This particular doctor didn’t know about my past, and I kept it that way.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” I said truthfully, “but I can’t deny I’m glad it’s over. During the morning sickness phase, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get my appetite back, but it’s here with a vengeance now that I’m nursing.”
“Oh, I bet,” Patty said. “You should see how much we have to feed the pigs after they’ve had a litter.”
I burst into laughter.
God, it felt good to laugh. Yeah, Patty had just compared me to a sow nursing a litter, but damned if it wasn’t a riot.
A door opened and closed upstairs, and then cowboy boots clomped on the tile of the kitchen floor.
“Must be Brad,” I said. “We’re down here, honey!”
Brad descended the staircase, clad in a suit and tie.
Funny. Since George had passed, Brad wore a tie almost every day. He spent a lot of time in Grand Junction and also drove to Denver at least once a week on business. I was lucky he’d been in town when I went into labor with little Joe.
“Look who came to visit.” I gestured to Patty and Ennis.
“Nice job, Steel,” Ennis said. “He’s a beautiful boy.”
Brad smiled and shook Ennis’s hand. They were friends now, despite the punch to the jaw Brad had given Ennis the first week of college last fall.
Patty gave Brad a hug. “I couldn’t be happier for both of you.”
“Thanks. I’m sorry I can’t be a better host, but I’ve got a phone call”—he checked his watch—“in five minutes, and I need to go over some papers.”
“It’s okay,” Patty said. “We’re staying for a few days. We got a room in town.”
“You should stay here,” I said. “We have tons of room.”
“No, we don’t want to impose,” Ennis said.
“All right,” I said. “If you change your mind, the door’s always open. Can you stay for dinner tonight?”
“Actually, we have a romantic dinner planned in town.” Patty’s eyes sparkled.
I smiled. “Got it. Tomorrow night, then? Belinda’s a wonderful cook.”
“Tomorrow it is. We’ll get out of your hair now.” Ennis shook his head. “I can’t get over Steel in a tie.”
“Are you kidding?” Patty waggled her eyebrows. “He looks amazing.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Other than the tux at the wedding—”
Ennis stopped abruptly.
“It’s okay,” I said soberly, kissing Joe’s forehead. “We all know what happened at the wedding.”
“I still can’t get over it,” Patty said wistfully.
“I know. Brad is still trying to piece out what happened. He’s had PIs on it for months.”
“We were all sitting at the bridal party table with Sean,” Patty said. “Ennis and I talk about it all the time. Either of us could have easily picked up whatever ended up drugging and poisoning him.”
“If it happened at the reception,” Ennis added. “It could have happened before.”
“The heroin definitely happened at the reception,” I said. “Brad checked everything out. But he had to have ingested the toxin that killed him at least twenty-four hours prior, so it’s still a mystery.”
“Is it possible he got it from tainted food?”
“It’s possible, but Sean was young and healthy. He would have been sick as a dog, but he had a good chance of surviving if it was food poisoning. Brad thinks he was poisoned by someone, rather than something, because of the amount of toxin.”
“It’s still so hard to think about,” Patty said.
“I know. Brad still misses him. I do too, even though I didn’t know him that well.”
Patty nodded. She had known him, in the biblical sense. But only twice. “Lorraine is still pretty shaken up,” she said.
“After all this time?”
Patty nodded. “Just because Sean was never serious about any woman doesn’t mean the woman wasn’t. Lorraine has cried on my shoulder many times. Why she chose me, I’ll never know.”
“Because you knew Sean,” Ennis offered.
“Maybe.” Patty sighed. “It’s so sad. I can’t believe Brad hasn’t figured out what happened yet.”
“Neither can he,” I agreed. “He’s become consumed with finding the truth.”
I used the word consumed on purpose. I didn’t want to use the true word.
Obsessed.
Brad was obsessed with finding out what had happened to Sean.
Obsessed to the point that I worried about him.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Brad
“Larry,” I said into the phone, “you were ready to give me the details on my wedding day to your sister.”
“That was a mistake.”
“What happened? Who got to you?”
Silence.
Damn. Larry Wade would be a good lawyer. He knew when to shut up. He’d just finished college and would begin law school in the fall.
“I can only say this. Tom, Theo, and I had nothing to do with what happened to your best man.”
“I know that. I’ve cleared all of you, and Wendy was locked up. This phone call isn’t about Murphy. It’s about what you were going to tell me eight months ago.”
“We go through this once a week,” he said. “I was mistaken at the time.”