A Simple Twist of Fate (20 page)

With the rough stuff behind them, Sophie changed the conversation to something much more fun. She wanted his eyes to flush that deep blue and his breathing to kick up.

She nibbled on the rim around his ear. “I didn’t date in high school and missed out on most of the usual kid stuff because I was so afraid of being separated from my aunt. Like, if I left her side she would disappear.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Which was exactly what she needed to hear.

“I missed so much by not experiencing anything.” Her mouth trailed a line down his neck. “But I want to try new things with you.”

“You can have my body for whatever you want.”

Her heart boomed in her chest, in her ears. Hell, she felt it thundering the whole way to her feet and bit her bottom lip to keep from moaning.

The kisses continued to his cheeks, then to a light press against his lips. With his hands on her hips, he guided her in the start of a new rhythm.

“Thank you for telling me the truth.” He whispered the words against her mouth. “And now we should celebrate the end to secrets.”

Then his mouth covered hers and with his body straining inside her, all she could think about was the promise of what he wanted to do with her.

Chapter Twenty

Callen walked into the empty kitchen two nights after his mother’s impromptu trip to Oregon. His brothers tiptoed around him, doing a lot of staring and wincing at every noise. They clearly called her there and expected something big to happen.

Whatever it was, Callen decided not to make the telling any easier. They knew something while he wallowed in darkness. He got the crappy end of this stick and could wait them out.

But he couldn’t ignore her. Even now as he grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator, he sensed her come into the room behind him. Felt her presence the second before he heard her. The faint smell of vanilla and almond accompanied her soft steps.

She hung around the house, barely leaving the building and never stepping over the property line. He understood why she stuck close. For years, the people of Sweetwater who lost everything blamed her, assumed she had to know what Charlie planned.

But Callen and his brothers knew the truth. Charlie did have a partner but it was Leah’s father, and possibly her mother. They’d discovered the truth before Leah moved in.

Even now the estrangement with her father dragged on as he insisted on distance. He hid behind a purported hatred of the Hanovers, and maybe that was real, but Callen suspected the crushing guilt from having lied to Leah for all those years drove his actions. To protect Leah, they all agreed to keep her father’s secret from the town. There was no need for additional fallout from Charlie’s very first con.

Callen turned around and watched his mother slip into a kitchen chair. She’d been so young when she married Charlie, barely nineteen, that she still looked young three grown children later. So graceful and still more attractive than women twenty years younger, she’d never remarried and didn’t buy her first home until a few years ago. She’d made something of her life, becoming a teacher and taking up painting, despite what Charlie did to her. Ignoring everything else, Callen admired her for that.

He grabbed a second water bottle and headed for the table. As he placed one in front of her and pulled out a chair, he wondered what would happen when his mom eventually saw Leah’s dad. Marc Baron didn’t hide, so a meeting was inevitable, but that didn’t make the pending showdown any easier.

But before she waded through old memories, Callen wanted her to deal with the reality in front of her. He snapped the lid off the bottle and held it between his hands. “Your trip here was sudden.”

She ignored the bottle and stared at him with blue eyes the same shade as Declan’s. “I’ve been talking with you all by phone, including Leah, since you guys moved in. I thought it was time to come see how you’re all doing living together.”

Nah, there was more than that. Callen could read people. It was the one gift Charlie gave him while he loaded him down with all the other shit.

“Well, Declan and Beck are stupid in love. Beck doesn’t know it yet, but it’s coming.” And that was a day Callen dreaded because Beck, big brain and all, would fall hard and ugly. Probably make Declan look like a love-life expert, and he’d fumbled his way through the start of his relationship with Leah to the point where it was painful to watch.

Like she always did, his mom smiled at the mention of his brothers’ names. No question her love for them was unconditional and absolute. “What about you, Cal?”

Callen skipped over the woman reference. “I’m trying to keep them from killing each other with power tools. Not that Beck knows what one is.”

“I was asking about you, not them.”

Sure she was. She did that a lot lately. Had for the last few years but it didn’t make up for the lost time before that. “I’m fine.”

She reached her hand across the table but stopped short of touching him. “Callen, I know it’s strange for you being in this house.”

“Why?”

“You tend not to stay in one place for long.”

