Doing her best to remember murder was illegal, Ro forced her lips to curve into a smile she didn’t feel as she reached out and filled her fist with part of Megan’s sleeve.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” A quick glance to Brody and back. “Alone?”
“I mean, you can, but it’s not going to change anyth—"
“Excuse us a moment.” She didn’t wait for an answer before pulling her traitorous friend away from the man standing in her entryway. Yanking the other woman through the archway leading to her living room, Ro led them both around the corner so Brody couldn’t see them.
“Seriously?” Her brows turned inward with a deep scowl.
“What?”
“Don’t youwhatme!” She worked to keep her voice hushed. “I told you not to call him!"
Her friend’s hazel eyes held swirls of greens and specs of gold, but not even a trace of remorse. “Guess it’s a good thing you’re not the boss of me, then, isn’t it?” Megan crossed her arms at her chest. “Besides, this is what he does.”
What he does…
“Meg, Delta Team takes down terrorists, not—”
“They do a lot more than that, and you know it.”
“Okay, fine.” Ro threw her hands out to her sides. Not stopping their fall, her palms slapped loudly against her thighs half-a-second before she thought better of it. “They do other badass protection stuff, too. But you know what I mean. Nothing of major value was stolen.Ifany of it was actually stolen in the first place.”
In her gut, she knew that’s exactly what had happened. Someone had come into her house, taken a few, incredibly random things, and left. But fear had her trying really, really hard to convince Megan—and herself—otherwise.
“Just because something isn’t worth a lot of money doesn’t mean it can’t be priceless.” Her friend’s expression softened, Meg’s knowing stare like a giant fist trying to squeeze the life from Ro’s heart. “Those earrings meant the world to you. And that picture of you and your dad…” Her voice trailed off with an empathetic shake of her head.
Tears welled in Ro’s eyes, but she blinked them away before any could dare to fall. As usual, the sweet, supportive woman was right.
The picture she was referring to was one she kept by her bed. Ro hadn’t even realized it was also missing until after Megan got to her place, and the two had gone looking for the rest.
It was a cheap frame that had cost her maybe ten bucks, but it held one of the most precious photos she’d ever possessed. A moment captured in time Ro could remember as clearly as if it were yesterday.
Warm. Sunny. The whitest, fluffiest, most perfect clouds she’d ever seen floating high against a crystal blue sky.
She remembered thinking they’d looked absolutely perfect. So perfect, in fact, she’d pretended God had put them there. Just for them.
Ro. Her mom. And her dad…
He was so happy that day.
She could still hear the man’s contagious laugh echoing through her mind. They’d been at the cancer center, her mom tearfully saying her goodbyes to other patients and staff when her dad had suggested the two of them wait for her outside.
It was the first time Ro could recall the man smiling while on that property. And it had been a real smile, too. Not the small, forced ones he’d typically worn during their previous visits there.
But that day had been different than all the others before it. That was the day her mom’s oncologist had just given them the incredible news.
Cancer-free.
That’s what the doctor had called it. He’d announced it with such confidence, such pride, Ro hadn’t considered the intelligent man could be wrong.
None of them had questioned the incredible diagnosis. They’d been too busy celebrating.
Her mom had cried tears of soul-lifting relief. Ro had cried, too, so very thankful to hear she wasn’t going to lose her mom as she’d feared. But her dad…
She could still see him standing there, without a word, pulling her mom from her chair, and kissing her senseless. And he’dkeptkissing her until her mom’s tears—and his—were no longer falling.
Then she’d asked them to wait while she spread the wonderful news to those she’d gotten to know well during her two-year fight with ovarian cancer.