One More Time (27 page)

This was the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth. Of course, I wanted to know more. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Not really,” he quietly replied. His eyes were filled with such sadness.
How had I not noticed this before?
Jeesh, when had I become so self-absorbed?
Since Dillon, that’s when.

Reaching out, I tentatively touched Cas’ arm. “I’m sorry. I am a self-absorbed, selfish human being. Please forgive me.” His hand covered mine and he smiled. His smile packed a powerful punch, but it didn’t make my heart skip a beat. It didn’t make me tingle all over. It wasn’t Dillon.

“You are probably the least self-absorbed person I know,” Cas replied. “I just want you to know you can talk to me anytime. Not only will I listen, but I get it.”

Our waitress chose that second to deliver our food and the moment was broken. We spent the rest of lunch talking about music and kids, something he was surprisingly knowledgeable about.

On the way home I decided to come clean to him about Jimmy. He had to ask, “What does Dillon thing about this?” When I explained I had yet to tell Dillon, I had to endure a nice scathing lecture. Then he instructed me not to answer any future phone calls from Jimmy, and to make sure and tell him if I received anymore messages. When I asked whether or not I should be worried, he didn’t answer.
Great.

Both Sally and Sarah were at the house when we returned. Cas was nice enough to help me carry Amelia and all her gear inside. Thank goodness he decided to set the car seat down before having a stare off with Sarah in my entry hall. Not sure what to do, I thanked him for lunch and pushed him out the door.

As soon as he was gone, I turned and gave Sarah an expectant stare.

She shrugged and responded, “It’s not my fault he’s a numpty.”

I shook my head as I lifted Amelia out of her car seat and headed to the kitchen.

Sally took Amelia while I warmed her bottle. “Did I miss anything while I was gone?”

Sarah started to answer and Sally kicked her in the shin.

“What are you on about?” Sarah squealed. Whenever Sarah got angry or exasperated, she hurled Scottish insults. Occasionally she mixed them with American curse words and, I had to admit, it was hilarious. Sally enjoyed it so much she intentionally tweaked Sarah every chance she could.

“What am I on about?” Sally asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“Yes, what is your problem?” Sarah repeated. “You just kicked me in the shin.”

“Oh, sorry, my foot slipped,” Sally said.

Sarah mumbled something that sounded faintly like “Fecking twit,” but Amelia’s hungry wails prevented me from hearing her clearly. From the guilty look on Sally’s face and the irritated one on Sarah’s, I could tell those two were up to something, I just didn’t have time at that moment to figure out what it was.

*     *     *

The next morning
Amelia had her first appointment with her new pediatrician. I was excited to see how much she weighed and whether or not I could start feeding her solid foods. I wished Dillon could be there, but accepted my role as a single mother was probably going to be the new norm. Our appointment was at nine-thirty and of all mornings for my car to act up, it had to be this one. When we switched to Sally’s, it wouldn’t even start. Finally, we had to ask our neighbor who was kind enough to give us a jump and, luckily, we made it to the doctor with not a minute to spare.

The doctor was a petite Hispanic woman who seemed both knowledgeable and nice. She confirmed Amelia had gained weight and I could start introducing her to baby food. I could even fortify her formula with rice cereal which would hopefully help her sleep better. Sally and I were all about the rice. Everything was going well. That is, until the doctor turned off the overhead lights, peered into Amelia’s eyes with her flashlight and I noticed the color of her eyes had changed. Amelia’s once dark blue eyes were now a pretty grey-blue. They were not as grey as Dillon’s, but they were not as blue as mine anymore either. When Sally grabbed my hand and squeezed, I knew she’d noticed it too. My baby girl was going to have her daddy’s eyes. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about this.

After four vaccinations, several bouts of tears and a hell of a lot of poking and prodding, we were done. As soon as I placed Amelia in her car seat, she was out like a light. I passed the car seat over to Sally as I checked us out and we headed for the car. Right as I clicked Amelia into the base, I remembered her bottle.

