“Ginny, Benny, welcome to my home! Oh, my, you do look like my mother!”
Ginny took in Maggie’s sandy-colored hair that seemed to be alive with natural curl. She didn’t recall her mother’s face all that well, in the flesh. What she did remember was the photo that had taken up space on a shelf in the living room of their small apartment. She had a sense the picture had been of her mother, before she’d left her eastern-seaboard home for the plains of Texas with Joe Rose.
“And you look like my momma, near as I can recall her.”
Maggie had hugged her then, fussed over Benny, and brought them into her own house, which was attached to the motor inn she owned and operated.
Maggie had set Benny up with milk and cookies at the kitchen table, and then joined Ginny in her parlor for tea.
“Thank you for letting me come and stay for a spell. You didn’t even wait to hear the reason I suddenly changed my mind and asked to visit.”
“You’re family,” Maggie said. “I didn’t need a reason when you called, and I don’t need one now. I’m glad you’re here, and you’re welcome to stay for as long as you want—or need—to stay.”
“You’re very kind. I appreciate it, more than I can say.”
Maggie waved her hand. “Not at all. I’m ashamed when I think of the way my mother treated Earline. I was only very small when she left. I barely remember her. For years, I took mother’s word that she’d died shortly after she ‘ran away’ from home.”
Maggie shook her head, her expression sad, and then paused to sip her tea. “Mother was always so strict with me, and I took that to be on account she was afraid I’d run away, too. It was only when she became ill, and after she developed dementia, that I began to suspect the truth.”
“I didn’t know my momma ran away—I had no notion of her family at all until you wrote that first time. I do know my folks were legally married,” Ginny said. “But my daddy left momma when I was, oh golly, I don’t know, five, maybe? She never spoke about him. One day, he was just gone.”
Opening up about her past wasn’t an easy thing for Ginny to do. Going back in time was to visit old hurts. But she could almost feel the connection she shared with Maggie. Maybe visiting old hurts with someone who had a part of them could ease them, some.
“When children’s services took me, they placed me in foster care. That’s when I was ten. Not long after, momma died. It was drugs, I found out later, and I do recall that she was out of it most of the time. Anyway, they couldn’t put me up for adoption, on account I had a daddy
somewhere
. So it was one home after another until I came of age.”
Just then Benny came in from the kitchen, a happy-looking milk mustache decorating his upper lip. When he came over to stand close to her, Ginny took a tissue from her purse and gently patted the milk away.
“Did you enjoy those cookies, Benny?”
She smiled when he nodded and, picking up on his cue, turned to Maggie. “Thank you for the cookies, ma’am. I put my plate and my glass beside the sink.”
“You’re most welcome, Benny.” She looked at Ginny. “Why don’t I show you where you’ll be staying? I have two large suites that face the ocean. I’ll give you one of them. There are very few guests this time of year, so you won’t be bothered by noisy neighbors. You can get unpacked and settled in. Take a bit of time to have a look around.” She looked down at Benny. “Even though this is off-season, the beaches are still patrolled. This is a very safe area.”
“Benny and I are both looking forward to walking on the beach.” Ginny had never been so close to the ocean before. Just as Samantha had suggested, she was going to make the most of this vacation.
“Great. We’ll have dinner around seven, if that suits.”
“Seven sounds good. What do you think, Benny? Do you want to see our room and then walk down to the ocean?”
“Yes! I really want to see the ocean. I just wish Adam and Jake were here to see it with us. I miss them.”
“Adam and Jake? Are those two of his little friends?” Maggie asked.
Ginny felt her face heating. “Um, not exactly.”
“Adam’s the sheriff, and Jake is his brother. They’re cool, they help me with my homework, and they’re teaching me how to play baseball and sometimes, I get to fingerprint them!”
Ginny’s aunt looked from Benny to her, and then she proved as astute as she was hospitable. “Perhaps we can chat some more, after dinner, then.”
Ginny had spent her time with Deke trying to fit herself into the peg that he wanted her to occupy. Over the last months, as she’d healed, as she’d rediscovered her self-esteem and begun to get back her self-confidence, she’d learned she much preferred to just be herself.
If this new relative wanted a relationship, then she’d need to know her for who she was. And who she was at the moment happened to be a woman who was giving serious consideration to taking on two lovers by the name of Kendall.
Simply thinking of Adam and Jake made her feel just a little bit homesick, too. Benny tugged on her hand, and she looked down at him. Her heart filled with such love, she wondered she could hold it all.
“Yes.” She looked up and gave this new relation a smile. “Yes, we’ll talk more after dinner.”
* * * *
“Stupid morons.” Adam couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so pissed off. He certainly couldn’t remember the last time he’d reached out to fellow law enforcement officers, only to have his hand smacked. “Stupid
fucking
morons.”
“Don’t hold back, Adam. Tell me how you really feel.”
Jake’s dry response pulled Adam out of his funk. He shot his brother a quick look. For all appearances, the man looked laid back and relaxed. Hell he looked half asleep as Adam navigated his cruiser back to town. Of course, Adam knew better. But ribbing his brother might brighten his own mood, some.
“Don’t go all lawyerlike on me and tell me that the cops were right to refuse to put that asshole’s house under surveillance. We both know that Stone character is tied up with Deke Walters and is probably with him right now. You saw that woman who came to the door.” Just the memory of the blonde’s haunted face was enough to make him want to hit something, or someone.
