Resolved Memories (Sycamore P.D. Series Book 3) Read online

  She handed her cane to Grant, grabbed Wayne by the shoulders, and looked into his eyes. “Where would I be right now if Grant had listened to me when I told him very much the same thing?”

  Wayne tried to smile. “You wouldn’t be pregnant.”

  She slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t make fun of me right now. Ask Grant how dangerous it is to make a pregnant woman angry.”

  With that, she took her cane back from Grant then limped and waddled back over to Stan who stood and made his way back to the room where Alison was. Sonia stood and stretched her long frame. What a picture that was! She sure was something all right.

  Now was his chance. He had to do something. So, without a thought as to what he could possibly say, he tried not to rush over to where Sonia stood. She didn’t turn toward him, so he just looked down at her beautiful face in profile, with that small upturned nose and the delicate cheekbones. He knew if he said anything, she would have a rebuttal, so he waited for her to speak first.

  He could see that she was trying to avoid looking at him, but when he didn’t go away, she finally turned and looked up at him. He smiled. He could tell she wasn’t used to looking up to very many people.

  “What do you want?”

  He just kept smiling at her hoping she would mellow some. She started to turn away from him but turned to face him instead.

  “Do you realize how bad you were driving going up to your grandparents’ house before?”

  There were many things he had anticipated her saying, but that one wasn’t even close. It threw him for a moment and she was starting to turn away again when he was able to get his thoughts together.

  “I’m sorry. I haven’t been having the best of days today. I guess I was thinking about other things rather than my driving.”

  She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Well, you need to be more careful and pay more attention to your driving. You could get a citation for driving like that.”

  He decided to place all his cards on the table at once. He knew she was a woman who only wanted the truth at all times. So he would give it to her.

  She turned away again but he reached out and touched her arm lightly. “Don’t you even want to know what I was thinking about that caused me not to pay attention to my driving?”

  She turned back again but didn’t say anything.

  He shrugged his shoulders and grinned. “You!”

  At first, there was no reaction. He could tell when the full implication of what he had said began to sink in. She blushed, and it made such a beautiful contrast to her white-blond hair that his whole body seemed go numb.

  “What did you say?”

  He tried to give her a reassuring smile. “I said I was thinking about you, Sonia. I want to get to know you so badly that it’s affecting everything I do. I’ll do anything you ask me to do, if you’ll just give me a second chance.”

  There, he’d said it. He had stuck his neck out as far as he possibly could. He’d laid his feelings open to her. Would she continue to trample on them?

  She stared at him as her face slowly regained its normal color. When she frowned, he was sure he’d gambled and lost.

  She opened her mouth but closed it again. Then, after a few more seconds, she said, “Okay.”

  He waited as long as he could but when she didn’t say anything else he had to find out what she meant. “Does that mean you’ll go out with me?”

  “No!” She said that so quickly that the hope that had begun to build up in him shattered.

  “But I will spend some time with you so we can talk” Before he could reply, she added, “On neutral ground, of course.”

  He knew he must have been smiling like a fool then, because that’s what he felt like. But he was a happy one at that.

  “When?”

  Just then, Stan burst into the room shouting, “It’s a boy, and they’re both doing great!”

  Grant rushed over to his best friend and gave him a big hug. “You sure Alison’s okay?”

  “She sure is. She was already telling the doctor she wanted to get out of this place.”

  Grant laughed. “Yep, she’s okay.” He shook his head. “That’s my little sister.”

  Sonia started to walk toward the two men, but Wayne reached out and touched her arm again.

  She turned to him and looked down at where his fingertips were still on her arm. He jerked his hand back as if he’d been burned.

  She looked at her wristwatch. “Okay, as soon as we leave here, we can meet at Denny’s for a cup of coffee or a soft drink.”

  Wayne felt like jumping for joy and shouting his agreement, but forced himself to smile and calmly say, “That sounds great.”

  * * *

  Sonia parked her five year-old Camaro at Denny’s and sat there trying to understand what it was that had made her decide to give Wayne Newcomb a second chance . . . any chance for that matter. She realized that it had to be because Kelly had come back to her earlier in the hospital waiting room and said that she really thought that her brother meant to treat Sonia right this time. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be here right now.

  But, that still didn’t answer why she was willing to meet any man, not just Wayne. She didn’t date, ever. At least she hadn’t been on a date in several years, and that had been a double date down in Phoenix. She had not dated anyone up here. But, this wasn’t a date. Then she remembered Kelly telling her about how she had tried to convince herself that her first date with Grant wasn’t really a date. That made her nervous.

  She reluctantly climbed out of her car and walked toward the entrance. Wayne had apparently parked farther away from the entrance and watched for her. He was there at the door just as she was about to open it. He reached out and opened it for her.

  Once they were seated on opposite sides of a booth, Sonia waited for Wayne to start the conversation. Why didn’t he? He’d never been at a loss for words before. Maybe he was trying to change . . . for her. Ha! Even if he tried, he’d never be able to change enough. So, again she wondered what she was doing there.

  She finally decided to say something. “I like your car.”

