by Gina Wilkins
When it came to that mission, he was focused and determined, she thought with a slight shake of her head. There was no derailing him now.
“To be honest, I think it was Chuck,” she told him. “But I’m not sure you’ll be able to prove it, and I seriously doubt you’ll get him to admit it.”
Andrew grunted.
“Even though you never met Chuck last year, he’s probably heard that you’re the P.I. who found the evidence to prosecute Wade. I’m sure he hates you as much as he hates me. Maybe you should stay away from him.”
“I’m not afraid of him. But I’m going to make damn sure he’s afraid of me by the time I’m done with him. If I can prove he had anything to do with the sabotage to your home, he’s going to join his worthless son in jail.”
The fury he’d shown last night was well-banked now, but she saw the anger that still simmered just beneath the civilized surface. She understood how he felt. She would like very much to get her hands on the person who had threatened her daughter, and who had put those bruises on Andrew’s face. “So what are you going to do first?”
“I’ll ask around, do some research, check a few leads,” he said vaguely. “What are your plans for today?”
“I need to update the events calendar at the resort website, post some photos on our social networking sites. We’re going to run a special offer to encourage off-season reservations, and I planned to work on that a bit more today.”
“You’ll be at your desk, then? Plenty of people around there, so you should be okay.”
“I’ll be fine.”
His eyes were dark and somber when they met hers. “You know I have to go back to Dallas tomorrow. I can probably be back here Thursday evening. Friday at the latest.”
Looking down into her barely tasted coffee, she nodded. “There’s no need for you to rush back. Take care of your responsibilities there. If it will make you feel better, I promise to be extra careful.”
“What would make me feel better is if you come with me to Dallas. I started to ask you last night, but we were interrupted by that thump on the wall, and then my fall and, um, everything.”
She set down her cup with a thump. “Come with you? Tomorrow?”
He studied her closely. “Yes. Every task you just listed for your job can be done on a computer in my home office. Someone else can sit at the reception desk while you handle the marketing, right? I mean, that’s the part of your job you specifically trained for and that you like the best.”
She planned to take over the marketing and events scheduling full-time after the baby was born. The family had already discussed hiring someone from outside to run the reception desk full-time so it wouldn’t have to divide her time any longer, especially with a baby to care for. Lori was available to man the desk during her summer break, with Mimi there to relieve her, so certainly it would be possible for Hannah to take off for another couple of days. Which didn’t mean she was going to do so.
“I don’t think it’s necessary for me to actually leave the resort. You pointed out yourself that I’ll be surrounded by family—probably more than usual now. I’ll be safe while you’re away.”
Andrew shook his head. “It isn’t just your safety—though I have to confess that’s the most compelling reason I’m asking. You have to admit it’s been almost impossible for us to have a long, serious discussion here. Every time we start, we’re interrupted. We could talk in Dallas over dinners. Make some plans, some decisions. And maybe I could introduce you to my parents. You’d like my mom. You know she’s a senior partner in an ad agency, right? The two of you actually have quite a bit in common.”
She swallowed hard. His parents. Her child’s other grandparents. Of course she should meet them, because they would be an important part of her daughter’s life—but not yet. Surely she could face that ordeal later.
He must have seen the panic in her expression. His face softened. “Hannah, it’s time for us to...”
Someone knocked loudly on her front door, cutting through his words. Andrew sighed. “See what I mean?”
She was already on her feet and moving toward the door, seizing the interruption with relief bordering on sheepish cowardice.
“It’s probably Aaron,” Andrew said, rising more slowly from the table. “He’s meeting me here this morning to get a closer look around the place in daylight.”
Rather than Aaron, she found her father standing on her porch, a piece of broken railing in his hand and a frown of concern on his weathered face. “Hannah, what on earth happened here? You didn’t fall, did you?”
“No, Dad, I didn’t fall. But Andrew did.”
He looked both relieved and worried in response to that information. “Is he hurt?”