Jake sat up and took off his sunglasses. “I can’t help going all lawyerlike on you, bro. I
am
a lawyer. I will say the cops were right in their assessment of the situation based on the
evidence
at hand. The witnesses’ descriptions of the man who helped Walters escape all meshed, and clearly who they saw was
not
Jerry Stone.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. But I’m with you. He’s definitely involved, and that woman…” Jake sighed in frustration.
Because he knew him so well, Adam understood that Jake had been as affected just as deeply as he had been by the look of that waif who’d opened Stone’s door. She’d donned makeup, but makeup had been unable to completely disguise her black eye. “I gave her my card, but I doubt she’ll call. She stood by her story, and didn’t even blink when I told her she didn’t have to stay there, with him.” Adam shook his head in memory. No, she’d just shut the door in his face.
“You can’t rescue those who do not wish to be saved.”
Jake’s words had been said to him, in one form or another, by various members of his family for most of his life.
“I know. Damn it.” Adam kept his foot on the accelerator, and the bulk of his attention focused on the road ahead. But he had plenty of brainpower left to think of other things.
“I keep thinking that could have been Ginny. Except our Ginny got
herself
out of the untenable position Walters had manipulated her into. I know I put a bit of pressure on her to sign that complaint all those months ago…”
“But if she hadn’t wanted to sign it, she wouldn’t have done it,” Jake said. “You’re right. Our Ginny wouldn’t have let things go that far, because she
didn’t
let things go that far. That woman who opened the door to us today has become little more than an automaton. Fucking bastard’s beaten all the spirit right out of her.” Jake ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes for a moment. “When we get back to town, I’ll stop in at my office and give Melvin a call. The cops can’t stake out Stone’s place, but we sure as hell can.”
“Good idea.” Adam knew Melvin Richardson well. A former San Antonio police detective, he’d opened his own PI business a few years back. The families had sometimes used Melvin’s firm when the situation warranted. Now, of course, for some of their simpler investigative needs, they turned to the Benedict-Murphy detective agency.
“I’m also going to hire the uncles to set up a watch over Ginny’s apartment—even when she’s not there. Should have thought of it earlier. Just in case that bastard somehow manages to figure out that she’s in Lusty and stakes out her place.”
“As much as I want to say ‘go for it,’ I really think we ought to talk to Ginny about that, first.”
Jake opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Christ, I’m so wired I’m not thinking straight. Of course we’ll talk to her about it, first. In fact, let’s go there, and see her right now.”
Adam exhaled deeply. Just the thought of seeing Ginny managed to get him to calm down several degrees. “Another good idea, brother.”
“What can I say? I’m on a streak.”
Adam chuckled. “We’ll have to catch her at the restaurant, though. She’s working the dinner shift tonight. And come to think of it, we missed lunch. I’m starving. What about you?”
“Yeah, so am I. And I could really eat something, too.”
Jake grinned at him, and Adam didn’t miss the double entendre. He knew he and Jake were on the same page. They’d had one taste of their sweet Ginny, and they both wanted more. They’d planned on more, and soon, too.
“You know, the timing of this crisis sure could have been better,” Jake said.
“I hear you. I just hope this isn’t going to set her back.” Adam exhaled. Jake wasn’t the only one who wasn’t thinking clearly. “Forget that. We asked her to trust us. Maybe we should just trust
her
.”
“Aren’t we already? We’re trusting her with our future.”
Adam slowed the car to the posted speed limit as they entered Lusty. It had been a long, frustrating day, one he was glad was finally over.
As he drove past his office, he saw Matt’s cruiser still parked by the curb. Jasper would be in to relieve him in a half hour or so. Fortunately, life in Lusty was predictably peaceful most of the time.
Adam hadn’t slept well the night before, so as soon as he’d seen Ginny and eaten dinner, he was going to go straight home to bed. He stopped for the single stoplight in town, the light that inevitably turned red whenever he was anxious to see his woman.
Adam turned his attention back to the conversation. “We
are
entrusting her with our hearts, and that’s always a tricky proposition. Especially for Kendalls, because of our family trait of tending to fall in love fast and hard and only once.” Adam knew his family history better than he knew anything. Every Kendall man found his mate—or, sometimes, mates—and that was it for life. That was just how Kendalls did things.
“Exactly!” Jake put on a mournful face. “If we can’t win her complete trust,
and
her love, we’re destined to spend the rest of our lives as disgruntled bachelors.”
“A lawyer,” Adam scoffed, “who’s always given to the dramatic. Is there anything more clichéd?”
“I can’t help it if my natural thespian abilities come to the fore so effortlessly. I won the theatre award three years running in high school, you will recall.”
“Of course I recall. Mainly because you never let me forget.”
Jake laughed. “Jealous. You’re just jealous.”
Adam shook his head but said nothing as he pulled the cruiser to the curb. He and Jake often razzed each other. And when the entire family got together? Adam chuckled.
“What?”
“I was just remembering the night that Tamara came to dinner that first time. And I was wondering how Ginny would fare under the same circumstances.”
“I think she’d have us all set in our places quick enough,” Jake said.
“I think so, too.” Adam got out of the cruiser and waited for his brother to join him. “Ginny’s already more than halfway in love with us. I know she is. She just needs to know she can trust her own judgment when it comes to us.”
“I keep reliving that one, sweet kiss,” Jake said. “When I recall how she melted for us both, then I know the day will come when we can claim her.”