In Bed With the Badge (11 page)

Her mother’s warm voice embraced her. “I love you.”

Riley knew her mother was still worried about her, worried that she wouldn’t be able to pull out of the tailspin she’d found herself in right after Sanchez had been murdered. But, mercifully—maybe it was the work or maybe it was because she was helping out with Lisa—she seemed to be finally getting her act together.

“Me, too, Mom,” she said quietly. With that, Riley hung up.

Sam waited until she replaced the receiver. “Everything okay on the home front?”

Nodding, she did her best to sound casual. “Just my mother, checking up on me.”

“She have reason to worry?” he asked mildly, watching her face carefully.

“No.”

The answer came out automatically, without thought so that she wouldn’t be subjected to probing questions. But this time around, Riley realized there was more truth to it than just a few weeks ago. Progress. It felt good.

“But that doesn’t stop her. Parents, according to my mother, worry about their kids for roughly the first hundred years. After that,” she smiled, “they start to back off.”

“That means you’ve got more than seventy years to go,” he deadpanned.

Even if her life span and her mother’s went that far, her mother would never completely stop worrying about them. It was an occupational hazard and the fact that all of them were on the police force didn’t help matters.

“Something like that,” she agreed.

“If that’s what parenting’s about, I’m glad I’m not like that,” he told her.

There was humor in her eyes, as if telling him he would wind up eating his words. “Give yourself time. You will be. The best parents always worry, they just don’t show it.”

He made no comment. The thing of it was, he had this undercurrent of fear that Riley was right.

The next day, responding to the doorbell, Sam stared at the woman on his doorstep. Riley. He thought they’d settled this last night. Did she think he needed a keeper?

“You know, you didn’t have to stop by. I told you that we were going to attend.” He stood there looking at her, his body blocking the entrance to his apartment.

“Just wanted to be sure,” she answered cheerfully. “Besides, I’m not going out of my way stopping here. I pass right by your complex when I go to Andrew’s house.” It wasn’t entirely true, but close enough.

Riley shoved her hands into the back pockets of her denim shorts. Her very short denim shorts, Sam noted, his eyes sweeping over her. His partner wore a white halter top that emphasized her tan, but it was the shorts that really captured his attention as well as stimulated his imagination. He took slow inventory of her legs.

Who knew they were that long?

She could almost feel his eyes trailing along her body. Making her warmer. She did her best to sound blasé.

“Careful, Wyatt,” she warned. “You’re in danger of having your eyes fall out of your head.”

“Your legs always been that long?” he asked, forcing his gaze back up to her face.

Riley looked down, pretending to take his question seriously. “Since the sixth grade. I was the tallest in my class until everyone else caught up. One of the guys used to call me Flamingo Legs.”

His thoughts turned to Lisa. Someday, maybe soon, some little boy would be teasing her. How was she going to handle that? How was
he
going to handle that? He didn’t want to be one of those overbearing fathers, but he knew he wouldn’t like the idea of someone tormenting his daughter.

“Did it hurt?” he asked.

She grinned broadly. “No, but he did after I gave him a fat lip.”

He laughed. She’d been tough even then, fighting her own battles. Maybe Lisa would be, too. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

She couldn’t pinpoint exactly why, but the sound of Wyatt’s laughter shimmied up and down her spine, making her feel even warmer than the day warranted.

It also brought out his daughter from her room. Dressed in a red T-shirt and white shorts, Lisa came running up to her the moment she saw who it was.

“Riley, Riley, Sam and I are going to a barbecue,” she announced.

Riley looked quizzically at Wyatt. Why was he still letting his daughter call him by his first name? “I know, honey. I invited you.”

Lisa fairly danced from foot to foot. “You’re going, too?” she squealed, then threw her small arms as far around Riley’s hips as her arms could reach.

“You bet.” Riley glanced toward her partner. “She still calls you Sam?” she asked, trying not to sound as if she had an opinion one way or the other.

Sam shrugged. “Easier to get used to than ‘Dad,’” he told her.

“Same amount of letters,” Riley pointed out.

