To Love a Cop (26 page)

Jake had barely started to say something when they all heard his name and their heads turned.

The guy smiling at them was about Ethan’s age, good-looking. With those wire-rimmed glasses, almost geeky, but clearly athletic, too.

“Detective Winter,” he said, holding out his hand as soon as they got close enough. “Thank you for coming.”

They shook. “No problem.”

Dr. Lang led them down a short hall to his office, and then sat in one of the chairs. Ethan, Laura and Jake settled together on a comfortably worn sofa. Ethan laid his right arm along the back, behind Jake’s shoulders, his fingers just touching Laura’s shoulder. He knew what message he was sending to the good doctor and decided he didn’t care.

“If I understand correctly,” Dr. Lang started things off by saying, “you knew Jake’s father but had met Laura only at the funeral until fairly recently.”

“That’s right.” He explained again that he and Matt had worked together early in both their careers, then had taken different directions and in fact had been separated geographically, as well, ending up working out of different precincts. “I attended Matt’s funeral out of respect and...” his pause was infinitesimal “...a memory of friendship. Otherwise, I hadn’t set eyes on Laura or Jake until I spotted him at the gun show.”

No, he said, he wasn’t married and had no children, only a two-year-old nephew so far, who lived with Ethan’s sister and her husband in the Seattle area. He liked teenagers, and had done some volunteering, teaching personal safety and hunter safety classes, talking in schools and the like.

“Jake reminds me of his dad and maybe a little bit of myself at that age,” he said, and saw shy pleasure on the boy’s face. He couldn’t tell what Laura was thinking.

“How so?” Dr. Lang asked.

“He looks a great deal like his father. Have you seen a picture of him?” Turned out he hadn’t, but Laura promptly produced one from her wallet.

Ethan wasn’t sure he liked the idea she still carried a photo of her dead husband. He knew that was unreasonable. It might be as much to reassure Jake as anything. He couldn’t help feeling an uncomfortable jolt of jealousy, though.

Dr. Lang studied the picture, then Jake. “Can’t argue about the looks. Your dad was a handsome man.”

Ethan dredged his memory for qualities in the guy he’d liked: a happy-go-lucky attitude, a genuine liking for people that won him a positive response, a love of jokes and pranks that made him popular at the station. Apparently those qualities had gone along with carelessness and the unfailingly optimistic belief that nothing bad would ever happen, and he guessed Laura was thinking the same but hoped Jake wasn’t.

“Jake’s more serious,” he said, thinking it through, “but he has reason to be. I get the feeling he was really well-liked until his current troubles, and he will be again.” He squeezed Jake’s shoulder. “He’s fun to hang out with.”

He explained that he’d been sports-mad at Jake’s age, too, and physically restless, needing to use his body hard so he could focus when it was time to study or sit in class. “I guess I identify partly because the year I turned twelve was a tough one for me.” Why hadn’t that occurred to him until now? He had no idea. “My father is a US marshal,” he said. The therapist nodded his understanding. “Dad was working on something complicated.” He knew what now, but wasn’t going to explain. “He was gone a lot, and my mother was scared. Neither of them would tell me what he was doing, so I was scared, too. I got into some trouble at school that year.”

“Really?” Jake looked at him. “You didn’t tell me that. What did you do?”

“Mostly it’s what I didn’t do. My work. Plus, I had a teacher I really disliked—math,” he said as an aside. “He made fun of a couple of students who couldn’t fight back. I did it for them.” He grimaced, making sure Jake saw the expression. “Wasn’t smart enough to take it to the principal.”

“What happened?” Jake sounded fascinated.

“I was lucky the same way you are. My mother stood by me. Dad finished that assignment and I grew up a little.”

Conversation became, he was sure by design, more general, with them all talking about what they’d done the past week. Hearing Jake chattering about Ethan this and Ethan that, he almost winced. No wonder Dr. Lang had wanted to meet him, he thought ruefully.

Walking out at the end with Laura, Jake bouncing around them like an excited puppy, he wondered who he’d been kidding. Taking it slow? Yeah, that was something you could do dating a woman who didn’t have a kid. But he’d long since crossed a line where Jake was concerned. With Laura, he could try protecting himself, but with the boy...
I’m all in
, he thought. If Laura ever decided to cut him out of Jake’s life, that would be bad.

