#6--The Missing Father--O’Connells

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  She pulled her hand over the back of her neck, and he wasn’t sure what to make of her expression—raw, real, maybe. Then she shook her head. “Honestly, Luke, I didn’t plan on sleeping with you, but there was something about you that had me doing the one thing I never expected to do. At the same time, I never expected you to take my number, either.”

  She took a step toward him and then another until she was standing right in front of him, and she settled her hand on his chest and stared at it before pulling in another breath and lifting her gaze to him. “It’s that chemistry. You feel it still. I know I do. But acting on it is exactly what neither of us should do.”

  Then she pulled her hand away and took a step back.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Luke just couldn’t help himself.

  What was in his best interest and what he wanted had become two different things, and his self-destructive side had been a part of him for so long that he no longer understood what it meant to do the right thing and be normal. He rested his hand over his forehead and let it settle there, taking in the white ceiling and the light of day that drifted in through the window.

  The bedroom was done in whites and pinks. He turned his head and took in Rosemary’s closed eyes, her brown hair fanned over her pillow, and her soft breathing, which hadn’t evened out.

  “You okay?” she said.

  What was he supposed to say? His family would likely have a few choice words for him if they knew he was sleeping with someone they would consider the enemy.

  She ran her hand over his arm. “You were hurt,” she said. “What did you do? What happened?”

  Her brother had shot him. At the same time, he wondered if she needed to know. “Flesh wound—it’s nothing,” he said. “Look, this, here, shouldn’t have happened.”

  Again, there was something about touching this woman, kissing her. He was having trouble remembering who had made the first move, how he’d had her against the wall. Her dress and his shirt were downstairs in the living room, the front door was still open, and here he was, solving nothing, just digging himself deeper into something that couldn’t be any kind of healthy relationship.

  “Right, just like the first time,” she said. “But here you are in my bedroom after you’ve screwed me again. Acting on chemistry isn’t the best course of action. You’re not a good person, Luke O’Connell, but here you are in my house, in my bed. This is just sex, you know. We can’t have a relationship after what happened. You see me as a bad person, and how could I not see you the same way?”

  The way she said it had him rolling over onto his side, taking her in. She was complicated, and there was so much about her that he knew, yet he didn’t know her at all. “I don’t see you as a bad person, Rosemary. As you said, you didn’t hold that gun to my family’s heads…”

  “But you were the one who went in, all military security, and took my dad. It’s hard to see you as being on the right end of that when he did nothing wrong, not as far as I’m concerned. But here you are in my bed. What does that say about how blurred the lines have become?” She’d cut him off, giving him everything, lying on her side in a very comfortable bed.

  He reached over and brushed her hair back from her forehead, wondering how he could’ve explained to anyone why he was still there in her bed and not five steps out the front door already. “Can’t change what I did. It’s what I do, what I signed on for. I don’t get to pick and choose. That’s the way the military works.”

  She didn’t pull her gaze from him. He could still taste her on him. How could he want her again? “You know, it never worked, my first husband,” she said. “We were divorced after the first year. I don’t know how to do long-term commitment. So is this it? We can say goodbye and not see each other again? It would probably be best. My brothers wouldn’t understand this.”

  How could he answer that? “You think my family would be on board? As you said about long-term commitment, I’m the poster child for how a relationship can’t work. Does this have to have a label? I like you a lot…” His phone rang from the pocket of his pants on the floor. “Hold that thought,” he said, then slid from bed naked and reached for it, seeing the unidentified caller, knowing it was likely someone from his team. “O’Connell.”

  In the large dresser mirror, he could see his image, framed by the wing chair near the open window and the white gauze of the curtains that rustled in the breeze.

  “It’s Jess. Where are you?”

  He said nothing for a second as he took in Rosemary, who was now sitting up, holding the sheet over her perfect breasts. “Indiana. So what’s up?”

  “With the girl?”

  He was going to nod. “With Rosemary. She’s right here.”

  “She wasn’t the source of the info,” Jess said. “She wasn’t tipped off. It was the brother.”

  He had already figured that out. Rosemary didn’t pull her gaze from him. “I know,” he said. “So who told him?”

  “Seems it was a commanding officer of the platoon Ben was assigned to. But there’s more.” He heard the sigh on the other end.

  “There always is,” he replied.

  “Nothing will come back on Sienna,” Jess said, and his tone had Luke’s stomach pitching and his anger rising.

  “So you’re saying her hands are clean?”

  “I’m saying she knows we’re looking,” Jess replied. “Rex has already tracked an encrypted message that she sent to Ben Schwartz with dates, times, and our identities.”

  From the way Rosemary was watching him, she likely had some idea of what he was talking about.

  “So my family and what happened…”

  “My guess? All Sienna,” Jess said.

  Luke let the phone slip from his ear as he turned to the window. “And she gets away with it?”

  “For now,” Jess said. “So what are you doing about the girl?”

