“I HAVE TO go to the potty.”
Heather looked down at Bella and searched her face. She detected a slight frisson of unease in the child’s voice and sighed. They were asking a lot of the little girl, and though Brody’s daughter was handling most of the changes in her world like a champ, there were times like these when she was just a baby. And needed the love of a parent to help her through.
Shutting the magazine she’d been reading, Heather smiled and made a comical face.
“Me too!”
Glancing at Brody where he stood talking to Captain Sawyer, she had to smile at the well-mannered way Georgie sat by his feet.
“How about we hit the ladies’ room and then maybe take the pup for one last run on the grass so he can go too.”
“Yes, yes,” Bella agreed enthusiastically. “Can I hold the leash?”
“Well, he’s your dog, so the answer would be yes.”
It hadn’t taken but a hot minute after Bella’s arrival for the little girl to claim the pup as her own. Seeing how her daddy reacted and being aware of the kid’s instant attachment to the canine struck her at the time like destiny.
Waving to Brody when he looked their way, she communicated with him by sign language and trotted off with Bella to the ladies’ room. Peeing accomplished, bum wiped, hands washed, and after a final mirror check, she looked down at her mini-me and chuckled.
Dressed alike, they were wearing jeans, sneakers, and Justice hoodies with plain t-shirts underneath. Not very glamorous, that was for sure, but Bella developed this thing for copying whatever Heather did. So she wore the clothes they wanted the little girl to be comfortable in. The Justice branded shirts, hoodies, and baseball caps became touchstones for Bella once they explained how they were all a part of Family Justice.
She needed to belong.
So Brody lavished all his attention on his only daughter, sometimes earning a strong scolding from Heather when he went too far. Bella tried not to show it, but she found it funny when Daddy got his butt chewed for yet another run to the ice cream parlor or the time he lost his shit completely and bought out half the mall during a shopping excursion with just the two of them.
It all seemed so achingly normal.
Leaving the East Coast behind several days before they’d originally planned wasn’t anywhere near as traumatic or wrenching as she had feared. Bella’s appearance in her life delighted Heather’s parents to the point where they’d jumped on the train and come straight to Maryland the minute they learned of the child’s situation.
At the time, poor Bella was so overwhelmed that each day was a struggle. But her mom was a pro and arrived with a very special one-of-a-kind present that changed everything.
Explaining to the frightened, lost child that she was just the little girl to adopt Heather’s favorite childhood doll, she made a production out of unwrapping the original Cabbage Patch Kids doll named Kelly Anne that had been Heather’s most prized girlhood possession.
Bella was entranced from the get-go. The adoption papers, the whole deal, were a thunderbolt of inspiration. To Bella, Kelly Anne was a lot like she was. A little girl hoping for a place to call home.
Her parents took the news of them relocating to Arizona with an enthusiasm that pleased Brody and which she found bemusing.
“Trying to get rid of me?” she’d teased her mom.
“Oh, god no,” was the answer. “Daddy and I are just so thrilled to see you happy at last, honey. Brody is a good man, and that little girl needs you. And besides, Arizona isn’t on Mars. Even Travis thinks this is a great move, and believe me—he won’t hesitate to come visit with the kids.”
The memory invoked the feeling she’d had earlier—that everything happening now just felt so completely normal.
“How about some lip balm?” she asked while fishing around in her bag.
Bella enthusiastically nodded.
Finding the collection of round eos spheres she collected like pennies, Heather pulled out a purple and a pink one and asked, “Which?”
Fiddling with her ponytail, Bella considered the choice. “Can I be purple and you be pink?”
Dropping to her knee beside the child, Heather winked and said, “Sounds good to me.”
Making a smooching noise through puckered lips that Bella copied, she swiped the fruity smelling balm on the child’s lips. “Give them a smack,” she teased.
Bella giggled and blew a kiss. “My turn.”
Heather handed over the pink eos, puckered up, and let the adorable five-year-old smash the balm onto her lips.
Her mom handled the Chapstick ritual for them the same way when she was growing up, so that was what Heather did with Bella.
After finishing and handing the balm back, Bella looked at her in all seriousness and asked, “How come Daddy doesn’t wear lip balm?”
The child had a thousand questions. Maybe she should write an article, a thought she quickly dismissed. Bella wasn’t a client, and she wasn’t working a case. They were establishing a parent-child relationship, and though she wasn’t married to Brody and wasn’t sure she would ever be, the bond they were developing had Heather feeling like a mother.
With a soft laugh, she took the child’s hand and started walking back to the terminal. “Daddy would look silly in makeup. He’s a boy, and boys don’t do what girls do.”
“But he has long hair.”
