Page 15 of Pieces of Perfect
Serenity:OMG!
Last night when they were making love, he’d told her that he loved her for the first time. She sort of wanted to tell her sisters about that, but it was too intimate a moment to share, even with them.
“Mo-om!” Lucy yelled, her voice full of complaint. “You’re taking forever!”
Lorelei sent her sisters a heart, but before she could set her phone down again, another text came in, and this one wasn’t from Reagan or Serenity—or even Mark. She was so stunned by what it said that she didn’t hear Finn or Lucy rushing up the beach to get her until they were right beside her.
Lucy reached up to take her hand and pull her toward the water, but Finn recognized that something was going on and muttered, “Just sec, Luce.” And then, to Lorelei, “What is it?”
She blinked several times, almost afraid to believe what she was seeing.
“Lorelei?” he prompted.
“I have a message from that investigator I told you about.”
“The one you hired to find out what happened…in the past?”
He could’ve stated it more directly, but she knew by that pause in the middle that he was trying to be sensitive of Lucy, didn’t want to say, “The person who probably murdered your mother?”
“Yes.”
His eyebrows shot up expectantly. “And?”
“The police have just arrested Mitch Ryan. They’re going to charge him.”
“For what happened to your mother?”
“No. For the wife that went missing in Chicago.”
“I thought they hadn’t found what they needed to make the charges stick?”
“What are you talking about?” Lucy asked, wrinkling her nose as she looked up at them, but Lorelei was too stunned to answer that question.
“She still hasn’t been found. But Rutledge has located a neighbor who has since moved but was having an affair with him at the time. Rutledge says that this woman has incriminating testimony against him that should even lead to hard evidence.”
“That’s almost too good to be true,” he said.
“It is.” She felt tears well up as she threw her arms around his neck. “Mitch will never be able to hurt anyone else again.”
“I know how much this means to you, and I’m so glad it’s finally happened,” he murmured and they both laughed in happiness and relief as he picked her up and swung her around.
“I love you,” she whispered before he put her down. Then she grabbed her daughter’s hand and the three of them raced toward the ocean.
