of Vita-Drink.
Happy days. It tasted great.
A light rapping on the glass kitchen door finally got through to him. Only friends and family came around the back like this and he braced himself for another homecoming as he went to see who it was.
He opened the door when he saw his partner on the police force, Detective Dylan Hobart. At the sight of Alex, Dylan’s rugged face split into a giant grin. He wasn’t wearing his usual jeans and T-shirt covered with an old military-looking vest adorned with patches and badges he’d earned as a former marine. Instead he wore a tight T-shirt and a leather jacket that fit him like a glove. He might be approaching forty-five, but he wasn’t going without a struggle.
“If you aren’t a sight for sore eyes,” Dylan cried as he wrapped Alex in a one-armed bear hug. Then he pushed him away and stared at his face. “Holy cow, what happened to you? Damn, man, you’ve lost weight!”
Alex laughed. “You try eating nothing but fish for three months straight and see if you maintain all that mass.” Dylan lived and breathed to lift weights and work out and he had the physique to prove it.
Dylan now produced the morning newspaper from where he’d apparently folded it into his rear pocket. “You’re all over the place, man,” he said, tapping the newsprint where Alex glimpsed a picture of himself and Jessica standing on the front lawn. He’d still had the beard when the picture was taken though he’d shaved it off later last night. He touched his smooth jaw and felt a little naked.
“I tried calling,” Dylan said, “and then I thought, what the hell, I’m going over there and see that loser with my own eyes. I can’t believe you walked out of those mountains. Are you really okay?”
Alex assured him he was fine. But Dylan’s next question was more difficult to answer.
“What happened? I mean, I imagine you are sick to death of being asked this question, but did you drive your plane into a mountain or something? The article didn’t really say.”
“I made some coffee for Jess,” Alex said, pouring his partner a mug. “Warning—it’s decaf.” They sat opposite each other at the counter. Alex drank the last of his water, and sighed. “I’m not sure what happened,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“A lot went down all at once. The oil leaked out of the engine somehow and then the engine froze and I’d been flying all over hell and breakfast trying to skirt a weather front. I landed on a lake and the plane sank. I was hurt, and so that confused the issue, too. Pretty much end of story.”
“Pretty much beginning of story you mean,” Dylan said with a knowing look in his light blue eyes.
“Whatever, the point is I survived.”
“Have you spoken with the FAA about it? Given what happened to your buddies in Shatterhorn, we had our share of speculation around here after you went missing. There were some who thought your plane was rigged to crash. It seems kind of far-fetched to me, though.”
“I just don’t know,” Alex said. “I made a few calls last night. Someone named Struthers from the FBI is coming today. I’ll listen to what he has to say.”
“Well,” Dylan added, “I guess the important thing is you’re home.”
“No kidding,” Alex said with feeling. “Especially now. I found out last night that Jess is going to have a baby.”
Dylan’s lips curled into a smile. “That’s great news. Are you and she...well, I know things were rocky—”
“We’re going to work things out,” Alex said with no equivocation in his voice. He would do what he had to do. He would figure out how to show Jessica she was the center of his universe.
“That’s great. You’re going to be a daddy! That must be why she posted that comment on Facebook. I wondered. Wow, man, she must be so excited.”
“We both are,” Alex said, then asked, “What comment?” Hadn’t she mentioned something about Facebook the night before?
“She didn’t tell you?” He took out his phone and spent a minute getting to the site he wanted. “This is her page, but the comment is gone.”
“What did it say?” Alex asked.
“No big deal. Just asked you to contact her if you could.”
“What?”
“It just said that if you were reading what she’d written, would you contact her because there was something important you needed to know. It must have been the baby, don’t you think?”
Alex nodded as he adjusted his expression to hide how shocked he was by this revelation. Was that what she’d meant when she told him that she’d thought he was something worse than dead? That he was what—hiding? Did she really think he would run out on her like a coward?
“They didn’t replace you at work,” Dylan said as though unaware of the bomb he’d just detonated in Alex’s gut. “It’s been slow, so it’s been fine, but lately things are picking up a little. You know, the weather warms up and all the crazies come out. There was talk they were going to promote Kit Anderson but they haven’t done it yet. Chief Quill quit right after you disappeared when he was caught taking bribes. The mayor appointed Frank Smyth to fill the position until he makes a permanent decision. As far as I know, they’ve got you on the books as being on some kind of emergency leave.”
Alex made himself concentrate on the conversation. “I’m surprised the mayor chose Frank instead of you to act as chief.”
“Yeah, I was, too. But Frank likes the business end of things and getting his picture in the paper, you know what he’s like. He probably sweet-talked the mayor and that’s nothing I would do unless he was twenty, gorgeous and a she.”
Alex nodded. He didn’t know Frank all that well even though they’d worked side by side on occasion. Frankly, the new chief was something of an enigma to Alex. Touchy on one hand, egotistical on the other, never shy about tooting his own horn. It was hard to imagine him as the chief. On the other hand, Alex was grateful the guy had held open his job.
“You’re probably going to break Kit’s heart but he’ll live through it,” Dylan said. “I don’t care how many classes he’s been taking, I don’t think he could pass the detective test, anyway.”
They both turned as Jessica entered the kitchen. She’d wrapped a kimono around herself and Alex’s gaze immediately dropped to her midsection where he tried to discern a bulge. She smiled at him and his gaze flew to her face. “It doesn’t show too much yet,” she said.
He tried out a smile and wished they were alone so he could ask her about the Facebook thing.
“Morning, Dylan,” she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “It’s good to see you.”
“Sorry to barge in so early. I just had to look at this guy with my own eyes,” he said. “I swear, I hate to say it, but I never thought I’d see him again.”
“It’s hard to believe he’s home,” she said.
Dylan
