“That's right.” She turned back to Betty, who was staring at Jack the way she would a bug that had landed on her piece of wedding cake. “This will only take a few minutes.”
“Neil is waiting for me in the car. It's been a long day, and we have to be at the airport at five tomorrow morning.”
It took every ounce of Evie's strength to scrape up a smile, but she didn't want to leave things like this between them.
“Cody and Raine will be gone, but you're welcome to come over to the house this evening. There are plenty of leftovers from the reception.”
Betty hesitated for a moment, and then her hands rolled into fists at her sides. “No, thank you. Please tell Cody that his grandpa and I will be in touch.” Betty gave Jack a wide berth as she swept out of the kitchen.
Jack's eyes narrowed. “Are you all right?”
“I'm fine.” Evie kept her smile in place. “The envelope is in my office. I'll be right back.”
Instead of waiting for her to return, Jack followed her into the hall. He didn't say anything, but Evie was acutely aware of his
presence. The loose-limbed, confident stride. The subtle blend of freshly laundered cotton and some masculine soap that sifted into Evie's lungs every time she took a breath.
She fumbled with the light switch and walked over to her desk, her knees still a little wobbly after the confrontation with Betty. Opening the drawer, Evie withdrew the long white envelope.
“Here youâ”
Go
. Evie almost bumped into Jack as she turned around.
“I'll trade you.”
“Trade?” The word slipped into the space between them.
“I think you need this more than I do.” Jack took the envelope and pressed the coffee mug into her hands. But instead of leaving, he took another step closer. Cupped her chin in his hand.
Evie felt the imprint of each blunt fingertip, still warm from the ceramic mug, as he tilted her face toward his.
“W-what are you doing?”
“Looking for proof that you're fine.” Jack's wry smile made Evie's heart stutter midbeat, but then it stopped altogether when his thumb grazed the curve of her jaw. “I know from experience that turning the other cheek can be painful.”
J
ack made a point always to knock first before he walked into his brother's house. Not this time. This time he wrenched the front door open and followed the muffled sobs to the kitchen, where Cheryl was kneeling on the rug in front of the sink.
“Did you cut yourself?” Glass crunched underneath Jack's feet as he crouched down and took hold of his sister-in-law's hands. Gently pried her fingers apart to check for blood.
“No.” Cheryl shook her head, her broken whisper a sign that all the damage was on the inside. “The plate that Travis bought me for my birthday . . . it broke.”
Jack didn't waste time wondering if it had been intentional or an accident. The end result was the same. “Where's Trav?”
“He's not here. He called me about an hour ago and said he picked up some overtime.”
Overtime
.
Is that what he's calling it now?
Even as the thought began to form in Jack's mind, he stomped it out. No one said this was going to be easy.
“Come on.” Jack helped Cheryl to her feet and relocated her to a chair at the table before he grabbed the broom.
Her lips twisted in a parody of a smile. “Practicing for your new job?”
His new job. Right. For a guy who'd claimed he needed the job at Hope Community, Jack seemed to be on a personal mission to get himself fired.
What were you thinking, Vale?
He hadn't been. That was the trouble.
Jack hadn't heard exactly what the woman who'd cornered Evie in the kitchen had said to her, but he'd heard the bitterness in her tone.
How many times had Jack stood in silence while Travis berated him for something he had or hadn't done? All Jack had wanted to do was let Evie know he understood. Knew how difficult it was to look past a person's anger and see their pain.
Sure, there were times Jack wanted to get in Travis's face. Grab him by the front of the shirt and shake some sense into him. But whenever his younger brother was at his most frustrating, his most unlovable, Jack saw his own reflection in Travis's eyes.
What he would beâ
who
he would beâif God hadn't gotten his attention.
Well, he'd sure gotten Evie Bennett's attention.
“Where's Lily?” Jack deliberately focused his thoughts on the here and now. He hoped his niece hadn't witnessed her mother's meltdown. In spite of all the upheaval in the ten-year-old's life over the past six months, Lily hadn't lost a bit of her sweetness or sparkle.
