Xander nodded. “Give my regards to the baker. This strawberry cake is blue-ribbon material. And since I’ve been recruited as one of the judges, that really means something.”
Rose smiled. “You’re one of the judges, huh? Then I probably shouldn’t tell you, but I’m the one that baked it.”
His brows shot up. “You made this?”
“I do most of the baking here. The owner pays me for each dessert on top of my hourly rate. When I dropped out of college, I got a job working at a bakery near the university. I did mostly counter service, but after a while, I got to help out in the back, too.”
“This is amazing. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but it tastes great.”
“It’s basically a layered angel food cake with a fresh strawberry-meringue filling and iced with white fluff.”
“Fluff?”
“A girl has to keep some secrets,” she said.
Xander glanced around the diner and then turned back to her. “Speaking of which...” he began, and Rose’s heart stuttered nervously in her chest. “I know we had a lot of other things to talk about the other night, but why didn’t you tell me about Billy?”
Rose gritted her teeth and turned her head to look out the window to the street. She couldn’t face him while she talked about this. It was embarrassing enough. “I thought I was throwing enough crap at you already. You asked me out to a nice dinner to reminisce about old times. I didn’t want to burden you with my sob story. On a good day, I can convince myself that my father was killed rescuing drowning orphans or something. Then he writes me a letter and I’m forced to realize he’s just a sleazy criminal.” Rose sighed. “So who told you?”
“Your brother said something that didn’t make sense, so I asked Ken about it.”
Stupid small towns. Nothing could happen without everyone knowing about it. Rose rested her elbow on the counter and cupped her chin in her palm. “No wonder you didn’t come rushing to see me again. Your illegitimate son’s grandfather is a felon serving fifteen to life for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and felony murder. There’s a headline you don’t want to see going into your campaign.”
“That’s not why I haven’t been to see you,” Xander said. “First, I didn’t want to come by so soon and draw attention to us. We agreed we weren’t going to tell anyone I was Joey’s father. Having me hanging around all the time will eventually give us away. I decided to focus on some different things instead to kill some time until I could come in. My book is coming out tomorrow, so I was doing a lot of phone interviews with radio stations and such. Now that all that’s done, I came straight over.”
“Really?” Rose asked with a coy smile. She knew she shouldn’t be pleased, but knowing he was just waiting to see her again gave her a little thrill.
Xander’s green-gold eyes focused on her with nothing but sincerity showing in them. “Really. I’d like to take you out again.”
“The diner is closed this weekend for the festival. Daisy’s owner usually pays for me to enter the bake-off because it’s good advertising for the restaurant if I do well. When I’m not doing that, I’ll have Joey with me. I promised him that we’d go to the fair and watch the parade. With his arm, I’m not sure he can ride anything, but I’ll load him up with funnel cake and cotton candy.”
“That sounds great. I’ve got to spend a couple hours Friday judging the bake-off, but do you mind if I join you at the fair? Maybe the parade, too, on Saturday?”
Rose sputtered for a moment, surprised that he was interested. It was one thing to take her to a clandestine dinner in another county. Going to the big town event together was another matter altogether. “Well, of course, I mean, yeah, if you want to. I guess I thought...”
“Thought what?”
“I thought that you might not want to be seen in public with Joey. Just in case someone noticed the resemblance.”
Rose could tell that Xander hadn’t thought of that. He got that distant look in his eye as he considered it.
“I think it will be okay,” he said. “I instantly recognized the younger version of myself in Joey but others, especially the people that didn’t know Heath and I as children, might not see it. Some folks might’ve forgotten that we even dated. They’d have no reason to think anything of it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I want to spend time with you and Joey. I don’t intend the process of getting to know my son to be a covert affair. Or spending time with you. There are some things that have to be kept secret for now, but that’s not one of them.”
Rose was stunned nearly speechless. He had taken the news of his parenthood well, but she’d been certain he would want to maintain his distance. It was her idea to keep the story quiet and she had been counting on it to hold her hormones in check. This was a complicated situation with an expiration date. The distance would help her keep that in perspective, since none of that mattered to her when he was close. Or touching her. But if he wanted to spend time with her and their son, she would be a fool to tell him no.
“Then you’re welcome to join us. I’m sure Joey will get a kick out of it. Maybe you can win him one of those stuffed animals. I’m no good at those midway games and with his arm, you’re our only hope.”
Xander smiled wide. “I’ve still got a pretty good pitching arm. I’ll see what I can do. Anyway, what I lack in skill, I can make up for in cash.”
* * *
Xander flipped off the television as he did each night after the news. Another day had gone by without the damning facial re-creation hitting the airwaves. He was beginning to think that maybe Brody was wrong. Brody could’ve gotten information about them planning to do one, but then they changed their minds or it got delayed. Xander didn’t want it to come out, but he was here to deal with the aftermath. This was his longest break of the year—his summer vacation of sorts.
When Congress went back into session, it would be solid work through to Christmas. If something hit then, there was very little he could do about it.
He decided to log into his computer and send Brody an email. Maybe he had an update on what was happening. He sat patiently as hundreds of emails loaded into his inbox. Xander had kept up on his phone, but he hadn’t been on his laptop in a couple of days.
