Chapter 8
Wendy tossed her phone aside after texting Anna their longtime 911 emergency code, which meant “bring French fries, pronto.”
She then peed for the fifth time in an hour and lumbered back to bed, swearing as she attempted to get the pillows behind her just right while her babies— Anna, Elsa, and Olaf?—tap-danced inside of her, pushing all of her guts up into her lungs. Growing an entire litter of puppies had given her a whole new level of gratitude toward her mom.
Wendy had gotten the email from Nikki with the details of the five suspects in the Ruby Red case. Okay, so she’d hacked into Anna’s email, and she was terribly sorry about it. Or at least that would be the story she’d tell her sister.
She looked through the supplies she’d just had delivered: a dry-erase board, dry-erase pens, magnets, and, oops, a soda. She was sipping it when her stomach rumbled, squished as it was. “Soon,” she promised the babies. “I sent up the bat signal. Your auntie Anna will be here with food soon.”
Getting as cozy as possible—she already had to pee again—she got to work, pulling the large board into her lap. Thanks to her belly, she could only see the top half. Having printed off the photos of their suspects—minus her dad, because she couldn’t bring herself to consider him a suspect—she began to put her “murder” board together—all while keeping an eye on the Find My app and the moving dot of her sister making her way there.
Wendy had finished getting all the suspects on the board just as Anna burst into her bedroom, skidding to a stop at Wendy’s bedside, making Jennifur leap straight up in the air and hiss before jumping off the bed.
“Are you okay?” Anna demanded of Wendy. “What happened?” She looked around. “Where’s the emergency?”
Wendy looked at her sister’s empty hands. “The emergency’s that I don’t see a Happy Meal in your hands.”
A tall, leanly muscled man came in behind Anna, and wow. Owen Harris was even better-looking in person than he’d been on camera. Wendy beamed at him. “Hello.”
“No. No casual hellos,” Anna said. “You texted me 911! I’ve been imagining the worst, guilty as hell because I knew you were here all alone. And yet here you are, happy as a cat that got the cream.”
“Not true,” Wendy said. “I’m not happy at all without fries.”
Anna looked at Owen. “She’s going to be the death of me, I swear.”
“Hey,” Wendy said, “911’s always been our code for bring your sister a Happy Meal pronto.”
“Not while one of us is growing babies it isn’t! 911’s for actual emergencies, Wendy.”
“Okay, fine. Noted. And it’s no biggie, I’ve got enough leftovers to feed the entire town, courtesy of Hayden. He got tired of having to go out at two in the morning when I woke up hungry and keeps the fridge fully stocked now.” She paused to suck in a breath as someone tap-danced on her bladder.
“What was that?” Anna asked, frustration gone, replaced by concern. “You just winced.”
“Yes, because Willow, Maple, and Birch are doing Zumba on my stomach.”
“I mean, sure,” Anna said casually. “If you want them to be mercilessly mocked. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—or Anna, get it?—sound much better.”
“You just want a baby named after you.”
“Well, duh.”
Owen laughed, and when both women looked at him, he smiled at Wendy, nodding to the belly she was rubbing. “They kicking?”
“Mercilessly. Here.” She shifted the board off her lap and grabbed his hand to put his palm on her belly. “Feel for yourself.”
Anna looked horrified. “You do remember that Hayden asked you to stop taking strangers to second base, right?”
Wendy shrugged. “In just a few short weeks, an entire team of strangers will be up close and personal with all my lady bits.”
Owen smiled at her as the babies punted against his hand. “Does it hurt?”
She couldn’t have held back her goofy grin if she’d tried. “No. Not at all. I mean my organs are feeling the squeeze, but the babies moving around is the best thing I’ve ever felt.” After years and years of trying, everything about being pregnant was even better than she’d thought it would be. Sure, she had gas that could take down an elephant and acne for the first time in her life and taking a deep breath was a thing of the past, but she wouldn’t change a thing. Well, okay, so she’d change the gassy part. “It’s kind of magical, actually. So what’s my sister been like? Is she being mean? Because I can take her off Santa’s list.”
Owen looked at Anna. “Not mean.”
“You sure?” Wendy asked. “Because Anna can be like”—she searched for the right words to describe her mercurial, tough, wonderful sister—“a set of Christmas lights: complicated and an absolute mess half the time, but once you figure her out, she’s festive and can be quite pleasant.”
“Ignore her.” Anna climbed onto the bed and sat at Wendy’s other side, pressing her cheek against Wendy’s belly. When the babies nudged against her face, Anna nudged them back. “Hi, our babies, how we doing?”