“With Nicki.” Cheryl listlessly kicked a stray shard of glass toward the dustpan. “She took all the kids to the park this afternoon.”
“You didn't want to go with them?”
“Travis said he'd take me out for dinner tonight. Someplace nice, like we used to go.”
Jack struggled to keep his expression neutral. His brother didn't exactly have the best track record when it came to keeping promises. And as far as Jack knew, Trav didn't have the money to take Cheryl to a nice restaurant either.
Or maybe he did.
Now
Jack
wanted to break something.
“If you're at loose ends, you can hang out at my place for a while,” he said casually.
“So you can make sure I don't run down to Eddie's for a six-pack?” Cheryl glowered at him. “I don't need a babysitter, Jack. I'm sober.”
She had been, up until six months ago. And the last time Jack had heard those words come out of his sister-in-law's mouth, she'd been arrested for shoplifting and having open intoxicants in her vehicle a few hours later.
“Then let me drop you off at the park.” Jack emptied the dustpan into the wastebasket under the sink. “I'm sure Nicki wouldn't mind some company.”
“I guess.” Cheryl's shoulders twitched in a shrug. “I'll be right back. I'm going to do something with my hair.”
Jack took advantage of the time alone to look for signs that his brother's life wasn't sinking into the same state of disrepair as the house he was renting.
The pillow and rumpled blanket on the couch weren't a good sign. It was Trav's standard MO, to pull away from the people who cared about him when he needed them the most.
God . . . whatever it takes to get his attention. Don't give up on him. Show Trav You're the kind of father a guy can trust.
Because their earthly one sure hadn't been.
“I'm ready.” Cheryl drifted into the living room, her hair scraped back into a ponytail, a shirt thrown over her tank top to hide a stain. But other than that, Jack didn't see a whole lot of difference in her appearance. Except maybe for the weary slump in her shoulders that seemed more pronounced every time he stopped by.
His sister-in-law blamed her constant fatigue on working swing
shifts at the Leiderman plant outside of town, but Jack had a hunch it had more to do with the swings in Travis's moods.
The floorboards on the porch shifted under Jack's feet when he stepped outside. “Did the landlord call you about tearing down the shed yet?”
“He said he'd get around to it.”
Right. That's what Phil had said two months ago.
Jack had already boarded up the door and windows after he'd stopped over one afternoon and found Lily sweeping out the top layer of grime, trying to convert the dilapidated shed into a playhouse. The structure, fashioned from scraps of plywood and strips of ragged metal, was not only an eyesore, it was practically caving in on itself.
Not that the rental house itself was a whole lot better. Jack had fixed a few things around the place, but Travis had turned down his offer to replace the broken tiles in the kitchen floor, claiming he didn't want to invest in something he didn't own.
Jack had wanted to say,
How about investing in your marriage? Your family?
He'd toyed with the idea of talking to Coop, his employer back in Milwaukee, about putting in an offer on the place. In addition to the finishing work Jack did for Coop's construction company, they'd recently partnered together to flip houses. Coop bought them, and Jack fixed them up in his spare time. One of the buyers told Jack he had a gift for looking past the flaws and seeing what a house could be.
Maybe that was true, but it didn't mean there wasn't a whole lot of blood and sweatâand yeah, maybe a few tearsâalong the way.
But Jack figured the end result was worth it.
“I'll give Phil a call and let him know I'm going to rip that thing down tomorrow.” He opened the passenger-side door of his pickup, and Cheryl slid inside. “Trav can help.”
“If he's around.”
Jack closed the door a little harder than necessary. He understood Cheryl's frustration. She and Travis had moved to Banister Falls to start over, but it was difficult when his brother preferred to live in the past.
“I don't know why you came here, Jack.” She turned toward the window as he hopped into the cab. “You have your own life.”
“I like Banister Falls.”
