Point of Attraction (27 page)

“You’re probably right,” she answered
with a deep sigh. “But would it have been for the right
reason?”

“Well, Georgie Girl, here’s something
for you to consider. A good detour winds up taking you to the right
place.”

“You have your jacket on,” she said,
letting his statement pass.

“I have to go out for a bit. I called
Cassie. Told her what was going on and...”

“Oh, Nick, you didn’t.”

“She needed to be told. She’s coming
over. I thought about calling Dudley Do-Right, but I decided you
both needed a breather... sort things out. You know. Besides, I
won’t be gone long.”

“No one ever had more treasured sibs
than I,” she smiled at him, and he grinned back.

“Yeah? Make sure you remember that.” He
looked out the window. “Cassie’s here. Oh, good. She brought
April.” He picked up his helmet. “You know she put in eight years
in the service?”

“Who? April?”

“Well, I don’t mean Cassie,” he
answered, his face pulling into a smirk. “Four of those years in
Special Forces.”

“Oh, stop,” she told him. Quiet, easy
going April? No way, she thought.

Nick looked almost comical as he
slipped on his helmet with that believe-me-or-not grin, leaving the
straps hanging loose. “Okay. But I’m telling you. She’s a kick-ass
my kind’a gal.”

April offering that gun to her for
protection came to mind, but Georgie shook it off, replaced by
scenes from thriller action movies with armed swat teams and
special forces. April’s face wouldn’t slip into the character. No.
No way. “Yeah, okay,” she told Nick.

“So don’t believe me. Makes no
difference to me.”

Georgie got up, folded the afghan, and
followed Nick through the kitchen. As she activated the garage
door, Nick was already straddling his bike as Cassie and April
approached.

April and Nick touched knuckles,
sending strange vibes through Georgie. Could Nick be telling the
truth? He was such an enigma, yet so... precious to her and Cassie.
But what about all the little tid-bit info he constantly came up
with? Where did he get it all?

“Jeeez, Georgie. What am I
going to do with you?” Cassie asked, wrapping an arm around her
shoulders, and Georgie just smiled back, letting the
mystery
of Nick slide
away. It just felt good to be hugged by someone who was both sister
and friend to her. “Hey, you’ve been crying.”

“Just a little,” Georgie
said.

“More than a little,” Nick said, “but
she needed it.”

Nick’s motorcycle roared, the sound a
painful shrill in Georgie’s ears. He rolled the hideously large
bike forward, stopped to adjust the helmet and set the strap. With
a wide grin, he gave them a thumbs-up. They watched him make the
arc in the drive and go down the slope of the driveway.

“Come on. I’ll make us some coffee,”
Georgie said, listening to Nick’s motor fade away.

“You still have some tea?” April asked.
“Earl Grey with a touch of Chamomile?”

Georgie laughed, nodding.
“Yes, I do.”
Special Forces and
tea
, she thought. Right. She led them
inside, accepting that her Nick was, after all, a ninny. But he was
their ninny and they would have him no other way.

“My, God,” Cassie said as they sat at
the kitchen table, each sipping their drink of choice. “Shyness.”
Referring to Jeffery. “It’s hard to believe he could be a stalker,
let alone kill himself.”

Georgie sipped her espresso. She
couldn’t face Cassie and lie. Agreeing with her statement was a
form of lying and it rubbed her wrong.

“What?” April asked.

Offering April only a quick glance,
Georgie then set her sight on her espresso latte. The seconds of
silence stretched out, becoming louder than a scream, until Cassie
reached over and tapped the rim of Georgie’s cup.

“What are you not telling us?” she
asked.

Unable to face Cassie, Georgie looked
up at April and immediately regretted it, remembering her dad’s
soft yet knowing gaze when she kept things from him. Never could
Georgie lie to her dad, but keeping the truth from him was as bad
as a lie, and he always knew it. April had somehow captured such a
pose, and Georgie began telling them what CST suspected, leaving
out what Mason had repeated about the eight men arriving midst the
crime scene investigation. That was just too bizarre to
repeat.

