Shannon shrugged, but her sad eyes didn’t meet his. “I guess.”

They headed off the plane and up the Jetway. The terminal was a buzz of activity, just like always. Travelers rushed by. He grasped Shannon’s hand to keep from getting separated. With every step they moved toward security, his adrenaline shot up another notch.

Shannon rubbed the sleeve of her free arm over her eyes, and Mitch knew she was upset, but he was tapped out and didn’t know how to console her. They moved through security without speaking, and when they cleared the checkpoint, Mitch’s nerves hummed as he scanned the faces waiting expectantly for arrivals.

Simone moved out from behind an excited family hugging a returning soldier, and Mitch’s first thought was that she didn’t look like the confident, put-together lawyer she always was. Her hair was clipped up in a messy do, dark circles showed beneath her eyes, and worry was etched across her face. But even mussed and obviously stressed, she was still gorgeous, dressed in slim jeans and a loose white T-shirt. And his heart did a flip—just like it always did when he saw her—then dropped like a stone straight into his belly.

Shannon’s feet drew to a stop beside him, and she tugged on his hand, stopping his forward momentum. He looked down at her. Watched tears fill her eyes. And had an overwhelming urge to wrap her in his arms and hold on to her, since he knew he could no longer hold on to her mother. But before he could do just that, the tears spilled over her eyelashes, she pulled free of his hand, dropped her backpack on the ground, and sprinted toward Simone.

Simone fell to one knee and caught her in a tight hug. Shannon held on for dear life and sobbed. Mitch couldn’t hear what Simone said to her daughter, but the relief and love rushing over Simone’s features told him everything he needed to know.

He was the outsider here. He’d gotten so caught up in the whole idea of having a ready-made family, he hadn’t paid attention to what was right in front of his eyes. Simone and Shannon were a unit. They needed each other, just like Julia and Ryan needed one another. And though they’d let him into their circle for a little while, their world wouldn’t crumble without him. Even if things hadn’t gone to shit between him and Simone, he always would have been the outsider, looking in, wanting to be a part of something that, frankly, wasn’t his to want.

That realization sliced right through the center of his chest, but he clenched his jaw, picked up Shannon’s bag from the floor, and forced his feet forward. He stopped two steps from mother and daughter, still tangled together, and cleared his throat. All he wanted now was to get the hell out of here, but for Shannon’s sake, he stood still. And waited.

Simone looked up at him. Tears glistened in her eyes. Tears a part of him wished she’d shed, just once, for him. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He nodded. Couldn’t seem to find anything else to say. Cleared his throat again. “Shannon, I need to get going.”

Shannon turned in her mother’s arms. Blinked several times. Then swiped her sleeve over her damp eyes. “Already?”

“Yeah.”

Simone pushed to her feet. “Are you heading back to Seattle right away?”

Small talk. Mitch could handle small talk, for Shannon’s sake. He shifted his backpack on his shoulder and tucked one hand into the front pocket of his jeans. “No. Tomorrow. I need to pick up a few files I left at the office.”

Simone nodded and placed both hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “I-I’m…sorry we interrupted your plans.”

“Shannon is never an interruption.”

Shannon’s eyes filled with tears again, and that was all Mitch could take. He had to get out of here, before he said or did something he’d regret later. Before he begged.

“Anytime you want to talk, Shannon, just call. I have my cell on me most of the time. And don’t give your mom too much trouble. She loves you, even when you don’t think she does.”

A tear spilled over Shannon’s lashes, and she nodded.

“Mitch,” Simone whispered, stepping around Shannon.

Yeah. No. He was not about to reopen wounds that were already oozing.

Mitch gripped his backpack at the shoulder and turned. “I gotta go.”

He pushed his feet forward one step at a time. Refused to look back. Forced himself to head across the long, wide hallway toward the doors to freedom. Two days ago, he thought his heart had shattered when Simone had told him she didn’t love him, but today he knew no matter where he went in his life, it would never be whole again.

“Mitch!”

He stopped at the sound of Shannon’s voice and glanced over his shoulder. Shannon darted around Simone and streaked across the airport. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She held her arms out wide.

He dropped to his knees, caught her in a tight hug, closed his eyes, and held her close.

“I love you,” she sobbed.

“Ah, sweetheart.” His chest squeezed tight. “I love you too. That’s never going to change.”

“But you’re leaving.”

“I’ll be back, Shannon.” He eased away just enough so he could swipe at her tears. Swallowed back his own. “I have to leave for my job, but that doesn’t mean I’m not coming back. I’ll always come back.”

Her shoulders shook with her heart-wrenching sobs.

God, this was killing him. He brushed the tears from her cheek once more. “Tell you what. Opening day, just you and me. I need my best girl to cheer on the Giants with me. What do you say? Is it a date?”

She sniffled. Rubbed her eyes. Seemed unsure. “O-okay.”

“Okay.” He had no idea if she’d even be here on opening day, if Simone was staying in San Francisco or leaving like she’d told him she planned to do. But he’d do whatever he could to make this easier for her. Even if it killed him just a little bit more. “Okay. See? There’s nothing to be sad about. This isn’t good-bye. Before you know it, I’ll be back from British Columbia, and we’ll be heading to AT&T Park.”

