There'd been love between them then. When had it ended?
The images in her head grew dark, desolate. She heard her mother pacing the floor late into the night. Finally, the slam of the front door, her mother's voice raised in anger, her father's voice raised in weariness.
There were accusations, then the sound of agonizing sobs. She'd been torn between burying her head under the covers or going to her mother. In the end, she hadn't left her room. She hadn't wanted to know the result of another fight. She'd been too afraid of an end she'd been fearing for years.
It came the next morning.
They'd packed up their rooms and gotten on a plane and gone to her grandparents' house in San Francisco. She'd barely had a chance to say good-bye to her friends. While she'd been to the city before to visit her mom's family, it had still been a culture shock. She'd been hurt, angry, unsure, lonely, homesick…so many emotions had filled that first long, terrible year.
Eventually, she'd made friends, gone to college, gotten a teaching credential and built a life for herself. Three years ago, she'd moved up to the mountains and found a cute house to rent and more friends and felt like she was finally happy, finally free of the past.
Then Ian showed up.
Now Ian was back in her dreams, looking handsome, sexy, and desirable. And now she tossed and turned for another reason. She remembered the feel of his hands on her body. She could still taste his mouth on her lips and inhale the sensual scent of his cologne.
She kicked at the covers, feeling a desperate need in her body that made her restless and angry with herself. Why had she sent him away? Why did she always play it safe?
She could have had him tonight. But when they'd tumbled off the sofa, the hard floor had shocked her brain into working again. If that hadn't happened, maybe she would have kept going.
But she would have regretted it—wouldn't she?
Or would it have been an amazing night? Possibly, the most amazing night of her life?
Her subconscious brain put them in bed together now. She could feel him beside her: his strong, fit body, pressing her against the mattress, his compelling eyes creating an irresistible pull, his possessive hands roaming her body, his greedy lips on hers.
She tightened her fingers around the sheet, wishing it were real, but it wasn't, and as light pressed against her lids, her eyes finally opened.
It was morning. She felt a wave of relief despite her still racing heart and unfulfilled needs. Reality was back. Today would be a normal day. She'd be in her classroom, teaching her students. Later tonight, Tyler would be with his grandparents, and she would be free.
The thought of not having her little chaperone was both exciting and terrifying. She wouldn't be able to use Tyler as an excuse…
But who was she kidding? Today would also be a normal day for Ian. He'd be networking with his science friends and getting ready to change the world in some way. She trusted that he'd keep his promise to finish Tyler's volcano after school. But after that, his commitment would be done. They'd say good-bye, and that would be it.
Exhausted by all her thoughts, she rolled out of bed, showered and dressed and changed the sheets on the bed for Tyler's grandparents. Then she went down the hall to Tyler's bedroom.
Tyler was still asleep. He was half in and half out of the covers, as if he'd also had a restless night. She'd checked on him before she'd gone to bed last night and he'd been asleep, but she had no idea if he'd woken up and spent more hours looking for Santa through the windowpane. She hoped not.
She decided to give him a few more minutes, so she went downstairs into the kitchen and started the coffeemaker.
Her phone rang, and Carrie's number flashed across the screen. "Hello? Carrie?"
"Hi, Grace," Carrie said, a deep weariness in her voice.
"How's Kevin?"
"He's not out of the woods, but he's holding his own at the moment. It's really touch and go, Grace. He lost a lot of blood and there's internal damage. They keep thinking they've fixed everything and then something else comes up. But he's too weak for more surgery, so he has to stay stable. The next twenty-four to forty-eight hours will be critical."
Her heart went out to her friend. She couldn't imagine what Carrie was going through. "Kevin is a fighter. He's going to beat this."
"That's what I keep telling myself. I have to keep the faith."
"You do."
"How's Tyler? How's my baby boy?"
"He's great. We went sledding yesterday, and Ian helped him get started on the volcano project."
"So the sexy scientist is still hanging around."
"Yes. Tyler really likes him. I hope you don't mind. Ian is good with Tyler, and the volcano is coming along nicely."
"I trust you, Grace. If you like him, I'm fine about him being near Tyler. My parents said they should get there tonight. They'll take over for you. I really appreciate you putting your life on hold for me."
"I was happy to do it. I think Tyler would really love to talk to you. Can I wake him up?"
"Is it too early? I'm all mixed up on the time."
"No, I was going to get him up in a minute anyway," she said, heading for the stairs.
"Thanks again for everything, Grace. I owe you."
"You don't owe me a thing. Just bring Kevin home with you."
"Believe me, I'm trying."
As she walked into Tyler's room, he gave her a sleepy look.
"Hey, Ty, your mom is on the phone."
His eyes widened, and he immediately sat up as she handed him the phone. "Hi, Mommy," he said.
She smiled to herself as Tyler launched into a litany of everything he'd been doing. While he was talking to Carrie, she went downstairs and started breakfast. Before too long, Tyler came downstairs and handed her the phone.
"Mommy had to go," Tyler said. "She told me Nana and Papa are coming today."
