Story Length: Short Story

1,000-7,499 words

Herdsman and Plow

“Are you sure there are going to be meteors tonight?”

Lee shifted Amanda in his arms as they huddled against the wall of her garage. “I looked it up. The meteor shower is supposed to be unusually bright this year. Plus, the moon’s waning.”

“What about all the streetlights? We are in the city, after all.”

He kissed her temple. “Look, if you want to go back inside or over to my place, that’s fine.” He’d initially suggested they try the roof of his building, but she’d nixed that, so they’d agreed to meet in her back yard at one-thirty a.m. He’d been on time, waiting, and had just about decided to risk another climb up the trellis when she’d finally come out, apologizing for sleeping through her alarm.

“I told you why I need to stay here,” Amanda replied, and she had: her mother had been complaining about her late nights again, and her boys tended to get up earlier in the summer than they did during the school year. It wasn’t the first time her family’s needs had played havoc with their plans, and it wouldn’t be the last, but he’d signed up for this. “Oh, look! There’s one!”

He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he’d missed it. “I’ll have to watch for the next one. Or I guess I could just wait until they’re reflected in your eyes.”

She gave him a tender smile. “That’s so sweet of you.”

Lee’s response was another kiss to her temple. “You bring that out in me, Amanda m—” Not for the first time, he cut himself off before he could finish the endearment: Amanda mine. While she used such language as a matter of course, bestowing her “sweethearts” liberally, he’d trained himself out of any such habit a long time ago. They didn’t mix well with short-term flings. Unfortunately, that was all he’d had for…he shook his head, trying to remember exactly how long it had been since the last time he’d tried anything more, before abruptly bringing himself back to the present. Those liaisons didn’t matter now. This relationship did. He wanted it to last a long time.

Maybe, he’d wondered a couple times lately, even for the rest of their lives. But it had only been a few weeks, and tonight wasn’t the time to think about that anyway.

Another meteor streaked across the sky. Amanda’s delighted gasp was like music, and he couldn’t help his own happy grin. Well, why not? She already knew him well enough to know he’d enjoy this. It was past time to squelch his habit of playing his emotional cards so close to the vest that they were practically inside it. Before this summer, he hadn’t realized just how ingrained it had gotten.

Before this summer, he wasn’t sure that would have mattered to him.

“Lee?” asked Amanda softly. “Is everything all right?”

He shook his head to clear it. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? It’s awfully late.”

“I’ve been on stakeouts later than this. So have you.”

She snuggled back against him. “With lots of coffee and the radio. Well, we have the coffee, but it’s so quiet out here. And dark. I hadn’t realized what it could be like this time of night. Which meteor shower did you say we were watching again?”

“The June Boötids.”

“Interesting name.”

“It’s supposedly because they appear near the constellation Boötes, which is an old Greek word that means ‘herdsman’ or ‘ox driver.’ That must have been what they imagined they saw when they looked up at the sky. He supposedly has his plow with him, too, working on his field.”

“Astronomers do a lot of that thing anyway.”

“A lot of what thing?”

“Use Greek and Latin instead of more modern languages.”

“Hey,” he responded. “Greek’s still a living language. There are even a couple of people around the Agency who speak it.”

“Okay, ancient Greek,” she amended, but then he felt her body tense. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Lee, I think there’s someone out there.”

“Out where?” He looked around but didn’t notice anything amiss.

She pushed to her feet. “In the yard. I don’t think we’re the only ones here!”

He jumped up beside her, reaching automatically for his gun before remembering he’d left it locked up at his apartment. Stargazing in a suburban back yard wasn’t exactly a high-risk activity.

Then Amanda took a single sharp breath and stalked toward the gazebo. “Phillip Thomas King! You get out here this instant!”

There was a scramble of movement inside, before a disheveled teenager appeared. “Mom? What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

“I live here!”

“So do I!” he shouted.

“Well, what are you doing out here in the middle of the night? And who else is in that gazebo with you?”

“Nobody.”

“You’re already in major hot water, buster. Don’t make it worse by lying.”

Phillip’s expression became sheepish. “Come on out, Mindy. It’s just my mother, and she won’t leave until you do.”

“‘Just’ your mother?” It sounded as though Amanda’s temper was quickly heating to a full burn. “And where does your mother think you are, young lady? Who is she, anyway? I need to give her a call.”

“No!” shouted Phillip and Mindy at the same time. Then the girl appeared, and despite himself Lee had to admit that Phillip had good taste. She was the same age as he was and would have been an absolute knockout if not for the abject fear in her expression.

“You,” snapped Amanda, “are thirteen years old. That is way too young to be sneaking girls into that gazebo at all hours of the night! Especially if you’re doing things that mean you need a few minutes after someone catches you!”

“Mom! We were just fooling around.”

Amanda folded her arms, demanding further details, and Lee couldn’t keep the smile off his face. She’d be upset, he knew, once she got over the shock. But it didn’t seem like anything worse had been going on in the gazebo besides what they themselves might have gotten up to. He’d already been busted for doing a lot worse at Phillip’s age, although at the time his tastes had run more toward older, well-developed girls.

Lee shook his head at the irony, even as he saw a light appear in an upstairs window: either Dotty or Jamie had been awakened by the noise. That would mean even more embarrassment and, potentially, one of those dreaded “family meetings” Amanda had sometimes described.

It also meant that Amanda was about to march all of them into the house so that she could call Mindy’s mother. Which meant that this date of theirs, too, had been thwarted by the presence of someone else. Lee sighed and slipped along the edge of the garage until he could make his way through her next-door neighbor’s yard. He’d see her later, at the Agency, and encourage her to decompress then. Or, if she was exhausted, he’d send her back home to sleep.

Hopefully, he thought, nobody would remember her avoidance of Phillip’s question about what she had been doing in the back yard to begin with.

Twins Lounge

Amanda had never tried Ethiopian food before. It was definitely something she wanted to try again, though, at least the tegabino shiro in front of her. The dish was a purée of chickpeas, and the spices and flavoring were amazing. It was an excellent side to the shekla tibs that Lee had ordered, and the combination was more than enough to feed both of them.

In the restaurant’s stage area, a jazz quartet had just finished tuning up. They were beginning to noodle around some jams. The hosts of this newly opened venue, twin sisters who’d immigrated a few years before, had said there might be dancing later. Amanda hoped so, although the placement of the tables in the tiny space gave her a little pause.

“Penny for your thoughts,” said Lee as he took some more of the shiro.

“Cost you a nickel,” she countered with a smile. “Inflation.”

He made a show out of reaching into his pocket for some change, but she stopped him with a laugh. “What’s the matter, Stetson? Can’t stand to have your own words thrown back at you?”

“I have never,” he informed her, “charged you for my thoughts.” His tone was grave, but his dancing eyes gave away his actual mood.

“Yes, you have,” she reminded him. “I clearly remember you saying that to me outside the grocery store, the first time my paycheck got screwed up.”

He shook his head. “That was different.”

“Oh? How so?”

“We weren’t dating then.”

“That makes it different?”

His smile bordered on the devilish. “That makes everything different.”

“Oh, I hope not,” she bantered back. “Because I kind of like seeing you during the day.”

“I do too. Most of the time.”

“Most of the time?” She decided not to let the words sting. Chances are he’d simply put his foot in his mouth again.

“Yeah. Most of the time. But not all, because sometimes I just want to pull you into the vault and —”

“You see that as a problem?”

“Of course I do. Because I can’t do it.” His hand slipped around the table toward hers. “That stupid agreement about how we’re going to act at work.”

“It’s not stupid,” she responded automatically. They’d had this disagreement before. “It’s so we can keep working together. You know that. If someone were to find out, Dr. Smyth might break us up and Mr. Melrose wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

“Hey,” he said gently. “I’m not trying to start another argument. I just wanted to tell you how gorgeous you sometimes look. It’s always on my mind, and there are times it just drives me crazy.”

Amanda relented, forcing a smile and hoping the actual sentiment would kick back in. “All right. I’ll let it drop.”

“I hope so, ’cause you heard Ms. Tesfaye when we came in. I can’t wait to dance with you tonight.” He picked up her hand to kiss the tips of her fingers. “Oh. These taste like the shiro.”

“You see that as a problem?”

