by EMILIE ROSE
Her son clearly didn’t have the stomach flu that had been going around. “It’s a wonder you didn’t make yourself sick again. Did you work on your presentation?”
Mason’s shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes. “Yeah.”
“Good. I’m sure it’ll be great. You can practice on me later.” She turned her attention to Brandon. “Thanks for staying with him. I need to get them ready for bed, so if you’ll excuse us...”
Belle tugged on her shirt. “Can’t Uncle Brandon read to me?”
“Not tonight, sweetie,” Hannah replied before Brandon could volunteer. Uncle Brandon? Who had told Belle to call him that? Definitely not Hannah. She hiked an eyebrow at him. He shrugged again. She wished he’d stop doing that. Each time he did it made her notice the breadth of his shoulders. Rick had been tall, thin and wiry. Despite working out with Brandon, her husband had never developed the muscles his partner had.
“Officer Brandon needs to go home and get ready for work tomorrow, and you need to go pick out your pajamas and get ready for your bath. You, too, Mason.”
Mason’s face puckered up in protest. Brandon clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll bring the materials to fix the treehouse next time I come over.”
“Tomorrow?” Mason asked, his face filled with anticipation.
“Tomorrow you’ll need to finish your project,” Hannah interjected.
Brandon’s gaze swung her way. “Friday?”
She shook her head. “Friday we leave for the Leiths’.”
Mason moaned. “Do we have to?”
“Yes. Your grandparents look forward to your visits.”
Mason snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“I’ll come by one day next week, bud. Work on your plan and email it and any other ideas you have to me before then.”
“Okay, I will. G’night.” Then her son sprinted up the stairs behind his sister, leaving Hannah marveling once again at Brandon’s way of relating to her children. Part of her rejoiced at seeing the return of Mason’s old attitude. Another part was a little jealous that Brandon had been the one to resurrect it. Admitting that made her feel petty.
“How did you get him to cooperate so easily?”
Brandon shrugged. “Simple negotiation tactics. I offered him something he wanted in exchange for compliance.”
He’d applied his work techniques to managing her son. She shouldn’t be surprised. “He hasn’t used that treehouse in a couple of years.”
“He claims it’s babyish. We checked it out, and it’s still structurally sound. I gave him some ideas for converting it from a playhouse to a hangout. Rick and I spent a lot of time on that thing. I hate to see it go unused, or worse yet, become unsafe.”
Rick had been so proud of his part in building the structure. “What were your ideas?”
“Put up a hammock, add screen to the windows to keep out the mosquitos, add a climbing wall and rope and run a power cord... Stuff like that. He wants to be able to camp out up there.”
“He’s mentioned sleeping in the treehouse a few times.” Including the night he’d tried to sneak out. “But he can’t exclude his sister.”
“He came up with a pretty cool plan to build her a wing of her own and give her a separate entrance. If you recall, Rick and I designed it so it could grow with them.”
“I can’t afford all the additions you’re talking about at once. Maybe we can add one item a month.”
“Hannah, I have most of the materials on hand for my rental houses.”
Why did he make it so hard to say no? “How many rentals do you own now?”
“Six. I buy fixer-uppers, make the repairs then either flip them or rent them. I’ve been flipping longer than it’s been trendy. When the time comes to retire, I want to have a good income from the properties.”
Yet another way he differed from Rick. She’d always wanted to sock away money, but Rick had wanted to invest every spare dime in their home. The memory brought regrets. If Rick had invested a few dollars each month in life insurance then keeping the big house wouldn’t be such a struggle. But the house was all she and the kids had left of him and their dream.
“I’d like to take Mason with me to do maintenance sometime. It’ll teach him a few skills.”
She took a deep breath. “We’ll discuss it when the time comes. Thanks for your help today, but I need to get them to bed on time tonight.”
“Mason’s smart, Hannah, and a problem-solver. You’ve done a good job with him. Whatever blip was on his screen, we’ll figure it out.”
She clung to his words and his praise, soaking them up and tucking them in a little corner pocket of her heart, because she knew the criticisms she’d face from her in-laws this weekend.
“I’m still putting my money on him being nothing more than a boy curious about girls,” Brandon continued. “It wouldn’t take five minutes in the computer lab to figure out which websites Mason visited to satisfy his curiosity. Probably the same sites where he learned the foul language.”
Then it hit her. His kind words to her were nothing more than him using work techniques to get permission to search the computer. She yanked open the front door. “No, thanks. Good night.”
“What about Monday? Can Mason spare an hour to work on the treehouse?”
“Monday we will be playing catch-up from the trip. Probably Tuesday, too. Visiting Rick’s parents takes a lot out of us—them.”
That telling little crease appeared between his dark eyebrows. “Call me if you need me. For anything.”
The sudden inclination to lean on him was so strong it blindsided her. Why him? Because it felt as if she finally had someone on her team—something she hadn’t had since Rick’s death. But she had to stand on her own two feet. Brandon was temporary. She’d be solo again as soon as they resolved Mason’s issue.
“I’m ready for my bath, Mommy,” Belle called down the stairs.
