JP was their youngest, six years old. Brian told Kara that he was a “oops” baby, but kept them on their toes.

If only she had parents like Brian and Julie, she wondered how different her life would have been.

Or maybe, she was exactly who she would have been no matter who her parents were.

Somehow, she doubted that.

They went inside. Brian was grilling steaks on the patio, even though it was freezing and Kara was pretty sure by this time tomorrow there would be snow. His oldest son, Trevor, was helping, and Kara watched them through the glass. Brian was a good dad. He was a cop, through and through, but be loved being with his family.

“Hey, Kara! I made a racetrack in my room! Wanna see?” JP did nothing quiet or slow. He ran upstairs, expecting Kara to follow. Which she did. She wasn’t a kid person as a rule—the kids she encountered were damaged. Lex had always said she was good with kids—and maybe she was. Mostly because she didn’t put up with their bullshit and talked to them on their level. But most of the kids she encountered were in gangs, running drugs, abused, in the system. Not fun and carefree and happy like Brian’s family. So to watch JP be what she thought of as a normal kid—when she hadn’t been one, and she didn’t see normal kids in her job—it was good. Good for her to remember that she did her job to give these options to more people. The option to be safe, to have a family, to live a happy life.

After inspecting a rather death-defying Indy 500 track complete with loops and hairpin turns, Kara went down to eat with the family. She listened to Trevor talk about college and Teddy talk about his girlfriend—who he was going to see right after dinner. For two hours only, because it was a school night, per his mother. It was so normal. So...natural.

She didn’t feel like she belonged.

“Trevor will help me clean up,” Julie said. “You two talk. You don’t get a lot of time to chat.”

Kara and Brian went out to the back patio with a couple of beers. He turned on two heat lamps, which was nice. They had a pool, now covered for the winter—a luxury here in Washington because it only got hot enough to swim in the summer. There was also a lot of space—no houses behind them, only an open field sloping up to the mountain.

“This is nice,” she said.

“It is.”

“Julie’s business is doing well.”

“Yep. She makes as much money as I do,” Brian said.

“No shit?”

“By next year she’ll be making more, even after my raise. I’m really proud of her. She started it as a one-woman shop, and now has this amazing business. And she loves it. Pays Trevor and Teddy to help, especially during Christmas when it gets hectic.”

“You didn’t tell her that you might be a target.”