“Absolutely not.” He gently sucked one fingertip into his mouth, and she shivered at the feel of it. The gossip in the steno pool was that Lee Stetson was absolutely amazing in bed, amazing enough to overlook his tendency to get bored after a few dates. Amanda preferred not to do such things right away, if at all. That had, in fact, been one of the reasons she’d hesitated about a romantic relationship with him.

She’d been stunned when he’d expressed the sentiment first. “We’ll know, if and when the right time comes,” he’d said that day in the Q-Bureau. “And waiting until then will only make it better. For now, though…”

Since then, they’d kept themselves to cuddling, touching, and kissing — all outside of work, of course — and that was more than enough to leave her breathless sometimes. Like now. When she couldn’t help but thinking about doing more than that as his tongue flicked over the end of her finger. The warm, velvety texture sent sparks arcing up into her arm. “You’re not giving me much of an incentive to dance.”

“Oh, now,” he said, “we can’t have that.”

“Assuming there’s even going to be dancing. I know what Ms. Tesfaye said, and the band certainly seems the right kind. But I can’t see where we’d do it. I suppose you could move the tables and chairs back, but even that wouldn’t give us a lot of room, especially if they’re going to be playing swing music. Mother taught me how to do that when I was little, you know, and it takes a lot of space per couple.”

“Amanda,” he said softly. “I don’t want to dance swing with you.”

Now the electrical sparks lanced through her whole body. “What do you want to dance, then?”

“I think you know.” His voice lowered to a purr. “We won’t need a lot of room for that.”

“Lee, we’re in public.”

“I know. But it’s dark in here, and there’s nobody we know, so why should we care? As long as we don’t get ourselves arrested or thrown out, it should be fine.”

“— fine,” echoed another voice, across the room, at the same time. The voice was all too familiar, and made Amanda turn around in her seat.

She froze at what she saw. “Lee! It’s — it’s Francine! And one of her dates?”

“What?” He stretched to look over her head. “The hell? I didn’t even know Francine liked jazz. She didn’t seem interested when Billy was performing.”

“Maybe they’re just here for dinner.”

“At this hour?” It was already going on nine o’clock, and a Friday night. “I never imagined her eating Ethiopian anyway.”

“Oh, that isn’t fair, Lee. Francine’s at least as cosmopolitan as you are.”

“Yes, but her tastes are a lot fancier — er, um,” Lee began to stutter. “Higher-end, I mean. Oh, that’s worse.”

“I think you’re trying to say expensive.”

He colored slightly. “Yeah, well, I know that’s not always what you want.”

“It isn’t. That’s part of why I suggested we come here, because I didn’t think that — oh, gosh, they’re coming this direction!”

He stood up, pulling her with him, and they slipped toward the back. Navigating the closely spaced tables in the dim room wasn’t easy, but somehow, they managed to keep from calling any attention to themselves. In the corridor that led toward the bathrooms, she pressed her body against his, thinking it would help them hide. That was when she realized it was a bad idea: now she could feel his heart, pounding as hard as hers, and it made her shiver.

Lee’s left hand slipped to its usual spot on the small of her back, but his right uncharacteristically tangled into her hair. She felt his lips warm her temple and had to fight to avoid getting lost in the moment. It wouldn’t be smart to lose situational awareness. “Lee.”

“Hmm?”

“Did you remember to grab the check?”

His breath was hot against her skin as he sighed. “No. But I can pick it up at the stand, if we can get there without being recognized.”

“Let’s wait until they have their menus. They’ll pay more attention to those instead of the people around them.”

“Yeah.” Pulling her a little closer, he rested his chin on the top of her head. “So much for dancing.”

“We can do it another time. Besides, there’s a decent chance Francine’s date is a one-time effort. A lot of hers seem to be. It’s as though she’s afraid of anything longer term.”

“She’s not,” he said quietly, and Amanda was surprised to hear a note of sympathy in his tone. “She’s just still skittish after — well, that’s a story for another time.”

“About you?”

“No, actually.” The hand in her hair began to stroke it. “Look, here comes the hostess now. You want to make a break for it?”

She nodded, taking his hand, and they slid along the wall toward the restaurant’s entrance. The dimness was a good cover, and both of them had dressed casually, so there was a decent chance their luck would hold. And it did. But once they were safely outside, Amanda sighed in frustration. The food really had been good, and the company even better. It was a shame they hadn’t had a chance to dance.

Ruthless People

This really wasn’t Lee’s kind of movie; his tastes ran more toward art-house films with subtle humor. But when Amanda began whispering a hilariously sarcastic commentary about everything the characters were doing wrong, he was able to relax and enjoy the nearly slapstick comedy on screen. It occurred to him that her unique perspective was one of the reasons he lov —

No, he told himself. It was too soon for that. It was one of the reasons he enjoyed spending so much time with Amanda.

But you’re dating her now, his mind insisted, and the two of you made it officially exclusive a month ago, even though you’d been unofficial for a while. So why not take the next step? Just give in and admit it, to yourself at least.

Lee shook his head to clear his thoughts, dislodging Amanda’s hand from where she’d had it in his hair. At her look, he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss for reassurance. To avoid notice, they’d chosen seats near the back of the theater, and now there was no little amount of temptation to do what teenagers might have been doing back here, if the movie weren’t rated R. He took a sharp breath, willing his errant thoughts back under control.

“What is it?” whispered Amanda.

“Nothing.” Giving in, he leaned over and gave her the long kiss he’d been thinking about. She responded enthusiastically, even as the scene changed to one where Bette Midler cried about being kidnapped by a bargain store. He pulled Amanda closer, his lips trailing across her cheek toward that place behind her ear he’d discovered fairly early on. She shivered in response, her fingers tightening around his, and Lee began to wish that movie theater seats’ armrests flipped up, the way that airplane seats’ armrests did.

Of course, on an airplane they wouldn’t be hiding in the dark in the first place.

Banishing the sarcastic sentiment from his mind, he kissed his way down Amanda’s neck. With another shudder, she pulled away. He hissed his displeasure, but then she turned fully toward him for a long, satisfying kiss on the lips. The ambient light flickered as the movie kept playing, but he had no idea why and he didn’t care. His entire attention was focused on the woman beside him.

Well, mostly. The armrest digging into his side had passed from annoying into aggravating.

Now Amanda was the one whose kisses were trailing across skin, her mouth slipping under his jaw. He leaned his head back to give her better access, dislodging the popcorn tub that had been in his lap. It clattered loudly as it hit the floor, spilling their remaining popcorn and completely ruining the moment. Beside him, Amanda started to chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” he whispered.

“Us,” she answered. “If it’d been one of the boys, I’d be scolding them by now.”

A smile tugged at Lee’s lips. “Are you going to scold me?”

“Maybe.” Her gaze slid sideways over him. “Or maybe not. It depends how well you behave for the rest of the movie.”

“Oh, well, if that’s the case —” he stood up. “I’ll get us some more popcorn. And when I come back, I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”

Her eyes flashed a promise. “I hope not.”

The flirty banter was exhilarating, and he was glad it had become more common instead of less so once they’d actually started dating. Lee shook his head, smiling, as he made his way into the movie theater’s lobby. There were more than a few moments when openly dating Amanda was just plain fun.

Well, open between themselves, anyway.

“Here you go,” said the teenager who stood behind the concession counter, handing him another tub of popcorn. “You sure you don’t need any more drinks?”

“Nope,” answered Lee. “Thanks.” As he turned away, he saw something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop for a second look. A movie on a random Wednesday night was hardly something he’d have done in his previous life. Especially not a movie like this one. Surely nobody would have tracked him here!

His breath caught when he realized it. Nobody had.

But Joe King was standing on the other side of the lobby, with a pretty dark-skinned woman. They were discussing something as they perused the movie posters; Joe had two tickets in his hand, but Lee was too far away to guess which movie they were attending. All he knew, based on the intact tickets, was that they hadn’t yet gotten in line yet, which meant they weren’t here to see the same showing he and Amanda were.

Turning away quickly, Lee made his way back into the darkened theater. Amanda greeted him and the popcorn happily. “You missed one of the best parts,” she whispered.

“No I didn’t,” he countered. “You’re still here.”

She chuckled, but then peered more closely. “What’s wrong?”

“Who said anything’s wrong? I’m at a movie with my best friend, my girlfriend —” it was the first time he’d used the word — “and we’re sitting in the back.”

