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R ay Ramsey’s idea of getting away for a few days wasn’t a terrible one. The sheriff’s station was already getting calls from news outlets, all wanting the story about how the daughter of a famous serial killer catcher was now catching killers of her own. Everyone wanted a piece of the story, and Lulu didn’t want to be the latest entertainment in the twenty-four-hour news cycle that cable television and social media demanded these days.

Her parents had a cabin that they used now and then to get away from it all. It was shared by several of the “aunts and uncles”, and when she reached out no one objected to her using it. They’d all agreed that it was probably a good idea to stay out of the spotlight until the excitement died down. She’d received congratulations on arresting her first murderer, but luckily, no one had decided to compare her to her father.

At least not out loud.

As far as she knew, her mom and dad didn’t know yet. They should still be in the middle of the Caribbean basking in the sunshine, drinking tropical cocktails, and playing shuffleboard. They could hear all about it when they returned from vacation.

By then, they might know more about how Allie Baker had managed to pull it off. The woman wasn’t talking much at that moment, still protesting that she was innocent. She’d called Lulu a few choice names, too, while being interviewed by the press.

The fact was that Lulu would have held off on arresting Allie if it had all been up to her. But Tony had been adamant that there was plenty of evidence. He assured her that the holes she was worried about were minor. No big deal. Every case had them, and eventually, they would be filled in.

“Open and shut cases are great,” Tony had said. “But you’re not going to get one every time. We have motive, means, and opportunity, Lulu. I’ve seen people convicted with far less. We found the murder weapon in her home. That’s pretty damning, if you ask me. You’ve done your job. Take the ‘W’ and be happy. This time the good guys won.”

Why didn’t it feel like a win? Was Lulu simply incapable of being happy about a human being a killer?

To quiet the voices in her mind, and get away from the nosy press, Lulu was packing her bags early the next morning to spend a weekend at the cabin. She’d invited Kai to go with her, and he’d seemed happy to have a few days to themselves.

Henry, on the other hand, had pretended to pout for a few hours. She had to admit that if she hadn’t been seeing Kai, she would have invited Henry to go with her. Maybe Chase, too.

But she was seeing Kai…

Eventually, Henry had laughed and said that he wasn’t upset at all, just busting her chops a bit. He was looking forward to having a couple of days of quiet to get a big project done for a client. She’d asked him if he was still thinking about leaving town, and he’d said that he would at some point, but that he didn’t have a date in mind. While he liked Harper, he wasn’t inclined to live there full-time. But he’d come and visit often.

Henry was a grown man, but she couldn’t help but be worried about him when she wasn’t around. He had so many demons in his life, baggage that would have ruined a lesser person. She wanted to be there for him, but she also had to live her own life. Henry would be the first person to tell her, too.

Hell, he had told her. Often. She couldn’t plan her life around his issues.

“That’s why I have therapists, Lulu. That’s not your job.”

Too often, Henry’s reaction to things was to back away from life. She liked to think that she’d helped him step away from his comfort zone every now and then.

The sound of Kai’s tires crunching on the gravel of the driveway brought her back to the present. She was supposed to be having fun this weekend. She wanted to spend some quality time alone with Kai. In bed. Out of bed. She wanted to have a deep conversation with him about life, love, and everything in between. She wanted to hold hands and stare at the lake or the fire in the fireplace for hours. She wanted to laugh and joke and be silly. Mostly, she wanted to get to know him better and figure out if she was truly falling in love.

“Ready to go?” he asked softly when she opened the door.

She’d told him that Henry would still be asleep, so they needed to be quiet.

The sun was only just now peeking over the horizon, and Lulu yawned widely before answering.

“I am. Can we stop at the coffee shop on the way out of town? I need some caffeine.”

“Good plan,” Kai approved. “I could use some coffee, too.”

Lulu was still yawning when they walked into the shop. It wasn’t all that busy yet as it was still early, but within a half an hour it was going to be hopping. They gave their order and stepped aside to wait. Chase was behind the counter helping to fill orders and gave them a wave when he saw them.

“Hi, Lulu. Kai.”

Lulu knew the voice well. It was Lisa. Henry’s ex-girlfriend? Had they ever really been boyfriend and girlfriend? It was strange to put names on relationships after a certain age. She wasn’t sure she wanted to call Kai her “boyfriend” because he wasn’t a boy. They were grownups. Was there some other name? Perhaps significant other ? Partner ?

