Chapter 3
Chapter Three
I an shifted from one side to the other and resisted the urge to look at his watch. “Thank you for agreeing to see us on such short notice, Dr. Singh.”
Dr. Singh peered at him from behind her spectacles and smiled. “I’m happy to help, Mr. Railings. I happened to have a cancellation today.”
Next to him, Lucy was scrolling through her phone and ignoring them both.
Dr. Singh crossed one pant-clad leg over the other and tugged on the edges of her button-down blouse. She flipped her notebook open, and kind brown eyes peered up at them.
“So, Mr. Railings, you’re the one who got in touch with me, so do you mind if I start by asking you a few questions?”
Ian cleared his throat. “No problem, Doc. Go ahead.”
Dr. Singh held her pen and sat up straighter. “I’m just going to start by asking a few questions about the two of you, like what do you do? How long have you been married? That sort of thing.”
“Will that help you determine how many sessions we’re going to need?”
“I don’t determine that based on the first session. That’s going to take some time to figure out, and as for how often, it’ll also depend on the kind of information you give me today.”
Ian nodded. “Okay, fair enough.”
“Mr. Railings—”
“Ian,” he interrupted with a polite smile. “Mr. Railings makes me feel old. It’s just Ian.”
Dr. Singh scribbled something down. “Okay, Ian. How old are you?”
“I’m forty-four,” Ian replied, pausing to link his fingers together. “I’m a cop.”
“How long have you been a cop?”
“Fifteen years. I went to college for a couple of years, then the academy, and here I am.”
Dr. Singh didn’t look up at him. “And what made you want to become a cop?”
“My dad was a cop for a while. He retired early, though, and decided to go into teaching, but he quit a few years back.”
“And your mom?”
“She died when I was just a toddler. It was a robbery gone wrong.”
Dr. Singh looked up at him and gave him an apologetic smile. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“It was a long time ago.”
Dr. Singh straightened her back and looked at him directly, her brown eyes wide and unflinching behind her spectacles. “In your own words, why are you here, Ian?”
Ian coughed. “I’m here because I feel like Lucy and I haven’t been on the same page lately, and I want us to be. I don’t know what went wrong or what I can do to fix it, but I want to try.”
Lucy snorted. “Yeah, right.”
Dr. Singh turned her attention to Lucy, who still wouldn’t look up from her phone. “Was there something you wanted to share, Mrs. Railings?”
“It’s Lucy,” she grumbled before sinking lower in her seat. “And no, I have nothing to say.”
“Lucy’s parents are both alive and well, and she’s a wedding planner. She’s forty-two, and she’s working on this secret wedding she won’t tell me anything about.”
Lucy paused to give him a withering look.
“You shouldn’t speak for Lucy, Ian,” Dr. Singh told him, pausing to lean back in her chair. “Why don’t we wait until you’re both comfortable?”
In the background, the clock on the cream-colored wall ticked.
Ian’s gaze darted around the room, taking in the mahogany desk, the shelves with books on either side of the room, and the large window allowing tiny particles of light to dance on the floorboards beneath their feet. Dr. Singh continued to sit in her armchair opposite the couch, facing them, a serene expression on her face.
It was the longest hour of Ian’s life.
By the end of it, Dr. Singh stood up and assigned them both homework.
Then Ian and Lucy stepped outside the brick building and into the early afternoon light. She was on her phone the entire ride home. As soon as they got home, she changed into a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. Lucy barely acknowledged him on her way out, leaving Ian to his own devices. Not wanting to spend his day off alone at home, he went back into the car and drove over to Sophia’s.
She greeted him with a hug and smile and led him into the house, where Teddy immediately jumped on him and licked his face. “I’m sorry. We’re still working on obedience training. Apparently, the older they are, the more stubborn they get.”
Ian patted Teddy’s head and set him back down on the floor. “It’s okay. I don’t mind the greeting. So, what did you say was wrong with your sink?”
“It keeps getting backed up.” Sophia led him into the guest bathroom and stood in the doorway. “Darren’s been so busy with work, and I don’t want to bother him with this. Are you sure you don’t mind spending your day off doing this? I can call a plumber.”
Ian took off his shirt and draped it over the side of the bathtub. “I don’t mind. I have nothing else to do. Can you get me the toolbox?”
“Didn’t you have your first therapy session today?”
Ian got down on his hands and knees and tinkered with the drain tailpiece. “Yeah, we did, but it didn’t go well. Lucy was on her phone the entire time.”
Sophia reappeared with the toolbox and her hair in a ponytail. “That’s tough. I’m sorry. I thought you said she was comfortable going.”
“She didn’t object when I brought it up.” Ian took the toolbox from her and reached for the pliers. Using them, he slowly removed the slip nut and peered inside. “So, I don’t understand why she wouldn’t even try.”