  He smiled and said, “Thank you, it’s my pride and joy. It’s the coolest car I’ve ever owned. Of course, I got a super discount on it, even though I had to go to L.A. to our dealership there to get it. It was worth it.”

  Well, she thought, that conversational well ran dry too soon. Now what?

  Finally, Wayne spoke. “I guess it would be best if we started out by telling each other a little about ourselves.

  She didn’t want to start, so she nodded toward him, hoping he would get the message and start talking first. He did.

  “Okay, here goes. You probably know quite a bit about me already but I’ll give it a shot.”

  She nodded and even smiled a little . . . to encourage him to continue, of course.

  “My parents divorced when I was eight and Kelly was six. Harry was a pilot in the Air Force and was transferred to Japan right after that. And, as it turned out, I never saw him again . . . alive.”

  She didn’t know if she should comfort him or encourage him to keep talking but he went on without prompting.

  “My mom was killed in a car accident when I was fourteen. Kelly was with her and that was when her ankle was damaged like it is.”

  He paused for a moment seeming to be in thought, so she sat and waited.

  Just then, their server came to take their orders. She ordered her usual Coke and he ordered iced tea.

  He laughed. “I grew up on iced tea. When mom died, Kelly and I went to live with our grandparents. They don’t drink anything but iced tea or coffee. They’re against alcoholic beverages and even carbonated ones too, for different reasons of course.”

  When she didn’t respond right away, he chuckled. “It’s refreshing to see a woman not drinking diet sodas.”

  The detective in her noticed that Wayne had trouble with empty spaces in the conversation. He seemed to need to fill
them up. She made a mental note of that fact.

  She smiled. “I don’t have to worry like most women do. I have a strange metabolism that allows me to eat or drink whatever I want and not gain weight. My three brothers are the same way.”

  She was sure, by his lack of a reaction, that he already knew that she had three brothers. After all, for the last ten years she had dealt with people who were either withholding information or outright lying to her. She didn’t get angry about it though. It could have been Kelly, Grant, or even Stan who had told him. But she would watch him carefully when she told him the rest to see just how much he already knew about her.

  “You should see me when I’m hungry.”

  Now why did she say that? Was she starting to ramble too?

  He laughed but continued, “Let’s see, where was I? Okay. After high school, I went to ASU. Kelly and I both did. It was difficult for us to go anywhere else. That’s where our parents and our grandparents met. I went on to get my MBA and Kelly got her accounting degree. You probably know that I’m the general manager at the dealership here and Kelly is the CFO of the whole company.”

  “Yes.”

  “Most of the rest, I’m sure you already know. Almost two years ago, Harry was killed in Afghanistan and my grandparents brought him back here to be buried. His widow, Sarah . . . you know Sarah?”

  Sonia said, “Yes, I do.”

  “Well, she came back here too, and I’m sure you know that she turned out to be Grant and Alison’s mother who has had amnesia since a car wreck shortly after she married Harry.”

  He held out his hands palms up and said, “That’s about it. Did I leave anything out?”

  When she shook her head, he said, “Oh, and I’ve never been married . . . not even close. Wait, I did ask a girl once a couple of years ago but she turned me down because she said I was only with her because she looked a lot like Kelly.”

  “Was she right?”

  He snorted. “Yes, she was, and Kelly helped me realize that. And that was just about the same time I first saw you. Do you remember when that was?”

  Sonia searched her memory and could only come up with one possibility. “Was it when you talked to me at your grandparents’ home after the shooting there?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “No, I saw you a week or so before that in a restaurant. Kelly and I were having lunch there when you came in with a group of detectives. Grant and Stan were two of them. Kelly only had eyes for Grant and I only had eyes for you.”

  When Sonia frowned, he added, “I’m not hitting on you right now. I’m just stating a fact. When I first saw you, you totally blew me away.” When she started to speak, he held up a hand palm toward her. “I’ll stop there . . . for now. I’m not trying to embarrass you. I just want you to know how much you have affected me since the first time I saw you. You might say that I lost my head, which caused me to do and say some dumb things to get your attention. As you’ve probably heard, I’ve always been what they call a smooth operator with women. But all of that went out the window the first time I saw you. That’s why I made such a mess of it before. I just couldn’t seem to say the right things.”

  Their server came to refill their glasses and both remained silent for a few minutes. Sonia was thinking about all he had said about how she supposedly affected him. Could he be telling the truth now? She looked into his eyes and was almost certain that he was.

  “It’s your turn.” Wayne smiled and when he did, Sonia realized that she’d never really looked at him very close before. She had to admit that he was quite handsome with the same black hair and blue eyes that she had admired in Kelly.

  She tried to shake off those thoughts and concentrate on what she should say to him about herself.

  “I don’t usually like talking about myself. I’m so different from other women that people make all sorts of assumptions about me based on my name, or the unusual color of my hair, or my height. Oh, and don’t forget the fact that I’m a police officer, a detective sergeant even.”

  She waited to see if he would say something to that. She decided to wait until he did.

