Another early morning call. Lauren answered it, listened for a few seconds and said, "Hey, that's great news!" Another minute or two of typical phone exchange, then, "No, for sure, I understand. She'll see her next week for camp!"

When she hung up, she turned to him and said, "Logan's out!"

"He is?!" Joe exclaimed. He hadn't expected that.

"They visited him last night, and his lawyer gave the cops an ultimatum: charge him or let him go, he's a minor for God's sake."

"So, they let him go?"

"The only reason they had him this long was because he wasn't talking at first, but once he saw the psychologist he was able to open up. When he told them his story they realized they couldn't tie him to anything that happened."

"Did Rachel say what did happen?"

"She didn't get into it on the phone, but she'll probably tell me more on the way to work."

"So, they're going in today?"

"Oh, yes, Emma's much better, over the moon that her brother's back home. She still wants to stay home today, with him."

"Better give Naomi the bad news then."

"She's seen her a lot this week, so a day away might be good for her. They can go to my mom and dad's today. She should have her aikido lesson anyway." She chuckled and said, "Naomi got Emma all excited about going to Harrison Hot Springs."

Joe rolled his eyes and said, "Of course she did, and now we'll have to go."

"You know what? I think it will be fun. I think we should take a three-family trip to Harrison Hot Springs. We'll invite Sunny and Tej and their kids."

"Tej will like that, I bet," he said. "She likes to lounge in her bathing suit."

Lauren blinked at him for a second. "And how would you know that?"

"When she called me on Wednesday," he said. "She told me about what the kids were up to, and how she was sunbathing and getting looks from creepy old white men."

She squinted at him and asked, "Was she hitting on you?"

"What?!" he blurted. 

"I just don't understand why she called you, of all people. She barely calls me, and at least I'm a fellow mom."

Joe smirked at her and asked, "Jealous?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. You're already getting attention from another woman, and that's more than enough."

"Relax, it was nothing. Actually..." He looked around to make sure no one was looking. "If anything, I think she was interested in you."

"Me?!" Now it was Lauren's turn to be flummoxed. "What do you mean?"

"She talked a lot about you, how interesting you were, how you were unlike any woman she's ever met. Then she mentioned the kiss you gave her--"

"Oh, God," she moaned, putting her face in her hands. "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"She said it was 'interesting'," he said, making air quotes.

Lauren blushed for a second, then shook it off and said, "But why would she say all this to you?"

"Actually, I wondered that myself. It made me a little jealous, actually."

He watched her try to process it, holding back the last part about what Tej had said about her and Al. They'd already discussed that incident at length, and Lauren had assured him over and over again that there was nothing between them, that it had been a mistake induced by their intoxication. And yet, when he thought of what Al had told him about her being his angel, it sped his heart up just as it was about to slow down again.

"Anyway, I guess Logan wants to relax at home today," Joe said. 

"Would you let him come back to work next week, though?" Lauren asked. "Rachel told me, when they visited him, that he wanted to work with you because he didn't want to become like his dad."

Joe was touched. "Yeah, I was wondering if he'll want to come back, Monday, maybe. Is his dad involved in this?"

"Rachel didn't say on the phone, but I'm sure I'll learn more about it later."

"Tell Rachel he's welcome to start Monday if he wants."

Lauren smiled and went to him, and he lifted her for a kiss. "You're a good man, Giuseppe DiTomaso."

"Thanks, babe."

Lauren left to take Rachel and Al to work in the Versa. Joe took Naomi and Tosh in the Highlander. As he drove them, he said to Naomi, "I heard you got Emma excited about going to Harrison Hot Springs."

"I want them to come!" Naomi said. "And now that Logan's out of jail it can be like a celebration!"

"That's a nice thought."

"Emma better remember to pack her prescription goggles if they do come," Naomi said. "She forgot them on Wednesday, and Tej had to drive her back to her house to pick them up."

"Oh, did she?" Joe asked. "Tej never mentioned that when she called me."

"Yeah..." Naomi trailed off. 

"What is it?"

"Well, I guess Al was home sick, because Emma told me she and Tej found him there when she got back in the car."

"Al was home sick?" Joe asked, suddenly confused. "Tej didn't tell me that." Maybe she'd been about to, but then that emergency had happened on the site, and Joe had needed to hang up in a hurry.

"Yeah. Dad, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, honey."

"Does Mom sometimes do work in Burnaby?"

Joe blinked in surprise. "Maybe. I don't really know, she doesn't discuss her cases with me, you know, because she has to maintain her client's confidentiality. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. Forget it."

Joe looked over at his daughter in the passenger seat, so big now, but looking as hesitant as a little kid knowing she was about to be in trouble. "You can tell me. What is it?"

Naomi bit her lip and looked at him. "I think I saw Mom's car parked at their house." 

Joe's vision tunnelled, just as it had when he'd seen the rapist spike Lauren's drink, and he imagined his eyes turning green. He fought it back, because he was driving at the moment, and tunnel vision was the last thing he needed when trying to maintain positional awareness of all the cars travelling around him, and he also couldn't smash anything he needed to keep him and his children from dying in a fiery crash, nor did he want to scare Naomi by smashing something and making her believe she was the cause of his anger.

He took a deep, cleansing breath, cleared his throat, and asked, "Are you sure it was hers, honey?"

Naomi looked at him, saw something on his face that scared her, and shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. I couldn't see the plate number of the car from where I was sitting."

Joe took another deep breath and said, "Okay. You know what? It probably wasn't hers. If she was working in town she'd probably call me and see if I wanted to meet her for lunch."

