Beautiful Storm (Lightning Strikes Book 1) (21 page)

"Sounds like you get your courage from him, too."

"I like to think so. He was an incredible man. After he left the Navy, people forgot about all that he'd done, especially my mom. She was proud of him when he was serving. But when he got out, he couldn't do anything right in her eyes. They were always fighting." She paused. "I know she said downstairs that I never saw my father for the man that he was, that I only saw the hero. I could say that she never saw the hero; she only saw the man who came home late and didn't help out around the house the way she wanted."

"She also saw her husband. That's a different relationship than the one you had with your dad, Alicia."

"I know, and my dad wasn't perfect, but he was a good man." She turned the page and pointed to four guys standing on the tarmac of a Naval carrier. "These were some of my dad's best friends. Jerry Caldwell, a fellow pilot. Next to him is Randy Cavanaugh, a flight mechanic and on the end is Stan Baker, a radar instrument officer. Growing up, they were Uncle Jerry, Uncle Randy, and Uncle Stan. I was close to Stan's kids when we were little. I have no idea what happened to any of them. It feels like a long time ago."

"Did you move around a lot as a kid?"

"A few times. And there were many months when my dad was deployed, and my mom was raising us by herself. I realize now that that couldn’t have been easy. But she's a strong woman."

"That's the nicest thing you've said about your mom."

She made a face at him. "I do love her. She just makes me a little nuts."

"And I have a feeling you do the same to her."

"Yes, I do." She closed the photo album and stood up. "We should go downstairs. You volunteered to grill, remember?"

"I remember." As he got to his feet, he put his hand on her arm as she turned to leave and said, "For the record, Alicia, it doesn't matter what state you're in. You don't need to be anyone other than who you are, because who you are is amazing. Don't let anyone put doubts in your head."

Her eyes filled with appreciation. "That's a really sweet thing to say."

He grimaced. "Sweet isn't what I was going for."

She laughed. "Well, still, it was nice. Thanks for the pep talk."

"Gotta keep my partner happy."

"About what happened before, Michael…"

"I know: wrong place, wrong time—again. Someday we'll get it right."

* * *

Alicia's nerves were still tingling when she walked out to the back deck. It wasn't only Michael's kiss that had unnerved her, it was also the personal and intimate conversation they'd shared that scared her. She hadn't opened up to anyone the way she'd opened up to Michael. She didn't know why she'd told him so much about her family, her father, and herself, but it felt good to have aired some of the old hurts.

When they reached the table, her mother gave her a speculative look, and she couldn't stop the guilty heat that swept through her body. She really needed to get a grip, remember that she was an adult now and she didn't owe her mother any explanations.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever coming back," her mom said as they sat down. "Did Michael tell you I apologized?"

"He did. I was just showing Michael my old room, and some photos of Dad from his Navy days."

"Of course. I'm going to start pulling dinner together," Joanna said, getting to her feet. "Are you still up for grilling, Michael? Jake almost always burns the steak."

"Not true," Jake replied. "But I'm happy to let Michael take over. I've been the only man around this house for too long."

"I haven't grilled in a while but I think I can pull off steaks," Michael said. "Why don't you show me what you have for spices and we'll get the meat ready?"

"Spices?" Joanna asked doubtfully. "I don't have much. I usually just throw the meat straight on the grill."

"Well, let's see what you have."

"You sound like you know what you're doing," Joanna said.

"I was raised by a chef. Some things stuck." He sent Alicia a smile before he followed her mother into the house.

When they were alone, Jake gave her a pointed look. "So what else were you showing Michael upstairs—besides your old room?"

"Nothing that you need to know."

"What's the deal, Alicia? And don't give me the bullshit
just friends
answer. I've seen the way he looks at you, the way you look at him."

She sighed, knowing that she really didn't have a good answer to the question. "I don't know what we are. I've only known him a short time. But I'll admit that there's something there. When I'm around him, I feel dizzy, lightheaded, like I'm walking a few feet off the ground."

"It sounds like you're falling for him."

