Autumn in Philadelphia Trilogy

The Return: Loose Ends

"Stories don't like to end when you want them to, do they? Loose ends aren't easy to snip with scissors or tuck inside a hem. They tempt you. They want you to keep pulling until there is nothing left to keep you warm." ― Jan Ellison

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"You should have told me this sooner."

Audrey's eyes flickered between that fogbound color with no name and the grayish green of an angry squall. Her gaze was fixed on her son.

Cory had been allowed to leave. Shawn had been backed into the living room.

Audrey sat on the couch and expected him to follow. He took a spot across from her on the coffee table.

"I know," he sighed repentantly. "I thought I could take care of it myself."

"That's not your responsibility." Her voice was devoid of emotion and very cold.

"I feel like it is."

Audrey leaned closer to him. Sitting on the coffee table across from her, he looked very much like the 15-year-old she met years ago though there was no longer a chip on his shoulder. She took his hands in hers.

"Shawn, I love you and appreciate what you want to do, but this is my job. Jon is my husband. If someone is trying to interfere in my marriage, I need to be the one to deal with it."

"Right, I'm sorry. I just didn't want to put more stress on you."

Audrey let go of his hands and sat back. He wasn't telling her everything. "What stress would it add?"

Shawn dropped his hands between his knees and sighed, uncertain of what to say.

"Shawn?"

"I have some pictures taken from her computer," he admitted. "I saw some tabs that looked odd for a school secretary to have open, and I may have looked a little closer when she was gone."

Audrey gave him a chastising look. "Shawn."

"I know. I know." He put his hands in front of him as though to ward off her disappointment. "It was wrong. I've only done it twice."

Because I haven't had time to do it again, he thought.

Audrey held him in that scolding glare for an agonizing minute, then arched her eyebrow. "So what did you find?"

Shawn gave her a quizzical look, not sure he heard her correctly.

"If you've already got it, you might as well show me."

It really shouldn't have surprised him that she would be both upset with him and more than willing to use what he'd found. Shawn pulled out his phone and clicked on the gallery. Moving to the couch, he handed her his phone.

"Unreal," she muttered under her breath as she looked at the photos of the articles Katherine had been reading and her history. "Unbelievable."

She gave his phone back. "I'm glad you have these. Don't you ever do that again."

"Yes, ma'am," he said appropriately ashamed. Shawn rubbed his sweating palms across his jeans. "There's somethin' else. You remember the night Julia told you I was meetin' Dad for dinner?"

Audrey frowned then nodded slowly as the memory returned.

"It was Katherine's idea to go to Claudette. She convinced Dad to send Julia home. Because he thought it was a business meetin', he did. Julia was so upset about it that I went to find him. Katy helped me figure out where he was and called the restaurant. She found out that the reservation was in Dad's name. He didn't make it, Mom. She did. I called her out on it while he was on the phone with you and her reaction told me I was right."