Chapter 16
That night Owen was slouched on his couch watching a baseball game and thinking about going to bed when a call came through from a number he didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Owen? It’s Wendy.”
He sat straight up at the urgent tone in her voice. “You and the kiddos okay?”
“Yes.” She paused. “But thank you for asking. I, um... You know what? Never mind. I’m sorry, go back to sleep—”
“I wasn’t sleeping.” He was already standing. “What’s wrong, how can I help?”
She blew out a breath. “I’m probably just being silly. But I wanted to tell you that Will showed up here looking for the coin, going on and on about how my dad surely had the rest of the loot and he wanted to see it.”
Owen was heading toward the door. “I’m on my way.”
“No, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have bothered you. It’s just that Hayden’s working late, some sort of quarterly deadline, and I just needed to tell someone. Not Anna, because her trust in our dad is already shaken, and... well, I was dumb and screwed up, and now I’m trying to give her the space she asked for.”
“Have you tried apologizing?”
“Do you have a sister, Owen?”
Okay, he knew where this was going. “No.”
“A brother?”
“No,” he said. “But I really think she would want to know about Will—”
“Normally, I’d agree with you, but I know her better than anyone.” Her voice was filled with worry. “If I tell her Will showed up here, all bets would be off. She’d go give him a piece of her mind—alone. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Anna can really tick people off without trying.”
He decided to plead the fifth on that one.
“So I personally think it’s best if we ignore him,” she said.
Owen personally thought it best if he made a little visit to Will to discourage any further visits. “I think that’s an excellent decision.” For you...
She sighed. “I can read between the lines on that one. Listen, please, whatever you do, don’t tell Anna. He’d been drinking and—”
“Let me take this one worry off your plate, okay? You’ve got enough going on.”
She hesitated. “You’re a good man, Owen Harris. Be careful.”
“Always.” After disconnecting the call, he pulled out his laptop. It was shockingly easy to get Will’s address. Thank you, Google. Grabbing his keys, he headed out into the night.
Will answered his door in nothing but boxers, looking rough, like he was still drunk and feeling like shit. He scowled at Owen. “Dude, what the fuck. It’s the middle of the night.”
“Seems like you’re used to late-night meetings.”
Will blinked slowly. “Is that supposed to mean something to me? I don’t have time for this bullshit.”
“Make the time,” Owen suggested. “And just out of curiosity, what is it that you think Anna and Wendy have?”
“None of your business.”
“Wrong answer.” Owen might’ve had two inches on Will, but the guy had a good fifty pounds on him and plenty of mean as his face flushed red with fury.
“Man, what’s your problem?”
“My problem,” Owen said, “is that you showed up drunk on each of their doorsteps in the middle of the night.”
“So? We’re old friends.”
Owen shook his head. “That’s not it. You’re up to something.”
“Like what?”
“Like maybe you know more than you’ve let on. Come clean.”
Will laughed. “If I had anything to come clean about, you’re the last person I’d go to. Do you seriously think if I knew where the loot was that I’d still be a busboy, living in this hovel?”
“You might not know where it’s at, but you’re clearly looking for something specific.”
“Prove it.” Will smiled. “Oh wait, you can’t.”
Owen was tempted to prove something by putting his fist through the guy’s smug face, but that would be stupid. And he tried really hard not to do stupid anymore.
“I’m calling the cops,” Will said.
“No, you aren’t. But stay away from Anna and Wendy, or I will.” Owen got into his truck, wondering exactly how many pieces of the puzzle he was missing and if Anna was also missing them or if she knew something she hadn’t disclosed. He didn’t want to think so, but he wasn’t working from just his brain this time. His heart had engaged, and unfortunately for him, his feelings for her ran far deeper than he’d ever intended.
He drove home and got into bed, but sleep eluded him. Instead he stared at his ceiling, picturing the look on her face after he’d made Anna laugh, that vague surprise, like she hadn’t had much to laugh about lately.
And then he thought of how, when he had her in his arms, looking up at him like he was a superhero, he felt like he mattered, like maybe he’d become someone she needed in her life long after they figured out this case.
The case. Which wasn’t just a case, not to her and definitely not to him. Unfortunately, they’d been spinning their wheels, one step forward, two back.
Because they were too distracted?
Blowing out a breath, he purposely set all emotions aside to concentrate on the facts, on what they knew and what they didn’t.
Shady Joe had moved up to the top of his list.
Not two minutes later, he got a text. He could tell without even turning his head and reaching for the phone that it was from Anna by the way his heart took a good hard leap. For a beat, he lay still. Had Will gone running to her, tattling on him for his visit? And if so, how pissed was she that he’d listened to her sister and not told Anna what Will had done? Would she use it as an excuse to shut him out?
