Season Of Wonder. RaeAnne Thayne

know.” She scratched a pattern into her quilt. “Nana says if I really hate it here, I can come live with her back in Queens.”

      Dani’s insides twisted at the mention of her former mother-in-law. “When did you talk to your Grandma DeLuca?”

      Silver looked more guilty about this than she had about showing up at the door with a deputy sheriff. “She messaged me and sent me her phone number a few months ago. After, you know. In case I wanted to talk to her about...about Dad and what happened. We’ve been texting on and off for a while now.”

      “You know I check your texts. I haven’t seen anything like that.”

      Silver looked away. “I always delete them. I know you don’t want me to talk to her. I can stop.”

      Again, Dani wanted to yell, but did her best to keep control. Silver loved her namesake grandmother, who had been an active part of their lives for her first few years, even babysitting her when Dani had classes.

      Dani never would have made it through her undergraduate degree without Silvia DeLuca’s help.

      Their relationship had become strained after Dani filed for divorce six years ago, but even then she had allowed Silvia DeLuca to see her granddaughters, until the other woman started slyly undermining Dani to them. The final straw had come when Silvia dragged Silver to visit her father in prison without Dani’s permission.

      Silvia was one of those women who could never see her child as he was. Tommy could do no wrong in her book. As far as she believed, anytime Tommy found himself in trouble, it was always someone else’s fault.

      She had been furious about the divorce and even more upset when Dani left for veterinary school in Boston. Their contact had dwindled to Christmas and birthday cards, which was exactly the way Dani preferred things.

      “Are you mad that I’ve been texting Nana?”

      “I’m mad that you’ve been hiding it. We can talk about that later, though. Right now, we need to focus on your actions tonight.”

      “I made a mistake. It was stupid. It won’t happen again.”

      The words sounded far too well practiced to be sincere.

      “No. It won’t. You’re grounded until further notice. That means extra chores here and at the clinic, no video games, no YouTube and no phone except at school.”

      Silver huffed but said nothing, obviously knowing she was on extremely thin ice. No doubt she could almost hear it cracking beneath her feet.

      “Also, I need you to give me the names of the other girls involved so I can let their parents know and they can help you with the cleanup.”

      “I told you. It was just me.”

      They both knew that was a lie but Dani had no idea how to force the truth out of her.

      “Fine. You can do the cleanup on your own.”

      “Fine,” Silver said, her voice short. “Is that all?”

      “For now.”

      With a sigh, Dani rose and squeezed Silver’s arm. “You know I love you, Silverbell, right?”

      Her daughter shrugged, not meeting her gaze.

      “I brought you and Mia to Haven Point because we’ve been offered a chance to make a good life here, a place where you girls would be safe and healthy. A place with low crime, good schools and nice people.”

      “There were good schools and nice people in Boston. And in Queens before that.”

      “Agreed. We could have made a good life for ourselves somewhere else. This is the one that felt best. When I got this opportunity, you and Mia and I talked about it and we all agreed we wanted to give Haven Point a chance to become our home. I don’t think any of us has really done a good job in that department. I’d like to try harder. What about you?”

      “I guess,” Silver said.

      Dani reached down and hugged her daughter and after a moment, she felt small arms go around her.

      Silver rested her head against Dani’s chest, just above the thick nest of emotions there. She loved this beautiful, smart, contrary creature beyond words.

      “Get some rest. Everything seems better in the morning.”

      She hoped, anyway. Because right now things seemed pretty bleak for Team Capelli.

      “I get to be the candy cane in the school play. You should come see it! I get to sing a solo and everything. Can you come?”

      “Wow. That’s exciting.” Ruben smiled down at Will Montgomery, his boss’s stepson and just about the most adorable kid he knew. “When is the play?”

      “The Wednesday before Christmas at eleven.” Will’s mother, Andie Bailey—married to the sheriff and Ruben’s boss, Marshall Bailey—sat in the visitor chair at his desk, waiting for Marsh to get off the phone so the sheriff could take her and their children to lunch on his break.

      “Are you sure you don’t want to join us for lunch?” she asked.

      “Yeah,” Will said. “You could sit by me and I could tell you all about my part.”

      “I hate to miss that kind invitation but I have some paperwork to finish.”

      The sheriff’s department wasn’t always a good place for kids, but Andie and the children had brought some shortbread cookies they had made that day to hand out to the other deputies in the office. Ruben had quickly secreted his plate in a desk drawer where everybody else better keep their hands off, if they knew what was good for them.

      He loved seeing Will, his sister, Chloe, and their mother, Andie, together with Marshall. The four of them, along with Marshall’s son Christopher made a solid, loving unit.

      At the same time, his interactions with the family always left him a little...hollow. Not sad, precisely, only more aware than usual of his solitary state.

      Ruben never thought he would be thirty-three and alone. He had always wanted a family, always imagined by this point in his life he would have a bunch of kids, a mortgage, a boat in the driveway and a kind, caring wife like Andie.

      He had the boat and the mortgage, but not the rest.

      “You might like my school program, too.” Chloe gave him her sweetest smile, that one that always stole his heart. She was a few years older than Will but considerably more mature. Some of that had to do with her personality, though some might have been from the tough circumstances of a few summers ago, before her mother married Marshall.

      “Are you a candy cane, too?”

      “Ruben,” she said in an exasperated voice. “We don’t have candy canes in the sixth grade program. That’s for the little kids. I’m in the choir.”

      “Let me know when it is and I’ll see if I can arrange my schedule.”

      He had a nephew in her grade at Haven Point Elementary School, so would definitely try to make it.

      “It’s right after Will’s class program.”

      “Easy enough. I’ll add it to my schedule.” Maybe that was his destiny, to always be the kindly uncle and friend.

      He pushed away that depressing thought as Marshall finished his phone call and came out.

      “Did I hear talk that somebody brought cookies?”

      Will giggled. “We did! We’ve got some for you, too, Dad.”

      That was a new thing, the kids calling Marshall dad. Ruben had noticed it the last time he saw them all together. Their own father had been a police officer killed in the line of duty. Marshall had stepped up to take care of all of them and it was obvious the kids loved him.

      He could tell Marshall was touched by the word. “Bring them in