Abby smiled, but there was something odd in her expression. “Here,” she said, setting a small box on the table. “I saw this in that secretary desk you’ve got in your living room. It looks about the same size as your antique vibrator box.”
“Ooh! Maybe they had a spare? I’m really starting to like Glenna and Gertrude,” Elle said, reaching for the box.
Abby gave a furtive glance to her phone then plastered on a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Cadence watched her friend, who pocketed her phone then handed the old box to her cousin.
Elle picked off the dried tape and opened the lid. “Oh my God!”
“Is it another one?” Cadence asked, but her friend’s voice had lost its teasing tone.
“No, it most certainly isn’t.”
Abby craned her head to see. “What is it, Elle?”
Elle looked around the kitchen. “Grab that dishtowel, Abs. Cadence, let’s clean off the table.”
Cadence narrowed her eyes. “Elle, you’re freaking me out!”
“Well, Miss Lowry, if I’m right, that’ll make two of us.”
“Please tell me there’s not a vile labeled Bubonic plague or a mummified body part in there,” she said, moving the figurines and boxes off the table while Abby wiped the dust away and laid down the crisp white dishtowel.
“How much do you know about watches?” Elle asked, completely changing gears.
“I can teach second graders how to read one,” she answered, growing impatient. “Come on, Elle. What’s in the box?”
Whatever was in there, it had Elle transfixed.
“And Gertrude and Glenna…they came from money, right?”
“Yeah, their father had made quite a fortune here in silver, but he lost everything in the end.”
Elle carefully removed a small item wrapped in a cloth bag with the words Patek Philippe embroidered on the soft cloth.
Cadence froze as the breath caught in her throat and Cam’s watch came to mind.
Cam’s very, very expensive Patek Philippe watch.
“Hey! That’s the brand of watch Bren and I brought to Camden,” Abby said as they watched Elle remove the outer bag to reveal a polished cherrywood box.
“Hold on,” Elle said, pulling out her phone. “I want to send some pictures to my antiques friend before we go any further. Where did you find this, Abby?”
“On the desk.”
Cadence sat back. “It hasn’t always been there. The first night Cam was here. Two squirrels must have gotten into the house when I was painting earlier in the day. They started running around the living room. I screamed, and Cam burst in to save me.”
“From squirrels?” Elle asked, cocking her head to the side. “I’m not sure how that has anything to do with this watch box.”
A tear trailed down Cadence’s cheek, and she brushed it away. “It does. Just listen. The squirrels squeezed in and hid behind the secretary desk. Cam pulled it out so I could catch the squirrels in a box and put them back outside. He found the box you’ve got there when he went to put the desk back in place.”
“That makes sense,” Elle said, nodding her head.
“What makes sense?”
“I’m pretty sure the bank had people poke around Glenna and Gertrude’s stuff before they sold you the houses and all their contents. And I bet that’s how they missed this.”
Cadence stared at the gleaming box that looked brand new. “Elle, for all we know, it’s empty.”
Elle pulled out the drawer built into the bottom of the box, revealing a slim leather sleeve. “Looks like we’ve got papers,” she said, handing it to Abby.
Abby slid a yellowed certificate from the sleeve. “It says this watch was made in 1914 in Geneva, Switzerland.”
Elle released an audible breath. “Cadence, if what I think is in this box is what’s actually in here, this may be a one of a kind piece.”
“Well, open it, already,” Abby exclaimed.
Elle’s phone chimed. “It’s my friend. She wants us to do a video call for the unboxing. Abs, hold my phone.”
Unboxing?
Cadence sat back as the women maneuvered around the polished cherrywood box, listening as Elle spoke with the antique appraiser. She lifted the lid, and the midmorning light glinted off the gold rim of a pristine pocket watch. With its elegant numbers spanning the circumference and three smart little dials dotting the face, the watch was breathtaking in its craftsmanship.
