Falling for the Brother

“You want to do this again, in a day or so?” he asked.

“Sure.”

Bruce stood. “Is she…close by? I mean, I’d like to reassure her that I’m here for her. That I miss her and will do everything I can to help you get this guy.”

“She knows that.”

“I can’t believe she’s doing well being away from home. She’s always been so protective of her space, wanting things done her way.”

“She’s on vacation.”

Bruce seemed to start at that. “You sent her on a cruise or something?”

Yeah, or something. Mason nodded. His brother seemed to relax then, dropping all facades. “Thank God,” he said, his voice a bit gravelly, his eyes glistening with emotion. “I was afraid the jerk had hurt her worse than you said, that she was in a hospital. I checked locally, but I know how these cases work, and until you cleared me, no one was going to give it to me straight…”

Bruce was almost babbling now. Like the vulnerable kid he’d been inside all those years ago. The kid Mason had sworn to protect.

“She’s got a cast on below the elbow,” he said now. “Otherwise she’s fine and running the show like always.”

Bruce smiled as he looked at Mason. “Thank God,” he said again.

And that was it. They walked to their cars together, Mason throwing his half-full coffee cup in the trash on the way. Shook hands with another shoulder-to-shoulder hug. Agreed to meet in a day or two, got in their respective vehicles and drove away.

Mason had some calls to return. A new text. Work waiting.

He needed a beer.

CHAPTER TWENTY

GRACE’S CLEARANCE CAME through just after seven Friday evening. Harper had been waiting for an email and had checked while sitting with a bathed and jammied Brianna, who was eating popcorn in front of one of her favorite Disney movies.

Harper was off duty and could have waited until morning. But if Miriam had been any other resident she wouldn’t have waited. So she didn’t in this case, either.

After today’s lunch at the beach, a swim in the pool and helping her grandmother dust, Brianna was falling asleep with her hand in the popcorn bowl. Harper picked up her phone.

Sent her second text of the day to Mason.

He hadn’t responded to the first. Maybe he wouldn’t respond to the second until she was back at work in the morning. It wasn’t as if he and Grace were going to drive to Santa Raquel that night.

Still…he could call her. Plan to drive down in the morning. He hadn’t let her know, which was why she texted, telling him about the clearance.

For the first fifteen minutes afterward, she was on tenterhooks. Watching her phone—and her daughter’s drowsy eyelids. After that, she just watched Brianna. As soon as the little girl was truly asleep, she carried her up the stairs, tucked her into bed and kissed her good-night, then turned on the monitor and headed back downstairs. Brianna didn’t stir once.

Her mom had told her that she’d slept just as soundly as a kid.

Not anymore.

That was part of being a parent, her mother had also told her. Missing her parents, she called them as she settled back in the living room with the partially eaten bowl of popcorn in her lap, remembering, when they didn’t answer, that Friday night was when they played cards at church.

The popcorn wasn’t that good. She dumped it in the trash and got some cheese and crackers instead. She poured herself a glass of wine. She decided to turn on the TV and tried to find something to watch.

Five minutes later, she found herself staring at she knew not what. Some show. Maybe a movie. A woman was crying and, although Harper had no idea what had upset her, she could feel her pain.

She’d missed what was going on. She’d been too busy imagining a world where Mason was Brie’s father. Part of their lives.

But Bruce wasn’t in that world, and he was Brie’s father in the ways that counted. No matter what the tests showed, they couldn’t cut him out.

Would he cut himself out?

Not if he didn’t know.

Would Mason insist on telling him?

Her stomach clenched and she took a sip of wine, assuring herself that Mason wasn’t Brie’s father. Bruce was. The test would prove that conclusively, and the worst pain she and Mason had created that night five years ago would be eased. The doubt would be gone.