The Fountain of Infinite Wishes (Dare River Book 5) (9 page)

“Nice to meet you both,” the woman said, and while there was a touch of Southern in her voice, it wasn’t pronounced. She also didn’t say y’all.

Shelby smiled at her to be pleasant, wondering why Vander needed a helper.

“If you don’t mind helping me bring in the drinks, Shelby, I’d appreciate it,” Vander said, drawing her attention back to him.

“Of course,” she said rising, wondering why he was making such a production of it. After all, his receptionist had already asked if they wanted something, and they’d both declined.
 

“Sadie, what would you like?” he asked.

“Tea,” she responded, giving Shelby a shrug. “With lemon and honey if you have it.”

His lips twitched, but he nodded. “I’ll see what I can find.”

In the kitchen, he made a couple of cups of coffee—likely for himself and Charlie since Shelby had told him she wanted tea as well—while she poured hot water into two tea cups.

“Did Gail mention she offered to foot the bill for my services?” he asked casually as she stirred in the honey he’d produced from one of the cabinets.

“Yes,” she answered, taking her gaze off the cups and looking into his aquamarine eyes. “It was kind of her.”

“It was, indeed,” he said, dumping two sugar packets into the dark roast coffee. “I wanted to make sure she was transparent with you. The last thing I want is to be between Gail and a hard place.”

“She also mentioned you wouldn’t discuss the case with her. I appreciate your professionalism.”

“I’ve known Gail a while now,” he said, leaning back against the counter and sipping his coffee. “Despite her good intentions, she’s the kind of woman who will run all over you if you don’t establish a few boundaries.”

“Gail is nothing but well intended,” Shelby agreed. “Does it make you uncomfortable? When she asked you about the case?”

“I can handle Gail,” he told her. “I just wanted to make sure
you
were comfortable. This search is already difficult emotionally. You don’t need to be concerned with anything else.”

The regard he had for her feelings gave her a warm glow, but she told herself he was only being kind. “I’ll be fine. I know how to handle Gail in my own way too.”

His lips turned up at the corners. “I have to admit, I was surprised to hear that you work for her. I might have underestimated you some.”

“
Indeed
,” she said, her eyebrow rising as she studied him.

“You must be more adventurous than I realized, but you also long for order,” he said, his aqua blue eyes intent. “I won’t make the mistake of underestimating you again.”

She felt like shifting on her feet. This man whom she’d known for only a few days had picked up on something few people ever perceived about her. She was drawn to the wild and eccentric in others—it energized her—but she also liked having a tidy, orderly space of her own to retreat to.
 

“You must enjoy Gail’s company, or you wouldn’t accept one of her outlandish summonses,” Shelby said, lifting her mug of tea and taking a sip.

“She’s greeted me wearing her Southern theatre costumes before,” he said. “She might dance around the line of professionalism—that’s why I like her—but she never crosses it. Or I wouldn’t work for her.”

Well, that answered Shelby’s question, one she would never have asked either one of them. It took her a moment to recognize what she was feeling as relief. “You never date a client then?”

He set his mug aside and crossed his arms, looking at her intently. “No.”

She felt oddly deflated somehow, even though she agreed it was the best course. It only made her think better of him to know he stuck to the rules of good business.
 

“Not that I’m not tempted like every other man,” he added in a roughened voice that more than garnered her attention.

Her internal temperature heated like a tin pie plate left out in the sun at a church picnic. So he wasn’t immune to her. Part of her wanted to throw her hands up and cheer like a ninny. “We should go back to your office.”

“Yes, we should,” Vander said, picking up the coffee mugs while she grabbed the tea for her and her sister. “I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier, by the way,” he added. “About wishing at Gail’s fountain. It wasn’t about you.”

They stopped at the kitchen door, or perhaps Shelby did. It took a lot for a strong man to apologize. She knew that from growing up with J.P. “I knew it was about something else.”

He looked down, and there it was again, the flash of anger across his face. This time Shelby saw plenty of hurt there too.
 

“What happened to make you stop wishing?” she asked, unable to stop herself.

“I lost my family when I was a kid,” Vander told her and then walked around her toward his office.

Shelby watched him walk down the hall, her throat thick with emotion from the no-nonsense way he’d said it.

That would make anyone stop wishing, she thought, including her.

Chapter 7

Shelby sure was taking her sweet time getting their beverages with Vander. Sadie wondered if her sister had finally succumbed to flirting with the man. She saw how Shelby looked at him.

But when Vander walked back into the office and handed Charlie her coffee, it was obvious the last thing on his mind was flirting. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be scowling like that. Shelby came through the door moments later, not meeting her eyes.

“Let’s sit over at the table,” Vander suggested. “That way, we can be more comfortable.”

When Shelby sat beside her, Sadie noted her face was ghastly white. What in the world had those two said to each other? She drank her tea and reached for her sister, even though she knew Shelby thought it was unprofessional to hold hands in a meeting. But her sister took it like she needed a lifeline.
 

Sadie caught Charlie glancing at their clasped hands. That woman was as tough as rawhide if you asked her, with a name that suited her. Charlie didn’t like women much, Sadie could tell, or at least not women like them. Sadie needed to quell the urge to make an ugly face.

“All right, let me walk you through what I think are the best next steps,” Vander said. “There are two paths we could take, so to speak. The formal route would take more time and resources. Charlie and I would check with some of our older police department contacts to see if they remember anyone matching your father’s description. Maybe your mama or your father’s family listed him as missing at some point.”

“A missing person?” Sadie exclaimed. “I never thought of that.”

“What’s the other route?” Shelby asked, gripping her hand.

