Understandable, but Beck couldn’t let it go. There were things that needed to be said. Things Callen needed to know, starting with what could be the hardest to swallow. “Mom says she’s staying on indefinitely.”
“You mean your mom.”
Beck remembered his mom’s destroyed expression at the mention that she had anything other than three sons. “She’s our mom in every way that counts.”
“Still not talking about this.”
Maybe he wasn’t, but one truth nagged at Beck and he wanted the point clear. “Just know that it changes nothing. Between us, I mean.”
Callen’s blank expression didn’t change. “Okay.”
Yeah, Beck still wasn’t satisfied. He and Declan talked this through. They agreed to force Callen on this subject. They needed him to know birth mothers were irrelevant to their support of each other. “Now that you know, do you feel any different about me and Declan?”
The first sign of life showed on Callen’s face when he frowned. “Hell, no.”
“That runs both ways.”
Something close to a smile crossed Callen’s lips. “Good to know.”
Beck wanted to belabor the point. Ask questions, run through it, make it all clear. But he knew Callen needed a lighter touch right now. If he wanted breathing room, Beck would figure out a way to tamp down his instincts and let Callen have it.
Still, one big question remained. Callen being here now might answer it, but Beck wanted something in his life settled, so he sought an answer. “So, you’re not leaving Sweetwater?”
“After sinking money into this big shack? No.” Callen kicked at some of the loose rocks under his feet. “What about you?”
Satisfaction soared through Beck. They’d dodged one more Charlie bombshell. “I have some work to finish up in Nevada but this will be my home base.”
“And Sophie?”
Talk about an off-limits subject. Beck couldn’t even let his mind wander in her direction without being flooded with memories and doubts and a twinge of guilt he couldn’t push out. But the last thing he had the energy for was another “you’ll find someone else” lecture from Callen. “You’ve made your position clear.”
“Yeah, about that.” Callen made a hissing sound as he inhaled a deep breath of air through clenched teeth. “What if I was wrong?”
“What?”
“You never told me about the jewelry and her aunt. Not like you to leave out the big important facts. If I had known I wouldn’t have been talking about getting rid of boxes and this might not have snowballed into a huge thing.”
The boxes . . . Beck remembered that being part of Sophie’s excuse. He didn’t know which ones or why she’d been talking about them, but now Callen threw them up as an excuse, too.
Beck didn’t think the hollow feeling in his stomach could get worse, but it did. “How do you know now?”
“I talked to her.”
“When?”
“I really wanted to hate her, you know.”
Not that Callen bothered to hide it. It was one of those things that poked at Beck the whole time he fought off his attraction for Sophie then finally gave in to it. “Sounded like you got there yesterday.”
“Nah, that’s the problem. Just when I thought I turned a corner and could write her off, I remember how she looked at you. Now I’m seeing you kick around here. You look like hell, by the way.”
That was nothing compared to how he felt. Food didn’t interest him. Neither did sleep. He’d spent the morning fighting the urge to drive over to her house and run through it all one more time. He had to remind himself how she’d promised one thing but given him another. His brain kept reinforcing her betrayal but his heart ignored it.
“I’ll be fine.” But he knew he wouldn’t.
“Only if you figure out how to get out of your own way.” Callen shook his head. “You know I used to think your problem stemmed from some weird naïve thing you had going on about our dear dad. Like, you actually believed the whole never-proven-guilty crap you spewed.”
Beck had no idea where the conversation was headed now, but he didn’t like this direction any better. “It’s not crap.”
“You refused to just use the hard words and nail Charlie as the loser he was, like Declan and I do.” Callen leaned against the swing set pole. “You rambled on about evidence and other bullshit.”
“I see you’re still not clear on how the legal system works. Maybe there’s a kid show we could watch that explains it in little words.”
“This isn’t about your big legal brain and all that arguing you like to do.” Callen’s intense stare drilled into Beck. “This is about you and your need to fix everything.”
He kept hearing the words and each time the criticism grew. “People need to stop saying that.”
“Sophie say it?”
Beck pushed her image out of his head for the hundredth time since yesterday. “Your point is?”
“You’re careful with your words because you want to diffuse the anger people have. You deal with all the paperwork and the lawyers and put your body between us and Charlie’s nonsense because you want to fix it for us. Make it livable.”
“I just want it handled.” Someone had to do it and he could, so he did.
“It is what it is, Beck. Dad was a piece of shit. He did shitty things and hurt people. There is no way for you to fix that.”
The stark words rammed against Beck. He balked, wanting to insist he could work it all out and give them a clean slate. That’s what he’d tried to do his entire life. Every time he made inroads, some new blow would land and the cycle would start again.
“Is it so wrong to want to clean it all up and move on?” he asked.
“That’s just it. We’ll never be clean from Charlie. Even now his actions come back to wallop us.” Callen glanced at the house. “Believe me, I know.”
