A New Life. Dana Corbit
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after that was over, I took the Civil Service written test. I tested twice before I was invited to take the physical agility test and then the oral board interview.”
“Sounds like an intense selection process.”
Shocked that she seemed interested at all, he continued. “That’s not the half of it. I still had to go through a psych evaluation, a drug test and a complete physical before I could go to the Michigan State Police Recruit School.”
“Was it all worth it?”
He smiled in the darkness before he answered her. “Oh, yeah. I get up every day, looking forward to going to work. I love all of it, patrolling the highway, working with the other troopers, even seeing so many sides of people. You just become so engrossed in it. It defines who you are.”
“It sounds like the job suits you.”
“It does.”
Brett’s chest loosened as he pulled to a stop across the street from her house. Maybe she would relax, too, and give him a chance. At least he hadn’t been stupid and talked about putting his life in his fellow troopers’ hands and holding theirs in his. Not everyone could handle that reality, and Tricia probably was one of those.
“I had a nice time tonight,” Tricia started.
Brett heard the “but” before she had a chance to say it. “Wait, Tricia.” Suddenly he needed to prove himself to her in the same way he’d being trying to show his family he could make more of a difference in police work than he ever could with the Lancaster money.
“You know, we’re only going out as friends. It’s not as if either of us has anything long-term in mind, right?” He saw that she was about to interrupt, so he pressed on. “And we have fun together. You said that yourself. Why don’t we just play it by ear? You know, casual. I don’t know about you, but I really needed a night out.”
Tricia tilted her head, as if she was considering his offer. He hated that it mattered so much that she say yes.
Finally, she shook her head. “It wouldn’t be a very good idea.”
“Come on, Tricia. You know you want to. And I like you. I think you like me, too.”
But she only shook her head again.
His chest felt heavy as a disappointment too intense for a simple rejection following just one date festered inside him. “Then tell me why.”
She expelled what sounded like a long-held breath. “Going out with you would be a constant reminder of all I’ve lost.”
Chapter Four
Tricia turned the knob as quietly as she could, but the front door still squeaked, causing four small figures on the living room floor to jerk before they snuggled deeper in their character sleeping bags. Following the only remaining light into the kitchen, she found Hannah hunched at the table over a thick textbook, a cup of tea set within arm’s reach.
“Did you have a nice time?” Hannah’s voice was barely above a whisper.
Tricia nodded and then shrugged. “It was probably a bad idea to go.”
“You liked him, didn’t you?”
A startled breath escaped her before she could cover it. How could someone so young be so intuitive? But then she answered her own question: pain could make a person grow up fast. “No, it isn’t that,” she answered after a pause too long for Hannah not to have drawn her own conclusions.
Hannah nodded and moved over to the sink, pulling a second mug from the cupboard and pouring hot water into it. She waited until she’d dunked a bag of chamomile in to steep and had set it in front of Tricia before she spoke again. “Then what is it?”
“He’s a trooper for the Michigan State Police.” But it wasn’t that image of a man in uniform that sneaked into her thoughts then. This was the Brett she’d known only as a distracted bowler and a hockey expert. His smile was inviting and his laughter contagious.
“Oh.”
Hannah’s single-syllable answer pulled Tricia back from her forbidden thoughts. So strange that the young woman instinctively seemed to know why Brett’s job would matter so much to her.
“I’m surprised you didn’t know that before you agreed to go out with him,” Hannah said.
Absently, Tricia swished the tea bag in her mug, squeezed it out and set it on the table top. “There was some confusion about matchmakers not passing along the information. If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone.”
“I know. But you did.”
Neither spoke for several minutes. Tricia sipped the bland tea, wishing her thoughts could be equally benign. But the truth was, Hannah’s first observation was dead on—Tricia liked him—and now she was having trouble reconciling this man she liked with the one she imagined wearing a badge. And trudging up to car windows, never knowing what kind of armed thug might be inside.
“Did you enjoy your first hockey game?” Hannah asked, glancing at the wall clock instead of Tricia. “I caught the score on the news. Looked like a good game.”
“It was. Everything was so fast—the skating, the passes and the goals. I couldn’t believe how exhilarating it was.” Tricia was equally surprised at how animated she became, just describing a sport she’d known nothing about until tonight. So she backtracked. “There was just so much action.”
Hannah met her gaze then. “It’s okay if you had fun, you know. Even if you kind of liked Brett. Rusty wouldn’t mind. He’d want you to be happy.”
But Tricia shook her head, her eyes burning with tears she refused to cry. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like?”
“You know how many horrible blind dates I’ve been out on? Well, this time I was having fun, mostly because it was so laid-back. No pressure.” She paused. “But that was before I found out what he did.”
“Well…before…maybe you were finally feeling that you’re ready to start really dating again.”
Tricia took another sip of her lukewarm tea and pondered that possibility. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready. Besides, if I were, I wouldn’t feel so guilty about it.”
“Like you’re betraying Rusty?” She didn’t wait for Tricia’s nod before she added, “Dad says he always feels like that when he takes a woman out.”
“Reverend Bob is dating again?” As incredulous as she was that the widower was finally having a social life, Tricia was relieved to talk about something besides her own nightmares of being set up. Then, remembering her son’s reaction to Brett, she studied the minister’s only daughter. “How do you feel about that?”
It was Hannah’s turn to be reticent. “Oh, I suppose it’s time,” she said with a negligent wave. “Mom’s been gone more than five years now. Dad’s only been out with a few women—all of them from other churches, for obvious reasons.”
“I can see why he’d want to do that.” Dating, though a tricky subject for all divorced or widowed church members, was extra sensitive for a minister. If she needed an example, she had only to think of youth minister Andrew Westin and his wife, Serena, who’d had to weather accusations of sexual impropriety when they dated. She didn’t envy Reverend Bob the microscope he would be under as each potential relationship warmed or cooled. “Have you liked any of the women he’s dated?”
Hannah made a noncommittal sound in her throat. “They’ve been nice, but none of them have been quite right for him.” Her lips turned up in a sheepish grin. “At least in my opinion.”
Tricia sensed that Hannah would never find a woman good enough for her father. An emptiness filled Tricia as she realized that was exactly how Rusty, Jr. felt