Page 45 of Light on Love
“We just want you to be happy. And we’ll visit you plenty. You’ll be sick of having us there,” Charlie adds with a lopsided grin.
She snorts, reaching for their hands. “I love you two, and I was constantly thinking of things I wanted to show and tell you the whole time.”
Stephen smiles for the first time since they got to lunch, and she feels her body relax at the sight. She looks out at the ocean. The view is still lovely, but not the kind of vast open she prefers.
—
Laurel feels lighter when she walks back into her office after lunch. She’s even able to genuinely smile when she finds Ray sitting in an armchair waiting for her.
“Brett told me he asked you to go back out there, to stay.”
She raises her eyebrows in surprise as she sits in the armchair next to him. “He did? When?”
Ray grins, “after I looked over his shoulder at the little note he wrote you and stuck in that file.”
Laurel laughs, “well then yeah, I guess that would do it.”
“Are you going back? I know Captain made his offer to stay on, as promised.”
“It doesn’t seem fair. Does it? Either I have the job, or I have the personal life. It would be a lot easier if I could have both.”
Ray shakes his head at Laurel. “When did you stop turning things into what you needed them to be? You created all of this to begin with,” he says, motioning around them. “If you want both, you take both. I mean hell, you caught Harrison from out there!”
Laurel sits forward, “you’re right. I did the job from there. And I still did it well.”
“I’d say so.”
“Why didn’t I think of this?”
Ray laughs, “being in love can be distracting.” Then he adds in a more serious tone, “I’m happy for you guys. Brett’s the best guy, I’m glad he let you see that.”
Laurel places a hand on his arm, “thank you Ray, for everything.”
He covers her hand with his for a moment before standing to leave. “Seems like you need to have a conversation with the captain,”he says.
As he walks out, Laurel moves to her desk. She opens her laptop, pulls her hair up in a claw clip, and does what she does best, builds a profile. This time though, she is outlining and reporting on a job, not a person.
26
“Want to ride?” Grey asks him, leaning on the pasture fence.
“No.”
“How about some roping?”
“No,” Brett says through gritted teeth, hammering down on the post he’s trying to secure in the semi-frozen ground.
“Want to talk about it?”
Brett loosens a gruff laugh, “hell no.”
“She’s only been gone three days, maybe things are crazy with the case out there and she’ll reach out soon.”
Brett slams the metal post driver down again. “I said I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Grey nods, “okay, but can you explain why you think this needs done now? It’s pretty cold to be putting up a new fence. Andwhyare you wearing that cap instead of your Stetson?”
Brett stops and glares at Grey, who throws his hands up in surrender.“If we thought you were a miserable cuss before,” he grumbles.