Untraceable (54 page)

I laughed; he’d had a crush on Leigh since
they were twelve and thirteen years old. “Yes, I’m afraid you’ve
got a little competition, Seth. But I’ll warn you; Bree has her
sights set on you.”

His eyes grew larger and he blushed slightly,
“Cool.”

“
Don’t get in trouble,” Ryan told
him—then he laughed and pushed Seth toward the group. “Ah, forget
that; have fun. She’s a doll.”

Ryan wrapped both arms around me and swayed me
to and fro as he held me and he whispered in my ear, “Hey baby
girl, thanks for inviting us.”

I only backed away slightly, never letting go
of him, “How are you doing? Any progress with Candace?”

“
She’s threatening divorce,” he
said with a little choke.

“
Why, Ryan? Can’t you guys work it
out?”

“
She said if I accept another
mission then it’s over.”

“
I thought you were going to stick
with training for a while.”

“
Cen com asked me to head up a
mission over the Sudan, dropping supplies and providing air cover
for a
supposedly
humanitarian mission.”

“
Why don’t you retire?”

“
Leese, I’m too young to retire,”
he stated sounding frustrated. “What am I gonna do?”

“
Do you still love her,
Ryan?”

“
Yes, I do.”

“
Turn down the job. Spend some
time watching Seth and Dylan grow.”

He smiled, “Seth is pretty much
grown.”

“
He still needs his dad. What
would you give, Ryan, if your dad hadn’t taken that last
mission?”

“
That’s not fair,
Leese.”

“
Why not? It’s true, and I know
you’ve had it in the back of your mind all this time that somehow
you are living up to the life you
think
your dad would have wanted you
to have. I guarantee he’d rather see you being a stellar husband
and father, than a stellar pilot—which you already are—you’ve
proven yourself over and over.”

“
Leese, how do you do
it?”

“
Do what?”

“
Make things seem so
simple.”

“
Do you miss her?”

He nodded.

“
Be sure you tell her.”

He frowned, “She’s not speaking to me right
now.”

“
Well I don’t think she’ll be
quiet for the whole party.”

“
Did you invite her?” he asked
with surprise.

“
They actually got here last
night. They’re in the courtyard last I saw them. Dylan was swimming
and Candace was falling asleep on a lounger. She misses you, you
know.”

“
Then why does she hang up on me
when I call?”

“
Let me guess. You want to talk
about jets or being sent on a mission?”

He got a sheepish look, “Damn, you’re
annoying.”

I laughed, “Micah tells me that all the time.”
I paused and lowered my voice so no one would hear me, “She cried
on my shoulder for about an hour last night.”

He became teary-eyed, “I never meant to hurt
her, Leese.”

“
Then show her that she owns your
heart, not that freaking F-16 or whatever it is you’re flying right
now.”

“
Currently it’s an F-30 Silver
Specter, but they want me to test pilot a new prototype
in—”

“
Ryan, hush!” I said, stopping him
from continuing. “I get it. I really do—you love flying, but I also
know you love Candace. You just have to decide which one you love
most.”

He leaned in and kissed my cheek, “Thank you.
You have no idea how much I’ve missed her and Dylan.”

“
Oh, I think I do. Go on—go!” I
said pushing him toward the house.

He gave me that sweet grin I used to see on
his face when he was nineteen, and then walked away.

I felt warm hands sliding around my hips from
behind. Micah kissed the back of my shoulder.

“
Did you make a dent?”

“
That boy has dents all over his
heart. It’s his head that needed one.” I turned and cuddled my
cheek against his broad chest, “I hope I did.”

“
Come on, baby. Let’s get this
party started. David and I will work on the grill if you and your
mom want to start bringing things out to the picnic
tables.”

“
With all these kids to help,” I
declared, “I don’t think mom and I should have to—”

“
Honey, the kids already have
plans. Leigh and Hunter are going to ride double on one of the jet
skis while Bree and Seth take the other.”

“
And David was okay with those two
riding together?”

He chuckled, “No. He told Brook and Caleb to
take the pontoon boat out to the middle of the lake to keep an eye
on them.”

“
Umm, having Brook watch her twin
is like asking a felon to watch a bank vault. If anything she’ll
want a turn riding Seth off into the cypress line to ravish
him!”

“
I thought it was a bad idea too,
but I guess he’s got to start trusting them at some
point.”

“
Yeah, just like tonight
when
you
are
going to start trusting your daughter by telling her she can go for
a drive with Hunter.”

“
Leese,” he growled.

“
No, Micah. You stop right there.
She’s a good girl. Having her daddy show some trust in her decision
making is important to her. Besides, it’ll take all the fun out of
thinking she has to tip-toe around you to get my permission. At
that point, a drive becomes just a drive, not a chance to ‘get away
before my dad stops us.’ She is eighteen,” I added as a final
point.

He drew a deep breath as he watched the kids
stripping down to their swimsuits and preparing to launch, “All
right, fine. I’ll give her my permission—but I get to have a talk
with Hunter first.”

“
No threats,” I reminded him. “A
nice, fatherly kind of talk about how you expect him to treat her
with respect; no more of you and David talking to him about the way
a bone sounds when it snaps!”

He just laughed and pulled me toward the
house.

The rest of the afternoon was wonderful.
Joshua woke up and went to help his dad and uncle with the grilling
of the steaks and chicken, and then Celeste and Gwen showed up and
helped mom and me set everything out. Dylan was invited to join the
older kids on the lake while his mom and dad disappeared for a
‘talk.’ Micah and I had been through those kinds of talks before;
the wordless ones where you show the love instead of trying to say
it. I was happy. Those two were so pitiful when they were
apart.

