Hidden in the Blood: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 5)

Chapter Fifty: Al, Sunday

Agnes stared at her mother with wet eyes, and Al saw all the accumulated, unspoken suspicion and resentment they shared between them finally begin to crumble. She drew her mother in for a hug, and the two of them had a good cry together, and Al knew it wasn't out of grief for Patrick, but for the lost years. Oh, those lost years, Al thought as his own chest swelled with emotion. If Agnes and her parents had had a better relationship, she might never have gone to Kelowna, and she and Al might still be together today. Then again, if Agnes hadn't been so afraid of her parents' disapproval, she might have been more confident around the opposite sex and might have started dating earlier, and Al might never have caught her eye when he did; they might never have dated at all. Was it better to have had the short time they had and remember it fondly? Maybe, but Al still felt the ache of those what ifs just as Agnes claimed she did.

To give them privacy while they embraced, Al stepped into the living room and had a good look at Patrick and Melissa as they sat watching the TV with glazed eyes. They had some of Agnes' features, he could tell, and maybe some of Patrick's, though Al had never met the man so couldn't say for sure. Those two beautiful children wouldn't be here if Agnes had never gone to Kelowna, so Al couldn't lament his missed opportunity and call himself a good man. Then again, these could have been his children, and they'd still have their father. That thought was so bright that it was like looking at the sun, and he had to avert his eyes from it or go blind. Worse, he was thinking about Lauren and the child she so briefly carried, a child who might have looked similar to these two if it had come to term.

It was odd that he was so emotional over Lauren's lost baby, a baby that would have destroyed at least two families, when he'd never envisioned having a baby with Rachel, the only safe option. Maybe it was because Rachel had mooted the idea right at the start, and they'd been so devoted to fostering to make it up to Danny Trybek for not doing enough for him when they were kids, that he'd never allowed himself to imagine what their baby would look like, but when fate had taken its turn and Lauren had told him she was pregnant, it was as if the universe had opened up and showed him an alternate life where a child of his own was possible, and he'd discovered he rather liked the idea. Not that anyone could replace Logan and Emma; adopting them was one of the happiest days of his life after marrying Rachel. 

It was better this way, he knew. Lauren and Joe had only just saved their marriage from collapse, and Rachel and he were okay even if she'd now exceeded his record in bedding friends. He looked to Agnes, who was now talking in hushed tones with her parents, and wondered if Rachel's willingness to go along with last night had something to do with insecurity over Agnes' reappearance in his life, a preemptive strike in case Al had any lingering feelings for his ex. It wasn't something he should think about now, though, not when Agnes had just lost her husband.

"Are you really Mom's friend?"

Al shook himself out of his reverie and looked back in the living room. It was Patrick who'd asked that question. He was waiting for his answer. "Yes, that's right," he said. "I'm Al Mackenzie. You're Patrick, right?"

Patrick nodded.

"She's told me about you. And Melissa?"

Melissa nodded wordlessly.

"She's really proud of you for being brave through all this," Al said. He didn't remember Agnes saying that, but he thought they needed to hear it. "She needs you to be brave a little longer. Did you two stay with your dad when he had the house in Queensborough?"

"Yeah, a couple of times," Patrick said. "We liked it there, didn't we, Melissa?" Melissa nodded again.

"Most likely that's where you'll live from now on," Al said, "but before you move there, your mom wants you to come with her to another house, just for a little while. Do you like Hide and Seek?"