Falling for the Brother

“I’m not just a witness, I’m a family member,” she said. “My young daughter is in that home with Miriam, or was, on a regular basis.” She knew she sounded defensive. And maybe she was. Because she wanted Mason to trust her the way Bruce did.

No. No, that wasn’t right.

Was it?

It felt right.

She wanted Mason to regard her with as much…confidence as Bruce did. Wanted him to know she’d have his back, too.

“I agreed to the paternity test without any argument at all.” She hadn’t decided to say the words aloud. They just happened.

Dropping his hands to his knees, Mason’s entire demeanor changed. The assessing look softened. “I’m not following you. Did you tell Bruce about it? Did he say something I need to know about?”

“No!” Of course she hadn’t told Bruce. She was praying that when she did talk to him, it would be with good news. Or that she and Mason would agree not to ever tell him—although she hadn’t quite worked out the logistics of that, figuring in Brianna’s eventual right to know.

“I didn’t tell him,” she said. “I just…want you to realize you can trust me. That I play things straight. I didn’t think Bruce had hurt Miriam so I told you that, but if I’d thought for one second he had, I’d tell you that, too.”

Bruce had been so moved by her loyalty. His emotion, rather than softening her toward him as it usually did, had cramped her. She hadn’t really been loyal. She’d simply told the truth. Or some of it…

The light in Mason’s eyes had her looking for his grin again. It didn’t appear. But she felt better.

“You asked for a paternity test. Granting it was the right thing to do.”

She hoped that was true. That she hadn’t just given in because she was in love with him…

Oh. God, help her.

She hadn’t just…

She was a straight shooter.

Was she in love with Mason Thomas?

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

STARING AT MASON, feeling her world darken and close in on her, Harper couldn’t immediately deny the possibility that she was in love with him.

“Yes, the neighbor is a suspect.” He chose that second to finally address her initial query regarding Bruce’s accuracy about the case. It felt as if hours had passed since then.

“I wouldn’t say Bruce and I are working together,” he continued while she attempted to get breath into her lungs. And grasp what he was saying. “We’re talking. And doing better than we have in years. But this investigation is mine.”

Yes, the investigation. The world righted itself.

“I never doubted the case was yours.” Mason was as good a cop as they came. Not that Bruce wasn’t. But Bruce being a good cop meant subterfuge…

Maybe that was true for Mason, too.

Bruce seemed to think he and his brother were on the same wavelength when it came to work. That he was just like Mason. And had learned everything he knew from his older brother. Was proud of the fact, actually.

“He told me to ask you about Gwen coming to your house after midnight on Tuesday, I think it was.” Bruce had said Tuesday. He’d been certain of that.

The night he’d been in the bar with her, when he’d told her about Bruce sleeping with Gwen, not a perp. About him being at a bachelor party, not at work. Mason had driven back to Albina that night and then had Gwen over?

“He said he’d intended to mention it to you himself, but forgot.”

Mason’s eyes narrowed again. If he’d been anyone else, she might have been intimidated. Or pushed into being aggressive.

“Yet he suddenly remembers when he’s on the phone with you?” he asked, his voice filled with more than that question. And yet…not anger or accusation, either.

“I…kind of mentioned her.” She’d hoped not to have to admit that part. “He’d…told me he loved me…”

Mason’s lids lowered. He glanced away. She’d known she hadn’t wanted to tell him.

“He was…talking like maybe we should consider trying again. I asked him about Gwen and had he ever slept with her.”

“And he pointed the finger at me?”