She just gave him a look.

He sighed, capturing her hand and bringing it to his lips. “Joe’s in the lobby.”

Amanda sat straight up. “What?” Her voice echoed across the theater, earning them some dirty looks.

Lee pulled her back down so he could whisper in her ear. “Joe. In the lobby. With a woman I don’t recognize. They’re not coming to see this. Tickets hadn’t been taken yet.”

She took a deep breath, her chest heaving and her shoulders drooping as she visibly forced herself to relax. “I guess it’s a good thing you drove.”

Maybe, thought Lee. Joe had seen his car during the case with the Estoccian Prime Minister, but Corvettes weren’t all that unusual. Assuming Joe had even noticed, he’d have had no reason to make any connections. They were safe enough for the moment.

On the screen, the kidnappers argued while their quarry looked on. Scattered laughter came from other members of the audience at various points. But Lee had lost the plot and had no idea what was so funny.

Based on her appearance, neither did Amanda. Her hand twitched slightly when he took it. In an attempt to re-ignite the mood, he tried to feed her some popcorn, but she shook her head.

“I need a few more minutes,” she whispered.

Lee closed his eyes and damned the circumstances. Were they ever going to catch a break?

Down the Long Hills

“Watching under the willows,” read Amanda out loud, “Hardy saw three Indians with feathers in their hair.”

Lee shifted slightly, but didn’t move his head from her lap, where she’d been stroking his hair.

“All were naked to the waist,” she continued, “and one had a quarter of an antelope on his saddle.”

Now his hand came up to capture hers, although his eyes were still closed. He kissed her fingers gently. Amanda was leaning against a tree trunk, holding the book a little higher than she normally would, while he was sprawled on the blanket that lay underneath them. It was pleasantly warm today, but not hot, and they weren’t the only ones who’d decided to take advantage of it by heading for the National Mall.

She kept reading. “They drew up about thirty yards from downstream, and Hardy could hear the low murmur of their voices. He noticed they were not painted, and they carried no scalps. One of the Indians dropped from his pony and lay down to drink.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Lee murmured. “We still have some water left. You could lie down with me and drink it.”

“I can’t read a book out loud while I’m lying on my back.”

He chuckled, and a lilt came into his voice. “Amanda King admitting she has a limitation?”

She put the book down beside her, holding her place with one finger as she smiled. “I admit to having limits all the time. Of course, you know what comes next in the story anyway. It’s your book.”

“Yes, but I’ve never heard it read with such a nice voice before.” Still holding her opposite hand, he rotated it to kiss the inside of her wrist, letting his lips linger. “This was a great idea. Thank you for suggesting it”

As dates went, this was a simple one, but it was something she’d never done with Joe. When she’d come over to his apartment, she’d brought her picnic basket and some sandwiches, saying it was too pretty a day to stay inside. They’d discussed their options as he’d rooted around in his apartment for an insulated bottle.

While Rock Creek Park was their usual spot, they’d decided the Mall would be more crowded and, thus, have more opportunities for them to blend in if needed. “I don’t think anything’ll actually happen, though,” he’d said. “Billy lives in Bethesda, and Francine wouldn’t be caught dead doing something so normal. Didn’t you say Joe and the boys were going to the Zoo?”

“The Yards,” she corrected him. “With their bikes. They’re going to ride from the Wharf and back. There’s a concert tonight, a local act that he’s been following since he got back. The boys were also campaigning for a ride on the water taxi.”

“Sounds like fun,” he’d answered. “And also nowhere near the National Mall.”

Now, she slipped a hand free so she could stroke an errant lock of hair off his forehead as she began reading again. “As he started to rise he hesitated, then stood up. When he came to his full height he looked upstream, and for a long moment seemed to be looking right into Hardy’s eyes. The boy knew he could not be seen, but he held very still and prayed that neither Betty Sue nor Big Red would make a sound. After a long, long minute, the Indian looked away.”

Lee sighed happily. She understood his feeling.

“Soon all three rode off together, with the others, but even as they left, the one Indian turned and looked back. Hardy held very still until they had gone, and then he woke up —”

“Tasha!” came a shout from somewhere nearby. “Where are you?”

Amanda paused, recognizing the sound of a worried mother. Noticing her tension, Lee opened his eyes and sat up. Based on the volume of the mother’s cry, she was just over the bushes from them. Her voice went strident as she called again. “Latasha Jeanette, you come back here this minute! I told you not to run off from us again!”

Lee’s hand closed over hers again, but this time it was for comfort and support. “Sounds like they found her.”

“Yeah.” She let a long breath out, starting to lean back against the tree, but then Lee tensed up.

After a moment, she heard it too. “Tasha, what in the world made you think you could run off, and here, of all places! I told you this was a special trip and you couldn’t go off on your own.”

Amanda would recognize Billy Melrose’s voice anywhere. But was it him? His daughters were old enough to know better than to run off, weren’t they?

“Yes,” said the adult woman. “Well, your mama used to the same thing, and it wasn’t any better chasing my little sister than it is chasing her daughter!”

Question answered. She’d only heard Jeannie Melrose’s voice once before, so it had taken her longer to recognize it.

“Damn it,” whispered Lee from where he had begun repacking the basket. The path from the other side of the bushes came around in front of them in just a couple doze feet. If they got spotted…

Pushing to her feet, Amanda, dropped the book into the basket and began folding the blanket. Footsteps sounded behind them and off to the side. The family would be in range in seconds.

Abruptly, Lee pulled her right into the bushes. Amanda started to protest as the branches snapped and scratched, but then he shoved her down, curling over her in a protective position. She pressed her face into his neck, trying not to make a sound, regretting her earlier impulse to be outside, pretty day or not.

Above her, Lee froze and went stock-still. She could feel his breath hitching, so she glanced up. His eyes were focused outside the bushes, just past where they’d abandoned their things.

“Huh,” came Billy’s voice from right outside the bushes. “I wonder what happened to these folks. They should know better than to leave things unwatched like this.”

“Maybe,” said Jeannie, “we can wait here until they get back.”

No, thought Amanda. Please, don’t be that considerate.

The Melroses’ young niece agreed with her thoughts. “They’re prob’ly close by,” she argued. “And it’s just a blanket and basket. It’s not like there’s a purse or anything.”

That was true enough. Amanda had left it back at Lee’s apartment, only taking her keys, an ID, and a little bit of cash in her pockets.

“Come on!” said Tasha. “I wanna get to the museums already!”

Billy’s sigh was audible, as were his footsteps as the three of them walked away. After a couple of minutes, Lee sagged against her. His body had gone limp with relief. “That was too close,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” she agreed, wiggling out from under him before extricating herself from the bushes. “Let’s get out of here before they come back by on their way out. I think it’s clouding up anyway.”

He glanced up and sighed, a long exhalation of breath, before offering his hand. Amanda understood that feeling too. Hopefully there would be other days with pretty weather.

Author’s Note:

  • Excerpts from Down the Long Hills are copyrighted to Louis L’Amour Enterprises, Inc., and are quoted under fair use laws.

Pride of Columbia

Lee Stetson felt his smile deepen as soon as Amanda King got out of her car. She wasn’t wearing the black dress he’d once asked her about, but she was equally stunning in burgundy. Was it another one of her handmade creations, perhaps? The woman was an absolute wizard when it came to sewing, a fact that he’d long since come to appreciate every time he’d torn a shirt.

She blushed slightly under his perusal. “Hi.”

“Hi yourself.” He gave her a quick kiss before offering his arm, exulting in the fact that he was allowed to do that now. They’d shared kisses before last Thursday, of course, but those had been especially unique. “Are you ready to go?”

“I think so. Will you tell me where we’re going now?”

“Nope.” It was their first official date as a couple, and he was looking forward to her reaction. “You’ll see when we get there. It isn’t far.”

Indeed, the waterfront wasn’t far at all from Georgetown, and the Pride of Columbia was moored at Pier 4, the closest to the parking lot. Lee took the opportunity and moved in for another quick kiss as he helped Amanda out of his Corvette. She was happy to comply, and afterward, he found himself humming softly. This was going to be a great night.