Wendy melted a little bit. Or a lot. Anna had been through so much. Too much. It’d made her far too serious, jaded, and unreachable a lot of the time, but right now, she was none of those things, just her sweet baby sis. Wendy stroked her hair, as she’d been doing since Anna had been a toddler. “Did you really not get me a Happy Meal?”
Anna choked on a rough laugh. “No, and you know why. Your doctor wants you watching your shit-food intake. And don’t think I don’t see that soda you’ve got hiding behind the lamp on your nightstand.”
Wendy sighed and looked at Owen. “She’s got some dramatic tendencies.”
Owen smiled and held up his pointer finger and thumb about an inch apart.
Wendy laughed.
“Hey,” Anna said. “Don’t encourage him. He’s not funny.”
“Oh, I’m funny,” Owen said.
Wendy was grinning. “This is better than bacon, and I miss bacon a lot.”
“Whatever,” Anna said. “And you’ve got the drama thing all wrong. It’s you who loves drama.”
“Wow.” Wendy rethought this and smiled. “Okay, maybe it’s true. But when I say I love drama, I don’t mean my own drama. I mean I love other people’s drama.”
Owen laughed, and Wendy beamed at him. Oh yes, he would do nicely. “Just FYI, I’m the sister who’s into emotions and feels. Anna, as you might’ve noticed, is all ‘evidence’ and ‘proof,’ blah blah.”
Anna turned to Owen with an I-dare-you-to-comment look.
He wisely did not. And Wendy loved that, how well he already knew her. “She wasn’t always so controlled and careful,” she said. “In fact, as a kid she was feral.”
Owen looked at Anna. “Now that I’d have liked to see.”
“Standing right here,” Anna muttered.
Wendy looked at her sister. “She’s got a knack for connecting with others while giving very little of herself away. I think she stopped trusting herself after getting hurt a few times. She also automatically assumes others don’t trust her either.”
“Gee, thanks, Dr. Wendy,” Anna said dryly, and homed in on the murder board for the first time. “What’s this?”
“Nice subject change, but I’ll allow it because... ta-da!” Wendy gestured to the board. “I made us a murder board! Although, in this case, ‘murder’ is a euphemism for the missing necklace and gold coins. Now, I’ve listed out the suspects we got from Nikki. Minus Dad, of course.” She looked at Owen. “Nikki is a good friend of Anna’s, and lucky for us, she’s a cop.”
“She gave you the list of suspects on file?” he asked.
“No, she didn’t give Wendy anything.” Anna’s eyes were narrowed. “You accessed my email again, didn’t you? What have I told you about invading my privacy?”
“I know, I know, and I’m sorry. But look, I’ve saved you a lot of time here.”
Anna, able to focus on what really mattered at any given moment, something Wendy admired and could admit she lacked, stared at the board, taking it all in. Not easy, the way it kept jumping from the triplets’ swim practice.
Wendy batted her lashes at Owen. “Do you think you could use a few of your muscles to set the board on top of my dresser so we can all see it?”
“Wendy!” Anna turned to Owen. “Feel free to ignore that, both the bossiness and the sexual harassment. She has no boundaries.”
Hard to argue the truth, but Wendy couldn’t stop smiling because she was delighted beyond words at seeing that spark of life in her sister’s eyes. “My sister’s just grumpy because she hasn’t... dated in a while.”
Anna pointed at her. “Stop it. Stop it right now.”
“Stop what?” Wendy asked innocently.
“You know what. Stop matchmaking. This is work. Owen and I have discussed this—we aren’t each other’s type.”
“Not that it seems to matter,” Owen murmured.
Wendy grinned at him.
Ignoring them both, Anna picked up the board and walked it to the wall herself. Owen came up behind her, caging her in to help steady the board against the wall.
A quick flash of something crossed Anna’s face. Confusion. Pleasure. Confusion at the pleasure... Just watching someone go toe to toe with her closed-off sister made Wendy’s tummy feel all soft and squishy inside, or it would have if she had any room left inside her.
Anna and Owen stood in front of the dresser, studying the murder board. Owen’s eyes were unreadable, his hands in his pockets, his thoughts his own. Unlike Hayden, who Wendy could read like the back of her hand, this man was good at hiding himself when he wanted to.
But so was Anna.
“You really should be resting,” Anna said without turning to look at Wendy. “For Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe.”
“Oh, you mean Faith, Hope, and Joy?” Wendy asked. “And yeah, okay, you might have a point.” She was pretty tired. And she definitely needed a nap before Hayden got home. He’d promised retribution if he found her taxing herself. Now, granted, his idea of “retribution” was always of the sexy variety. In fact, just a few nights ago it’d involved her promising to lie very still while he had his merry way with her. This had been much harder than she’d expected, not moving while Hayden kissed, nibbled, and licked his way over her entire body, stopping to linger at all the places that he knew made her squirm—
“Earth to Wendy...”
