“Thanks for today, Harp. It meant…seriously, thanks.” His voice dropped, almost as though it was about to break.
She swallowed back her emotion. Nodded. “We’ll see you next week, then?” Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly—a reaction to the sudden swell of need she felt to take her ex-husband in her arms and assure him that she was on his side.
But she wasn’t. She wasn’t taking sides.
His grin was quick. Sure. All confident, tough-guy cop, Bruce Thomas. “You can count on it,” he said. He told Brie he loved her to the moon, gave her one more hug and closed the door, watching as Harper backed out of the parking space.
A glance in her rearview mirror as she exited the lot told her he was still watching. It kind of comforted her, that studied way he kept an eye on them. They were his family. He’d die for them. Divorced or not, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind on that score.
* * *
MASON HAD A choice to make. He had to decide whether to follow his brother, to make sure Bruce stayed in town or to follow Harper and see that she got safely out of town. Instinctively drawn to protect Harper and her little one, he listened to the stronger part of him—his mind—and stayed on his brother.
Not that he really thought Bruce would hurt his ex-wife. But he’d never expected Bruce to hurt Gram, either.
And maybe he hadn’t, Mason reminded himself.
Until he heard that Grace had clearance and he could take her down to visit Gram, his immediate agenda was Elmer Guthrie. He couldn’t question the man yet, but he could investigate him…starting with county records and the purchase of his home. He already knew the man had no criminal history, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been involved in previous domestic violence incidents. More went unreported than not.
Still, seeing his brother pull into his garage, Mason passed the turn onto the street, and used voice commands to dial Harper.
“I realize you can’t say much with your daughter in the car,” he said as soon as she picked up. “I just want to check that you’re okay.”
“Fine!”
“Did he mention Miriam?”
“Nope.”
“Does he ever mention her to you?”
“Nope.”
“Anything I need to know?”
“No.”
“I called a lab in LA. They’ll run the DNA test for me. Three-day turnaround. There’s a lab in Santa Raquel…” He named it quickly, not pausing to see if she knew it. “If you leave your samples there, a courier will get them to LA the same day.”
“I’d like to have Lynn collect them at the Stand.” The resident nurse practitioner. Obviously someone Brianna knew, which could make it easier to get a sample from her without raising a million questions.
“That’s fine, too. I can send the courier to her.”
“I’ll have her courier them to LA. Just send me the address.”
She was in the car with an incredibly bright and curious four-year-old. There was only so much conversation they could have. Still, her cooperation meant…probably more than it should. “Thank you.”
“You have the right to know.”
There was so much not being said. He wished he felt more confident that Brianna’s presence was the only reason.
“I’ll talk to you later, then.”
Ending the call, he felt like a damned voyeur in his brother’s life. No matter how deeply he might think he wanted things to be different, the truth was, he didn’t belong in Harper’s life.
But he still had to have that paternity test done.
The sooner the better.
* * *
SHE HADN’T GONE into the Stand that day before leaving town, since Friday was her day off that week. What sounded good to Harper was an afternoon at the beach with her little one. Warm sun on her skin, holiday mood, people having fun, water and sand to occupy Brie’s enthusiastic energy—no adult conversation needed. Brianna was already wearing her swimsuit under the play dress she’d had her throw on that morning. They had a blanket and leftover drinks in their cooler from the picnic with Bruce.
And in the end, as she’d taken the Santa Raquel exit with nearly two hours of Brianna’s incessant stream of sweet chatter ringing in her ears, the picnic with Bruce was the reason Harper opted for the Stand, then, instead of the beach. She’d had enough beach for that day.