"Maybe a little."

"Or a lot."

She met his gaze. "Right now we're mostly concerned with trying to find his friend. Anything else that might be brewing is on the back burner."

Jake leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. "Alicia, you need to be careful. You're getting into the middle of a double homicide investigation."

"I'm just trying to find out whether it's possible someone besides Melissa Bryer could have killed Professor Bryer and that woman."

"The wife had a strong motive, and I'm not sure I even blame her. If I found my wife in bed with another man, I'd feel like taking them both out, too."

"Big talk from a guy who hated to go hunting with Dad," she reminded him.

He grinned. "Well, I don't like to shoot animals for sport. But cheating spouses, that's another matter."

"Speaking of spouses, why don't you get serious about someone, and then Mom will get off my back. You're the oldest. You need to go first, take the heat off me and Dani."

He laughed. "Thanks, but I like my freedom."

"Really? I remember when you were in love with Katherine. I thought you were going to get married before you got out of high school."

A frown drew his lips into a tight line. "Yeah, well, that was a long time ago."

"Do you ever hear from her?"

"Not in years. But Mom likes to keep me up to date. Katherine is a doctor now, a pediatrician."

"That's cool."

"She always liked kids."

"Is she still single? Because I'm guessing Mom is probably hoping you'll get back together. Katherine had a way of calming you down."

"That's not going to happen. We were kids back then. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. Or at least I didn't know."

She heard a note of pain in his voice and felt a little guilty for trying to deflect the conversation away from herself and onto him. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were still touchy about her. That's interesting."

"I think you and Michael are far more interesting. What's your next step?"

"Still trying to figure that out. We're hoping to get more information from JAG. But in the meantime, we're going to try to talk to anyone connected to Professor Bryer. That's one reason I decided to see Mom tonight. I figured she might know him from the university. She told me a little about him, but I need more. You don't know anyone who works at the university, do you?"

"Katherine's younger brother TJ is a grad student in electromagnetic engineering at Texas A&M. Was that Bryer's department?"

"I know he did something in engineering, but there are several departments."

"I think TJ is a teaching assistant there. Mom told me she ran into him a few months back. That's when she caught me up on Katherine."

"Really? I would love to talk to him. I wonder if he still lives at home. He was a lot younger than Katherine, wasn't he?"

"Yes." Jake frowned. "Judging by the gleam in your eyes, I think I'm going to be sorry I brought him up. You should back off of this, Alicia. It's dangerous."

"I don’t think talking to TJ is going to put me in danger."

"You're so stubborn. What's really going on here? Are you trying to prove your worth to Michael? Wait—I know the answer. It's the lightning, isn't it? You think you were called to this cause. You're as crazy as Dad was."

"I'm not crazy, Jake, and neither was Dad. If the lightning hadn't shown me that ID tag, I never would have met Michael or come back here."

"That was just coincidence. Look, Alicia, I've flown through some monster storms. I've seen the weather that you love so much from a lot closer than you have, and yes, it's magnificent, but it's nothing more than weather. Lightning is not a sign from the universe. You need to get over that idea. It's not sending you messages. And you're not going to suddenly see what happened to Dad in a bolt of lightning. We know what happened. A storm sent his plane into the sea. That's it."

"I'm just not as sure of that as you are," she confessed.

He raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You're not sure about what happened to Dad?"

"None of us really know, Jake. We don't have any facts. And there is no body buried in the cemetery under his gravestone."

"He's not still alive, Alicia. You can't think that."

She didn't really think that he was alive, but with no evidence to the contrary, who really knew? "He could be stranded on some tiny island in the middle of the ocean."

"For almost ten years?"

"It could happen."

"But it
didn't
happen. Come on, Alicia. You're too smart to believe that some miracle is going to occur."

She shrugged her shoulders. "It's hard for me to give up on people, especially people I love. I still feel a strong connection to Dad, and I feel it the most when lightning is all around me. Whether he's alive or not, his spirit connects with me. That's just the way it is."

