Page 11 of Coveted Justice

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When they’d first hit the road, Maddie didn’t have a clue as to where they were headed. Tanner had stuffed the back of the SUV full of stuff but he hadn’t allowed her to take a peek. He’d said that he had it all handled and all she needed to do was sit back and relax. With the evening she’d had that was easier said than done.

But when he’d taken a certain turn off from the main road, she’d known what their destination was, and she could feel her excitement building. They hadn’t been to Jared Monroe’s cabin in the mountains in a long time. Years. Amanda had been quite young at the time, but their daughter had enjoyed fishing and hiking. This time they would be alone.

That sounded like exactly what she needed. Some quality time with the man she loved.

Who sometimes frustrated the heck out of her.

But as far as she knew, he’d never cheated on her. That was more than she could say about her father.

Stop. Stop thinking about it.

That’s why she desperately needed a distraction. She needed to get her mind off of the whole sleazy situation.

“Don’t you have campaign meetings tomorrow or something like that? The election is in November.”

“And it’s only May. I canceled a few and moved the others. This is more important. With you on a partial leave of absence, we finally have the chance to spend a little time together. Spontaneously.”

He was all about spontaneity. Her? Not so much. She liked her days to be more structured. Tanner liked structure, too, but when he got a wild idea? Katie bar the door.

“I took that leave of absence so that I could help with the campaign, not take unexpected vacations. And your campaign manager must be furious.”

“He is. He’ll get over it. I assured him that when I came back, he’d have my complete attention. Most of it, anyway.”

“We still probably shouldn’t be doing this.”

It hadn’t been easy either to find someone to fill in at the family clinic, but eventually she’d found a bright young doctor named Mike that was willing to relocate. She wanted to slow down a bit and have the opportunity to do crazy things like this trip.

“There’s plenty left of the campaign, but it’s nice that we have a couple of days to ourselves. And don’t worry about Amanda. I told her that we were getting out of town for a few days and probably wouldn’t have cell service at the cabin.”

“You woke her up?”

“Honey, Amanda is almost nineteen and just got home from college. She was not asleep. I’d wager that she hasn’t been to bed before midnight much in the past year.”

“She doesn’t like being home,” Maddie replied with a heavy sigh. “I think she misses school. We’re far too boring for her.”

“Hopefully, she’s going to have lots of fun helping with the campaign this summer. In just a few days, she and Josh have already shown themselves to be an asset.”

“We’re supposed to be discouraging Josh from becoming a cop this summer.”

Tanner laughed. “Josh seems like he has a mind of his own. He’s a smart young man, and he’ll make the best choice for himself with or without our assistance.”

“He’s a genius,” Maddie replied. “Like a real one with a high IQ. Kaylee wants me to convince him to go to medical school.”

“Does he want to be a doctor? Is he in pre-med?”

“He’s studying computer science, but people change their majors all the time.”

“Everybody needs to back off that poor young man and let him breathe a bit. Because he’s so smart everyone thinks they know what he should do or be. What if he wants to be a painter? Or a musician?”

“You know Kaylee and Reed will support him in whatever he does. They simply want him to know all the avenues that are open to him.”

They pulled up in front of the cabin, the place dark. They were far away from civilization and there were no lights out this far except for the bright moon, which cast a shadow over the lake.

“Let me jump out and unlock the door. We’re going to need the porch light on to unpack the car.”

“How do you even have a key? We haven’t been here in years.”

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