It was the truthâeven if the move hadn't been a completely altruistic gesture on his part. The bottom line? He was selfish.
He
did
have a lifeâand he wanted his little brother in it.
Jack pulled into the parking lot next to the playground equipment. On this beautiful summer afternoon the park was packed with families, but he spotted Cheryl's sister, Nicki, right away, pushing her fifteen-month-old Grace in the baby swing. Lily was with Nicki's two older children, Luke and Ava, playing tag on the monkey bars.
The change Jack had seen in Nicki over the past few months was nothing short of miraculous. She had left Victor, her abusive boyfriend, taken a job as a waitress, and moved into a duplex subsidized by donations from the local domestic violence shelter. Jack hoped the gold cross she had started wearing was more than simply a piece of jewelry to her too.
He tapped the horn to get her attention. A grin broke out on Lily's face when she recognized him. His niece swung down from the bars and skipped toward the truck, waving both arms.
“Lily looks happy to see you,” he said.
Cheryl perked up a little, absorbing the warmth of her daughter's sunny smile. “If you talk to Trav, will you tell him that I'm with Nicki and the kids?”
“Sure.” Even as Jack made the promise, he thought about how many Travis had broken.
Cheryl slid out of the truck and came around to his window. “Thanks, Jack.”
“Anytime.”
“I-I'm trying, you know.”
Jack's throat tightened. “I know.”
They all were.
“Can you stay, Uncle Jack?” Lily jumped onto the running board of the truck, her infectious grin conjuring up images of Travis at that age.
“Not this time, Peanut.” Jack tweaked her nose. “But I'll drop by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Okay.” Lily hopped down and tugged on her mother's hand. “Come on, Mom! I can hang upside down for fifteen seconds. You can time me.”
Jack watched them walk toward the playground hand in hand.
You're missing this, Trav.
Why couldn't his brother see that by holding onto his anger, he wasn't getting back at their dadâhe was turning into him?
Jack left the window down as he drove away, letting the scented breeze roll in. Banister Falls, tucked into a fold between rolling farmland and hardwood forest, felt as remote as another planet from the urban area where Jack and Travis had grown up.
His cell phone rattled the console between the seats as Jack pulled alongside the curb in front of his apartment building.
Unknown number.
His stomach lurched.
It never quite went away. The feeling that he was only one phone call away from the next disaster.
“Hello?”
“Jack? This is Pastor Anderson.”
Jack closed his eyes, bracing himself for what was coming next. The last time they'd spoken, the pastor had told Jack to call him Keith.
“What can I do for you, Pastor?”
“Can you stop by my office when you come into work on Monday morning?”
“Sure. Not a problem.”
Jack had a problem.
But at least now he didn't have to wonder what Evie thought about his stepping across that invisible line.
W
e're going to have just enough paint to finish.” Gin stepped back to admire her handiwork. “I hope Raine and Cody like the color we picked out.”
“Me too.” Evie swiped her paintbrush against the plastic tray to catch a drip before it hit the carpeting. “It would have been easier if we'd had more information. Like whether the baby is a him or a her.”
“I hear you, but they want it to be a surprise.”
“Did you know Raine was a girl?”
“Not until the doctor put her in my arms,” Gin admitted. “What about you?”
“We knew.” Evie didn't like surprises. The day she'd found out she was going to have a boy she had stopped by the hardware store and picked out a color for the nursery. A pale, barely there blue called Morning Sky, the perfect backdrop for the clouds she then sponge-painted on the ceiling above Cody's crib.
Gin rolled another stripe of paint down the wall. “Angela said this shade of green reminds her of new beginnings.”
Evie smiled. That sounded like something Dan's mother would say.
Angela was the one who'd organized a work party after Sunday dinner, the Moretti clan's weekly get-together. Everyone except Bree, Trent and Jennifer's one-year-old daughter, had been drafted to fix
up the house next door so they could surprise Cody and Raine when they returned from their honeymoon at the end of the week.