Brandon stepped over the threshold then paused and faced her with one foot in her house and one outside. “Mason trusts me now. I could talk to him, man to man, and see if he has any questions about sex.”
“Mason and I have had ‘the talk’ and he gets sexual education at school.”
“Rick would have—”
“You’re not Rick.” The words sprang from her mouth—as much a reminder to him as to herself. Brandon was being nice. Too nice. What strategy was he employing now?
He held her gaze, his hazel eyes somber. “Don’t let the Leiths get to you.”
Then he nodded and headed out into the night. Hannah closed the door, locked it and sagged against it for a second before quickly pushing off. Her night was far from over. As soon as she got Belle settled, she needed to talk to Mason.
She usually enjoyed giving Belle her bath and tucking her into bed, but tonight that twenty minutes stretched on for an eternity because of the suspicion circling Hannah’s brain like a pesky mosquito. On autopilot, she kissed Belle’s forehead and pulled up the sheet. “Good night, love bug.”
“Mommy, can Uncle Brandon go to church with us?” Belle asked.
Hannah was used to Belle’s odd questions, but this one was stranger than usual. “I think he has his own church.”
“Could we ask him?”
Proud of her daughter for wanting to share her faith with others, she smiled. “I suppose. Why is it so important to you?”
“Cuz Sydney has an uncle, and this weekend he and Sydney’s mommy went to church and now he’s her daddy.”
Hannah’s heart slammed her sternum. “Hannah’s mom and her ‘uncle’ must have gotten married.”
“Can you and Uncle Brandon get married?”
“No!” Eyes wide, Belle shrank back against the pillow at Hannah’s vehement reply. Hannah took a calming breath. “Honey, I was married to your daddy, and he was the best daddy in the world. I could ne
ver find one as good as him.”
“But don’t you want me to have a daddy so I can be like the other kids?”
Hannah’s heart ached. “You don’t need to be like the other kids. You’re special just as you are.”
“But I want Uncle Brandon to be my daddy!” The tired whimper tugged at Hannah’s emotions. “And you said if I want something real bad then I hafta keep trying.”
“That’s not going to happen, Belle. Brandon was a friend of your father’s. He can be your friend now. But that’s all.”
Belle’s rosebud mouth turned into a frown and her bottom lip poked out. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry, sweetie. You know I do what I can to make you happy, but marrying Brandon is something I just can’t do.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t love him.”
“But we’re s’pose to love everybody.”
Lord, give me the answer to this one. “The love a mommy feels for a daddy is a different kind of love than loving everyone else.”
“Can’t you try harder?”
“No, Belle. I can’t.”
She kissed Belle’s forehead and left her pouting. What she feared had come to pass. Belle had become attached to Brandon.
Hannah made her way to Mason’s room and knocked. She heard rustling and quick footsteps then when he called out, she opened the door. He was propped against the pillows. He very deliberately lowered his book when she entered and looked up with exaggerated curiosity. But his respiratory rate was too fast for someone at rest. What had he been doing before she’d knocked? Anxiety tightened her chest. The hope that Mason’s issues had resolved themselves evaporated.
Hoping this conversation went a little better than the one she’d just left, she sat on the edge of his bed. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Good book?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s part of that series you like, isn’t it?”
“Uh-huh.” Edginess radiated from him.
She wanted to ask what he’d been doing, but memories of her parents’ screaming matches when her father had been caught listening to her mother’s movements outside the bedroom door kept the words locked away. “Did you feel sick at school?”
“Nah.”
“Because you could have called me if you did.”
“I didn’t. Anyway, I know you can’t miss work unless you really have to.”
Fighting a wince because her kids shouldn’t have to worry about money, she reached out to touch his cheek, but he leaned away. Lowering her hand, she tried not to let him see how much his rejection hurt. She missed the little boy who used to hold her hand and snuggle.
“Were you uncomfortable about going to the SLED offices with Brandon today?”
He stiffened and his eyes turned wary. “Whatdaya mean?”
“Sometimes your stomach acts up when you’re anxious—like it did the first day of middle school. I wondered if that’s what happened today.”
His cheeks reddened. “No! It was the cookies! I ate six. Really fast. Then I chugged a bottle of water. I guess it all expanded in my stomach and erupted like a volcano!”
The rapidly spoken protest seemed a little too exuberant. She searched his face. “Mason, if you don’t want to visit SLED just tell me, and I’ll tell Brandon.”
He pondered that a moment. “Would he still take me for wings?”
“He promised he would.”
“I don’t want to go to the office. Why would I want to look at a bunch of old geezers staring at computer screens?”
The geezer comment made her wince. But it also told her Brandon was right. Mason didn’t remember Rick’s job. Maybe he’d been too young to understand how much his father loved his work. “There’s a lot more to it than that. Your dad loved his job and he was very good at it. He helped catch a lot of criminals. But I’ll tell Brandon the trip’s off.”
“’Kay.”
“I love you.”
“I know.” He picked up his book and ducked his head. Her heart cracked a little. He used to throw his arms around her and say it back. She missed that. Life had been so much simpler before Mason had entered middle school.