“Hey, Sal, did you by chance get Amelia’s bottle?”

“Let me check.” She rummaged through the diaper bag and came up empty. “I’ll go get it,” she offered.

“I got it. Stay with her and I’ll be right back.” I darted across the road and back into the office. The nurse greeted me at the door with the bottle and I thanked her before heading back to the car. Right as I stepped off the curb, a car rounded the corner onto the street. Thinking it would slow down and let me cross, I stepped out onto the street. Instead of stopping, however, the car sped up. I took a big step back in order to allow it to go around me. It didn’t. It veered straight for me and, if I wasn’t imagining it, seemed to speed up as it got closer. Finally, I caught on that it wasn’t planning on slowing down and let out a surprised shriek as I dove for the sidewalk. Sally screamed and my heart stopped. For a split second, I thought the car had swerved and taken out my best friend and baby. My whole world froze. Then I saw Sally running in my direction and let out a sob of relief.

“Izzy!” Sally shouted. Spots danced before my eyes and I could feel my pulse beating in my ears. She squatted down beside me and pulled me into a tight hug.

“Honey, are you okay? Should I call an ambulance?” I looked up and the nurse from the doctor’s office was standing over us with a concerned expression on her face. Slowly, I shook off the daze and said, “No, I’m okay, it just surprised me, that’s all.”

“What the hell was that?” Sally shrieked. She helped me up off the ground and started dusting me off. “It happened so fast. Did you get the license? I couldn’t get the damn license because of where I was sitting. I can’t believe that just happened. I mean, we see shit like this in the movies, but in real life? Hell no!” she babbled.

“Oh, your hands are bleeding,” the nurse clucked. “Come inside and let me sterilize them. You can call the police from there.”

“Fuck that! I’m calling Bobby,” Sally announced.

Limping over to the car, I unhitched a still sleeping Amelia and lifted out. After what just happened, I wasn’t about to leave her in the car alone. What if they decided to come back? Sally grabbed her from me and the nurse took my arm as I limped my way back across the street to the doctor’s office. Sally phoned Bobby from the waiting room while I let the nurse clean and bandage my hands and knees. By the time I was done, Bobby, Cas, some guy I’d never seen before…and Dillon were outside talking to Sally. Dillon was holding a sleeping Amelia in his arms. My heart sighed at the sight of him holding our daughter, and I wondered if there would come a time when the man didn’t affect me so.

The second Dillon saw me in the doorway he handed Amelia to Sally and started for me. When he secured me in the warmth of his arms, I broke into tears.

“Someone t-tried to r-run me o-over,” I sobbed into his chest.

His big hands stroked up and down my back. “I know, baby. You’re okay,” he soothed.

“F-for a second, I t-thought they h-hit Sally and A-Amelia,” I cried.

“Shhhh…we’re going to figure this out. Do you hear me? I promise we will get to the bottom of this.” I nodded my head against his chest and when he made a move to step back, I refused to let him go. “I’m not letting you go, I just want to see the damage,” he whispered against my ear. I loosened my death grip just enough to let him look at my bandaged hands and knees. His clenched jaw and tense stance let me know exactly how he felt about it. Pulling me back in, he held me until Bobby, Cas and the stranger walked up and Bobby asked to see the damage. Only then did Dillon let me go.

As I focused in on the dark haired stranger, I was surprised he seemed almost as angry as Dillon. It wasn’t until he looked me in the eye that I recognized who he was.
Dillon’s brother, Adam.
His dark hair was nothing like Dillon’s, but his eyes were exactly the same as Amelia’s. I watched his eyes scan up and down my body. It took me a moment to realize he wasn’t being rude, but was mentally making sure I was okay.
How sweet
. I couldn’t get over how much Amelia resembled him. He caught me off guard when he stepped up and wrapped his arms around me.