“We can run his family members in our databases and look up their social media accounts. You’d be amazed how much people put out there, and in some cases we’ve had more luck using Facebook and the like than our databases. Of course, you’d have to decide if it’s worth reaching out to them directly to see what they know. Not everyone wants to go that route.”
 

“Just because your mother doesn’t know where your father is doesn’t mean his family doesn’t,” Charlie told them, interjecting herself into the conversation for the first time.

Her words arrowed right into Sadie’s heart. Would Daddy really have stayed in touch with the family he’d grown up with but not them, the family he’d made himself?

“So we might have to make contact with them,” Shelby repeated in a soft tone.

“Goodness, that would be something, wouldn’t it, Shelby?” Sadie said, wondering what his kin were like. Mama had always said they were mean, but maybe they’d changed. People did. Maybe they had another whole family waiting to embrace them.

“What do you know about your father’s family?” Vander asked, studying them intently.

“His people are from Memphis,” Shelby said, bouncing her knee, a clear sign she was anxious. “That’s about all we were told. Mama never had any contact with them that we know of.”

“They went to the wedding,” Sadie offered. “I’ve seen the photos.”

Shelby nodded. “Right. I don’t know why they never came around after that. I remember Mama saying his family was unkind to the core.”

“Mean as rattlesnakes,” Sadie interjected.
 

“Of course, we might not find anything,” Charlie said, “but those are the best bets.”

“You don’t think he’s dead, do you?” Sadie made herself say.

“We can’t be one hundred percent sure,” Vander said, “but there’s no death certificate with his name on it in our databases. I wish I could offer you more assurances than that, Sadie, but right now I can’t.”

Sadie didn’t like thinking her daddy might be dead—even if he had up and left them.

“We also can’t be certain he’s not incarcerated,” Charlie added, and that statement was enough to elicit a gasp from both McGuiness sisters.

“Incarcerated?” Shelby croaked out.

“You mean prison?” Sadie asked, her heart contracting at the mere thought. “Good Lord above, I never even thought about that. Oh, Shelby, that would be the end of the world.” Imagine that, their daddy behind bars for doing something illegal, wearing some horrible orange jumpsuit. She felt faint.

“But wouldn’t the court know his real name?” Shelby asked in that logical way she had sometimes. “Wouldn’t it be listed somewhere?”

“Yes, wouldn’t it?” Sadie prodded.

“Not all the records go that far back,” Charlie said. “He could have served his sentence and been released.”

“But he still would have been on probation, right?” Sadie asked.

Shelby shot her a look.

“What?” she said. “I listen when Amelia Ann speaks about her work at the legal clinic.”

Vander’s eyes narrowed. “You know someone who works at a legal clinic?”

“Yes,” Shelby told him, reaching for her tea. “She’s rather like our sister, I guess you could say. She’s the sister of our sister-in-law. Amelia Ann’s in law school at Vanderbilt and helps abused women.”

Judging from the way Charlie’s button nose rose in the air, she was surprised they knew a serious woman like that. “Amelia Ann almost got herself killed one time helping a client in East Nashville on a home visit,” Sadie burst out. “It was scary.”

Her sister cleared her throat, and Sadie knew it for the message it was. She shut up.

“We’d need to talk to our brother and other sister about contacting Daddy’s family if you find anything,” Shelby said, looking like she was barely breathing now. “But I say look there first. Sounds more efficient. Sadie, what do you think?”

Shelby would put it that way. “I agree.” Plus, she wanted to know more about Daddy’s family, even if it was only basic information. “You should know, we only agreed to tell them of developments. It’ll be up to them whether or not they want to be a part of contacting a family member. Frankly, it’s not going to stop me from doing it if I feel it’s best.”

“Or me,” Shelby said, and they shared a look of solidarity.
 

“We’ll start plugging right away,” Vander said. “With Charlie helping, it’s going to go a lot faster.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “He’s flattering me. But he’s right. Vander has a lot on his plate, running the show here. I only do straight investigative work. I’ll start tonight.”

Sadie couldn’t exactly imagine having lunch with Charlie, but the woman seemed more than competent—and dedicated. “Thank you, Charlie.”

Vander stood. “I’ll be in touch. I know the waiting is hard, but we’ll keep pulling strings until there’s nothing left to pull—if you want that.”

“We appreciate it,” Shelby said, standing as well and extending her hand to him.

He shook it, and Sadie stood and did the same despite how unnatural it felt. It got even weirder when Charlie shook both of their hands too. Business people mystified her. No one in the craft store or her quilting circle would have shaken her hand.

Shelby and Vander shared another look before they left his office, and Sadie had to bite her tongue until she and her sister were walking out of the building.

“Do you think he brought Charlie on to help because you two are attracted to each other?” Sadie asked her sister.

Shelby gave her a look and pushed the heavy glass door open. Sadie followed, gasping at the hot, damp air she encountered. Heavens, the weather was atrocious.

“I won’t dignify that with a response,” Shelby said, walking up the street to where she was parked. “Where are you?”

“I parked in the garage over there,” Sadie said, pointing toward the area. “Shelby, do you think we should meet his kin if it comes down to it? If Mama had wanted them in our life, she would have made sure it happened. Part of me wants to meet them, and the other part is scared spitless. I’m a mess of contradictions.”

Her sister put on her sunglasses, and Sadie rummaged for her own in her purse.

“Let’s cross that bridge when we get there,” Shelby said matter-of-factly.

Her sister was right. No use worrying over something that might not come to pass. “You and Vander took an awfully long time making tea and coffee,” she pressed.

Her sister kissed her on the cheek. “I’m going to the gym. We can give J.P. and Susannah an update once we hear back from Vander and Charlie.”