Brandon makes things easier.
No. He makes things more complicated.
She sprung from the bed. “You know you can tell me if something or someone is bothering you, right? And that I’ll still love you no matter what.”
He flicked her a wary look. “Yeah.”
But he didn’t believe it. The fissure in her heart widened. How was she going to get her baby boy back?
And what was he hiding?
* * *
BRANDON CLOSED THE file Wednesday afternoon, checked his phone for the tenth time and then cursed himself for doing so. Hannah hadn’t answered his text.
“You finished the report?” Toby, his partner, asked.
“Yeah. Just emailed it to the boss.”
“What’d you do? Work all weekend? You trying to make the rest of us look bad?” Toby delivered the question with a grin, no malice attached.
“You don’t need my help,” Brandon zinged back.
Toby flipped up his middle finger. “We still on for wings tonight?”
“I’m waiting to hear from Hannah. I want Mason to meet you guys.”
“You figured out why she banned you from bringing him here?”
“I’m guessing because he tossed his cookies the last time I tried.”
Toby’s brow puckered. “Poor kid. Sounds like he inherited his daddy’s nervous stomach.”
The hair on the back of Brandon’s neck prickled. He gave Toby the squinty eye.
“Didn’t you say Rick barfed before every big game in high school and before his wedding? He sure as hell did before every major raid we had.”
Brandon mentally kicked himself. How could he have failed to connect those dots? He’d dragged Rick into sports: baseball and football, and while Rick had loved playing, he’d always had gut-heaving jitters before important games, and as Toby said, before other momentous occasions. “Yes. He did.”
Mason hadn’t wanted to come to the office, but he’d been fine in the car. He hadn’t acted sick until after they’d cleared security and slapped the visitor badge on his chest.
“You think meeting us made the kid nervous?”
Not unless Mason had a guilty conscience or something to fear from a room full of cops. Brandon hadn’t shared Hannah’s concerns about Mason’s behavior with the team, and he wouldn’t do so now. “Some folks are anxious around cops.”
“True. So we’ll meet y’all at the wing place if Hannah gives the go-ahead?”
“That’s the plan. I want this laid-back. No pressure. Just food and talk. Mason needs to know what a great guy his dad was, but I don’t want anyone to mention Rick until Mason’s comfortable.”
Brandon’s phone buzzed on the desk. A text message from Hannah.
Mason would love to do wings tonight.
He met Toby’s gaze. “We’re on. Pass the word.”
* * *
HANNAH OPENED THE front door Wednesday evening before Brandon could ring the bell. One look at her foreboding expression and he knew she wasn’t happy to see him. He braced himself for the anger in her eyes to spill from her mouth.
“Uncle Brandon!” Belle, wearing her pink dance costume, skirted around her mother, wound her arms around his hips and squeezed like a baby boa constrictor.
“How’s my favorite ballerina?” he asked and she beamed, missing one of her top front teeth. “Hey, where’d your tooth go?”
“I lost it at Grandmother and Grandfather’s house. But the tooth fairy couldn’t find me there. She waited till I came home to visit.”
“I guess her GPS was broken.”
“That’s what Mommy said, too.”
Hannah tucked a loose hair into Belle’s tiny bun. “Go get your brother, sweetie. He’s upstairs doing homework.”
Belle skipped off, and Hannah turned her glare to Brandon. “I told you I couldn’t afford to spend much on the treehouse.”
“And I told you I had the—”
“Don’t lie.” She shook a long strip of paper in his face. “Mason found the receipt stuck to the bottom of the slide. Two hundred dollars, Brandon!”
Damn. That was where the receipt went. He’d looked everywhere for it. He took it from her. “I have the basics: boards, nails, window screen... But at lunch on Monday one of the guys caught me looking at the drawing Mason emailed. I told him what we were planning and he told the rest of the team. They wanted to pitch in and went a little overboard with the curly slide and the military-grade climbing rope. I picked it up yesterday and dropped it off on my lunch hour today.”
He didn’t mention that he hadn’t thought she’d see the items where he’d stashed them behind the treehouse.
Her eyes narrowed even more. “Let me guess. These are the same guys who’ve mysteriously done maintenance on my house when I’m out of town. Or was that all you?”
Busted. “We all thought a lot of Rick, and we look out for our own.”
Arms folded, her chin jacked up. “I have never asked for your help before now.”
“No, you haven’t. But you can be gracious enough to accept it—for your kids’ sake and for the men’s. If you want to thank them, make ’em a cake or something. The guys miss your baking.” Rick had brought in something Hannah had baked a couple of times a month, much to the team’s delight.
“You should have asked before dumping those parts in my yard where Belle and Mason would find them. That makes me the bad guy when I return them.”
“Then don’t return them.”
He could see the steam building as her face flushed darker. “Hannah, tell me something. Wouldn’t you help another team member’s family if the positions were reversed? And didn’t you and Rick contribute whenever we took up a collection to help one of our own?”
She deflated as if he’d stuck a pin in her. “Yes. We did. Rick and I gave as much as we could afford. But Brandon, this is too much.”
