“Don’t start planning the wedding, Mom. So far, it’s just a lot of texting and FaceTime, and one time we went to Air and Space and got pizza. It’s not a big deal.” Even as she said those words to her mother, Brooke admitted they were a lie. It was already a very big deal, and she knew it.

“But it could be?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. We’re not there yet.”

“We can talk more next weekend.”

“About that… I don’t think I’m going to make it.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Well, it seems Nate is coming down to ‘hang out’ for the weekend.”

“Ah, I see. Is he staying with you?”

Brooke loved the way her mom asked that so casually. “No, he’s getting a hotel.”

“And you’re freaking out about it.”

“Trying not to. He made me promise I wouldn’t.”

“I like this young man.”

“I like him, too.”

“That’s okay, you know, to like him.”

“I’m trying to just be normal about it.”

“Should you check in with Savannah?” Tracy asked, referring to the therapist who’d been so instrumental in putting Brooke back together after the attack.

“Maybe. I’m trying not to blow it up into a bigger deal than it is. I never expected casual texting to turn into something so…”

“Important?”

“Yeah.”

“I love this for you, sweetheart.”

“Thanks. I think…”

“Try to relax and just enjoy it. Falling in love is the sweetest thing in life, and I so want you to experience that.”

Brooke suspected she’d fallen in love quite some time ago. Now she just had to figure out what she was going to do about it.

Chapter Thirty-Four

On Monday morning, Sam met Tracy outside the U.S. District Court on Constitution Avenue for the preliminary hearing in their father’s murder case. The charges had been upgraded to murder after he’d died of his wounds, four years after being shot on the job in a case that’d remained unsolved until after his death.

Celia and Angela had decided to let Sam and Tracy represent the family.

Sam hugged her sister. “How’re you doing?”

“I’ll be better when this is done.”

“It’s just a formality. The U.S. Attorney presents the evidence, establishes probable cause that the defendants should be tried, and then it should be bound over for trial.”

“There’s no chance it won’t go to trial, is there?”

“Only if they plead out.”

“What does that mean?”

“Accept a deal in which they’d plead guilty to the charges in exchange for a lesser sentence than they’d get if convicted at trial. We’d have to agree to that, and I haven’t heard anything about a deal being on the table. The defense might approach the prosecution about a deal after they hear the mountain of evidence.”