“I’m fine, Bryan,” Andrew said, moving to stand behind her.
Her dad studied Andrew’s bruised face, and she wondered if he was asking himself what Andrew was doing there so early. “You’d better come in, Dad. We need to talk to you about what happened.”
Shaking his head, her father glared down at the board in his hand as he entered. “I can’t figure out how this would have happened. I built that porch and railing myself. I’ve never seen one just snap like this.”
“It didn’t exactly snap,” Andrew said, motioning him toward the table. “Let me get you some coffee and I’ll tell you about it.”
If her dad had questions about Andrew’s presence there or his apparent comfort in Hannah’s kitchen, he was too distracted by last night’s events to mention it. It was all Hannah and Andrew could do to talk him out of storming off to find Chuck Cavender after he heard about the deliberate damage to the handrail. Maybe Andrew didn’t try very hard to stop him, because he still seemed inclined to confront Chuck himself.
“I never liked that man,” Hannah’s dad muttered. “I tried to be civil while Hannah and Wade were married, but there’s nothing to stop me from whupping his ass now.”
Hannah’s father was not a violent man; in fact, he was one of the kindest, gentlest men she knew—unless anyone threatened his family. “We don’t even know it was Chuck,” she reminded him. “Let Andrew and Aaron look into it, okay?”
“I don’t want you staying alone. You need to move back into the house with your mom and me until this is settled.”
Hannah sighed. Why was everyone so determined not to leave her alone? She really was capable of taking care of herself. “We’ll talk about it later, Dad.”
“Perhaps it’s best if we don’t discuss this in front of your grandmother right now,” he suggested. “The past few weeks have been a bit too eventful for her.”
“She may have already heard,” Hannah warned him. “Maggie and Shelby and Aaron and Steven all know about it. They were around when Andrew fell.”
“You should have called me,” her dad chided.
“There was nothing you could do last night,” she replied with a shrug. “And, um, Andrew’s been keeping an eye on things here—just as a precaution. An unnecessary precaution, I’m sure.”
She wouldn’t mention just how close an eye Andrew had kept on her last night, of course.
Her dad nodded toward Andrew. “I appreciate your watching out for her.”
Andrew gave Hannah a quick, wry look before replying, “My pleasure.”
Her dad went out to look at the porch again, promising to have it repaired that very morning.
“I wonder if he’s still going to be so grateful to me when he finds out I’m the father of your child,” Andrew murmured when he and Hannah were alone again for those few moments. “Could be my butt that will get whupped.”
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, thinking that she was going to have to find a chance to tell her family the truth very soon. All these secrets and subterfuges, in addition to work, her uncertain future with Andrew and wondering just how crazy her ex-father-in-law had become were starting to fray her nerves. She still wasn’t looking forward to the pressure that would be put on Andrew to “do the right thing b
y her” or on herself to let him, but she’d handle that when it came up.
“I’m going to work,” she announced, needing something to do.
“You haven’t had breakfast,” Andrew reminded her.
“I’m a little queasy this morning. I’ll have some crackers at my desk.”
He nodded and carried his coffee cup to the sink. “I’ll drive you.”
“I can—” She sighed when he gave her a look over his shoulder. “Fine. Let’s go.”
* * *
“So, Shelby has postulated another of her theories,” Aaron commented an hour later from the passenger seat of Andrew’s car. “I know her family sometimes makes fun of her vivid imagination, but you have to admit she’s often right.”
“I’ve always respected Shelby’s instincts,” Andrew agreed somewhat absently. His attention was divided between his driving, his pleasurable memories of the night before and his concerns about his future with Hannah and the baby. Shelby’s latest brainstorm was low on his list of interests at the moment, though he made an effort to keep up his part of the conversation. “Does her new theory have anything to do with who’s been harassing Hannah?”
“No, she pretty much agrees with everyone else on that. Thinks it’s probably Chuck Cavender. Though her new suspicion does concern Hannah. And you.”
