A Simple Twist of Fate (21 page)

“To be really romantic Declan should have carved their names in the wet cement so they could see it as they grew old together.” Sophie brushed her foot over the unbroken concrete.

Beck wasn’t quite sure what all that was about, but he now understood his woman had a romantic streak. Good to know. “We didn’t put the concrete down. That was here and in good condition. As for the actual swing set, half falling over, that amounted to a lawsuit waiting to happen, so we fixed it.”

“Weird.”

“Like everything else around here.” But Beck didn’t want to talk swings or houses or Declan. “I do have a favor to ask.”

“I think I’ve proven I’ll say yes to most things you suggest.”

His mind zipped back to the car. Getting her in the backseat and out of her pants proved easy. Getting her out of his head for more than ten seconds a day was the tricky part. And as the days passed, he wasn’t sure he wanted her out.

“Don’t say anything to my brothers and Mom about your aunt’s jewelry.”

Sophie balanced the side of her head against the chain in her right hand. Her hair fell over her shoulders and her nose wrinkled as if she were reasoning out some big question. “I thought you hated secrets.”

“I do.”

“Then you can see where I might be confused by your request.”

“It’s a timing issue. Callen still hasn’t opened that stupid envelope. He and Mom continue to circle the issues they need to work out.” Beck shook his head, trying to say what he wanted in a way that didn’t make him a total hypocrite. “I just think—”

Sophie stopped his words with a touch of her hand against his leg. “I get it.”

“But after all my talk of how secrets destroy, you think I’m—”

“Trying to take care of your family, just as I was taking care of my aunt.” Sophie’s hand squeezed his leg then dropped.

“Wow, I see what you did there.” She wrapped it all up, nice and neat, and had him rethinking all his lectures about separating the parts of her life.

She wiggled her eyebrows. “Impressive, right?”

So impressive that he had to beat back the need to throw her over his shoulder and take her upstairs to bed. “You made your point.”

The amusement faded from her eyes as she grabbed for his hand. “I don’t want anyone in your family or mine hurt.”

He dropped down on the balls of his feet and crouched in front of her so he could see her eye to eye. “I promise that once some of the pressure is off I’ll get the entire family to help search.”

Her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth. “You brothers may not be as understanding.”

That’s the part she got wrong. “We fight and argue, but there is one thing we always agreed on. If we find any of the stuff Charlie stole, we’ll do everything we can to make sure the victims get it all back.”

She had his hand in both of hers now. “And to think you believed you were like Charlie in any way.”

“We know what it’s like to be used by him, and it sucked.”

She leaned over and kissed him. Just long enough for her tongue to slip inside before she sat back again. “No talking about the jewelry. We’ll save that reveal for later.”

“No talking about it and
no searching
. For now you come in and out of the house as my girlfriend. If you want to keep cleaning, we’ll keep paying you, but it’s separate.”

She kissed his hand. “I like that you use the word when you talk about me.”

“Cleaning?”

“Aren’t you funny?” She laughed at his joke but her smile soon disappeared. “But my aunt does need the jewelry back. My uncle has been asking questions and wants it appraised, so there is a sense of urgency.”

“If it’s here we’ll get it to her. But not now. No searching now.” Beck went down to his knees, trapped between Sophie’s legs as he wanted to be; she slipped his arms around her waist. “You can’t fix everything for your aunt . . . and why are you smiling?”

“I’m thinking we can both stand to learn that lesson.”

He’d been the repair guy for so long that it was all he knew. “I fix for a living.”

“I prefer when you play teacher.”

He shifted her to the front of the thin black strip of a seat. “Then tell me what you want to learn and I’ll tell you how little you need to wear.”

“I’m liking you on your knees. We can start there.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Beck sensed the conversation coming. It hovered on her tongue. Sat right there waiting to knock him off stride.

The Talk
.

He’d spent an hour with his mother, buying groceries and some stuff for the house. He thought they had enough sheets and pillows. She disagreed, and who was he to argue when his mother was on a mission. Not that she gave him a second to try. She kept up a nonstop line of talk, circling and sometimes hitting on the subject he knew interested her the most.

At first he thought it was just luck of the draw that he’d been standing at the bottom of the staircase this morning when she declared she needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. There was a huge backyard of it right there, but she insisted they get in the car just for a few minutes.

Right. Now he knew better. She’d dropped Sophie’s name a dozen times in an hour. Even added a comment about it being time he stopped traveling and found a home. Not exactly the most subtle mother-son moment ever.

But they were headed back to the car and home, which Beck knew meant his time had expired. Any minute now she’d—

“I like her.”

Uh-huh. “Who?”

