Authors: HelenKay Dimon
Since he felt like he’d dodged not just a bullet but a rocket, he was fine with getting her whatever she wanted. “Deal.”
After a whirlwind breakfast followed by a long afternoon lounging around in bed and an even hotter night between the sheets with Callen, Grace stood in the middle of the backyard at Shadow Hill and stared at a pile of dirt. Well, it had been dirt. Now, thanks to the rain, she’d call it mud.
A cleansing downpour had ushered in cooler temperatures and turned the lawn into a squishy mess. The good thing about Oregon and the weather could be summed up in two words: rain boots. She had a cool bright yellow pair and modeled them now with a pair of jeans that were quickly moving into the too-tight-to-breathe category.
“We dug the first hole under the swing set.” Callen hung on to one of the poles as he kicked loose gravel around with the tip of his not-so-cute work boots.
She touched the chain and the seat, then looked up at the shiny posts above her that seemed to hold the whole thing together. “Why is this thing even here?”
“Looks like Grandma Nanette, or Charlie on his own, used the new concrete pad underneath to hide the jewelry stolen from Sophie’s aunt and other people.”
Grace now knew the other woman’s name and didn’t scowl when she heard it. “Sophie is Beck’s girlfriend, right?” Not Callen’s, which was the only thing that mattered to Grace.
“And Beck jackhammered the hole.”
“Okay.” She wasn’t sure why that mattered but if agreeing or humming or whatever else kept Callen talking, she’d do it.
He’d been on a sharing binge for the last two days. With the difficult news about his exploits with Charlie out in the open, at least between them, something inside Callen seemed to break open. The careful reserve cracked a bit.
He talked about the good memories, the ones that included growing up with his brothers. He walked her though the series of jobs he’d held and how he’d squirreled away money, then used it to save Shadow Hill from foreclosure.
Every word, every sentence, pointed to a fact she already knew—he was a good man, solid and true, despite Charlie’s efforts to turn him into a delinquent. Callen denied it and didn’t believe it, but she knew. In time she’d get him to see it.
“If you knew Beck’s allergy to actual hands-on work you would understand how huge it is for him to pick up a tool of any type.” There was no heat in Callen’s voice. More of an amusement that he’d somehow drawn a courtroom-type brother.
“Clearly he loves her if he’s willing to work up a sweat for her.” The whole thing struck Grace as romantic. Sounded to her like Beck was a bit more outwardly affectionate, like Declan.
Callen scoffed. “Yeah, that’s the test.”
She laughed, enjoying the time with him. The ordinary moments. She almost hated to risk it all with more questions, but the piles of now-mud kind of demanded more explanation. “Why dig holes? Why not get a safe and store everything there?”
“Charlie always thought the police were on the way. He probably decided if he dug holes on his mom’s property it would be harder to have it all found and taken away.” Callen shook his head. “He didn’t really have much respect for law enforcement or its power.”
“If it’s any consolation, the law enforcement folks I know didn’t like him either.” And that was enough about Charlie. Too much conversation about him and the darkness might move back into Callen’s eyes. She didn’t want that. “So once you dug one hole you decided to randomly dig twenty others?”
“More of Beck’s work.” Callen exhaled as he glanced around the yard. “He looked over property records and matched them up with old maintenance records to figure out where specific work projects were done on the property. We plotted out from there. Also used metal detectors.”
Sounded like a huge undertaking. Part of her wondered why they even looked. It had to be easier not to know and be able to deny. Now that they were finding everything, there would be questions.
Still, the idea of a master con man hiding expensive jewels in the yard had an odd Hollywood ring to it. “Unbelievable.”
“Apparently the rotten apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”
Damn Charlie. Talking about him brought them full circle. Before she could make it clear she’d had it with Callen tying his life to Charlie’s scams, they got company. Declan, Kim and Leah crossed the yard from the back porch.
Knowing what she knew about Callen’s mother, Grace felt an odd kinship with her. What Callen saw as betrayal Grace viewed as a woman trying desperately to keep her family together.
