Why had someone broken into her car just to get a purse? Maybe he slashed her tires after discovering how little money she had in that purse.
She turned off Main Street and cruised past a development with a big warehouse store, an office supply store and a linens store along with the requisite coffee place and a couple of fast-food joints. A pair of headlights had followed her through downtown Coral Cove and stayed with her past the stores on the right where she’d expected him to peel off.
She continued on to the next streetlight and pulled up next to a car filled with teens, the bass from the car stereo thumping so loud it reverberated in her chest. She shifted her gaze to her rearview mirror and studied the car behind her-a sedan, not a van.
Her pulse ticked faster. Was that the same sedan at the lookout? She’d been focused on the van, but maybe the occupant of the silver sedan had been the one who broke into her car.
With her heart thumping along with the bass from the hip-hop song, Devon pulled in front of the teens’ car and barreled through the red light. The teenagers got a kick out of her move and honked and flashed their lights.
She careened around the next corner and then took a few side streets to backtrack to the shopping center. The box store was closed for the night but a steady stream of cars flowed through the fast-food drive-through windows, and a few caffeine junkies had parked themselves at the coffee house.
She backed into a parking slot in front of the coffee house, her nose pointing toward the main road. She didn’t know what she was looking for-plenty of light-colored sedans criss-crossed the parking lot, pulling in and out of spaces.
“Where are we going, Mommy?”
“I thought we’d stop for some ice cream. Do you want an ice-cream cone?”
The phone in her pocket buzzed and she jumped. She checked the display and seeing Kieran’s name almost made her jump again until she remembered her fiancé was no ghost.
He was no fiancé, either.
“Hi, Kieran.”
“Aren’t you home yet?”
“N-not quite.”
His voice sharpened. “What’s wrong?”
“We stopped at the local Mr. Frosty for an ice-cream cone because we didn’t get enough pizza.”
“Is it safe?”
“There are tons of people here, or at least tons for Coral Cove.”
“I still want you to call me when you get home.”
“Will do.”
When she ended the call, she felt Michael’s eyes boring into her. She tapped the phone. “That was Kieran checking up on us. Too bad he can’t join us for ice cream.”
And to escort them the rest of the way home.
As she turned from the counter, two cones in her hands, she almost bumped into the teenage boy who lived next door to her mom’s house.
“Sorry, Ms. Reese.”
She looked past him and his two friends punching each other in the arm. All too young to drive. “Is your mom here, Casey?”
His freckled face reddened up to the roots of his hair. “No. She’s going to pick me up later.”
“Do you and your friends need a ride home now? Or at least when my son and I finish our ice cream?”
“Yeah, sure. We’ll take a ride.”
And just like that, she had her escorts home. Not that she wouldn’t still be checking her rearview mirror for silver sedans.
But why should she? If someone broke into her car, stole her driver’s license and twenty bucks, and then slashed her tires, what would he still want with her now?
Maybe he’d grabbed her license so he could see her address and follow her home. Of course, he’d have a long drive up to San Francisco. Maybe that’s why he was following her now-to see where she was staying locally.
She shook her head and dragged her tongue across the soft-serve vanilla ice cream. She’d been on edge ever since Mrs. Del Vecchio’s murder and Michael’s strange reaction to it. Now in one day, someone had broken into her car and her dead fiancé had materialized in front of her. Those two events had done nothing to calm her down.
Crunching on her cone, she wiped a napkin across Michael’s mouth. She pointed to the melted ice cream dribbling down his fingers. “Are you done with that?”
He nodded and she tossed the remainder of the cone in the trash. She stepped outside into the cool night air. The boys were lounging at a table with a red-and-white-striped umbrella hanging over it.
“Are you guys ready? One of you can sit up front, and the other two can sit in the backseat with my son, Michael.”
Apparently, teenage boys were not as scary as grown men since Michael didn’t make a grab for her when she settled him in his car seat next to one of the boys.
She glanced around the parking lot, hoping for a glimpse of the sedan.
I hope you’re watching me load all these boys in my car. I’m not alone anymore.
Pulling out of the parking lot, she switched radio stations to something the boys would appreciate and hit the road.
She wasn’t alone anymore. Kieran Roarke was back in town, and that man had a protective streak a mile long. It didn’t seem as if four years as a prisoner of war had done anything to weaken it.
If anything, his protectiveness had grown fiercer. He’d grown fiercer. Would a man like that, honed to a hard granite, take to fatherhood?
One thing she knew for sure. Once he decided to take on the job, he’d be father of the year.
Chapter Five
“We’re going to pick up my friend Kieran, and he’s going to come with us when we visit Dr. Elena.” Devon’s eyes met Michael’s in the rearview mirror. “You liked Kieran, didn’t you?”
“I hit him.” Michael pummeled an imaginary foe with his small fists.
“I know you did.” She wagged a finger at his reflection. “The only reason you didn’t get in trouble for that is because you thought you were protecting me. You don’t have to protect me against Kieran. He’s a good guy.”
“He has a pirate patch.”
“That’s because he hurt his eye fighting bad guys.”
“Bad guys?”
Michael’s face crumpled and Devon bit her lip. She’d had just about the best conversation going with Michael in weeks, and she had to bring up bad guys. Had someone from the building talked a little too loudly about Mrs. Del Vecchio’s murder? Michael never used to be afraid of bad guys.
Just like his dad.
“There are no bad guys anymore.”
Michael responded by gazing out the window, his eyebrows drawn over his nose.
If anyone could get to the bottom of Michael’s trauma, Elena could. She wasn’t sure about Elena hypnotizing Michael but if she thought it would help, Devon just might allow it. She wanted her son back, and then they could work on building a family with Kieran.
Maybe Michael’s skittishness was scaring off Kieran. If she’d presented him with a well-adjusted, uncomplicated boy would Kieran accept his role of fatherhood more readily? If that were the case, she didn’t want him in Michael’s life. Loving a child was all about taking the good with the bad.
Nothing like bad timing.
She cruised past Columbella House and Michael jabbed the window. “Columbella.”
“That’s right. We’ll explore the beach again down there, but you have to promise not to climb up through the sea cave.”
She pulled into the Roarkes’ driveway, and Kieran stepped out on the porch. Must’ve been waiting for them.
He slid into the seat beside her, smelling of soap and a hint of the sea. The scent took her back to cool nights wrapped in a blanket in the sand, snuggling against Kieran’s warm, smooth skin. Making plans. Laughing. Loving.
“Everything go okay last night?”
Devon blinked. “I called you when we got home. Everything was fine.”