White Space Season 1

something real between them worth exploring? Given that she hated him just a week ago, a relationship with Jon Conway seemed unlikely, if not impossible. But she couldn’t stop thinking about their encounter.
    She didn’t think she was alone in feeling something.
    “Oh,” Jon said.
    “I know it’s not exactly pleasant,” Cassidy said, “but this shit needs to be hashed. Are you planning to tell Emma that you’re her father, take her with you back to California, or are you going to stay here on the island?”
    Some part of her wished he would stay, and they could live together like one big, weird family. She felt foolish for even allowing the thought to enter her mind.
    She felt more foolish when Jon shook his head, exactly like she expected.
    “I’ve no idea what’s next. I haven’t read this script yet.” He managed half an anemic laugh. “I’m not sure what the right thing to do is. Whatever it is, it has to be right for Emma. I have no right to abandon her needs in pursuit of my own.” He took a sip of water. “On the other hand, I can’t ignore my responsibility, and I’m surprised to say I’m looking forward to carrying it.”
    Jon sipped at his water, then sucked on an ice cube, as though he were considering every syllable inside his next sentence. Finally, he set his glass on the table, pushed it toward the center and said, “I don’t want to tear Emma away from the only family she’s ever known. But I also think she has every right to know who her father is.” Then, measuring his words, Jon leaned toward Cassidy and said, “What did Sarah tell Emma? About her father, about me?”
    Cassidy shrugged. “Not much. Though I guess you could say she never really lied, either. She told Emma that her daddy was the sort of daddy who could probably never be able to stay in one place. And that just because he was never around and that Emma had never met him, didn’t mean he was a bad person. She said he had important things to do in the world.”
    Cassidy wiped at her eyes. “Emma asked her mom a million times if she’d ever get to meet her daddy. Sarah never changed her answer, no matter how many times Emma changed the way she asked.”
    “What was her answer?”
    “Yes, probably.”Cassidy shrugged. “I guess she figured it was only a matter of time until you came back to the island and she’d work up the courage to tell you.”
    Cassidy couldn’t tell if Jon looked hurt or angry or a little of both.
    He said, “I’m going to tell her the truth. She deserves to know.”
    “No argument from me.” Cassidy lifted her milk as if in a cheers, and took a sip.
    Inside, she was terrified.
    Emma was Cassidy’s best, and perhaps final, connection to Sarah. That connection was quickly slipping.
    Dark was about to get darker, which meant sleeping with Jon was more than a maybe of a mistake.
    The enemy hadn’t just pitched a tent in her bed, she’d let his sleeping soldier play. She never should have listened to her lust.
    Except it wasn’t lust. There was a kindness in Jon she could only ignore by lying to herself.
    Who was she kidding? Jon would never share a Happily Ever After with her. Not in Hollywood or anywhere else.
    Cassidy pushed her chair from the table.
    “Where are you going?”
    She said, “You know how your food always comes to the table when you go to the restroom?”
    Jon laughed. “Yeah, I guess.”
    “I’m going to make that happen.”
    Cassidy left the table, went into the restroom, pulled two pills from her pocket, then swallowed.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 6 — Alex Heller

    Wednesday afternoon…

    As Pastor Avery delivered his sermon, Alex couldn’t help but remember the dozens of people huddled outside the funeral home when they arrived — the victims’ families, local and national news reporters, and a few demonstrators waving signs with blood red ink which read, “Murderer.”
    Fortunately, Paladin guards were standing at the gates along with some of the island’s police, doing all they could to hold the people back.
    But they couldn’t keep the people from screaming obscenities at Alex and his family. Twenty-five steps from car to funeral home was twenty-three more than Alex needed to taste the hate bleeding from the eyes of people he’d known nearly all of his life.
    Alex had never hated people more than he did at that moment.
    Give him a gun and he could see himself following in his father’s legacy.
    Alex understood their anger. Hell, he even shared