"Tonight," she said. "That will be fun, won't it?"
"But Ian is still going to help me finish the volcano, right?"
"He said he'd meet us after school."
"Oh, good," Tyler said with relief.
She had a feeling Tyler was going to have as hard a time as she was saying good-bye to Ian. "What do you want for breakfast? Eggs, cereal?"
"I want cereal," he said, walking over to the table.
"Great."
A few minutes later, she set down a bowl of cereal with some sliced bananas and blueberries on top. He didn't immediately start eating, and she could see something was on his mind.
"What's up, Ty?"
He looked up at her. "Is Mommy with Daddy?"
Her heart skipped a beat. "Why would you ask me that?"
He shrugged. "Why don't they want me to be there, too?"
"Your mom is not with your father right now," she said, hoping she'd be excused for the lie, but she could tell that Tyler was feeling left out. "But I know that she wants your dad to come home as much as you do."
"It's taking too long," he complained.
"I know." She leaned against the counter as Tyler ate his cereal, thinking back to all the times she'd wondered where her dad was and when he was coming home. But that had been completely different. Her father wasn't a soldier; he could have come home any time he wanted to. Although, he was someone who had tried to make the world a better place. And now he was hurt, lying alone in a hospital bed in Ireland.
Her mother would say that he deserved to be alone, that you reap what you sow, but she felt torn, conflicted about what she should do. Her mom didn't want her to go to Ireland, and certainly she had a job to keep and Tyler to watch over for at least today, so there was nothing she could do right this second. She'd think about her options later.
Right now, she just really wanted to have a normal, predictable day. But somehow she didn't think it was going to be that way. There'd been nothing predictable about her life since Ian had shown up.
* * *
Ian woke up with the dawn and jumped on to his computer, his r
esearch target Seamus Donelan. He'd been thinking all night about Seamus. If his attack wasn't random, then it had to be tied to something Seamus had been involved in.
He brought up every article he could find on Seamus and by eight a.m., he'd discovered that Seamus owned seventeen patents, had started five companies, served on the board of directors for three other organizations, and worked as a consultant for another half-dozen businesses. His inventions and interests had ranged from biogenetic engineering to robotics, stealth technology, astrophysics and nucleonics, the study of atomic nuclei.
Frowning, he thought any one of those cutting-edge technologies could have gotten Seamus into trouble. Looking at the list of companies, he saw some familiar names, many of whom were at the conference including Draystar, owned by Harry Ferguson; Janus Tech, the company Brenna had worked at until recently; and Vipercom, where David worked.
There were other names he recognized as well, probably some of whom were at the conference. But he couldn't quite wrap his head around the fact that one of his colleagues, one of the people he admired and respected, could have been involved in an attack on Seamus Donelan. And why now? Seamus had been in academia for ten years. He'd quit everything after losing his wife and kids. So what had happened to suddenly put him in danger?
Whatever it was probably couldn't be found on the Internet, or it would be all over the news. No, it had to be something that only Seamus or a few other people knew about.
His mind drifted back to Grace's open door, her gut feeling that someone had been in her house and gone through her drawers. Had there been someone who'd gone through her home, looking for something that they might or might not have found in Seamus's office?
Uneasiness ran through him. He glanced down at his watch. Grace would be at school now, surrounded by her students. She wasn't in any danger, he told himself. In fact, he could be completely wrong. The open door could have just been a coincidence—only he didn't believe in coincidences.
He'd just gotten up from his chair when his phone buzzed and Brenna's name flashed across the screen. It had been a long time since he'd gotten a call from her. "Hello?"
"Hi Ian. I was wondering if we could talk."
"Sure. I'm heading downstairs in a minute."
"Can I catch you before that? It's so crowded down here, and there are a lot of people listening in on conversations. I can come to your room."
He frowned, not sure why Brenna felt the need for a private conversation, but he was fairly certain it wasn't a good idea. Still, what could he say? He was somewhat curious. "Fine. I'm in room 1242."
"Great. I'll be there in a few minutes."
He glanced around the room, grabbing his wet towel off the bed and throwing it over a hook in the bathroom. He shoved his suitcase into his closet and closed the door. He'd barely done that when he heard her knock.
He opened the door, and she gave him a bright smile that for some reason felt a little forced. He waved her inside. She wandered over to the window and looked out. "You have the mountain view. I have the lake."
"I didn't think I'd be spending much time gazing out the window," he said.
She turned back to him, and he thought she seemed nervous, which was unusual, because Brenna had always been one of the most confident people he knew.
She did look good, he thought, dressed in a red knit dress that demanded attention, her blonde hair pulled back at the base of her neck, her face perfectly made up, and her blue eyes framed with long lashes. She was certainly more put together than she'd been in grad school, but those days they'd spent more time in jeans and lab coats, living off endless streams of coffee, and the belief that one day they were going to change the world.
"You're staring," she said. "What's the verdict—better or worse?"
"Great as always," he returned with a small smile. "But you already knew that."
"Still—nice to hear, especially from you, Ian. You were never less than honest with me. I don't think I really appreciated that until I met men who were anything but honest."
