Page 3 of Isolated (Harper Security Ops #21)

Landen

“Oh my gosh, Landen. Look at you. Where are you going?”

I stood, frozen for just a moment, as my mom’s shock and disbelief settled in. She hadn’t quite pulled herself together as I stepped forward into the house. After she closed the door behind me, I revealed, “I’m on my way to a wedding.”

She blinked in surprise. “You should have told me, and I would have stopped over to pick up the doughnuts. I didn’t mean to trouble you and make you come out here to deliver them.”

I waved my hand in the air dismissively and moved toward the kitchen. Dumping the boxes of doughnuts from The Early Bird on the counter, I insisted, “It wasn’t a problem, because your place is on the way.”

My mom had called me late yesterday afternoon and asked if I’d be able to stop and pick up a couple dozen doughnuts for her at The Early Bird, the coffee and doughnut shop owned by my boss’s wife.

Jerking her chin toward the boxes on the counter, she replied, “I appreciate you doing this for me. I’ve been working on organizing a bunch of items for this week’s upcoming events, so this was a huge help.”

For as long as I could remember, my mother had always been moved by the spirit of generosity.

But after my dad died in a horrible car accident ten years ago, Lucy Fox dedicated her life to our church community.

It gave her a purpose, something meaningful to do, and I was merely glad she had found something to occupy her mind and time.

The work she did for the church had pulled her out of the darkness she’d lived in those first few weeks after the accident.

No doubt my dad would be proud to see her happy again.

“Any time you need my help, all you’ve got to do is ask,” I offered. “I’ll do whatever I can, even if it’s just picking up a couple of boxes of doughnuts.”

“I know. And I’ll be sure to let all the ladies at brunch know that you delivered these looking so handsome.” She bounced slightly on her toes as her eyes widened. “Oh, I know. I’ll take a picture of you with my phone to show them.”

“Mom, that’s really unnecessary.”

She ignored my protest, running off in search of her phone. All I could do was roll my eyes and laugh.

“Landen, come in here and stand in front of the fireplace,” she called out. “It’ll be such a nice picture.”

I shook my head but exited the kitchen to find her. “Mom, I’m not going to the prom. This is ridiculous.”

“No, but you’re going to a wedding. ”

“Not my own, though.”

She held her phone up in front of her. “Smile.”

I smiled.

After she took the picture and lowered her phone, she smiled at me. “It might not be your wedding, but maybe once I show this picture to everyone, they’ll help me find you a lovely girl that’ll make you interested in making that happen someday soon.”

There was a lot I was content to do to make my mom happy these days, but allowing her to set me up on a date with a random girl I hadn’t ever met was not at the top of my list. “I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.”

“It’ll be fine. But don’t worry about that right now. Who’s getting married today?”

“Greyson and Cierra.”

I’d worked with Greyson for years at Harper Security Ops.

While I was a private investigator, he worked in our self-defense and tactical training unit.

Cierra was the librarian at Steel Ridge Elementary School.

Greyson had inadvertently met her one afternoon when he’d needed to pick his nephew up from school.

That happened to be one day before Cierra showed up at Harper Security Ops, looking for self-defense lessons.

Naturally, Greyson took on that task. And while it hadn’t all been smooth sailing for them at the start—Cierra caught up in someone’s revenge plot—it was safe to say things were great for them now.

“Oh, she’s the teacher, isn’t she?”

“Close. She’s the librarian at the school.”

“Right. I remember that.” She smiled at me. “Well, it should be a good time for you tonight. I only wish you would have picked up your date on the way here. ”

I cocked a brow. “My date?”

“You have a date for the wedding, don’t you?”

Laughter spilled out of me. “I do not.”

Something that looked a lot like disappointment washed over her expression. “Why not?”

I shrugged, doing my best to appear nonchalant. “I didn’t ask anyone.”

It was like she could read the meaning beneath that and see the things I didn’t say—there wasn’t anyone I’d been interested in asking.

Or, maybe, more specifically, there wasn’t anyone I could ask that I’d be interested in taking.

If I had the time to get into it and cared to discuss it with her, I would have assured her that she wasn’t the only one bothered by that.

Doing what I did for a living, solving cases and uncovering mysteries, I wondered if this was something I should take a deeper dive into. I excelled at my job. Maybe I needed to put my skills to good use and figure out why I was still single.

“That’s such a shame, Landen. You look so handsome.”

My lips twitched. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll be alright, though. It’s not like I don’t know anybody there.”

“Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet someone there.

” I could hear the hope in her tone and knew she was saying what she had to, just to make herself feel better.

While this was the extent of what she did to indicate she wanted to see me find someone and fall in love, I knew it bothered her that it hadn’t happened yet.

I’d been twenty-three when my dad died, so the lack of a serious romantic relationship then didn’t seem like such a big deal. But as the years passed, and I still hadn’t found someone, I knew my mom was thinking about all the things she’d experienced with my dad that I hadn’t yet.

It wasn’t like I didn’t want that.

I did.

In fact, I’d made valiant attempts over the years. I’d had a few women I’d gone on dates with, some more than others. And while it had been fun enough—the women were great—none of them appealed to me the way I thought they should if I was truly interested in finding the one.

I had no interest in settling, so if it took me another two or three years to find her, I was going to wait.

I didn’t need to rush something or force a situation that didn’t feel right.

I could be patient. But since I knew my mom was hoping things would change soon, I couldn’t bring myself to share that.

“You might be right, Mom. There are single people at weddings, so it’s entirely possible.”

“Fair enough. And if not, maybe you’ll consider a blind date…” she teased.

I walked away from in front of the fireplace while shaking my head. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I have to get going, if I’m going to make it there before the bride walks down the aisle.”

