Page 100 of Together Again

Isaac

I yieldedthe knife like I was doing something other than chopping vegetables. The angrier I got, the faster the knife moved. There were lots of new cuts on the chopping board. I dropped the knife when I realized I was focusing on the patterns of the cuts and not so much on the vegetables, and the last thing I needed was a trip to the emergency room.

“Isaac?” Lucy called from the living room.

I had been hoping to knock on her bedroom door to wake her up and explain what was happening, but it sounded like she was up already and must have seen the police officer thatwas thereto watch over us. At least he was in plain clothes, which would prevent her panic before I had a chance to explain who he was and what he was doing here.

“Hey, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?” I gave her a hug that was tighter than usual.

“Where’s Max? Is he still asleep?” Then she whispered in my ear, “Who’s he? He’s cute.”

I laughed.

“We need to talk, okay? But first, why don’t you go get dressed. I’m making an omelet and bacon for breakfast.”

“Okay,” she said, eyeing the officer and waving at him before going back to her room.

Officer Jones had turned up last night shortly after Max had gone with the other police officers. He’d explained that the deputy chief of police had requested that he stay with me and Lucy until further notice. He’d been nice enough to reassure me it was for our protection rather than that we were in any kind of trouble.

He’d also agreed to hide in the kitchen when Lucy came home from her date. After a day out that had resulted in her first date with Diogo, I didn’t want her to come home to a police officer watching over us.

Diogo had walked her home and given her a hug before turning around to go home. Lucy had sighed and put her hand on her heart as she’d turned and said how much fun she’d had.

“Isaac, can I tell you a secret?” she’d said.

“Of course.”

“I think Diogo likes me.”

“Of course he does.”

“No, I think he likes me, likes me,” she’d emphasized and then blushed.

“Anything else you want to tell me?”

“He held my hand in the cinema while we watched the movie.”

I’d put my arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead.

“How did it feel?”

“It felt nice. I know a lot of kids my age do more stuff, but I want to take it slow. Do you think Diogo will be okay with that?”

“You’ll have to ask him, but my guess is that he’ll be more than okay with that.”

And that had been, in my opinion,the right way for Lucy to end her day. She didn’t need to know there was going to be a police officer with us all night, and she didn’t need to know thatthere was a chanceher dad was trying to get her back.

Peter, Max’s lawyer, arrived as I was serving breakfast. He declined the food but accepted the coffee.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Lucy asked.

I exchanged a brief look with Peter and was glad Officer Jones was in the living room so we could break the news in privacy.

“Max is at the police station. He was taken in last night.”

“Why?”

I didn’t know where to start, so I was glad when Peter took over.