She sniffled once more. Drew up her shoulders and swiped at her tears. “Promise?”

He forced a smile for her, knowing there was no way he could ever love his own kid more than he loved her. “I promise.”

She sucked in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. And as her own lips curled into a forced smile, he knew nothing, not even nearly dying from a head wound, compared to the pain he felt at this moment.

Tears threatened, and he knew if he didn’t leave now, he might not be able to without making a total ass of himself. Careful not to look at Simone, he grabbed his bag from the ground, tapped Shannon on the nose, and beat feet for the doors.

Then told himself he was better off without them. Even if in his heart he knew that was a total lie.

* * *

Nothing eased the ache that had settled deep within her chest.

Simone set her mug of tea on the kitchen counter and ran her hand through her hair, replaying the scene in the airport for the thousandth time. The look on Mitch’s face when Shannon had raced after him and he’d caught her in that hug was something she was never going to forget.

She looked toward the stairs. Boxes littered the hallway that ran from the kitchen to the entry. After returning home from the airport, she’d told Shannon they didn’t need to resume packing, at least not yet. They’d talked some—about what Shannon had been thinking going up to Seattle, about how dangerous that had been, and about why it was so wrong—but Simone hadn’t laid into her daughter as she’d planned. Instead, they’d cuddled on the couch and watched a movie, and even now, after putting Shannon to bed, Simone couldn’t bring herself to box up anything else.

Was she jumping the gun? Uprooting Shannon and herself all because of her own stupid fears? Will had said they knew where she was. And not to give them anything if they came after her. That didn’t mean someone was actually coming after her, though. No one had shown up in the last two days, had they? It was highly possible all that meant was that someone was keeping tabs on her, for safety’s sake, even if she didn’t understand why. Besides, if someone had been looking for her, they could have easily found her the last three years. It wasn’t like she’d been in hiding. If the people Steve had turned on really wanted to find her, they could have done it long before now.

But the question still remained—why would they want to? She didn’t know anything. Steve had been careful not to tell her much about the case that had pushed him into running. And she’d hooked up with him after the fact anyway. That was why Will, the US marshal assigned to her case, had assured her it was okay for her and Shannon to leave the program after Steve’s death.

Her mind drifted back over the call as she dumped what was left of her tea into the sink and washed out her cup. She’d tried to call Will several times since then to get answers to her questions, but his phone kept going to voice mail.

“You remember what I told you, right? Don’t forget it.”

Her memory flashed to the day she’d had the moving van packed, ready to head west with Shannon. Will had come by to wish the two of them good luck. He’d placed his big hands on her shoulders, looked down at her and said, “Fear is the biggest enemy. Remember that and you’ll make it through anything. If you jump without thinking, then they win. And the truth is, you’re nothing to these people. You’re not a threat.”

Relief whipped through her, the kind that gave her strength. The kind that brought hope back to life. She’d been so freaked out by Will’s call, she hadn’t really listened to what he’d been telling her. Sure, she still wasn’t positive what had been going on in the background of that call, but he worked in law enforcement. It could have been any number of things. And in her gut, she knew if Will had wanted her to run, he’d have told her that outright. Instead, he’d been warning her to stay on her toes, just like he’d trained her and Steve to do when they’d been living in hiding. And she’d been so stupid, she’d reacted without thinking, just as he’d told her not to do all those years ago.

God, she’d made a mess of things when what she should have been doing was being thankful Will was reminding her not to get complacent.

Hand shaking, she wiped her palms on a towel and quickly moved through the kitchen and into the entryway, glancing up the curved stairs toward the second level, where Shannon lay sleeping. It was after eleven p.m. and part of her wanted to go up and make sure Shannon was still there. Another part told herself what Shannon had done, she’d done to try to help matters, not hinder them. If Simone wanted to repair her relationship with her daughter, she needed to start by trusting her.

She also needed to trust herself. Running wasn’t the solution she’d thought it to be only days before. Neither was yanking Shannon out of school and away from her friends, not when she’d finally acclimated to life without Steve. And as much as Simone had tried to convince herself over the months that her relationship with Mitch hadn’t yet impacted Shannon, she knew now that was a lie. There was no way she could tear Shannon away from Mitch after the bond she’d seen between them today at the airport.

Mitch…

An ache spread beneath her ribs and twisted hard. The same damn knot that had taken up space there since she’d told Mitch that terrible lie.

She had to tell him the truth. She had to try to set at least some part of this right. Kate had said Mitch was one of the most understanding people she knew, and Simone believed that herself. If she could just talk to him and explain things, maybe then she could fix it. If not for her, then at least for Shannon.

She looked up the stairs toward Shannon’s open door. A dim green light from Shannon’s alarm clock shone through the darkness, followed by the steady deep breaths of her daughter, lost in sleep.

Before she could change her mind, Simone headed for the kitchen and reached for her phone from the counter. Paging through her contacts, she found the one she was looking for and clicked Call.

Her nerves hummed as she waited. She only had a few hours to make this work. If she missed the window and Mitch left for British Columbia, she might never have a chance to make it right.

“Melody?” she asked when the girl answered. “No, everything’s fine. I’m sorry to call so late. Listen, I was wondering”—hope spiraled through every cell in her body—“are you free for a few hours?”