His mom stopped even though the light indicated they could cross and slip down a few blocks and right into the car. She stared at him with her patented nice try face. She’d been using that one for years, always with great success. “Don’t play dumb.”

“Wanted to see how forthcoming you’d be.”

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and ignored the cars driving by. “I’m not trying to hide the question.”

“Clearly.”

“I’m talking about Sophie.” Mom wrapped her fingers around her purse strap. “She’s good for you.”

He balanced the bags of milk and bread and whatever else his mother picked up and stuffed in there. Interesting how she’d waited until he was weighed down in both hands to hit him with a love-life interrogation.

“Beck? I’m waiting.”

And she wasn’t letting this subject go.

It’s not as if he wanted to engage in a game of hide-and-seek, but he’d barely gotten his footing with Sophie. He finally stopped reeling after learning about Sophie’s connection to Charlie, but that didn’t mean he had any idea how to handle his feelings for her. Or even what those were.

From the start she’d had him off-balance and rushing to keep up. The only thing he knew for sure was he wanted to be with her. Like, all the fucking time, which was a first for him.

He respected women. Loved talking with them, listening to them, sleeping with them. But everything was different with Sophie. More intense and immediate. He hoped with her secrets behind them and the promise about the jewelry, they could build the trust and see what came from that.

None of that fit neatly on a greeting card or in a sentence he could package and sell to his mom. “This thing with Sophie is—”

“Oh, please. Don’t try to tell me it’s nothing or informal.” His mom emphasized the comment with a disapproving frown.

“I actually was going to say new.”

“That’s okay then.” She tucked her hand under his elbow and walked to the curb as they waited for the light to turn again. “Your brothers say you’ve been interested in her since day one.”

He doubted they said interested. “My brothers should shut up.” Beck made a mental note to bang their heads together when he got back home.

“Usually, yes.”

Running to Mom to talk about his love life? They were acting like little girls. Beck half expected that from Declan. He’d fallen in love and lost most of his mind over Leah. But Callen?

Cars kept going by, none of them rushing and most slowing down as they passed. Suddenly the sleepy Main Street had turned into whatever Sweetwater’s equivalent of a freeway might be. “And you know it’s weird talking with you about my love life, right?”

“You used to.”

“Okay, last time I did I was twelve, and I still say Dawn Premble shoving me while knowing I wouldn’t shove her back was uncool.”

“You wouldn’t have hurt a girl back then or any woman now.”

When the light turned, he stiffened his arm for more support and eased forward, balancing his weight between the street and sidewalk so his mom could take a step down without trouble. “All men should have that rule.”

“Amen to that.” His mom smiled and her whole face lit up. “I like who you are with her. Sophie, I mean.”

He worried this was the look his mom got when she wanted a grandchild. Yeah, she could throw that at Leah and Declan. “I figured you didn’t mean Dawn.”

“She makes you get out of your head.”

He thought about laughing the comment off until he realized his mom had lost him. “Do I want to know what that means?”

She stopped on the opposite side of the street and stared up at him. “You’re my peacemaker and thinker. I admire that, but sometimes you need to step back and enjoy life. Not be so focused.”

Not the first time he’d heard that. Not that he agreed. As far as he saw it, he had a decent life. Good job. A girlfriend he never expected who kept both his dick and his brain well satisfied, and approximately four thousand square feet of a house that needed floor-to-ceiling repairs.

Compared to others, he was pretty damn lucky, which wasn’t a word he ever thought he’d use to describe any aspect of his life. “What are Declan and Cal?”

“My rescuer and my loner.”

Those labels Beck could see. “Not hard to figure out which is which there.”

“I wasn’t going for subtlety.”

His fingers cramped from where he gripped the grocery bags, but Beck had a topic he wanted to discuss. If she could nose her way in, so could he. “But you are stalling. I know you rushed here to tell Callen something. I’m also thinking you haven’t done it.”

“I came to see all my boys and meet the women who grabbed their attention.” She turned toward the car.

Funny how she looked ready to run now. “Mom, whatever it is will not get better by ignoring it.”

The noises on the street from closing car doors to fragments of conversation all faded into the background. A stray honk of a horn and the sudden appearance of the pharmacist in front of his store didn’t matter. The whole world stopped as he waited to see his mom’s reaction.

She pivoted, slow and deliberate, to face him again with the smile long gone. “I’ve been around for a long time, seen a lot of crazy things. I survived your father and near-poverty, a crushing blow to my self-esteem, a loss of friends and a spiraling depression that nearly stole my life. None of that mattered because I had the three of you, even though Charlie tried to destroy that, too.”

In an instant, Beck saw he’d miscalculated. He never wanted her to feel like she had to explain her life or justify it. Not when he’d only felt amazement and pride for all she’d overcome and achieved. Whatever success he managed in his life came from her.

