Which isn’t a crime.
He’s so overprotective. Always has been. I’m not his baby brother anymore. I’m a grown man. Try telling him that, though.
“What’s up?” I say to him.
“Just figured we had more to talk about.”
Mom and Dad are out on the deck, hanging with Aunt Marj and Uncle Bryce. Everyone else has gone home, it seems.
“I’m fine, Dale,” I say. “Sorry I went off on you. None of this is your fault. It’s our fucking birth father. But damn, it’s all so long ago, and I hate having to think about that time.”
“I know,” he says. “You’ve done a great job of getting past it all. Much better than I have.”
I shake my head. “We just have different ways of dealing. It’s still with me. Always. I just push it to the back of my mind.”
“You compartmentalize,” he says.
“Yeah, if you want to put a label on it.”
“Do you ever worry that it will come barreling out?”
“Not really. It’s not like I’ve blocked it out. I know it’s there, and sometimes I do think about it, but I just choose not to.”
He smiles. “You have a brilliant mind, Don. The way you can choose what to think about. That’s why you were so good in school. Why you could deal with college and law school.”
“Don’t put yourself down,” I say. “College isn’t for everyone. No one can blame you for not wanting to be stuck in a room.”
“No one can blame you, either, but you were able to do it.”
True. We’re two different people. That became clear soon after we arrived at Steel Acres.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Dale says. “I don’t feel like I missed anything. It’s just that I never considered so many things until Ashley came along. She really helped me see clearly. She and…”
“She and what?”
“She and Floyd, to be honest.”
“Say what?”
“Not Floyd, really. Just a Robert Frost poem I found at his place.”
I shake my head. “Dale, you surprise me sometimes.”
“I surprise myself more. This is getting awkward, so let’s change the subject. What’s the story with you and Callie Pike?”
“There isn’t one. Though we’re heading to Aspen tomorrow for dinner.”
“Aspen?”
“Yeah. I owe her one.”
“Say what?” This time from Dale.
“I’ll tell you sometime when we’re drinking. I’ve only had one margarita tonight.”
Dale chuckles. “You and Mom and your margaritas. So this is a drinking story?”
“I’m going to change the subject again,” I say.
Truth is, I’m not ready to talk about Callie and me. I originally thought it’d be a hookup, but I don’t usually take my hookups to Aspen. I’m certainly not planning to get serious with anyone, but something about Callie Pike makes me want more than a simple hookup. I’ve already had her, and now I think I want her even more.
“Okay.” Dale grabs his phone out of his pocket. “Let’s talk about what’s on both our minds—other than women.”
“How to get the lien off the Murphy property. Should only require a simple release. I can file the paperwork first thing Monday morning.”
“Why didn’t someone take care of this long ago?” Dale asks.
“Beats me. Someone in the family would have had to sign off on the transfer of the property when Murphy’s dad bought it from that Madigan dude. That happened back when… I don’t know. It would have been our grandfather, most likely, but we’d have to check the timeline.”
“This doesn’t sit well with me,” Dale says. “The whole thing. Why would Grandpa Steel have allowed the transfer without Madigan paying off the lien?”
“Maybe he didn’t care. It’s not like he needed any money from the sale.”
“Yeah.” Dale rubs the blond stubble on his chin. “Good point. Still, there’s something we’re not seeing. I feel it in my bones.”
I nod. I can’t fault my brother’s observation. Something here doesn’t quite meet the eye.
“I’ll do some research Monday when I get to the office. I’ll have access to all the databases for the city and state. Maybe I’ll find something. Of course, if anything was there, Mom would probably have already found it.”
Dale stays quiet, but his eyes lower slightly.
“Say it,” I say.
“What?”
“You want to say something. I know you better than anyone else does, bro. That look on your face says you’re holding something back.”
“I know how close you are to Mom,” he says.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Because that’s what I want to say. You said Mom would have found it if there was anything to find. And the first thing that jumped into my mind when you said that was she might have hidden it.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Callie
Rory, Maddie, and I sit on the deck at our place, drinking Diet Coke. Mom and Dad went to bed, and Jesse and his buddies headed into town for a drink at Murphy’s. They invited us along, and Maddie almost went, but when Rory and I turned them down, she stayed behind.