Chapter 27
Nina
Back in my room, I curled up on my queen sized bed and cried into my pillow while clutching the grainy photocopy of my parents’ picture. My mascara stained the pale yellow case.
I studied the blurry image, memorizing every line around my father’s eyes and the curve of my mother’s smile.
My parents.
I always assumed they gave me up because they didn’t want me.
Austin said he thinks they did it to protect me.
Could he be right?
I cried as I replayed the last few days in my mind. Last week I’d been a normal twenty-six-year-old working her way through college while taking care of her sick grandmother.
Now my entire world was upside down. Inside out. Backwards.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal. Or boring.
My parents were CIA officers who went missing in action after I was born. In Germany. In May.
I’m already twenty-seven.
I still wanted to celebrate my birthday in July with my grandmother.
Would I have answers by then? Would I be able to tell her about my birth parents?
I clutched the photo and sobbed. As I ran out of tears, I thought, Nana Sue can’t see me like this.
I dragged myself off the bed, averting my eyes from the closet door I’d left open. The hole in the middle of the top shelf where Eddy and my blanket used to be was smaller than the hole in my heart.
“Why’d I let Steel take you?” I asked the empty shelf.
It didn’t answer.
If it had, I’d have bigger problems than missing momentos and a cop sitting outside my house.
I grabbed clean PJs, leggings and a tank top, and headed for the shower. I wanted to wash away my fear, frustration, and sadness before my grandmother got up from her after dinner nap.
In the shower, I tried to reconcile the hard side of Austin, who made me want to shrivel up and hide, and the softer side that handed me tissues and promised to help me find answers.
Who was Austin Winchester? The cold officer who’d questioned me. The kind man who’d steadied me and made sure I was okay while my hot coffee stained his clothes and burned his skin.
Mary’s nephew. CIA Officer. Silver fox.
He was all of those things, and probably more.
And he smells good.
It wasn’t fair.
I was short and pudgy, and dull. He was tall and muscular, and gorgeous.
And he knew more about my life than I did. Literally.
I knew next to nothing about him.
As I towel dried my hair, I forced Austin from my mind.
“Nina, honey, want to watch my shows with me?”
“Sure, I’ll be right out.”
Her walker squeaked as she walked away.
Nana Sue loved police procedurals, and usually I enjoyed watching them with her.
Tonight I’d have a hard time watching the police easily solve a crime knowing there was a cop sitting outside our driveway while the CIA inspected the only items I had from my life as a Singer. At least I know my birth name.
My parents worked for the CIA.
Spies? Criminals? Heroes? Traitors?
What had they done to put my life in danger twenty years later?
I washed a fresh wave of tears off my cheeks and applied my moisturizer.
“No use crying over spilt milk.” As Nana Sue would say.
In the livingroom, I asked, “Do you want some tea?”
I needed something to do, and sipping a calming chamomile tea sounded like the perfect distraction.
Headlights flashed in the window.
My heart skipped a beat. Someone’s in the driveway.
I almost dropped my teacup as my breath caught in my throat.
I couldn’t tell you how long I stood there, frozen, before I moved to look out the window.
Maybe it’s Officer Campbell.
I ran down the hall to grab my phone.
No message.
Back at the door, my heart raced as I peeked through a slit in the curtain covering the window.
The car backed out and drove away.
I stared at the road long after the car had disappeared from sight.
A minute later my phone buzzed with a text from Officer Campbell.
They used your driveway to turn around. I grabbed the plate # and sent it to John, just in case.
Nothing to worry about. No need to panic.
“Nina, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just making sure we didn’t have unexpected company.”
“Is our tea ready? I’m ready to watch my silver fox Naval investigator.” Nana Sue had a crush on the lead character, and I couldn’t blame her. He looked great for a guy in his seventies.
Of course I thought of Austin the instant she said silver fox. How could I not? Not that it mattered; he’d never be interested in me.