  Luke knew his team leader had likely already figured out what he was doing. “I’ll be heading back tomorrow,” he said. He knew Jess understood that he wasn’t about to answer.

  “Fine, got it. See you on base,” he said, then hung up.

  Luke took a second as he tossed his cell phone on the chair by the window.

  “So you’re planning on spending the night?” Rosemary asked.

  “Unless you tell me otherwise.”

  There it was, the hint of a smile. “Did you miss the part about how I suck at relationships?” she said.

  He took a step toward the bed and took in this woman, sexy and mysterious. Something about her seemed so much like him in some ways. “Only if you missed the part about us team guys writing the book on how a relationship can’t work.”

  She slid back the sheet. “Well, then I guess this isn’t a relationship, just a guy and a girl, and we’ll see where it goes.”

  He grunted, then leaned down on the bed and pressed a kiss to her lips. He pulled back. “Sounds like the perfect arrangement to me.”

  What’s coming next in The O’Connells? The Hometown Hero available at all retailers!

  * * *

  And don’t forget to leave a review of The Missing Father

  * * *

  Are you on Goodreads? Add to your TBR list on GOODREADS HERE!

  What’s coming next in The O’Connells

  * * *

  In this shocking O’Connell family novel, a brother’s secret is exposed, opening up old wounds and creating a scandal that could rock the community.

  * * *

  Big brother Owen O’Connell was only sixteen when his father mysteriously disappeared, forcing him to become a father figure to his five younger siblings. If you were to ask them, they’d say Owen is the perfect older brother with the perfect life: He’s single, a plumber, working his own hours in a close-knit community. Owen, though, knows that appearances are often deceiving.

  * * *

  When he is called to a plumbing emergency at the local high school after a grad prank goes wrong, he finds his old rival Tessa B
rooks, now a teacher, holding a broken pipe in the middle of the flood, thinking she can fix the problem. However, the two soon make a horrifying discovery: the body of a student tucked away in a closet.

  * * *

  The event brings authorities flocking in, and in the ensuing chaos, Owen realizes that someone knows too much about his family. Having carefully held the family together since his father disappeared, he is determined to keep their secrets right where they are, dead and buried. But sometimes, secrets get revealed in the most scandalous of ways.

  * * *

  Click here to pre-order The Hometown Hero available June 30!

  * * *

  Scroll to the next section to read a sneak peek!

  The Hometown Hero, Chapter 1

  Owen O’Connell, eldest of six, couldn’t remember what it was like not to have responsibility resting upon his now broad shoulders. He couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t have an eye on his younger siblings, worried about something they’d done or could do, or something that could come after any one of them. Even though everyone was grown now, with their own lives, he still felt that kind of responsibility. Though it hadn’t been his choice, he couldn’t shake the incessant need to know what was going on with his three brothers and two sisters, considering they all found their way into their own brands of trouble. The biggest lesson of all, which he’d learned long ago, was not to share anything with anyone about his life or his family’s.

  He took in his home workshop, a shed at the back of his two-bedroom bungalow at the edge of town. The cottage to his right was owned by an old woman in her nineties, now in a nursing home, whose grandson had been considerate enough to move in and share his love of hip-hop with the entire neighborhood every night after midnight. The place on the left was a rundown rental with three feet of perpetually overgrown grass, but at least they were quiet.

  In the back of his van, he took in the box of elbow PVC pipes he’d just bought to replenish his supply. The van was faded, older. It was missing his company name, O’Connell’s Plumbing, but considering he didn’t need to drum up business, as most everyone knew who he was, a company decal would’ve been wasted dollars. If anything, Owen was the one O’Connell who couldn’t and wouldn’t part with one dime unnecessarily.

  He spotted the ancient rusty Datsun as it pulled up and parked behind his van. The engine purred before it shut off, and the squeal of the car door revealed Lori Kramer, slender and five foot five, with sandy blond hair that stopped at her shoulders. Her pretty face still bore the pissed-off expression that had been there since their fight outside the diner where she worked as a waitress. Their on again, off again relationship, which was non-committal and, as far as he was concerned, had no strings attached, no longer worked for her. So what had she done but demand he figure his shit out, as if he were the one who had issues? He didn’t, he told himself, but those had pretty much been her exact words: his issues, his lack of commitment.

  Finally, because he could feel her drawing closer and hear her flip-flops on the pavement, he was forced to lift his gaze, taking in the godawful mustard dress uniform from the diner and the small box she was carrying. He put down a pipe, wiped his hands on a damp cloth, and gave her everything, seeing the spark in her brown eyes, the light freckles over the bridge of her nose. She dumped the small box on the workbench beside him, and he took in some things of his: a shirt, a toothbrush, some old tools he’d used while fixing her sink, and a watch he hadn’t missed. He wasn’t sure what else was in there. When he lifted his gaze to her, she didn’t say anything for another second.

  “Your things.” She gestured rather forcefully.

