“I mean, sure, being a homeless teen in need of a place to land so you had to join the army didn’t have anything to do with it.”
It eased something.The slack they could give each other not long after being ready to bruise each other.The slack they could offer each other that they both struggled to offer themselves.
“We’re getting better at giving each other breaks, but I think this trial is going to requireallof us to give ourselves some.”
“Are you guys coming?”Sam demanded, standing on the porch, rubbing her hands together.She could have gone inside on her own, but Nate didn’t point that out.
He was giving everyone some slack.
*
Sam considered havingto be wrapped up in the Bennet family life as some sort of cosmic payment for hounding them for fifteen years.Even if she’d been right about Benjamin Bennet, and her dad’s own innocence at the time, she’d been insufferable.
Rightfully so, she liked to think, but it didn’t change the insufferableness.
So, here she was, sitting around the Bennet dining room table, the smell of lasagna wafting through the air, and the heavy weight of trauma on everyone’s shoulders.
She noted that atthisdinner there was an express lack of alcohol.She figured that was for Cal’s benefit, since him saying he needed a drink after the trial let out seemed to have started that whole… thing.
Sam didn’t have siblings.She’d heard plenty of people talking about good-natured fighting with their siblings.She knew that could even include fists, and God knew the Bennet brothers had their fair share ofnotgood-natured.
But watching Cal and Nate square off had turned her blood cold.So much anger, caused bysomuch hurt.Like a never-ending well of it that nothing could solve or salvage.
It made her unaccountably sad in the moment, but now they were all sitting around like nothing had happened.
Well, scratch that.Cal was decidedly… quiet and subdued.Which was not like him at all.Nate was all military stoicism, and thatwaslike him, but she didn’t think she’d seen thatdepthof blankness on him since before this summer.
The way Aly was fluttering about, getting everything settled on the table led Sam to believe she saw it or felt it, but maybe didn’t understand it.Though Aly had been around Cal her whole life, Sam wouldthinkshe’d understand.
But maybe this whole… thing made everything ten times harder to understand, even if you knew someone well.
And Sam didn’t knowanyoneat this tablethatwell.Something she’d probably do good to remind herself of next time she stepped in between two aching Bennet brothers.Maybe the fight would have done them both some good.Maybe she’d only thwarted the inevitable.
“Sam and I are taking on a case I want to tell you all about,” Nate announced, seemingly out of nowhere, once Aly had sat down and everyone had filled their plates.
Sam’s gaze flew to Nate.He was looking straight at her.So she didn’t have a choice but to hold his gaze while Nate explained Bo’s story.
“It’s not a guarantee it connects to us, but I think it might.He looks too much like us for it not to,” he said once he’d gone through it all.“I want you all to be aware that… this is happening.”
When Sam surveyed the table, everyone was staring mutely at Nate, like he’d spoken in a foreign language.
So Sam figured a littleinvestigatortalk—detached, facts—might rile them up enough to respond.
“The first step will be getting the results of his DNA test.”She took a bite of lasagna.Damn, Aly was a good cook.“He said he sent it in a month ago, so results should be coming in soon.I’m going to talk to the police, but it might be best to rely on these online services.It allows a wide net of matches, and I know a few genetic genealogists who could make connections if it’s not totally obvious.We’d work faster than the police anyway.”
“What’s the thing you’re worried about here?That he’s related to us?”Landon asked, clearly confused.
“Closely related,” Nate confirmed, not even trying to soften it.
Sam had to fight not to wince.
“So?I’m sure there’s some long-lost Bennets along the way.What’s the big deal if he is related to us?”Cal asked, poking at the lasagna on his plate.Sam didn’t think he’d taken one bite.
“Worst-case scenario?”Nate replied.“We know Dad’s not exactly a paragon of virtue.What if he’s got more kids out there?More dead wives or lovers, at his own hand?What if we’re only the beginning?”
Cal put his fork down.Aly reached for Landon’s hand.Then slowly, all eyes turned from Nate to Sam.
“Do you really think that’s a possibility?”Aly asked, horrified.
