Ever After (Nantucket Brides 3)

Once he was outside, he called. “What have you found out?”

“I may lose my job because I took time off to go to Boston and do some investigating for you.”

“Who did you talk to?” Jamie asked.

“What happened to ‘Thanks, Todd, you’re the best brother anyone’s ever had’?”

“Give me grief later. Right now I need to get back to Hallie.”

“Is that need or want?” When Jamie was silent, Todd knew he’d pushed his brother far enough. “I talked to Braden Westbrook’s mother. The woman is a fount of information. Has Hallie told you what her stepsister did?”

“No,” Jamie said. “I’ve tried to pry it out of her, but she wouldn’t give me the details.”

“That’s surprising. You’d think that being around someone like you, who is so open and sharing, who keeps no secrets from her, she’d blab her guts out.”

“Get off it!” Jamie said. “I keep secrets for a reason. Tell me what you found out.”

“As you know, Jared was the executor of Henry Bell’s will and he overnighted the info to Hallie. But it seems that her stepsister, Shelly, opened the package, then began an elaborate scam to steal Hallie’s identity. She even sent a copy of Hallie’s passport to Jared but put her own photo on it. It was only by chance that Hallie came home early and found out what was going on. So now Jared is determined to help her out.”

Jamie took a moment to catch his breath. “Her stepsister faked a passport?! Isn’t that a federal offense?”

“Yeah, but Mrs. Westbrook said Hallie would never press charges. She’s too nice a person.” Todd paused. “I talked to half a dozen people on that road and no one had a bad word to say against your Hallie, but they certainly had plenty to say about her stepmother.”

“You mean Ruby?”

“Yes. There were a lot of complaints about unmowed grass and loud parties. The neighbors said that Hallie used to come home from college on weekends to do yard work. And after Ruby and Hallie’s father died…” Todd trailed off.

“What happened?” Jamie asked.

“Hallie quit college to take care of her stepsister. From what I was told, that first year was hell for everyone on the street—and they all agreed that the hell was caused by a teenage Shelly. I checked out the police reports and after the parents’ deaths, neighbors called 911 six times because of all-night parties. Some of them involved gangs on motorcycles. There were a lot of warnings issued before the noise finally stopped.”

“Poor Hallie,” Jamie said.

“She’s not told you any of this?”

“Some, but not much,” Jamie said. “She mostly talks about her grandparents and how happy her life had been with them.”

“You’re with her twenty-four-seven and I’ve never heard you speak about any other woman the way you talk about her, but you know practically nothing about her. What are you doing with your time together?”

“Looking into some ghost story, and lately we’ve been cleaning.” Jamie wanted to get back to the subject. “What did you find out about this Braden character?”

“You’re cleaning?” Todd said in disbelief. “And ghosts? This is how you are courting this woman?”

“No one said anything about ‘courting.’?”

It was Todd’s turn to be silent.

“All right! So I like her. I like her a lot! She’s funny and smart and caring and—”

“And not bad to look at,” Todd said.

“That too. Is this Braden coming here?”

“Yeah,” Todd said, “he is. I’m not sure when, but in a few days. His mother had some very interesting things to tell me about her son.”

“Such as?”

“That he just broke up with his latest girlfriend. She said this is the third one who’s left him because Braden only goes after the unattainable.”