Jack spent the most time telling of what happened after Kate was born. When he told who betrayed Randal and why, Lea stared at him in disbelief.
“When Kate was here, she and her father were inseparable. I’ve never seen a parent and child love each other more. That they were separated—” Lea turned away to blink back tears.
“Yeah,” Jack said. “The poor kid was so traumatized she blocked out all memory of him, and of Sara.”
“Ah, yes, Sara. How are you attached to her?”
He told how Sara had more or less rescued him, his mother, and his sister when Jack’s stepdad died unexpectedly. Sara gave Jack the money to start his construction business, and later, she showed him the world outside Florida. “Come on,” he said. “Let me show you where Cal and Sara met from the time they were children.”
They closed their empty boxes and went outside. Next door was the Wyatt house, where Cal had grown up. Jack showed her the path covered in old hubcaps. It had almost been buried over the years but Jack had restored it. He explained that Cal’s father ran an auto repair shop. “When a car fell on the old man and crippled him, Cal gave up college and stayed in Lachlan to run the shop and support his father and his stepmother.”
“Who were horrible to him,” Lea said.
“Right.”
Jack led them to the end of the path. There was a crumbling concrete floor. “Used to have a wooden frame with vines over it.”
“A love nest.”
“Probably.” He nodded toward a wooden bench. “This is new.” They sat down.
They were silent for a while, then Lea smiled. “Cal was a darling. That week we were at Lachlan House, he did all the work Roy was paid to do. Did you know that Cal and James Lachlan were great friends?”
“Sara said something about that, but I didn’t think it was a ‘great’ friendship.”
“Oh yes! One day I made lemonade and brownies and took them out to Cal. He’d been on the roof doing something and he was sweaty. He apologized but...” She grinned. “Lord! But he was a good-looking man. No offense, but he was even better than you and Roy.”
Jack was far from offended. “The Magnificent Three. That’s what he and his two buddies were called in high school.”
“I can believe it. Cal and I sat in the shade and talked. He told me about how much he missed James. He said he’d been like a real father to him. Cal said that when he was little he and his mother visited Lachlan House often. She cooked for him. Poor man. I can understand. James was a childless widower for many years.”
“I knew Grandad worked here, but I didn’t know they were actual friends,” Jack said in wonder.
“James used to play catch with Cal. And football. Not American but soccer. Cal said his mother showed them how to kick the ball around. She was quite good at it.”
“Renata?” Jack was astonished.
“If that’s your great-grandmother’s name, yes. She was from Argentina, I think.”
“Brazil,” Jack said. “She died long before I was born. I know Grandad always missed her. She was the buffer between him and his father. What else did he say?”
“That’s all. Cal saw Roy doing nothing and went after him.” She gave Jack a sharp look. “How did you and Cal turn out so good and Roy was so...?” She waved her hand, unable to think of the words.
“Mothers,” he said. “Cal had Renata and I had my mom, Heather. Roy’s mother was a woman named Donna. She is not a nice person.”
“Is that a big understatement?”
“Oh yeah.”
“She’s still alive?”
“Yes, but I don’t see her. She liked her son and no one else on earth.”
“Not her beautiful husband, Cal?”
“Especially not him.”
“Then why in the world did he—?”