Grace watched the older woman, so handsome and refined-looking, and saw how she looked at Callen with a motherly longing in her eyes. No way did that woman ever abandon him or give up on him. And Grace was intimately familiar with how sometimes it felt easier not to talk to Callen about things in his past.
“Hello.” Grace called out the greeting and was immediately surrounded by Hanovers and Hanovers-to-be-someday.
“Finally!” Leah walked over and hugged Callen. “I thought you’d never fill Grace in. At least not without me kicking your butt.”
He hugged her back. “You’re so dramatic.”
When their mom frowned, Leah filled in the gaps. “You missed the fight the other night when Callen wouldn’t come clean about what we found all over the lawn.”
“It is a little scary to confide in people.” His mom’s voice bobbled as she said it.
Declan moved a little closer to her. “I mean, I know we’re matching up stolen objects from photos we took and photos in the crime files, but this looks pretty damning after all those years of insisting we didn’t know where anything was.”
Grace’s gaze traveled from Callen to his mother. They looked at each other, then glanced away. She’d never seen a man more in need of the love of a mother or a woman more open to giving it. The wall between them had to come down, but Grace had been busting through Callen-constructed roadblocks nonstop and needed a break.
But she still had some questions. After all, the FBI and police had been all over Charlie’s records for years and this property specifically without any luck. “How did you figure it all out?”
“The swing set was the clue,” Declan said.
“And Beck is a miracle man.” The admiration was clear in Callen’s voice.
The show of respect from Declan made sense to her. Surprise came in Callen’s closeness with Beck, the youngest brother being a lawyer. Callen had gone out of his way to preach his disdain for the legal community. Not that she could blame him, in light of the questioning he’d undergone over the years.
Still, the idea of these three different men being so bonded did intrigue her. She was an only child and had missed this type of camaraderie growing up. “I need to meet him.”
Callen nodded. “Soon.”
Kim approached Grace and laid a soft hand in her hair. Just brushed it off her shoulders. The move, so sweet and genuine, had Grace biting back a sigh. She’d missed this growing up as well. Her father tried, but nothing replaced the loving hand of an invested mother.
“You feeling okay, honey?” Kim asked.
Grace had to fight off the urge to lean into her. “It’s still a shock.”
“For all of us,” Callen mumbled.
Oh, really.
“You’re welcome to carry the baby. Get fat, vomit, worry you’ll move the wrong way and injure the tiny thing.”
He threw up his hands, giving in immediately. “Hell, no.”
“Smart man.” Declan crossed over to the porch of the old caretaker cottage, the one they were all working on and their mom claimed would one day be the perfect place for her to stay when she came to town. He switched on the radio and music blared through the woods.
Callen froze. “Oh my God, change the channel.”
“This is dancing music.” Declan shook his hips and shifted around.
Grace had to admit the guy had moves. No lumbering or stiff lower-lip-biting flailing. He was actually graceful, and when he grabbed Leah’s hand and spun her around to dance with him, they made a pretty adorable pair.
This wasn’t a slow dance. No waltzes here. They were all but dirty dancing. Pressing their hips together, slipping around each other as they moved. All right there on the soggy lawn.
Callen shook his head. “What did they teach you in the Army?”
“This.” Then Declan really went at it, gyrating and bending his knees. Leah laughed as he pressed his front to her back and moved around in perfect time to the fast music.
Kim shook her head as she walked across the yard. After a quick check of the picnic table twenty feet away, she went for leaning against it rather than sitting down.
Grace followed, leaving Callen to call out insults as Declan and Leah shifted around and Declan sang . . . if you could call it singing. Finally, Grace had found something the guy wasn’t all that great at doing.
Kim watched and smiled, her gaze never leaving her sons. “I’m thrilled about the baby.”
“I’m terrified.” The woman had children, so Grace knew she’d understand.
“You’re supposed to be.”
For some reason that helped. “I have no idea how you did it.”
Grace tried to imagine her juggling young kids and Charlie’s betrayal and all the secrets. There couldn’t have been enough money or time. Grace didn’t know what support she’d had, but she got the impression not much.
“You love them so much, you figure out a way.” Kim’s voice sounded wistful.