“Wow,” said Amanda softly when they stopped to check in. “A dinner cruise? I mean, I’ve heard about them, of course, but they always seemed so pricey. Oh, Lee, you didn’t have to go all out like this. I know you said you were looking forward to getting to know me better, but I’ve never done anything like this and I’m going to just be so nervous the whole time that someone you know might see us and —”

“Hey.” He broke into the ramble as they stepped off the gangplank onto the ship. “Relax. I’ve never done this, either. It’s not exactly the kind of activity that — well, entertainment you’d find listed on the social register.” It wasn’t until the words came out that he realized how they sounded, and he cringed.

She cocked her head. “If it’s that terrible, then why are we here all dressed up like this? We’re not going to end up bored, are we?”

“No, no,” he answered quickly. “I just meant this isn’t the kind of thing someone does when they want to see and be seen. It’s mostly marketed to tourists.” There, that was definitely better.

“Are we tourists?”

“Or for one-on-one dates,” he amended. “They’re promising a plated meal and then some music for dancing later. I haven’t danced with you nearly enough yet.”

Her shoulders loosened. “Okay, then. Let’s eat and then dance.”

The three-course meal was better than he’d expected, given that the kitchen in question was on a boat. Amanda seemed to agree with him, doing real justice to her plate while she kept up a delightful stream of conversation. He’d never realized that cheerleaders often took dance lessons. “Of course, those lessons aren’t quite the same as what we’re going to do. But I’m not totally unfamiliar with —”

“Amanda. We’ve danced before, remember?” Two years ago, he’d have been irritated or exasperated. A year ago, he’d have been amused. Now, he was charmed. “It’ll be fine.”

“With you? I’m sure it’ll be better than that.”

How could any man say no to that kind of flattery, especially when he knew she meant it? He still couldn’t quite figure out why, exactly, she was attracted to him; she knew his weaknesses better than anyone else. He’d spent time in thought earlier, but in the end, he’d simply put it out of his mind.

Tonight wasn’t the time for that, anyway. Tonight was for celebrating the new step in their relationship. Lee grinned. They were allowed to use that word about themselves now, weren’t they? Why had he spent so long fighting it, anyway?

“Lee?” Her voice brought him out of his reverie, and he looked down to see their plates had been cleared. “We should go out onto the deck. They’re clearing the tables to make up the dance floor.”

“Yeah. Of course.” It felt glorious to tuck her hand under his elbow. “It’s probably cooled down a bit.”

It wasn’t just cooler outside. A light breeze had sprung up, clearing the air as it blew across the Potomac. Lee stopped at a railing, guiding Amanda around to stand in front of him. She pressed back against his chest as they looked out over the water together, enjoying this thoroughly perfect moment.

Then Amanda turned around, burying her face in his neck. “Oh, no.”

“What?”

“To your left. It’s Mother. And Curt. Her latest beau.”

Lee was careful not to move his head as his eyes perused the people around them. Dotty West looked fantastic herself tonight, wearing a rose-colored dress that wouldn’t have been out of place if paired with her daughter’s burgundy.

Thinking quickly, he drew Amanda into a long kiss, making sure he pulled her hair across her face and wishing he dared get as lost in this kiss as he had in the ones they’d shared two days before. But he couldn’t; while this kiss was certainly enjoyable, his attention was primarily focused on listening to footsteps as they passed behind the two of them.

Amanda’s mother sighed as they got to the periphery of his hearing range. “What a lovely night, Curt. And what a wonderful idea for a date.”

Well, thought Lee, it had been. Releasing Amanda, he looked down and saw she was — laughing? What?

“You should see the look on your face,” she explained.

“It isn’t funny!” He glanced at his watch. “There are two hours left before we get back to the pier. Two hours we’re going to have to hide!”

“Yes, I know. But you have to admit, you were right. We didn’t run into anyone you know out here, did we?”

Shaking his head, he began chuckling along with her.

She reached up and laid a hand against his cheek. “It’s your turn to relax, Lee. We’ll be fine. The band’s almost done setting up, and Mother won’t come back out after they start playing. All we need to do is just stay outside, and now that the sun’s down, it’s actually pretty nice out here.”

He sighed. “I’d really wanted to dance with you tonight.”

“Who says we can’t? Come on,” she encouraged him as she slid under his arm and strode toward the bow, away from the engine noise at the boat’s stern. “The music should carry enough for us to hear it.”

Inside, the band began, and while it took some effort he was, in fact, able to hear the music. He guided her into their first steps while several other couples quickly moved onto the floor inside. To his relief, those other couples included Amanda’s mother and her date.

Amanda was right; the night didn’t have to be a complete loss. All they had to do was ensure they disembarked well behind the older couple in order to stay completely out of their sight. Both of them were well-versed in doing such things to remain hidden, so they wouldn’t have any trouble.

Still, he’d wanted to celebrate in the open tonight, instead of staying concealed in darkness! Lee closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against Amanda’s, willing the annoyance and frustration away.

Washing Our Feet in the Tide

Warning: Mature Content

I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.

This case had thrown a lot of unexpected moments at Lee, but the most surprising one of all came when he lifted Amanda’s veil. They were just playing roles. Both of them knew that. But when he looked down at her, the tropical lushness around them faded away. All he could see was the rich brown of her eyes, wide open and full of emotion. She was scared, but determined, and she trusted him to bring them through.

That last part, the trust, was absolute. Perhaps that was why his heart skipped several beats.

It’s going to be all right, Amanda, he vowed silently. I’ll get us through the case and safely home. No matter what it takes.

He’d meant for the kiss to be just a quick brush of lips, but the unexpected jolt of realization had unsettled him enough that he let it linger. The second press of his lips was his unspoken promise, and the smile on her face when she wiped the lipstick off his mouth was her understanding. All three touches were electrifying, sending sparks flaring through his body. It took him a couple more breaths to recover his aplomb.

Which, as it turned out, was a good thing. It meant he was able to keep up when the lighthearted, meaningless banter they’d started at the champagne table led to the clue they’d been missing the whole time. Any qualms he’d had about his promise fell away as they clicked into that odd synergy that seemed to be happening more and more often. Now, the goal was simple and clear: find the gold and bring down those who were smuggling it.

Forty-five minutes later, they were in a runaway car as it careened down a steep road, picking up speed. Lee didn’t know how he was managing to hold on to the little control he had. But he did know there was no way that control would last.

“All right,” he said, sounding more confident than he felt. “Get ready to jump.”

“Jump?” Amanda’s voice had gone up.

“Yes,” he answered. “There’s only one way this thing’s going to stop.”

She nodded. “Say when.”

That trust. That absolute, unquestioned trust.

“Now!” he cried. She complied immediately. He hung on for only a few moments longer, making sure the car actually was aimed at the van on the beach, before jumping out himself.

The next few minutes passed in a blur, but at the end of them, they had achieved their goal: Orlando was safe; the smuggled gold had been recovered; and they’d put the smugglers themselves out of business. Lee couldn’t resist a verbal pot-shot — looks like the honeymoon’s over — but the primary emotion surging through him was relief. They were going to be fine. Everything was going to work out.

And Amanda was safe by his side. She and her short length of smuggled pipe had played a critical role in overpowering Miles and Jillian, proving again that the two of them together were a force to be reckoned with. Still, he could feel her shaking as she buried her face against his shoulder.

“Hang on,” he told her quietly. “Just a little bit longer and then we can get out of here.”

Her voice was muffled against his jacket. “I know. And then we get our things and go home.” After another long, shuddering breath, she stood up straight. “Which is a shame, in a way. I’d hoped to have a little longer with warm nights and tropical sunshine.”

Lee couldn’t help it. He laughed out loud. “I think we can do something about that.”

It was late when they got back to their cabins. They’d given statements to the local police, called Billy with an update, and gotten Emiliano and Orlando on their way back to Puerto Faro. The Princess Martha was going to lay over an extra day at San Angelo, so as to allow a partial replacement crew to fly in and finish the cruise. They wouldn’t be leaving the island with it, however. Lee had booked their flight back to Washington, via Miami, for the morning after it departed.

“I’m still on personal leave,” he’d explained to Amanda. “There’s a decent hotel next to the airport. We’ll stay here tonight because it’s too late to get a room there, but we’ll go over tomorrow. That’ll give us a day or so to explore.”

“That would be fun. I’ve never been here before. Have you?”