He’d been spending time working on the farm with Ken. It had been years since he’d done that kind of thing. It felt good to get out there on the riding mower, trim and shape the trees, and check for any infestations. After spending a good part of the past eleven years at a desk studying or at a desk working, it was a welcome change. Pine trees weren’t nearly as frustrating as the bipartisan committees he worked on.
The last of his email was loading when an icon popped up on his screen with a video-chat invitation from his younger brother, Heath. Xander accepted and the window opened, connecting them and activating his webcam. At last his screen refreshed and the ever-unflattering image of his brother popped up. How people dated online with these things, he’d never know. Everyone looked ridiculous on a webcam.
“Evening, little brother,” Xander said.
“Hey,” Heath replied. He appeared to be using his laptop in bed. Xander could see the padded leather headboard behind him. “I’m glad I caught you online. I haven’t seen you active very often lately.”
“Well, you know how things are up here. Dad’s got me mowing the fields.”
Heath laughed. “And they wonder why we moved away and don’t visit often. Most kids outgrow chores, but not farm kids.”
“It’s just as well. Mom’s feeding me like I’m seventeen again. If I don’t do some manual labor, I’ll have to drop a couple grand to get my suits let out. So what’s going on?”
Heath’s face grew slightly more serious, which was not its normal state. His brother was the funny, easygoing one. He was always quick to make a joke in a tense moment, but there wasn’t much joking to be done when the topic of Tommy Wilder came up. “I was wondering if anything had come out about the sketch.”
> His younger brother had the most to lose if the truth came out. It was justified, one hundred percent, but when it came down to it, Heath had killed Tommy. How a scrawny thirteen-year-old boy had gotten the best of a hulking nearly eighteen-year-old menace, Xander would never know. Heath was scrappy, but Tommy was a dangerous physical presence. Only Heath and Julianne had been witnesses to Tommy’s death and neither of them had ever wanted to talk about how it had happened. He didn’t blame them. Everything the other kids had done was to protect them both from what they’d had to face.
“Nothing yet. I actually got onto the computer tonight because I wanted to check with Brody to see if he had any more information. There hasn’t been a peep about the body the whole time I’ve been here. No one has even mentioned it.” With everything that was going on with Rose, sometimes Xander even forgot why he was in Cornwall to begin with.
His brother sighed with relief, but then his expression changed to one of curiosity. Heath’s light eyes, so much like his own, squinted at the screen, his nose wrinkling in thought. “What else is going on?”
Xander sat up straight and shook his head dismissively. “Nothing is going on. Like I said, it’s been quiet.”
“No,” Heath said. “You’ve got that look on your face. You’re lost in your thoughts and your right eyelid keeps twitching. You haven’t told me everything.”
“There’s nothing to tell about the situation with Tommy,” Xander insisted.
“And what about things that don’t have to do with Tommy, Mr. Lie By Omission?”
Heath knew him too well. His brother could tell he had things on his mind. And he wanted to tell him. He needed someone to confide in. Since Heath wasn’t in Cornwall and wouldn’t be anytime soon, he might be a safe choice.
“Okay,” Xander said, “but when I tell you that this is a secret, I mean it. You can’t tell Brody or Wade or Julianne. Not Mom or Dad. No one. I don’t even want you telling your chick of the week that I’ve never even met.”
Heath’s eyebrows went up. “Wow. This must really be good. I won’t tell.”
“I mean it, Heath. You can’t breathe a word to anyone. No crossed fingers, no writing it down to get around ‘telling.’ This has to stay secret. I shouldn’t even tell you but I need to talk to someone.”
“I swear that I will not share this information with anyone via any means of communication, including Morse code, American Sign Language and pig Latin. If I so much as breathe a word of it, you can come to my apartment and take a baseball bat to my Super Nintendo system.”
That was probably as good as it would get with Heath. Their parents had bought him that Nintendo the Christmas before they died. “Okay. Brace yourself, because this is a big one. I’m a father. I have a ten-year-old son named Joey.”
Heath’s eyes grew wide on the screen. He did some math on his fingers. “Rose?” he asked.
Xander nodded. “I just found out.”
“Holy crap,” Heath said, running his hand over his hair in disbelief. “Have you seen him?”
“Yes. He doesn’t know I’m his father, though. Rose and I decided to wait.”
“To wait for what? You’ve already waited ten years.”
“It was her suggestion. I don’t think she’s ready to deal with the town gossip and press scrutiny when it comes out. Neither am I, frankly. It would help if we could wait until after my book tour. Maybe even after my reelection campaign. It’s not a huge scandal, but combined with some other factors, it might give my competitor an edge.”
“You’re going to make that little boy wait a whole year to find out the truth because it might look bad in the papers?”
When he said it like that, it sounded horrible. “I wanted to make it official, but filing any kind of paperwork would send up red flags. I’m used to the press interfering in my life, but they’d swarm all over Rose. She didn’t ask for that. Life is different for a politician. We’re scrutinized for every little thing.”
“So what? You weren’t caught in a public restroom with an underage transvestite hooker.”