“Yeah, well…” He let his voice trail off, then gazed down at his daughter. It wasn’t a matter of letters, but of feelings. He’d been missing for the first years of her life. Getting used to being here with him was hard enough for her without thinking of him as her father. “C’mon, Lisa, let’s get this show on the road.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. Grabbing Riley’s hand, Lisa fairly raced across the threshold, excitement apparently bubbling through her as she giggled.

“H
ear that?”

It was several hours later when Riley asked Sam the question.

When they’d arrived at Andrew’s house, the barbecue was already in full swing and they were quickly embraced and then absorbed. Within minutes, Lisa had been “borrowed” from Sam. Clasping Brenda by the hand, the little girl was happily led away to join in a series of games that Brenda, Jared’s wife, Maren, and Troy’s wife, Delene, were overseeing, playing with the up and coming next generation of Cavanaughs. Lisa hadn’t been back since.

In the interim, separately and together, Riley and Sam were drawn into one conversation after another.
The topics were varied, some serious, some humorous, but they were all spirited. Time, offset with an ever-changing array of snacks, appetizers and main meals, passed very quickly.

And now, the “official” barbecue foods—hot dogs, hamburgers and steaks—were being served. No one, even the most stuffed of them, could find it in their hearts to say no. It was all just too good. Sam had volunteered to get her serving and his, returning with both after ten minutes.

Sam handed his partner the plate Andrew had insisted on preparing for Riley himself.

“Hear what?” he asked, sitting down with his own plate on one of the dozens of folding chairs. It was nothing short of a balancing act, trying to keep everything on the extra-large paper plate rather than it come sliding onto his lap. Besides the hamburger, there were three kinds of salad, all vying for a limited amount of space. “With all this noise, it’s hard to hear just one thing.”

“
Listen,
” Riley underscored.

Humoring Riley, Sam cocked his head the way she was doing. He heard a lot of things, but nothing in particular. “So what am I listening for?” he asked.

Riley sighed. Men. “The sound of your daughter, laughing.”

Sam straightened his head and looked at her. “You’re kidding, right?” When she didn’t say yes, he realized she was being serious. “You can actually hear that?” he marveled. “Lisa laughing?”

“Yes.”

He listened again, then shook his head. Riley had to be pulling his leg. “There’s got to be at least a dozen kids laughing, maybe more.” Not to mention the countless high-pitched voices raised, competing with one another. “How can you possibly make her out?”

“I can,” she insisted. “It’s a matter of concentration. And attachment,” she emphasized. “You’re her dad, Wyatt, you are supposed to be able to tell the difference.”

“Sorry,” he quipped. “My ‘dad’ gene is a newly acquired one. It’s going to take me some time to hone it properly.”

Riley watched her partner for a long moment, gauging his tone. “You’re making fun of me, aren’t you, Wyatt?”

He pretended to be incredulous. “In a yard filled with your relatives, most of whom have access to guns?” He took a bite out of the hamburger. Damn if it wasn’t heaven on a bun. How could a simple hamburger taste this good? “Wouldn’t dream of it. I don’t have a death wish,” he assured her before he took another bite.

His comment made Riley look around for a second. As she did, she smiled to herself. She hadn’t thought about it in those terms. But Wyatt was right. This
was
a yard full of her relatives.

Not blood relatives except for Taylor, Frank and Zack, and of course her mother, but one way or another, this really was her family now. And, no doubt, every last one of them would back her up whenever she needed it.

She hadn’t realized how good that felt until this moment.

“You’d have to do something pretty terrible for them to shoot you,” she quipped.

Swallowing another bite, Sam shook his head. “That’s one envelope I have no desire in pushing.”

“Oh? And what envelope would you like to push?”

Their eyes met and held for longer than she’d intended. Long enough to evoke that strange, funny shiver that danced along her spine these days whenever their hands accidentally brushed or she encountered him when she wasn’t expecting to.

A strange, funny,
warm
shiver that spread out tributaries and left her stomach unsettled.

“I’ll let you know when the time comes,” he promised her quietly. So quietly that she had to look at his lips in order to have the words register completely.

“Oh. Okay.” She went back to watching Lisa. Somehow, it seemed safer that way. And better for her digestion.

Watching Riley and her partner from across the yard, Lila smiled to herself.

