Free Cavanaugh Rules by Marie Ferrarella Page A

might help her feel less alone?” he guessed.
    “Something like that,” she acknowledged. “But I don’t want to do something that’ll make the chief think that I’m taking advantage of the so-called family connection.”
    Tom shook his head. “It’s not a ‘so-called’ family connection,” he corrected her. “It is a family connection. Our family connection. Like it or not, Kenny, Dad’s a Cavanaugh. And so are we.”
    “Yeah, I know. But—” She paused for a moment, searching for words that didn’t seem to want to materialize. “What do we do about...you know...the other family?”
    “We don’t ‘do’ anything about them. The way I see it, Kenny, we just got more family, we didn’t trade one bunch in for another. You can’t close your eyes to over twenty years of life and pretend it never happened. We thought they were our aunts and uncles, they thought they were our aunts and uncles. No reason for anything to change.”
    He was missing the huge elephant in the room—and she knew he was too smart not to see it. So why was he taking this stand?
    “Except that they’re not our aunts and uncles,” she insisted.
    “Just a technicality, Kenny. Finding out about the hospital mix-up doesn’t suddenly erase them, or make all those memories of Christmases past disappear. It sure doesn’t erase them from our lives. They wouldn’t want it and we wouldn’t want it.” He leaned forward in his chair, his voice gaining enthusiasm. “Life just got better, Kenny. And you don’t have to choose between one camp or the other. This is one of those times when you can have it all and it’s really okay.”
    He smiled at her as he rose. When she did as well, Tom gave her a quick, hard hug. “Give yourself permission to be happy again, Kenny. The rest of us are worried about you.” And then he glanced at his watch. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a very sexy lady waiting to light up my life and I don’t want to keep her waiting any longer.”
    That would be the detective who’d transferred from New Mexico after working with her brother on her niece’s kidnapping case. Kaitlyn Two Feathers. Their family would become larger by one very soon. Kendra was happy for Tom, even as she felt an unexpected pang in her heart for what she no longer had. And maybe never did. Jason’s suicide, despite all her efforts to help him, was evidence of that.
    “Say hi to Kait for me. Tell her to treat my big brother well.”
    He grinned. “Will do.”
    She stood there, watching her brother leave and then, quietly, she doubled back to the Homicide squad room. She made her way through the nearly deserted room until she reached her desk.
    Taking a deep breath, Kendra sat down and started to go over all her notes on the current case from the beginning.
    Again.

Chapter 6
    S abrina Abilene’s impressively unlined, heart-shaped face lit up when she saw her son walking toward her booth.
    She’d been sitting there for the last half hour and was thinking about leaving. She knew that Matthew’s career didn’t always remain between the lines. Sometimes he was forced to work around the clock. And while she worried about him a great deal because of his chosen career, she was also incredibly proud of him.
    “You came,” she cried once Matt was within earshot. Surprise and pleasure were evident in equal parts in her voice. “I didn’t think that you were going to.”
    Matt slid into the seat opposite his mother. This was where they came whenever they wanted to celebrate an occasion. Or just to get away and talk.
    It was the latter he was faced with now.
    Somewhere along the line, their roles had gotten reversed and he’d become the parent while she was the child, at least when it came to matters of the heart.
    “When have I not come?” he asked. Then, before she could reply, he said quietly, “You’re getting me confused with all those other men in your life, Mom. The ones who keep disappointing you and running out on