“Jen,” he said.

  She was such a dope for constantly heading down that path. “I’ll start on the list right away.”

  “I’ll get some paper,” Kat offered.

  To keep her eyes off Ethan, Jennie looked the other way. She caught Wes studying her. “You may want to call off your story, Wes. Sitting in this house isn’t going to be too exciting.”

  “I’ll just have to change my slant. The way this family has come to your rescue so you can help the kids will make a great human-interest piece, too.” He smiled at her. “Plus I can pitch in and you’ll have one more person to help get the pictures ready.”

  “Thanks, Wes.” Maybe he really had changed and could now show some responsibility.

  Kat came back with a pad and pen.

  “Okay, then.” Jennie smiled. “Will everyone quit looking at me and go do something so I can think?”

  Kat laughed. “C’mon, I’ll make lunch and you all can watch me instead.”

  “Now, that I’m up for,” Wes answered and shot to his feet, following all of them into the kitchen.

  Jennie started the list, working for nearly an hour and using her laptop to check model numbers on the internet as she went. At some point, Kat placed a sandwich, chips and soda next to her and, other than a squeeze on the shoulder, said not a word.

  Satisfied she hadn’t forgotten a thing, Jennie went to the kitchen to deliver the list. She walked in on Wes telling a story about a trip he’d taken with her to Sauvie Island for the annual corn maze. The memories of a fun day made her smile.

  It had been a great day at the beginning of their relationship. A day filled with laughter and promise of a happy future. Wes had grown up in a tough environment, too, and had clawed his way out of poverty. In that respect, she’d felt more at ease with him than with Ethan. Her relationship with Ethan had held excitement. Love only found in fairy tales. Dreams for an amazing future. It was different with Wes. Less intense, more affection and contentment than anything. Companionship, she supposed.

  She watched his animated face, looking so reminiscent of when they’d first met. She didn’t have a clue why he’d decided to tell this particular story, but everyone laughed when he admitted how he’d gotten lost and she’d had to get a staff member to find him.

  “Remember, Jen?” He caught her eye, and she saw that he remembered far more than that.

  “Yes.” She smiled.

  “You done with the list?” Ethan jumped in, his voice gruff.

  She held it up.

  “I’m the gofer.” Cole took the paper and ran a finger down it. “I don’t need to understand any of this, right? I just have to hand this to the guy at the store you recommended and he’ll know what it means.”

  Jennie gave him a reassuring smile. “I was thorough, but if they have any questions you can call me.”

  “Then I’m off.” He headed for the door.

  “I’ll walk you out,” Ethan said and followed him.

  Jennie turned to Kat. “Thanks for the lunch. Is it okay if I use the living room to work on editing pictures from today’s shoot?”

  Kat nodded. “I’ll be here doing the dishes and getting something together for dinner tonight. Let me know if I can do anything to help.”

  If Kat hadn’t warned her off Ethan, Jennie would never know by Kat’s cordial behavior that she didn’t like what was going on between the two of them.

  Jennie took her laptop to the living room and settled on the sofa to edit Bitsy’s photos. Despite the attack at the end of the shoot, Jennie still had a five-o’clock deadline to meet. Her camera was toast, but fortunately, her memory card had survived the crash. She went to work and knocked out the edits in less than an hour.

  She accessed an online backup site and copied all of her pictures. After the manhandling this afternoon, she was taking no chances that something like this could happen again and the CD for the show could be damaged or destroyed.

  Ethan returned from seeing Cole out, but didn’t stop to talk to her. She opened the first photo of Marisol and smiled at the little urchin who’d captured her heart like so many of these children had. Jennie wanted to keep helping them—that was a given—but after everything that had happened in the past few days, she realized she wanted more. Much more. She didn’t want to be alone any longer.

  She sighed and went back to her screen, viewed, cropped and enhanced photo after photo. At some point, Dani arrived and announced that the sketch artist had finished with Linda’s drug-dealer boyfriend and had distributed his drawing to the rank and file. At first, it had cast a pall over the group, but soon warm conversation drifted from the kitchen.

  At a boisterous outburst of laughter, Jennie stopped to listen. It was nice knowing others were nearby rather than her usual solitary existence at home. But here she was in the living room, still an outsider longing for a family like the Justice family. Didn’t matter. They belonged in the same dream as having a husband and children of her own.

  A dream, no matter how much she now knew she wanted, she couldn’t see anywhere in her future.

  * * *

  Ethan stretched his lower back from leaning over the dining room table. Wes, Kat, Dani, Cole and he had been cutting mats all afternoon in the colors and dimensions Jennie had specified. At least, Wes was supposed to be working on the mats.

  After halfheartedly cutting out a few sloppy ones, he’d claimed this kind of work didn’t suit him. But, he’d added, with his experience as a reporter, he could help Jennie choose the best pictures to print. And without a backward glance, he’d slunk off to the living room.

