Asher was still smiling as he got up. “I’m going to the nurses’ station for some info on home healthcare. You two feel free to update Dad as to the recent developments of my love life. I’ll be back shortly.”
* * *
The trip back to Crossroads felt shorter—the mood lighter. They were hoping to get home in time to catch a news bulletin about the recovered money. Asher wasn’t going to assume the Feds had kept their word until he heard it for himself.
He glanced at the time, wondering how far Nora haddriven, and how many hours she had to go. It was at least a five-hour drive—too early to expect an arrival text, but he was feeling off balance. Thief that she was, she’d left town with his heart.
* * *
Once Nora left Highway 86 for southbound US 287, the distance between her and Asher became a reality. The nearer she got to home, meant an increasing distance from him. The next few weeks were going to be challenging. Getting back into the full routine of her job. Notifying her employer of the upcoming move, dispatching her furniture in the ivory tower, before the freedom to move to Austin. The upheaval of her old life had yet to settle.
She knew dithering would not be a wise move. If she didn’t get there soon, Asher would come get her, lay waste to whatever barriers she’d made for herself, and what was left behind would go begging. A quick ache of longing washed through her, but she put wishing aside for the reality of what was.
He loved her. He cherished her.
Making love to him made her crazy.
She would never take the love he’d given her for granted again.
* * *
Back in Crossroads, the Kingston brothers had just walked into the Yellow Rose for lunch when the breaking news bulletin about the recovery of the missing money, along with the end of Brenda Kingston’s story, hit every major news outlet. It was airing in sports bars, businesses, airports, and people’s homes, and it was live on the TV hanging behind the register at the Yellow Rose Café.
Pearl saw Jacob’s sons walking in, and as always, the thought they could have been her sons came and went. And then Asher was pointing at the TV and asking her to turn up the volume.
The sudden blast of the news alert silenced the entire dining room. They turned where they sat, saw Jacob’s sons, and then one by one, got up from their seats and moved closer to hear what was being said.
Asher felt Dylan and Gunner moving up behind him.
When Special Agent Alex Worth appeared on screen, they tensed. But the moment he began, they knew he was good for his word. The first words out of his mouth were about the recovery of the missing money, and then the story of how it came to be found. He stated vehemently that had someone not tried to murder Jacob Kingston, and had his sons, two of whom were officers of the law in their own lives, not joined together to work with the local authorities in an effort to find who tried to kill their father, the money would not have been found. He lauded the sons for solving a twenty-one-year-old cold case, as well as catching the attempted murderers and turning them over to the local authorities. He also included the moral strength and honor it must have taken for Jacob’s sons, in realizing the depth of their mother’s involvement and still wanting the truth revealed.
The show returned to normal programming, but the room full of diners was silent, in awe of what they’d heard, but not sure how to react. It wasn’t until Asher and his brothers high-fived each other that the room erupted in cheers, then the brothers swooped Pearl up into their arms and carried her through the dining room on their shoulders like the heroine she was.
“Pearl is the heroine! She’s the one who saved Dad’s life. We just butt-kicked the perps who tried to kill him,” Gunner said.
Pearl was laughing and crying and whopping all three of them on the head. “Something’s burning in the kitchen. Put me down!” she cried.
Davey the grill cook came running. “It was me, Pearl. It was me. It’s out. It’s okay,” then darted back into the kitchen.
More laughter erupted as they were putting her down. She was red-faced and giggling as she hurried back into the kitchen. Diners returned to their seats, and the brothers seated themselves at an empty table.
Asher looked out across the room at the faces of the diners, most of whom they’d known all their lives. Today had ended the last ugly whisper of gossip about them and their dad. It had been a long time coming, but the justice was sweet.
He wished with all his heart that Nora had been here to celebrate with him, but it gave him a sense of peace, knowing the family they made together would never be painted with a brush of suspicion.
As they ate the food that they’d ordered, Jacob Kingston was celebrating on his own. He, too, had been watching TV, hoping to catch the bulletin, but he was alone when it began airing, and it was just as well. He watched the entire press conference with tears rolling down his face.
For the first time since the day the Feds took Brenda away in cuffs, he felt clean again—no longer a shadowy suspect in the eyes of the public. No more ugly gossip. He owed Pearl for saving his life, and he owed his sons for tracking down his killers, and for saving his reputation. He wasn’t sure how the rest of his life would play out, but there wasn’t going to be another day he lived without gratitude for still breathing.
* * *
After the brothers got back to the house, they sat down at the kitchen table for one last meeting, totaled up shared costs, and Venmoed their share of cost to each brother they owed, right down to Gunner’s rental car that they’d all been using.
“Okay, we’re square with each other on money, but there are still a couple of things we need to do here. If Dad’s coming home tomorrow, then we need to clean house, shop for groceries for him, not what we’ve been eating, do the laundry, and basically give him his house back.”
“I’ll clean,” Dylan said.
“I’ll shop for the groceries,” Gunner said.