When they emerged they seemed as close as when
they first fell in love. And, to make things even better, just
before the fireworks over the lake, Lieutenant Colonel Faultz
announced his retirement plans to the group. Seems he decided he
loved the woman and children that made his heart soar more than
anything the military had built to send him through the sky. Both
of his boys were teary-eyed.

It was a perfect ending for a perfect
day.

Leigh and Hunter received permission to go for
a drive and, surprising everyone, David said that, if it was okay
with Leigh and Hunter, Bree and Seth could go with them. I wasn’t
sure if he was trying to show he trusted her or if he simply felt
there was a degree of safety in numbers.

Mom and David, and Kimmy and her husband told
everyone goodbye, and they headed home. Brook and Bree would leave
later (after the card game Ryan initiated), and everyone else was
spending the night. Celeste and Gwen were in one guest house, while
Ryan’s clan stayed in the other.

My eyes fluttered open with the first rays of
dawn. I never had been one to sleep in very late anyway, neither
had Micah for that matter. I rolled out of bed stretching by the
window and watching a flock of birds landing on the lake. I loved
the view from our second floor bedroom. The rancher’s retreat on
the other side of the lake we had torn down. There were too many
bad memories over there, so we allowed that part of our property to
be a habitat for the local wildlife.

But the lake took on a special role in our
hearts. Twenty years ago, when we first met Jeanie and Trent,
Jeanie told me that the lake was one of the few left in the county
that hadn’t been named. After a long tearful talk, we both agreed
we owed a degree of homage to the man who stepped in front of a
bullet to save Micah’s life. We filed the paperwork and Lake
Jonathan was named. I considered calling it Lake Giovanni, but I
know the man who made that perfect, selfless act was the ‘Jonathan’
who had always been under the mafia covering.

“
You okay?” Micah asked as he
reached around me from behind and drew me against his bare
chest.

I only nodded; thinking about the last
dramatic days of that horrible mess always left me speechless.
Somehow I knew Micah could sense when I’d drifted off into a
memory.

“
How about I make us some coffee
and we go down to the dock to enjoy the sunrise?”

I turned with tear-filled eyes, cupped his
face in my hands, and kissed him, “I’m so grateful, every single
day that I have you.”

He kissed me back, “I love you, Annalisa. I’ll
always love you. Come on, let’s go outside.”

To our happy surprise, Joshua was standing in
the kitchen. He had on a pair of board shorts, and an old,
worn-out, Rip Curl tee-shirt. His thick, wavy brown hair had been
obviously combed with his fingers, and his face had a
sleepy-puzzled expression as he fooled with the coffee
maker.

“
Morning,” Micah said, gripping
the back of Joshua’s neck and then pulling him in for a hug. “Your
mom and I were going to go out to the dock for coffee. Wanna join
us?”

“
Love to,” he stated, “but how the
hell do you make this new coffee maker work?”

I laughed, “Move over sleepy and let me do
that.”

Fifteen minutes later we were seated on the
quiet dock, sipping coffee, and dangling our feet in the cool
water. We didn’t worry about alligators anymore. Trent came over on
a regular basis, and when he and Micah weren’t fishing, they were
looking for gators. Over the years, they trapped and removed
several, but for the last two years they hadn’t found any. Both of
them were happy about that because they’d been carefully selecting
and stocking the hundred-plus-acre lake with all kinds of fish. We
had some championship size bass growing as well as bluegill,
specks, and some big catfish. It was a fisherman’s
paradise.

I was glad to have the quiet time with Micah
and Joshua. I guessed we had at least another hour before everyone
else started moving around. So we sat and discussed his classes for
the fall and all the job opportunities he was exploring.

“
Did you want some help cooking
breakfast for everyone, Mom?”

“
Actually your dad and I were
thinking we’d take everyone out for brunch in town around ten. Does
that sound okay?”

“
Sure. I—”

We all heard the sound of a car approaching.
We had a gate at the entrance to the property, but after many years
of a ‘mafia free’ life, we stopped locking it at night.

The car was a foreign beauty. I was guessing
an Alfa Romeo, one of the Competizionie models, but we didn’t know
anyone with one of those. An old and unwelcome feeling was
gathering in my gut. The car was headed toward the house, but when
Micah and Joshua stood up and started walking down the dock the car
turned and headed toward us.

I was hoping this would end up being my dad.
We had invited him down for the holiday weekend, but he seldom
accepted. I understood why he stayed out of our lives, even though
I didn’t like it. He was someone I loved, and yet he was someone
who had decided being separated from our family was in our best
interest. He was still mafia and, by his own decree, we were not,
and we were not to associate with such—he included himself in the
‘such’ category. But on very specific occasions, he would allow
himself to be part of our lives. Those occasions were usually my
birthday and Christmas—that was it.

I couldn’t see the driver clearly, but I could
tell he was youthful. My heart increased in speed. When the car
stopped and the door opened, I knew something was about to change
my world. The young man stepped out. All three of us froze in
place.

I was staring at my husband from twenty years
ago. He was Micah—every inch, right down to the stare—only his hair
was a deep, rich blond with highlights and he had a small cleft in
his chin.

“
Oh my God,” I stated before I
could contain it. One word stuck in my mind like a dagger:
Sharon.

“
I have waited a long time to meet
you,” the young man stated with an Italian accent, first looking at
Micah and then to Joshua. “My mother told me I had a
brother.”

Micah stepped in front of both of us, ready to
attack or shield, which ever this moment would require. “I’m
assuming your mother is Sharon Moretti.”