CHAPTER 11
CINDY

“Come get me, Uncle Paul!”

I sat on the back porch and watched Paul chase Lily around the backyard. It was nice having him around. Him coming over to play with Lily gave me a chance to breathe. I wrapped my sweater around my body and held onto it, smiling as my daughter’s giggles hit my ears. Paul had been coming around a lot since I’d gotten back into town and, though it was a little stifling, it was also nice. Not having a security system did bother me at times, but with Paul being a police officer, it made me feel better about living on my own.

The house we were in had been my childhood home. It was small and quaint, and my mother was determined to keep it in the family. When Bradley and I got married, he deployed shortly after, and we’d used the extra money from his deployment to buy it from my mother. We always said we would settle back here one day. Us and Paul and whoever he was married to by that point. We’d made a pact to raise our kids together and look after one another, and it never occurred to me that all our plans would fall apart so quickly.

When Bradley died, I didn’t have a job. I had his life insurance and his truck and his military gear. It killed me to sell all of that off, but I wasn’t willing to give up the house. Bradley was hell-bent on us getting back to my hometown, the place where we had first met.

And I wasn’t going to sell off the house simply because I couldn’t afford it at the time.

Paul had been a massive help through all of that. When I was finally ready to come home, he was the one who’d fixed up the house, cleaned it up and thrown open the windows to get rid of the dust. He had the furniture professionally cleaned despite my insistence and hired someone to come in and clean down the bathrooms.

He had been a lifesaver, and I would always be in his debt for that.

“Man, that kid can really run,” Paul said.

His voice pulled me from my thoughts.

“She wears me out,” I said.

“I have no idea how you’re doing it by yourself,” he said. “I finally convinced her to play in her water thing over there for a little bit.”

“You've got some time then. She’ll play in that for another hour.”

“Did you enjoy the block party yesterday?” he asked.

“Yes, though I could’ve done without the sucker you gave Lily. She was bouncing off the walls the rest of the day.”

“Oh, it was just a sucker. She was fine.”

“Ask me next time. That’s all I want,” I said.

“Who was that guy you were talking to?”

“Kevin?” I asked.

“No, the other one.”

“Oh! Graham. Yeah, he’s new to the area, I think. He’s my neighbor.”

“He’s what?”

“My neighbor. Dolores is to my left, and Graham’s to my right,” I said.

The look on Paul’s face was hard to discern. It morphed from shock to confusion before hardening into something I couldn’t decipher. Did that bother him for some reason?

“He’s a good guy. Seems nice enough,” I said.

“You sure about that?” Paul asked.

“I mean, what’s he gonna do?” I asked.

“Do you know anything about him?”

“I know he’s got a soft spot for Lily.”

“You’ve brought him around Lily?”

“She plays in the yard, and he sees her. What’s the big deal?” I asked.

“The big deal is I made a promise to watch out for you and her, and some random guy has appeared out of nowhere.”

“You’re a police officer. Run a background check if you’re so worried about it.”

“Maybe I will,” he said.

“And by the way? You made Bradley a promise to watch out for us, not be overprotective of us.”

“Sorry. I just want you guys to settle in okay,” he said.

“And we are,” I assured him. I watched Paul nod his head as his eyes followed Lily across the yard. She was dumping water into the grass and spinning around, spraying it everywhere and laughing up a storm. Paul was being overprotective, and it was getting annoying, but I understood why he was doing it. Bradley was his best friend, and it changed him when he passed. He caved in on himself and didn’t talk much to others. Outside of Lily and me, I didn’t see him interact with many people on a regular basis anymore.

So I tolerated what I could and called him out on the rest.

“You two getting hungry?” Paul asked.

“What did you have in mind?”

“There’s this new place that opened up in town. Figured we could go try it out. My treat?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Let me. Please.”

“Um, sure, then. Yeah. That sounds fun,” I said.

“Good. Want me to get Lily?”

“I got her. I’m just going to wipe her off before I put her in the car.”

“Oh, no. You’re not driving that heap of junk in the front yard. We can put her car seat in my car and go,” he said.

“Why does everyone hate my car?” I asked

“Because it’s a terrible car for a mother to be driving with her child in it.”

“It’s all I can afford right now.”

“Then, we’ll work to get you another one,” he said.

I collected Lily and got her cleaned up while Paul transferred her car seat. We loaded up into Paul’s SUV and set off down the road. The ride was fairly silent all the way, except for Lily talking our ears off. She wanted to know what kind of food there was and if she could get a soda and if she could have dessert and if it had a play place.

She really was relentless some days.

“Are you and Graham friends?”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Is Graham coming too?” Lily piped up from the back seat.

“Do you want Graham to come?” Paul asked.

“Yeah! I like Graham. He gives me pizza.”