That guilt came flinging back. Beck struggled with his mother’s news and losing Sophie. He walked the property trying to find answers and keep everything together. He made a mental pro/con list about what going to Sophie would cost him. But he knew his birth mother, and that put him one step ahead of Callen right now.
“You want things to be perfect and clean, but life isn’t like that, Beck.”
It was a lesson he wanted to avoid but kept having dropped in his lap. “I’m well aware.”
“But you think you can scrub it and get it there. You can’t. Dad will always be a shit. Sophie will always struggle with loyalty to an aunt who should have known better than to get near Charlie. But the things Sophie did are really about wanting the family she lost. You can give her that.”
Beck refused to let that thought take hold. He’d started to believe it, then he walked into Callen’s bedroom. “You’re defending her now?”
“I think we were looking for her to be underhanded because that’s how people are with us. We expected her to have a deeper motive and be out to punish us. But, really, it looks like she just did something dumb and had the bad luck to hit on the one thing that raises our defenses.” When Beck started to talk, Callen held up a hand to stop him. “She needs to apologize for whatever thought put that envelope in her hand, and the two of you need to work it out. But, man, none of this is a reason to lose her.”
It all lined up and made sense. The part that continued to slam Beck was the promise. Maybe Callen didn’t know about the jewelry but Beck had and they’d reached an agreement. Having one more person say one thing and do something else made him feel as if he were drowning. “She lied to me.”
Callen shook his head. “She got spun up and made a bad decision.”
Could it really be so simple? She insisted it was but Beck saw only a lifetime of lies. “Since when do you speak for her?”
“Since I saw her at Mallory’s store and heard her out. But, really, it wasn’t wh
at she said. It was how she looked. I saw the same look in Declan when he thought he lost Leah. You can’t fake that that kind of pain.”
The word sliced through Beck. It described how he felt, all raw and turned inside out. “I think we know people can. Charlie made a career out of fooling people.”
“She’s not Charlie. You’re not. I’m not. But she’s definitely not.” Callen put a hand on Beck’s shoulder. “Remember how Declan crawled to get Leah back? I’m thinking it’s your turn.”
Beck had toyed with that option all morning. Then he looked at his mother’s drawn expression across the kitchen table and thought about the lies she accepted and where they took her life, and he vowed not to get sucked in. “And next time Sophie makes me a promise and ducks out on it? What do I do then?”
“What you would do if I did that? What if I made a promise and messed up?”
“It’s not the same thing.”
“It really is,” Callen said. “And I’m betting you’d forgive me. You’d get pissed and get over it. Why should the woman you love get less?”
Beck didn’t have to think about the answer. His trust and love for his brother were unconditional. It all sounded so simple. So easy, and he was the one making it hard.
His knees buckled as the reality of every way he messed up slammed into him. He balanced his back against the swing set to stay upright. “Shit.”
“See, this is what happens when you overthink things. You fuck up.”
Beck bent over with his hands on his thighs as he tried to draw enough air into his lungs to breathe. “The things I said to her.”
The entire conversation with Sophie flashed through his head. This time he focused on her answers and how he cut her off. He saw the hurt in her eyes, the same pain he’d blocked out as the rage took off inside him. He concentrated so hard on what her being in Cal’s room meant to him that he ignored why it meant something to her.
She defended her family like he did his. He tried to imagine what he would do to protect the people he loved. Leah tried to do that with the envelope. His mother tried to do that by keeping information hidden for years. Everyone but Charlie stepped up to save others.
Beck realized he’d finally found a woman who cared about him for him. Who didn’t see Charlie’s son or a potential con man every time she looked at him. Someone who craved a family bond as much as he did.
He had everything and he pushed it away.
Damn it, he did fuck up. Him, not her.
“You can’t unsay the garbage, believe me I’ve tried to think of a way to do that, but you can stop being a dick.” Callen slapped Beck’s back again. A little harder this time. “Maybe a gesture will help. I say we divide and conquer this house, searching for these damn jewels. The sooner those are out of the way, the sooner the two of you can figure out where you go next.”
Beck’s mind cleared, but only a little. “They’re not in the house.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so either, but Sophie needs the show of support. She needs to know we plan to take her in here.”
Now even Callen wanted to help. Wanted to include her in every part of their lives.
The thought gave Beck hope. “Since when?”
“Since you lost your damn mind over her. I say her name and you get that lost puppy look. Really, dude. It’s sad. You’re in love with this woman and it only took you a month to get there.”
Beck didn’t know much about women. His actions over the last twenty-four hours proved that. But he guessed Sophie should be the first one he told his true feelings to, so he skipped right over the love thing. “My point was the jewelry isn’t inside the house. I think it’s here.”
Callen glanced around. “Want to narrow the ‘here’ down for me?”
“Freshly poured concrete under a falling down swing set?” Beck straightened and stomped his foot on the pad again. “Our grandmother spends money on a concrete pad rather than paying the mortgage? She goes for that option rather than fixing the swing set or just knocking it down? Seems like a good place to hide things, don’t you think?”
