s one of the cool kids in school,” Ally replied. “I told her that Bobby was boring, and he wasn’t my friend anymore.” The words came out fast, like they tasted sour.
Dan knew the power of silence and had made grown men spill their guts a time or two using it. He let it settle in the car until Ally was squirming. Only then did he speak.
“Let me see if I have this right,” he said, pulling to a stop just before the coffee sign and a large red arrow pointing to the hut a few feet away.
“Uncle Dan, we don’t—”
“You want to go to Mabel’s birthday with the other cool kids, so you threw Bobby under the bus?”
“He doesn’t know,” she muttered.
“Being a kid isn’t an easy gig. I get that, Ally. All this be my friend and not his sh… stuff messes with you. It was no different for me. I didn’t get an invite to Jack Ray’s birthday, and Jay did. I was pissed.”
“I love Uncle Jay, and I’m glad he’s back in Lyntacky for good now,” his niece said, hoping to distract him from their current conversation.
“He’s the best, and yeah, me too.”
“What did you do to Jack Ray, Uncle Dan?”
“It doesn’t matter what I did—”
“Something bad, right?” his niece continued. “Because you, Dad, and the others did bad stuff all the time, but I’m not allowed to.” She had her arms folded now.
“Do as we say, kiddo, not as we do. The point here is, if you’re okay with what you did, you wouldn’t be feeling bad, but you are. So what are you going to do about it?” Dan said.
“I shouldn’t have said that because Bobby is my friend.” She looked ready to puke. “I knew it was wrong when I was doing it.”
“Peer pressure is hard, but I thought you didn’t care about that kind of thing. What changed, Ally?”
She sighed again, like her mortgage payment was due and she was already working two jobs.
“I don’t usually, but they’re having a band, and it’s at night with lights and stuff. Plus, Mabel’s got lots of money, so we get all the good food,” Ally said defensively.
“Because you’re hungry and you don’t get treats?”
“I didn’t say that, Uncle Dan.” She sighed.
“Because I know different. You’re the most spoiled older kid in this family.”
“The others are too young to understand someone can spoil them,” she protested.
“No matter how hard your daddy tried to tell us not to give you things when you were little, we still did—and still do it, when he’s not looking.”
“I feel bad,” she said finally, all the fight gone. “I don’t know what to do.”
Dan started the car moving again and turned into the Beckers’ driveway. “Yes, you do.”
“But I want to go.”
He pulled the car up alongside the open window Klaus Becker was leaning out of and had been since Dan was a teenager. The coffee shack, as some in town called it, was painted with flowers, as was the house not far away.
“Got a question for you, Mr. Becker,” Dan said.
“Klaus will do. Hi, Ally.”
“Hi, Mr. Becker.”
“I’ll make your order while I ponder this question. Coffee and a hot chocolate coming up.”
“I’ve finally reached the age to call you Klaus. I feel like I’ve just been given the keys to the city.”
Klaus smiled.
“What’ve you got in there to eat today?” Dan asked.
“Apple strudel muffins. Best in town, but don’t tell your brother I said that.”
Dan mimed zipping his lips, then turned to his niece, who had her arms folded with a belligerent expression on her face, which her father and stepmother said seemed permanent these days.
“You want a muffin?”
“Yes, please,” she said in a meek voice that was fooling no one.
“I’ll take two of those and some advice, Klaus,” Dan said.
He’d never worked up the courage to ask this man how old he was. Dan only knew that he was tall, didn’t stoop, and had not a stitch of hair on top of his head.
“Let me have it, then,” Klaus said, beginning to froth milk.
“If you had a friend you’d had all your life—”
“Uncle Dan,” Ally moaned, sinking into her seat.
“And someone said something mean about that friend, and you agreed rather than sticking up for them because you wanted to go to a birthday party, was that okay?”
“Well now, hypothetically speaking, I can understand that sometimes things like that happen with all the pressures on kids these days, but the thing about those very first friends you make is, they’re often the special ones.
Keepers,” Klaus added. “But I might differ from some on that subject, as I still correspond with the first friend I made when I started school.”
“Get out!” Dan whistled, impressed.
“Bastion Bauer,” Klaus added. “He’s the mayor of the town I grew up in.”
“Nice to have friends in high places,” Dan said, taking the drinks that were handed to him out the window, along with a bag of still-warm apple strudel muffins. “Thanks for the words of wisdom. You have a good day now, Klaus.”
“You, too, Deputy Dan, and you, Ally.”
“Bye, Mr. Becker,” she said, waving.
They pulled out of the driveway, and Dan took a long sip of his coffee and sighed.
“Fine. I’ll say I’m not going,” Ally added after a slurp of hers.
“Or you could say that Bobby is your friend and you don’t want anyone talking bad about him, but still go.”
“Do you think Mabel will still let me?”
“Is she worth your time if she doesn’t? I mean, you’re only young, and this stuff comes to you with age and wisdom, like it did with me.”
“Nana told me she’s not sure how you became a deputy because you were a reckless child who did anything your brothers told you to and usually ended up in trouble.”
All true, Dan thought. “But I grew up, and we’re not talking about me. All I’m saying is that if you’ve grown away from Bobby, then that’s okay, too, but don’t be a mean girl about it.”
“I hate mean girls,” Ally said. “Mabel can be one of those sometimes.”
They drank their drinks in silence the rest of the way, which wasn’t far in a town the size of Lyntacky.
“You can stop outside the gates,” Ally said as he turned into the school.
“Am I not cool enough to drive you up to the front door anymore?” Dan asked, doing just that. “I’m a deputy, squirt. We’re important and cool.”
Ally sank into her seat. When he stopped, she opened the door and slithered out. He waited until she’d taken a few steps before lowering the window.
“Have the best day, baby. Love you lots!” He then blew her a kiss.
She sprinted into school, pink cheeked.
Laughing, he thought his niece had a lot to learn.
Dan and his four siblings had been hell at school, so there wasn’t much this kid could do that would top them.
He was just about to pull out when a beat-up red van drove up and parked in front of him.
It wasn’t familiar to Dan, but then he didn’t know every car in Lyntacky.
He watched the driver’s door open and a woman get out. Not just any woman, but her—Leah Reynolds. The door on the passenger’s side opened, and a boy got out next. The kid was all knobby knees, like Dan had been. Had the same hair color too.
“Who are you?” Dan wondered out loud. He hadn’t seen him the day he’d encountered her. Had this boy been the one inside the house… not a man?
She’d been gone from Lyntacky for seven years now, and that kid looked around that age.
His body suddenly filled with ice. Surely not? He and Leah had been sleeping together just before she left. That couldn’t be his kid… could it?