Ben laughed. “How do you buy a Realtor?”
“Technically, you don’t. It’s one of Mario’s cousins, and we gave him a retainer against the commission we’ll owe him when you decide on something. Did you and Grady hear that Mario and Margie had another girl? They named her Noelle.”
“Oh, that’s great.” He was happy for his friend, and touched by his family’s thoughtfulness. “Thanks, guys.”
Ben pointed the finger on his good arm to Grady’s car several lengths ahead of them, making the turn onto Rio Road. “Right up there,” he said to Jack.
Jack nodded. “Yes. I’ve been here before, remember?”
Grady had thoughtfully volunteered to drive Corie and Sarah back to Teresa’s so that Ben could visit with his parents and his brother on the way there. Ben kept telling himself that this loud group that offered both blessings and harassment was what Soren and Rosie needed to keep their minds off the absence of their friends.
* * *
TERESA AND THE children were waiting on the steps when everyone arrived. Ben’s mother engulfed both children in her embrace, then took each by the hand and asked them to show her the play set Ben had built. As they led her around back, Ben heard her voice, diminishing in volume, talking about the gifts Santa had given her to deliver to them.
Both children were cynical beyond their ages, but listened with wide smiles, her good cheer contagious.
Teresa hugged Ben worriedly. “I can’t believe you got shot again!” she said. She scowled at Corie. “Sweetie, this has got to stop. I appreciate how brave you are, but if you get yourself in a fix, it puts someone else in danger because he wants to help you.”
“This was my idea,” Ben said, feeling called upon to defend her since they wouldn’t have made the return trip to city hall if it had been up to Corie. Things would not have ended well for her, he was sure, but at least they wouldn’t have been there for Pimental to catch, and Ben wouldn’t have been shot.
Corie glanced at him with more annoyance than gratitude for his contribution to the conversation. They hadn’t been able to make up after their middle-of-the-night argument, and though she’d been upset when Pimental shot him, she hadn’t had much to say since.
Jack, who’d heard the whole story while sitting in the waiting room with Corie, shook his head at his sister then his brother. “Seems they were trying to protect me. As though I would let them take the fall alone for anything I was involved in.”
Sarah, Jack’s wife, tucked her arm in his and leaned her head against his shoulder. “That’s family love, Jack. You know that.”
“I do. I just don’t want anyone sacrificing anything for me.”
“Well, then, this whole family would have to learn to stop breathing.”
Teresa ushered everyone inside, looping her arm into Ben’s and Jack’s father’s. Gary Palmer grinned at Jack and pointed toward the car. “Would you get the bags? Ben’s disabled and I have a lady on my arm.”
“Why not?” Jack pretended exasperation. “What happened to feeling the love?”
“Oh, we’re here for you, Jack.” Sarah tightened her grip on him and Corie took his other arm and turned him toward the car. “Come on. We’ll help you.”
“There must be fifteen bags in the two cars.”
“We’ll make a few trips.”
“I’ll have to learn to get shot so I’m not the one who always has to carry everything. Remember when Ben came home from the hospital the first time he got shot, and it was pouring rain, and you ran out of the house to help him in and I had to carry...”
Sarah reached up to kiss him firmly. “Stop whining or I’ll shoot you myself.”
Corie admired the way Sarah dealt with her husband. But that threat wouldn’t work on bullet-ridden Ben.
* * *
BEN HAD FILLED a bucket with water and was on his belly under the Christmas tree, filling a saucepan from the bucket and pouring water into the tree stand with his good arm. Everyone else was doing their own thing before dinner, except Soren, who was stretched out a few inches away, watching Ben work.
“How come you’re not talking to Corie?” he asked, holding the bucket steady as Ben dipped the saucepan in again.
“Who says I’m not talking to Corie?”
“Well, nobody says it, but everybody knows it. Teresa asked me if I knew what happened.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Is it ’cause you got shot?”
“Why would that make me not talk to her?”
“’Cause it was her fault, right? You went to rescue her and the mayor guy shot you.”
“It wasn’t her fault. I went to help because I wanted to.”
“Then why are you mad at her?”
Ben poured in the water then looked at Soren. The boy’s face was just inches from his. Soren had been glued to Ben’s side since Ben had gotten home yesterday.
“I’m not talking to her,” he explained, though he didn’t quite get it himself, “but it’s not because I’m mad at her. It’s because sometimes... I just don’t know what to say to her to make her understand what I’m thinking. Our brains don’t seem to work the same way and that makes it hard to communicate.”
“I know what you mean. I used to feel that way about Rosie. Until everybody else was gone and I started to understand what she was saying. It’s easier to think when there’s not so much noise.”
“So, you like Rosie?”
Soren looked horrified for a minute. “Well, not like a girlfriend.”
“Of course not.”
“Like a friend. A sister. But you love Corie like a girlfriend. Couldn’t you just kiss her?” Soren asked with a sly smile.
Ben frowned at him. “How would that help?”
“That’s what they do on television. They play a little tonsil hockey.”
