Flamingo Diner

Harley looked pleased as punch that someone was taking him seriously. “Maureen Polk, maybe. She’s been looking to get married again. She’s even cast her eye in my direction.”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “Just shows the sort of taste she has. Don would never give a woman like that the time of day.”

“Anyone else?” Matt asked.

Harley’s expression turned thoughtful. “You know he was huddled with that Sawyer girl an awful lot.”

Gabe hooted. “Are you crazy? Jennifer Sawyer is young enough to be his daughter. She went to school with you, didn’t she, Matt?”

Matt nodded slowly, unwilling to comment. His own relationship with Jennifer hadn’t been common knowledge. He’d seen the financial consultant at Flamingo Diner just about every morning, but few people had suspected that they hadn’t simply bumped into each other there by accident. When Jennifer had wanted their relationship to go public and Matt had broken it off, he’d managed to avoid her. In all that time, Matt couldn’t recall Don paying any particular attention to Jennifer. Besides, Don wouldn’t so much as innocently flirt right under Rosa’s nose, much less start a torrid affair with a woman half his age. Matt wouldn’t believe it of him, not without hard proof. And for a while there, Jennifer hadn’t had time to be involved with another man. He could swear to that.

Harley’s expression turned sour. “Don’t either of you think that Don was above such a thing. There’s not a man on the planet who can’t be tied up in knots by a female, and that’s the truth. You talk to her, Matt. I’m willing to bet that Sawyer woman knows something.”

“Bet what?” Gabe demanded at once. “Put some money on the line and make it interesting.”

“The only place I bet is the racetrack,” Harley retorted piously. “And Gabe Jenkins, you should be ashamed of turning this into some sort of sleazy way to make a couple of bucks.”

Gabe did have the grace to look abashed by the criticism. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

Matt regarded them both sternly. “I hope neither of you let Rosa or Emma hear your wild ideas. This has been difficult enough for them. Right now Don’s death is considered an accident, period. Are we clear on that?”

“Absolutely,” Harley said at once, obviously horrified that Matt would think he might share his speculation with the family.

“She won’t hear a word from me, either,” Gabe assured him.

Satisfied, Matt left them and went in search of Emma. She’d left the room a half hour earlier and hadn’t reappeared.

He found her out by the pool, sitting on the edge, her bare feet dangling in the water, her cheeks streaked with tears. The vulnerable expression in her eyes when she looked up tore at him.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked.

She shrugged.

Matt kicked off his shoes, ripped off his socks and rolled up his pants legs before dropping down beside her. The pool was bathwater warm. On any other occasion, he’d have been tempted to search for a spare bathing suit inside the house and jump right in.

“A swim would feel good about now,” he said just to make conversation.

“Believe me, I thought about jumping in with my clothes on, but I figured everyone would panic and think I was trying to drown myself,” Emma retorted with a wry glance in his direction.

“Emma, no one would make comparisons with what happened to your father. As far as most of the people here are concerned, he died in an accident.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “I saw you huddled with Gabe and Harley. They were good friends of Dad’s. Do they think it was an accident?”

“Gabe and Harley are bored. They’re always looking for excitement,” he said carefully.

“In other words, they think there’s something off with the way he died, too,” she said. “What do they know?”

“They don’t know anything,” Matt insisted. “They’re just speculating.”

She started to get to her feet. “I need to talk to them.”

“Not now,” he insisted, catching her hand and pulling her back down beside him. “I know everything they know and it’s nothing we can do anything about right this second. I’ll follow up on it tomorrow. You need to get some rest.”

“As if I can,” she said wearily. “Do you think any of us will be able to look at anyone else ever again without wondering if there’s some dark secret at work? If my dad could kill himself, is there anyone who’s not susceptible to suicide as a way out?”

“You,” Matt said with certainty. “And I wish you would stop saying that your dad killed himself. We don’t know that.”

“I do,” Emma said. “I don’t want to believe it, but I can’t ignore what my heart is telling me. As for me not being likely to kill myself, I don’t see how you can say that. Everyone always said Dad and I were a lot alike.”

“And you were, but you have your mother’s strength. Problems don’t daunt you. You pitch in and look for solutions.”

Emma seemed surprised by his analysis. “What makes you say that?”

Matt grinned. “Remember the time you broke your brother’s bike? You’d borrowed it without permission, then ended up smashing it into a tree. I’ve never seen such a mess, but when I came along you weren’t crying or wringing your hands. You looked me straight in the eye and asked me if I could sneak back to the house and get some tools and help you put it back together.”

She leaned into him for a second. “You were definitely my hero that day.”

Matt gazed into her eyes and barely resisted the desire to sigh. If only he could have stayed her hero.

Then again, maybe he was getting a second chance now, though he wondered how she’d feel if she knew he’d carried on a brief, but torrid affair with the woman Gabe and Harley thought might also have been linked to her father.

“You’re doing the same thing now,” he told her, forcing himself to focus on the present, not the past. “You’re trying to fix this, doing what needs to be done, even though your heart is breaking.”

“I suppose,” she said. “But it’s one thing to come home and organize a funeral, to get meals on the table, and try to lift everyone’s spirits. It’s quite another to know what to do next.”

“You’ll figure it out. When the time comes, the answer will come to you.”

She regarded him skeptically. “What if I don’t like the answer?”

He knew what she was really worried about. She was terrified that she was going to be needed here indefinitely, when her life—the life she loved—was elsewhere.

“Then you’ll come up with a better one,” he said confidently. “Or if there’s only one solution, then you’ll make peace with it.”

“You make it sound so easy,” she said, sounding wistful.

“Not easy,” Matt corrected. “I know nothing about this is easy, but I have every confidence that you’re up to the challenge.” He glanced over and saw the sad, lost expression on her face, and decided that what Emma needed more than anything right now was to get her mind off the future. He elbowed her gently in the ribs to get her attention.

“Last one to the other end is a rotten egg,” he taunted, already shoving off the edge of the pool.

She stared after him in shock. Then a grin slowly spread across her face and she, too, pushed off.

Emma was a strong swimmer, more than strong enough to be a match for his greater height and head start. They touched the far end of the pool at the same instant and came out of the water laughing.

“You’re crazy,” she said, but her eyes were sparkling for the first time since she’d returned home.

Matt figured that ruining his best suit pants in all that chlorine was a small price to pay to see Emma happy. It might be a very temporary fix, but at least it was a reminder to both of them that life went on, that laughter was still possible even in the face of tragedy.

Just then she reached up, her hand cool against his cheek. “Thank you,” she said quietly.