“No,” he admitted, only then realizing that he was looking forward to not just a chance to explore a new place — something he always loved — but to go exploring with her. They so rarely had any chance to just do something fun together, without the pressure of a case underneath.

Which was the way it was supposed to be, Lee told himself as he kicked off his shoes, undid his tie and shrugged out of his jacket. They were only colleagues. They didn’t spend time together outside of work, except for the occasional lunch or dinner. They weren’t even friends, and he was fine with that. It was all they could ever be anyway.

“Lee?”

He twitched, surprised. Amanda had opened the door between their cabins. She’d taken off the veil but was still wearing the white dress.

“What’s going on?” At least she’d interrupted before he was down to his skivvies.

There was a faint pink tinge to her cheeks. “Um, I know this is going to sound awful and let me tell you, I’m usually pretty good at this and there lots of different ways to do it, but I didn’t realize when they were getting me into this dress that it’s one of those, which I told them not to do the first but I didn’t really have a lot of choice this time. The top loop’s right between my shoulder blades and —”

“Amanda,” he interrupted. “What do you need?”

The pink on her cheeks darkened. “My dress. I can’t untie the ribbons at the back which means I can’t get to the zipper.”

He waved her in, wondering why she was so embarrassed. “Come here and turn around.”

“Thank you.” She held her hair up out of the way as he examined the back of the dress. What had initially looked like a complicated lacing pattern turned out to be similar to the way one might do shoes, with the tie in a spot she couldn’t ever have reached. From where he was, though, the bow came untied quickly and easily.

“Why would anyone tie that there?” he asked as he began loosening the ribbon.

The pink flush made its way to her neck. “Because it’s a wedding dress.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

She sighed. “It’s designed for someone else to take it off of me.”

“Why would — oh,” he stuttered as understanding kicked in. “Oh. Ah. Yeah, okay, yeah, I guess that might be the case —” His hands fumbled with the ribbon, shaking, as he pulled it completely free. There was a zipper underneath, just as she’d mentioned, with the pull tab in a similarly awkward location. He reached for it without thinking.

She stiffened. “I’ll be fine from here.”

“Amanda, don’t be ridiculous. You’re already standing in front of me. Just be still a minute longer —”

“No, it’s all right.” She started to twist away. “I do back zippers all the time —”

Just then, her motion twisted the zipper against his hands in a way that caused them to slip the rest of the way down, all the way to her waist. She wore a satiny slip underneath, but there was no bra strap. Lee’s breath caught. She wasn’t wearing a bra at all. As the dress fell away from her chest, he saw sewn-in cups instead.

She caught the dress quickly, pulling it back up toward her, but not before his hands slipped in to rest on her hips. Time seemed to come to a standstill as they stood there, frozen in their positions.

She’s a colleague. Nothing more, Lee told himself. She’s off-limits. Besides, you’ve touched her before. You know she feels like this. Pull your hands away, Stetson.

His hands didn’t move away. Instead, they slipped forward, all the way around to the front of her abdomen.

“Lee,” she squeaked, except that there was so little air behind it that the word came out as a breathy whisper.

He wasn’t sure exactly how, but somehow the dress ended up on the floor and his mouth landed on her neck as they tumbled together onto the bed. The slip came off easily, revealing lace panties over a garter belt, and Lee’s body tightened at the sight. She whimpered as his lips moved over hers, her hands sliding into his hair and her lips parting as his thumb found one of her nipples, the ones he hadn’t want to admit to having fantasized about since the other night in the lounge.

She arched against him when he bent down to flick the other nipple with his tongue. Her hands tightened in his hair, and when he pushed back up his eyes found hers. They were open, dark and passionate, and full of the same trust he’d seen at the wedding.

That trust. That absolute trust that he would take care of her, would keep her safe until they were back home.

Gasping, shaking, he stood up, stumbling backward. “No. No, Amanda. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have — I’m the agent, I should’ve stayed in control —”

“It’s all right,” she replied softly, her expression a bit dazed as she reached up toward him. “We are married, after all. At least for a few days.”

Now that he wasn’t touching her, it was easier to turn away. “No. No, it’s not all right. I promised to keep you safe.” Even if it meant keeping her safe from him.

Amanda sat up slowly, and he heard the swish as she pulled the slip back on. “Right. Okay. I guess — Lee, I don’t know what came over me. I’m not usually like that.”

“I know.” He kept his eyes fixed on the cabin’s hallway door.

After a deep breath, she stood up. The dress rustled as she picked it up from where it had fallen. “I’m sorry, too.”

He shook his head, not trusting himself to speak or even to move until he heard the adjoining door click shut behind her.

“It really would have been all right, you know,” she told him after they’d gotten to the hotel the next day. Fortunately, there had been adjoining rooms available here, as well, although there was no connecting door. She’d come over to his after dropping her bags, sitting down in a chair that was probably supposed to be an easy chair. To him, it looked like a nightmare made of wicker and plastic.

Lee didn’t bother asking what she was talking about. “Amanda, don’t.”

“Like I said, we are married at the moment, even if we’re getting an annulment as soon as we’re back home.”

With a sigh, he sat down on the edge of the bed. Should he tell her about falsifying the license now? Would she be as angry as she’d been when she’d found out they were on a honeymoon cruise in the first place? No, better to wait until they were back, he decided. That way, if she wanted to storm out and go home, she could.

“Look,” he said instead. “I’m not the marrying kind. You know that. Besides, if the marriage is consummated —” he forced himself to ignore the images that word brought — “then we’d have to get a divorce instead of an annulment. I know how you feel about that.”

“I see,” she replied carefully. “And we’re not involved, anyway. Just co-workers.”

“Co-workers,” he agreed.

“So you really aren’t interested in me. Not really. It was just…just one of those things. The heat of the moment.”

This conversation needed to end right now. “Look, why don’t we go out to the waterfront? I’m sure it’ll be interesting. San Angelo’s a popular tourist destination.”

She stood up. “I already brought my purse.”

The weather was startlingly good, and the waterfront turned out to have a boardwalk full of kiosks, visitors from another cruise ship, and colorful displays from the locals. Amanda bought a couple of souvenirs, tucking them away in her bag while she explained they were for the boys. Despite their earlier discomfort, Lee discovered he enjoyed watching her browse. She smiled at the antics of a child and his dog, speculated about the various watercraft anchored in the harbor, and made amusing observations about the various birds that hovered around, hoping for a morsel or two of food.

After a light lunch, they wandered back onto the beach itself. This was a different one from the one they’d been on earlier, when they’d apprehended Miles and Jillian.

“I wonder when the tide comes in,” she mused as they made their way barefoot through the sand.

“Probably late afternoon,” he answered, “based on where we are.”

It was so comfortable to hold her hand as they walked along the beach, to laugh alongside her when a stray wave caught her feet. Even in the tropics, water could be cool in the winter, but it wasn’t so cold as to be painful. At one point, she even lifted her face to the sun and closed her eyes. “This feels so good after the snow and cold at home.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. He didn’t mention how gorgeous she was in the golden light. Because he wasn’t supposed to notice that sort of thing, damn it! This was Amanda!

They were standing face-to-face now, and he didn’t manage to resist the urge to brush his fingers against her cheek. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You’ve made the case so much easier and the trip that much more pleasant.”

Her smile was as brilliant as the sun they were enjoying. “Thank you. It means a lot to hear you say that.”

His fingers were still tracing her jawline, and the next wave caught both their feet. Her eyes crinkled with amusement, seeming to light up from the inside. Lee leaned forward before realizing what he was doing. This time, the kiss was gentle, slow, and sweet. His hands slipped to the back of her neck. Her arms slid around his waist, and that brought him back to reality with a bump. What was he doing? He was supposed to be taking care of her, not — his mind refused to finish the thought.

Breaking the kiss, he moved back to arm’s length. “I’m sorry. That was out of line. I shouldn’t have —”

“Lee,” she interrupted. “I know it didn’t mean anything. It’s just the environment and leftover emotions from the case.” She tapped her fingertip against his lips. “I enjoyed that. Thank you.”

“We should probably, ah, we should get back to the hotel.”

Amanda glanced at her watch. “Let’s wash our feet in the tide first. That’s always a special treat.”

The water swirled around their feet, and they had to lean against each other to put their shoes back on. Their hands clasped again on the way back to the boardwalk and their hotel, but this time, Lee wasn’t worried about it. She’d understood. They were on the same page: they were co-workers who’d gotten caught up in the moment. Nothing more, with no repercussions.

