In the Line of Duty by Ami Weaver Read Free Book Online Page A

anymore, but he watches us from heaven.”
    Callie’s throat tightened at the matter-of-fact delivery, and she saw a mirror of her own sorrow flash across Matt’s face. “I know,” he said and his voice was steady. “But he and I were best friends from the time we were your age, Eli.”
    Eli frowned. “You were a kid?”
    Callie nearly choked on her mac and cheese, and she heard Matt’s muffled laugh. “Of course he was, Eli,” she gasped. “All grown-ups were kids once.”
    “You okay, Callie?” Matt asked, the sorrow in his gaze replaced by amusement.
    “Fine,” she managed to reply. She reached for her water glass. Kids and their impeccable timing.
    Matt told them stories about their dad, about the dog he never did get, though not for lack of trying, and Callie was relieved Matt worded things in such a way as not to encourage them to take matters into their own hands. The last thing she needed was to have them decide to get a dog on their own, which was actually how the story of Jason wanting a dog had ended. His parents had made him return the puppy, and he’d ever afterward teased them that he was still traumatized from the incident, even as an adult.
    When the main course was over, she brought in the box of cookies and let them choose one beautifully decorated sugar cookie each. Matt had bought cookies in the shapes of trains and trucks, which were a hit, of course. When the kids went to wash up, she began to clear the table.
    He helped her pick up the plates, but she shooed him out of the kitchen. “It’ll only take me a few minutes to do this.” Also, she was far less likely to drop something if he wasn’t right there, taking up all the air in the room and making her nervous.
    He put the plates in the sink. “All right. I’ll go play with the boys, if that’s okay.”
    “That’s fine,” she murmured, and tried not to focus on the rear view as he left the kitchen. She shut her eyes instead. Then opened them quickly when she realized how stupid she’d look, standing there with her eyes closed, if he turned and caught her.
    Callie heard the rattling of the Lego bricks as the boys opened the cartons, and then the chatter of their voices and the lower tones of Matt’s. While it was a happy sound, it still made her heart hurt. She braced her arms on the counter and let her head fall forward.
    Tears blurred her vision for just a moment. Jason had never gotten the chance to play with Lego sets with his sons. They’d been far too little when he died. Liam hadn’t been two yet. It should have been Jason in there—but it wasn’t, and no amount of wishing would make it so.
    She shrugged her shoulders and focused on cleaning the kitchen. It was sweet of Matt to make time for her boys. After all, they were an important link for him, too, to the friend he’d lost.
    She went out there after she’d put the last plate in the dishwasher. Truthfully, she could have waited on cleaning up. It was a pretty simple meal. But it was a kind of buffer between her and these weird feelings she was experiencing toward Matt, and she needed to shore up her defenses again. Laughter—and a friendly bark—erupted from the living room, and she dried her hands on a towel before she went back out to see what was going on. She had to pause when she caught sight of them.
    Both boys were piled on Matt, and he was laughing along with them. Aldo was in there, too, tongue lolling and tail going a mile a minute. Lego towers had collapsed and scattered—maybe due to the tail—and she thought there was a block under Matt’s hip, but he never let on. The boys laughed gleefully, full-on belly laughs that made her smile even as her heart stuttered. She made herself walk in there, and hoped her pounding heart wasn’t obvious to Matt.
    “Wow, what are you guys doing to Mr. Bowden?” she teased, and he caught her eye with a wink. Her mouth actually went dry. If a man playing with her kids could make her all mushy inside—and it