“Because I want you to go,” Bri said forcefully. “You want to go. Fuck…you should go.”

Bri turned and walked into the kitchen, jerking open the small refrigerator door and pulling out a bottle of beer. Viciously, she twisted off the top and threw it into the trash. She turned to find Caroline framed in the doorway, staring at her with wounded eyes. “I can’t go with you, Carre. You know that.”

“What would you do?”

Bri looked away.

“Bri?”

“I applied to the Sheriff’s department in Barnstable.”

“You’re going to move back to the Cape?”

“Yeah.”

Caroline felt like she had plummeted into another world. “When did you apply?”

“January.”

“You didn’t tell me.” It was a statement, not an accusation.

“I didn’t want you to change your mind about Paris.”

“Oh, Bri.” Caroline hadn’t meant to cry, but the tears came before she could stop them. She felt so sad, and so helpless to change events that already seemed to be moving too fast.

Stunned, Bri put the bottle on the counter and rapidly strode across the small space. She pulled Caroline into her arms and buried her face in her hair. “I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.”

“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” Caroline pressed hard against Bri’s body, needing the solid reassurance of her presence.

“Sure. Anything you want.” Bri kissed Caroline’s forehead. “It will be okay, babe.”

But somehow, they both knew that wasn’t true.

CHAPTER FIVE

Three weeks later Bri and Caroline stood together in the chill March wind on the sidewalk in front of their apartment building. Bri strapped her loaded saddlebags onto the back of her Harley with methodical care. She wasn’t taking much…extra jeans, a few books, her gis. And she was leaving everything behind. “You should go inside. It’s freezing out here.”

“I’m okay.” Shivering, Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, but it wasn’t the frigid air that chilled her. “I don’t care about Paris.”

“Look, I’ll see you for Memorial Day, right? That’s only two months.” Bri yanked on her heavy riding gloves. The tears in Carre’s eyes were killing her.

“But if I stay here next year,” Caroline continued hurriedly as if Bri hadn’t spoken, “I’ll be able to see you every other weekend or so. At least once a month.”

“We’ll have this summer together. By the time you have to leave in the fall, we’ll be used to the idea.” Bri straddled the bike and tried to think of something that would take the hurt out of Caroline’s eyes. It’s not just Paris. It’s not just next year. Don’t you know that? You’re really good, babe. Everyone knows it. This is your chance. You have to do whatever it takes, and it sure isn’t going to be spending your life in Provincetown. If I stay here, I’m only going to hold you back.

Caroline crossed the sidewalk in a rush and threw her arms around Bri’s leather-jacketed shoulders. She buried her face in Bri’s neck, her words muffled against her lover’s cold skin. “I love you. I don’t want us to be apart.”

“Oh, babe.” Bri wrapped the smaller woman in a bone crushing embrace, pressing her face to the top of Caroline’s head. Much more of this and she was going to crack. It felt like her chest was going to explode it hurt so much. “We just have to do this. Promise me if you get the scholarship, you’ll go.”

“Bri,” Caroline pleaded, her fists clutching the stiff leather.

“Promise.”

Caroline nodded wordlessly.

For one terrifying moment, Bri didn’t think she could let her go. She had a horrible feeling that she would never hold her again. Oh Jesus, what am I going to do without you. “I don’t want you to watch me drive away.”

Shivering, Caroline stepped away, her jade green eyes locked on Bri’s midnight blue ones. She was crying, but she didn’t feel the tears freezing on her cheeks. “I’m not going to let you leave me.”

“I’m not,” Bri whispered, but she feared she might be lying to them both.

March, Provincetown, MA

Reese leaned on the railing on the postage stamp-sized deck behind the Galleria, a relatively new two-story enclave of boutiques in the middle of town. She’d left her jacket in her patrol car and stood in shirtsleeves under a clear sky, watching the fishing boats leave Provincetown Harbor for their morning run.

A gruff voice behind her interrupted her reverie. “What are you doing working already?”

Reese turned, rested her hips against the rail, and nodded to her boss. “You’re up awfully early, Chief.”

“Don’t call me Chief,” he groused, handing her a steaming cup of coffee. “I saw the cruiser out front. It’s another hour before the day shift starts.”

“I took Tory to the airport for her 5:30 flight to Boston.” She sipped the coffee and regarded him silently. He didn’t look like he’d been sleeping very well.

“Have you heard from my kid?”

“She called me two days ago. Gave me an update on her training.”