A sense of relief intensified. The same relief that had begun when she first greeted Riley as she arrived with Sam and his daughter. Lila turned toward her husband, the man she could now freely admit she loved. The man who she’d loved in secret for so many years. Lila placed her hand on his arm.

“You did good, Brian,” she praised in a soft, lowered voice.

“Of course I did,” Brian replied, turning toward her.
Andrew had recruited him to bring another box of buns over to the grill, but that could wait. What his wife was saying intrigued him. “But just for edification purposes, is this in reference to anything specific or is this a general seal of approval?”

With a laugh, she shook her head. “Yes, it’s specific. I’m talking about taking Riley out of Homicide and partnering her up with Sam Wyatt in Robbery. Look at her.” Lila nodded in her daughter’s direction. “She almost looks like her old self again.” Lila turned toward Brian again and brushed a kiss against his cheek. “Thank you.”

He took her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss against her knuckles. “No thanks necessary, milady. I’m always at the ready and at your service.”

A little sigh of contentment escaped Lila’s lips. After all these years, she was finally, blissfully, happy. And she owed it all to Brian.

“Nice to know,” she murmured.

“I can show you just how ready I am once we get a chance to slip away and go home,” he promised her with a wink.

“Brian,” she laughed, glancing around to see if anyone had heard him. “You’re the Chief of Detectives, don’t let anyone overhear you.”

“Why?” He grinned. “Where is it written that the Chief of Ds is supposed to be a robot? Or live by the letter of the law alone?” he challenged playfully. “Besides,” he said, lowering his voice and whispering in her ear, “even a robot would find his mighty tin body getting overheated just by being so close to you.”

She laughed again, shaking her head. It never occurred to her that she could be so happy. After what she’d gone through with her first husband, it was like living in a dream. One from which she hoped she’d never wake up.

“In my considered opinion, I’d say that Lisa is officially worn out,” Riley told her partner, inclining her head close to his so that Sam could hear her.

It was almost ten o’clock and Riley’s description could have fit almost any one of them—except for Andrew who seemed to literally thrive on spending hours cooking for his family and friends.

When Sam looked at her, Riley indicated the sleeping child on her lap. A number of them had adjourned to the family room and she had commandeered the corner of one of the sofas for herself and Lisa. Lisa’s head now rested against Riley’s chest and the little girl was curled up into her. Somewhere in the last half hour, Sam’s daughter had grown progressively more and more subdued, then, after protesting that she was wide awake, had fallen asleep.

“Here, I’ll take her,” he said, slipping his arms around his daughter and lifting her into his arms. “Never saw her fall asleep without a fight before,” he commented with a touch of amusement.

Riley glanced at the few children still milling around. Most were asleep, like Lisa, resting securely in one of their parents’ arms.

“This group’ll do that to you, tire you out until there
isn’t an ounce of energy left inside your body,” she told him, a fond smile curving her mouth as she remembered. “My brothers, sister and I were exactly the same way.”

Sam nodded. “I wouldn’t know about things like that. I didn’t have any siblings.”

Riley thought of what her childhood would have been like without her siblings. Achingly lonely.

“I’m sorry.”

Curiosity entered his eyes. “Why are you sorry?” He didn’t see being an only child as missing out on anything. His mother had walked out on his father when Sam was young and
that
had hurt, but being an only child hadn’t. “It’s not like I didn’t have enough to eat.”

She saw it differently. “In a way, yes. You were deprived.”

The shrug was careless in nature. “You don’t miss what you don’t have.”

But Riley shook her head. “I don’t think that’s absolutely true.”

The woman was something else, he thought, amused. “You’d argue with God, wouldn’t you?”

The smile came into her eyes as she considered his question. “Depends on what point of view He was advancing.”

Sam just laughed and shook his head. “Look, I hate to drag you away from this, but since you insisted on being my ride today—”

She was on her feet, ready to leave before he could finish his sentence.

“Don’t say another word,” she told him. “Of course
I’ll take you and Sleeping Beauty here home.” She looked around, trying to locate their hosts. “Just let me find either Andrew or Rose and make our goodbyes.”

