“Are you sure you’re not going back?” Rica asked carefully.

“Would it make any difference between us if I did?”

“No,” Rica answered immediately.

“I’m not going back.”

“Because of me?”

Carter started to answer and then paused. “A little bit, yes. But hear me out before you jump to conclusions. Mostly I quit because I didn’t have any kind of a life and sooner or later I’d never be able to. I’d lose myself so deep in the lies that had become my life, I’d never find my way out. And I’m in love with you. And there’s no way I could be a cop and be your lover. They’d be all over me to get information about your father.”

“I’m sorry,” Rica said. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? It’s not your doing or your choice. It’s just the way it is.” Carter snuggled Rica’s head against her shoulder and stroked her hair. “I’m okay with it. In fact, I feel great. I love you, Rica. Jesus. It feels good to say that.”

“It feels wonderful to hear it.” Rica closed her eyes and listened to Carter’s heart beat, quiet and steady. She felt peaceful, as if she had passed through a storm that had raged around her her entire life. “You’re going to have to unpack your car again.”

“I know.” Carter closed her eyes and felt herself drifting. She heard the foghorn on Long Point sounding in the distance and realized she felt at home. With Rica, she was home, and always would be. “I’ll probably have to get a job too.”

“Well, I suppose I could find something for you in the family business,” Rica said absolutely seriously.

Carter opened one eye and cocked an eyebrow.

Rica grinned. “Then again, maybe not.”

“Go to sleep, Ms. Grechi. You’re starting to scare me.”

“Will you be here in the morning?”

“Absolutely,” Carter murmured, nuzzling Rica’s neck.

“Every morning?”

Carter opened her eyes and met Rica’s, which were wide and unguarded. “I’d like that, if you want.”

“I want very much.”

“Then the answer is yes.”

Epilogue

Tory sat Reggie in the middle of the living room floor with an array of toys and headed to the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee. She glanced at the clock. 6:55 a.m. Bri would arrive in five minutes. At the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs behind her, she said without turning, “Do you want coffee to take with you?”

“No, I’m fine,” Reese said. “We’ll pick some up someplace on our pass through town.”

Tory turned in time to see Reese snugging the knot in her tie against her crisp khaki collar. She had predicted it would be two weeks before Reese rebelled at the inactivity. She’d been surprised, because it had turned out to be almost three weeks before Reese insisted she felt well enough to at least go in to the station to do paperwork. During those weeks when Reese had been home, Tory had worked abbreviated shifts to spend more time with her. They’d even gone out of town for several short trips to visit Tory’s family.

Tory knew that Reese had tried hard to act as though she was enjoying every minute, and Tory believed that most of the time that was true. But she had seen a distant look come over Reese’s face in their quiet moments, and she imagined that Reese had been thinking about where she had been and those she had left behind. As much as Tory wanted Reese safe at home, healing in body and soul, she knew Reese needed something different. “Remember, you promised me you’d stick to desk duty until I’m satisfied your collarbone is healed.”

“I remember.” Reese kissed Tory’s cheek and stole a sip of coffee from her mug. “I think riding around in the cruiser is pretty much the same as riding a desk.”

“No, it isn’t.” Tory tugged Reese’s tie for emphasis. “If you’re in the cruiser and something happens, you’re not going to just sit there while Bri gets out and handles it alone. You know that.”

Reese sighed. “All right. That’s probably true.”

“Probably?” Tory wrapped her arms around Reese’s shoulders and settled against her. She kissed her chin, then her mouth. “Oh please.”

Reese grinned, then settled her hands on Tory’s behind and squeezed. “Both arms seem to be working pretty well.”

“Mmm. I seem to remember that from last night.”

“You felt so good,” Reese whispered. She nibbled on Tory’s lower lip, then kissed her long and hard, still feeling Tory’s cries of release from hours before echoing in her bones.

“Oh, fu…sorry!” Bri blurted from the doorway.

When Reese broke the kiss and raised her head, Bri had one foot through the door and a look of abject contrition on her face. “It wasn’t locked. I should’ve knocked. I’ll go wait…”

Tory looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Come on in, sweetie. We were just talking.”

Bri glanced once at Reese, then let the door close behind her. She gasped and pointed past them. “Whoa! Catch that.”

Both Reese and Tory followed her gaze, and then Reese bent down and held out her arms to Reggie.

“Come on, champ. Keep coming. That’s it.”