“Wonder where I learned that.” He inched farther away from her and took a long drink of water, wishing for the first time in months that something else sloshed around inside there.

She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her stomach. The chair squeaked as she swung one leg around from where it crossed over the other. “Since Charlie took you away so young, I’m not sure what you learned or how.”

“
Took
me?” Talk about selective memory.

“Yes, Callen. I’ve told you before that I didn’t have a choice.”

If this was why she came, she’d wasted her time. He’d heard this justification loop so many times that it replayed in his dreams. She tried to sell this version for so long that he could say the words along with her. But that didn’t mean he wanted to hear them again.

He stood up and swiped the bottle off the table. “Fine.”

“Callen James Hanover.”

That trick always worked. There was something about the way she used his whole name that stopped him every damn time. Despite their differences, he owed her respect as his mother. But the sadness moving in her eyes had him explaining and glancing away. “I’m heading up to bed.”

She drummed her fingernails on the tabletop. “Then I guess I was wrong.”

“About what?”

“You are still running.”

It was not like his mom to get shots in, but no matter what, this topic would never smooth over the rough patches in their relationship. “I signed papers for the house. I’m staying.”

“I mean from me.”

A return shot waited right there on his tongue to launch but he bit it back. “Goodnight, Mother.”

***

The first annual Hanover dinner night had been postponed in favor of a welcome dinner for their mother. Even that date got switched around twice until they found a time when Tom could be there, though Beck was still unclear on when that guy’s attendance became mandatory.

Whatever you called the dinner, it lasted exactly two minutes over an hour. Beck knew because he counted out each one. If all the get-togethers bumped along like this one had, he’d be fine if they made this family dinner thing a monthly instead of weekly event. Talk about odd. The conversation would twist and wind, they’d be passing food and laughing, then the discussion would shift and land between Callen and Mom, and sputter out.

Those two needed to go into the woods and work out whatever pushed on them. While Cal was at it, he could open that stupid envelope and solve that mystery, too.

But the woman holding his hand as they walked across the backyard . . . yeah, there was nothing about her Beck wanted to change. Memories of the other night’s talk revealing her aunt as one more Charlie conquest still made Beck’s back teeth slam together. She’d spilled the information and he wanted to storm out of the car and keep walking until he found a place where no one knew Charlie Hanover, though he was starting to wonder if there was such a fantasy place.

If Sophie hadn’t been almost naked, if he hadn’t still been inside her, if he hadn’t been relaxed in a moments-after-hot-sex stupor. There were a thousand “if’s” that made the difference between holding it together and blowing everything apart when the sick news finally shot through him.

Despite all the reasons to walk away, Beck made a decision. Charlie fucking ruined everything but Beck would not let him ruin this. Whatever he had with Sophie, still unsure and strangely fragile even as they climbed all over each other the second they found a private place, Beck refused to let the stain of Charlie’s memory touch it.

“I don’t know if that was the most uncomfortable dinner ever, but there were moments when crawling under the table didn’t seem like such a bad idea,” Sophie said. The fading sun streamed through her dark hair as she led them toward the swing set.

She said she’d never been on a swing set, so damn it if he didn’t insist they try it. It was spur of the moment and stupid, but it made her happy and that worked for him.

He held back a fraction, letting his arm stretch out without losing contact with her. But at a short distance he could watch her and what he saw had him thinking he could look at her all day. It was as if sharing her aunt’s secret had freed her. She moved with a lighter step now. No more skulking around corners or trying to fade into the background. At dinner she talked and charmed until even Callen stopped scowling.

She smiled with a renewed sense of freedom. And when she looked at him, Beck’s whole body clenched in anticipation.

If only their current topic of conversation were as positive. “Callen and Mom. Yeah, that’s been strained for a long time.”

“She kept trying to include him and he responded with these one-word answers. It was painful.” Sophie wrapped her hand around the metal pole Callen had shored up and Declan had painted only a few weeks ago.

“And that was better than usual.” With his fingers still linked through hers, Beck brought her around to sit in the newly attached seat.

“You’re kidding.”

“He holds a grudge.” Beck stood in front of her with his hands locked around the silver chains that held the seat up.

