Page 20 of A Brambleberry Summer

Maybe he would never be ready.

He would be okay with that, though he knew Tori wouldn’t have wanted him to be alone forever.

He kept recalling a conversation between them when they were driving home from some event or other, just a month before her death. Almost as if she’d had some instinctive premonition, Tori had brought up what should happen if one of them died.

He worked in law enforcement, was at much higher risk for a premature death, so he had assumed she had been thinking about what she would do ifhedied.

They both said they wanted the other one to move on and find happiness again. She had been insistent about it, actually, saying she would hate thinking about him being lonely and would haunt him forever if he didn’t find another woman.

Maybe she and Abigail were in cahoots. The thought made him smile a little, imagining a couple of ghostly matchmakers, scheming in the background.

Now that the raw pain of losing Tori had faded to a quiet, steady ache, Wyatt knew he should probably start thinking about the rest of his life.

He wasn’t ready, though. The past three years had been so hard, he didn’t know if he could ever risk his heart again—and there was no point in even thinking about it in connection to someone like Rosa Galvez, who didn’t seem to like him very much.

Rosa had secrets. He had known that for some time. She always seemed evasive and tense whenever he was around, especially on the rare occasions he was wearing his badge.

Maybe she didn’t like the police. He knew there were plenty of people in that camp, for some very justifiable reasons.

She could keep her secrets. They were none of his business. He was living in her house for only a short time and then he and Logan would be back in their own home, away from a woman who smelled like vanilla and berries and made him ache for things he wasn’t ready to want again.

A major fraud investigation kept him busy over the next week and Wyatt didn’t see much of his lovely landlady or his intriguing, skittish neighbor on the second floor. He was grateful, he told himself. At least about the former. He didn’t need any more temptation in the form of Rosa Galvez.

He had decided it was easier all around to pretend his attraction to her was only a figment of his imagination.

By the Friday of the week after the storm, Fourth of July weekend, he was looking forward to extended time with Logan. He had the weekend off and he and his son had a whole list of fun things to do before he had to go back to work on Monday—fishing, going for a bike ride and picking out new furniture for Logan’s room in their house.

Right now, his focus was dinner. Wyatt hadn’t given any thought to what to fix and Hank was running around in circles after spending all day cooped up.

He decided to solve both problems at the same time. “Why don’t we take him for a walk down the beach and grab some dinner at the taco truck?”

“Tacos!” Logan exclaimed joyfully, setting down the controller of his device.

After Wyatt changed out of his shirt and tie and into casual weekend attire, they hooked up Hank’s leash—a tricky undertaking while the dog jumped around with excitement.

Neither Rosa nor Jen and her daughter were out in the large yard of Brambleberry House as he and Logan walked through the garden toward the beach gate at the back of the property.

The early evening was beautiful, the air scented with the flowers blooming all around them.

Though it was still a few hours from sunset, the sun had begun to slide toward the water, coloring the clouds orange as it went.

The beach was crowded with weekend visitors. Everybody seemed in a good mood, which was one of the benefits of working in a town frequented by tourists.

“What did you do at camp today?” he asked Logan as they walked across the sand. With Carrie’s help, Wyatt had been lucky enough to find a place for his son in one of the most popular science day camps in town.

“Tons of stuff. We went tide pooling and I saw about a zillion starfish and a cool purple anemone. And when we had free time, I played on the slide with my friend Carlos, mostly.”

“Do I know Carlos?”

“He just moved here and he’s my age. He likesStar Wars, just like me.”

Logan went on to enumerate the many wonderful qualities of his new friend as they walked a few blocks along the packed sand toward the parking lot just above the beach, where their favorite taco truck usually parked.

“And after lunch and free time, we did another art project, the one I showed you. And then you came to get me to go home.”

“Sounds like a fun-packed day.”

“Yeah,” Logan said cheerfully just as they turned up toward the taco truck.

---