  He lifted the old shirt, which he’d forgotten about, and said nothing, taking in everything in the box. He wasn’t too inclined to respond.

  “You know, I asked you to pick up your things,” she said. “Since I didn’t hear from you, here I am, driving them out to you. This is just one more reason we’re not together, Owen. I can’t get you to actually be part of a relationship, to show up, to follow through on anything. You want me only when you want me…”

  He let out a rough sigh, knowing she was about to go on and on to fill the silence, something she always did. There was a point he stopped listening and a point at which he was just done, like now.

  “I get it,” he said. “Apologies. Sorry you had to make the trip over. Anything else?” He rested his hand on the box and took in her face, her lips, which he’d kissed so many times. He liked her, but even now, this situation seemed to be heading fast to confrontation, all because of her need to argue, to push, to get him to…what? Be serious about her when his focus was everywhere else.

  As she’d so explicitly put it, she wanted the kind of commitment he could never see in their relationship.

  “That’s it? That’s all I get?’ She gestured between them quite dramatically. What the hell did she want from him?

  He laughed. “Jesus Christ, Lori, what the fuck is this? We’re over. You’ve said your piece already—repeatedly. I get it. You don’t need to hammer it to death, if that’s what this is. This isn’t working. Sometimes things don’t. That’s life. Again, thanks for bringing my stuff, but I’ve got nothing else for you. Not sure what you want me to say.”

  He knew he sounded like an asshole, but he just rested his forearm on the box and flicked his hand. This was something else she did, push and push when things didn’t quite go the way she wanted. He could see she just didn’t want to let it go, and her anger seemed to hold her where she was.

  “Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “Is that what you want to hear from me? I can’t feel something just because you want me to. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve made your feelings clear, as I’ve made mine. I’m not in the same space you are, because of…”

  “Yes, because of your family, I know,” she snapped. “You’re all about the O’Connells. Your nose is in all of their lives. All I wanted was to be included. You spend almost every night with them, but I thought maybe I would get tossed a crumb of what’s left of you. You never took me once to meet your family. We weren’t there yet. You never came out and said those exact words, but getting you to talk and express any kind of reasonable emotion is beyond me. I started to realize we were never going to get ‘there,’” she said, complete with air quotes.

  He sighed. “Okay, this has been fun, but I’ve got work to do, and I’m not rehashing this same old conversation about how you don’t understand me. I don’t understand you, either, or your need to share everything…” His phone rang, and for a second, he thought the gods were smiling down on him with the interruption. He reached for it, taking in the fact that Lori was still standing there. “I have to take this,” he said.

  She inclined her head, but she didn’t move. Great, so she wanted to take another chunk out of his ass.

  He answered and pressed his phone to his ear, giving Lori his back as he took in the rest of his shop. “Yeah? Owen here.”

  “Owen, this is Rita Mae, down at the high school. We’ve got ourselves kind of a problem down here, a plumbing emergency. There’s water everywhere. It’s coming from the second-floor girls’ bathroom. We’re not sure what happened, but…”

  “Okay, on my way. Has anyone shut the main water valve off yet?” He turned around and took in Lori still standing there, her arms crossed, taking in everything he was saying.

  “No, custodial is gone for the day. I have a call in to them.”

  Owen shook his head. “No, look, I’m on my way. I’ll be there in less than ten.”

  He’d shut the main off himself, find out what the problem was, and fix it. At least this was his get-away-from-Lori card, he thought as he hung up and pocketed his phone. He could sense that she just didn’t want to let go of this fight. He reached for his keys, giving his shop one last look, but everything he’d need—all the tools and supplies—was already in his van for exactly this reason.

  “I have to go, Lori, an emergency call,” he said and started walking out o
f his shop. When she didn’t move for a second, he reached up to pull the garage door down, waiting until she finally did. She had realized this was it, and she walked past him and out of the shop.

  He pulled down the door and slipped on the lock that would keep out no one who really wanted to get in. Her Datsun was still parked behind his van, and she stopped at her door and took him in. For a minute, he thought she was going to start in on him again. That was just something she did—another reason, he realized, why not seeing her had actually lifted a weight off him. Lori, although fun at times, could be a lot to handle.

  “Lori, I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know how many ways I can say it, but it’s over. I’m not where you are. I hope you find someone who can give you what you’re looking for, but it’s not me. You said it, and you were right, so let’s just leave it at that.”

  She opened her mouth as if to say something, but she let out a sigh instead. Evidently, she’d changed her mind. She shook her head, slipped into her vehicle, started the old heap, and pulled away.

  And instead of feeling sad at the ending of their relationship, he felt relieved.

  The Hometown Hero, Chapter 2

  Owen took in the local high school and the few teens in the parking lot, because school was now out for the day. He remembered the concrete institution fondly, but he thought that was mostly nostalgia, because it was also a reminder that for him and his siblings, school hadn’t been a happy social time. Today, if you asked him, he wouldn’t be able to recall any of the fundamental knowledge that had been crammed into them back then.