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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

H oping Aspen would come back out, would change her mind, Garrett stared at Grace’s front door a long time. Then it opened again, and his hope soared.

To crash and burn when Andrew appeared with a pitying look.

Garrett stormed away.

Andrew caught up and walked beside him back to Garrett’s condo.

He opened his door, tempted to step inside and slam it in Andrew’s face. He didn’t turn when he said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“We don’t have to talk.”

Much as Garrett wanted to be alone, he stepped in and left the door open.

Andrew followed and closed the door behind himself. “I would like to point out, though, that when Grace and I broke up, you peppered me with questions until I wanted to slug you.”

That was different.

“Insightful questions,” Andrew said. “Really personal, probing questions. I thought I’d return the favor.”

“I thought you said we didn’t have to talk.”

“That was just to get in the door.”

Garrett walked through the living room and breakfast nook into the kitchen, not needing food or drink but just to move. He marched back out to face his friend. “She thinks my uncle is out to get her.”

Andrew’s eyebrows rose. “Is he?”

“Of course not. Dean would never…”

But the hatred Garrett had seen in his uncle’s eyes that night, the loathing, the fear.

What was Dean afraid of?

Garrett didn’t want to consider it, but he’d gone to Dean and Deborah’s the night before, just stopped by to talk to them about Dean’s diagnosis. They hadn’t been home.

When he’d called that morning, he’d told them what happened to Aspen. He’d completely forgotten to ask them where they’d been.

Where had they been?

Andrew settled on the arm of the club chair. “Why does she think that?”

Garrett had to think back to figure out what Andrew was asking about. Why did Aspen think Dean had run her off the road? Because Cote had questioned him. Cote was checking Dean’s alibi.

Garrett had been running on adrenaline and fear since he’d discovered Aspen missing. He’d called her cell repeatedly. He’d driven around his aunt and uncle’s neighborhood, but there’d been no sign of her. He’d called Chief Cote, who’d told him they’d keep an eye out. He’d texted and called Grace, but she hadn’t responded. He’d finally resorted to getting Andrew involved.

The adrenaline was ebbing away.

He collapsed in the sofa. “I don’t think she was supposed to tell me.”

“I’m not going to post it on Instagram.”

“Someone ran her off the road last night between here and her house. Right by that drop-off.”

Andrew slid into the chair. “On purpose?”

He dipped his head and lifted it again. “She was nervous driving on that winding road at night. If she’d been going faster, she might’ve gone over.”

“Wow. I thought you were exaggerating when you said… But someone literally tried to kill her?”

Garrett nodded again.

“And she thinks it was your uncle? Cote told her that?”

“Apparently. I took her to Dean and Deborah’s for dinner tonight. Deborah had met her at the library and invited her. I wanted Aspen to meet Dean, and him to meet her. He’s been…against her since she came to town.”

“In what way?”

Garrett shrugged. “It’s hard to explain.”

Andrew settled deeper into the chair. “It’s sort of fun turning the tables on you.”

Garrett glared at him, but Andrew grinned.

“When she first got to town,” Garrett said, “he asked me to keep an eye on her, let him know what she was up to.”

Andrew’s amusement faded. “Jeez, Garrett. Why would you?—?”

“I didn’t. I mean at first…” He hadn’t told Dean much of anything, anyway. Certainly nothing confidential. Nothing Aspen should be upset about. “I’d do anything for my uncle. He saved my life. I barely knew her. I said I’d keep my eyes open. I told him one little thing, one little thing that I thought would put his mind at ease about her. And then I got to know her, and…”

There was no excuse for any of it. He’d known the minute Dean had asked him to spy on her that it was wrong. He should have refused. He should never have led his uncle to believe…

“Why’d you do it?” Andrew asked.

Garrett’s phone rang.

Aspen? Maybe she’d changed her mind.

He slid it from his pocket, and his heart fell when he saw Deborah’s name. He was tempted to reject the call, but his aunt hadn’t done anything wrong. He answered with, “Hey.”