Andrew’s fingers tightened reflexively on the steering wheel. Aaron had his full attention now. “Does it?”
“Hmm. As in...she’s wondering if you and Hannah have seen each other at least once since you left the resort last August.”
Andrew would not lie to his twin, but he’d made a promise to Hannah that he wouldn’t share their secret just yet. So he remained quiet.
Aaron read that silence perfectly. “Damn, Shelby’s right, isn’t she?”
Andrew shot his brother a look, taking in his stunned expression before turning his eyes back to the road ahead.
Aaron turned sideways in the passenger seat. “You’re the father of Hannah’s baby. You’d have already denied it if you weren’t.”
“Which direction do I turn at the intersection?”
Impatiently, Aaron consulted the notes in his hand. “Turn right. I assume Hannah has forbidden you to tell? But from what I think I’ve learned about her, I bet she didn’t order you to outright lie in response to a direct question. Are you the father of Hannah’s child?”
Aaron was right of course, that Hannah wouldn’t expect him to blatantly lie to his brother’s direct question. She would never ask that of him.
“Yes.” The relief of finally sharing the truth with his twin was immediate. “She’s going to tell everyone else soon. In the meantime...”
“I won’t give it away,” Aaron promised, sounding stunned. “I won’t even confirm Shelby’s theory to her—well, unless she asks me outright of course.”
Andrew shrugged, figuring Shelby would know within ten minutes of their returning to the resort. It would probably be the first thing she asked Aaron upon seeing him again. He sent a silent apology to Hannah, but he’d warned her that the longer they waited the more likely it was that the secret would come out anyway.
“Wow. So you’re going to be a father. And I’m an uncle,” Aaron marveled. “Mom and Dad are going to freak.”
Swallowing hard, Andrew muttered, “Um, yeah. Probably. Let’s just say it’s been a momentous week for me.”
“No kidding. So you and Hannah have been seeing each other since you worked for them last summer? Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“We haven’t been seeing each other. It was only the one night,” Andrew admitted. “I hadn’t even heard from her since.”
He needed to think of a better way to phrase that in the future. He didn’t want anyone thinking he and Hannah had indulged in a cheap one-night stand. It had been much more than that—for him at least—though he had yet to come up with an explanation that made sense. Probably because he still didn’t know why she’d spent that night with him when she was only going to shoot him down afterward.
“Hey, wait a minute. Am I the one who told you Hannah’s pregnant? You really didn’t know until I mentioned it on the phone the other day?”
He grimaced. “No, I didn’t know.”
“Dude.”
Andrew nodded glumly.
Aaron rode in silence for a couple minutes, digesting the information, then chuckled drily. “You know what’s funny? Just a couple weeks ago, I wished that for once you’d do something to scandalize the family and take some attention from my issues for a change.”
“Yeah, that’s freaking hilarious,” Andrew grumbled.
“Sorry. So how do you feel about it? Suddenly finding out you’re about to be a dad, I mean.”
“Nervous. Pleased. Worried. Proud. A little embarrassed to find myself in this situation at my age. Scared spitless about the responsibility.”
“Those all sound like perfectly reasonable reactions,” Aaron conceded. “But, um, maybe you should let me do the talking when we get to Cavender’s house. You have too much emotionally invested this time to be objective.”
Andrew’s fingers white-knuckled around the wheel. “Hannah could have lost the baby,” he grated, the words ripping almost painfully from his throat.
Aaron touched his arm, the gesture carrying a wealth of understanding. “I know. And I’m furious about that, too. But it won’t help anything if you beat the guy to a pulp before we even have any proof that he’s involved.”
“It would sure as hell make me feel better.” Andrew sighed gustily. “Fine. You do the talking.”
Aaron nodded in determination. “He’ll lie of course, but maybe we can get a feel for the truth. After that, we’ll figure out a way to prove it. And in the meantime, maybe knowing we’re on to him will stop him from trying anything else.”