“I’m Dillon’s brother Adam. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” he quietly said. His voice was deeper than Dillon’s and very soothing. My eyes welled. This time it wasn’t because someone attempted to kill me, it was because Dillon’s brother made me feel so welcome.

“Easy brother,” Dillon said, and I was slowly shifted from Adam’s arms back into Dillon’s.
Back where I belonged.
I rested my head on his chest and sighed. As he squeezed me to him, he started making plans.

Dillon insisted he drive us home from the doctor’s office. Adam followed in the jeep and because Bobby and Cas had information on Jimmy for us, they followed as well.

Once we were all settled in the house, Cas began, “A while back, Dillon asked us to look into James Marsden.” My eyes shot to Dillon but he was too busy glaring at Cas to notice. “At first look he appeared to be squeaky clean. As we all know, this is usually the case. When we explained this to Dillon, he asked us to dig deeper. It paid off.” Cas’ stare shifted over to me. “That’s why Jimmy called you. We think someone tipped him off and he was firing a warning shot.”

“What did Jimmy do?” I asked.

Cas looked at Bobby who answered, “For some time now, Jimmy has been siphoning money from his client’s trust accounts. He borrows from one to pay another. He’s playing the shuffle game with pretty much every account we looked into. Some amounts are small. Others are more substantial.”

“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask. As far as I knew, Jimmy made a good living.
Why would he need to steal money from his clients?

“We haven’t figured that out yet,” Cas answered. “We turned our information over to the South Carolina State Bar last night. They will now open a criminal investigation on James Marsden. Not only will this keep Jimmy in South Carolina, but it will place the eyes of the law on him and hopefully keep him far away from you.”

While Cas explained, I could feel Dillon’s eyes boring into me. I tried to avoid looking at him but he was having none of that. As soon as Cas finished with his explanation, Dillon said, “Look at me, Ibby.” The tone of his voice reminded me of when I was seven and my stepfather, Brandon, caught me sneaking into my sister’s room in the middle of the night. I wouldn’t look him in the eye and it made him so angry he spanked my butt so hard I couldn’t sit down for a whole week. “Isabella,” Dillon warned.

“What?” I snapped, giving him a rebellious scowl.

The look of concern on his face threw me. “Jimmy called you?”

“He left her a message,” Cas answered.

Dillon’s eyes stayed glued to mine as he spoke to Cas. “I didn’t ask you. I asked Isabella. Jimmy called you and you didn’t think to tell me?” The hurt in his voice confused me.
He didn’t want us. He walked out on us. So, why was he acting hurt?

“I did call, but you didn’t answer your phone,” I told him.

“So you did try to call me?” he asked.

Like a dog with a bone, he was not going to let this one go, so I gave it to him. “Yes, Dillon, I tried to call you but since you didn’t answer your phone, I didn’t leave a message.”

“You told Cas instead.” This was not a question, but a statement.

“Why are you busting her balls?” Sally asked. “You walked out, not her. She’s friends with Cas. She told him, not you. Get the hell over it.”

“Let’s move on people,” Bobby interrupted. “While I was looking through Jimmy’s computer files, I discovered several files on Isabella. I took a second to browse through them. He had several forged documents, as well as a letter of admittance to a rehab facility.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dillon growled.

“I wish I was,” Bobby replied. “Not sure if I would get the chance again, I copied them to our hard drive and deleted them from his. This doesn’t mean they are permanently gone, however. He could easily have copies in his office or on another computer.”

“But there’s a chance these could be the only ones,” Adam stated.

“There is always a chance,” Bobby agreed.

“Is that all?” Dillon asked.

“I have one last thing to discuss and then we’re done,” Bobby answered. “When Max towed Isabella’s car to the garage the day it stalled on the side of the road, he mentioned it might have been tampered with.”

“What?” Dillon exploded. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because Max wasn’t a hundred percent sure about it and we didn’t want to be wrong and have you go off half-cocked,” Cas glibly answered.

Dillon shot Cas a look of pure disgust before asking, “So, why are you telling us now?”