Elle carefully held the watch, revealing the backside with four more intricate dials representing the day of the week, date, month, and even the phases of the moon.
And then the expert started spouting out dollar amounts.
Dollar amounts that included the word million.
“Cadence,” Abby whispered as Elle continued her animated conversation with the appraiser. “This could change everything for you.”
It could. Her friend wasn’t wrong. It just wasn’t the everything she’d dreamed of since the moment Mountain Mac had come into her life. She glanced out at Bodhi, still painting away. Their lives were going to change—but not because of this watch, but because the regatta was now only four hours and thirty minutes away.
18
Camden
Cam zipped his pack and surveyed the inside of the cabin. There was a sad kind of symmetry in that he’d chosen to go back to the same place he’d fled to after his parents’ death.
But that was who he was.
The runaway heir.
The person who hurt the ones he loved the most.
The man who couldn’t be trusted to keep Cadence or her son safe.
The night of Bren and Abby’s wedding blurred through his mind. Everything seemed perfect. And then, like one of those funhouse mirrors, the image skewed and warped, and all he could see were the midnight-blue eyes of the bull elk staring at him as if the animal could see straight into his soul and had found him lacking.
He’d run into the night all the way back to his family’s place in Bergen Mountain, known to all as Bergen Cottage. The massive mountain mansion sat empty with everyone on the other side of the resort at the lodge. And like a thief in the night, he entered their mountain home and had gone from room to room, grabbing gear and clothing. He’d been operating on autopilot since he left Cadence on that dark road, systematically going through a checklist of all the things he’d need for a long hike back to the cabin he’d run to a decade ago.
His family had made improvements to the tidy structure. The space was still rustic and could only be reached by foot, and it still was without electricity, but they’d added running water and a little wood-burning stove.
When he was last there, it had been frigid; the temperatures dipping well below freezing. He’d stayed two nights before his family tracked him down, wrapped him in blankets, and carted his ass back to Denver for his parents’ funeral.
Summer was different. There was no frostbite to fight off. He’d hike all day, traversing the punishing mountain. Climb until his fingers bled and then, exhausted, he’d return to the cabin where he’d dream of Cadence and Bodhi. He’d wake the next day then do it all over again.
A cycle of physical exertion he’d hoped would quiet his mind.
It hadn’t.
Days rolled into nights, and he’d lost track of time—his father’s watch and his phone, forgotten and tucked away in the bottom of his pack.
But it was time to stop the charade. Time to stop dreaming he’d ever be worthy of Cadence and Bodhi and return to his Swiss exile. But there was one thing he needed to do first. One loose end that needed to be tied up.
He strapped on his pack, opened the front door, and found himself eye to eye with his oldest brother.
“Jesus Christ, Cam! Why’d you have to come all the way out here again?” Jasper asked.
Brennen shook his head. “Bro, what’s going on?”
Cam looked back and forth between his brothers.
What the hell were they doing here?
>
Then it clicked. “Gram?” he said, walking past them and starting down the mountain.
“Yes, Gram,” Brennen answered, following behind him. “We didn’t even know you were gone until Abby talked to Cadence last night after we got back from our honeymoon.”
“Then we called Gram, and she checked your phone’s location,” Jasper answered.
Of course, the phone she’d insisted he keep had GPS just like his mother had insisted when he was younger. But it didn’t matter. He was going to call his family today.
“I’m glad you’re here. I need your help setting up a trust for Bodhi and Cadence.”
“Why the hell would we need to do that?” Jas asked.
“Because I’m leaving. Because I’m a liability to them. I can’t keep them safe, and they’re better off without me.”
His brothers stared at him, mouths hanging open as he strode past them. But soon, he heard their footsteps behind him, crunching against the dried grasses and pine needles. They walked in silence for almost half an hour until Bren’s words stopped him in his tracks.
“Bodhi thinks you’re coming back.”
Fuck!
“The regatta,” he replied in a tight whisper.
