The Fountain of Infinite Wishes (Dare River Book 5) (3 page)

“This is a big decision. I want you to be one hundred percent sure you want to move forward.”

“We do,” Sadie said, nodding.

He gave them a measured look. “Let’s go ahead and sign a service agreement so I can get started. You can tell me your father’s last known address so I can include it at the bottom.”
 

Sitting down at his desk, he typed for a minute, prompting Shelby when he needed the address, and then printed off the service agreement. He handed it to her when he was finished. Sure enough, their family’s last address together loomed large at the bottom of the page.
 

They’d lived in that house for only a few more months after their daddy’s abandonment, because Mama hadn’t been able to afford the mortgage on her own. Shelby had been too young when they’d moved to miss the house on Meadow Grove Street, but she’d driven by it multiple times as an adult. It was something she’d never shared with her siblings, but every time she did it, she imagined what their life might have been if they’d remained whole. How she’d imagine Daddy pushing her on the tire swing. Or J.P. playing in a sandbox as a more carefree little boy.

Shelby wished she had more real memories of that simple white colonial house with the black front door and matching black shutters, but like everything else from that time in her life, she only knew it from pictures and her flights of imagination.

Sadie rummaged in her purse. “Do you need a photo of Daddy?” she asked, handing him the one of their family taken two months before he’d left.

Vander took the photo and studied it. “You have his likeness, Shelby.” Then he locked gazes with her. “The eyebrow line is the same. And the mouth. Your bottom lip is…full…like his.”

“Is it?” she asked, a little breathless. “I mean, do I…look like him?”

Sadie shot her a look, which she ignored. She needed to pull it together, but since no one ever talked about their daddy or so much as brought out a picture, she’d never been told she resembled him. J.P. resembled him more than the rest of them, not that the McGuiness siblings talked about it much. In fact, this photo was the only one they had of that time. Sadie had snuck it out of a photo album when she was a junior in high school and put it in her bedside stand. If Mama ever knew, she’d never said anything.

It rattled the heck out of Shelby to hear she looked like Daddy. Besides, Vander was staring at her with such intensity. Talking about her full bottom lip…

“You do. From this photo, Sadie takes more after your mother.”

“Yes,” her sister agreed, and Shelby wondered if she was longing to hear if any of her features resembled their daddy too. Those physical attributes were all they had of him—so far.

“The database I start with doesn’t have any photos,” Vander said. “I’ll just plug in your father’s name and last known address and see where things go from there. Sometimes I can use the local tax office to trace someone, but that’s another step. If I end up needing to do some door-to-door visits at former residences, the photo might come in handy, although he’s older now.”

How many residences had their daddy had in the last twenty-plus years? There was so much they didn’t know.

“This is a pretty precious photo, I imagine,” Vander said. “You two have a beautiful family. Would you like to keep it with you until I need it? Copies of photos aren’t as effective in the field as originals. People tend to be more receptive and less suspicious if it’s a real photo.”

Sadie’s lip trembled, and Shelby reached for her hand. She knew how important that photo was to her sister.

“You can keep it,” Sadie said softly. “Maybe it will help inspire you…to see what he used to look like. Goodness, I…wonder if he even looks the same. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

Vander nodded, and despite his polished façade, Shelby could feel the compassion in him. He might be a powerful man, but he had heart. Her interest in him was only building, and she wondered about him, personal things like where he’d gotten that accent, how he’d come to Nashville to be a P.I., and why in the world his parents had named him Vander.

“I promise I’ll take good care of it, Sadie,” he said, carefully laying the photo down on his desk. “Thank you for entrusting it to me.”

Her sister gave him a teary smile, and Shelby knew they’d better hustle. Vander didn’t need to see Sadie’s waterworks during their first meeting.

“I’m happy to sign the agreement,” Shelby said, taking out a pen from her purse.
 

When she looked up, Vander was handing Sadie a box of tissues.

“You go ahead and cry if you need to,” he said quietly, still sitting on the edge of his desk. “Lots of people come into my office with difficult stories. You can’t ruffle me, I promise.”

The first tear slid down Sadie’s face. Shelby had half a mind to shush her or stop her, but she knew better. When Sadie was like this, it was best if she let it out.

“You can leave us alone another spell if you’d like,” she told Vander, taking her sister’s hand and squeezing it.

He only spared her a quick glance. “No need. I told you. It doesn’t bother me.”

And he seemed to mean it. Vander sat across from Sadie as she let loose a waterfall of tears, and Shelby busied herself with reading and signing the service agreement.
 

“Sadie,” she said as she handed the signed agreement to Vander. “Let’s let this poor man get on with his day and find you a cup of tea.”

The look Vander shot her rooted her in her chair. His aquamarine eyes didn’t look like calm waters now. There was heat—the kind that would scorch.

“Take all the time you need, Sadie,” he said gently.
Don’t listen to your sister
, Shelby all but heard him say, and if that didn’t shame her…

“No, Shelby’s right,” her sister said, rising from her seat and handing him the box of tissues, which he set aside. “I’m sorry for that display.”

“Pay it no mind,” Vander said. “If you need to express your emotions at any time during this process, you just go right ahead. I have a broad shoulder. Sadie, I’d like you to sign our agreement too. Seems only right.”

He shot Shelby a look that served as a silent message.

“But Shelby is…ah…paying for things,” Sadie said.

“Payment is different,” Vander said. “You’re both my clients. He’s your father too.”

Sadie gave him a tremulous smile and signed it.

“When I have any news about your father,” Vander said, setting the agreement aside, “I’ll give you a call.”

“I’ll be your main point of contact,” Shelby said, deciding it would be more efficient.