And why did it matter? She was right, they were very different people. She lived to work, and he worked to live. At their core, their ways of life didn’t align, something he didn’t see changing. He needed to take a page from his usual playbook and just enjoy this until it was over, because it would be over. Everything good came to an end, and anyway, this was about getting his aunt her things back and nothing else... except maybe a little fun when he and Anna could find it in the quiet moments. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. And the sooner he committed that to ink inside his brain, the better off he’d be.
He picked up his phone.
Anna:We need to pay Shady Joe a visit.
Owen:You read my mind. Want to guess what else is on my mind?
Anna:Hmm... That time YOU kissed ME?
He was smiling as he set his phone back onto the nightstand and set aside his uncharacteristic worry about a future that wasn’t going to happen.
The day after Will’s visit, Wendy was sitting in bed watching Friends for the thousandth time when Anna appeared in the doorway. Her heart surged inside her chest—not at the bag from her favorite Mexican food place in her sister’s hands, but at Anna herself. There. In person. Even though Wendy had been a first-class asshat. “Hi,” she whispered.
Anna came closer to the bed but didn’t hop on as she usually did. Her gaze took Wendy in, then her belly. “Babies good?”
Wendy nodded.
“And you?”
Wendy’s eyes filled.
Anna sighed and perched a hip on the mattress. “Hayden called to tell me you were upset.”
Dammit. “I asked him to stay out of it, I swear! I didn’t want you feeling pressured to come back to me.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “I never left you. I just needed a break.”
“I know.” Wendy tried to get herself under control. “I’m so sorry about everything I said.”
Anna was shaking her head. “Do not apologize just because you got caught.”
“Okay. So how about if I apologize because I was wrong?”
At this, Anna flopped back onto the bed, sharing Wendy’s pillow. “You weren’t all the way wrong.”
“Yes,” Wendy said, “I was.”
When Anna opened her mouth to say something, Wendy grabbed her hand and gently squeezed. “When you were born...” She closed her eyes. It wasn’t often she let herself go there, to the hell that day had become, to the pain that had never gone away.
“Wendy, you don’t have to—”
“Dad was a mess. He left me with the babysitter to take Mom to the hospital to have a baby and came home with you. Just you.” She drew a deep breath. “He handed you to me, told me that the two of us were all you had and that we needed to care for you the best we could, even though our hearts had been decimated.”
Anna made a sound of distress. “That was too much to put on you. You were only six! And you’d just lost your mom.”
Wendy turned to her sister. Anna’s eyes were closed, tears streaming down her face. “So had you,” she whispered.
“Taking care of me shouldn’t have been on you,” Anna whispered back. “It should never have been on you.”
“You don’t understand. You saved me.”
At that, Anna opened her eyes and turned to Wendy. It wasn’t often Anna looked anything other than calmly and unassumingly beautiful. But at that moment, her eyes were red and she was as pale as could be as she shook her head. “How? How did I save you? What I did was destroy your whole world. I took Mom from you—”
“No.” Wendy shook her head adamantly. “Nothing that happened that day was your fault. Nothing,” she said fiercely. “And having you to take care of... well, it gave me a purpose. It fulfilled a need for me, gave me someone to love. Anna, don’t you get it? If you hadn’t made it either, I don’t know what would’ve happened to me. Or Dad. You saved the both of us, and for your entire life we’ve known that you were the glue.”
Anna swiped her eyes on her sleeve. “I think you’re being sweet so I’ll stop crying.”
Wendy found a rough laugh. “I don’t know, it’s kinda nice to see your face all blotchy and not perfect for a change.”
Anna choked out a laugh. “Perfect? You’re kidding, right?” She sat up and looked at Wendy very seriously. “Tell me something: Do you like me? I mean, I know you love me, but do you like me?”
Wendy stared at her. “Are you serious? Of course I like you. I mean, I’m jealous as hell of you. Your brain, your doggedness to do what’s right and not just what’s easy. I mean, honest to God, I think half the time you take the hard route just to give me gray hair...”
When that tugged a laugh out of Anna, Wendy beamed with pride. But it faded quickly. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I’m always so bossy. And I don’t even know why. I think it’s left over from raising you while also being your sister. I never learned to let go of the reins. But I promise I’m going to try like hell, because I get how that must be annoying AF, but you should know, I’m probably never going to be able to let go entirely.”
“Good,” Anna said softly, squeezing Wendy’s hand. “Because on some level, I’ll always need you. I’m grateful for you, Wen.” And when Wendy gave her a look of doubt, she smiled. “I mean, I’m grateful for you most of the time. I’d do anything for you. I hope you know that.”
Wendy’s heart ached in the best of ways. “Do you think you could go through labor for me?”
“Okay, anything but that.”
“Fair.”