The Moment of Truth

“Thank you.”

When Sam stopped, he wished he’d kept his distance. The emotion searing from the other man’s eyes was painful to see.

“I killed my first-born,” he said. “Not on purpose, of course. I didn’t know Cassie was pregnant.” He paused for a few seconds. “Your acumen is already obvious in the work you’re doing at Montford. You’re a natural at it. I wasn’t. I hated business. This town. And everything associated with both. My family expected me to go to law school. Cassie, too. I skipped town instead. Was unfaithful to my wife, and joined the corps. My desertion practically killed Cassie. The baby neither of us knew she was carrying at the time was born five months later. She only lived a month.”

Josh stared. Didn’t know what to say. If he’d had the whiskey handy he’d have offered the bottle to his cousin.

“It took me sixteen years to find my way back,” Sam said, apparently not needing Josh to say anything. “If you need to talk, find me.”

Before Josh could respond, the man had gone over the six-foot-high wall and disappeared from sight.

CHAPTER TWENTY

FUNNY HOW LIFE COULD “crash on a dime,” as Daniel put it, and still just keep on going like nothing had changed. Dana had a call on Saturday from a new rescue dog placement—they needed a dog-sitter for the following week and didn’t know who to call. She immediately thought of Lori.

Lillie called and asked if she and Lindy Lu wanted to join them that night for a barbecue. Harrison could visit with his sister and Dana could meet their friends, Mark and Addy, and Mark’s eighty-one-year-old grandmother, Nonnie. She wanted to decline. To hide.

But she knew better. She was staying calm. Putting one foot in front of the other.

And the first step she had to take was to get ahold of Josh. She was her mother’s daughter, but she would not make the same mistakes.

No matter what the cost. Because she knew that the price of secrets was far more costly than she was willing to pay.

She drove by his house several times on Saturday, in between buying groceries, stopping in at the vet clinic, dropping by the home of a new Love To Go Around pet owner and spending an hour at Sharon’s house with her biology study group. Josh wasn’t home any of the times. But L.G. was. She could hear him howling. So she went in and let him out.

“I have to talk to your dad,” she told the puppy. But she couldn’t tell him why. She hadn’t even told Lindy or Kari yet. Life was going on as normal. It was the only way she could manage. “But I can’t call him. I can’t do this over the phone.”

It would be cruel to give devastating news over the telephone.

* * *

THE FIRST THING Josh noticed when he walked in after golf was that the empty containers he’d left on the counter were gone.

Dana had been there.

L.G. played him, though, acting as if he’d been alone for days when Josh let him out of his kennel. The goofball didn’t know he should have peed the second he hit the ground if he’d had any hope of Josh falling for the charade.

“You had company,” he said instead as he made his way to the master bathroom to shower off, L.G. following at his heels. He wasn’t jealous of the dog. Not exactly. “What did she have to say?” he asked.

The puppy grabbed his shoe and carried it into the bathroom as Josh stripped, lying with it on the floor outside the shower.

A habit borne from Josh carrying the shoe in every morning, and locking the dog in the bathroom with him so he didn’t have to worry about the rest of the house while he showered.

“Was she having a busy day?” he asked, stepping under the warm spray.

It didn’t occur to him to wonder why she’d been there at all, until he was out of the shower and getting dressed for his dinner date with Ian and Amy.

Once he was all ready, he attached his phone holster to his belt—but held on to the phone.

You were here.

Not sure he’d get a response right away, he waited, anyway.

Yeah. I stopped by and knocked. You weren’t there, but L.G. was howling so I let him out. I didn’t figure you’d mind.

‘Course not. Glad he had company. You need something?

She could have just been stopping by to say hello. It was the first time he could remember wishing he’d been with a woman rather than on a golf course.

I haven’t seen you in a few days. You going to be around tonight?

The answer was no. “No.” He told himself out loud. Shook his head. And typed, Later. L.G. and I are having dinner with a couple who might be needing a puppy.