He didn't want to touch that comment. "So, what's up?"
She hesitated, then said, "I wanted to talk to you about Seamus Donelan."
"What about him?"
"There are some rumors floating around that he stole technology from Draystar."
"What kind of technology?"
"I don't know. I asked Westley; he said he couldn't tell me. But I don't know if that's because he doesn't know or doesn't want to say. Since Seamus was attacked, and Draystar is my new employer, I feel a little uneasy. Is there something I should know about Draystar—about the Fergusons? Did Seamus tell you anything about them or any trouble he was in?"
He was taken aback by her questions. He didn't believe for one second she was worried about her job at Draystar, so what was really driving this conversation?
"Seamus and I didn't talk business," he said. "At least, not in a specific way."
"So he didn't mention Draystar?"
"No, nor did he mention Janus Tech, the last company you worked for, another company Seamus had a relationship with, but I'm sure you knew that."
"But he didn't have a problem with the people at Janus. He was well-loved and very well-respected by the owners of the company. They talked about him quite reverently. Of course, I wasn't there when he was, so I never met him personally." She paused. "How did you come to talk to him anyway?"
"Seamus knew my Irish grandmother. She set up the meeting for us. We spoke about Ireland and education. My great-grandfather was actually one of Seamus's teachers."
"Really? That's interesting and unexpected."
"It surprised me, too." Folding his arms across his chest, he said, "What do you really want to know, Brenna?"
"I told you."
"If you're nervous about working with the Fergusons, then quit. You're brilliant in your field. I don't even know why you'd go to Draystar in the first place."
"I told you they're expanding, and they offered me a lot of money. It was too good of an offer to refuse. Their company is on the rise."
"I don't know what else to tell you."
"I'm probably just imagining things. Despite whatever went down between Seamus and Harry, they were friends for years. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding and has nothing to do with Seamus's attack. He probably had other enemies. People that smart tend to make others nervous, especially when they're working on classified, highly advanced technology."
"Like I said, I really don't know."
"So what is Donelan's daughter like?" she asked, changing the subject.
He shrugged, not sure how to answer that. He certainly wasn't going to tell an ex-girlfriend that he thought another woman was hot. "She's nice. She's an elementary school teacher."
"It doesn't sound like she's as ambitious as her father. Seamus was a star by the time he was twenty-three."
"Seamus had—has—a brilliant mind," he said, not wanting to think of Seamus not surviving the attack. "Why don't we go downstairs? The keynote is starting shortly. I'm sure your new boss would want you to be there. Harry has always liked an audience."
"That's true."
He grabbed his key off the counter and ushered her out of his room. When they got onto the elevator, they ran into Westley.
He gave them both a surprised look. "Good morning," he said.
"Morning," Ian muttered, realizing that Westley was looking at him and Brenna and quickly coming to the wrong conclusion—like maybe they'd spent the night together. But what did he care what Westley thought?
"I'm excited to hear your father speak," Brenna put in as the elevator whisked them down to the lobby.
"That makes one of us," Westley said dryly. "But I'd be disinherited if I missed one of his many speeches." He gave them a speculative look. "So, David told me you two used to be a couple back in grad school."
"That's right," Brenna said.
"What broke you up?" Westley asked, turning his gaze to Ian.
"Nothing in particu
lar," he replied.
"Do you have the same story?" Westley asked Brenna.
"We wanted different things," she said, giving him a bit of a sad smile. "I don't think I realized how great we were together until years later."
"You're both single now," Westley put in. "Isn't that true?"
Thankfully, he was saved from answering as the elevator doors opened on the lobby level. They were immediately thrust into a group of conference-goers, and he was happy when the three of them were separated by the crowd.
As he joined the throng of people heading to the keynote, he said hello to some friends and acquaintances, but his mind was still back on his odd talk with Brenna. Had her questions really been about the Fergusons? Or had she been sent as an old friend to find out what he knew, what Seamus might have told him?
He'd never distrusted Brenna before; he'd never had a reason to. But she'd been acting odd in his room. He didn't know exactly why she'd come, but he was almost certain it had nothing to do with what she'd actually told him. While she'd tried to use Draystar and the Fergusons as bait, he wondered if she was really digging around for information related to her former employer Janus Tech.
Maybe there was someone from Janus Tech at the conference that he could speak to. He had a feeling it was going to be a busy day.
Twelve
Grace felt good to be back in her classroom where she was in charge of her world and everything made sense. She concentrated on her lesson plans and keeping the kids engaged in learning, forcing thoughts of her father and Ian out of her head. The children were in good moods after their unexpected snow day, so she had few behavioral problems. She wished all days could be this easy.
But as the clock neared three, she suspected her stress-free day was going to get more difficult. In fact, it started as soon as the bell rang. She'd just put Tyler in charge of cleaning up some paintbrushes in the back of the room when her phone rang. It was her sister, and she had a feeling she knew just what Jillian had to say.
Closer To You (Callaways Book 11) Page 14