“So he can give her pizza, but I can’t give her a sucker?” Paul asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

“It was a misunderstanding. The pizza delivery guy came to us with something he’d ordered, and Lily kept begging him for a slice,” I said.

Not that it was any of his business anyway.

“What does the inside of his house look like?”

“What?” I asked.

“Did it look put together? Nothing was weird or out of place?” Paul asked.

“Um, no? I mean, I was only in the front hall for a minute or two once.”

“Are you sure? You don’t sound too sure,” he said.

“Paul, you need to take a breath,” I said. “I’m not sure where all this is coming from, but I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

“I only want to make sure you and Lily aren’t stepping into a situation that could be dangerous. A new guy in town with no friends or family that I’ve heard about could be dangerous.”

“Graham’s not dan-jed-ous,” Lily said. “He’s fun. He helped me when I hurt myself.”

“You hurt yourself?” Paul asked. “What happened? Why didn’t you call me?”

“Enough,” I said breathlessly. “Paul, I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me. But now that we’re back in town, you can cool it a bit. It was only a scraped knee. She was fine.”

“You know you can call me if something ever happens.”

“I know, Paul. I know.”

The three of us ate lunch, and the silence was a little awkward. I didn’t feel like talking to Paul anymore, and for the first time, I really just wanted him to go away. He had been acting awfully strange lately.

I was relieved when we rolled into my driveway after lunch.

“Look! Graham!”

Lily flew out of Paul’s car and took off for the man.

“Lily! Slow down,” I said.

I watched as Lily threw her arms around Graham’s leg. He looked down at my daughter as he rifled through his mail. He stopped in his tracks and let Lily hug him, seemingly unfazed at the small girl attached to his hip.

“Lily. Honey. Let’s give Graham some space,” I said. “You don’t have to run up to him every time you see him.”

“That’s sound advice, actually,” Paul said.

I saw Graham’s eyes slowly pan up to meet Paul’s. I pulled Lily from Graham’s leg and brought her next to me. Both men were silent for a while, Graham with a curious stare and Paul with one that seemed more aggressive.

What in the world had gotten into him?

“I’m sorry for her running up to you like that, Graham,” I said.

“No big deal,” he said.

But his eyes didn’t waver from Paul.

“Um, thanks for lunch, Paul. I appreciate it. I’m going to go see if Lily will go down for a nap.”

“Sure. I’ll be in there in a second,” he said.

“No, you can go on home. It’s fine. I’m going to take a nap myself,” I said.

I watched Paul bristle, but for what reason, I had no idea.

I took Lily inside and laid her down, much to her protest. Though she was a little old for naps now, I knew she was tired from her play in the yard and needed to rest. She turned into a little monster when she was overtired, and I didn’t want to have to deal with that later on. I was exhausted by the time I got her laid down and quiet, and I went over to the window to see what was going on.

I was shocked to see Paul still standing out there with Graham.

It looked like Paul was trying to loom over Graham and intimidate him, which was funny considering Graham was bigger. Graham was standing there, his mail in his hand and his eyes locked on Paul’s face. This was enough. I was getting tired of this. Paul needed to back off whatever had gotten into him.

I walked out of the house and headed back for the guys.

“Hey there, Cindy. How’s Lily?” Graham asked.

Paul whipped his head around and immediately backed away from my neighbor.

“She’s fine. About to go to sleep,” I said. “You guys okay out here?”

“Everything’s fine,” Graham said. “Just getting to know Paul here.”

“Really? Because it looked like Paul was trying to interrogate you for some reason,” I said. “Paul, he’s not a criminal in your interrogation room.”

“You work for law enforcement?” Graham asked.

Paul’s eyes locked with Graham’s again, and I sighed with frustration.

“Paul’s a police officer here in Bend. He was an MP in the military,” I said.

“I’ve got this, Cindy.”

“No, what you have is an inability to take a hint. Thank you for coming over and thank you for taking us to lunch. Lily’s always happy to see you, and when you’re not being overbearing, I enjoy seeing you as well. Now, it’s time for you to go home.”

Paul’s eyes fell to me before he started backing toward his car.

“I’ll see you guys soon, okay?” he asked. “Tell Lily I love her.”

“I’m sure she knows,” I said.

I stood out on the front lawn until Paul’s car was no longer in sight. I went to turn and apologize profusely to Graham, but he was nowhere to be seen. I groaned and allowed my head to fall back as my mind swirled with Paul’s demeanor all day.

He was getting worse with each passing day, and I had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with the promise he made to Bradley. Paul did everything he could to the best of his ability. Whether it was his job or being a friend, he always put one hundred and ten percent of his effort into it. So, because he’d told Bradley he would look after me, he was throwing one hundred and ten percent of himself into the job. Especially when it came to Lily. And I got it. I really did. I was overprotective of Lily too.

But he needed to dial it back a bit because it was starting to weird me out.