  Okay, maybe not slunk, but he’d gone to the living room, and Ethan had wanted to follow. To march up to him and tell him to leave Jennie alone to do her work. But he’d held his tongue. Jennie was a big girl. If she couldn’t work with Wes in there, she’d send him packing.

  She hadn’t, though. Not in three hours. Three hours while all sorts of things drifted through Ethan’s mind. At times, their voices were hushed, other times raised and peppered with laughter. Now was one of those laughter-filled times, and Ethan couldn’t take it anymore.

  He took a few steps toward the door and stopped when he spotted Jennie, eyes alight with amusement, listening to Wes’s story. Ethan fisted his hands. How could he be reacting like this to Wes? Jennie wasn’t interested in him. She’d made that clear. Even if she was, it wouldn’t matter. Ethan had no claim to her.

  She reached out and squeezed Wes’s arm, her face tipped up, shining with happiness. That’s it. That’s what was bothering him. She used to look at him that way. Now, when their eyes met, he saw only pain, maybe regret, and he wanted to go back to when they shared moments like this. It was time for them to talk. Beyond time.

  He took a step.

  “Don’t go in there.” Kat laid a hand on his arm and gave him a warning look.

  He returned her look with an arched brow.

  “In the kitchen.” She didn’t wait for his agreement to follow but headed that direction.

  Ethan took one last look into the living room and followed Kat.

  “You’re playing with fire.” Kat poured a cup of coffee. “And you’re the one who’s gonna get burned again.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ethan slid onto a stool.

  “Please. I see the way you’re looking at Jennie. It’s that summer all over again. And you’ll be the one left behind to pick up the pieces.” She blew on the cup and eyed him over the rim.

  “First of all, nosy sister of mine, I am not looking at Jennie in any special way.”

  Kat snorted. “Right.”

  “And even if I was, what makes you so certain she’d leave again?”

  “Because she still hasn’t worked out whatever made her bail the first time.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “I talked to her about it.”

  “You what?” He shot up and planted his hands on the counter. “You had no business butting in here, Kat.”

  “I love you, Ethan, and I’m not going to stand around and watch you get hurt again,” she said with unwelcome frankness. “In case you’ve forgotten, which I can’t imagine you could have, she practically destroyed you last time.”

  He wanted to throttle his sister. Her heart was good—she just stuck her nose in areas she shouldn’t, and his love life, or lack thereof, was one of those areas she couldn’t seem to stay away from.

  He went to her and clasped her shoulders, looking down on her until she raised her head to meet his gaze. “I’m touched that you want to protect me, Kat. But you can’t always worry about me or anyone else in the family getting hurt.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

  “Just try to look at this with open eyes, okay?”

  He laughed. “You really don’t know when to give up, do you?”

  “Some things are worth not giving up on.” She raised her coffee in a mock toast and went to the dining room.

  Ethan’s phone chimed and he answered the call from Derrick.

  “They found our fake detectives,” Derrick said.

  “Where? Are they talking?”

  “Down by the river and no.” Derrick paused and Ethan heard him draw in a breath. “The gunshots through the backs of their heads guarantee neither of them will be saying anything again.”

  * * *

  Jennie went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water. She found Ethan sitting at the bar, talking on the phone. His eyes narrowed, but when he caught sight of her, they warmed. Not to the cool, formal mood of late, but to something heated and compelling, drawing her closer and making her want to smooth away the furrow in his forehead. The last thing she should do.

  She grabbed the water from the refrigerator then headed for the door before she did or said something dumb.

  “Jen, wait,” he called out.

  “Everything okay?” she asked while swimming through the haze of feelings bombarding her.

  “That was Derrick. The police found the fake detectives. They were murdered.”

  “They’re coming for me next, aren’t they?” She felt panic climb up with each word.

  Ethan crossed to her. “We won’t let them get to you, Jen.”

  “After everything that’s happened, I’m not sure I believe you can stop them.”

  “Don’t worry.” He smiled but she could see it was forced. “They have no idea where you are and can’t find you. As long as you do what we say and stay here, you’re safe.”

  She let the intensity of his gaze settle over her frayed nerves. “So why the tense face, then?”

  “Can we talk?”

  “This doesn’t sound good.” She searched for the meaning behind his words.

  “Why don’t we go sit in the living room?”

  “You’re scaring me, Ethan.”

  “Nothing to be afraid of.” He stood and gestured toward the other room.

  She went through the dining room, not giving any attention to the group working around the table.

  “Out.” Ethan cast a harsh glare at Wes, who was peering at his cell phone.

  Wes’s head lifted, defiance in his eyes. He stared at Ethan for a long moment then shrugged. “I’ll be in the next room if you need me,” he said to Jennie.

  Ethan fisted his hands and watched Wes leave.

  “Was that necessary?” Jennie asked.

  “I don’t like him, Jen.”

  “I can see that.” She sat on the sofa. “But he’s done nothing to deserve such harsh treatment.”