That part Grace understood. After the weeks of being unsure and sick and so scared she couldn’t see straight, she had settled in. Falling in love with the baby she’d never met was pretty easy after that.
But the circumstances weren’t normal, and Kim could have been a different person or not taken the news all that well. “Thanks for accepting me and the baby.”
It looked like the dance number was over, and the others were filing over to the table. Callen took the opportunity to change the music.
“You’re about to make me a grandmother, which I have always wanted and feared these boys wouldn’t get around to doing.” Kim reached over and took Grace’s hand. “As far as I can tell, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to my son.”
“We blame Callen,” Declan said as he stepped up with an arm still around Leah and a roughness in his voice that came with being out of breath.
His mother smiled as if she’d heard that line before. “For what?”
Declan shrugged. “Whatever you’re talking about.”
Grace went for a shortcut. “The baby.”
“Then biologically, that’s not wrong.” Callen joined them and stared at Declan. “What the hell was with those moves? Looked more like sex than dancing.”
Declan shook his head. “Maybe you need a lesson on sex.”
“He’s fine.” The comment popped out before Grace could think it through. The slight sting of heat on her cheeks came a second later.
Declan provided an assist by going right after Callen again. “What’s wrong, old man, you don’t like dancing?”
Callen’s eyes widened, along with his stance. “Old man?”
“Uh-oh.” Leah smiled as she glanced at Kim.
“Let’s show them how people should dance.”
Before Grace could take it all in, Callen had her hand and was leading her toward their makeshift dance floor. “Really?”
“We’ll show them real moves.” His hand slipped around her waist and he pulled her body in close as a slower song came on.
Excitement buzzed around her. He touched her and her insides burst into a round of mad jumping. And he didn’t hide any of it. The touching, the charm, all happened with his family as the audience. Progress. It had to be a sign he was willing to change. To open up.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t give him a little shit. “I’m younger than you, you know.”
His eyebrow lifted, and somewhere over his shoulder Declan laughed. “Afraid I won’t be able to keep up?”
“Maybe.”
“Challenge accepted.” Then he twirled her. Spun her around and proved that Declan was not the only Hanover brother with moves.
Declan sat on top of the picnic table not caring if his old jeans got wet or that a mist had moved into the air. Watching his big brother actually have a good time was worth it. Seeing their mom smile was a nice change from her recent pained expression, too.
She stood with her arms wrapped around her and her cardigan pulled tight around her slim frame. “I love him with her.”
Declan propped his feet up on the benches and dragged Leah to stand in between his legs with her back to him. “It probably helps that she loves him.”
Mom glanced over her shoulder. “Grace told you that?”
Declan stepped carefully through this part. “Actually, yes.”
Mom went from smiling to frowning. “For some reason I don’t like that answer.”
“You’re not alone.” Leah gave him a tiny pinch on the forearm wrapped around her. “’Fess up to your mother.”
This time his mom turned around and came over to stand next to him. “What did you do?”
That tone sounded so familiar. It filled most days of his teen years. Like when he stole a car. When he got caught cutting school. That time he was drinking in the parking lot at the convenience store. It was nothing short of a miracle he made it out of his teens alive.
But he could act innocent. “Why do you assume I did something?”
His mom’s eyebrow lifted and that was never a good thing. “Experience.”
When Leah opened her mouth, likely to tattle, Declan took over. “When Grace first got to town I went over to the motel to see her.”
“You mean to run her out of town?” From the flat expression and tone, Mom didn’t sound impressed.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
She kept talking as if she hadn’t heard him. “Declan, you know better.”
The music played on and Callen spun Grace around. They laughed, and he looked lighter and less serious than Declan had ever seen him.
But it didn’t start that way. “You didn’t see Callen’s face when he first saw her sitting on the porch. I knew she mattered and could mess him up.”
“And?” His mom lowered her voice to match her whisper to his.
“I needed to know she wasn’t screwing around with him and that became clear when she told me she loves him.” Everything changed after that. Declan instinctively knew she was telling the truth and had no intention of letting Callen go. Now, with the baby news, some of that made sense, but Declan also sensed she wanted Callen for Callen. “She said a bunch of stuff that made it clear she gets him.”