  “I don’t think I’ve made any assumptions about you Sonia. The only thing I know for sure is that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever been around.”

  That wasn’t what she had been fishing for. Her face was so hot that she knew she had to be blushing furiously.

  She tried to go on without acknowledging that comment.

  “As I said before, I have three older brothers.” She paused. It still hurt even after all the years. “My mother divorced my dad when I was three and moved back east with her new husband, and I haven’t seen her since.”

  From his shocked look, she was sure no one had told him that bit of information. Good.

  “I grew up with no female influence in my life at all.” She leaned back in her seat and watched him closely for his reaction to the next part. “My dad is a retired Phoenix P.D. Captain of Detectives.” No reaction. “My brothers are all detectives there too.” Still no reaction.

  “My oldest brother, Sven, recently made captain, and my other two brothers, Lars and Bjorn also recently made lieutenant.”

  That received a reaction. He shook his head and whistled. “That’s a lot of brass.”

  She fought a smile. “You can’t imagine what it was like for a girl to grow up among all that male macho stuff. I was never able to date any boy more than once. One or more of my brothers would always intimidate the poor guys so badly that they’d never ask me out again. And if they didn’t do it, just meeting my dad is so intimidating that he drove off his share too.”

  He laughed loudly at that, drawing stares from other diners.

  “You laugh but wait until you meet my dad.” Where did that come from? He wouldn’t be meeting her dad. She rushed on hoping he hadn’t caught that little slip. “He’s not like the rest of us. He is six four. Isn’t that about what you are?”

  When he nodded she continued, “And he weighs over two fifty. He can be rather intimidating. That was part of why he was such a good cop.”

  Wayne was only shaking his head and grinning. She was sure that he was thinking of her dad and how he wouldn’t want to cross him.

  “All three of my brothers went to ASU so naturally I went to NAU and that’s how I wound up here. The chief is from Flagstaff and went to NAU also. He recruits from there quite often.”

  Sonia looked at her watch and exclaimed. “Oh, it’s six o’clock and I need to get home and change. I’m helping one of my detectives with something tonight.”

  “Wait, what about your brothers? Are they all tall and have white-blond hair like you?”

  She frowned. She didn’t want to answer that question. But, to be fair, she knew she should. “My brothers all have hair like mine and they are six feet six, seven, and eight.”

  Wayne reacted to that by slapping his palm on his forehead and sliding down in his seat. “Man that’s big!”

  She didn’t want to continue. “My dad has normal blond hair. I asked him once and he grudgingly told me that my mother had white-blond hair.”

  She didn’t give him time to respond to that. She didn’t want him to respond to it. She slid out of the booth and started walking to the front and he fell in beside her.

  When he had paid for their drinks, they walked outside and paused.

  He turned to her and said, “Will you meet me again . . . like this? Maybe for dinner?”

  Even though she knew that was coming, she wasn’t ready for it. “I need to think about it. Give me your card and I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  She was afraid he was going to argue but after a moment of obvious struggle, he reached into his shirt pocket for a gold card case, pulled one out, and handed it to her.

  Chapter Two

  Monday mornings were not among Wayne’s favorite times. This Monday morning was even worse than usual. After his meeting with Sonia yesterday, he had been so overwhelmed with conflicting emotions and ‘what i
fs’ that he had just sat at home in front of the TV for the rest of the evening. He had been so deep in thought about her that he hadn’t realized that he had drunk six beers. He never had more than two and only one if he was driving.

  Therefore, he wasn’t his normal fresh self this morning. He jumped when his phone rang. He looked at the screen. Martha, his grandfather’s executive assistant was on the intercom. He wondered what his grandfather wanted now.

  When he answered, Martha said, “He would like to see you and Kelly in his office right away.”

  Okay, now he was puzzled. His grandfather never had meetings on Monday morning. He always said that he liked to get a head start his own work before starting the weekly meetings, which he usually scheduled for Monday afternoon.

  Wayne stopped in Kelly’s doorway just in time to help her up out of her desk chair. She was getting worse all the time. That kid had better show up soon or she’d have to stay home all day. As it was, she was only able to be at the office for a few hours a day, and not even every day at that.

  Once Kelly was on her feet and moving out the door, leaning on her cane and his arm, she said, “Do you have any idea what this is all about?”

  Wayne shook his head, which wasn’t the best idea he’d had all morning. He fought the urge to hold his head between his hands, fearing that Kelly would immediately know why.

  When they arrived in Martha’s office, she waved them on into the CEO’s office. Grandfather was already standing in his conversation pit as he called it. It was an arrangement of four sofas much like the ones in the great room at his home.

  He hugged Kelly tenderly and shook Wayne’s hand.

  Okay, what was going on here? Was this meeting going to be formal or was it going to be emotional? Either way, Wayne wasn’t sure he was ready for it. His head hurt and he couldn’t think clearly.

  Once they were seated, with Kelly and Wayne on the sofa facing the one their grandfather was sitting on, Harold cleared his throat and said, “This should not come as much of a surprise to either of you, but your grandmother and I have decided that it is time for me to retire from the company.”