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"I think I&039;m in heaven"

Reilly hid a smile as Veck stared with awe at the slice of apple pie her mother had put in front of him

"You really made this?" he said as he looked up

"Fro the crust," her dad announced

"And not only that, she can do your taxes with her eyes closed and one arm tied behind her back"

"I think I&039;m in love"

"Sorry, she&039;s taken" Her dad pulled her ht?"

"Right," was the answer spoken against his mouth Reilly passed a quart of vanilla ice cream to Veck "a la mode?"

"You betcha"

Turned out Detective DelVecchio was a good little eater He&039;d had seconds on the Vitello Saltiuy, but that was not a surprise And it looked like dessert h his capacity to savor herwasn&039;t all she was ily and with respect, he&039;d h Tom Reilly had been known to scare elected public officials half to death As a result?

"And, yeah, Veck, I agree with you," her father announced "There&039;s a lot out there that needs changing in the system It&039;s a hard balance between prosecution and persecution - especially aroups Socioeconomic, too"

Yup, the full approval had been bestowed on her partner

As talk sprang up around the subject of profiling in law enforcement, she sat back and watched Veck He seemed so much more relaxed than she&039;d ever seen him

And man, he was handso of pie later, Veck helped bring the plates to the sink and hopped on drying duty Then it was time to coat up and head for the exit

"Thanks, Mo the woman who had always been there for her "And Dad"

Going over to her father, she had to tiptoe it to put her ar it even halfway around his shoulders

"I love you," he said, holding her tight And then in her ear, he whispered, "Nice guy you got there"

Before she could return a he&039;s-not-actually- passed around and she and Veck were out the door

As she was backing out into the street, they both waved and then it was all over

"Your parents are incredible," he said, as she drove them away

A flush of pride in her family de her smile "They are"

"If you don&039;t"

When he didn&039;t turn to look at her, and he didn&039;t finish the sentence, she had the sense her ansas i to force her to reply

"I&039;m more than happy to talk about it" As rain started to fall, she pulled up to a stop sign and put her wipers on "My parents had alorked with at-risk youth and crisis centers - starting before they&039;d even met There&039;s one run by the Catholic Church don, and after they werethe books, soliciting donations, helping with the displaced faave birth to me and I caot into a fight and she lost the sight in her left eye" Reilly glanced over "I saw it happen It&039;s my first mehtly

"Three and a half She was fighting with hi new, but then she just snapped and went after him with a knife He shoved her away in self-defense, but she kept co at him until he hit her Hard She told the cops he beat her, and they took him to jail And that&039;s hoe ended up in the shelter - it was his apartnal and headed over for the entrance onto the Northway that was down by the high school "Anyere staying at the place ave birth to s from another family, so that was the end of that We went to stay with her other two boyfriends for about a week and thenshe took me back and dropped me off at the shelter Just left me"

Veck met her in the eyes "Where is she now?"

"Not a clue I never saw her again, and I know this is going to sound bitter, but I don&039;t care what happened to her" She caht and hit the brakes "She was a liar and an addict, and the only nice thing she ever did was leave h to be honest, I&039;m pretty sure it wasn&039;t forher style, and she had to know that killing a child was the kind of no-no that would guarantee her life behind bars"

At that point, it was tihway - which was fine, because this was the hard part of her story

Little break, little breath, as she found a space for them in the traffic

"Boy, the rain&039;s really starting to co up the wipers

"You don&039;t have to finish"

"No, it&039;s okay The real nightmare is ould have happened if my parents hadn&039;t taken an interest in me That&039;s what still scares ed into the fast lane, and hit the gas "My parents happened to be working that day - and I just stuck to thelue I&039;d loved my father fro and strong, with that deep voice - I knew he&039;d protect ave me cookies and milk - and played with o ho to conceive at that point and, gee whiz, weren&039;t necessarily all about soht, and for a week afterward, they tried to find the woman and talk sense into her, because they knew that once a kid gets into the system, it can be hard to break out ">LittleWhen they finally found her, she didn&039;t want hts away They ca and sat withat the shelter, because you needed your guardian there, butout withto tell o, but one more day turned into twowhich turned into another week I was really well behaved, and I had the senseFinally, they came back and asked otten thes like only he could" She glanced over and smiled "Little bit turned into twenty-five-plus years They officially adopted me, like, a year after I moved in"

"That&039;s awesoain "What about your biological father?"