Ben groaned. “Tonsil hockey is a disrespectful expression for something as nice as kissing. And they do a lot of things on television that wouldn’t work in real life.”
Soren rested his chin on his hands. “Then you’re not getting married?”
Geez. “Why did you think that?” Ben handed him the empty saucepan.
“I don’t know. Rosie thought you might.”
Ben crawled out from under the tree, pulling the bucket with him. He carried it into the kitchen to empty the little bit of water in the bottom. Soren followed him to the sink and stood beside him, putting the saucepan on the counter.
“What’s your life like in Oregon?”
“Kinda cool, but nothing special,” he replied, wiping out the bucket. “I go to work every day. Grady’s my partner. He’s not married, either, so sometimes we have dinner together after work. There’s a place called Betty’s that everybody likes. It’s a little bit like the Grill, only without Hector’s delicious Mexican dishes.”
“But you’re not going to be a cop anymore, right? You’re going to have a detective agency. You and Grady.”
Ben turned to him in astonishment. “How do you know that?”
“I heard you talking. I wasn’t listening in, I was just going by and...you know, you weren’t whispering or anything.”
“Right.”
“Do you live with your mom and dad?”
“No. I have a condo that looks over the water.”
“Is it big?”
“Ah, no. It’s roomy enough, but it’s not really big.”
“How many bedrooms?”
“Two and a bonus room.”
“What does that mean?”
“That I could turn it into an exercise room or a den or something, but I haven’t done that yet. It’s empty.”
“Huh.” Soren smiled. “Do you have a dog?”
“No.”
“A cat?”
&n
bsp; “No. I’m gone a lot and pets should have someone around to keep them company.”
“Huh. Teresa says when I’m not being difficult, that I’m good company.”
There it was. Ben had answered all his questions, thinking at first that it was simply genuine interest in his life. But now he saw that Soren was wondering if it would be possible for him to fit into that life.
Ben didn’t know what to say. It crossed his mind that his communication issues with Corie might be his problem and not hers.
He liked Soren a lot, but he was a single man wanting to start a new business. A ten-year-old boy dealing with a lot of losses should have a child-psychologist for a parent, not a cop who’d broken a lot of laws and loved a woman he didn’t know how to deal with. He had to divert the boy’s attention.
“You want to come to the store with me?” Ben asked.
“Sure.” Soren smiled. “What are we buying?”
“I have to get a present for my brother and sister-in-law.”
“That Christmas store had ornaments for people who just got married. They did, right, ’cause you and Corie were in their wedding when she went to Oregon.”
“Right.”
“They say ‘For your first Christmas together.’ It was a couple kissing under the mistletoe.”
“That’s a brilliant idea.” Ben pushed him toward the door.
“I’m also pretty smart when I’m not being difficult.”
“Well, you’ll have to stop being difficult.”
“I’ve tried. It’s really...difficult.” Soren laughed at his own joke. Ben groaned and opened his hand over Soren’s face and pushed teasingly. The boy laughed again and followed him out to the SUV.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“PUT YOUR FINGER over the ribbon.” Corie held the ends of the Christmas ribbon tightly, leaving room for Rosie to put her plump index finger in the middle of the package where the ribbon crossed over itself.
“Ben and Soren went out,” Rosie said, pressing down as Corie made a knot right over her finger.
“They did? Where?”
“Shopping. Guys don’t usually like to go shopping, but Ben forgot to buy a present for Jack and Sarah.” When Corie looked surprised at her knowledge, she shrugged. “I was wrapping Soren’s present in the pantry so he wouldn’t see. They were talking in the kitchen.”
“I hope they’re home in time for dinner. We’re having meat loaf.”
“I love meat loaf.”
“Me, too. We’ll just eat theirs if they’re late.”
Rosie smiled. “You’d never do that.” She was quiet a minute while Corie wrapped curly ribbon around her fingers, cut the ends to make a bow, then secured it to the middle of the package.
“That’s pretty,” Rosie said. “Are you gonna go back to Oregon and live with your brother?”
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” Corie admitted, putting the package aside. “My brother’s very busy and his wife has a new and important job she’s training for. I was thinking about going back to school online.”
There was another moment of silence then Rosie said, with practiced detachment, as though they were still talking about Corie’s plans, “I know my dad’s not coming. I heard you and Teresa talking about how he’d signed this paper that says he’s not my dad anymore.”
Horrified that Rosie had overheard them, Corie wrapped her in her arms and pulled her close. She could feel pain in the child’s stiff body. And somehow, almost worse than that, was the stoic acceptance.
“I think he did that,” Corie said through a tight throat, “because he knows he can’t take care of you and believes someone else could do a better job.”
Rosie looked up at Corie. Corie read the “Can you do it?” in her eyes, but, mercifully pride prevented Rosie from saying it aloud.
You don’t have your own life together, Corie told herself. You couldn’t possibly guide anyone else’s.
