Page 47 of Christmas Homecoming Secrets
Reality intruded. She owed him the truth. He must have sensed her emotional withdrawal, because he pulled back. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, I just…maybe we shouldn’t… I mean, you don’t want—” kids? He’d kissed her, not asked her to marry him.
“Right. I understand.”
Did he? Well, that was good because she wasn’t sure she did. And now she’d made the moment awkward in her usual clumsy, fumbling way. “Bryce, I’m—”
“It’s okay, Jade. I’ll see you later,” he said.
“Of course. Be careful going home.”
“You too.”
“Right. I’ll try not to trip as I walk the fifty or so steps to my apartment above the garage.”
He rolled his eyes and the awkwardness faded.
“Sasha, tell Jade good-night.” Sasha dropped to the ground, crossed her paws over her snout and closed her eyes.
Jade let out a delighted laugh. “That’s precious.”
“Good girl, Sasha.”
The dog bounded to her feet, tongue lolling, obviously very pleased with herself. Jade scratched the animal’s silky ears one more time before Bryce loaded her into his truck.
Jade breathed a sigh and it wasn’t until his car was out of sight that her pulse started to settle.
Then she noticed the cold. The darkness that pressed in just past the lights of the barn. She shivered in spite of the new officer who’d replaced the other shift. Because whether she wanted to admit it or not, she could feel someone out there watching her. Waiting.
Waiting for the moment she was vulnerable and alone, like in the tree lot.I don’t know anything!She wanted to shout the words into the stillness.He didn’t tell me anything!
Would it do any good? Would the person believe her?
She doubted it.
* * *
Bryce couldn’t sleep. He’d almost asked Jade about Mia’s father, but had chickened out at the last minute. As much as he tried to convince himself that Jade wouldn’t keep such a major thing from him, he simply had to know. “So, ask her tomorrow,” he muttered and punched his pillow. Sasha raised her head and eyed him from her bed across the room. She’d chosen her bed over his after he’d awakened her more than usual. Funny, how she knew when he was just restless and when he needed her to pull him out of a nightmare.
He shut his eyes, but his mind continued to spin.
Mia was five. But on what end of five? A young five? Or an about-to-turn-six five? And had she been born when expected or had she been a preemie? Knowing her due date and her actual birthday would tell him a whole lot. He was a PI. How hard would it be to find out that kind of information? Easy peasy. But he didn’t want to do it that way. It would feel too much like sneaking around behind Jade’s back.
“Because that’s kind of what it would be,” he muttered.
Sasha sighed and lumbered out of the room.
Jade had said she’d met someone while in Charlotte and had even dated the guy long enough to make people wonder if she would marry him. Which meant it was highly likely that Mia wasn’t Bryce’s child.
But the timing of it all just wouldn’t leave him alone.
“Ugh!” He’d rolled out of bed and pulled on his clothes before his eyes landed on the clock. Almost midnight. He lived barely five minutes away from Jade’s place. He could be there almost as fast as he could blink. Sasha returned to the room, leash in her mouth. She dropped it on the floor and stared at him.
He couldn’t help the short laugh that slipped from him. “You want to go for a run, huh? Or you think I’m the one that needs to?”
Sasha yawned and blinked. He gave her an ear scrub, and she licked his hand. “You’re the best, you know that?” Bryce texted Jade.Are you awake?
While he waited for her to answer, he let Sasha out, then back in.