Sophie peeked up at him as she squinted against the last of sun’s rays. “You think he’s entitled.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Why didn’t she look for him after Charlie took him away?”

And that was the question at the center of it all. Beck backed up to lean against the supporting side pole. “She insists she did.”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

But he was. Beck had reasoned this out long ago. He’s spent months, years maybe, silently and in the back of his mind only, blaming his mother for losing their father then letting him come back years later and steal Callen away. As if she’d driven two members of their family away. The debate about blame drove a wedge between Beck and Declan that didn’t loosen until Declan joined the military.

But now, as an adult, seeing all his mother survived, Beck fought off the rounds of guilt that came with the memories of what he once believed. “Honestly, those were the bad months and money was low and Charlie hid. I’m not sure what my mom could have done.”

Sophie’s flats dragged against the concrete pad under the swing. Pebbles scraped under the heels as she shifted the twirled the swing from side to side. “Callen disagrees.”

“He lived with Charlie shortly after turning ten and no one knows what happened. Cal won’t say.”

She rocked back and forth on her heels, moving forward, catching, then swinging back. “What a mess.”

Watching her, he wondered if he could add
just playing outside
to the list of things she’d never done. The idea made him want to fly to Seattle and shake her aunt. Sophie came to Shadow Hill, risking everything by walking into a house with men she didn’t know, men who could have been like Charlie or worse. And she made all those sacrifices, including giving up the receptionist job she told him about last night, for a woman who seemingly did nothing to encourage and support the young girl dumped in her care.

The situation sucked and the accident that dumped a child in their laps had to be shocking, but thinking about a teen Sophie with few friends and so afraid of being left behind made Beck want to kick something. His upbringing had been far from perfect but he always knew his mother loved him and would do anything for him. He wondered if Sophie had ever known that comfort.

“You have to love families,” he said more to the air than as a conversation starter.

“Honestly, I kind of do love yours.”

So did he, especially now with the wisdom of age and a bit of hindsight, but there was something about hearing her say it that lightened his mood. “Is it the criminal past, the dysfunction or the general chaos that turns you on?”

“The bond.”

She gets it
. Beck smiled. “Even Callen?”

She stared at the ground as she used the toe of her shoe to line up three rocks. “In those moments when he doesn’t scare me.”

The words skidded through him. No, that wasn’t okay. Beck couldn’t let her think that way. Cal had flaws, but not that.

Beck stepped up, catching the chains in his hands as he stopped her swinging short. “You know he’d never hurt you, right? He’s not that type of guy.”

She glanced up at him, her neck so long and inviting and with amusement dancing in her eyes. “I get that, but his stare can do enough damage.”

“Speaking of families.”

“That’s a freaky-sounding transition.”

Beck had a point but leaned down to kiss her before he made it. He meant to go in and out, just a quick peck. The way her fingers dipped into his hair and tugged him closer stopped that. The heat rose and he had to pull back before he gave the family a surprise show from the kitchen window.

He winked at her. “I’m happy to treat you to freaky later, preferably when we’re not out in the yard where everyone can see.”

“Not using a swing, I hope.” She rattled the chains. “Why is this here again?”

“What, you think it’s odd for a seventy-something woman to have a swing set?”

“Little bit.”

He shifted to stand behind her and gave her back a gentle push. Not high and not far, but enough for her to lift her feet off the ground.

“We can’t figure it out. It was here back when Leah’s family owned the house. Her father actually built it for her.”

“Which explains why Declan wanted to refurbish it. For Leah.” Sophie’s voice carried on the soft warm breeze. “It’s sturdy and looks nice, so that’s something.”

“But there aren’t kids here, so this project definitely falls into the making-the-woman-happy category. Declan did it for Leah.” The poor schmuck. Declan would have ripped the house down with his bare hands if that’s what it would have taken to win her over. Thank God it hadn’t come to that.

But they had changed course from selling the place to all moving in. Beck still wasn’t sure how his life spun off the rails so far. He’d had a plan when he first stepped on the property: get in, clean it up, sell, then get back to work. None of that happened. Now he needed to finish a work trip through Nevada but couldn’t find the will to leave Sophie.

She planted her feet and swiveled around. Metal clanked against metal as the chains twisted. “That’s sweet.”

“If by that you mean insane.”