Alex (In the Company of Snipers) (28 page)

One night in early June, he came home late to find Kelsey sound asleep on the couch, her hair in one of those big clips she liked to use, her robe wrapped around her like a blanket. As he settled in his easy chair with a beer, Alex thought about the influence she had exerted on every facet of his life. All she had done was show up and his life was a thousand times better.

She yawned and stretched when she saw him across the room. “Hello there.”

“Hello yourself,” he replied wearily.

“Hard day?” She climbed onto his lap and snuggled against him, her arms around his neck.

“The usual. Briefings. Agents coming. Agents going. You know.” He placed a kiss on her forehead as they relaxed together.

“I have to tell you something. It’s important.” Her voice turned serious.

He looked down into her brown eyes. They were barometers to her soul, and most of the time they sparkled. There was no sparkle tonight. Was she going to cry?

She pulled a long white envelope from her robe pocket. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. Louise helped me.”

Kelsey put the envelope in his hand and looked away. She did have tears in her eyes. He was sure of it. Alex looked at the return address. It was an attorney’s office. With one arm still around her, he pulled the papers out and smoothed them on his knee to read.

“Kelsey.” He pulled her close, a huge knot caught in his throat. For a moment he had thought she might be leaving him. Instead, it was her divorce decree. “You scared me.”

A tear slipped out of her eye. “I don’t know why, but it was hard to do.”

“I know.” He tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “But I’m glad you did it.”

“I couldn’t stand being married to him anymore.”

Alex didn’t want her to dwell on it. If he’d had his way, he would have put the child-killer in the ground. “I have to go to Seattle next week. I know you’re busy, but—”

He didn’t get another word out of his mouth.

E
ighteen

Alex

“I brought the boys up here once. I was going to run away.”

Kelsey pointed to the Washington State ferry dock where passengers and vehicles flooded off one of the huge ferries. “But I didn’t have enough money. I was too scared to go through with it.”

“You never stood a chance.” Alex put an arm around her shoulder. This was part of her life he didn’t know yet.

“That was a bad night.” She shivered in his arms. “I used all the gas in my car.”

He cringed at what probably happened next. “Sit with me awhile?”

She turned to him, the light back in her eyes as they made themselves comfortable on the wooden bench on the pier. As usual she was snug against him. “This is a better feeling.”

“Look at this.” He pulled a couple of photos from his inside coat pocket. “We need a new front door. Tell me what you think.”

He waited while she looked at the pictures. The door was pretty enough and elegantly carved oak. Unlike the aged and weathered door they had now, this one had a floor length oval insert of clear glass surrounded with a border of two-by-two inch amber squares set in a stained glass motif. The second photo was a close up of the clear glass insert, and yes, it was a beautiful addition to the entryway. Kelsey was about to hand the photos back when she did a double take. He watched intently. Yes. She had seen what he intended her to see.

“How did you … when did you …?”

The cool breeze blowing off the sound made his eyes water. “What do you think?”

She turned into his arms with tears in her eyes. That’s just the way she was, and it touched him. She cried when she was happy, sad, and anytime in between. Since he had met her, sometimes, he did, too.

“I love you so much,” she whispered hoarsely. “I don’t know what to say.”

Alex held her tight and wiped his own face.

“I remember now,” she said softly. “That day in my apartment, you had a black paint brush and some kind of powder.”

“Finger print kit,” he said. “It’s a small thing.”

“No,” she cried, wiping her face on her coat sleeve. “It’s not a small thing. It’s them. It’s my boy’s fingerprints. It’s—them.”

He blinked rapidly.

“You’ve given me pieces of my boys back,” she sobbed, the photos pressed to her chest. “My baby boys left these for me.”

The anguish in her voice stabbed him. For a moment he thought he had ruined their evening.

“Thank you,” she whispered tearfully. “It’s the most perfect door I’ve ever seen.”

“I hoped you’d like it,” he said humbly.

He pulled her coat tightly around her and just held her. In the breadth of a heartbeat, he had done what he set out to do. He had changed her memory of this gray Seattle pier. The slate was wiped clean. Now she would recall this place by the two little boy’s fingerprints on her front door.

A chilling drizzle settled in for the evening. The rest of the world hurried on in its normal, every day busyness that was downtown Seattle. Watercraft of all sizes lumbered across the gray waters of Elliot Bay, foamy wakes dissolving behind them as fast as they were made. Rush hour traffic on hectic Alaskan Way roared behind them while gulls overhead squawked in the fading evening light. He sat with his arms wrapped around the graceful woman at his side. One had only to look close to see the expression of utter love on her face.

For that single moment, the world revolved around Alex and Kelsey.

Tuesday arrived bright and clear. After a boring day with the realtor on Monday, Alex was ready to get out of town. He rented a truck just like the one he owned in Virginia so he could haul supplies and an ATV. This time, he planned a quicker trip into his cabin instead of a couple hours walk. They stopped at a home improvement store where he purchased a bundle of cedar shake shingles, paneling for the walls and linoleum flooring. They would only be there a week, but with Kelsey’s help, he planned to transform the cabin into a fit place for a woman. He also bought a real toilet instead of the one he had improvised. The septic tank had been installed years ago. Now it was time to get civil.

They paid a somber visit to the cemetery before they left town. She laid two-dozen red roses on Tommy and Jackie’s grave and stood there remembering.