“Hi, Lisa. You’re up early this morning,” Lulu replied.

“I’m heading to visit my grandparents for a few days. They have a few things around the house they need help with. I’m glad to see you today. I was planning to leave this with Chase, but I can give it to you.”

Lisa held up a light blue wool cardigan.

“A sweater?”

“It’s Henry’s,” Lisa explained. “He left it at my place, and I’ve been wanting to return it. It looks expensive. I’m sure he’ll want it back.”

Now Lulu recognized it. She’d helped Henry pick it out a few years ago. He had to be missing it because it was one of his favorites. Henry loved his clothes, and he liked to be dressed well.

“Henry is being an idiot,” Lulu heard herself saying before she could stop the words.

Oh well, they’re out there now.

“Maybe,” Lisa conceded, her expression sad. “Maybe he’s right that I couldn’t handle it. I was willing to try, but he said it wouldn’t work. He knows himself so I think I need to believe him.”

“He doesn’t know you,” Lulu replied. “And sometimes he doesn’t know himself. He’s a lot. I can admit that. He has issues, but he’s working on them.”

Yes, Henry was working on them but… It didn’t mean that he was ready to be in a relationship. The sad reality was that it might never mean that he could do that.

“I do miss him,” Lisa said, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “Is it stupid to say that I love him? It is, isn’t it? I mean, I barely know him really. But I do.”

“It’s not stupid. Henry is a lovable person. When you meet the right person, you just know.”

“I think so, too,” Lisa said. “My parents said they knew the moment they met. But that’s just luck. I don’t know.”

“Listen, don’t give up on Henry,” Lulu urged. “I’ll work on him.”

“No,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “He’s made up his mind. I have to respect that. I’d want him to do the same for me. I’ll just remember him as the funny guy I spent some time with. Always good memories.”

Lulu didn’t get a chance to reply. Lisa pressed the sweater into her hands and then quickly left the coffee shop.

“Lulu, it’s time to get on the road,” Kai said gently. “Our coffee is ready.”

They walked back out to the car and back on the road. Lulu didn’t say much as they drove, her mind busy with a swirl of thoughts. She was supposed to be unplugging from the regular life but failing miserably.

“You look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders,” Kai said after a while. “I think you need this getaway.”

“I was thinking about Henry,” she replied. “He’s talking about leaving Harper. And also, about Chase and Ben, too.”

“Whoa, slow down. It’s not even eight in the morning. You’re thinking about all of that?”

“Yes, the ‘fixer’ in me wants to make everything better in their lives, and it’s frustrating when I can’t.”

“Let’s hold off on Henry for a minute, because I know that he’s a big subject all on his own. But what about Chase and Ben? Is there something wrong?”

“No…well…maybe. I don’t know,” Lulu admitted. “It’s just weird between them. Chase is always on about Ben, and I admit that he has a point. Ben hasn’t exactly been all that present lately, but I know that he feels a great deal of pressure about his job. He works obscene hours, and he never complains. He just says that it’s part of the job, but eventually, I would imagine he’d get burnt out, you know? Anyway, I guess Chase is mad at Ben because he wasn’t here for Dad’s retirement. Or his birthday a few months ago. Or Mom’s birthday before that.”

“It sounds like Ben hasn’t been here for much,” Kai observed. “That happens as people grow up and move away. Their life is somewhere else. Home isn’t home anymore, and Harper is just a place to visit once in a while. Are you angry with Ben?”

“No, I get it. Especially when my life was sort of up in the air. I didn’t want to come back and bump into someone I knew and have them ask me about my life. I didn’t have any answers then. But Ben does have the answers. He’s so incredibly successful. He and his friends started their own business, and they make tons of money. He’s got it all figured out.”

“Maybe he doesn’t think he does.”

“Trust me,” Lulu laughed. “He does. He’s pretty smug about it, too. Not in a mean way, but he thinks he’s got the world by the tail.”

“Does he?”

“Money, friends, beautiful girlfriends. It certainly looks like he does. When he talks about it, it sounds like he does. He’s always apologetic about not getting back home. He sends flowers, and candy, and muffins and stuff. Chase is mad that he never sends himself.”

“This is between Chase and Ben,” Kai said. “If I were you, and I’m not, I wouldn’t get involved. Maybe they just need to take a swing at each other and get it all out of their systems.”

