about flying monkeys and sparkly red shoes. Had she mentioned to Heath that their daughter had outgrown two pairs of those red slippers while he’d been gone?
Skylar Dawn was sitting on the couch holding the main phone extension. Her grandmother listened on an additional handset just outside the door. Heath knew about the eavesdropping even if her mother thought it was a secret. He accepted it as part of his “punishment for whatever he blamed himself.”
As if living away from their precious little girl wasn’t punishment enough. Why he thought he needed to be punished, she didn’t understand. And no matter how she tried, her mother wouldn’t stop.
Constant jabs at Heath kept an undercurrent of tension in the air. Kendall wanted to avoid the subject and leaned toward avoiding her mother in the evenings when she helped out with Skylar Dawn.
Heath wasn’t her ex, and finalizing their separation wasn’t high on her priority list. So far there hadn’t been any squabbles about how to do anything. He’d taken only a few of his things and the horses.
Other than a picture or two of Skylar Dawn, he’d managed to leave everything looking exactly like it had been when he’d walked away. Or when she’d driven him away. She could remember exactly when things had come to a pivotal breaking point. Most of that argument had to do with her mother.
Her mother’s standards had been high her entire life. Heath had a father exactly the same way. But what had turned Heath into a strong man who held his opinions to himself—or himself and his horse—seemed to be turning her soul bitter.
I can’t be my mother. I can’t do that to Skylar Dawn.
“Do you have to say goodbye, Daddy?”
Kendall waited for the familiar “Good night” and “I love you.” Her daughter clicked the red button on the phone and her mother followed a second afterward. She crossed her arms, enveloping the phone between a breast and a well-toned limb.
Her mother, a woman of sixty, made good use of the money she’d gathered over the years. Three stepfathers and three settlements later, Kendall had a college education and two letters of recommendation for her Bureau interview.
Getting along with the men in her mother’s life had never been the problem. More and more recently, she’d been realizing how sad her mother had become. And how demanding.
Her mother didn’t allow Skylar Dawn two seconds to linger or even to put the phone back on its charging station. She immediately clapped her hands, and her granddaughter jumped to her feet.
Oh my God! She’s reacting like a trained puppy.
Kendall swooped in and picked up her little girl, who should need a bath from playing in the dirt. But she was perfectly clean.
“Wow. Let’s go for a ride. What do you think, sweet girl?”
“Kendall, I was just getting ready to run her bath. Isn’t it late to go out?”
“Actually, Mother, you might be right. But we’re going anyway.” Kendall smiled and steadied her daughter back down on her feet. “Let’s go see if we can find some flying monkeys.”
Skylar Dawn giggled as they skipped down the hall and out the front door.
It was clear that changes needed to be made for her and her daughter. She’d set paperwork in motion the next day. She’d find out the possibilities before she approached Heath.
Six months of living with her mother instead of her husband was long enough. Five minutes down the road, she realized she’d pointed the car east toward Heath. She slowed and turned into a drive-through. Then they got ice cream and played at the park until they both really needed a bath.
It was fun. Spontaneous. She used to be those things. It was the whole reason Skylar Dawn had come to be.
It was time to find that person again.
Wade Hamilton shoved the last file into the back of the box. It represented months of work and the official end of his desk duty. It had taken him almost as long to heal from the beating he’d received six months ago. But everything worked again. Both with his body and his status as a Texas Ranger Company B lieutenant.
Ready to take his place at his partner’s side. Ready to get out from behind his desk. Back to handling things by the seat of his pants instead of the rule book. Doing so had landed him in this desk chair. He’d learned his lesson to slow down and think a little. He liked fieldwork...not paperwork.
Unfortunately, Major Clements had discovered Wade was good at paper shuffling. He’d been allowed to assist with a few cases as backup for Company B brothers. But the paperwork grew while he was gone.
It seemed like the rest of the office had grown accustomed to him shuffling their requests, too. Coming in early and staying late was second nature now. Why not, since he had no life?
That’s where he was bright and early on a Monday morning. At work before the rest of the staff or other Rangers finished their first cup of coffee, he was shuffling papers. Almost done, the latest request for his company’s support caught his eye. He knew the name of the FBI agent heading the task force. He’d attended her wedding just over five years ago.
Kendall Barlow was the new team leader of a cybercrime task force and asking for computer and field support on the joint task force. Heath—her husband and the logical choice—had already been assigned to cybercrime. Now their relationship would need to be reviewed and disclosed. He’d been on the task force since it was headed by Jerry Fisher. But still, Murray was the best geek Company B had.
It was up to Wade to recommend someone else or okay Heath for a couple of days in the field with Special Agent Barlow.
It was also an opportunity to resolve his friend’s problem. He’d been listening to Slate talk about his temporary roommate for six months. How he worked the horses, cleaned the stalls, never missed a phone call with his daughter and never—ever—spoke to his wife. Heath, on the other hand, never said a word. Wade held on to the paperwork and grabbed a second cup of coffee.
Who was he to jump in to the middle of a man’s business? Especially marriage problems? But the more he tried to talk himself out of it, the more his gut told him to assign Heath to work with his wife.
Slate and Jack were both standing at his desk when he returned from the break room. Before he asked their advice, Jack pointed to the request.
“What’s this?”
“You’re sending him, right?” Slate asked. “It’s exactly what they both need to force them to figure out what’s going on.”
“You think so?”
“Damn straight,” they answered together.
“The man’s turning into a bear,” Slate said. “I might take his head off if he snarls at Vivian again.”
“If the FBI put in the request, you should accommodate it,” Jack stated, hanging his jacket on the rack.
“What if she doesn’t want it?” Wade asked, already knowing that he would recommend Heath.
“Then she has a friend who is thinking along the same lines we are.” Slate took his seat opposite Wade. “Maybe she’s as cranky as he is.”
“Who’s cranky?” Heath asked as he walked through the door.
“The old man, Major Clements,” Jack said, jumping in. “We’re coming up with reasons he might be out of sorts. I say he’s getting ready to retire. Wade says his wife might be cranky.”
“My bet’s on the wife.” Heath winced as he took off his jacket, holding his side. “The old man’s never going to retire.”
The guys nodded in agreement.