With a look of determination and supreme delight, Reggie tottered across the four feet that separated them and tumbled into Reese’s arms. Laughing, Reese hugged her and stood, holding her tight to her chest. Tory wrapped an arm around them both and held open the other to Bri. After a second’s hesitation, Bri joined the celebration.

“I told you she was waiting for you to come home.” Tory’s eyes were bright with tears.

“Glad I didn’t miss it.” Reese rested her cheek against Reggie’s head and closed her eyes. “Damn glad.”

After five minutes of silence in the cruiser, Reese said, “What’s on your mind?”

Bri gripped the wheel so tightly her fingers were white. She stared straight ahead. “Nothing. I was just thinking.”

“Thinking pretty hard.”

“Not making much progress, though.” Bri glanced at Reese and grinned sheepishly.

“Why don’t you try breathing now and then and see what that does for your head.”

“You’d think I’d know that by now. I’m always telling the students in the dojo to do that.”

“Sometimes we forget our own lessons,” Reese said quietly.

Bri continued to drive down Commercial Street as far as the Provincetown Inn, then circled around to Bradford and headed back toward town. “What do you do when someone gives you an order, and you think it’s wrong?”

“A superior officer?”

Bri nodded.

“You follow it, unless you know it to be illegal by whatever law governs the situation. The law of the land, where we’re concerned right now. Military law, where I just was.” Reese heard the distant thunder of war and knew the answers were never really that simple. “What made you think of that?”

“You didn’t want to go, did you?”

“No. I didn’t.”

“But you did.”

“Yes.”

Bri spoke so quietly Reese could barely hear her. “I’m not sure I would have.”

“You would have,” Reese said with certainty, “if you’d sworn to.”

“Sometimes when you were gone, I was mad at you. For leaving.” Bri’s hands had tightened on the wheel again and her voice trembled.

“Head over to Herring Cove,” Reese said. When Bri cut the engine a few minutes later, Reese got out. “Let’s walk.”

They followed the sandy trail between the dunes until they crested the last swell of earth above the beach, then stopped, shoulder to shoulder, bodies just barely touching. Fishermen stood up to their knees in the surf casting for sea bass, here and there people walked with their dogs along the undulating shore, and far out to sea, fishing boats and trawlers skimmed the horizon. In a few more minutes, Tory would put the red kayak in and start toward Race Point.

“Last week,” Reese said, “I left the Corps.”

Bri stared. “For good?”

“Yes.” Reese met Bri’s astonished gaze. “My responsibilities are here now, to Tory and Reggie. To you. To this community.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“One hundred percent.” Reese saw Bri’s body relax, but her expression was still troubled. “And forget about being mad at me while I was gone. I think the job we do is harder on the people we love than on us. Just remember that, when Caroline is giving you a hard time about the job.”

Bri smiled. “She doesn’t. Too much. She’s like Tory that way.”

Reese laughed. “Then she worries plenty.”

“Yeah. She does.” Bri breathed deeply, exhaled slowly. “So we’re okay now?”

“We always were. You ready to go to work?”

“One more thing. Tory asked me to make sure you stick on the desk.” Bri jammed her hands in her pockets. “Except you’re my superior officer, so what’ll I do if you decide not to?”

Reese squeezed Bri’s shoulder. “I have a stop to make before we head to the station. You can drive me there, deliver me back to the station, and then I’ll sit at my desk. I won’t put you in the position of choosing, but if I did, I’d expect you to assess the situation and use your best judgment. And I know you would.”

“Sometimes things aren’t always black and white, are they?”

“No, they’re not,” Reese said quietly. “That’s when you have to go with gut instinct.” She tapped Bri’s chest where her badge rested above her heart. “And what’s in here.”

Rica pointed to a blank space on the west wall of the gallery. “Can you hang that up there?”

“Sure,” Carter said, carrying the largest painting that had arrived in the previous day’s delivery.

At the sound of a knock on the front door, Rica called “We’re closed,” and turned to point out the sign in the front window that listed the gallery hours. When she saw the figure on the other side of the door, she strode angrily forward, flipped the lock, and yanked the door open. “Look, I’ve had about enough. If you don’t have a warrant, you can…”

“I’m Sheriff Conlon, Ms. Grechi.” Reese spoke quietly as she looked into the gallery and nodded to Carter. “I’d just like to speak to Carter. I saw her car parked out front.”