“But that means...”

“Yup,” Georgie said, looking at Cassie.
“There’s the possibility someone is still out there wanting to... I
don’t know. Get at me? Hurt me? Maybe even...”

“Don’t!” Cassie erupted. “Don’t even
say it.”

“It would be foolish not to
consider the possibility,” April murmured, and rose from the table.
She went to the security panel, pushed the test button. It gave off
its
I’m working
beep. She went to the motion detector box. “I’m setting it
for...” She glanced about the house. “For fifteen minute delay,
giving you fifteen minutes of light. No if ands or buts. You’ll
know.”

“I was going to do that,” Georgie tried
to explain, but in truth, she had forgotten all about
it.

“No
go’na
about it,” April said, sitting
back down. “It’s done.”

“That’s why I love her,” Cassie said. A
mere second passed before her brows pulled to the center. “Hey. Why
isn’t M&M here? I really thought he would be here.”

“Cassie,” April said in a low
voice.
“What?”

April sighed, shaking her head. Her
eyebrows lifted high in disbelief, her eyes closing.

“What? He should be here,” Cassie
insisted.

With the utmost of patience in her
voice, April said, “The fact that he’s not here should tell you
something, like... mind your own business.”

“Georgie, and bringing kids into the
world, is my business.”

Not knowing if she could go through the
whole thing again, Georgie got up and served them more coffee and
tea then let Daisy out in the laundry room. She heard the little
flapping of the doggie door followed by her bark, then quiet. She
looked out the window. Daisy was fine, doing her thing with the
perimeter of the yard. Georgie turned back to her waiting friends.
As she listened to herself recount what happened between her and
Mason, the logical reasoning sounded so negligible, so minor, but
the pain she felt was hardly that.

“For what it’s worth, I think you were
right bringing it to the table,” April said, and Georgie knew
relief that someone else understood. She wasn’t being absurd or
silly.

“What?” Cassie stared at April. “How
can...”

“Emotions run rampant in life
threatening situations,” April said. “It is what it is.”

“But M&M faces this all the time,”
Cassie argued. “I don’t see him confusing every female in danger
with his wife.”

“But Georgie isn’t just any other case
to Mason. She was a classmate; personal, one on one. It’s an
emotional adrenaline rush. That’s why a lot of female/male cop
partnerships become relationships when they shouldn’t, and wind up
destroying marriages. Those partnerships eventually go belly up,
but by then the damage is done. They both need to examine those
feelings before they get in too deep.”

Tonie, Georgie thought. April’s words
hit home in a different way, different from Jenny. But Mason had
stated his feelings toward Tonie. She had to take his word on that,
but every relationship has a second person. How did Tonie feel
about Mason? A deep sigh failed to lift the weight settling on her
heart.

“Can you take me to visit Sam?” Georgie
said, grabbing her coat and patted the pocket for her garage door
remote. “I need to speak with him,” she said, picking up her cell
phone and slipping it in her pants pocket.

~~0~~

After stopping to get a salmon pink
rose, Georgie found little to say on the drive to Shady Oaks
Cemetery. The road was long, winding, lined with oak and laurel
trees, the ground covered with wild shrubs. It was a small
cemetery, but Sam’s father and mother were buried here and so it
seemed very appropriate that her Sam be with them, and it
overlooked Sam’s beloved Portland. The sun broke through the dark
clouds of the passing rain as they drove through the wrought iron
arches, sending rays of light throughout the hallowed grounds. The
affect was mystic, ethereal, enshrining.

There were a few cars parked along the
circling lane, their owners visiting their loved ones even on this
crisp misty day.

“Over there,” Georgie said, leaning
forward; felt her cell phone slide from her pant pocket, and shoved
it back in. She’d forgotten her dislike of these particular sweat
pants for that one reason. “Near those oaks.”