It was going to be all right after all.

END

Filling the Silence

It’s cloudy tonight, artificially keeping the temperature and humidity high, even after sunset. Condensation drips down the outside of Lee’s apartment window, rendering both the outside view and the internal reflection blurry instead of clear. There’s a distinction between the outside world and his surroundings tonight, but it’s fuzzy and nebulous, not easily defined. The sounds and lights from out there are muffled and hazy, and in here?

In here, it’s just silent. With a sigh, Lee lets the curtains fall closed. His feet ache. He’s been standing at the window longer than he meant to, his thoughts endlessly chasing themselves around inside his head, but ending with no more conclusions than he’d had before. Moving around hasn’t helped. All it gave him was a momentary distraction from that silence, the one that permeates the entire apartment, mocking him with its very presence.

He returns to the couch, picking up the glass from the coffee table. When he sips, he grimaces. It’s water. Not his usual, especially tonight. In previous years, he’s ended up far more than three sheets to the wind on this anniversary. But last year, he’d been in the middle of the debacle with Sonja Chenko and Stemwinder. And this year, he’s promised his wife he won’t.

There’s a strongbox on the coffee table, the one that Amanda gave him this past summer, shortly after he’d uncovered the truth about his parents’ murder. He’s retrieved at as — as what? A different distraction? An attempt to soothe himself? A reminder that he finally gave his parents the legacy they deserve?

Or is it just picking at a scab, a way to remember just how much he lost thirty-two years ago tonight? Another look at the if-onlys and might-have-beens that litter his past? Evidence of just how little family he actually has?

Tonight, he’s been re-reading his mother’s autopsy report, and there was a detail that he’d missed the first dozen times: the uterus contains a fetus of approximately 12-14 weeks’ gestational age. His mother had been pregnant when his parents were murdered in that car crash. Pregnant, and far enough along that they had likely known, or at least had good reason to suspect.

I’m not an only child. I’m just the only one who survived.

It’s a gut punch, even now when he reads it through a second time, and his mind can’t let go of the possibilities. What if he’d grown up alongside that younger brother or sister? Would there be nieces and nephews now, or would that sibling have, like him, hidden in a loner’s lifestyle out of fear? Would he even have hidden in that lifestyle, if he’d had someone to bond with through all the changes and moves and upheavals that came with his — their — uncle’s career?

This train of thought might be interesting, but it’s not necessarily pleasant. It’s also pure fantasy, and for that reason alone Lee wants to move on. That’s also not what’s really bothering you tonight anyway, his mind reminds him. He shakes his head, trying to clear it. It might be silent here, but inside his thoughts it’s far too loud.

Introspection isn’t part of Lee’s nature. He needs to do something. But what? Recently, he’s been spending Friday evenings at Amanda’s, debating the boys about their homework, discussing the latest news over dinner, and then turning his charms on Dotty just to see her laugh. Later, after everyone else goes to bed, he spirits his wife out to the back yard for some time alone. Over the past couple of weeks, Amanda has been wearing her engagement ring around the house. They’ll be able to break the news about their marriage soon, at least to her family, and then move on to combining their households.

But tonight’s the opening night of the school district’s fall student art showcase. Three of Jamie’s pictures have been selected for display, and his stepson was given tickets to the reception and banquet. Well, two of them, anyway. He’d shuffled his feet when he’d explained he’d given them to Joe and Amanda.

It’s not fair, Lee, he’d groused. You’re the one who helped me get started. But I…I really want Dad to see my work. And Mr. Crosby says he can’t let me have a third ticket unless he lets everyone else have one too.

He’s reassured Jamie that he understands, and that of course the tickets should go to his biological parents. No matter what he might think about Joe, it’s a bad idea to put either of the boys into a loyalty bind. He also knows not to interfere in the relationships between the children and their parents. Those are the top pieces of advice in every step-parenting guide he’s read.

But none of those guides have warnings about the ache that claws through his insides every time he’s reminded of his secondary place in the boys’ lives, and, by extension, in Amanda’s. None of them mention that this particular pain doesn’t subside over time; if anything, it’s getting worse as he integrates deeper and deeper into the family.

You knew about the kids before you ever thought about asking her out, he reminds himself now. Including how important they are to her.

Regret had flickered across Amanda’s face one afternoon, shortly after things became serious. It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t tell you now. I lost a pregnancy after Jamie, and after that, since we already had two, Joe and I agreed that getting my tubes tied seemed like the right thing to do. So, if you’ve ever thought about having kids —

No, he’d interrupted. “Loner,” remember? It’s fine, Amanda.

She’d laughed and kissed him, the relief plain on her face. At the time, he’d considered the matter settled. He really never had given the idea of parenthood more than a fleeting thought.

But then he’d started spending more time with Amanda’s boys, and he began to understand why parents insist that it’s worth it, even when children are at their worst. They have a gift he’ll never experience, thanks to all those years he’d insisted he was a loner instead of admitting that he was lonely. Years that could have been spent doing something better —

Grunting, Lee stands up, dropping the documents back into the strongbox and closing it with an echoing thud. He’ll go over to the gym, he decides, for a good, hard workout. Taking the strongbox back into the bedroom, he stows it and pulls out his athletic bag. Sneakers. Gym socks. Sweats. Gloves, so I can hit the heavy bag?

The shrill of the telephone shatters the silence and makes him jump. He sprints back to the living room, picking up just after the third ring. “Lee! You won’t believe it! I got first place in all of seventh grade throughout the whole district, and second place overall! And Dad, oh man, you should have seen the way he grinned! It was amazing, and…”

Lee lets Jamie ramble on about the school exhibition for a while before breaking in. He’s grateful that he doesn’t have to force any particular expression onto his face; that small reprieve gives him the strength to keep his voice even. “That’s great news, sport! Maybe we can go out for ice cream tomorrow to celebrate. You think your mom would okay that?”

“Oh, yeah, especially if it’s all of us. I mean, well, you and her and Phillip and Grandma and me. Oh. Wait. Uh, I can’t. We’re headed over to Dad’s tonight. It’s his weekend.”

Damn it. He has a copy of Joe’s visitation schedule, but he still hasn’t built up the habit of checking it every time they discuss weekends. He admittedly hasn’t tried very hard, because it’s just one more thing that reminds him he’s not a father and never will be. Nor will he ever be an uncle. The most he’ll ever be is a stepfather.

“It’s all right,” he says out loud. “We’ll have other chances, and they won’t run out of ice cream anytime soon. When will I get to see your pictures?”

“That’s the best part! They’re doing open houses the next two weekends, so anyone from the general public can see them!”

General public. That’s all he’ll ever be, isn’t it? Nothing more than any other non-relative. Okay, Stetson, that thought was too much. Get hold of yourself. “Then I’ll take your mom and grandma over tomorrow while you’re at your dad’s.”

“Um. Ah. You know, I’d kind of like to be able to take you myself. Or, at least, for all of us to go together. So…” Jamie trails off. “Do you mind waiting until next weekend?”

Avoid loyalty binds. “No, of course not. But I sure will miss being the next one to see your work.”

“It’ll still be there. And I can’t wait to show it to you!”

Lee’s smiling as he hangs up. Twelve-year-olds aren’t known for being great communicators, and Jamie’s introverted nature makes him more reticent than most. But he made the effort to call him while he was still at the exhibit, before he went home with Joe.

You are important to them and in their lives, he reminds himself. And in hers. They all tell you that, all the time, both in what they say and in what they do. Not to mention, Amanda wearing her engagement ring at home means she’s as anxious to stop keeping their marriage secret from her family — from their family? Will that ever truly happen? — as he is.

Even if it does happen, it still won’t be the same as having your own children.

Lee closes his eyes briefly before he finishes packing the gym bag. He can still use that workout. What he has now is more than he’d ever thought he might have, and definitely more than he deserves. He should be grateful, not angry or depressed.

He just wishes that were as easily done as it’s said.

“Okay,” says Billy as the next Wednesday morning’s staff meeting ends. “That’s it for now. Stetson and King, my office, please.”

