some X-rated acts, she hadn’t had the chance.
“Nina, Nina, Nina,” Jeremy said, swirling his wine around. “Nina Rodriguez. She was unbelievably pretty.”
“Hey! A little loyalty, please?”
“I take it back,” he said. “She was so ugly. In an unbelievably pretty way.” He grinned. “She looked like J-Lo.”
“Ouch.”
“Well, she was also the one who broke his heart.”
Crap. She’d been kind of hoping for a marriage of convenience situation with an upcoming and heartfelt declaration from Levi that only now did he understand the true meaning of love, yadda yadda. Too many romance novels or something. “They were only together for a little while, right?”
“Well, they knew each other in Afghanistan. She was—is—a helicopter pilot. Total kick-ass.”
“Right.” More wine was definitely called for. She took the bottle from the ice bucket and poured herself a second glass. “Was she nice?”
“Not the word I’d use. She was hot. Sorry, she was,” Jeremy said. “And she was funny. Great smile, seemed very smart. But nice? Not sure about that.”
Unfortunate that she had to ask Jeremy about these things instead of the man himself. Jeremy, however, would talk. “Did they live together first or anything?”
“Nope. Levi had to go to some Army thing in Fort Drum, and he came back with her, asked me to come to the Town Hall and there she was. They got married right then and there, with just his mom and sister and me.” Jeremy smiled at the memory. “He was totally smitten. Couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was so...smug, you know? Like, yeah, look at me, married to her.”
“You’re giving me a cramp, Jeremy.”
He grimaced. “Well, obviously it didn’t work out. Nina was fun, she was gorgeous, but she was edgy, too. It was tough, because it was one of those situations where you could see that his heart was going to be crushed. No one was really surprised it didn’t last.”
“Except him?”
“Exactly.” Jeremy paused. “He adored her, she couldn’t wait to leave. Just not meant for small-town life, I guess. Or marriage. And Levi, meanwhile, had practically named their kids.”
Faith knew that feeling. She and Jeremy actually had named their kids. “And that was a year ago?”
“More than that. Maybe a year and a half? Yeah, because it was June and we had the biplane show on the lake. He walked around like someone had hit him in the head with a baseball bat.”
Faith sighed. “Well, this sucks, Jeremy, because from the sound of it, she’s the love of his life, and I’m a booty call.”
“How long have you guys been together?”
“Eight days.”
Jeremy laughed. “I’d give it a little time, sweetheart.” He stood up and picked up her wineglass. “Let’s eat. I have some beautiful steaks and twice-baked potatoes and coleslaw, all your favorites, not to mention grape pie from Lorelei’s. We can watch a movie if Levi’s late. I have The Devil Wears Prada. I watched it last night, too, and I swear it gets better every time.”
“I can’t believe I ever thought you were straight.” She took his hand and let him pull her off the couch, then followed him into the kitchen.
* * *
THE HEDBERGS HAD COME home to find the back door open and called Levi, rather than go inside in case the burglar was still there. Smart. He made the family wait as he took a walk-through. No intruder. It looked like Katie’s room had been tossed, but she said it was as she’d left it. Andrew gazed at him with wide-eyed adoration, firing off questions about bad guys, guns, robbers and whether or not Abraham could be trained to attack.
After that, Levi walked around the house, looking for signs of a break-in—screens knocked out, footprints in flower beds, damage to any of the doors. Christine, the oldest of the three kids, admitted it was possible she hadn’t closed the back door when she’d left that afternoon.
“Sorry to have bothered you for nothing, Chief,” Mr. Hedberg said.
“No bother. You did the right thing by calling,” he said, scratching Abraham’s ears. “That’s what I’m here for, and especially with the other burglaries, you shouldn’t hesitate. It’s good you have a dog, though,” he added. “Very effective deterrent, aren’t you, boy?” Abraham had wagged to show that yes, he was an excellent watchdog.
“We should give Abraham a steak,” Andrew suggested. “Right, Chief Cooper? Can I be a cop when I grow up?”
“Sure,” Levi said.
“Or a soldier! So I could kill the bad guys.”
“Hopefully all the bad guys will be gone when you grow up,” Levi said, feeling the familiar awkwardness. Then he shook hands, told the family to have a good night and took a cruise through the neighborhood. Pru and Carl lived up the street, so he pulled into their driveway and knocked on the door. Abby answered.
“Hi,” she said, her face lighting up. “Wanna come in? Hang out?”
“Sorry, Abby, I can’t. Are your parents home?”
Her face darkened. “They’re ‘taking a nap,’ okay?” she said, making quote marks with her fingers. “Like I’m four and believe that. My father’s living at my grandmother’s house, but he comes over for conjugal visits. The noises, Levi. No matter how loud I turn up the TV, I swear I can still hear them. I cannot wait to go to college.”
He suppressed a grin. “Well, the Hedbergs thought someone might’ve tried to break in, but there was no sign of anything missing. Even so, make sure the doors are locked, and you call me if you hear anything.”
“First of all, I know everything already. Katie just texted me. And secondly, I’m not exactly the type to go investigating things that go bump in the night. I’ve seen all the horror movies.”
“Right.” He gave her his best cop look. “And how are you? You keeping on the straight and narrow?”
“Oh, sure. Mmm-hmm.” She was texting as she spoke. Irritating.
“Make sure you do, Abby. One act of stupidity can have long-lasting implications.”
“Wow. I’ll totally think about that. Thanks. You’ve changed my life.”
“Don’t be a twit,” he said.
“I’m posting that you said that on my Facebook.”
“I mean it, Abby. You don’t want to get pregnant or—”
“Oh, hey, I just remembered something! I’m not your sister! I have plenty of adults to lecture me, okay? Don’t be one of them. Just give me one of those hot looks instead, how about it?”
“Have a good night, Abby.”
“That’ll do.” She held up her phone and clicked. Great. He’d be on her Facebook page in seconds.
No, she wasn’t his sister. She might end up as his niece, however.
Oh, shit. Where had that thought come from?
He backed out of the Vanderbeek’s driveway. Thing was, yeah. He wasn’t the tomcat type. It’d be nice to get married, have a couple kids.
But this time, he had to pick wisely. Nina had said she loved him (though looking back, she said it in the same tone that she used in saying she loved pizza). Said she was ready to settle down. Liked the idea of small-town life. She figured she’d get her master’s in education, become a teacher. Yes to kids.
That had lasted three months.
He picked up his phone and called Sarah. “Hey.