Xander sighed. “Yeah, but I’m the face of the Fostering Families charity. I spend all my time preaching the virtues of taking in needy children. I wrote a book on it. How would it look if it came out that I had a child I’d abandoned?”
“How can you abandon a child you didn’t know about?”
“Somehow the press would find a way to hang me for it. By the time the truth came out and everything blew over, it would be too late to undo the damage. If my book tanks, Fostering Families won’t raise the money they need. If I’m not reelected, I no longer have the platform to help them. They can’t survive without my support. Even if I decided I didn’t care about being reelected and I chose to move back to Cornwall and work on the farm, I couldn’t let the people at the center down.”
“You’re not the only person responsible for keeping that charity afloat. It doesn’t rest solely on your shoulders.”
“It feels like it. I just need some time. Time to spend with Rose and Joey without the press breathing down my neck. Time to figure out how to handle this. I might be able to spin the whole situation in a way that won’t hurt my public image, long-term.”
“You worry too much about what people think. You’re just like Jules that way.”
“I have to worry. I’m on a career fast track, Heath. The party has a lot of faith in me and my future. There’s been talk...” His voice faded out. He hadn’t mentioned this to anyone before; he didn’t want to jinx it, but it mattered. “There’s talk about me being a major force in the party someday. I’m being groomed for bigger and better things. This might not be a big deal for a small-potatoes congressman no one has ever heard of outside his district, but that kind of visibility leads to higher scrutiny. Would I ruin my chances with a secret love child? Will the House elect a Speaker with that background? Would the public elect a president whose First Lady has a father in prison? I don’t want any of this to get out until I know how I want to handle it.”
“First Lady?” Heath perked up. “Prison? Back it on up. Start with the First Lady thing. That’s a pretty big leap to take. Are you guys serious? You haven’t even mentioned her in years.”
“No, we’re not serious. We’ve been on one date.” Somehow it felt like more than that, though. As if the years they were apart were just a heartbeat in time. He had to fight to keep reality in perspective. And his hands off of her when they were together. “Yeah, I’m attracted to her. She’s even more beautiful than I remember. Being with her again felt...like old times. Like I was almost a teenager again. I want to see more of her. I don’t know what ‘more’ entails, but considering she’s raised my son alone all these years, marrying her might be the right thing to do.”
“Wow, you romantic, you! Just what a girl wants to hear.”
“You know what I mean! I would’ve done it eleven years ago if she had let me. I guess that’s why she kept quiet.”
Heath sat silent on his computer screen for a moment before throwing out the big question. “But do you love her?”
“I did once. I very well might again. I know I’ve never loved anyone else. I’ve regretted letting her walk out of my life, and knowing the truth, now I regret it even more. I know I care about her and I care about our son. I don’t want him to be embarrassed about how he grew up.”
Heath took it all in with a curt nod. “As usual, you have everything very thoroughly thought out. I’m sure you’ll know what to do and things will work out for the best. Just don’t do something crazy and elope. Eloping is always a bad choice. It’s typically born out of a spur-of-the-moment idea, which is usually poor judgment in retrospect. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get married than it is to get divorced.”
Xander almost wanted to laugh at the sage words of his brother. “You speak like an expert in poor judgment.”
“Learn from my mistakes, bro. I am a master of rash decision making. Believe me when I tell you that if you were to elope and Mom finds ou
t, she will strangle you with the ribbon she uses on her Christmas wreaths. Just picture that anytime you think of running off and not including her in it.”
“Thanks. That wasn’t my plan, but I’ll be sure to keep that disturbing image in mind.”
“You’re welcome. Now what’s this about Billy in jail?”
Xander sighed and set his laptop on the coffee table. “Hold on,” he said. “I need to get a drink first.” He went over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of his favorite beer. If nothing else, it would make telling the story easier. If he’d known he was going to spill his guts to his brother, he would’ve gotten a drink when they first started talking.
With an open bottle, he returned to the couch and found that Heath, too, had an adult beverage. “I figured if you needed a drink to tell me, I needed a drink to hear it.”
“Fair enough.” Xander took a large sip and relayed everything Ken had told him about Billy’s brush with the law. When he was finished, Heath just shook his head.
“You’re a good person, so I just have to conclude that you’re being punished for evil deeds in your past life. There’s no other explanation for it.”
“Tell me about it. I’ve spent my whole life trying to keep my nose clean. I’ve always said that the best way to avoid a tabloid scandal is to not do anything scandalous. It’s worked so far, but now it’s like a pitcher is lobbing fastballs at me quicker than I can hit them.”
“Well, at least Rose might be more understanding about the Tommy thing given her father’s situation.”
At that, Xander laughed out loud. “Oh, no. She is not happy with Billy. Not at all. I don’t even know if she goes to visit him. She has no sympathy for him or any other criminals.”
“Do you really think of us as criminals?” Heath asked.
Xander shook his head. “No, but that doesn’t mean that isn’t how other people will think of us. Especially Rose. No, I definitely don’t want any of our problems to get back to her. I’ll deal with issues as they arise, but I’d be just as happy for her to never even hear the name Tommy Wilder.”
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