“What is it with men punching each other and then having a beer? It makes no sense.”

“I didn’t say it did, but sometimes it works.”

“It sounds stupid,” Lulu argued. “And frankly, I’m not sure Ben even realizes that Chase is pissed off.”

“Are you mad at him, too? Has he ever acknowledged your new job?”

“No,” Lulu admitted. “No, he hasn’t.”

And that wasn’t like Ben. He could be an asshole, no doubt there, but he usually wasn’t a huge one.

“Have you reached out to him?”

“Yes, and he texted back. He just hasn’t mentioned the job, that’s all. It isn’t a big deal. He…probably forgot. He’s a busy man.”

“And Chase is pissed off that Ben forgets things?”

“Yes,” Lulu sighed. “Chase never forgets anything. Ever. Even silly small stuff like your favorite ice cream flavor. Ben used to get so frustrated with Chase when we were growing up.”

“It sounds like two brothers who love each other and their families but have very different ways of showing it. They’re living their lives based on their own belief systems, and they haven’t yet come to terms with the fact that they’re not the same just because they grew up in the same house with the same parents.”

“For an only child, you’re laying down some wisdom this morning,” Lulu said. “Where did you learn all this psychological sibling stuff?”

Kai popped a bite of his coffee cake into his mouth before answering.

“I went to boarding school with a set of twins. I roomed with one of them, because heaven forbid, they roomed together. They fought like cats and dogs. Apparently, at one point they were close. And I mean really, really close. They finished each other’s sentences close. They wore the same clothes, ate the same food, played the same sports, got crushes on the same girls.”

“That doesn’t sound healthy in the least,” Lulu observed. “That sounds like creepy enmeshment.”

“I can’t say whether it was or not, but eventually one day one of them decided to do something different. He didn’t want to wear the blue shirt. He wanted to wear the green one. It set off the other one and it was a world war after that. That’s why I was rooming with the rebel twin. The other one just couldn’t let it go until one day one of the teachers sort of blew up at him. The kid was complaining about his brother again and this teacher just sort of couldn’t take it anymore. He asked the twin, ‘Has it ever occurred to you that your brother is not you?’”

“This was news?”

“Apparently. The other twin just sort of stood there with his mouth hanging open. I don’t think he had thought that his brother was a separate person. They were twins, in his eyes, and that meant conformity in all things. I’ve always wondered if it was something the parents had encouraged, or if he was like that on his own.”

“Did the twins reconcile? I’m a sucker for a happy ending.”

“Sadly, no. The one twin was simply too angry about it all. They barely spoke all four years of high school. I don’t know what happened after graduation though. They might have reconciled then.”

“That’s sad. I hope Ben and Chase don’t end up like that. It would be terrible.”

Frankly, she couldn’t see her mother allowing games like that to go on. She’d make them sit down and hash it all out before she’d let them hate one another.

“I’m not saying Chase and Ben are that far gone,” Kai explained with a shake of his head. “I’m sure that Chase knows that his older brother is a separate human being. But it might be hard for him to see his older brother off in the big city, doing big city things.”

“Chase has always been happy being in Harper.”

Kai smiled at Lulu’s adamant tone.

“You seem pretty damn sure about how your two brothers think and feel. Maybe they’re saying one thing but feeling something else. Maybe Ben misses home, and Chase is wondering if he made the right decision to stay. You took your time working out what and who you wanted to be. Ben and Chase might envy that.”

Lulu had never thought that her brothers envied anything about her life. They’d always told her that she needed to calm down, think things through, and not be so impulsive. Could it be that they had been the impulsive ones? They’d chosen their futures early, and maybe…just maybe…were thinking about what might have been?

Nah, there was no way. Ben had always been sure he wanted to be in business in a city that didn’t roll up its streets before nine. Chase had loved working with their mom at the coffee shop, and he’d been stoked to take over when she retired. It was too hard to believe that they were regretting their life choices.

Lulu had always been the one who questioned her life, not her brothers. She’d been the one floundering to find a purpose that had meaning. This was just a silly disagreement between her brothers, and it honestly needed to stop. If Chase needed to yell at Ben, then she’d arrange it so they could eventually move past it.

She might not be able to fix the world, but this was one thing she was sure she could pull off. The Reilly family couldn’t go on being fractured and at each other’s throats. Ben and Chase could work out their shit and then leave it behind.

It would be job number one when she got back to Harper.