Amanda sends Lee a questioning glance as they follow their division head through the bullpen. He shrugs in response even as he mentally reviews recent events. If it were an assignment, Billy would have kept them in the conference room. He’s not able to figure out any alternatives before they get into the office and he closes the door behind them, still without speaking. The silence starts to unnerve him.

“Sir?” asks Amanda after a long, awkward moment.

Billy gestures them to their seats, although he remains standing. “You’re both aware that we routinely re-clear everyone who works here.”

“Yeah,” says Lee. “So?”

“You were on the list that got pulled for re-clearance in the last round, Scarecrow.” Billy’s gaze flicks to each of them in turn. “And they found something very interesting.”

Oh, no. He looks over at Amanda, whose expression indicates she’s thinking the same thing he is.

Turning to his desk, Billy extracts a single page from a file folder and hands it to Lee: Commonwealth of Virginia Marriage Register for Smyth County. He doesn’t need to see any more than that, so he passes it over to Amanda. She, too, only takes a single glance. They both know whose marriage it is.

“February 13th,” says Billy. “February. Thirteenth.” His voice rises with each word. “You’ve been married for seven months and you didn’t tell any of us? Not even me?” He snatches the paper back from Amanda. “Just how long did you think you could keep it secret?”

“Look, Billy,” Lee begins. “Don’t blame Amanda. It was my idea.”

“No, sir. I can’t let Lee take all the blame. I agreed to it.”

He starts to object, but Billy speaks first. “For the love of everything holy! Why? Eyes front, damn it, both of you! Talk with each other on your own time.”

Another awkward silence falls. This is worse than he’d thought it would be. He’d expected anger. He hadn’t expected disappointment, nor had he anticipated how much seeing that disappointment would upset him. But now’s not the time to think about that, so Lee files the information away for another time.

“To protect Amanda and her family,” he finally explains.

“Protect them? According to this check, you’re still living apart! How are you protecting them by not being there, Scarecrow? Or are these separate addresses just another lie?” He paces around behind his desk. “The whole damn intelligence community already knows you’re partners and you know that! You stood right here in this office and told Doc Quidd that Addi Birol kidnapped Amanda to get to you!”

“Mr. Melrose —”

“Don’t you ‘Mr. Melrose’ me when I’m working up a head of steam! I don’t know what’s worse, having to find out like this or that I now have to do some pretty fancy footwork in order to explain this to the folks upstairs! What were you thinking?”

“I guess we weren’t,” says Amanda. Her voice is small, and Lee hates that. Hates that he hadn’t been prepared for the intensity of Billy’s reaction, hates how much this is hurting all of them. “Thinking clearly, I mean.”

“You ‘guess’ right! What am I even supposed to do with the two of you?”

Neither of them knows what to say. This latest awkward silence stretches out several moments too long.

“Answer me, damn it! And is there anything else you’ve been keeping quiet? For God’s sake, you two were in here together when I told you your personal relationship’s fine with me. Hell, Scarecrow, I all but ordered you to propose when it looked like you were going to lose her! You didn’t so much as twitch an eyelid, never mind tell me you were already married!” He drops down into his chair, hand scrabbling across his desk in search of his antacids. “I don’t know how much clearer I could’ve told you that I would cover for you if it came up, but now? Now, it’s out of my hands and I don’t know if I can do that or not.”

“What happens if you can’t?” asks Amanda in a voice that’s still far too quiet.

“I don’t know that either.” Billy sighs, and it’s the first time Lee’s ever seen him look his age. “Your close rate speaks for itself and it’s not technically against the rules, but in the past, they’ve always transferred one or the other when two partners’ relationship turned personal. Re-clearances are always done outside the affected agent’s division, which means other people have already seen this. I have a lot of explaining to do, beginning with why I didn’t already know.” Now his tone becomes plaintive. “Why didn’t you trust me?”

The question cuts through Lee’s crumbling defenses in a way that yelling never could. “What? Of course we trust you, Billy, we —”

“Then why didn’t you tell me? You — you didn’t have to do it here, or even on the record at all. Just…all this time I’ve been working to keep you as partners, and this is how you repay me. Let’s not start about what’s going to happen when Francine finds out or, God help us all, Harry Thornton.”

“Of course they’ll be upset.” Amanda’s tone has become conciliatory. “She’s Lee’s little sister, and Harry’s his father.”

Orders or not, Lee turns to look in her direction. What is she talking about?

“I guess you see him as family, too, don’t you,” she continues. “Maybe as a favorite nephew, or something like that.”

“I’ve wanted to think you saw me the same way,” answers Billy. Lee can feel the eyes on him, but he can’t look up, especially when Amanda’s metaphorical meaning finally hits him.

She sighs. “We really screwed this one up, didn’t we.”

“Yeah,” Lee admits. “I guess we have. What’s it going to take to fix this? Within reason. We’re not going to get un-married, and neither one of us wants to be transferred or chained to a desk, either.”

“At least tell me what’s going on with your addresses.” There’s no more anger in their section leader’s voice now. Just sadness and hurt, and Lee hates that as much as he hated hearing it in Amanda’s voice. I guess we have, he’d said. The remark had been a surrender, a way to try and back down gracefully, but now it echoes in his head.

“We…we’re really still living apart, at least for now. It’s…” Amanda trails off, her eyes focused on the hands twisted in her lap. “We’ve wanted to go slow with my mother and the boys, especially since the boys didn’t take very well when Joe got remarried so quickly this past spring.”

“You mean your family doesn’t know either? When are you planning to tell them?”

Not Amanda’s family, Lee thinks. Our family. Or, at least, that’s how it should be. How it’s going to be. He’s surprised by the determination of that last thought.

“Soon. I…a couple weeks ago I started wearing my engagement ring at home. Mother noticed it right away, of course, but all she said was that it was about time. The boys agreed with her. Right now it seems like…well, at worst, October third is only a couple Saturdays away. Joe will have the boys that weekend, and Mother’s going to be out of town, and we can just tell them that we didn’t want the fuss of a big wedding so we just went over to the courthouse, or…I don’t know. We can figure that out.”

“Your mother is not stupid,” Billy tells Amanda. “If she hasn’t already guessed, she will, and when that happens, she’ll feel exactly like I do right now. You’ll deserve it, too, but I suppose that’s your personal problem. Field section is mine. I’ll see what I can come up with to make the higher-ups happy.”

“Thank you,” says Lee, and he means it. He’s able to meet Billy’s eyes as he says that, at least.

“But I’m not going to be responsible for what happens if the two of you don’t go ahead and tell Francine and Harry right away.” He levels a finger in their direction. “You’re right, Amanda: they’re not just Lee’s friends. They’re his family, people he chose as that a long time ago, and they’ll keep things on the down-low. Even if they don’t speak to him for a while.”

Lee glances over at Amanda again, and finds her looking back at him.

“Thank you, sir,” she says. “We’ll go out and tell her right now, and then we’ll go up to the Q-Bureau and call Harry.”

“Good. Now get out of here so I can think.”

They stand up together, heading for the door, but just as Lee puts his hand on the knob they’re stopped by Billy’s voice. “Lee? Amanda?”

“Yeah?” he asks.

He’s gotten up again, and now, he wraps them into a bear hug. “Congratulations. To both of you. It couldn’t have happened to better people.”

Lee’s glad he checked the weather before they headed out this morning; while the temperature’s still about normal for October in Leicestershire, the clouds are thickening this afternoon. He doesn’t need an umbrella right now, but it looks like he’ll be glad he has one later. A few of the weather forecasts have hinted that a fairly strong storm might be developing over the Bay of Biscay, although most forecasters think they’ll just have rain overnight.

They’ve been in England for ten days. The job involves two meetups with a source, eleven days apart. Billy could have sent two different sets of agents on two short trips, or put them on temporary loan to the London office on the days in between. He has done neither; instead, he’s sent them over on the Monday after their “courthouse ceremony” with instructions to just stay over and stay out of trouble. When questioned, he grumbled about proper honeymoons not including gunshot wounds or hospitals. Neither he nor Amanda have pressed the point.

This morning has been particularly productive. They’ve filled up two lined notebooks with information about his extended family, including some information about possible living relatives. After a late lunch at the shopping parade, they’re indulging themselves with a walk toward All Saints before heading back down to London. They’ll meet with their contact again in the morning, and fly out after that.