He had no intentions of leaving without doing the same. “You implying I’m not capable of saying my own goodbyes, McIntyre?”

She knew she had a tendency to take charge, especially when it came to the family. She would have to watch that, Riley told herself.

“Never even crossed my mind,” she deadpanned, holding up her hand as if taking a solemn pledge.

With a chorus of goodbyes still ringing in her ears and a feeling of both contentment and unexpected anticipation, Riley drove her partner and his daughter the short distance home.

“You know,” he pointed out again, “if you’d have let me drive to the barbecue in my own car, you could still be back there.”

“Gaining more weight?” she speculated. “No, this is the right cutoff point,” Riley assured him. “You were just my excuse for leaving before I put on another five pounds. In case you haven’t noticed,” she went on, squeaking through an amber light, “it’s hard saying ‘no’ to Andrew, especially when the food he’s trying to push on you tastes so good.”

“I noticed.”

I also noticed a lot of other things better left unsaid,
he thought, covertly watching her profile as she spoke.

The close proximity had him entertaining thoughts that had no business coming up. He and McIntyre were
partners. They worked together and needed clear heads and lives that weren’t tangled up with one another’s.

He knew all that, and yet…

Sam forced himself to concentrate on what she was saying.

“I’m surprised that Aurora doesn’t have the fattest police force in the country. Thank God everyone in the family’s so into physical fitness and working out.” She made a mental note to get to the gym herself the first chance she got. She would need to add some reps to her workout. “Otherwise, we could probably just roll over the perps and squash them instead of taking them in.”

The visual made him laugh. “Save the county a lot of money in court costs,” he theorized.

Riley realized she was close to the apartment complex. That was fast. How was it that trips back from their destination always seemed so much quicker than the original trip there? She could have sworn that they’d gotten here in the blink of an eye.

“Please don’t say that around Andrew,” she begged. “The man will use it as an excuse to insist that we all eat more.”

“My lips are sealed,” he said as Riley guided the car into a spot in guest parking.

“Oh God, I hope not.”

Did that just come out of her mouth? How the hell did she let that happen? Riley chastised herself. When in doubt, offer a diversion. She’d learned that, oddly enough, from her father.

“Um, let me help you with Lisa,” she volunteered,
then quickly got out of the car before Sam had an opportunity to say anything.

Riley had the rear passenger door open and unstrapped Lisa from her seat before he could reach his daughter. Sam stepped back, watching her.

Acutely aware of him, Riley had no idea what was going on in Wyatt’s head. Maybe it was better that way.

Very gently, she removed the sleeping girl from her car seat and scooped Lisa up. “Just unlock your front door,” she requested.

Sam saw no reason to argue, or insist that he could take care of Lisa himself. Especially when he had a strong feeling that Riley, as usual, would win the argument.

Leading the way, he took out his key. “Why is it that when we were in the academy, I never noticed this ‘take charge’ personality of yours?”

They were friends back then, but for one reason or another, nothing more.

“Maybe because you were always surrounded by all those eager female rookies who were vying for your attention,” she speculated.

Sam put his key in the lock, turning it. The time spent in the academy was all a blur, as if someone else had lived it. “I don’t recall any eager rookies,” he told her innocently.

Right, like she’d believe that. “Alzheimer’s doesn’t usually set in this early,” she commented.

He held the door open for her. Riley walked into the apartment first. Behind her, Sam flipped the light switch, illuminating the area.

“Thanks,” she murmured, cutting through the living room.

Making a left, she headed toward the former guest room, now Lisa’s bedroom. The room had, in the last few weeks, undergone a major transformation. That was thanks in large part to the various things she had picked up for the little girl. Not to be left out, Brenda had donated a few things, as well. The anonymous feeling the room had had was gone. This was now definitely a room that belonged to a little girl.

Placing Lisa on the bed, Riley debated getting the sleeping child out of her clothes and into her pajamas. The next moment, she abandoned the idea. One night spent in her clothes wasn’t going to hurt. If she started to change her, Lisa might wake up. Judging from how tense Sam seemed, he wouldn’t exactly welcome an all-nighter.

Taking Lisa’s shoes off, Riley threw the bedcover over the small body and let the little girl sleep.