His thoughts mired in the past, and his days spent numbing the pain through hours of hiking and climbing, he’d lost touch with his commitments.
“Yes, the regatta,” Brennen echoed. “And you might want to know that Cadence is going to sell the houses, and there’s a good chance she’ll leave Denver.”
Cam faced his brothers. “She’s leaving?”
Bren nodded. “I spoke with Abby before we lost cell service coming up here. She and Elle are with Cadence, going through all the antiques, trying to see if there’s anything of value. And you know those glass daisy doorknobs she’s always looking for?”
“Yeah, of course, I do.”
“Abby says Cadence has one more door left that she needs to find knobs for and once she finds them, she’s decided that’s the universe’s way of telling her that it’s time to move on and make a life with Bodhi somewhere else.”
A sick sensation washed over him. At least in Denver, Cadence had her friends and his brothers to look after her. But if she moved, if she left the city, she’d be on her own.
And whose damned fault was that?
His.
“How could you leave them, Cam?” Jas asked.
“You don’t think it kills me not to be with them? Did Abby tell you what happened? Did Cadence tell her why I had to leave?”
Bren shook his head. “Cadence hasn’t said much about that night. Abby says it’s because of Bodhi. Cadence isn’t sure what to tell him, so she used the story Elle came up with for the press.”
“Testing Bergen gear.”
“Yeah.”
Cam scrubbed his hands down his face. “You know how we left your wedding reception to go get Bodhi’s Teddy bear? On the way back, they were doing road work on the westbound side of the highway. So, I decided to take the back roads. A bull elk came out of nowhere, and I nearly hit him.”
“Don’t go there, Cam,” Bren said, but he waved off his brother’s words.
“Had I hit that animal, they could have died. I could have killed them just like I killed Mom and Dad.”
He looked from Bren to Jas—shame rushing through him. They’d never talked about that night. They’d barely spoken at the funeral, and then he’d left. But now he’d ripped the bandage off and exposed the raw, gaping hole in his heart.
“You can’t blame yourself for what happened to Mom and Dad,” Bren said gently.
Cam barked out a tight incredulous laugh. “You know, I almost believed that. I almost let myself think I could do right by Cadence and Bodhi and keep them safe. But that night proved I was wrong.”
Jas stared up at the sky. “Holy hell, we Bergen brothers really know how to fuck things up in this family.”
“Mom and Dad’s deaths weren’t your fault, Jas. You weren’t the one driving.”
Jas held his gaze. “Maybe not, but I had EMT training, and I couldn’t save them.”
“And Mom and Dad wouldn’t have even been in Colorado if I hadn’t told them I wanted them to be there for my competition,” Bren added.
Jasper blew out a pained breath. “Bren and I each felt responsible for Mom and Dad’s death. We let it consume us, and it took a decade of our lives. A decade where Bren numbed the pain with partying, and I worked myself to the bone. We were the worst versions of ourselves all because we felt responsible.”
“Well, you can let yourself off the hook. I was responsible. And I almost got Bodhi and Cadence killed, too.”
“You know who almost got you killed, Cam?” Jas asked, his expression stone cold.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Dad,” his brother answered, his steel-blue eyes darkening. “You were three, and you couldn’t get enough of the cardboard boats Bren and I were building for the regatta, so Dad made one for you.”
Brennen took a step back. “Holy flip, that’s right. I was only five, but I remember Mom calling out and running into Smith Lake.”
Cam closed his eyes as a carousel of blurred images and fuzzy sensations came together. The chill of his mother’s wet arms wrapped around him. The sound of her tight breaths. And his father’s face, dripping with water, pale and petrified.
“Dad threw the boat together quickly and forgot to use waterproof tape on the seams,” Jas continued.
Bren nodded. “And he put my life jacket on you, Cam, and it was too big.”
“Halfway across Smith Lake, the boat sank. Dad expected you to float in the vest, but you slipped out,” Jasper added.
