Melt (Steel Brothers Saga 4)

I tried to read Tom Simpson’s eyes. They were blue, and looking into them felt oddly like looking at my best friend. Bryce did resemble his father, and so did Henry. My nerves raced and I felt uneasy, seeing the resemblance. His mother, Evelyn, was mostly gray now, but she’d had light-brown hair when we were kids. But Tom was blond like Bryce and his son, even though he was silvery white now. He sat, typing something into his computer.

“Damn,” he said.

“What?”

“Just a typo.” He held up his right hand. “This damned bandage.” He had a Band-Aid on the tip of his right index finger.

“You okay?”

He nodded. “Just a paper cut. I get them a lot. So much paperwork for this tiny city.”

My nerves were on edge, but damn it, I was ready to discover some answers. I opened with, “I’m really glad Henry is okay.” I wasn’t lying, but I also hadn’t been able to think of anything else.

“He’s a great kid, isn’t he?”

I took another sip of coffee. “He sure is. Bryce seems crazy about him.”

“Oh, yeah, he’s a great father. I was always surprised that he didn’t marry sooner. Speaking of that, it’s nice to see that one of you boys will be settling down. I assume Talon and Jade are serious?”

“As serious as Talon has ever been.”

“What about you and Ryan? You’re not getting any younger, you know.”

I certainly wasn’t here to talk about my brothers and me settling down. I needed to get back to Larry. But then something occurred to me. Henry had that little birthmark on his arm, and it was clearly visible as he was lying in his crib wearing just a onesie and a diaper.

“I noticed that Henry has a birthmark.”

“Yes, he does.”

I cleared my throat. “Bryce said he might have gotten it from you.”

“I’m not sure why he said that.”

“Oh? You mean you don’t have any birthmarks?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I do have one, but it looks totally different from Henry’s.”

“Maybe he did get it from you, then, because Bryce said neither he nor Henry’s mother have one.”

“I suppose that’s possible. But Evelyn has one too. Cutest little thing right on the cheek of her ass.”

I squirmed uncomfortably. I really didn’t want to talk about anything a sixty-five-year-old woman had on her ass. I couldn’t force him to remove his shirt and show me the inside of his right arm. Time to ditch the birthmark investigation.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you, Tom,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

I cleared my throat. “About Larry Wade. Did you know he was my half-uncle?”

“Nope. That was as big of a surprise to me as it was to the rest of you.”

I didn’t believe him for a minute, but I was willing to play along. “Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Anyway, when he came back to town a few years ago, you hired him on as the city attorney. How did that happen?”

“As you may know, George Stanford retired in the middle of his term, so the position was vacant. Until Larry moved back a month later, we’d been using contract attorneys to do our work because Snow Creek is such a small town. But that was no longer cost-efficient. Talon’s girlfriend, Jade, is doing an excellent job, by the way.”

His lips twitched subtly. Just a bit, but I noticed. He was trying to sidetrack me off of Larry by mentioning Jade.

“Yes, she’s a very smart and driven young lady. But back to Larry. Why wasn’t he elected city attorney?”