“I just want you to know,” Deborah said, “Dean doesn’t speak for me. I love you, and you will always have a place in my life. And whatever happened between you and your uncle, you’ll work it out. It’s going to be all right.”

“No. It’s not.”

“Garrett, sweetheart, he’s just?—”

“I’m not angry with you. You and I are good. Can I speak to him please?”

“He’s not really up for conversation.”

“Fine. Then go to where he is and put me on speakerphone.” Aspen had asked him to pass a message along. Maybe it would be the last thing he could do for her before she disappeared from his life forever.

“Hold on.” A few seconds passed before Deborah spoke again, her voice distant. “We’re both here.”

“Dean?”

His uncle grunted.

“You’re getting what you asked for. Aspen is leaving town.”

No response from Dean, but Deborah said, “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I really?—”

“I have to go.” As an afterthought, he added, “Love you…both.” He ended the call without waiting for a response and tossed his phone onto the coffee table.

He dropped his head into his hands.

“She’s leaving town?” Andrew asked.

“Yup.”

Andrew’s previous question still hung between them. Garrett hated the answer. Hated facing the fear that drove him. “I agreed to pass along information to Dean at first because… Because I didn’t want to disappoint him. I didn’t want to risk…”

He hadn’t wanted to risk exactly what had happened. Rejection. Losing his uncle’s affection. “The thing that kills me…” Garrett looked up to see Andrew’s sympathy written on his face and had to squash the irritation that rose. “My uncle gave me an ultimatum tonight. Him or Aspen. I chose Aspen. So I lost him. And now I’ve lost her. And, in case that wasn’t enough, I’ve lost my job too. She fired me. So all the plans you and I made…”

Andrew had helped Garrett put together a business plan. The work that had gone into landing one big job, one that would provide him with lots of before-and-after pictures for his website, along with a glowing review—that had been Andrew’s brain child.

“I’ve lost everything.”

Andrew leaned forward. “Let’s not be melodramatic. You haven’t lost everything . You still have friends. You still have your church. You still have your skills. You’re not alone, and you never will be because you still have God.”

Small comfort in that moment, but Andrew was right.

“Of those three things you feel like you have lost, your uncle, Aspen, and your job, which is the most important?”

The obvious answer was his uncle. His family. But Dean had asked him to make an impossible choice. Garrett had chosen wrong, according to Dean, and lost what he’d thought was the strongest relationship in his life.

It hadn’t been as rock solid as he’d believed.

The job mattered. If he ever wanted to be anything more than a glorified handyman, he needed someone to trust him with a big job. But there’d be another opportunity. If there wasn’t, he could live with that too.

He’d trade both the job and his uncle and a whole lot more to have one more shot with Aspen. Because, deep in his heart, from the first lunch they’d spent together, he’d known she mattered. It wasn’t that he’d cared for her from the start. It wasn’t that she was vulnerable and needed a friend. Those were both true, but that wasn’t driving him.

He’d known almost from the beginning that God had brought Aspen into his life for a reason.

Aspen was supposed to be part of Garrett’s life. As difficult as his past had been, with the broken relationship with his father, and now the broken relationship with his uncle, he was intended to have a solid relationship in the future. With Aspen.

Across the room, Andrew’s gaze never wavered from Garrett’s face. He smiled. “It’s the girl, I guess?”

“It’s Aspen. She’s the one I’m not willing to lose.” He glared at his friend. “And you can keep your cracks about romance novels and…whatever else...to yourself.”

Andrew’s smile widened. “Far be it from me to razz you about it, all things considered.”

A good point. Andrew had risked everything for Grace.

“Aspen is the woman God has for me.” Garrett spoke the words, more confident in their truth by the second. “I’m going to marry her, assuming I can get her to speak to me again.”

“If you’re right,” Andrew said, “then nothing will stop His plans.”

Garrett let that thought settle, and for the first time since his argument with Dean, he felt hope.