“Why don’t you come over here for it?” he said. “I don’t have family. It would be nice not to have to eat alone.”

She knew he meant it. He wasn’t just being kind. She smiled to herself. “We’d both like that, very much. And you do have family. You have me and Tad.”

There was a hesitation. “Thanks, kid.”

“The victims’ service should let me know when Morris is getting out. But just in case, would you, too?”

“Of course. You take care of yourself.”

“I’ll be fine. You do the same.”

It made her feel more secure, to have Cal looking out for her and Tad. He was a lonely man. She’d heard him speak of the woman he’d loved and lost very rarely, but she wondered why they’d broken up. His marriage had been a bad one, with no love lost on either side. If he’d married to spite his former girlfriend, it made sense. What a shame. He was a good man. She was sorry for him.

He’d been friends with a nurse at Hal Marshall Children’s Hospital, a woman whose murder case he’d worked as a homicide detective several years earlier. She’d married a Texas Ranger, John Ruiz, who lived on a huge ranch outside Jacobsville, Texas, just south of San Antonio. She knew Ruiz. He had a son just a little older than Tad. He’d been in and out of the office with the boy when he was working gang-related cases with Banks, who was one of his friends. The child was nice, too. From what she’d heard of his new wife, she was just as sweet, and the boy, Tonio, loved her dearly. Ruiz’s new wife had presented him with a little girl last autumn.

It must be nice, she thought wistfully, to marry and have kids. She loved Tad. She’d taken care of him since he was born, because her poor mother had always been in bad health. She’d died when Tad was still a toddler.

She often thought how it would be to have a child of her own. But just as quickly, she’d laughed at her own thoughts. She would never find anyone who wanted a ready-made family, and there was no way she was giving up custody of Tad for any man. So she’d raise him, and after he graduated from high school, she might reconsider...

Baloney, she interrupted herself. After what Morris had done to her, she’d never trust a man enough to marry him. It was just as well that she had Tad to take care of. Besides, she’d never have to risk her heart.

Poor Cal. She hoped that someday he’d find some kindhearted woman whom he could love. He was too nice a guy to spend the rest of his life alone.

FIVE