Grace (The Family Simon 5)

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t laid eyes on Ben since…well, since that last time.” He shook his head, mouth thinned. “I don’t feel anything for him.”

“Bullshit,” Betty said quietly.

“You can’t call bullshit.”

“Sure I can. I know you, Matt. All these years you’ve been hurting because you feel exactly the opposite. He’s your father. At the end of the day, no matter what, Dale Benjamin Hawkins is your father. You’ve got unfinished business there and if he passes before you get a chance to make your peace with him—“

“I don’t want to make peace with that son-of-a-bitch.” He was angry now and tossed the remainder of his tea. Damn but he needed something stronger.

“Five years ago, hell, three years ago I would have believed you. But not now. No way. You’re not the same guy.” She kicked at the edge of the fire. “You need to close the door while you still can. Whether it’s to tell Ben you hope he rots in hell, or whether it’s to tell him you forgive him. I never got that chance. By the time I found my way back home, Dad was sick. Do you know what it feels like to think that my last conversation with him when he was healthy was me telling him that I hated him?”

She kicked at the fire again. “I told him I wished he had died instead of Mom.” Her voice shook and she sank back into her chair. “That’s a regret I’ll carry to the grave, Matt.”

He squeezed her hand and kept quiet, because she was right.

“Anyway, it’s not really Ben I’m concerned about. It’s Delilah.” Betty’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t trust her. She’s up to something.”

Hot billowing anger rolled through him. Betty Jo had no idea.

Matt got to his feet just as his cell phone rang, and looking for an excuse to escape his reality, he went with it.

“It’s Logan.” He pointed to the boathouse and wandered over, accepting the call from Logan Forest with a frown.

“Everything okay at my place?” he asked. “Dory all good?”

“Yeah. Just heard from my brother, Travis. He stopped by this morning and the dogs are just fine.”

Relieved, Matt swung around eyes searching for Grace. She was throwing snowballs at Sabrina’s twins. She looked young and innocent and so damn adorable. What the hell did she see in him?

“That’s not why I called.”

Matt turned and looked out over the lake. He was almost afraid to ask. “What’s up?”

“I got a call from your dad’s wife, Delilah.”

That cold shot of fear that had been dogging him for days roared to life and his free hand closed into a fist. He didn’t say anything. He just waited for the hammer to drop.

“She said that ah, she was trying to get hold of you but couldn’t get a number to reach you at. Found out I was married to Betty’s sister and thought we’d be able to get a message to you.”

Matt could barely speak. “Go on.”

Logan cleared his throat. “She said to tell you that Ben’s near the end, hours maybe. And that Justin has gone missing. She doesn’t know what to do. Said the police don’t consider it a missing person until it’s been forty-eight hours. I…she gave me her number and asked that you call.”

Matt’s eyes fell to the ground. Everything left him. His emotions. His fear. His anger. All of it was gone. He was just empty. His mind rolled back. Images of him and his father out on a boat. Of his dad teaching him to ride his bike…and his mother at their side. Of that stupid song “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head,” and the two of them slow dancing in the living room.

When had it all gone to shit?

“Matt, who the hell is Justin?”

Logan’s voice jerked him back to reality. “Just a kid.” His voice was like sandpaper—no wonder because his throat was so damn tight.

“I’ll text you the number.”

Matt stared at the screen until the number appeared and rolled his finger over it repeatedly. Before he could think on it too much, Matt pressed the number and waited.