Yesterday's Scandal (The Wild McBrides 3)

ritedly all through the meal, catching up on recent events in each other’s lives, sharing tidbits of innocuous gossip from around town, bragging about their children. And then they lapsed into reminiscing, sharing embarrassing tales about each other, teasing mercilessly, finishing each other’s sentences as they tried to explain to the spouses and guests who didn’t already know the stories. The anecdotes were amusing. Mac chuckled at the appropriate times and made the right comments, but he couldn’t say he was actually enjoying them.

“Remember the time Trent got locked in Grandma McBride’s root cellar?” Tara shook her head with a smile as she addressed her brothers and cousin. “He was just a toddler, not much older than our Alison is now. Savannah got hysterical. She’d just read a book about the Lindbergh baby and she was convinced Trent had been kidnapped. She didn’t calm down until half an hour or so after Trent was found.”

“I can’t say I remember that,” Trent murmured, looking uncomfortable when his fiancée smiled quizzically at him.

“Savannah?” Mac asked, playing his part.

“Our cousin,” Trevor explained. “She’s a year older than Tara. Her father, Jonah, was our dad’s youngest brother. Uncle Jonah died when Savannah was only ten. Trent and I don’t even remember him.”

“Neither do I,” Emily said, “but I wish I did. Everyone who knew him loved him.”

“I remember him a little,” Tara said. “He was a lot like our dad—very good-natured, always cutting up. He had a deep laugh and carried butterscotch candies in his pocket. He was a salesman and he often brought gifts for everyone when he came back from a trip. And he absolutely adored Savannah.”

“He spoiled her rotten,” Trent commented. “She grew up thinking she was a princess because her daddy always told her she was.”

“Yes, well, she had to get over that when she became the mother of twins,” Tara said matter-of-factly.

So everyone had loved Jonah McBride, the salesman who’d often been away on trips. Had Anita Cordero loved him, as well? Wouldn’t it be ironic if the man she’d spent her life missing and hoping to someday see again had died less than ten years after he’d deserted her?

How would Jonah’s little princess react to finding out she had a younger brother she’d never known? A brother who had been denied the camaraderie and memories she shared with her cousins. A brother who had never known what it was like to be spoiled by a doting father.

“Is everyone ready for dessert?” Emily asked, standing. “We have several types. Wade and Clay, Sharon brought her strawberry cake that you both love so much.”

Wade and his teenage son immediately wore identical looks of greed. “Sharon makes the best strawberry cake I’ve ever tasted,” Wade told Mac. “Wait’ll you try it—pure heaven.”

Sharon laughed softly. “Mac’s allergic to strawberries. He’d be better off having some of Emily’s famous German-chocolate cake.”

“I like German chocolate,” he assured her, aware that some of the others were looking at them speculatively now—probably because Sharon had spoken about him in such an indulgently familiar tone. If they hadn’t already suspected something was going on between him and Sharon, they probably did now.

Somehow during dessert the conversation turned to the rash of break-ins lately, and the near-tragic accident through which Mac and Sharon had met. It was during that discussion that Mac learned Blake Fox was a private investigator in Atlanta; Wade seemed to value his advice about tracking down the culprits. Aware that Mac was listening closely, Wade turned to him at one point and said, “Do you have anything you’d like to add, Mac?”

“Sounds to me as if you’ve got it covered,” Mac answered with a slight shrug.

“What would he know about police work?” Brad muttered across the table, his tone jeering. “He just fixes up houses.”

“Tell that to some of the crooks he put behind bars in Savannah,” Wade answered, implicitly rebuking Brad for his rudeness.

Mac swallowed a groan. He hadn’t meant for this to come up today. He should have known better. Even among this relatively discreet group, secrets seemed to have a way of coming out.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“YOU WERE A COP, Mac?” Blake asked, apparently the first to understand the reference.

He nodded, almost feeling Sharon’s startled gaze on his face. “For ten years. I retired a few years ago to become a restoration contractor, something I’d always been interested in trying.”

“I don’t suppose you want me to mention your citations? Or the fact that you retired after being shot in the line of duty, saving a group of innocent bystanders from a lunatic with an assault rifle?”

Wade’s expression was so bland Mac was half tempted to punch him, just to see if it ruffled him. The chief really had investigated him thoroughly. Hell, he’d probably even talked to Mac’s superior officers in Savannah. He’d been right when he’d assumed that there wasn’t much that slipped past Wade Davenport.

“You were shot?” Sharon whispered, looking pale.

He shook his head reassuringly. “Just grazed. Hardly a scratch.”

It was a lie, of course. He’d been hospitalized for ten days. But he saw no need to go into that now.

Jamie McBride was the one who broke the startled silence, and of course she did it with an outrageous comment. “Cordero-the-hero,” she murmured, tongue in cheek. “That’s what they call you around town, you know, because you saved Sharon’s life that night. Just imagine the name you’d pick up if they heard about this.”

Mac felt his cheeks darken, the closest he’d come to a blush in years. Wade laughed. Trevor rolled his eyes in resignation at his wife’s impudence. Brad Henderson made a sound of disgust and pushed away from the table. “C’mon, Clay, let’s go check out your new game. I’m starting to get nauseous.”