Alone in the Dark (14 page)

not that." She paused, searching for the right words. "But we all carry around the child we were inside. And children need to be reassured from time to time."

When he spoke again, there was finally a hint of tolerant humor in his voice. "Being a

shrink again?"

"Being a friend," she corrected. "I thought we established that, that we're friends." She sighed, knowing that any further argument would just fall on deaf ears. "It's tomorrow at

one. I'll be leaving at twelve-thirty if you change your mind."

"I won't."

"No," she murmured, "I don't expect you will."

Well, she thought as she hung up, she'd tried. Somehow the thought wasn't very

comforting. She hated failing.

Dawdling. There was no other term for it. She was dawdling. She'd been ready for more

than half an hour, even moving at the slow pace she'd adopted. She'd even wrapped the

gift she was bringing for the baby in what amounted to slow motion.

No one rang her bell. No one called.

He wasn't coming.

Big surprise.

Tacomanosed at her as she glanced out the window for the umpteenth time. When she

looked at the pet, the animal gave her that funny, quizzical look she was wont to offer

whenever she felt that her mistress was acting against type.

"Can't fool you, can I?" she laughed.

Usually she'd be out the door way ahead of time, especially when a family gathering was

involved. She liked helping out, liked setting up. It wasn't just the food that was the

allure. No doubt the food was always spectacular, but it was the company that drew her.

There wasn't a single person in her extended family that she didn't get along with. And

she loved catching up on what everyone was doing.

When she was younger, she'd turned to them for mute comfort, something just being

around them accomplished. She genuinely loved each and every one of them and took great

pleasure out of being involved in their lives. They were all good people.

She knew that her uncles could have easily ignored what was happening in her house, but

they hadn't. Especially not Andrew. Andrew had taken it upon himself to try to straighten

out his younger brother. Time and again he'd come over late at night after her mother had

tearfully summoned him following one of her father's drinking binges. Uncle Andrew would

stay up with her father, talking until the wee hours of the morning, trying to get at the

root of his insecurities. It had been to no avail. But until the day her father had been

killed in the line of duty, her uncle never gave up trying. Despite everything, her father

had remained a loner, alone in a large family.

Was that how it was with Brady? she wondered. Was he destined to go through life alone?

Not her problem. No one could change anyone, that had to come from within. She just had

to accept that.

She glanced at her watch. If she wasn't careful, she was going to be late. Picking up the

present, she headed for the door.

"C'mon, girl, let's go."

Swinging open the door, juggling leash and gift, she walked right into him. Patience bit

back a scream. But it wasn't Walter.

Brady was on her doorstep.

«^»

It took her less than half a second to recover. Beside her,Tacomawas jumping from side

to side, joyously greeting master and pet. Patience held on to the leash as best she could.

"You changed your mind."

Because it looked as ifTacomawas going to pull her down in her enthusiasm, Brady took the

leash from Patience. "Something like that."

A sense of pleasure filled her and she smiled at him. "Good."

"Yeah, well, we'll see." Brady glanced at the gift she was holding, a large box with a white-pink ribbon. "I don't have anything to give them."

"No problem, we'll put your name on this, too."

Before he could protest, Patience pulled a pen out of her purse and added his name to the

card tucked under the ribbon.

The woman worked fast, he thought with a shake of his head. She made retreat

impossible. Brady nodded at the gift as she dropped the pen back into her purse. "What do

I owe you?"

Patience waved away the offer. "We'll settle up later." And then she glanced toward the

driveway where his car was parked beside hers. She could picture him having a change of

heart five feet from Uncle Andrew's house. "Why don't we take my car since I know the

way? Besides, there's going to be a sea of cars in the area. Parking one extra vehicle's

going to be challenge, much less two. And I wouldn't want to see anything happen to your

pretty car."

"I could turn around and go home."

She could have slipped her arm through his, but she relied on her own power of persuasion

instead. Patience pinned him with a look as she asked sweetly, "And just what makes you

think I'll let you go after you've come this far?"

Brady pulled himself up to his full height. There was less than a foot between them only

because she wore four-inch heels. But she still looked small.

"Don't see that there's anything you can do about it if I change my mind." Rather than

answer, she watched him steadily. Brady relented. "Okay, your car."

And then she grinned that grin of hers, the one that went straight to his bones and

filtered out into all his extremities, making him feel just the slightest bit weak. Just the

slightest bit invaded, but in a good way. Brady knew he was going to regret this.

But he had to go.

Andrew Cavanaugh, the former chief of the Aurora Police Department and present host

of what both he and those around him felt were the largest, best parties in the city,

greeted them at the door when they arrived twenty minutes later. Checking on some of his

guests, Andrew had passed by the bay window that looked out onto the front lawn when he

saw his niece, a man he vaguely recognized, and two dogs coming up the front walk. It was

enough to catch his attention.

Patience did not bring men to the house. Ever.

Before his niece could ring the bell, the door swung open and Andrew embraced her as if

he hadn't just seen her at the breakfast table less than three days ago. He nearly crushed

the present she carried.

"Patience, come on in," he told her with enthusiasm the second he released her from the

bear hug. "Patrick, Maggi and the little one are already here."

"Well, that's a switch," she laughed. "Patrick was always the holdout." Marriage and fatherhood had drastically changed her brother, all for the good. She slanted a side

glance toward Brady. "A little like you were trying to be."

Holding on to both her dog and his partner, Brady made no comment.

Andrew sized him up quickly. Twenty-eight years on the job had taught him well and honed

his abilities to a fine point. "And you're … Brady Coltrane."