She looked up and found Anna staring at her with concern.
“I’m fine. Just having a hot flash—pregnancy-related, of course.” Anna wasn’t the only liar in the family. She fanned her face. “Okay, so if you look at the board, you’ll see I also printed our suspects’ potential motives and possible connections.” She’d also given them labels: Bank Robber Dude, Master Safe Cracker Guy, BE Specialist, and Extortionist.”
Anna took in the face of the man labeled Bank Robber Dude. “Joe Shade robbed a bank? And he was one of the suspects in the Ruby Red theft?”
“Yes,” Wendy said softly. “And he’s earned a nickname since we knew him—Shady Joe.”
“Who is he?” Owen asked.
“A long-ago friend of my dad’s,” Anna said. “His son, Will, went to middle school with me. But then one day, Dad and Joe had a falling-out, and we never saw either of them again.” She turned to Wendy. “You think Joe was Dad’s early partner.”
“It’s possible, right?”
“Yeah, it’s possible.” Anna was on her phone. “Huh. Joe’s a convicted felon, currently serving twenty years for grand larceny and burglary.”
“Maybe Will would tell you if Joe ever talked about the theft,” Owen said. “Or saw the necklace and coins. Or, even better, left something behind.”
Anna nodded thoughtfully. “People talk, it’s in our nature. Will might not even realize he knows something until I jog his memory.”
“How will you locate him?” Wendy asked.
“If you have his number, I can get his cell phone hacked to get a location,” Owen said casually.
Wendy and Anna stared at him.
He shrugged. “Got a friend who could do it in less than five minutes.”
“Illegally,” Anna said. “And illegal anything is against my rules.”
Which, as Wendy knew, was the knell of death as far as Anna was concerned. “My sister loves her rules. They make her feel safe and secure.”
“Please stop talking,” Anna said, and turned to Owen. “And you. You can’t just hack someone’s phone.”
“But you can ask a cop to get you information on a burglary?”
“Yes, because asking for that information isn’t illegal.”
Owen remained cool, calm, and unruffled. “Rules are great, Anna, but what about people? Justice trumps rules.”
“Hey, I care about people too,” she said. “But rules are critical. They create order, and who doesn’t like order?”
Both Wendy and Owen looked at her blandly.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, forget it. And anyway, I can find him—legally—in five minutes too.” She pulled her phone back out. “Your internet connection is unstable,” she complained to Wendy.
“Yes, well, my internet connection can join my club.”
“Got him,” Anna said, head still bent over her phone.
“Wow,” Wendy said, marveled and proud. “That was fast, even for you.”
“It’s his socials. People really have no idea how easy it is to stalk them. He works at the View bussing tables.”
“I know the restaurant, it’s on West Shore,” Owen said. “But if Joe and your dad were... associates at one time, and they’re both known suspects, one of whom had a coin, a case could be made that they might have worked together on this heist.”
Wendy didn’t like the implication, but she could see how he got there. She slid a look to Anna to see how she was taking it. Her sister’s face was predictably blank. Well, except for the storm in her eyes. Not an angry storm, but an emotional one. Even as a child, Anna could internalize her feelings, making it hard to reach her. Wendy had always figured it came from not knowing their mom. Their dad had always said it came from stubbornness.
Probably both were accurate.
“It’s a stretch at best,” Anna said.
Owen shrugged. “Maybe.”
“One thing I’ve learned in the field,” Anna said quietly, “is to never get locked into an opinion too early. It puts blinders on you, and you could miss the truth.”
Owen nodded. He was leaning against the dresser, hands in his pockets as he continued to study the murder board, cool as a cucumber. But something came into his eyes whenever they slid to her sister, something hungry, something... achy.
And oh how Anna deserved this, a man who both was hungry for her and yet also ached for her. Wendy very nearly chortled in glee and rubbed her hands together. Only her own phone ringing could distract her because the call was Hayden. “Hello?” she whispered.
“Hello,” Hayden whispered back. “Why are we whispering?”
“Because I’m spying on Anna and Owen.”
“Babe—”
“Shh!” She watched Anna and Owen at the board, heads together, then moving in tandem to look down at something on Owen’s phone. There was an obvious ease between them, in the way they stood close to each other, but more than that was Anna’s sweet, soft expression, which she hadn’t seen in a long time.
Her sister asked Owen a question. He pointed at something on his phone, and as he spoke, Anna listened intently, eyes on his.