True. The long hair was one of the many changes she’d been adjusting to in the man. By her count, it must have been a year since he bothered with more than a trim. The first time he put it in a ponytail, she had lectured him for half an hour about how the ponytail was sexy but that he was never, ever to even think about a man bun. She had to put her foot down where that was concerned.
Hmmm. The girl was smart and asked challenging questions, but she had an easy answer.
“You know how sometimes we play dress up?”
Bella giggled. “You looked funny as a fireman.”
Brody and George came into view. “Well, right now, Daddy is sort of playing dress up.”
They stopped walking and looked at each other. “Remember how I told you that Daddy is a cowboy?”
Bella’s eyes sparkled with delight. “Yep.”
“Well, Bella Mia, Daddy’s dress up cowboy has long hair. And as long as he doesn’t wear pigtails or use any of our princess clips, he can have all the long hair he wants.”
The lighthearted moment crashed and burned a second later. Soberly and with a quivering lip, the little girl whispered, “I don’t want my hair cut.”
Rage bubbled up inside. Sheer, incandescent mother-bear rage. Those sons of bitches running the pathetic excuse for a survivalist’s camp not only corralled all the kids in a pen exposed to the elements, but they also routinely cut off each child’s hair on their birthday.
Motherfuckers.
“Sweetie,” she assured the girl with a warm squeeze of her fingers, “it’s your hair. You decide how to wear it. Long or short. It’s up to you, okay?”
Brody sauntered over just as she ended her statement. “Heather says you’re a cowboy, Daddy.”
“Did she?” He chuckled. Stooping to kiss Bella’s head, he then leaned in and stole a very nice kiss from Heather before straightening and flashing his signature grin.
“So does that make my girls lady cowboys?”
Bella cracked up giggling and corrected her father. “Daddy!” she chided. “Cowgirls!”
Heather laughed too. “That’s right! Cowgirls, Daddy. Not lady cowboys.”
They glanced at each other and smiled.
Georgie sat next to his new best friend and licked her face. Brody handed off the leash. “Your pup needs a quick walk, Bella Mia, and then we’re off to our new house.”
From behind Brody, Captain Sawyer stepped into their midst. Bella immediately ducked her head, clung to the dog’s leash, and moved so close to her father she practically crawled inside his pants leg.
“Your luggage has been loaded into a van and is already headed to the house. I see Ben just arrived with the agency limo.” With a crooked grin, he said dryly, “Looks like you’re riding in style.”
Brody rolled his eyes and muttered, “Aw, Jesus.”
Heather thought his aw-shucks attitude to being a big-time managing director of a world-class security agency was downright charming, but the perks bothered him for some reason. The private plane. The limo. The first class service wherever they went.
Sawyer smacked him good-naturedly on the back. “Now, come on, Jensen. Justice is a big deal around here, so you’d best get used to the fringe benefits.”
He looked down at the small girl trying so very hard to be invisible. Crouching down to her level, he took off his captain’s hat and extended his hand for her to shake.
“Miss Jensen, it was a pleasure to meet you, little lady.”
She and Brody held their breaths, waiting to see what the little girl did.
A fast learner, she picked up manners quickly. Heather was proud of her when she tentatively shook the uniformed man’s hand.
“Thank you, Cap’n Sawyer.”
He gravely shook her hand then asked teasingly, “Hey. Wanna try my hat on?”
“Can I?”
Bella looked up at her daddy and grinned ear-to-ear when he nodded his approval.
“Sure, Bella Mia,” Sawyer said with a chuckle as he fit the big hat onto her smaller head and adjusted it so she could see.
“Take my picture, Daddy!”
Brody reached into a pocket for his phone, and Heather saw how tough a time he was having swallowing. Crouching like Sawyer, he snapped several shots and even got the captain to move in close for one.
Heather stood by watching the two grown men on their knees and their gentle interplay with the young child. Out of the blue, she found herself counting all the really good men she was fortunate to know. Her dad, of course. And Travis. And Brody. Good god, Brody. What an extraordinary human. And then there were the Justice men. Honestly, she was still processing what she’d come to know about all of them.
Now, she added Sawyer to the list. She’d met him previously when she accompanied Brody to the Justice wedding in Boston. This time, however, maybe because of Bella’s complex situation, he was more a funny uncle than a buttoned-up aviation professional.
She thought of all the years when she’d let one fucked-up asshole’s effect on her life run the whole show. One guy. Just one.
Her life changed immeasurably the minute she let the majority vanquish the one.
Wait, she snickered with a gentle laugh. She forgot a very important guy. George. Bella had dropped his leash when Captain Sawyer shook her hand, but the dog never budged from his protective spot at her side.
Two grown-ass men gushing over some cell phone pics made her insides all warm and gooey.
“Daddy,” Bella asked hesitantly. “Can we send a picture to Heather’s mommy?”