Mild surprise flickered through Brady's eyes as he glanced at her. Patience knew he was

asking her how her uncle knew he'd be here when evenhehadn't known that until he'd

turned up on her doorstep.

"Someone must have pointed you out to Uncle Andrew at one time or another. Uncle

Andrew's got a photographic memory," Patience explained.

"Actually," Andrew conceded, "I recognized the dog." He nodded at King. "Fine animal." He allowed King to smell his hand before he ran it over the dog's head. "Josh is already here."

He nodded in the general direction he'd seen the other man in the last time he'd looked.

"He brought Gonzo so the three of them should have a good time." He pretended to take

Patience to one side and suggested in a stage whisper, "Why don't you see if you can do

the same for Officer Coltrane?"

Brady looked around, missing the light pink hue that filtered along her cheeks. He was too

busy having misgivings about what unchecked impulse had caused him to come here.

He looked like a man one step away from bolting. She could read him, Patience thought as

she shifted and leaned into Brady. "I admit this takes a bit of getting used to. Maybe I

should have started you out small, like inviting you to breakfast."

"Breakfast?" Brady looked at her quizzically.

"Uncle Andrew likes to have the family over for breakfast every morning." There was a

giant, custom-made table in the kitchen that they were quickly outgrowing now that

marriage and procreation had entered the Cavanaugh picture. "Anywhere from two to

twenty-two people show up on any given day."

"Twenty-three," Rose Cavanaugh, a serene-looking blonde with lively eyes, interjected as she joined them and slipped her arm through Andrew's, "if you count Shaw's baby."

"Of course we'll count Shaw's baby. Why shouldn't we count the newest member of the

family?" Andrew asked.

Her face glowed as she looked up at Andrew. Rose Cavanaugh was clearly a woman in love

with her husband. "He takes his family very seriously," she confided to Brady.

Brady felt himself responding to the woman's warm smile. Though they were related only

by marriage, he felt that Patience had a lot in common with her aunt. He knew he should

leave now, while the getting was still good. "So I've heard."

"Make yourself at home," Andrew instructed. Callie waved to him from across the room,

beckoning her parents over. Andrew began moving in that general direction. "Let me know

if there's anything you want," he told Brady as he melded into the crowd with his wife.

"Other than to leave," Patience whispered against Brady's ear.

Brady looked at her as if she'd just read his mind and she couldn't help laughing at his

expression. "How did you know?"

She stopped to pick up two canapés from a tray. Everywhere she looked, there were

people and food. It was a hungry crowd. She fed the meat-filled canapés to the dogs

before looking at Brady.

"You forget, I have the advantage of having Patrick as a brother. He resisted becoming

part of all this for a long time. But he finally surrendered. Being part of this family

soothed most of the wounds he'd been carrying around." She spotted her brother and his

wife over in a corner. Patrick had the baby on his lap. "Maggi took care of the rest."

"Maggi?"

"His wife. Detective Mary Margaret McKenna," she elaborated. Some people referred to

her sister-in-law as "3M." Patience referred to her as a saint because Maggi made her

brother so happy.

Brady knew the name. Maggi McKenna had been a native toAurora, leaving for a while to

work with theSan Franciscopolice before transferring back toAurorawhen her father, a

patrolman, was shot on the job. No one knew she was with Internal Affairs until she'd

been assigned to investigate rumors that Patrick Cavanaugh was a dirty cop. She'd wound

up clearing his reputation, marrying him and transferring to vice. He'd heard that all of

the former police chief's kids had a similar story to tell, their jobs leading them to love in

one way or another.

Made for good stories to swap, but things like that didn't happen to people like him. His

was a different world.

What are you thinking, Brady? Why is tension never far away from you?

Patience fixed her best smile into place. "Why don't you take that frown off your face

and relax a while, Coltrane?" she suggested. "I promise you dinner will be worth the trip here."

If he was about to comment, his words were swallowed up as Josh came up behind them

and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. Gonzo barked as all three dogs clustered

around them, sniffing at each other. Patience made a mental note to get all three dogs out

into the yard where they could run free.

"I thought I saw you two coming in." Josh looked from one to the other, his expression

that of mild surprise. "You two come together?"

Patience read between the lines and kept her answer light. "He didn't know the way. I

thought that if I had him follow me, he might make a U-turn and go home."

Brady snorted. "Not a bad guess."

Before Josh could comment, she enlisted his help. "Help me get him to mingle."

Josh paused to give the other man a long, skeptical look. "You know the old saying about

leading a mule to water."

"That's horse," Brady corrected.

Josh smirked knowingly. "In your case, Coltrane, it's mule."

She moved in between the two men. "Have you seen Shaw yet?"

Josh's expression softened slightly. "Yeah, over there." He pointed the oldest of Andrew Cavanaugh's offspring out and grinned. "Acting as if he's the first guy who ever fathered

a kid."

Brady glanced over toward the far right, saw not only the detective he recognized as one

of the Cavanaughs, but also a woman who seemed vaguely familiar to him. For a moment he

couldn't place her. And then, the brain being a storage house of all sorts of unused facts,

an image from a movie promo clicked into place.

His eyes narrowed as he looked first at the woman, then at Patience. "Isn't that…?"

Patience laughed. This was one of life's little ironies. Shaw met his wife when the latter,

doing research for a movie role, had requested a ride-along. He'd agreed to it under

duress. Funny how life turned out.

"Moira McCormick. Yes, it is. My somewhat attention-shy cousin wound up marrying

aHollywoodmovie star." She saw Brady looking around. It didn't take a mind reader to know

what he was thinking. "Don't worry, the press is strictly barred from showing up and

crashing the party. Uncle Brian would find a reason to have their butts busted and tossed