Sadie glanced her way, and there was hurt in her eyes.

Vander didn’t respond immediately. “How about I text you both, and if you’re able, we can set up a face-to-face? Once I confirm whether this is going to be easy or a little more challenging, we’ll need to agree on next steps. I’ll ask for your sign-off before I move ahead. Both of you.”

He’d done it again. Impressed her with his ability to manage his clients. Everything he did and said was carefully calibrated to ensure neither of them felt left out. Then she wondered if two people in the same family might develop different opinions during a process like this. That thought made her tummy burn. Surely she and Sadie would stay on the same page?

“That’s fine,” Shelby said, putting her arm around Sadie’s shoulders to ensure he knew she cared about her sister.
 

“You’ve been wonderful, Vander,” her sister said. “I’m…grateful.”

“It’s been a pleasure, Sadie,” Vander said with that smile of his. “Shelby, it was good to meet you as well. I’ll be in touch.”

He gave her his total focus as he shook her hand, and she was firmer in her shake than she normally would have been. He didn’t blink once, as if daring her to soften. She left his office quickly, determined not to quail.

Her sister hurried to keep up with her, and in the elevator, she didn’t say a word. When they reached the parking lot, Sadie turned to her. “I know you’re attracted to him.”

Shelby didn’t bother to deny it.

“I won’t tell you what to do,” her sister said, unlocking her older Honda. “I can’t tell if he likes you or not. But he strikes me as a professional. I know you are too. Let’s not make him…uncomfortable. We want him to find Daddy.”

That hot anger rose up again, and Shelby took a moment before responding. Otherwise, she’d spew flames, and that wouldn’t help anyone. “I won’t make him uncomfortable. Besides, I got the distinct impression he didn’t much like me.”

It didn’t matter, though.

She knew he wasn’t the kind of man who would let anything affect his work.

Chapter 2

Vander Montgomery walked to the window after closing the door behind his new clients. The view of the Cumberland River didn’t calm him. Neither did the reminder that he’d earned this killer view of Nashville.

Every time a client hired him to find their father, he got all stirred up.

It didn’t matter that he was thirty-five, and his father had been murdered twenty-five years ago this August. Part of what haunted him was that the crime remained unsolved after everything he’d done to find out who had murdered his father, Nashville detective Jed Montgomery. It didn’t help that he was now the same age his father had been when he was murdered. He had no model for how a man was supposed to live past this age, and it bothered him. Acutely.

He shrugged out of his suit jacket, feeling constricted.

Vander had poured everything he had and was into finding his father’s killer, until he’d been forced to face the conclusion there was nothing more he could do to find the man. After that, he’d poured himself into creating his detective agency and helping the people his father had served. That was something he’d succeeded at,
excelled
at. But it was no longer a challenge.

What was he supposed to pour himself into now?

Being a thirty-five-year-old successful bachelor in the South, he had plenty of people telling him it was time to find a good woman, settle down, and have a family. He’d never had much interest in that. After all, client after client had given him ample evidence that marriage and family didn’t work out for everyone. It hadn’t worked out for his parents either.

But work wasn’t enough anymore. He knew how to deal with clients and handle their cases. Nothing felt like much of a challenge, except there was something about Shelby McGuiness…

As a P.I., Vander sized people up immediately—it was his gift and a key component of his success—but the man in him had sized her up as well when she’d sauntered into his office in her pale pink designer dress suit and sparkly chandelier earrings. She was as classic Southern as pecan pie, but with a modern edge. Her rose perfume dotted with a pinch of peony and musk suited her to a T, and her silky light-brown hair and whiskey-colored eyes had stirred something in him. Cream-colored Jimmy Choos with straps that wrapped up her calves like vines had showcased her knockout legs. He was a leg man, and he appreciated a woman who wore sexy heels. Sue him.

He’d even liked her strong and determined attitude until she’d turned it on her sister. Regardless of that fact, she’d fired something up inside him only his father’s case and his business had fired up before.
 

He was going to need to keep a tight rein on himself while he worked on this case. It was counter to his personal code to show anything other than a professional interest in his clients. The curse word he uttered didn’t ease his agitation.

A discreet knock sounded behind him, and Vander cursed again. He knew it was Charlie, coming to check on him. She was his number two, with the official title of vice president. He’d hired her for her sixth sense, but he hated it when she turned that uncanny perception of hers on him.

The door opened, but Vander didn’t bother to turn around. “I won’t tell you to go back to work.”

She snorted. “You know I’m too tenacious for that. Besides, I had those Southern belles pegged for a missing father the minute they walked into reception.”

“It’s a waste of company hours for you to monitor new client arrivals,” he told her for the hundredth time.

“It’s my way of testing my sixth sense,” she answered like she always did. “Need to make sure it’s one-hundred-percent accurate.”

“It usually is,” Vander said as she came up beside him, clad in simple black pants, low heels for running after people if needed, and a white button-down shirt.
 

All the detectives who worked for him were the best out there—he’d made sure of that. Gage Farris was an ex-cop who’d retired young, fed up with the bureaucracy and politics in Atlanta. Lawrence Patterson had run his own private detective outfit until he’d gotten tired of the paperwork and management and come to work for his biggest competitor—Vander. Then there was the support staff that Montgomery Associates used for the more routine work of background checks, something they had a slew of from their country singer celebrity and politician clients.

But Charlie was special. Somehow she’d become his best friend. It helped that they weren’t remotely each other’s type.

“Why don’t you pass this case off to me?” Charlie asked him, putting her hands on her hips. “Give yourself a break for once. It’s the twenty-fifth anniversary of your dad’s death. I know it’s on your mind more than usual.”