Falling for the Brother

Another in the list of ways she’d let Bruce down. Or felt she had.

But thank God Mason hadn’t succeeded in turning her completely against him.

Now, if only the paternity test came back negative…

Life could get back to normal.

She wanted that. She really did. Bruce would know for certain that he was Brianna’s father. She’d know. He’d forgive her for doing the test behind his back. And would never realize she’d doubted him about Miriam.

All would be well.

So why, when Mason rang off with a casual “see you in the morning,” did she feel like crying her eyes out?

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

GRACE HAD BROUGHT along a feathery-looking yarn project to work on during the drive. In light green capri pants and a floral short-sleeved T-shirt to match, she sat next to him, fingers flying with her crochet hook, stopping every few seconds to pull on the yarn. She’d said she was making matching scarves for all the women in a choral group she performed with. As he entered the freeway that would lead him straight to Santa Raquel, he wondered what kind of choral outfit would go with hot pink and black, but didn’t ask.

He also wondered how many of those little feather droppings he’d have in his car at day’s end, but didn’t really care. That was what car-wash vacuums were for.

He’d rather think about feathers and choral fashions than DNA tests that could come back that afternoon. He had contacts at the lab who were making his test a priority—coming in on a Saturday to handle things for him.

Trying to imagine the mammoth ways his life would change if he found out he was a father put him in a place he didn’t want to be. Unsettled. Unknowing. Not in control.

Thinking about having a daughter, Harper’s daughter, didn’t bear thinking about, either. No matter how much that might complete him in his imaginary life—the life where everything and everyone was ideal, perfect, idyllic—it didn’t fit with the real world.

Because of Bruce. He and his brother had met again the night before. Late. Bruce had been out on the job and then called Mason, telling him he had something to show him.

His brother had turned up after midnight at the designated bar, carrying a flash drive. He said he hadn’t thought to look at it before, certain that Gram had fallen off her stepladder, just like she’d said. The ladder had been in the kitchen when he returned home. And Gram never lied.

To Bruce it had been an accident, plain and simple. In his opinion, the real problem was keeping Gram safe from herself—and from the effects of aging.

The flash drive had been from a hidden security camera Bruce had installed outside their home. Made sense, with him being a cop—even more sense in case his cover was ever blown. It was the kind he could watch from his phone so he’d know if there was anyone lurking around when he wasn’t there to protect Gram.

He’d had a few inside the house, too, for the same reason. So he’d know if Gram ever fell or needed help when he wasn’t there.

That had made sense, too. As Bruce had said, accidents could happen at any time and if Gram couldn’t get to a phone, who would know?

An alert on his phone could just save her life.

Gram had found the inside cameras and, when she’d objected to them, telling Bruce they were an invasion of her privacy, he’d taken them out. She hadn’t been aware of the one outside. When he was off duty, or Miriam wasn’t home, Bruce didn’t keep the app live with notices because his phone would go into alert mode every time the wind blew. He hadn’t bothered to check the app.

Until after his talk with Mason. When, for the first time, he started to believe that Gram really had been abused.

The flash drive showed Elmer Guthrie walking up Gram’s drive less than five minutes after Bruce had left that Monday evening. The evening of her “accident.” And it showed him leaving again just before Gram’s car pulled out of the drive. Presumably on her way to urgent care.

That was enough to get him the warrant to question Elmer at his home. He’d do it as soon as he’d delivered Grace back home.

“You ever hear Gram mention an Elmer Guthrie?” The SUV was on cruise control. GPS said they had an hour and a half until they were at The Lemonade Stand.