Brody looked up and caught her gaze. He was struggling and let Heather see just how much. Every day, she loved this man more than the day before.
“Sure, honey. Which one?”
They scrolled and tapped, negotiating which shot was best. The captain even offered his opinion. In the end, they agreed the one of Bella and Sawyer saluting into the camera was the best one to send. Brody started the text message, inserted the pic, and then let his little girl press the key to send it.
“Here comes Ben,” Sawyer announced as he stood up and winced. “Good lord, did you hear that?”
Brody was chuckling. “You sound like coffee beans grinding.”
The captain put his hat on and shook his head. “I know, right? My damn knee.”
“Football injury?” Brody asked.
The two men stared at each other. She knew a dude exchange when she saw one. Without anyone telling her different, she was absolutely certain Captain Sawyer’s cricks and cracks had nothing to do with sports and probably a whole hell of a lot to do with something darker. Something unpleasant. The looks they exchanged prompted her to make a mental note to ask Brody at some point what Sawyer’s story was.
“Mr. Jensen. Ms. Clarke.”
She looked over Brody’s shoulder and found Ben approaching. He looked like a Wild West sheriff dressed in black pants, a bright white shirt topped with a black vest, and a bolo tie around his neck. In his hand was a straw hat tied with a hot pink polka dot ribbon. Either Ben had questionable taste in headwear or he came bearing a present for Bella.
While he greeted and shook hands with Brody and the captain, Heather sidled close to Bella and leaned down to pick up George’s leash.
“Daddy has a lot of friends.”
A truer statement would be hard to pin down.
As usual, when the three men turned toward them and moved forward, Bella huddled closer to Heather. She smoothed a hand down the girl’s hair and broke the tension with a happy laugh.
“That’s because your daddy is one of the good guys. Remember when we talked about that, sweetie?”
Bella nodded. It was enough. From somewhere deep inside, the remarkable little girl found the strength to meet every new situation head-on. She was a fighter, this one. Just like her father. Life threw a ton of shit at both of them, but they were still standing.
Hell. Heather too. The three of them knew what it was like to go to hell and back.
Brody came, took Bella’s hand, and gently tugged her forward for an introduction.
“Honey,” he said. “This is Mr. Ben. He’s going to drive us to the new house in a great big fancy car. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
Bella nodded and clung to her father’s hand.
“Can you say hello?”
The little girl didn’t look so sure she wanted any part of Ben. When she looked up at her dad’s face, he smiled big and ran his fingers down her cheek. “It’s okay, baby Bella.”
She was biting her lip when she stepped up and offered the older man a shaky hand. “Hello, Mr. Ben. I’m Bella Jensen.”
Ben took her little hand and shook. “Miss Jensen,” he cutely drawled. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Every day brought another opportunity to see Bella Mia Jensen in a new light, and today was no exception. With all the aplomb of a polished schmoozer, she gave Ben a big smile and pointed at the dog.
“This is Georgie. He doesn’t bite. You can pet him if you want.”
Brody laughed, then slapped a serious expression on his face and cleared his throat when Heather frowned at him.
The next five minutes were entirely devoted to a captivating conversation between Ben and the five-year-old about dogs and their pooping habits. Apparently, Bella was more invested in her dog’s health than anyone knew.
Finally, when it was clear Bella had yet another admirer, Ben offered her the child-sized cowgirl hat with little fanfare.
“You’ll need this, Miss Bella,” he told her with an expression on his face that children recognized as one that meant business. “Pretty little gals like you need to be careful in the sun.”
She looked at the hat with suspicion and asked Heather, “Do you have a hat?”
Brody’s eyes widened with an ‘Oh, shit’ look. She did not as of yet have her western wardrobe on point. Mostly, she was hoping to get by in jeans and t-shirts until she had a chance to do some shopping. The last couple of months had been all about Bella and the move.
“Of course,” she assured the child. “Um, they’re in one of the boxes we sent,” she answered.
Three points for thinking on her toes. Luckily, Bella automatically accepted Heather’s answer at face value.
“Thanks, Mr. Ben,” she chirped as she accepted the hat. “Can I wear it now?”
“How ‘bout you just hold on to it, okay?” he answered. “It’s hot outside, but we’re going straight from the terminal to the car.”
“But I can wear it at my new house?”
“Damn straight!” Ben chuckled.
Brody groaned. Heather rolled her eyes. Sawyer chuckled, and Ben looked at all of them and said, “What?”
Sawyer set the man straight. “Ixnay on the amday,” he said with a pointed look in Bella’s direction.
Took Ben a minute and then he laughed. “Oh, shit,” he muttered. “My bad.”
Heather rolled with it and smiled. Keeping a lid on the language Bella heard was going to be next to impossible around these guys.