He grumbled something unintelligible. Bri hadn’t called him, but then that was pretty much his fault.

He pulled the cruiser into his driveway and stared at the big Harley parked in front of his garage. What the hell?

She was in the kitchen, perched on a stool with a glass of orange juice and half a hoagie in front of her. Same jeans, same boots, same slicked-back black hair. Same hoodlum jacket, too. Christ, he was glad to see her.

“Bri?”

“Hey, Dad.”

He tossed an arm around her shoulder and squeezed, brushing his cheek quickly across the top of her head. She seemed thinner, harder, and there was a look in her eyes that he hadn’t seen in a long, long time. A lost look. His heart turned over, and his stomach started burning. “It’s Wednesday. What are you doing here?”

She shrugged.

He shed his parka to the back of a chair and walked to the refrigerator. He rummaged around, found a beer, and popped the top. Then he leaned on the counter and stared at his only child. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” It came out a bit strangled, and she cleared her throat. “Yeah. Fine.”

“Caroline with you?”

Bri shook her head.

Sipping the beer he couldn’t even taste, his mind raced. If she’d needed money, she probably would have called. Of course, she never asked him for money. Hardly ever asked for anything. Couldn’t be trouble with Caroline’s old man. That asshole was long out of the picture—the guy hadn’t had anything to do with the kids since he’d slapped Caroline around for being involved with Bri and then tossed her out of the house. Trouble with the law? Nah—not his kid. So, if it wasn’t money or—the burning in his gut climbed into his chest.

“Are you sick?”

Bri stared at him. “What? No.”

“Then what the hell are you doing here in the middle of the week in the middle of school?” He might have asked a little loudly, but she’d scared the crap out of him.

“I quit.”

Nelson’s mouth dropped open. “Are you nuts? Where’s Caroline?”

“In Manhattan.”

“Did she quit, too?”

“No.” Bri’s voice was tight again. “I moved out.”

Okay, relax. Try to get the facts. Don’t yell at her. He crushed the beer can without even realizing it. “Jesus H. Christ, Brianna! What in hell are you thinking?”

She got up fast and headed toward the back door.

“Bri, wait! Jesus—just—wait, okay?”

She had her hand on the doorknob, but she didn’t open the door. With her back to him, she said, “I’m starting at the Sheriff’s department training academy on Monday.”

“Just like that?” he asked as quietly as he could, which wasn’t very. “You just walk away from school? Did you walk away from Car—”

But he was talking to himself by then, and all he could hear by the time he made it to the door was the thudding of his heart and the roar of her motorcycle fading into the night.

CHAPTER SIX

Nelson cleared his throat. “She, uh…say where she was staying?”

“Chief,” Reese said quietly, “I’m kind of in a bind here. Bri didn’t say much.”

“And if she did, you wouldn’t tell me?” he snapped.

Unconsciously, she squared her shoulders. “No, sir. Probably not.”

His eyes blazed for an instant, and he stiffened. “Oh, for Christ’s sake, Conlon. Lose the ‘sir’ bullshit.”

Taking a deep breath, Reese relaxed her shoulders. “She told me she was sharing a place with a couple of other cadets in Barnstable. It sounds like she’s okay.”

“It doesn’t make sense. To leave school? Jesus, to leave Caroline?” He met Reese’s eyes, and his were filled with uncertainty. “You haven’t seen her. She’s got that look in her eyes like she had before Caroline settled her down. Like there was something broken inside of her.”

“You need to call her, then. Talk to her.”

“Yeah, I did great with that last time.” He stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. “Jesus, why is it so hard to talk to your own kid?”

“Probably because she means so much to you.”

“I think about her being hurt, you know. And it makes me want to break things.” He looked away, embarrassed by the admission.

Reese thought about Tory being harmed. The pain was so intense it actually made her ill. “Yeah, I know.”

“You’ll probably know a lot better when you have a kid of your own,” he said gruffly.

“Probably.” Reese grinned.

He joined her at the rail, close to her side but still not quite touching. Together they faced the sea, and at length he asked, “How is that…situation…going?”

“It’s a little too soon to tell,” she replied carefully. She wasn’t totally comfortable talking about the baby thing…not because of embarrassment, but due to a lingering superstition. She just didn’t want anything to go wrong. They hadn’t talked about it, but she knew that Tory wasn’t exactly the ideal age to be getting pregnant. But Tory said it was safe. Promised Reese it was safe. “Sometimes, Tory says, you have to try more that once.”