Page 77 of Guarding Over You
“The caterers left it,” Ash said. “Not a ton, but I’m going to take some with me when I leave.”
He followed Clay to the kitchen, saw Meredith putting covers on some containers and handing another bag to Ash.
“Hey, Blaze. Do you want some food too? Ash is taking some to the firehouse. There isn’t enough room for it here.”
“Sure,” he said. “But don’t go out of your way.”
“Here’s a bag. I’ve got lots of them and was going to give one to Reenie tomorrow. I’ll take this to your parents and one for us. I’ll let you guys talk while I visit with your parents.”
“Thanks,” he said. He’d seen the lights on in the big farmhouse, knowing his parents were still up even though it was nine thirty.
He should have just called or waited, but he couldn’t sit still.
Too much was weighing on his mind. Too many worries. Too many fears.
He didn’t know if he’d ever felt this for anyone who wasn’t a family member.
He climbed in his SUV while his brothers got in Ash’s truck and drove to his brother’s house a little past his childhood home.
The minute they were inside, Clay had his laptop out. Blaze pulled up the screenshot of Tina Morris’s Facebook page and slid his phone across the table.
Clay was punching away at keys, Ash giving him the eye.
“What?” he asked.
“I thought you told me everything. We’re the closest.”
He smirked. “You just like to think that.”
“No,” Ash said. “We know it.”
Ash wasn’t wrong. Clay and Ford were just bonded in another way and always had been, even though Blaze was closer in age to Ford.
But Ash had needed to lock onto someone other than Gale, and Blaze had taken the youngest under his wing when he was home.
For the years he’d been gone, Ash still talked to him daily. And maybe he needed that shoulder and familiar voice from home too.
When the situation with Kristen was getting to be too much, only Ash knew the most. And Ash was the one who drove the hour to Albany to sit and have a beer with him in silence.
The support he had from the men in this room, the rest of his family, it was something he was trying to give Arden.
Something it didn’t appear she had, though she’d said her parents helped her.
He was wondering how much since she rarely talked about them.
Or maybe he hadn’t asked.
There was so much the two of them didn’t know. So much more to learn.
“I’m not finding anything on her,” Clay said.
“Do you have the right person?”
He moved closer and looked at Clay’s computer. “This is her. She’s twenty-eight, lives in Saratoga, works for the state. Looks like she’s got some accounting job. I crosschecked her title, you can see the basics here like anyone else can.”
“Decent job. Makes me wonder what she’s doing with Billy.”
“No criminal record. Has one older brother. I hate to say she’s vanilla, but that’s what I’m seeing on paper.”