Understanding flooded Callen’s face. “That brain of yours does come in handy.”
“That’s not the muscle I plan to use.”
“What now?”
Beck started toward the tool shed. “I’m busting this fucker up.”
“You’re going to do hard labor?” Callen opened the shed’s door and gestured for Beck to go in first. “Now this I want to see.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Anxiety bubbled in Sophie’s gut the second she opened the car door in the Shadow Hill driveway and climbed out. The house she usually found so inviting loomed in front of her as if it could fall and crush her. “I shouldn’t be here.”
If Beck stepped onto that porch, she’d fall down. Thinking about him had her mind turning to mush. Seeing him might be the last kick to drive her to her knees.
Leah slammed the driver’s door and met Sophie at the front of the car. She slipped an arm through Sophie’s and half dragged her toward the side of the house. “Callen put the boxes you wanted from his room in the caretaker’s cottage now that Tom shored it up.”
The friendliness threw Sophie off. She’d run out of Gossamer thinking to go back to her apartment and call her aunt with the bad news. A second text from Leah stopped her. Didn’t give her any choice either. Leah picked her up in the middle of Main Street and brought her here.
None of it made sense. “Why are you helping me?”
“Let’s try it this way. Did you really intend to open the envelope?” Leah asked the question but kept looking forward, steering them around a divot and past a load of firewood Callen had cut from a fallen tree.
The surprise question came so fast that Sophie answered without thinking. “No.”
“Were you running a scam on the brothers?”
“Of course not.”
Leah smiled. “Do you love Beck?”
That was one question too many. The one Sophie pushed out of her head because to admit how much she cared about him just made her feel stupid all over again. “What’s your point?”
“You need to see this.” Leah guided them around the corner to the backyard.
A loud, thudding, crashing noise had Sophie wincing. She stopped in her tracks as her gaze went across the grassy area to Beck and Callen. “What the—”
“Have you ever seen Beck pick up a sledgehammer? I didn’t even know he knew what one was.”
Sophie’s legs went numb. “What is he doing?”
“Working. Showing off that hidden strength he hides under those clothes. Though I guess you knew about that.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“I know, it surprised me to see him working outside, too.” Leah tugged on Sophie’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” She should run. This was the wrong place to be. Wrong time. Wrong guy. Wrong person to love. Sophie was convinced of all of that now.
Instead she trudged over the grass until she hit the edge of swing set where all the equipment, including something that looked like a jackhammer lay. “Beck? What are you doing?”
He didn’t even blink about her being there. Neither did Callen. He just stood back, watching Beck and grinning.
“I think the jewelry is under there.” Beck used his foot to move a chuck of broken concrete.
Of all the things Sophie expected to hear, that wasn’t one of them. “What?”
He dropped down on his haunches and chipped away at the fragments with his hand. “I want to give this to you.”
The clues fell into place and the answer knocked against her heart. “So I’ll go away.”
He glanced up at her, squinting against the sun. “Uh, no. I’m hoping my big romantic gesture will make you stay.”
Maybe it
was the numbness or all the people staring at her. Whatever the reason, Sophie couldn’t feel anything. Air rattled in her lungs but her brain wouldn’t click into gear. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“Someone told me we need to put the past behind us. Stop trying to fix it and move on.” He stood up and took the sledgehammer with him.
Callen raised his hand. “That was me.”
With a toss that started at his knees, Beck threw the hammer over his shoulder. “Yeah, well, it was still good advice regardless of the messenger.”
Seeing Beck all sweaty in his T-shirt with his muscles straining and his hair hanging in his face got her moving. She stepped in front of him with a hand on his chest. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”
He winked at her. “I’m perfectly capable of handling tools.”
“Now he tells us.” Callen swore as he mumbled his comment.
Everything spiraled and the cloudy sky brightened. Still Sophie’s brain refused to reboot. They should all be mad. They should be calling the police or running her out of town. That was the plan yesterday but now everything seemed different.
Declan walked up and wrapped an arm around Leah’s shoulders. “What’s going on and does Beck understand he’s holding a tool?”
“Better than being one,” Beck shot back.
Leah laid her head against Declan’s chest. “Beck’s trying to tell Sophie he’s sorry, but he keeps circling around it like a typical Hanover male.”
Metal clinked against concrete as Beck let the sledgehammer fall to the ground. “Maybe you guys could leave? That might help.”
The words got Callen moving. He clapped his hands. “Okay, show is over. Beck likes to fix messes and he has a big one on his hands right now. Besides, we can watch from the kitchen window and critique his skills without him hearing.”
Sophie put her hands out for balance. Beck was right there. He held on to her as the crowd dispersed.
“We’ll be out once the hard work is done.” Callen flashed a huge smile. “And, for the record, I’m talking about the apologizing and the hammering.”
A Simple Twist of Fate Page 26