Falling for the Brother - Page 68
But had Miriam known? And yet, she’d always been so loving with Harper. Until she’d left Bruce. Miriam wouldn’t have been like that, doting on her, if she’d known.
After the divorce, Miriam had suddenly hated her.
What if Bruce had told her then?
Mason’s words, saying Bruce always spun things in his favor, to make himself the victim, to gain sympathy and therefore power, came back to her. She wanted to push them away. Keep an open mind.
She’d already betrayed Bruce by sleeping with Mason. And now…after five years of hating what she’d done to the man she’d sworn to be faithful to for the rest of her life, here she was, betraying him again.
She’d taken their daughter for the DNA test he’d expressly refused.
Mason had a right to know—just as she’d told him.
But the truth was, she’d also agreed because Mason had unknowingly given her the opportunity, the means, to do what she’d wanted to do all along. What she’d needed to do.
From the moment she found out she was pregnant, in her heart of hearts she’d wondered if that one incredible night had given her a lifelong gift. If maybe, despite her attempts to reassure herself all these years, there hadn’t been a condom…
It was so unlike her to have sex without protection from disease. She hadn’t let Bruce make love to her without one until they’d gotten engaged.
The knot in her stomach became a cramp.
Only the thought of the test showing a negative for Mason eased the cramp. What a relief it would be to know that Bruce really was his daughter’s biological father.
What a relief it would be from the debilitating guilt that had been attacking her for far too long.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MASON SAW THE text from Harper, telling him their samples had been collected and picked up by the courier, just as he was pulling into the parking lot of a coffee shop on the outskirts of Albina. He’d never been to the place.
Bruce had suggested it.
There was no way he could tell Harper he was meeting his brother. And yet, it felt…wrong to do it without telling her. As though the two of them—he and Harper—were a team.
They weren’t.
He was the investigator—albeit on the quiet and unpaid; she was a witness. And now, Bruce was a witness, too—as well as a person of interest.
Used to going into interviews without knowing what to expect, he had his professional barriers firmly in place as he approached the shop. Bruce’s car was in the lot, as he’d expected it to be. His brother always arrived early. He picked out the meeting place. Kept the advantage—and control—in any way he could.
The shop was bustling up front and had a patio out back where a guy could make a drug deal without being overheard. No cameras. No electronic devices at all. Just an old, run-down patio with chairs. Didn’t face the beach. And you had to go inside to use the john.
Just the sort of place an undercover cop would need to know about. His brother had told him to walk through and meet him outside. He stopped to order coffee, first.
He didn’t really want it, but he wanted to order it. Simply because it hadn’t been one of Bruce’s instructions. He didn’t kid himself about that.
Nor did he doubt that his brother would catch the significance.
If they were going to play cat and mouse, if Bruce truly wanted to challenge him, Mason would have to be the cat on this one.
“Hey!” Bruce stood as Mason pushed through the door to the patio five minutes early, coffee in hand. The heat coming through the cardboard cup was pretty intense, but that wasn’t the reason he set it down on the first table he came to. He did that because of the hand his brother was reaching out to him.
They shook and Bruce pulled him in for a hug, their hands still between them.
Affection. Man-to-man.
Mason had to admit that the greeting was better than any he’d been prepared for.
“Good to see you,” Bruce said, still holding his hand as he drew back, looking Mason in the eye. The affection was there, too, in his brother’s gaze.
Soaking him. Sucking him in.
Aware, and yet…not as tense, Mason picked up his cup and followed Bruce to the far table. His brother had said no cameras. Didn’t mean there weren’t any. Was Bruce playing it up for someone watching?
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