“I’m glad I could help. He an ex?”
Her gaze darted to the empty drive before traveling back to him. She shook her head. “I’ve known Derek for five or six years. We went on a few dates this fall. It never went further than dinner. We had zero chemistry. Rather than let it drag on, I told him we were better off as friends, nothing more.” Again, her eyes traveled to the road, and she caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I’m not even sure that’s a good idea anymore.”
It wasn’t, but he wouldn’t tell her that. She’d just had one man try to bully her; she didn’t need another.
Wanting to erase the confusion and fear of the past few minutes, he slowly turned in a circle, taking in his surroundings. “The place looks great. It’s changed since we were kids.” The big house had always been there, as had the large outbuilding. But the squat square building to his left, the stone barnlike structure, and a second cottage were new. As were the extensive gardens. “It looks like a movie set. Even in the winter.”
She smiled when his eyes met hers again. “It’s been in a few movies, actually.”
“No shit? Uh, sorry. I mean, really?”
She laughed, the sound easing the tightness in his chest. “Really. Six of them. Some only for standard background shots, but one, a mystery, filmed almost the entire movie in the hall,” she said, nodding to the original outbuilding.
Once again, he took in the setting. Sundaram had always been special—especially to him—but now it was stunning. Almost fairy tale–like.
“Is that you, Collin?”
He turned toward the newer barn structure to see Vanessa and Harry Shaw walking out. He had no idea how long they’d been married—maybe forty years—and yet they came toward him holding hands.
“Mrs. Shaw, Mr. Shaw, it’s good to see you,” he said, a smile touching his lips for the first time since he’d heard of his father’s death. In the four years between first meeting Helia and leaving to enlist, the Shaws had welcomed him into their home and their family. They’d never asked about what they most certainly knew, or guessed, about his home life. Instead, they’d offered him love and laughter and acceptance, teaching him more about family, real family, in those four years than he’d learned in the prior fourteen.
“Now that we’re all adults, Vanessa and Harry is fine,” Vanessa said, letting go of her husband’s hand and opening herarms to him. He didn’t accept physical affection from many people, but the Shaws were one of the few, and with zero hesitation, he stepped into her embrace, familiar even after all these years. Her hands lingered on his shoulders after she released him, and he thought she might be blinking back tears, but Harry moved up and nudged her out of the way. Always an affectionate father, he didn’t bother with a handshake and embraced Monk as well.
“Why don’t we head into the house, and I can make us all a cup of tea or coffee?” Vanessa offered. “We have wine, too, of course, but we have a very early morning tomorrow and I’m not sure if you’re staying?” She let the question hang, her obvious preference for him to stay written on her face.
“I’m heading home tonight. But I’ll be back,” he said. Three sets of eyes flashed with disappointment. “I’ll stay longer next time,” he added. Relief replaced the disappointment. “Coffee would be great.”
Vanessa smiled and hooked her arm around his. “Excellent, and you can tell us all about what you’ve been up to these past years. You’re certainly taking care of yourself,” she said, patting his biceps.
“Mom!” Helia protested on a laugh as they started toward the main house.
“Just stating a fact,” Vanessa called over her shoulder.
He might have been gone for nearly two decades, but the table Vanessa gestured to as they entered the living quarters remained the same. No surprise since it had lasted two hundred years before being shipped to California by Vanessa’s French father from some old farmhouse the family owned in the south of France.
“Now,” Harry said, taking two mugs from his wife and sliding one to Monk, “tell us everything you’ve been up to since we last saw you.”
All three members of the Shaw family looked at him wearing almost identical expressions of curiosity. He saw no judgment, no censure, for essentially leaving them behind. More than anything, that made him regret he’d done precisely that. At the time, it had felt like what he’d needed to do—leave everything about his life in Napa Valley behind. But now…now he wondered.
“You’re here now,” Helia said, as if reading his mind.
“And we’re glad,” Vanessa added. “I mean, we’rereallyglad—not just that you’re here with us, but that you’re here at all. You know we supported you going into the army, but don’t think we haven’t worried.”
“I should have let you know,” he blurted out. Hindsight was twenty-twenty and all that, but these people had been his family. Then again, he hadn’t fully appreciated what that meant until he’d met his brothers.
“You can let us know now,” Harry said. “Let’s start with the obvious, are you still in the service?”
Monk shook his head. “I live in Mystery Lake. Have been there for almost seven years.”
“Only three hours from here,” Harry said.
“They have some nice wineries north of there,” Vanessa added.
“Why Mystery Lake?” Helia asked.
They seemed genuinely curious, so he told them. Told them about how a motorcycle ride with five of his brothers turned into forever when Dulcie got a flat tire, forcing them to stop. He told them about the men who made up the club and the businesses they ran in town—all seven of them. And he told them about his new “sisters” as four of his brothers had recently found women they intended to spend the rest of their lives with.
They were finishing their second cup of coffee when someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” Vanessa called.