Cam rubbed his nose, his body remembering the sharp sensation of his nostrils filling with lake water and the darkness all around him.
“It had to have only been seconds, but it felt like an eternity, watching Dad go under, trying to find you,” Jas said.
Bren nodded. “And Mom in her dress, running into the water. I think she lost her hat.”
Jasper nodded. “Yeah, she did.”
Cam ran his hands through his hair. “Why are you telling me this, Jas?”
“Do you think Dad meant for that to happen?” his brother pressed.
Cam turned away from his brothers, but Jasper kept going.
“What if Dad decided to leave us in order to keep us safe? Do you see how that makes no sense?”
“It’s not the same, Jas,” he bit out.
“What did Cadence say to you that night? Did she tell you she didn’t want you in her life?”
“No.”
Bren put a hand on his shoulder. “Jas and I almost lost Elle and Abby because we couldn’t let go of the guilt we felt about the past. Don’t make the mistake of letting Cadence and Bodhi go.”
Cam shook his head. “I need you to make sure they’re taken care of.”
Jas released an audible sigh. “You know she won’t take it.”
“Then hire her to run the Bergen Mountain Education Department. She’s more than qualified.”
“I was hoping you’d both agree to lead the department together,” Jasper offered.
“Like Mom and Dad did?” he asked.
His brother’s sharp gaze softened. “Yes.”
Cam shook his head. “I can’t.”
A muscle ticked in Jasper’s jaw. “What’s it going to take to make you see that you’re making the biggest mistake of your life? Do you need a sign from above? Maybe a lightning bolt to knock some sense into you?”
“Jas, let’s just hike to the bottom,” he said and continued down the mountain.
Bren caught up to him. “Where were you going when we came up to the cabin, Cam?”
“Back home.”
“To Denver?” Bren asked with a hopeful bend to the words.
“No, Switzerland.”
“Were you going to tell us?” Jas interjected, catching up to hike alongside them.
“Ye
s, to ask you to look out for Cadence and Bodhi.”
Jasper shook his head. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Cadence doesn’t need to be taken care of. She works hard. She’s got her shit together. She’s raised a pretty amazing kid all on her own. She needs a partner, not a protector,” his brother added then walked ahead.
Cam glanced over at Brennen. “I know what Jas is trying to say, but Cadence needs someone she can count on.”
“That’s you, Cam. She loves you, man. Bodhi loves you,” Bren said, emotion lacing each word.
“I love them, too,” he answered.
“Then stay,” Bren said when Jasper’s voice cut into their conversation.
“Yes, stay put. Right now. Right where you are,” Jasper called, standing in front of a fallen tree.
Cam shook his head. “Jas, I told you—”
“Skunks!” Jasper whisper-shouted, staying stock still.
What the hell was wrong with his brother?
After a few more steps, he saw what the hell was wrong.
Cam stared at the ground near Jasper’s feet as four black and white balls of fur frolicked on his brother’s hiking boots.
“Jas, those are western spotted skunk kits.”
“Kits?” Jas echoed.
“That’s what the young are called,” Cam bit out.
“Flip, Jas!” Bren said, taking a careful step back. “You stepped on a bunch of baby skunks?”
“Not on purpose! Should I run? Are they going to spray me?”
Cam glanced around. Jas had walked right into a skunk den. “Only if they feel threatened.”
“Are they threatened?” Jas asked on a low whisper.
Cam shook his head. “No, I think they like you.”
Jas looked at him and gave him the international expression for what the fuck, dude!
“Move slowly. I don’t see the mother. She’s the one we’ll have to worry about.”
“Would she be about triple the size of the kits with that swirly black-and-white pattern on her fur?” Bren asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because one of those things just brushed past my ankle, moving pretty flipping fast.”
Cam looked over his shoulder as the mama skunk stamped her feet.
Man Find (Bergen Brothers Book 3) Page 24
