Sophie gasped. “How can you say that? Kent is out there.”
“He’s not, Mom,” Grant countered. “It’s time to let him go and move on.”
“You’re wrong,” Kenzi interjected angrily. “If you don’t care enough to help, Grant, Dax and I will find him.”
Dax hugged his wife but said, “I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t care, Kenzi.”
She glared up at Dax. “Whose side are you on?”
Lance added, “Everyone understands why you want to believe he’s alive, Kenzi. You’ve always had a fascination with twins. Being one made you feel special. We all want to find him, but—”
Kenzi’s face went red. “Oh, my God, you’re ready to just give up on him, too? And this isn’t about how I feel, this is about Mom. Is it too ugly for you to want to deal with it? You’d rather just sweep it under the rug and pretend we’re a perfect family again? When are you going to grow some balls and face that life isn’t always pretty?”
Andrew withdrew to the other room with Helene. Ian followed them.
Dax suggested gently, “Kenzi, why don’t we step outside for a minute?”
She stepped away from Dax. “You always say you’re big on honesty. Well, I’m honestly disappointed that you’re not on my side about this.”
“Stop,” Grant roared in a voice many decibels above anything he’d ever used with his family. “Do you see the destructive potential of going down this road? Look at us, we’re already turning on each other. We’ve come so far. Asher, you have an amazing wife and child. Lance, you and Willa have the twins. Kenzi, I’ve never seen you happier than you are with Dax. We have too much to lose. Thirty years ago, Patrice nearly destroyed this family. What she did hung over all of us. There is nothing to be gained by learning more. If by some crazy twist it isn’t Kent that we buried, what do you think she did with him? I can guarantee you it wasn’t good. I want my brother back as much as anyone else, but you know what I don’t want? I don’t want to trade the chance I have at having a family of my own for what will almost certainly be another disgusting insight into the evil a sociopath is capable of. I love all of you. Don’t give one sick woman the power to rip us apart again. Haven’t we given her enough?”
A heavy silence hung over the room. Sophie went to Grant and placed a loving hand on her cheek. “I can’t move on until I find Kent.”
“I understand.” Grant placed his hand over his mother’s. “But I can’t do this for you. I just found out I’m going to be a father with a woman who thinks I don’t care, and that’s where my time and my energy will be directed. I don’t want to live in the past. I choose now. This is where I can make things better. I love you, Mom, but I can’t go where you want to take us.”
In the background, Kenzi said, “Does it have to be one or the other?”
Grant met her eyes over the head of their mother. “You tell me. If I were you, I wouldn’t risk what you have to discover what you probably don’t want to know.”
Dax took Kenzi’s hand. “There is no risk, because I stand with Kenzi no matter where this leads.” He arched an eyebrow at Grant. “But it does sound like you need to resolve that other issue before you can do the same.”
Sophie lowered her hand to her son’s chest above his heart. “You’re going to be a father?”
“Yes,” he said with a small smile.
“So when is the wedding?” she asked.
Dale interjected, “He might have some convincing to do first.”
Sophie searched Grant’s face then said, “Thank you for understanding that I’m strong enough that you can be honest with me. You’re right. You don’t belong here, hunting down what happened a long time ago.”
He kissed her cheek softly. “If I thought there was any chance—”
“Go get me my next daughter-in-law and grandchild,” his mother said. She looked around, seeming to realize only then that some of her children had left the room. “And thank you for reminding me this has to be done delicately. I will protect my children this time—all of them.”
A short time later, Grant was walking down the steps of his parents’ house when Kenzi called out to him, “Grant, wait.”
He stopped short of his car and turned around. Things had ended on a reasonably good note, and he was happy to leave before the tide turned again. “Yes?”
She rushed toward him with Emily, Willa, and Helene at her heels. “We wanted to talk to you before you left.”
We? Oh, God. “Okay.”
They made a semi-circle around him, backing him practically up against his car. Willa asked, “Was the woman who rushed out of your office the one who is having your baby?”
“Yes. Her name is Viviana Sutton.”
“Why would she think you don’t care that she’s pregnant?” Helene asked.
“How long have you been seeing her?” Kenzi added.
Emily chimed in. “How far along is she?”
What no chair, ropes, and flashlight? Didn’t every interrogation require those? His head was spinning from their questions. “How about if I simply introduce you to her after we work things out?”
Kenzi cocked her head to one side. “She’s the reason you’ve been acting so different lately. It all makes sense now.”
“Different?” Grant hedged.
Emily nodded. “Even Asher says he’s noticed a change. She’s good for you.” She smiled. “He said you chewed him out about not telling me where he was going with Andrew. Thank you for that. I love your brother, but he’s still rough around the edges.”
Feeling more than a little uncomfortable, Grant merely shrugged.
Willa said, “You’re always there to take care of everyone else. We wanted you to know you’re going to be an incredible father.”
“Thank you.” If I shift just a foot over, I can open my car door.
Helene rubbed her chin. “In nature, animals woo mates in all kinds of ways. Some pound their chests. Some make an attractive nest. Others flaunt bright plumage.”
Kenzi’s eyebrows came together in concern. “None of them offer to balance each other’s checkbooks. Go easy on that.”
Grant straightened to his full height, feeling offended. Not one of the women around him seemed the least bit intimidated, though.
Emily added, “She may or may not have health insurance. Don’t let that be the first thing you ask her about. You can figure all of that out once you’re with her.”
“I know how to talk to women,” Grant protested.
“Of course you do,” Willa said a little too quickly. “We just want this to work out for you.”
“So, what’s your plan?” Kenzi asked.
A movement in the background caught Grant’s attention. His brothers were standing just outside the door with huge smiles on their faces. Even Dax. When they realized he saw them there, they waved and retreated back into the house. Cowards.
“I thought I would drive down to see her,” Grant said.
“And?” Kenzi prodded.
“Tell her that hearing she’s pregnant moved up my timetable of seeing her again.”
All four women shook their heads in an eerily synchronized manner.
“Don’t say that,” Emily said.
Helene added, “Yeah, that’s bad.”
“But it did. I knew that hearing about Kent would shake the family up. I wanted to wait until that had passed before calling her.”
“How did you leave things with her?” Kenzi asked. “What was the last conversation you had?”
He cringed. “It wasn’t good. She came to my office, but all the shit was hitting the fan then, and I may have offended her by being too honest about how we met.”
“How did you meet?” Emily asked.
Leaving out the storage room details, Grant briefly outlined what had sent him out that night in search of regular people. “Marc said it was vital I learn how the average person speaks.”
Willa gasped and asked, “And that’s what you told her?”
“I was attempting to explain—”
Kenzi turned to the other women. “He didn’t mean it in a bad way. Grant is the most grounded of my brothers. He just doesn’t sound it sometimes.”
“I’m perfectly capable of speaking for myself,” Grant protested.