Rosie straightened away from Corie and looked down at her twisting fingers. “Wouldn’t it be fun if you and Ben and Soren and me were going to the movies in the car and a big storm came and blew us far away where nobody could find us? And we’d have to stay together forever?”
For a fraction of a second a deep place in Corie’s heart rose to meet a thought from a far corner of her brain and she almost nodded. Then reality regained control and she smiled at Rosie. “I think you might grow up to write fairy tales, Rosie.”
The thought of her and Ben, who could not agree on most things except how nice it was to hold each other, raising two children who didn’t get along, either, was pure fantasy.
“Yeah,” Rosie said. “We could call it...what’s Ben’s last name?”
Oh, dear. “Palmer.”
“The Palmer Family Fairy Tale. What do you think?”
Corie nodded. “I think it would be a fine fairy tale.”
Rosie sat up suddenly. “I’m going to start writing,” she said, and hurried out of the room.
* * *
BEN AND SOREN were back in time for dinner, a noisy affair with as much laughter as food. Jack had brought several adventure movies and he, Grady, Sarah and Soren watched for hours. Rosie sat in a big chair writing diligently on a yellow pad with a Santa bobble-head pen Corie had given her to cheer her up. Teresa brought out drinks and cookies.
Corie pushed Teresa out of the kitchen and cleaned up, ignoring Ben, who was working at the table on Grady’s computer, looking over the documents they’d scanned from Pimental’s files.
“Corie!” he said.
She turned to him, forgetting that they weren’t speaking to each other.
“What?” She picked up a tea towel and dried her hands as she went toward him.
“We missed something in our initial look through the files.”
“What’s that?”
He pointed to the screen and a document entitled simply “Tyree.”
“This was in a stack of notes that had been clipped together in Tyree’s file. I got most of the way through it and figured the last few pages were just more of the same incriminating stuff. I hadn’t read the last few pages in the stack. It relates to Kenneth Tyree. I presume that’s Cyrus’s father?”
“It is. Did Pimental have something on him, too?”
“No, it’s Kenneth Tyree’s will. It leaves the house Teresa is living in and the property the house is on to her not to Cyrus.”
Corie gasped and leaned closer. “Ben! Teresa owns the house? He just never told her?”
“Apparently. Looks like he left everything else to his son and the house to Teresa. Cyrus was his father’s lawyer and the executor, so he just kept it all to himself and pretended he got the house, too.” He scrolled down to the altered will. “This is the one he changed and filed.”
“How did Pimental get that?”
Ben shrugged. “Delia?”
“That Tyree is a rat! I’m going to—”
“You don’t have to do anything. This is all the proof the court needs. How long has Kenneth been gone?”
“Two years.”
“I’m sure we can even get back the rent Teresa paid Cyrus for those two years.” He, too, forgot they weren’t speaking and smiled up at her. “He obviously wanted to sell it to Pennington. So, he had to get Teresa out without anyone knowing why. Wow. Teresa owns the house.”
Gleeful, Corie wrapped her arms around Ben’s neck. “She’ll be so happy,” she said. “Imagine never having to worry about rent!”
“True. But there’ll still be taxes and insurance. I think we should keep all this to ourselves until it’s declared legally hers.”
“That’ll be hard, but I’m sure you’re right.”
She just became aware that in her euphoria, she’d thrown herself into his arms.
Or he’d taken her into them. She was sitting in his lap and didn’t remember how it had happened. She pushed herself slowly to her feet.
“I think you’re also right that it’s time I set out on my own. I can do online school from anywhere.”
He seemed to hesitate before saying, “Oregon’s a good place. Your family’s there.”
For an instant she had that same heart-to-brain feeling she’d had when Rosie had shared her fantasy.
“Is that where you’re opening your detective agency?”
“Yes. Jack and Sarah gave me a Realtor for Christmas to help me find the perfect spot. And Grady’s in.”
Do you really love me enough to take in a couple of scrappy kids and make a family?
When the brain-to-heart feeling became actual thought, reality set in at the absurdity of it. She and Ben didn’t get along. Soren and Rosie didn’t get along. Considering life together was insanity.
Not that she was unfamiliar with that state.
“Maybe my Realtor could find you a place, too,” he said.
She shook her head, apparently finished with that particular discussion.
Ben had trouble refocusing. His arms still felt her in them. Her cheek still touched his.
“What do we do about the will?” she asked. The anger that had been between them was gone but a polite distance remained in place. “If we bring it up to anyone, they’ll know I took the files and we made copies.”
Ben thought a minute and an idea so insidious it could have come from Corie’s brain was born, full-blown.
“I have a thought,” he said. “Remember when Hector was telling us that a friend of his is catering an affair the Tyrees are holding at their home in Corpus Christi, and he’s been invited to help?”
She nodded.
“Do you think he could get us hired as staff?”
She blinked. “What? Why?”
“Trust me.”
“Have you ever waited tables?”
“You don’t wait tables at that kind of affair, do you?” He stood, warming to the idea. “You just wander through the crowd carrying trays. I can do that.”
To Love and Protect Page 18