Out in the parking lot, a decision he hadn’t even known he was debating made, he stopped Jake with a hand on his shoulder even as he looked at Laura.

“Hey,” he said. “How would you feel about Sunday dinner at my parents’?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

M
EETING THE PARENTS
was scary.

Laura hadn’t been in this position for a very, very long time. Of course, she wasn’t 100 percent sure Ethan had told his parents he was dating her. Maybe he’d talked only about Jake. But the warmth in his voice told her he was close to them, so she suspected they knew exactly how he felt about her. Maybe more about how he felt than
she
did.

In the midst of an attack of nerves during the drive, she discovered she was a little intimidated by his father’s profession, too. So, okay, what he did probably wasn’t all that different from Ethan’s or Matt’s job, but...she kept thinking,
He’s a fed.
And that sounded big and bad.

And finally, the original plan had been for Ethan to pick them up, but he’d called not that long before she’d expected him and said in a terse voice, “Any chance we can meet there? Something came up.”

She had assured him that was fine, taken the address and plotted her route online. But now she wondered if this hadn’t been some sort of test. What if his parents had demanded he set it up? She pictured them saying,
Let’s find out now whether she can take the stresses.

And yes, that was dumb—she knew Ethan wouldn’t do that to her. But the very thought had stiffened her spine. She’d show them all what she was made of.

Jake was really quiet during the drive, too. When she pulled up in front of the house, which she loved on sight, he said, “I don’t see Ethan’s truck.”

“No, it looks like we beat him here,” she said with fake good cheer. “That’s okay. We knew something was holding him up.”

The eternal
something
that any police officer’s spouse had to learn to live with.

Not letting herself dawdle, she got out and then reached in the back for the pie his mother had agreed to let her contribute. Jake was waiting on the sidewalk by the time she reached it.

“Look at that arch,” he whispered. “It doesn’t go into the house.”

“No, it leads into the garden.” The house, two-story, brick and likely dating to the 1920s, had a fairy-tale feel, with a particularly pointy roof, small-paned windows, some of which had arched tops that echoed the one extending to the side of the house, and a green-painted front door also with rounded top. To make it all more perfect, one of Ethan’s parents loved roses. Many were in glorious bloom in a profusion of shades from creamy white through pale pink to deep rose and even purple. The long canes of a climber clambered over the brick arch, what had to be an old-time rambler scrambled over the detached garage, and a huge rugosa bush filled the space between the front windows. The glimpse she got into the side yard looked magical, too, and the rich scent filled the air.

“And I was feeling good because I finally got around to painting the deck at our place,” she grumbled under her breath.

“What?” her son asked.

“Nothing.”

She rang the doorbell, and then waited in trepidation.

The door opened, and a woman beamed at them. “You must be Laura. And Jake. Come in, come in!” She peered past them. “Still no Ethan?”

“No. I hope he can get away so you aren’t stuck with us on our own.”

His mother laughed. “You should hope. Without him here to defend you, I can grill you!”

Wide-eyed, Jake inched a little closer to Laura.

Ethan’s mother was even taller than Laura, and thin. Short hair that must have been blond was being allowed to go white. She had laugh lines on her face that made her instantly likeable.

Seeing Jake’s move, Mrs. Winter laughed. “Just kidding. Grilling suspects is my husband’s specialty, not mine. I’m Selena Winter.” As she and Laura shook hands, she smiled over her shoulder at the man who was joining them. “Speaking of my husband...Joe Winter.”

He looked startlingly like his son—or maybe it was the other way around. Strands of silver in hair a little darker than Ethan’s and deep wrinkles beside his eyes betrayed his age, but he was still a big, obviously fit, handsome man.

“Ethan said you played college basketball, too,” she said.

His grin looked much like his son’s, too. “Whipped him on the court until he turned, oh, about eighteen.”

His wife snorted. “Try fifteen or sixteen.”

He clasped a hand over his heart. “Now you’re just being mean.”

They all laughed.

“Tell you what, Jake,” Joe Winter said. “How about we grab a ball and shoot some baskets until Ethan gets here? The women don’t need us in the kitchen and who wants to sit around?”