She didn’t listen to many people this way. Maybe to Wendy, and a few other people she respected. And, apparently, also to Owen.
Anna appeared to sort through her thoughts before speaking, her voice too quiet for Wendy to catch. But Owen took in her every word, giving back the same respect that she’d given him.
“They’re so good together,” she whispered.
“No interfering,” Hayden said. “You remember what happened the last time you interfered in her love life.”
Yes. Yes, she did, and her stomach hurt thinking about it. “Okay, well, I love you, gotta go—”
“Wen—”
Her finger disconnected the call. Whoops.
“So what now?” Owen asked Anna.
“We figure this case out so my sister can butt out of my life and go back to concentrating on growing Piper, Prue, and Phoebe.”
The corner of Owen’s mouth twitched. “Piper, Prue, and Phoebe weren’t triplets.”
Anna gaped at him. “You know Charmed?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
He turned to Wendy. “You mentioned you’ve got leftovers? Because I think we have a hangry situation going on.”
“Standing right here,” Anna said, then sighed. “And also maybe a little true.”
Wendy smiled. “I’ve got Mexican and Italian, whichever you want.”
Owen looked at Anna.
Anna rolled her eyes at them. “Mexican.” She paused. “No, wait. Italian.”
Wendy snorted.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Anna said. “Did I roll my eyes too loud?”
“So all the food then,” Owen said. “Got it.”
When he was gone, Wendy looked at Anna, who was watching the empty doorway Owen had vanished from. Her mood already looked improved, possibly by just the thought of food, although Wendy would bet it was actually Owen himself. Not many made it to Anna’s inner circle enough to understand that she wasn’t nearly as tough as she wanted people to believe. Sure, she had a hard-coated shell, but on the inside she was a big softie. And it would appear her guard was taking a beating by Owen’s easy energy. He was a calm kind of guy, with an air of quiet authority about him that seemed oddly soothing. He felt... safe and secure.
And her sister would never admit it, but she craved safety and security.
It broke Wendy’s heart. “You like him.”
“Actually, he’s the most infuriating human I’ve ever met.”
Wendy laughed. “Have you looked in the mirror?”
“Whatever,” Anna said, and looked away.
A huge tell.
“Look, I can see you’re in matchmaking mode, but he’s the opposite of what I’d be looking for. If I was looking, that is.”
Wendy shrugged. “Maybe him being off-brand for you is a good thing. Ever since you got hurt, you always date the same guy—uptight and boring. And even you know it, because you end up dumping them quickly. And what about William, the guy you went out with before the dentist? What happened to him?”
“If you must know, he wore too much cologne.”
Owen walked into the room with a stack of takeout boxes. “Good reason to dump someone.”
Wendy grinned at him. “Thank you so much. Would you mind going back for some bottled waters? Top shelf in the fridge? I’m feeling parched.”
Looking amused, Owen set down the food and left again.
Anna’s eyes were narrowed. “What are you up to?”
“Just wondering why you’re lying to yourself.”
“About what?”
“You know what?” Wendy said. “Let’s move on. What about the guy before William? What was his name? John Thomas?”
“He went by JT,” Anna said. “In fact, he used acronyms for everything. He even spoke in acronyms. He’d say ‘BTW, we got to leave ASAP BAE gets there.’”
“BAE?”
“Before Anyone Else...”
Wendy laughed. “You realize you’re just proving my point, right?”
Anna crossed her arms, the picture of irritation. “Look, not everyone dreams of being with someone long term.”
“So you don’t want to be loved.” All amusement had fled from Wendy as they got down to the real issue.
“And it’s not like I don’t believe in love and marriage,” Anna said. “I’ve seen it work with you and Hayden. I just don’t think it’s for me. I’ve tried and failed.”
“Honey,” Wendy said softly. “If you mean Michael and what happened last year, that wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m the one who set you up with him, and he hurt you—”
Anna let out a breath and then took Wendy’s hand. “Listen to me very carefully. You didn’t make me fall for him. Or make him do what he did. That was on him, not you. So please, I’m begging you, consider yourself completely forgiven and know I never want to talk about him again, ever. And, for the love of God, stop thinking you have to fix me.”
“I would, if you’d just give love another try. Why can’t you do that?”
“Because I’m dumb?”
Wendy rolled her eyes.
“Fine. Because I’m scared, okay?” Anna got really quiet. “What if I fall in love, and once again it isn’t returned?”
Wendy fought tears because she knew Anna would hate them. She’d think Wendy felt sorry for her. “You need to refer to your previous answer of being dumb. Because you, Anna Michelle Moore, are the most lovable person I know.” All she had to do was make her sister believe it.