“The headstone is nice.” She leaned her back into Alex. They were both in jeans and Seattle Mariner matching T-shirts today. Kelsey sported a pink baseball cap, her hair corralled for now through the back hole of it.

“You chose well.” He kissed the side of her head as he held her tight.

Alex glanced around the cemetery. He had bought the headstone. It was what Kelsey wanted. If her sister, Louise had her way, there would have been two little teddy bears and a flowery poem about snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Now the etched faces of Tommy and Jackie smiled up from the ground. The date of their birth and death was inscribed beneath a line from the Book of Isaiah.

“I hate leaving them. If there was any way possible, I’d take them home with us.” Her tears started.

“Me, too.” If only it were that simple.

A string of Canada geese strolled the edge of the road, pecking at the gravel pathway as they went. Three fuzzy goslings followed the two adult geese, honking in quiet conversation with each other.

“You’ve changed a lot.” He rocked with his arms around her and his chin in her neck.

“It’s been a long year.”

“Yes, and you’re ready to teach next year. I’d say you’re healthier, too.”

“I’m certainly fatter.” She wiped her eyes.

“I like a woman I can get my hands on.”

“I’m not the same person at all.”

“You’re everything I thought you were, sweetheart.”

“You mean that nut case running around the forest?” She blinked hard, but the tears spilled over anyway.

“But a pretty nut case.” He kissed her neck gently. “My nut case.”

“I miss them. They’re with me every single day.”

“I know.” Without thinking he patted his pocket that held a diamond ring. He had plans for Tommy and Jackie’s pretty mother. Honorable plans. “Anymore I feel like I have all three of them with me. Abby, Tommy, and Jackie, too.”

“Are they happy when you think of them?”

“Yes,” he answered quickly. “I can see my little Abby talking your boys into tea parties and doll houses. She would be bossing them around, you know, being the typical big sister. Of course, I can also see them giving her a run for her money, teasing, maybe pulling her hair like brothers would do.”

“That’s a nice picture.”

A cool Pacific breeze wafted across the shady lawn. Abby would have loved two little brothers. He could envision them playing together, a bossy little blond chasing two brown-headed brothers as they played tag beneath the pines. It was a soothing thought that lingered in the back of his mind. He was lost in that reverie when Kelsey interrupted him with a tug at his arm.

“Guess we better get going.”

“Yes.” Alex pulled her into a hug so she wouldn’t see the moisture in his eyes. The thought of those three children playing together was more than he could bear, especially on the day he was going to propose to Tommy and Jackie’s pretty little mother. He couldn’t help but think that if he had met her sooner, they would still be alive.

Alex and Kelsey climbed back into the truck and headed east. The beauty of spring abounded in the Northwest. Rhododendrons and azaleas blossomed everywhere, while yellow daffodils and all colors of tulips blossomed like weeds along the roadside. Blackberry bushes strangled hillsides and ditches with burgeoning mounds of white blossoms while wild pink and white foxglove spiked everywhere. Even the great trees of the forest glowed with the lime green of new growth.

He smiled at the carefree feeling between them. They looked like a couple of kids, and the country music filling the truck cab enhanced the moment. He tugged on the brim of her hat. She responded with her usual bright-eyed smile.

Yes. This was the perfect day to propose to the woman he loved.

Kelsey

The night air was full of music to Kelsey’s ears, as crickets and frogs chirped in one continual chorus. After the drizzle of the night before, the insects and amphibians of the forest were in rare form. She couldn’t imagine feeling any happier as she gazed across the crackling fire at Alex, his tan face awash with the orange glow. But he had a worried look tonight. He was like that a lot, always bringing work home from his office. She imagined he was still trying to figure out what happened to one of his best agents, Harley Mortimer. She knew it bothered Alex that the man had been missing over a year. Harley sounded like a nice person. She hoped she would get the chance to meet him some day.

But for now she studied Alex. He was an amazing man in her life, and yet, there was still so much to learn. When she stopped daydreaming, she saw that he watched her, too. He patted the ground next to him, and she was at his side in a second.

“Whatcha thinking?” he asked.

“Ha. I was just going to ask you the same thing. You look so serious.”

Without another word, he placed a ring box in her palm. She gasped and with trembling fingers, pried the lid off. A diamond solitaire sparkled in the light of the crackling fire.

His voice choked as he took her hand. She noticed his hands shook. “Will you do me the honor of marrying me, Kelsey? Will you become Mrs. Alexander Stewart?”

She couldn’t speak. Marriage was not something she wanted to repeat. The very word struck terror into her heart that only a moment ago had been carefree and full of joy. She knew she had a foolish deer in the headlights look, but so many bad memories accompanied his simple question.
Will you marry me? And then what? Will you hurt me?

Her fear screamed loud and clear.
Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt. No way.

Just as quickly, courage spoke up with its usual too quiet voice.
Look at him. See him.

She looked at Alex. He sat holding his breath, her hand still snug in his. This intense man who could turn from hard and rugged to soft and gentle in a flash, sat staring back at her with hope in his eyes. He looked like a little boy, completely vulnerable with that big question asked but not yet answered. With her next words, she could break his heart or make him smile. She held her breath. Her heart pounded with indecision. She wanted to make him smile, but—marriage?