“Especially if I promise to beat him to the pulp you mentioned if he ever even looks at Hannah again.”
“Uh, yeah, that should probably do it.” Aaron suddenly spoke with a bit more care, seeming to choose his words carefully. “So what’s going to happen with you and Hannah? You know her grandmother, at the least, is going to be pushing for a wedding. Wouldn’t be surprised if Mom drops a few broad hints about that, too.”
Andrew tensed again. “We haven’t had a chance to talk about the future yet. Hell, we’ve hardly had a chance to talk at all. Every time we try, we’re interrupted.”
“It is hard to find privacy at the resort,” Aaron agreed.
Andrew slanted his brother a questioning look. “That doesn’t bother you?”
Aaron shrugged. “It’s just part of the package. I’m not complaining, I like the family. Maybe someday Shelby and I will get a place nearby and commute to work there, but we’re good in her trailer for now.”
For himself, Andrew couldn’t imagine living that way. As fond as he was of the Bell family and as much as he liked their resort, his home was in Dallas. He’d trained from childhood to work in his own family’s business, and he thrived there. Yet he had a place of his own, a life outside his job and family, and he needed that, too. He wanted to be with Hannah, fully intended to help her raise their daughter, but even for them he couldn’t see himself being happy or fulfilled giving up his career and trying to find something to do with himself here.
Did Hannah feel the same way about her job in the resort, her home surrounded by her family? And if so, where did that leave them in the future?
“This is the place,” Aaron said, drawing Andrew from his troubled thoughts. “On the left.”
The Cavenders’ house was a simple, white-sided ranch-style in a working-class neighborhood. No vehicle was parked in the short driveway, and the garage door was closed. Andrew saw no sign of life around the place, but that didn’t mean no one was home, he reminded himself. He stood just behind Aaron on the stoop when Aaron rang the doorbell, braced for a confrontation in which he would be forced to call upon all his self-control. But the bell went unanswered after the third time Aaron pres
sed the button, and they had to concede the house was probably empty.
“They’re gone,” someone called out from the almost-identical house next door, drawing the twins’ attention in that direction.
An older man in faded jeans, boots and a short-sleeved Western-cut shirt stood by the mailbox at the end of the adjacent driveway, looking their way. “They left for vacation yesterday,” he added, his voice raised so they could hear him clearly. “Won’t be back for a week. I’m collecting their mail and papers for them.”
Andrew frowned, remembering that Hannah had spotted Chuck when they were on the way to the doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. “When did they leave?”
“Maybe about five o’clock? Got a late start because Justine had to work yesterday.”
“Do you know where they went?” Aaron asked.
The man looked at them narrowly. “Not sure as I should say. Who are you guys anyway?”
“We’re acquainted with their son,” Aaron replied.
The neighbor looked as though he wanted to spit then—a sentiment Andrew understood too well. “That don’t hardly recommend you to me.”
“We aren’t friends with their son, sir,” Andrew explained. “We represent his ex-wife. We’re investigating some threats against her.”
The man had approached them now, his walk marked with a slight limp, his grizzled face still suspicious. He stopped close enough that they could speak in normally modulated voices, frowning but seemingly relieved to hear they didn’t claim friendship with Wade. “I know Chuck blames the ex-wife for everything that went wrong with his boy, though Justine doesn’t seem to entirely agree with him. I met the girl only a couple of times, but she seemed nice enough. Too good for Wade, if you ask me.”
Andrew nodded in concurrence.
The old man scratched his stubbly chin. “Wouldn’t think Chuck would go so far as to make threats against her, though. He can be surly, but he’s not completely stupid.”
“We’re simply looking into all possibilities,” Aaron said.
The older man nodded and reached a decision, blurting out, “Chuck and Justine have gone to visit Chuck’s mama in Beaumont. Her last name is Cavender, too, but can’t remember her first name. Wade’s ex probably knows, so if you’re working for her, you can ask her. No need for you to mention how you found out where they are if you talk to Chuck of course.”