Sophie yawned, reached for the paper towels. Tessa did the honors of flipping on the overhead lights. It was one thing for her to be alone in the dark, but all these years later Sophie still required light.

“What brings you to the kitchen in the middle of the night?” Tessa asked finally. According to the digital display on the stove, it was 1:22 A.M.

“I heard you.”

“Problems sleeping?”

Sophie shrugged. In other words, no more than usual. She worked at the spill with the sponge. Tessa followed up with damp paper towels.

“Warm milk?” Tessa suggested shortly. “At least I didn’t spill that.”

Sophie smiled; Tessa pulled out the milk.

She warmed it on the stove top, low heat, adding vanilla to taste, an old ritual from the first few months after the incident, when neither she nor Sophie had slept. They’d been a ragged pair of survivors then, barely functioning, each nursing her own scars. They were a curious little family now. Both more comfortable with firing ranges than polite conversation, both still prone to roaming the house at night.

“Do you still miss him?” Sophie asked. She’d taken a seat at the kitchen island, where she could watch Tessa work. Tessa didn’t need an explanation to know who Sophie was asking about. It had been months since they’d last talked about him. But from time to time, Sophie had questions about her stepfather, which Tessa did her best to answer.

“Brian? Sometimes.”

“I don’t remember him much.”

“He loved you.”

“You always say that.”

“Because it’s true.”

“But he was sick. A gambling addict. He hurt us.”

Tessa stirred the milk carefully, then glanced up at her daughter. “Why do you ask about him, Sophie? What’s keeping you awake tonight?”

“I don’t know.” Sophie looked away. “I like our family,” she said abruptly. “You, me, Mrs. Ennis. It’s perfect.”

“Even without a dog?”

Sophie flashed a faint smile. “But that’s kinda the point, I guess. Families change. Once we were three. Then we were two. Then we became three again. And now . . .” She glanced up at Tessa. “You like him, don’t you? Wyatt’s not just a stupid fling—”

“Sophie!”

“He’s going to become our fourth. Do you love him?”

“Well, there’s the question of the day,” Tessa murmured.

“Do you?” Sophie demanded.

She was always honest with her daughter: “Yeah. I do.”

“So that’s it. He’ll move in. I’ll have to call him Daddy.”

“You don’t have to do anything. And I don’t know about this moving-in thing. One step at a time.”

Sophie’s turn to look curious. “Why not? If you love him.”

Because I’m afraid, Tessa wanted to say. Because happily ever after never looks the way you think it will from the movies. Maybe it’s not an ending at all, but the beginning of the next terrible misadventure. The future is unreliable, and three years later, the past can still come back to haunt you.

“Relationships take time,” Tessa said at last.

Her daughter nodded but didn’t appear convinced.

“Sophie,” Tessa said at last, leaning her hip against the counter. “What are you most afraid of?” She thought given the mood of the evening, it was a good question for both of them.

“The dark,” her daughter said immediately.

“I mean with Wyatt. Do you think he’ll hurt us? Do you think he’s a bad man?”

“No.”

“Do you like him?”

“I like the cop stuff,” Sophie said at last.

“I like that he’s honest,” Tessa supplied. “He says what he’s going to do, and he does what he says. A man of his word—that’s how people describe him. You know, he thinks we should get a puppy.”

“I think we should get a puppy!” Sophie sat up straighter.

“It’s a lot of work. Especially for Mrs. Ennis. You and I aren’t even home most of the day.”

“I’ll help. I’ll help first thing in the morning, and I’ll help again at night. The puppy can sleep in my room; then I can help even more.”

“I asked Mrs. Ennis about it,” Tessa said, a dog being a potential source of comfort and security for Sophie. And, say, something that would still be there for Sophie, even if Tessa had to leave for a bit. “She wasn’t dramatically opposed. Maybe it would be a nice first step. We could all pick out a puppy together.”

“Including Wyatt?” Faint scowl threatening.

“It was his idea.”

“I guess.”

“Do you plan on hating him forever?” Tessa asked curiously.

“I don’t know. I guess he’s nice enough. And a puppy is good. I’ll have to wait and see.”

“Fair enough.”

Tessa thought that would be it. Sophie would finish her warm milk. They’d both go to bed. But instead, her daughter once more grew serious.

“What are you afraid of, Mommy?”

Tessa had to smile. Other than a recently recovered firearm and a single latent print . . .

Tessa set down her mug. She regarded her daughter as soberly as Sophie regarded her. “There’s an old saying,” she began, “the only thing there is to fear, is fear itself.”

“That’s stupid! There are plenty of things to fear.”

“I know, Sophie. You and I both know. And I guess that’s what scares me. We spend so much time, you and I, preparing for the worst, I worry we’ll miss out on the best. I’ll meet a good guy like Wyatt. You’ll get a perfect puppy. And yet . . . we’ll still be waiting for the next bad thing to happen. That’s not a great way to live, you know. We need to not just see the good, but trust in it a little more. Learn some faith.”

Stop being a lone wolf, she supposed. Talk a little more. Let go of the boundaries. And yet some habits were hard to break.

“That’s why I should get a puppy,” Sophie was saying. “A puppy will definitely help me learn trust.”

“As well as how to scoop poop.”

“Mom!”

Tessa smiled, ruffled her daughter’s hair.

“Thank you for the warm milk, Mom,” Sophie said.

“Thank you for the company.”

*   *   *

TESSA CLEARED THEIR mugs. She walked Sophie back to her room, tucked her daughter into bed.

Then it was back to her room, where she lay in bed and once more stared at the ceiling.

For all of her wise words to Sophie, the truth was, the next bad thing did loom on the horizon. Three years ago, she’d shot a man. It was not an act she regretted. Though she was sorry the police now had that gun.

And she remained a woman who struggled with trust. Because why not simply tell Wyatt what was going on? Why not show some faith in a man who’d never been anything but honest with her?

Funny, the things that scared a woman like her. Enter a room full of hostile gunmen, check. Talk openly and honestly to the man she loved . . . maybe later.

There was one thing she knew she should do, however, first thing in the morning. She would reach out to Nicole Frank, Wyatt’s DWI suspect, and see how the woman was doing. Because Tessa knew something even if Nicole didn’t remember it.

The past was never completely the past.

It had a way of catching up with you. Especially a past filled with as many sins as Tessa’s.

Or with as many secrets as Nicole Frank’s.

Chapter 22

WYATT ORDERED NICKY to remain in the county’s SUV. Did he have the authority to do that? Nope. Did he have probable cause to arrest her for anything? Not really. Couldn’t nail her for the house fire, as she’d been with him and Kevin the entire time. Even an arrest for Wednesday’s crash was problematic, given her blood alcohol reading didn’t meet the DWI threshold of .08.

Technically speaking, Nicky Frank could walk away from him and Kevin, not to mention the burning embers of her house, and be well within her rights.

Like hell, Wyatt thought, for the third time in as many minutes. She was his only link to something larger, murkier and far more criminal than a lone car accident.