Safe in His Arms Read Free Page A

preschool-age girl who stared up at him with eyes as pale blue as Lindsay’s.
    â€œHi, Trooper Rossetti.” Pulling off her sunglasses, Lindsay gestured with a tilt of her head to the child beside her. “This is Emma.”
    Joe looked back and forth between them, searching for other similar traits. From the police report, he’d figured Lindsay was single. He didn’t recall anything about her having a daughter and couldn’t remember having seen a child-safety seat in the back of the crushed car. And yet, while the girl’s dark, curly ponytails couldn’t have been more opposite from Lindsay’s fiery mane, those eyes connected the two of them.
    He crouched in front of the child. “Hello, Emma. My name is Trooper Rossetti.”
    â€œHi.” Emma dipped her head, staring out at him from beneath her bangs.
    â€œHow old are you?”
    She grinned bashfully and held up three fingers.
    â€œWell, then you’re a big girl.”
    Joe grinned first at the woman and then at the child. So much for his tough-cop image. Little girls like his own niece had always been able to turn him to mush. Sending Lindsay and her tough questions away would be hard enough. Adding a cute kid to the equation just wasn’t fair.
    Lindsay cleared her throat. “I almost didn’t recognize you out of uniform.”
    â€œIt’s my day off,” he told her as he came to his feet.
    â€œI’m sorry. I didn’t realize.” Lindsay’s gaze darted to the woman who’d scheduled the appointment and then back to him. “If you want to do this another day…”
    She was giving him an out, and he was tempted to take it. “Maybe you and your daughter—”
    â€œNiece.” She lowered her voice. “She is Delia’s daughter. Her name is Emma Banks.”
    â€œOh.” Joe swallowed. He hadn’t seen that one coming. And the fact that he hadn’t considered it was another sign that he wasn’t at the top of his game.
    â€œDelia made me Emma’s guardian.”
    That sad, empty look entered her eyes again. Pressing her lips together, as if to settle her emotions, she smiled at the child. Emma had released her hand and was scrambling into a waiting-area chair.
    â€œEmma, be careful. You’re going to get hurt.”
    The child barely glanced back at her aunt before righting her backside in the chair and reaching for a brochure on the table next to her. She pretended to read the document on Michigan’s concealed-weapon permit laws, but she held it upside down.
    â€œHoney, why don’t you put that back?”
    â€œNo.” Emma clutched the brochure to her chest.
    â€œShe can have that one,” Joe said.
    Lindsay smiled, appearing relieved to skip the battle. “She’s a great kid…usually.”
    â€œYou’re lucky to have each other,” he said, when nothing else better came to mind.
    He couldn’t help glancing again at Emma. The girl had lost her mother, a reality that no child should have to experience, and a horror that he knew firsthand. At least he could remember a few things about his own mother. Her sweet spirit. Her soft hair. Emma wouldn’t remember her mother at all, except through pictures and through the stories relatives like Lindsay would tell her.
    A lump formed in his throat as he looked back to Lindsay, who was watching her niece, as well. Lindsay’s eyes were moist.
    Joe knew he’d lost. Whether or not he was at fault for the accident, he couldn’t help feeling partially responsible for Emma losing her mother and for Lindsay being saddled with the responsibility of a child. The least he could do was to answer a few uncomfortable questions for them.
    â€œHow about we get out of here? There’s a park in New Hudson where Emma can play while I answer your questions.”
    â€œPark?” Emma’s eyes lit up, and she was already climbing down from the