Page 62 of Once Upon a Summer Night

She’d just begun to convince herself not to return HR’s call when voices sounded outside the station’s street-facing door Monday morning. Hannah looked up in time to see Mia pull the station’s exterior office door open. But instead of stepping inside, she held the door for another person. Their father came into view next, grumbling as he finagled his crutches through the narrow doorway.

He froze. Hannah froze. Mia kept walking.

“We brought you breakfast,” Mia said, oblivious to the brewing tension as she held up a carryout bag from the Sweet Mash. “And a few of Noah’s leftover gourmet cookies. He did such a great job.”

Hannah’s father crutched two steps forward and stopped, his gaze scanning the room and face beginning to turn red. Mia continued forward and set her packages on the empty desk across from Hannah and looked around the room.

“Wow, Sis, nice work.”

Hannah finally found her voice, though each word was a struggle. “Thanks. And that was very kind of you to bring me breakfast. And cookies.”

Mia smiled broadly. Their father, however, scowled.

“What did you do with all my reports, Captain Brooks?” His face had gone from slightly red to bright and blotchy.

Here we go.

Hannah rose from his seat and came to stand in front of the desk. “I put them in storage, after I scanned each of the documents and saved them to the computer. Don’t worry, we didn’t throw anything out.”

“Don’t worry?” he spat. “Do you know how many years it took to me get this office organized in a way that worked for me?”

Sadly, I do have an idea, since it took me this long to get it unorganized. “I realize this might be a bit of a shock, but—”

“Abit?”

Across from her, Mia grimaced. But Hannah refused to cower to her father, not at work. Though they stood in his office, she had full confidence in what she’d done. It may be a short-term inconvenience to their current packrat chief, but it would help the overall department—and him, when he came to accept the changes—stay on track.

“Chase can explain it all to you when you come back to work. Just know that now, instead of having to dig through stacks and stacks of paper, the information you might be searching for is a few clicks away. That will also help you keep your leg elevated, by not having to constantly get in and out of your chair.”

“I don’t need help. You have him bring those boxes back down from storage before I get back.Allof them.”

He sounded like a fifty-something-year-old child. He was acting that way, too. Lucky for her, she’d had a few hours under her belt in the motherhood department now and refused to buckle to his demand. Instead, she used one of her favorite new diversion tactics.

“We’ll see.” Which, in Indiana, meant “don’t count on it.”

His brows raised in unison. On a huff, he started forward, but she stepped across his path.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“To see what else you’ve messed up in my station.”

Hannah planted her hands on her hips. “Chief Brooks, need I remind you that you are on medical leave? As such, I will not have you wandering the building, being a potential liability to either this station or its crew. Now, I appreciate the thoughtful breakfast delivery, but unless you plan to stay and chat about nonwork-related topics, it’s time for you to go. If you wish to discuss work with me, we can schedule a time to do that on Friday, before I finish my temporary position.”

Her father’s eyes narrowed as he studied her with that same, stubborn set to his jaw she’d seen a hundred times. Probably more. But today, he did something he hadn’t before:

Conceded.

“Come on, Mia,” he said, turned away from Hannah, and crutched his way back toward the door. “You made your delivery, now get me home. I have some phone calls to make.”

Mia mouthed “sorry” as she hurried to open the door ahead of her father.

“Enjoy your waffles,” she called over her shoulder. “Gina said she made them with extra love and cinnamon.”

“Thank you, I’m sure they’re delicious.”

The minute they left and the door closed behind them, Hannah collapsed into the chair closest to her breakfast and dropped her head into her hands. She prayed he wouldn’t come back on Friday—this couldn’t work, her being in the same office as her father. In fact, she was beginning to doubt they could cohabitate in the same zip code.

As much as she wanted to stay and see how things played out with Chase, she just couldn’t convince herself to willingly insert herself under that damned thumb of her father’s a second time. What was the definition ofinsanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

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