“I remember,” April said, her voice
solemn; Cassie sighing deeply.

Georgie knelt at the
gravesite, ignoring the damp grass. She wiped away the various gold
and yellow oak leaves before placing the rose in the little pewter
holder by the marble nameplate. April and Cassie inserted their
flowers next to hers. After buffing the plate to a shine with the
corner of her coat, Georgie slid her fingertips over the engraved
name, dates and words:
One who loved and
is loved
.

“
Don’t ever give me a headstone
,” Sam
had always told her. “
I don’t want you
tied to a cold unfeeling monolith
.”

“
But what if I die before you
?” she
had laughed.

“
Don’t you dare
.” Those few words
lingered like his after-shave, his laugh, the weight of his arm on
her shoulders.

Somewhere behind her, Georgie felt,
more than heard, Cassie and April walk away, leaving her and Sam
alone.

“Oh, Sam,” she whispered,
after a heartbeat of silence. “Why didn’t you let me go with you
that night? Oh, never mind. I don’t want to hear it.” Her
shoulders, heavy, burdensome, dropped. “He’s very nice, you know,
this Mason Montgomery; very kind. I think the kids like him.” A
smile tugged at her mouth. “Well, Paula almost likes him. But she
always was
your
little girl. That hasn’t changed. Steven? He’s still
listening to that drum beat only he can hear. What a doctor he’ll
make.”

Autumn leaves sailed across the
cemetery grounds, a few landing on Sam’s grave. Georgie smiled and
picked them off, rolling one between her fingers.

“I wish you could give me a
sign, give me
the okay
to move on, tell me I’m not somehow being unfaithful to you
by letting this man in my life.” A breeze brushed across her cheeks
and fluttered her lashes. “We had a love, you and I, didn’t we?”
She waited. No thunder. No lightening. No grand message, and the
weight would not leave her. “You’re letting me make this decision,
aren’t you?” Still no answer, and she stood to look down at the
plate, exasperation overwhelming her. “Then you shouldn’t have done
such a good job of taking care of me, damn it! You should’ve
prepared me... somehow... to deal... to...”

Moments drifted with the clouds before
a strange quiet laugh rumbled in her, and she found it comforting
in a way that puzzled her. She knelt once more and touched her
fingers to the plate. “Okay. I hear you.”

Georgie felt, but didn’t turn at the
gentle touch on her shoulder. It was Cassie. “Georgie,” she said.
“We should go. April wants us in the car.”

“What’s wrong?” Georgie asked, looking
about.

The few people who had been visiting
gravesites were gone or walking back to their cars, the rays of
sunlight also gone. The rumble was low, distant, but growing more
threatening.

“She says it looks a like a
downpour.”

“Okay, Sam,” Georgie smiled down at the
marble plate. “I hear you. I’m leaving.”

They ran to the BMW whose motor April
already had running. By the time they closed the doors, raindrops
began dotting the windshield. Georgie hadn’t even buckled her
safety belt when she saw April look in the rear view mirror, side
mirror, and pushed the gas pedal. The jolt forward pressed Georgie
into the seat with a tilt. Her cell phone slipped out of her pocket
and she shoved it back in.

“April,” Cassie scolded, while Georgie
struggled with the buckle.

“Are we trying to outrun the rain?”
Georgie asked, swaying with the swerving April was
doing.

“Sure, why not?” April asked, driving
through the wrought iron arches and onto the highway.

Cassie poked her head between the seats
to look back at her. “Well? Did Sam give you the answers you were
looking for?” she asked.

“True to form,” Georgie sighed. “He’s
letting me make the decision.”

“Good for him,” Cassie smiled. “You
know the answer. Otherwise you wouldn’t be asking the question. You
just wanted Sam to tell you not to, but he would never do
that.”

“I know,” Georgie murmured, more to
herself than to answer Cassie.