For the third time.
Not that he was keeping track or anything. Hoisting two huge snowballs, he threw one at Amory as she squealed and tried to outrun it—she couldn’t—and then used his second snowball to nail Zoe.
It was the last thing he did before being jumped by both of them and tackled down to the ground, where he got snow in places that no one should get snow.
They landed in Sunshine fairly late. The plan was to keep Amory and Henry until the morning, when Parker would drive them to the Coeur d’Alene airport and put them on a plane home.
When they all walked into the reception hangar, Parker saw Kel standing at the front desk looking tense. He had another officer with him. Both locked eyes on Parker.
Parker slowed and pulled Amory aside. “Remember when you told me you called Mom and Dad?”
“Uh-huh.”
Amory was a lot of things, and guileless was one of them. She didn’t have a poker face and she couldn’t lie worth shit. She just didn’t have the conscience for it.
Which was why he knew he’d been had; it was all over her face. “You didn’t call them, did you?”
“I did,” she said, and then her face crumpled with guilt. “Just not today.”
“What’s wrong?” Zoe asked quietly, eyes on Kel.
“I don’t know.” Parker ruffled his sister’s hair. “Stay here, Am, with Zoe and Henry.” And then he walked toward Kel.
Kel came forward to meet him. “Hey, turns out you were right about Carver going back to the scene of the crime. Only it wasn’t Carver himself. He’d sent back two of his militia to see if the coast was clear and we nabbed them. They squealed like good little pigs and gave up the rest of the militia’s scattered whereabouts and we found Carver with two of them holed up.”
Parker let out a relieved breath. “Damn. They got him.”
“You got him,” Kel said.
Parker knew his agency wouldn’t see it that way, but he was still more relieved than anything else because with Carver locked up, Zoe would truly be safe.
“I’ve got something you might be interested in,” Kel said.
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“A job. The way you handled yourself with Carver got around, your under-the-radar investigative skills, how you dealt with him here, which could’ve ended so badly. My buddy at the ATF says if your agency’s stupid enough to let you go over what happened, they want you. They have a supervisory position open in the county office about forty-five minutes from here.” He glanced over Parker’s shoulder at Zoe and then met Parker’s gaze again. “Something to think about if you were feeling the urge to stick around,” he said, reaching out his hand to shake Parker’s.
“No!” Amory yelled, and suddenly she was standing in front of Parker, arms spread wide, blocking him off from Kel. “You can’t take my brother, I won’t let you!”
Kel was tall, so tall he had to bend down to look into Amory’s panicked eyes. “You’re his sister, right? I’m a friend of your brother’s. Where do you think I’m taking him?”
“Jail!” she wailed.
“I’m not taking him to jail,” Kel said. “I’m not taking him anywhere.”
Amory blinked. “You’re not?”
“Nope.”
“Pinkie-promise?” she asked.
Kel solemnly held out his pinky finger.
Just as solemnly Amory shook it with hers.
Then Kel’s gaze met Parker’s over her head. “Think about it,” he said. He looked at Zoe then and smiled, and then he walked away.
Parker looked at Zoe and realized she’d either heard what had happened or figured it out because her eyes were warm and relieved and . . . shit. Full of pride. For him, which he wasn’t sure he deserved. He gave her a smile and then turned Amory around to face him.
Her eyes filled. “I’m sorry I lied,” she said. “But Mom and Dad would’ve made me come right home and I wanted to see the snow, Parker! They don’t understand that you want me to have adventures.”
“Amory,” he said softly. “The adventures are for you, not me. You don’t ever have to do anything you don’t want to, especially with me.”
“But I love it when you’re happy,” she whispered.
Chest tight, he found a smile. “Same goes.”
“I know they think you’re an influence on me, but they’re wrong, Parker. You’re not an influence at all, and even if you were, you’re my favorite influence.”
And then she flung herself into his arms and sobbed.
He sighed. “Amory, do you know what influence means?”
“No, and I don’t care,” she sobbed into his shirt.
He stroked her back. “It’s when someone has a special advantage over you and has the ability to change your mind on something.”
She stopped crying and stared up at him. “Oh,” she breathed, swallowing hard. “Then they’re right. You are an influence on me, Parker!”
“And you’re one on me,” he said. “And because you are, I know you. I know you pretty well.” He tweaked her hair. “I called Mom and Dad, Amory.”
She blinked slow as an owl as she absorbed this. “So you’re not in trouble?”
“Not any more than usual,” he said.
She winced with guilt all over her face. “I didn’t mean to mess anything up. I just wanted—”
“What?” he asked.
“To make you see me as . . . normal.”
“Normal is overrated,” he said. “You’re perfect just the way you are. I just don’t want you to be limited, or accept the path that others put you on. I want you to live the life you deserve.”
“I know.” She looked down. “Sometimes the people who stare at me,” she said quietly. “They say mean things, like I’m never going to be smart. You’re not like them, but sometimes you look at me all sad. You’re sad for me. But, Parker, I feel sad for you.”
“Why?” he asked, completely baffled.
“I know that you think my life isn’t good. but it is,” she said earnestly. “It’s good because I have Henry. But all you have is work and you won’t even let Zoe be your girlfriend and she likes you so much. And you like her back, too, I can tell.”
Well, she had him there. He turned to look at Zoe and found her watching them, her eyes suspiciously shiny, which made his chest hurt. “Want to know something?” he asked Amory softly.
“Yes!”
“I think you’re smarter than me.”
She grinned.
Adoption day dawned bright and warm. Parker got up early to take Bonnie and Clyde to Belle Haven. He had them in the kitchen, where they were busy tormenting Oreo on his bed while Parker made coffee.
He was leaning back against the counter watching Bonnie climb onto Oreo’s head while Clyde cuddled between the dog’s two massive front paws when it hit him. This was the kittens’ last day.
And his. He was going back to his life, just as he’d wanted.
Zoe did her usual morning stagger into the kitchen. She wore a big T-shirt that fell to her thighs—his, he realized, his coffee mug frozen halfway to his lips. She had on one sock, the other foot bare. Her hair was . . . everywhere.