He glanced at the clock. It was just after six. He could smell coffee wafting up from downstairs and could do with a cup of that right now. However, it was too early for breakfast, and he wasn’t dressed. There was a one-cup coffee maker and an assortment of flavors on the cabinet above the mini-fridge, so he chose one of those, filled it with water, slid the empty coffee cup into place, and started it before going into the bathroom to shave. By the time he was finished, so was the coffee. He carried it with him to the window and watched what was left of the sunrise as he took his first sip, wondering if Janie was somewhere in the world, watching it, too.

Later as he was dressing, he began rethinking the wisdom of calling Melissa to help. Selfishly, he would love to spend the morning with her, but he’d had a concussion before and remembered the headache that had come with it being pretty rough and lasting a couple of days. And with that memory firmly in place, he talked himself out of calling.

Then five minutes later, she sent him a text.

My headache is barely there. I would be happy to help.

He grinned. She’d taken the decision out of his hands by offering, and he couldn’t think of one good reason to tell her no, so he sent her a text.

Pick you up around nine.

The day was suddenly a whole lot brighter as he hit Send and went down to breakfast with a bounce in his step. He noticed the young couple was absent, but three older women had arrived. He nodded at them as he entered, then paused at the sideboard to talk to Bud.

“What was the siren about so early this morning?”

“I was listening on the scanner, and I’m pretty sure they had a woman giving birth in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.”

“That’s great. A new baby in the world,” Sully said, then thought of his birth mother, knowing when the baby was born she was giving him away.

“Morning, Sully,” Rachel said as she came out of the kitchen. “Belgian waffles fresh from the waffle iron. Whipped cream and a mixed-berry compote, or warm maple syrup.”

It was against Sully’s personal beliefs to refuse waffles.

“Don’t mind if I do,” he said, then picked up a plate.

“Are you going to do more research today?” Bud asked.

“After breakfast,” Sully said.

“Then good hunting,” Bud said, and took the coffeepot over to the table to refill the cups for the trio of ladies.

A few minutes later, Rachel came back out with more hot waffles. She put them on the sideboard, then paused, eyeing Sully when he wasn’t looking, trying to figure out who he reminded her of. She was still staring when Bud came by and shifted her focus.

“Hey, honey, I just registered a family of four. They’re putting their things up in the room and will be back down for breakfast soon.”