[This post is from Bryant Tapping’s point of view.]
“What happened to them?”
He knew that he shouldn’t have asked the question. It simply slipped out before he could think too much about it, and as soon as the words left his lips, he regretted them.
Pain flickered through her expression and she shook her head. “That’s too long a story for this early in the morning. They’re…well. I haven’t seen them in a long time and I don’t expect to soon.”
“But you still—”
“I know. It’s silly.” She shook her head, not making eye contact with him. “But it’s just one of those things.”
Whatever words that were coming shriveled on his tongue. He knew that feeling all too well. There were a lot of things in his life that had been ‘just one of those things’ and it was nothing that he could begrudge her.
It wasn’t something he could begrudge anyone, nor did he want to.
“You should wake your friends,” she said softly. “Get something to eat.”
“Probably,” he agreed, glancing at his slumbering companions again. “But if I go, who’ll look after David while we’re gone?”
One corner of her mouth curved into a smile. “I take it you don’t trust me?”
“Not that far,” he admitted. “Not yet.”
“Paranoid,” she said, though there was a hint of humor to her voice, as if she found it amusing.
Bryant just shrugged. She wasn’t wrong—not by a long shot.