"No one knoho he was - including the wo to rown up, that she&039;d maintained it was one of two exes of hers - both of ere in jail for dealing drugs" She sped up her wipers "And listen, I know I soundangry in places I guess I just struggle with the whole addiction-is-a-disease theory With a pair of addicts as ical basis, there&039;s a statistical probability that I&039;d end up like theo that route - I kneas a door I shouldn&039;t open, and I never have And yeah, you could argue that ical mother never had, and that&039;s true But you make your own destiny You choose your way"

For a while there was just the beat of the wipers and the subtle rush of water whipping down the underside of the car

"I&039;m sorry, I probably said too lanced over and had the sense Veck was back in his own past Staying quiet, she hoped he&039;d open up, but he kept silent, elbow propped on the door, handhis jaw

From out of nowhere, a massive black SUV roared by in the allons of water over Reilly&039;s hood and obscuring the view

"Jesus," she said, easing off on the gas "Theylike a death wish to cut your travel tiain, jogging by other cars like a football receiver on the way to the goal line

Reilly frowned as she iined Veck on his bike in this downpour with that kind ofto be able to ride hoerous"

"Nah, it&039;s no proble to herself, she was not at all sure of his read on the situation And the fact that he was stupid enough to get on that rocket of his in this sort of weather really didn&039;t put her in her happy place

As Veck sat next to Reilly, he found hi about his fatherand his h the latter was someone he couldn&039;t dwell on How ironic DelVecchio Sr was almost always on his mind, but his mother -

"I think I&039;d better take you hoh on a bike"

"I had no idea about your St," he heard hiuessed it You&039;re so totally put together"

There was a pause, as if she had to change conversational lanes in her head "Well, a lot of it is my parents By example and in actuality, they are who I wanted to be and who I beca while, I orried that if I wasn&039;t perfect, they&039;d return me like a defective toaster But then I wrecked my father&039;s new car on my learner&039;s peruess what? They keptat her profile, he said, "I don&039;t think you give yourself enough credit"

"The only thing I did was take advantage of the good example that was in front of me"

"And that&039;s trehborhood five minutes later, he realized she&039;d taken her own advice about him and his bike and the weather

The brakes squeaked slightly as she stopped in his driveway, and abruptly, the rain hitting the roof of the car sounded like Ping-Pong balls

"I think we&039;re having soh the front windshield "Bad storm"

"No thunder"

"No"

The wipers flopped back and forth, clearing the view only momentarily

Eventually, he looked over at her "I want to kiss you again"

"I know"

He laughed a little "Am I so obvious"

"NoI want it, too"

Then turn your head, he thought All you have to do is turn your head and I&039;ll take it from there

The rain fell The wipers slapped around The engine idled

She turned her head And focused on his mouth "I really want it"

Veck leaned in toward her, and pulled her to his lips The kiss was very slow and very deep And as her tonguemore from her than just sex, but if he&039;d had to name what the hell it was, he&039;d have been out of words Ultimately, however, the definition didn&039;t matter Not in the interior of this unmarked, parked in his driveith the storm on the outside of the car

What they both needed had nothing to do with talking

God, she was still so soft beneath hih inner core of her, the resilience and the single-mindedness, that really turned him on The idea that she was such a survivor, that she was so strong and clear ho she was and where she was from, made him respect the shit out of her

And what do you knowthat was sexier than anything that cae of his torso, he tried to get even closer, but the steering wheel bit into his side, and blocked hiave it another shot, but he got nowhere near where he wanted to be

Which was naked and on top of her

On a curse, he eased back In the reflected brightness of the headlights on the garage door, her beautiful face was minated clearly, the pattern of the rain on the windshield playing across her features, spotting them up before the wipers cleared ahat looked like tears

He thought of her with her faht of her, period

"I&039;o in alone," he said abruptly