Sophia made a low noise in the back of her throat. “Not objecting isn’t the same as agreeing. Did she actually tell you she was okay with going to therapy?”
Ian paused and looked up at his sister. “Well, no, but I thought not objecting was her way of letting me know she was okay with it.”
Sophia shook her head. “Sometimes, it’s not as straightforward as that.”
Ian frowned and placed the tailpiece inside the bathtub. “It should be. Why do women make things so complicated?”
He couldn’t understand it.
Sophia opened her mouth to protest, but the doorbell rang, interrupting her sentence. With a quick look in her brother’s direction, she made her way outside, pausing to mutter to Teddy. Then Ian heard the sound of the door clicking open and a cacophony of voices, accompanied by Teddy’s excited barking.
Curious, Ian rose to his feet and made his way into the hallway in time to see his kids all forming a semi-circle around the dog, who looked like he was about to burst with excitement. Teddy spun around in circles, his tail wagging enthusiastically the whole time. Kelli hoisted him up into her arms and gave him a slew of kisses. He squirmed in her arms and looked at Dana.
Dana held her arms out, and he jumped into them. “Who’s a good jumper? Yes, you are. You’re a big, strong jumper.”
“I don’t want his slobbery kisses all over me,” Dean told them before leaving a few feet of space between them. “I’ve got a date later, and I can’t show up with dog hair all over my clothes.”
Kelli and Dana exchanged a quick look and burst into laughter.
Kelli patted Dean’s shoulder. “How did you get the poor woman to agree to go out with you? Did you convince her you were related to Batman again?”
Dean scowled and shoved his sister’s hand away. “First of all, it was one time, and I was ten.”
Dana set Teddy down on the floor and clapped her hands together. “Doesn’t matter. We’re going to keep bringing it up till the end of time.”
Kelli looked over at Ian and smiled. “Hey, Dad. We were in the neighborhood, so we asked Aunt Soph if it was okay to stop by and have a playdate with Teddy.”
“And here I thought you were here to see me.” Ian crossed over to Kelli and gave her a hug. Then he tucked Dana into his side and ruffled her hair. “How are two of my favorite girls doing?”
Dana squirmed and inched away from him. “You smell like sweat and plumbing, Dad. No offense.”
“That’s because I’m fixing your Aunt Soph’s bathroom.”
Kelli looked over at her aunt, a furrow appearing between her brows. “Again? You really should have that looked into.”
“When your Uncle Darren has enough time, I’ll pester him about it. Come into the kitchen for some iced tea. Do you guys want something to eat?”
“I’ve got a friend of mine who’s good with his hands. I can ask him to take a look.”
Together, they all stepped out of the hallway and into the kitchen, where Sophia was opening and closing several cupboards. Finally, she poked her head into the fridge and emerged with a pitcher of iced tea. Then, she took out a pack of cookies and arranged them on a plate.
“Is this friend that guy you’ve been seeing?” Dana hopped onto one of the high chairs and snatched a cookie off the plate. “Kelli’s got a boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“So, what’s with the hickey, sis?” Dean gave her a wicked smile and reached for the pitcher of tea. He poured a generous amount into five glasses and lifted his up in the air. “Here’s to Kelli’s new boy toy.”
Kelli’s face turned a bright red. “You guys are awful. This is why I’m not bringing him to meet you.”
“So, you do have a boyfriend,” Dana teased in between bites of food. “Come on, we’ll behave if you bring him over.”
Ian hid his laugh behind his glass.
When he was done, he left his kids bickering and playing with Teddy. In the bathroom, he looked at a few more things before reattaching the drain tailpiece. Then he washed his hands, wiped them on a towel, and pulled his shirt back on. Once he came back out, he realized everyone was outside in the backyard, enjoying the midafternoon sun.
With a sigh, he waved over at Sophia and stepped outside.
In the car, he turned up the heat and drove through the empty streets, passing shops and buildings on either side of him. When he pulled up outside the business complex where Lucy had a part-time office rented out for her bigger clients, he reached for his phone.
His call went straight to voicemail.
He frowned, got out of the car, and walked up the stairs. On the second floor, he pulled out his keys and peered at each one carefully. Ian grinned when he found Lucy’s spare office key, and the lock made a soft clicking sound. In the semi-darkness, his hand darted out to flick on the switch.
Nothing happened.
He crept into the office and walked straight into a set of boxes. Muttering, he wandered over to the curtains and wrenched them open. Ian spun back around and saw the stacks of boxes and the thin layer of dust over every inch of the room; his stomach tightened.
The office looked like it hadn’t been used in months.
What’s going on, Lucy? And why won’t you confide in me?