Urgent Pursuit. Beverly Long

it pained Summer to hear her child so coldly remark upon the relationship she had with her ex.

      “It’s possible,” she said, “that Chief Poole might want to talk to you about your dad. All you need to do is tell the truth. Whatever it is, just tell the truth.”

      “Did something bad happen to Dad?” Keagan asked.

      “I don’t know,” Summer said honestly. “But what I do know is that a lot of good people are concerned about him and doing their very best to find him. I think they will. I do.”

      Keagan looked at Bray for the first time. “I think it’s strange that something happens to my dad the same day you show up.”

      Bray didn’t take offense. In fact, he gave the kid some credit. Hearing that his dad was MIA but still being able to piece together information told him the teen was probably a good thinker.

      “Keagan,” Summer said, censure in her tone.

      Bray waved it away. “I’m a federal agent, Keagan. In New York City. I arrest drug dealers. I’m good at following clues. And I’m going to do everything I can to find your dad.”

      “Why? You don’t even know him.”

      “You’re right. But I’ve known your mom for a really long time and I’m doing it to help her.”

      “Whatever,” Keagan said. He looked at his mother. “Now what?”

      “Now we go on about our lives,” she said. “We don’t know that something bad has happened to your dad. Everything may be just fine and there’s a good explanation for why we can’t find him. I don’t want you to worry. In fact,” she said, looking at Trish, “we have to take Aunt Trish to pick up her car in Hamerton. After that, we can swing by the mall. We need to pick up a few things for Chase and Raney’s wedding reception, and I thought we might have dinner at Capaghetti’s.”

      “Spaghetti at Capaghetti’s,” Adie said in a singsong voice. “And garlic bread. Is Bray-Neigh coming, too?”

      Summer looked at him. “Not today, sweetheart,” Summer said. “Mr. Hollister is in town to see his family. I’m sure he’s anxious to get back to them,” she added, definitely letting him know that he wasn’t welcome on their little excursion.

      Summer’s pushing him away was a familiar pain. Trish was frowning at her twin. He understood. It had been the same way fifteen years before, when he’d come back to Ravesville only to learn that Summer had married Gary Blake. When Summer had refused to give him any reasonable explanation, he’d gone to Trish.

      “I don’t get it,” she’d said. “I love you, Bray. You know I do. But she’s my sister.”

      He’d left quietly fifteen years ago. He could do it again. He stood up. “Nice to see you again, Trish,” he said.

      “You, too,” she whispered.

      He looked at Summer. “Be careful.”

      “Go get your things, kids” was all she said.

       Chapter Five

      Wednesday, 4:00 p.m.

      Summer drove and Trish rode shotgun. Adie sat in the middle seat and Keagan climbed all the way to the back of the van.

      “Bray looks good,” Trish said.

      Summer checked to make sure both her kids wore their earphones. Bray hadn’t looked simply good. He’d looked wonderful. “Yeah.”

      “No ring,” Trish said.

      “Nope. He told me he’d never married.”

      Trish nodded. A few miles went by. “Lousy timing, this thing with Gary.”

      Summer gave her a sideways glance. “Something may have truly happened to Gary. I don’t think we can fault his timing.”

      “Gary has become such a jerk these past several years that it’s hard to care about him,” Trish admitted. “Not when I see my sister making the same mistake for a second time.”

      She didn’t have to ask what the mistake was. Trish had always thought she was a fool to marry Gary instead of Bray. It was hard to argue the point. “Trish, I know you mean well, but Bray and I are very different people than we were fifteen years ago. I have two children. An ex-husband. A business. Lots of baggage. He’s a single city guy. We’re in two different worlds.”

      “He still looks at you the same way.”

      Eight simple words. He still looks at you the same way. In so many ways, she wanted to be that young girl, the one who had sneaked out of the house so that they could drive out to the old quarry and make love. She’d loved lying close to Bray, feeling his warm skin next to hers, feeling him slip inside her and knowing that nothing could ever come between them.

      Until something had. Something bad. “I suppose I should tell Mom about Gary,” Summer said. “She might know more about his schedule than the rest of us. She talks to him more often.”

      “We can swing by her house when we’re done at the mall,” Trish said. “Are you going to tell her that Bray is back? I think she always liked him.”

      But she had liked her vodka more. And that had changed the course of all their lives. Her own. Summer’s. Bray’s. Even Gary’s. But Trish didn’t know that. It was the only secret that she’d ever kept from her twin.

      “I don’t see the point,” Summer said and turned up the radio.

      When they got to the car dealer, Trish went to the service door to pay for her vehicle. Then Summer followed her to the mall. The mall was never not busy, but this afternoon, maybe because people were home getting ready for Thanksgiving Day dinner, it was perhaps less busy. There were actually parking spots.