Selena almost caught him with her elbow, but he knew her well enough to dodge at the right time. Laughing, he steered Jake away. Jake looked shy, but went with only one backward look at his mother.

“Brave boy,” said Ethan’s mother.

“Thank you.” Laura was still feeling a little shy herself.

Dinner, she discovered, was a pot roast. She put together a salad while her hostess finished dropping biscuit dough on a cookie sheet and, after removing the cast-iron pan that held the pot roast from the oven, popped the biscuits in to bake.

“If Ethan’s late, I’ll reheat his dinner,” she promised, but then cocked her head. “I do believe I recognize that engine.”

Laura did, too. Something relaxed inside her.

Selena glanced at her. “Ethan told us some of what Jake is going through and why. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No. As long as you don’t say anything to him. I imagine, given your husband’s profession, you’re better able to understand than most people.”

Selena took the biscuits from the oven. “Did Ethan tell you I was a high school guidance counselor?”

“No,” Laura said in astonishment. “Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah. Ethan and his sister really loved it when they were in high school.”

Laura giggled. “I can imagine.”

“He had to listen to me at home, Ethan said.” Selena was almost straight-faced. “But that was enough.” The two women laughed, and she added, “Fortunately, there were two of us on staff. Ethan got assigned to the other counselor.”

“Whose advice you reinforced the minute he walked in the door at home.”

“Truthfully, I never really needed to.” Her expression softened. “He’s always been self-directed and...determined.” She rolled her eyes. “His sister, now...”

Laura chuckled. “He told me she was hell on wheels at a certain age.”

“Pretty well every other year. Honestly. They talk about the terrible twos, and I’d read four-year-olds can be difficult...”

“I was horrible at thirteen.”

“Yes, but six? Eight? Ten was okay, but eleven...” She shook her head. “I’m sure this sounds unmaternal, but it’s such a pleasure watching her take a turn as a mother.”

Both women were laughing again when Ethan walked into the kitchen. Laura saw his quiet satisfaction before he hugged his mother, then kissed Laura’s cheek. So, no secrets here about their relationship. And that expression on his face...got to her.

Jake appeared. “They’ve got a really great basketball court here,” he declared with obvious enthusiasm. “Ethan’s dad painted a free-throw line and everything.”

“I thought the seam in our driveway was about the right distance.”

“It’s, like, a foot off,” her son grumbled. “So I’ll get used to shooting from it, and then at the gym my shots won’t be right.”

“If you know the seam is a foot off, you can adjust where you shoot from,” Laura pointed out.

“What’s a little paint in the driveway?” Joe Winter said, sotto voce.

His wife gave him a scolding look.

Conversation stayed light at the table. It turned out that Selena was the gardener. She offered to share when she divided her fall blooming perennials, if Laura had room for any, and suggested a tour of the yard after dessert.

Nobody brought up the subject of what had delayed Ethan, and she didn’t see any strain on his face. His dad did grimace when he rose from the table to pour the coffee.

“Damn knee,” he muttered.

Ethan raised an eyebrow. He waited until his father had disappeared into the kitchen before leveling a look at his mother. “I thought the knee replacement did wonders. Made him a new man. How many times have I heard him say that?”

“Macho idiot,” Selena said fondly. “The new knee did wonders. Unfortunately, he needs another one, and he’s resisting. He is not a good invalid. He
hated
the week he spent in the nursing home after the surgery.”

“Yeah, I can see why.” Ethan’s forehead was creased. “His boss isn’t leaning on him?”

She blew out an impatient breath. “Who knows? I suspect he saves his groans for home and they think he’s hunky dory.”

“Damn it, he’s smarter than that!” Ethan glanced at Jake. “Uh...darn it.”

Jake cackled. “I’ve heard you swear before!”

Ethan bent toward him and said in a stage whisper, “Don’t tell your mom.”

Jake thought that was funny, too.

Laura tried to tell Ethan’s mother that
yard
was a better word for what surrounded her house than
garden
, but nonetheless agreed to accept any and all offerings for the new bed she intended to dig out around her now-spiffy deck. Not wanting to raise expectations Ethan didn’t have, she managed to evade a suggestion the two women get together for lunch, however.