She nodded even though Joe could tell she didn't believe him. Maybe she wanted to maintain the illusion, just as much as he did, that everything was fine, that her mother was not over at Auntie Rachel's house while Auntie Rachel was supposedly at work, at the same time Al was supposedly home sick.

"Let's not mention this to Mom," he said. "I don't want to make her angry with an unproven accusation."

Suddenly Naomi looked very sad for him, and that was almost worse than her being scared of him. "Okay, Dad," she said.

He may not have wanted to confront Lauren about it, yet, but the possibilities worked on him like bugs under his skin until he couldn't take it anymore and had to talk to somebody about it. He told Johnny, after telling him Logan was out of jail and would be rejoining them on Monday, that he needed to take a break for lunch, then drove somewhere quiet and dialled Rachel.

Nearly two years ago, Joe and Rachel had been beaten, robbed, carjacked, and left alone in the middle of nowhere without their wallets or phones. Forced to walk while injured until someone could give them a ride to a hospital, they'd nearly succumbed to the elements and had to depend on each other to survive. In that time, the two of them had grown closer than they'd ever been when they were kids. She was still his angel, and he owed it to her to alert her to the possibility that her husband was cheating on her with his wife, which was rather hilarious when he thought about it, because for two years since they'd all reunited, Rachel had been the one cheating on her husband with his wife.

Rachel picked up. "Joe?" she said.

"Hi, Rachel, are you able to talk?"

"Uh, yeah, just out having lunch. What's up?"

"Is Lauren with you right now?"

Silence for a moment, then, "No. She's out on surveillance. I think she'll eat in her car, poor thing, but that's par for the course with her."

"So, how do you know if she's really out on surveillance?"

"What do you mean? What's this about, Joe?"

"I asked that wrong, sorry." He sighed. "Look, was Al sick on Wednesday?"

More silence. Then, "Yeah. You're scaring me, Joe, what are you implying?"

"Look, I don't want to alarm you, but on Wednesday, when Tej took the kids to the beach, they had to stop back at your place to get Emma's prescription goggles and found Al at home."

"Yeah. Al told me. He felt sick soon after going to work and Skytrained back home."

"He Skytrained home. He said that?"

"Yeah."

"So, Lauren didn't drive him home?"

"No, she was with me at work. He called me from home."

"Oh!" The relief Joe felt was like a crashing wave, and he suddenly began to shake as if coming down from an adrenaline spike; he'd been in full clench for hours, and his muscles were now relaxing the same way they would had he run a marathon. "Okay. She was with you."

"Yeah. Why?"

He sighed and chuckled sheepishly. "Okay, don't laugh, but while they were waiting for Tej and Emma to come back out, Naomi thought she saw Lauren's car parked at your place."

Silence. Long silence. Then, "That's crazy. She was with me. At work."

Now she sounded less certain, but why would she lie for Al? "She's been working a lot lately," he said.

"Yeah. We've had a couple of our investigators call in sick, and she had to cover." She paused, as if working herself up to say something. "Look, Joe, I'll be honest with you. Lauren and I were together that day, but we weren't working."

"Huh?" Now he was even more confused.

"Okay, so, yeah, Lauren worked a couple of doubles. She took the time back on Wednesday, and I used a vacation day, and we played a little hooky together."

"You mean you two--"

"Do you need me to spell it out?"

"No, nope, that's okay." He sighed. Now Rachel's hesitation made sense. He knew about the two of them, but actually talking about it with Rachel was still incredibly awkward, and they avoided it whenever possible. Lauren, on the other hand, had no trouble at all describing the things she did with Rachel, ever since the time she'd first told him about what they'd done when they were thirteen. She liked to talk about it when they had sex, as if just the memory of it helped her get to where she wanted to go with him. It had actually started to get tiresome, because it made him feel inadequate to her desire, now, and it made him resentful, but he didn't know how to tell her to stop. "So, Rachel, did Al know you were playing hooky with Lauren?"

"Yes," Rachel replied, a little stiffly.

"And he's really okay with the two of you seeing each other?"

"About as okay as you are, I suppose."

"It's not much, then."

She chuckled and said playfully, "Joe, you know the deal."

"Yeah, and that's another thing. What does Al get out of it?"

"What?" she asked, surprised.

"You get Lauren, I get Joanie. What does Al get?"

"I don't know," Rachel said irritably. "I suppose if he were ever to be offered attention from another woman, he could accept it and I'd have to suck it up, provided he never left me. That's the one constant in all of this. None of us divorce each other."

"If you say so."

"Come on, Joe, do you ever see yourself asking Lauren for a divorce?"

The answer came to him immediately. "No, of course not."

"There you go." 

"All right, I should let you go."

"You know, Joe, if you're ever in doubt about what Lauren's up to, just use your Find My Friends app on your phone, you know, like the time Lauren found your phone off the side of the highway when they were looking for us?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Joe said, impressed with the simplicity of Rachel's solution. "Thanks, Rachel, you really put my mind at ease."

"Glad I could help, Joe. Did Lauren tell you we brought Logan home last night?"

"Yes, I'm happy for all of you, and Logan's welcome to come back to work on Monday if he wants."

"I'll tell him. Bye, Joe."

"Bye, Rachel."

He hung up, feeling as if his whole body were made of rubber. He didn't even trust himself to drive back to the worksite until he rested for a few minutes. 

Just as he was about to go back, his phone pinged with a text. He looked at the screen. It was Joanie.

How are you doing?

He smiled and texted back, Better now that I've seen your text. Have you ever been to Harrison Hot Springs?

One crisis averted (for now) but perhaps Joe's about to make a mistake of his own that might cause another? Thanks for reading this far! If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" and leave a comment. To flash back to when Joe reunited with Al and Rachel the first time, click on "Continue reading."