“Okay, Landen. Have a good time tonight. And thank you, again, for bringing the doughnuts.”

Wrapping my arms around her, I said, “You’re welcome. I’ll talk to you later this coming week.”

“Sounds good. Enjoy yourself.”

“I will.”

A moment later, I was out the door and on my way to the wedding.

“The ceremony was so beautiful. I don’t know how I didn’t totally destroy my makeup.”

One of my coworkers and fellow private investigators, Blaze, leaned to his right and kissed his wife on her cheek. “Emotional or not, you look stunning as ever, Harlow.”

She tipped her chin down, smiling, and leaned into him.

An unfamiliar pang of jealousy washed over me. I’d attended enough weddings recently for nearly all my coworkers, so it wasn’t unusual for me to see each of the guys interacting with the woman in their life. It hadn’t ever bothered me, had never led to me feeling any sense of envy.

Until now.

Until today.

But maybe that was because I had no choice but to realize precisely what the situation was for me now.

“It was breathtaking,” Reagan sighed. She was seated beside Harlow, but the space between their chairs was more than it had been when we arrived at the reception.

No doubt it was my closest friend, Hart, who’d made that happen.

He’d dragged Reagan’s chair so close to his, they were practically touching.

With his arm draped over the top of her shoulders, Hart pressed his lips to the side of her head near her temple. “Now you can understand how I feel every time I look at you.”

That was it.

That right there was the one thing that made it impossible not to notice that I might have made a mistake in attending this wedding alone.

Hart Anderson was in love.

Even if I hadn’t been one of the first to find someone and fall in love, I certainly hadn’t expected I’d be the last. My friend had declared long ago that he had no interest in ever dating anyone seriously, let alone settling down.

Shouldn’t that have been enough to give me an edge over getting there before him?

Perhaps.

But then he met Reagan, and she changed everything for him.

That meant I was the only one left. Talk about isolating.

Over the years, I’d attended plenty of weddings, but there had always been a handful of us from work who were still single. Now, it was just me.

“I can’t believe how much has changed over the last several years,” Nixon declared. Like Hart, he was a member of the kidnap and ransom unit. “This family has grown not just with significant others, but there are so many babies in the mix, too.”

There had been a time when, beyond casual hookups and dating, all the men I worked with were single. One by one, they’d dropped like flies, and Nixon found his happy ending near the start of it all. He and Mallory were already parents.

“It’s crazy. Landen’s the only one left.”

That came from Ty, one of the men who worked as part of our team of bodyguards. Like the rest of them, Ty had found the woman of his dreams while working with her. Alana had needed a bodyguard, and Ty was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.

At his declaration, all eyes came to me.

Having had the revelation I did today, this was not what I wanted. I grunted, offering a look of indifference. “Last man standing.”

“You say that like you’re proud of it.”

I shrugged, doing my best to appear unconcerned with the one thing that was now flashing in my head like a neon sign—I was alone. “I’m not wearing it like a badge of honor. I just… I haven’t met her yet.”

“Oh, I think you will soon,” Mallory insisted.

Blaze added, “We’re due for at least one more crisis, don’t you think?”

I rolled my eyes. It was no secret that with each couple that came to be ever since Royce and Tarryn at the start, there’d been what we’d commonly referred to around the office as crises.

There’d been kidnappings, shootings, revenge plots, and domestic abuse in the mix, and that was just barely scratching the surface.

I didn’t doubt there was a woman out there for me.

I hadn’t met her yet—at least, I didn’t think I had—but if the way the men around me loved their women was even a fraction of how I’d feel about her when I did, the last thing I’d ever want is for her to be involved in some horrible situation that put her life or safety at risk.

“I could do without the crisis,” I told the table.

The men laughed, and it was Hart who had a retort.

“I can assure you we all would have preferred to avoid them. But I think you’re failing to realize that those predicaments are precisely what led to us all winding up where we are now.

You’re going to have to accept it when it happens and know that, in the end, it’s all going to work out. ”

It was easy for him to say, now that he and Reagan had gotten past something truly horrific. But when he was in the thick of it, there wasn’t anything he would have done to be able to just snap his fingers and avoid it.

“Are you working on anything exciting right now, Landen?” Alana asked.

Alana was a reporter, but I thought it was strange she’d be looking for insight into any recent happenings in Steel Ridge.

I arched a brow. “Are you looking for a story, or…”

She shook her head, but it was Reagan who replied, “I don’t think Alana is looking for confidential information about your cases. I think she’s trying to get you to consider what cases you might be working on that have, perhaps, a woman in distress.”

Harlow perked up. “Ooh, that’s a great point. Does anything come to mind?”

My gaze shifted through the couples at the table. The women were beyond hopeful, maybe even more than my mom had been earlier today. And the men were simply amused, like I had no choice but to roll with it, that one day I’d understand why none of them were intervening.

Of course, it was likely they all knew that I was sifting through each of the current cases I was working on, trying to determine if there was something—or perhaps someone—I had mistakenly overlooked.

“I’m sorry to disappoint. I wish I had better news, but there’s nothing worthwhile to report.”

The women slumped back in their seats, except for Mallory. “Don’t let that get you down, Landen. I’m sure she’s going to walk through those Harper Security Ops doors very soon. And don’t worry. We’ll be sure to tell Avalon to send any women looking to hire a private investigator to your office.”

My lips twitched as I shook my head. These women were determined. It’d be useless to even attempt to convince them to stay out of it.

And at this point, after the way the ceremony today had left me feeling, I realized that perhaps it was wise to accept all the help I could get.

If I stood a chance at finding her any time soon, maybe I needed to take a more active role. I didn’t think I’d be heading to Mom’s place asking her to set me up on a blind date, but with any luck, there might be one woman left in Steel Ridge who needed the help of a private investigator.