Beck reached for her, ignoring the bags swinging from his arm. “Mom—”

“I had children I loved with every ounce of my soul but there were days when I couldn’t feed them. A family that pretended I didn’t exist, and still do.” She swallowed as her fingers wrapped tighter on her purse strap. “A whole lifetime of horrible things I never dreamed would happen but did. When I was nineteen I foolishly fell in love with Charlie and believed every word. I followed him across two states, leaving everything I knew and knowing far less than I should have, to be with him.”

Beck hated his father for many things. He hated most what Charlie had taken from his mom.

Still, Beck couldn’t understand what else could be lingering out there and how it could be worse than what she’d endured. “So you don’t think you’ll survive whatever this secret is with Callen?”

“My point is that so much has happened in my life that wasn’t on my terms. I need this to be.”

Beck opened his mouth then closed it again. “Fair enough.”

“You understand?”

Only too well. “Actually, yes.”

She shook her head as she gestured for him to join her on the rest of the walk to the car. “You can’t solve every problem, my dear son.”

“You are the second person to tell me that in twenty-four hours.”

His mom stopped as quickly as she’d started walking again. “Kristin Accord.”

The response made no sense. “What?”

“By your car.”

Beck’s gaze shot down the block. There, leaning against the hood in her usual long skirt stood Kristin Accord. Beck’s mind flashed the last time he saw her and her two calls since then. He’d missed both and returned neither. And she’d shown up again.

No fucking way.

A white fury clouded his vision as he motioned to his mom. “Stay here. I’ll take care of it.”

Her shoes clicked on the sidewalk behind him. “No, I will.”

Not being weighed down by bags and fueled by an emotion Beck thought might be anger, his mom passed him. Big steps ate up the trail to the car. He tried to stop her but from the way she held her shoulders and back rigid that looked impossible.

“Mom, no.” Beck reached the car the second after his mother did. He dropped the bags on the sidewalk with a soft thud and kicked an orange that rolled out of one.

But it was too late. His mother hovered over Kristin, making the woman jump.

Kristin stepped away from the car with her gaze darting around and her hands twisted together in front of her. “Mrs. Hanover . . . I didn’t know—”

“I am in town to visit my sons. And you should leave.” Tension pounded off his mother and her body was pulled tight enough to snap.

Beck understood because the same fire ran through him. This woman kept popping up, bothering Callen. But that was nothing compared to his mother’s disdain.

“I am trying to help,” Kristin said in a soft voice.

“No, you are interfering. You want to control this and the answer is no. This is not your business.” His mother put a hand against her chest. “I will tell Callen what he needs to know.”

Like some show of defiance, Kristin’s chin rose. “You haven’t in thirty years.”

The flash of defensiveness sent Beck’s temper spiking. He wanted this woman, whoever she was, away from everyone he cared about. “I told you what would happen if you came near my family again.”

Not that filing charges would do any good. With Police Chief Darber and his hatred for the Hanovers, nothing would ever happen to someone who threatened them. Hell, Darber would likely deputize anyone who claimed to be their enemy.

“Let me be clear, Ms. Accord.” His mother put a hand on his arm and stepped in closer. The intensity in her words and movements demanded attention. “If you come near my sons, you will face me. And, as you well know, at this point I have very little left to lose.”

“You’re telling him?” Kristin asked.

“Yes, because it is my story to tell. My decision. My timing.”

Kristin shook her head. “It’s not so simple.”

“If Callen wants to call you after, he will.”

After what? Beck wanted to ask but didn’t. They needed a united front, no matter what it cost him to stand there. “I have your phone numbers.”

The spike of strength seemed to abandon Kristin. Her shoulders fell and she pleaded with her eyes. “Please, Kim.”

“Now you’re begging, but you’ve used threats and attempted bribery before.” His mother gulped in air as she ramped up with her words rushing together. “You sent lawyers after me.”

“I was desperate.”

And with that information, Beck was done.

More people gathered across the street. Sure, they pretended to look in shop windows or in one case read a newspaper, but it was clear they’d come out looking for a showdown. He had no intention of giving them one.

He would not have his mother attacked on the sidewalk of Sweetwater. “Last warning, Ms. Accord.”

A charged silence filled the air. “I’ll wait to hear from Callen.”

Then she spun away. In a walk that verged on a run, she got to the corner and turned out of sight. But the energy pulsing around them didn’t dissipate. It built and kept slamming into Beck.

His main concern was his mom. “Are you okay?”

She broke her stare with the empty sidewalk in front of her and glanced at him. “Except for the part where you’re right.”

The sadness in her blue eyes almost destroyed him. “About what?”

“I need to talk with Callen.”