“Around town,” I said, keeping my voice even. “People talk.” I shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. “Like they always do.” This was me fishing for information, breaking my rule about indulging in gossip.
“Of course they do,” he muttered, rubbing a hand over his jaw like the name itself gave him a headache. He looked older in that moment, weighed down. “Derek was her ex. Things didn’t end well, or begin well.”
The understatement made my stomach twist. “What kind of not well?”
“I’m not going to lay her history out for you,” Wade said firmly, his voice taking on that clipped, official tone that I hated. “If she wants you to know, she’ll tell you. You know those things called conversations between two adults? Relationships?” My brother frowned at me. “You just got back into town, East. Are you interested in her?”
“Wade.” I tried to keep my voice steady, but it came out rougher than I intended. “If he’s dangerous, maybe …” I was grasping at straws. Was I interested in Lila? “Maybe we should be concerned for Sage.” I blurted out like an idiot.
“Okay,” Wade drawled, unconvinced. “Well, I think Sage would be pissed at you right now, even bringing that up. You know how she feels about that sort of stuff.” He clicked his pen again. “Either way, Derek’s not here,” Wade cut in, sharper this time. “And if he were, I’d know.”
Sage did hate when we were overprotective. Not that it stopped any of us from worrying about her.
He sounded sure. Too sure. But I couldn’t make myself believe it. “You’re certain about the ex?”
He met my gaze, steady and unflinching. “I’m sure. Leave the investigating to me.” He frowned.
“I just don’t get why I give a damn,” I muttered, mostly to myself. All night I’d wondered about it. WhenWade had gotten the call from Sage, he’d been at the farmhouse playing backgammon with me, Kipp, and Maggie. There was no way I wasn’t going along.
Wade’s mouth curved, not quite a smile. “Maybe because you’ve got a pulse. She’s pretty, nice, funny, and successful. A catch.”
I shot him a look. “Funny.”
“Not funny. True.” He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, pinning me with his eyes. “You act like you don’t care, like you can pack up and walk out of this town tomorrow. But if that were true, you wouldn’t be sitting here asking me about Lila Merrick. I’m guessing you’re the one who boarded up the broken glass last night on the back door.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to leave it like that.” His words landed harder than I wanted. I looked away, focused on the rain sliding down the windowpane. “I don’t like seeing someone shoved around, that’s all,” I said finally. “She’s friends with Sage and Chloe.” The reason sounded weak even to me.
Wade let it hang there, not calling me out, not letting me off the hook either.
After a long silence, he asked, “How’s Maggie this morning?”
The question pulled me out of my spiral. “Holding steady. She’s frustrated, though. Wants to move around more than she should. You know her. She expects a lot of herself. Sage is with her now. I’ll head back after this and take the evening shift. Make her dinner, go through therapy exercises, and get her settled. Kipp will be withher tomorrow.”
He nodded, his expression softening. “Good. Chloe said she’s making progress. Slow, but it’s progress. She looked good last night.”
“She did,” I said. “She just hates depending on us. You know how she is. Stubborn. She’s mad she can’t do everything by herself.” I shook my head.
He huffed a quiet laugh. “Guess she taught us well.”
For a moment, the tension cracked, and we were just brothers again. Then it slipped back into place.
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” Wade asked.
“Are you?”
He didn’t answer right away. Then his mouth twitched. “Point taken.”
He clicked his pen a few times, as if the sound would break the heaviness, before digging a piece of candy out of his pocket. “Stay out of trouble, East.” Unwrapping it, he slid the Jolly Rancher into his mouth and twisted the plastic for a minute before pointing it at me. “Let me do my job. If Derek shows his face, I’ll deal with him.”
I stood, tugging my jacket back on. “And if it’s not Derek?”
Wade’s eyes hardened, steady as steel. “I’ll find out who it is. One way or another. I’m still going over things with Lila to see if anything was taken. I’m talking it out with the guys at Redhawk so they can do a deep dive. Maybe there’s someone in Lila’s past who has a vendetta. I’ll let you know of anything that pops, okay?”
“Thanks, man. I just want to help.”
On the drive home, I passed the old feed store, thenslowed by a small craftsman bungalow I’d been eyeing. The place needed everything—new roof, new siding, probably a complete gut job inside—but my contractor brain was already running estimates. I’d picked up two smaller jobs in the last few weeks, a deck repair and a kitchen remodel, and word was starting to spread.
Holt Construction was barely a name yet in Wildwood Meadows, but if I was going to stay here for Maggie, it needed to be. My business was still doing well in Boise, and my right-hand man, Jett, was managing it while I was gone. I hadn’t fully decided what I was going to do about work yet. Right now, I was just taking on jobs to stay sane, but maybe there was a way to run a branch here. It was something to chew on.