  “You’re right.” He crossed the room and sat next to her. “It’s just—” He looked away.

  “Just what?”

  “I don’t know, all right?” His voice raised and she couldn’t decipher the sudden change in him. She waited to speak until she could see his face.

  “I don’t know.” He spoke softly now and looked at her. “But he shouldn’t be here with you.” He shook his head. “He just shouldn’t.”

  “This is what you wanted to talk to me about?”

  He took a deep breath. “No. I actually wanted to tell you about what happened after you left me. What I did.”

  “Okay.” The tension in her own voice left her unsettled.

  “I tried to find you. I started at your work, but you’d quit. Then your college, but you’d moved and changed schools. It took me almost a year of searching in my spare time before I discovered you’d moved to Texas.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You were still looking for me then?”

  His expression grew uneasy, but he continued. “I thought you were my soul mate, Jen. I thought if I could just talk to you, I could convince you to change your mind.”

  The pain in his voice had her reaching out and taking his hand. “I’m so sorry, Ethan. I never imagined you’d keep looking for me.”

  “Maybe I kept looking because you were so hard to find and I didn’t want to give up. Or I was just being stubborn.” He gave a wry laugh. “Tracking you down is what got me interested in joining the FBI.”

  “That’s good, I guess.”

  “Following your trail was as difficult as some of my cases at the bureau. It wasn’t until I tracked you back to Springbrook that—”

  “You went to Springbrook?” Her voice skyrocketed.

  “Yes.”

  She stifled a gasp. He’d found the town where she’d gotten pregnant. A town small enough that people would remember an unwed mother. Especially an unwed mother whose father had worked odd jobs for a little cash from many of the townspeople. But she had to hear him say it so she could finally put to rest the hope of being with him.

  “And what did you find there?” she asked, almost breathless.

  “The biggest thing, I guess, is that you had a baby and gave her up for adoption.”

  She waited for his face to tighten with disgust, but it didn’t change at all. Maybe he was too well mannered to tell her how he felt. “And once you found out about the baby, that’s when you stopped looking, right?”

  “No, why would you think that?”

  “Because I’d done the one thing you couldn’t abide.”

  He stared at her, clearly baffled.

  He was going to make her be the one to say it. “You told me it was unthinkable for a mother to give away her child. You hated your mother and said you’d never forgive her for giving you up. So I knew you’d feel the same way about me.”

  He just looked at her. His expression unreadable. Time ticked by. She wanted to bolt but she’d done enough running where he was concerned. It was time to sit and hear him out.

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way, Jen,” he finally said. “I guess if you’d told me about the baby when we first met, I might not have given you the time of day.”

  She heard something in his voice that gave her hope, but maybe it was just her own optimism tinting his tone. She had to know.

  “But?” she asked and held her breath again.

  “But I know you, Jen. And I know your heart.” He covered her hand with his and squeezed. “I knew it back then, too, and when I found out about your daughter, I never questioned your decision. If you gave her up, I know it was because you loved her and felt it was in her best interest.”

  She was too shocked to speak.

  “In fact, you helped me reconcile with my birth mother,” he went on. “When I was growing up, my adoptive parents always said my mom gave me up out of love. But I never felt like that was true. When I saw what you did, I finally got it, and I went to see her.”

  “And?” Jennie asked, now more interested in this than in her own story.

  “We have a relationship.”

  “You have a relationship with your birth mother.” She said it aloud to fully grasp the change in him.

  “You sound so surprised.”

  “From all you used to say about her, I didn’t think your feelings would ever change.”

  He studied her with probing eyes, digging so deep she felt as if everything in her life was open for him to see. She couldn’t stand the intensity. She jumped up and went to stand at the fireplace. She heard him get up and follow then felt him right behind her.

  He put his hands on her shoulders. “Did you leave because you didn’t think you could tell me about the baby?”

  “I thought after you knew I gave Natalie away, you’d hate me, too. Once I realized you wanted our relationship to continue past the summer, I was sure the truth would come out eventually. I didn’t want to be around when that happened.” It felt so good finally to admit it.

  “So it was my fault.” His words came out in a whisper. “If I hadn’t been so stubborn, you might not have ended things.”

  She turned. “I’m the one at fault. I should have told you, but I was afraid you’d judge me just like the people in my church did.” She shook her head. “They’d always preached forgiveness for any sin, but then I got pregnant and they turned their backs on me. I couldn’t stand to see you do the same thing.”

  “I’m so sorry, Jen.” There was a slight tremor in his voice and sadness. Lots of sadness.

  “You have nothing to apologize for.”

  “Yes, I do. I was so closed-minded that you felt you couldn’t share this with me.”

  “You were young and had no idea I was hiding this. It was my decision to break up with you. You had nothing to do with it.”

  “That’s what your father said, too, but—”

  “You went to see my father?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where?”

  “In Seaside.”