Page 36 of Daybreak

Holly picked at a piece of lint on her jeans, and then her shoulders slumped. “This isn’t a secret, but it’s also not public knowledge…yet. Sheriff Reddick was here with autopsy results we weren’t expecting. Mom had a massive heart attack. Her foot was still on the gas, but she was already dead when Lee Peters came over the hill and hit her. And he didn’t see her because he was texting his girlfriend. If he’d just looked up in time, he could have swerved. But he didn’t.”

Gunner was stunned. “My God! I have seen all kinds of freak accidents, but nothing like that. It must have been a shock to all of you…and to the Peters family. But the question is… How does it make you feel?”

“Relieved. All this time I kept imagining in that split second before they collided, knowing she was going to die… Imagining her fear and despair, you know? If that was her day to die, somehow, the sudden death she didn’t see coming seems like the blessing. I still feel so bad for the Peters boy, but at the same time, it wasn’t Mom’s fault that he hit her. It’s all such a horrible mess, and I’m dreading the funeral.”

Gunner reached for her hand. “Honey, every funeral is its own level of hell. What you’re feeling is what everybody feels when they’ve lost someone they love, no matter why or how.”

Holly sighed. “I forgot you work in Homicide. I guess you’ve seen your share of death.”

He nodded. “The worst part is always notifying the next of kin, and then trying to find out who killed them. All of my cases are murders.”

“How do you do it?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Focus. Mind over matter.” He sighed. “That’s a lie. But finding the killer always helps. And then before you can dwell, there’s another call out or two, and you don’t have time for someone else’s grief because you’re trying to find out what happened to the next victim.”

“Everybody says you’re really good at it,” Holly said.

Gunner’s only comment was noncommittal. “I was raised to do a job right the first time.”

Holly kept looking at him—at the steady gaze in his dark eyes and the stubborn cut to his jaw—and knew in her heart he was a keeper, but would he ever see her that way?

Impulsively, she took a cookie from the plate beside them and handed it to him. “Granny made them, and I owe you. They have chocolate and toffee bits in them.”

Gunner grinned. “First time I ever got paid in cookies.” He took a bite, chewed, and then his eyes widened. “These are good!”

“Yes, they are,” Holly said. “Mom was a great baker, too. Granny was a good teacher.”

“What about you? What do you like to do for fun?” Gunner asked.

“I don’t know what I do for fun. I work. I get takeout. I go home to TV and bed. I like to bake, but I don’t have anyone to bake for, and I’d just sit there and get fat eating it all myself.”

He grinned. “I nominate myself as your official taster if the urge happens again.”

Holly smiled. “Maybe when we get back to Dallas.”

He stuffed the rest of the cookie in his mouth, chewed and swallowed, and then took a drink.

She frowned. His lack of response wasn’t promising. “I wasn’t hinting for anything,” she said.

“It’s not that. I made a recent decision to get out of the cop business. For a number of reasons. Bottom line, I’m not going back. I’m moving home to Crossroads and building a house up on the rise above our house.”

She gasped. “Oh wow!”

“Don’t say anything yet. I need to notify my boss first before it becomes public knowledge.”

“Right! Oh Gunner, how awesome. I have wanted to do that, too. I even talked about it with Mom once, but we finally agreed that jobs in real estate are scarce here, even in Amarillo.”

“You know Garrett would love it if you came home.”

“Yes, but then I’d be that girl again, asking Daddy for money, and I think I’ve outgrown that era of my life,” she said.

He wanted to unload his plans and dreams, and tell her about the lottery win, but it was too soon, and there was the funeral to get through. First things, first. Instead, he threaded his fingers through hers.

“You never know what your future will bring, but I’d love it if you’d keep me in it.”

Holly’s heart skipped. “Count on it.”

All of a sudden, there was a lot of shouting outside. They both glanced out the window overlooking the barns and stables and saw a horse running hell-bent for leather toward the cattle guard, which they all knew he could clear without breaking a sweat, and men running after it spinning loops to try and rope it before it got away.