The Ties That Bind by Andi Marquette Read Free Book Online Page A

and Jeff got out.
    "Hey," I said in greeting as he started down the path along the side of the house that would take him to the small faux-dobe cottage behind it. We had sort of an amenable compound kind of thing going on here. Kara would definitely appreciate it. "Late night?" I asked, teasing.
    He stopped and shrugged, grinning.
    "You want some coffee?"
    "Love some." Instead of continuing down the path to the back yard, he came up the steps. "Where's Sage?"
    I motioned toward the house. "River called."
    "Ah," he said and opened the front security door. "Be right back."
    I leaned back in my chair and watched the neighbor across the street watering her rose bushes. Jeff emerged from the house and took one of the other plastic lawn chairs. He had that "just rolled my happy ass out of bed" hair.
    "So how's Amy?" I asked.
    His smile was so wide I worried it hurt his lips. "I might need to talk to you guys about that."
    "Oh?" I rested my cup on the arm of my chair.
    "We're thinking about--" He paused and cleared his throat. "We're thinking about moving in together."
    "Wow. This is good, right?"
    He studied his coffee. "Yeah. I think so. But I'm not sure yet. We just started talking about it."
    "Good. Don't rush into things. But you've been seeing her for...what? Over a year now. Seems you talk about things as they come up, don't you?"
    He nodded and sipped his coffee.
    "So what are you worried about?"
    "I don't know. Guy stuff, I guess. I don't want to feel like I'm moving in with her just to make her happy." He looked at me, searching.
    "That's definitely not the right reason to move in with somebody. If you're going to do it, make sure it's something you both want. And if she makes you happy, then why wouldn't you move in together?"
    His expression softened. "I really like being around her."
    I hid my smile in my cup just as his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, goofy before he even looked at the ID. He must've programmed different rings into it for different people. "Thanks for the coffee. I'll bring the cup back." He stood.
    "No worries. Say hi to Amy. And you know, Sage might have some insight for you."
    He nodded as he answered the phone and walked down the steps, headed for his place in the back. Love bustin' out all over the place, I thought. I reached for the paper just as Sage opened the security door and came out onto the porch.
    I looked over my left shoulder at her. She was wearing surf shorts and a tank top. "How's River?"
    She didn't answer right away and instead stood in front of the door, arms crossed.
    "What's up?" I let the paper drop back onto the floor. "Honey? Is everything okay?" I started to stand but she moved and put her hand on my shoulder.
    "River's fine. But something strange is going on."
    More strange than that letter? I waited, watching her face, a twinge of foreboding skittering along my spine. She released my shoulder and walked around me to sit in the chair Jeff had vacated. She drummed the fingers of one hand on the plastic armrest. She rarely did that. Something was really bothering her.
    She took a breath and relaxed a bit. "River said he talked last night to a woman who claimed to be Dad's girlfriend."
    I set my coffee cup on the floor and reached over to take Sage's left hand with my right.
    "She wanted to know if Dad had tried to contact River recently."
    "Did he tell her about the letter?"
    "Yeah." Her tone said that she wished he hadn't. "And he of course wanted to know why it's her business."
    Sage started drumming the fingers of her right hand on the armrest again. "She said that he didn't come home last Saturday. He went to work as usual, but after his shift, she didn't hear from him.
    She wasn't too worried because it was the end of a long stretch of work days for him and he had a couple of weeks off and sometimes, she said, he'd go out drinking, especially since his work schedule had been rearranged." Sage made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat. "He obviously