Amanda’s reading from a tour booklet. “This is Peace Memorial Park,” she tells him. “It opened in 1921 after being built with money from public donations, and it has the town’s War Memorial. The pavilion was built in ’78, and it has sports courts as well as concert space and —”

— and children running into the street. Lee’s moving before he’s completely processed the sight, dashing out after the kid and making a desperate grab before letting momentum spin them both around. Around him, cars screech to a halt, and the loud sound of a horn shatters the pleasant quiet that had been there before. In response, the child starts to cry. He has no idea how to handle this. What’s he supposed to do now?

Amanda meets him as he comes back onto the sidewalk, deftly exchanging his dropped umbrella for the wayward child. “Well, hello there, mister. What were you doing all the way out in the street?”

The child’s crying becomes wailing as he buries his face against her neck.

“It’s all right,” she soothes him, freeing a hand to rub his back. “Everything’s all right now. You’re safe. Where’s your mom?”

“Liam? Where are you? Oh, shit!” There’s a teenaged boy standing at the entrance to the park, his face ghost-white.

“This belong to you?” Lee asks.

“Yeah.” He comes over to take the child from Amanda. “What’d you think you were doing, running away like that? Didn’t you hear Zee Zee tell us to stay within sight?”

“Zee Zee!” cries the child, the tears instantly gone. “Wan’ go see her!”

“In a second.” He turns back to the two of them. “Thank you, so much. I just — he got away from me so fast…”

“They can do that,” says Amanda.

“Wan’ go see Zee Zee now!”

“Even though she’ll skin both our hides?” He looks at them again. “I need to get him back before he really starts to scream.” He then trots off into the park grounds. Lee and Amanda exchange a single glance before they follow.

Zee Zee turns out to be a middle-aged woman, perhaps a few years older than they are, and she’s visibly frantic as she walks around in ever-widening circles, eyes roaming everywhere. When she spies the teenager, her relief is palpable. “There you are! Charlie, I told you not to get out of —”

“He squirmed free and took off! Shouldn’t I have gone to catch him?”

“Of course, but…” She sweeps the young boy into her arms. “Liam, what have we told you about running away from your big brother?”

“There was a bird, Zee Zee! And it was so pretty, and it looked like it was trying to get into the bush so I thought I’d say hello and then it might say hello back an’ we could talk about how it got all those colors into its feathers —”

“It was probably trying to get back to its nest, darling. It also doesn’t excuse you running away from your brother. That was very naughty of you, to scare him so!”

“Not just him,” says Lee. “Us, too. He ran right out into the street. If I hadn’t been there to catch him…” he trails off meaningfully.

“Oh, my,” says Zee Zee. “Well, then, all of us should thank you. Are you Americans? You sound as though you might be.”

“Yes,” he tells her. “Finishing up a business trip.”

“We thought we’d take a walk to look at the church,” adds Amanda, indicating her guidebook and camera. “It’s a good thing we were there when your son ran past.”

“Stepson,” mutters Charlie.

“Responsible adult,” counters Zee Zee in a tone that Lee finds incredibly familiar. “And until your father gets back, the one who’s supervising you and keeping you out of trouble. Liam, if you can’t be trusted, you’ll need to stay right by me.”

“But I wan’ go play!”

Amanda, ever the mother, kneels down in front of him. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you and I go over to that playground? Your stepmother will still be able to see us, but you’ll also be right next to an adult while you play. If she’s all right with it, that is.”

“Oh, Zee Zee, please?”

“I can’t imagine why not,” she allows. “But you mind Mrs. — I’m sorry, I don’t believe I asked your names.”

“Stetson,” says Amanda with a smile in his direction. It’s a smile that reaches through the autumn chill to warm his very bones. Billy was able to work his magic, after all; they’ll be announcing the marriage to the entire Agency when they get back.

“Mrs. Stetson, then. You mind her, or you really will have to stay by me. Am I clear?”

“Yeah, Zee Zee. C’mon, Mrs. Stetson. Let’s go play!”

Amanda laughs as he tows her over toward the swings and slides. Lee watches them for a long moment, smiling and delighted, before he settles onto the bench beside Zee Zee and shakes her proffered hand. “Lee Stetson.”

“Zina Cox,” she replies. “Zee Zee, to the children, since we didn’t like to make them call me anything more formal. You’ve met Charlie, who’s skulking over there hoping he’s heard the end of this. He’s fourteen, though, so he should know better. Liam is just turning four. Their sister Liza is nine. She’s after a bit of shopping with my husband. A birthday present for Liam, actually, but we’d never hear the end of it if we told him ahead of time.”

“You have a beautiful family,” he tells her. “Amanda has two boys. My stepsons.”

“Ah, so you know how it gets sometimes. I’ll have to tell their father about this little misadventure. It was an accident, to be sure, but if their mother hears about it from them instead of from my husband, there could be problems. She’s not a bad woman, but things can become fraught sometimes.”

“Don’t I know it.” He laughs. “I get along with my stepsons’ father most of the time, but there are times I wish I could show him my left hook.”

“It’s hard, when you want to love them as your own, but you mustn’t ever forget they aren’t. Will you and your Amanda be having any of your own?”

He isn’t quite sure how to respond to that. Over on the playground, Amanda and Liam have segued into a game of hide-and-seek, and Charlie drifts over to join them.

“What a busybody,” says Zina after the silence has gone on too long. “It’s none of my business, so you need not answer that. Why don’t you tell me what brought you to Wigston today, instead? It’s not the sort of place where tourists often venture.”

He’s grateful for the change of subject. “Like I said, we’re here on business, although we’ve also had a little down time. We’ve been over at the Records Office, looking for details about my mother’s family.”

“Your mother was from here? But you don’t sound as though you’ve spent much time around English people.”

“I haven’t. She and my father were killed when I was a child. I was raised by an uncle.”

“Oh, you poor dear.” Zina squeezes his hand, and finds he appreciates it rather than being irritated at the familiarity. They sit in silence again, but it’s a silence that’s companionable, is welcome, as opposed to the silence in his apartment last month or the awkward silences in Billy’s office a few days later.

“Perhaps,” Zina eventually says, “I know your mother’s family. I’ve met my quota for personal questions, but would you be willing to say her name anyway? Her maiden name, I mean.”

“Jennifer Hamilton.”

Her face pales. “Jennifer Hamilton? Born in…I believe it was 1920? Daughter of Leonard and Grace?”

“You knew her?”

“No, I never met her that I can remember. I’m not that old. But yes, I know of her.” She’s holding a hand to her throat. “Oh, and I’m standing at the foot of my own stairs. All this time looking, and then Jennie’s son sits right down next to me in the park one day. But of course you’re confused. Let me explain: my maiden name is Zina Hamilton.”

Lee feels his jaw drop open.

“My father is Jennie’s older brother. He knew she’d married her American soldier when she ran back into him across the pond. The next thing our family heard, she and her husband were killed in a car crash. At the time, we’d figured everyone was gone. It wasn’t until some years later that my grandparents found out otherwise, but by then you were already with your — your step-uncle, was it? They were never able to confirm his name or his whereabouts, which is why they never contacted you.”

“Uncle,” clarifies Lee. “Well, half-uncle, which is why we have different last names. My grandfather was struck by lightning, not too long after he’d come back from World War I. My father never had any memory of him. When my grandmother married again, her husband raised him as his own son, along with the one they had together. My uncle’s career Air Force, so we moved around a lot. That would have made things more difficult for your — for our grandparents?”

“I suppose this does make the two of us into cousins, doesn’t it? All these steps and halves get confusing after a while, especially when you choose to love someone who’s not your blood. The way we have, as stepparents.” Zina shakes her head. “You must have been so lonely, growing up without much family. My father’s parents never stopped looking for you, all the way up until the day they died.”

“It’s…it’s good to know they did that. I…yeah, it was rough, but I survived.”

“And created a wonderful family of your own. You should be proud.”

He nods, swallowing around a lump in his throat.

“Oh, but my father would be so happy to meet you. Jennie’s son, here at long last. Are you and your wife here long enough to come to tea? I’ll ring him and ask if he’ll join us.”

“Yes,” Lee tells her. Then he stands up.

“Amanda,” he calls, “there’s someone here you should meet.”

END

Author’s Note:

  • This story was originally written for the Through the Years 3 fanzine, first made available at SMucK-a-Palooza 2024. It has been very lightly edited from the original.