“What are we toasting?”They both looked up to see Dan Malone and Jinx walking toward them.
“To Grace’s new business,” his nephew replied.He handed Dan one of the filled glasses.
“Well, then...”Dan raised the glass in a toast.“Here’s to Grace.May she be so busy, she has to hire some help.”
Grace laughed, and Sean thought he had never heard anything so beautiful.Giving himself a mental shake, he reminded himself this was Bonnie’s niece.He had no business thinking of her as anything but...damn it.
“The chef sent me out to get you,” Dan said.“It’s a little too chilly for us old folks to eat out here, so we set the table inside.”He grabbed the fourth glass of wine as Sean stood and took the now empty bottle with him.Grace followed, and Sean opened the door for her and his uncle.
Grace grinned at him.“I see all those manners your parents and Dan drilled into you still exist.”
He chuckled as he followed her inside.“Not holding a door for your elders or a woman is a mortal sin in Dan’s book.”
“Damn straight,” Dan agreed.Spotting Bonnie coming out of the kitchen, he put the wine glasses on the dining table and ran to relieve her of the large bowl of stew she was carrying.“And not helping a lady in need is another one.”He gave Sean a meaningful look.“Now go grab the salad and bread, so Bonnie can relax.She’s been slaving over your dinner all day.”
Sean gave his uncle a smile and a smart salute.“Yes, sir!”
The women laughed as Dan scowled at him.“Little brat,” he scoffed in a tone that was nothing but affectionate for his youngest nephew.
Sean returned with a big bowl of salad and a basket of warm, sliced bread and placed them on the table.Sitting across from Grace, he bowed his head as Dan asked for God’s blessing for their meal.
As Jinx snored softly from his spot under Dan’s chair, the conversation at dinner consisted mostly of Grace and Sean relating what else had happened in their lives since they’d last seen each other.Sean related how he’d received his master’s degree in criminal justice while in the Army.After he was accepted into the FBI academy in Quantico, he put in for and received his honorable discharge.“I’ve spent my entire career, so far, in Jacksonville, Florida.But I put in for a transfer to be near my new niece or nephew.”
Grace nodded as she swallowed a sip of wine.“Dan told me KC got married, and his wife is pregnant.That’s great.I can’t wait to meet them.I barely knew KC since he was seventeen when you all came to live with Dan, and then he took off for the Navy the following year.Since I was nine then and only here visiting Bonnie during the summers and on holidays, I knew you and Brian better.”
Sean thought back to his teenage years.He’d been fourteen, and his brother Brian sixteen, when their parents were suddenly taken away from them.The couple had been flying to Hawaii to celebrate their twentieth anniversary when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 194 souls on board.Dan, a widower with no children of his own, had taken the three boys in to finish raising them as his brother and his wife had—with rules, sternness, and much love.He may have been thrown unexpectedly into the role of parent, but Dan Malone had fully accepted the responsibility, and the boys had flourished.
Despite the tragedy in their formative years, the three boys had grown up to be respectable men, each serving in a different military branch.KC had chosen a career in the Navy, and Sean and Brian had both gone into law enforcement after stints in the Army and Air Force, respectively.Their uncle couldn’t be prouder of them and always bragged about their accomplishments to anyone willing to listen.
Returning to the present, Sean told Grace, “Well, you’ll see KC and Moriah in two weeks for Easter since they’re coming here.Bonnie invited us all for dinner—God bless her and her fantastic cooking.”He chuckled, giving the older woman a quick look filled with fondness.“You’ll see Brian too.He’s a detective with the state troopers now and lives near Elizabeth City.”
“Good for him,” Grace replied, then added enthusiastically, “I can’t wait to see him.”
Sean silently gritted his teeth.He remembered teasing his older brother when it had been obvious that prepubescent Grace had an enormous crush on Brian.Now, though, the thought of Grace and Brian together bothered the hell out of him.Did she still have an infatuation with the middle Malone brother?He sure as hell hoped not.
The rest of the evening went by quickly but comfortably, and Sean’s guests left just after 10:00 p.m.Three hours later, he was sound asleep, having a very erotic dream about a woman who looked, not surprisingly, exactly like Grace Whitman, and she was doing incredible things to him with her mouth and hands.But for some reason, there was an annoying telephone ringing in the background of his dream.It was making it hard for him to concentrate on what his fantasy woman was doing to him.
His eyes opened, and he realized the ringing was coming from his cell phone on the nightstand beside him.Groaning at the untimely interruption and the fact that he was harder than he had been in a long time, he grabbed the phone and answered it without looking at the caller ID.
“Who the hell is this?”he growled.
There was a pause, and then, “Sean?It’s Sheriff Griffin.Sorry to wake you.”
“Matt?”He glanced at the bedside clock.One fifteen in the morning.A brush of fear swept over him.“What’s wrong?Is it Uncle Dan?”
“No!No!Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” the sheriff apologized.“But I need your professional assistance.Dan told me you were staying at the beach house.I’m out on a homicide, and I think we have a major problem on our hands.I’d appreciate it if you could come to take a look.”
Sean sat up, the last of his dream fading quickly from his head.He climbed out of bed.“Where are you?”Whatever Matt needed help with, it didn’t sound good.In fact, the man actually sounded scared.
“Do you remember how to get to Red Maple Park?”
“Yeah.”He pulled a clean, unripped pair of jeans from the middle dresser drawer.
“Well, when you get here, follow the lights.”The sheriff paused again as he cleared his throat.“And Sean?”
“What?”
“I hope you have an empty stomach.”