"I'm glad you feel a connection to him, but that's all it is—a feeling. If it makes you happy, fine, but don't get involved in murder investigations."

"Don't you feel anything, Jake? When you're flying the same skies he flew, don't you think about him sometimes?"

"Sure, but I try to remember how he lived, not how he died. Isn't that more important?"

Jake had a point. "I guess," she murmured, happy to see Michael and her mother return. Her conversation with Jake had gone too deep and too serious.

"Cocktail hour has officially arrived," Joanna said, setting down two bottles of wine.

"Sounds good to me," Alicia said. Maybe a drink would calm her nerves.

"Looks like your grill needs a cleaning," Michael said, opening the cover to the barbecue. "Do you have a brush anywhere?"

"In the cabinet underneath," Joanna replied. "I can do that."

"It's fine—I've got it," Michael said.

"You're so helpful, Michael." Her mother gave her a sly look. "Don't you think so, Alicia?"

"I do," she agreed, seeing a smile cross Michael's face. At least he wasn't annoyed by her mother's obvious matchmaking. Still, she decided to change the subject. "Jake just told me that Katherine's brother TJ is a grad student at the university. Do you think he knew Professor Bryer?"

"I'm sure he did. He was in the same department," Joanna replied, sitting down at the table. "He graduated in June. I'm not sure what he's doing now."

"Do the Barretts still live on Shore Drive?"

"Debbie does. Her husband passed away last year, and Katherine has been gone for years. I'm not sure where TJ is living these days. I spoke to him briefly a few months back, and he said he didn't know what he was going to do after graduation."

"I want to talk to Mrs. Barrett, see if she can put me in touch with TJ," Alicia said.

"Leave them alone, Alicia," Jake ordered. "I don't want you getting involved with Kat's family."

"What's it to you, Jake? You and Katherine have been over forever. You just said that."

He gave her an irritated look. "Every time you come home, trouble follows."

"That's an exaggeration."

"Last time you were here for a weekend, you told Hank Peterson that I didn't sell him my entire baseball card collection, that I held back the Ken Griffey Jr. card. He hasn't spoken to me since. I had to find another mechanic. Do you know how hard it is to find a good mechanic?"

"I didn't know that was a secret," she said defensively. "And you're the one who held back the card, so it's your fault."

Jake glanced over at Michael. "I hope you know what you're getting into with my sister. Alicia has a tendency to turn lives upside down."

"I'm beginning to realize that," Michael said with a smile. "But sometimes lives can benefit from a flip."

"Good answer," she said.

He laughed. "I thought so." He'd barely finished speaking when his phone rang. She tensed, wondering if it was news about Liliana. "It's my foreman," he said. "I need to take this. Excuse me."

As Michael returned to the house, Jake said, "His foreman?"

"Michael is managing the construction of a huge new city center in Miami. He works for Jansen Real Estate Developments."

"So he's a builder," Joanna said. "I like a man who's good with his hands."

Alicia rolled her eyes. "I don't think he's the one actually swinging the hammer, Mom."

"Really? Because he looks like he keeps in shape. You could do a lot worse, Alicia. He's attractive, successful, athletic, and he seems to really like you. What more could you want?"

"Do you want any help with the salad?" she asked, ignoring her mom's question.

Joanna sighed. "No, I've seen you chop tomatoes. You sit and talk to your brother. I'll take care of dinner."

"That was not nice," she told Jake after her mother left. "What you said to Michael about me."

"I was joking. But I've always thought you should come with a warning."

"Very funny. You owe me, Jake."

He gave her a suspicious look. "What does that mean?"

"It means you and I are going for a walk." She stood up and grabbed his arm, forcing him to his feet.

"I'm not going to Katherine's house, if that's what you're thinking."

"She doesn’t still live there, Jake. It's not like you're going to run into her. And I thought it was ancient history, no big deal."

"It is."

"Then come with me. We'll be back in fifteen minutes." She walked toward the side gate. "Maybe we won't tell Mom where we went until we get back."