Jed raised an eyebrow. “Thisis your car?”
Christ, Nick was thirty-one, not fifty. Could the shady world of real estate do this to a man? Turn him into a walking midlife crisis?
Nick unlocked the car. “Kim’s set you up in the back room on the first floor. You know, until you get straightened out.”
“Kicking me out already?” Jed put his bag in the back and slid into the passenger seat, careful to hide his wince.
“What? No. That’s not what I meant.” Nick jammed the key into the ignition, and the car purred to life. “I meant until you figure out what you want to do. I’ve got a wife, two kids, and a three-story town house. It’s hardly the best place for you to recover.”
Jed refrained from pointing out that he was only there at Nick’s request. If he’d had his way he would’ve…. He caught himself.Stop it.With everyone he cared about dead or still fighting in the desert, he’d come home to Oregon because he had nowhere else to go. Mooching off his brother be damned; it was all he had.
Thirty minutes later, the car cruised by an ancient wooden sign that read “Ashton Welcomes All.” Jed closed his eyes against the irony. It still made him smirk, even after all these years.
“This ain’t the place for your kind, boy. Get your faggot ass out of my house.”
The car eased to a stop as Frank Cooper’s gruff, hate-filled voice echoed in his head. Startled, he stared through the tinted glass at the tall white house. He didn’t recognize the tree-lined street. “Is this place new?”
Nick got out of the car and waited until Jed followed suit to answer. “Yeah, they developed the old town park about nine years ago. I bought this place when I finished college.”
It was on the tip of Jed’s tongue to ask why Nick had come back to Ashton after four years in New York, but he didn’t. Instead, he appraised the large house his baby brother called home. It was nice. Realnice. After a lifetime in a tent, Jed hated it on sight.
Jed waited for Nick to open the shiny front door, then preceded him inside. Out of habit, he let Nick pass him again and surveyed his surroundings, checking for weapons and available exits, before he reined himself in.
Nick strode through the first floor to the kitchen. Jed tailed him at a more sedate pace, peering at the pictures on the walls and the belongings scattered around. A set of child’s handprints on the refrigerator caught his eye. He had two nieces he’d never met. He wondered to which of them the tiny palms belonged, six-year-old Belle, or four-year-old Tess.
“This is your room.”
Jed moved slowly, two days of traveling beginning to catch up with him, and followed Nick to a door at the back of the kitchen. It led to an alcove that contained another door, and behind it was a small room.
At least, Nick said it was small. Jed had seen smaller houses.
Jed stared around the room, taking in the queen-size bed, flat-screen TV, and antique dresser. Yet another door led to a closet and a bathroom. With the kitchen a few feet away, he’d hardly have to get out of bed.Great. Jed suppressed a shudder. He’d spent enough time flat on his back to last him a lifetime.
He set his tattered duffel bag on the pristine white bed. “Is that my old ball glove?”
Nick shrugged. “Dan’s mom brought over all the stuff she took from the house when you left.”
“She did that?”
“Yeah. Dad dumped all your stuff at the end of the driveway the day after you left. Anna picked it all up and stashed it in their attic. I think she figured you’d be back in a few days. We all did.”
Jed averted his gaze, but the silence that settled over the room was heavy. Dan Valesco was his oldest friend, though he hadn’t set eyes on him since he left. He wondered what had become of him, but he didn’t have to wonder for long.
“Dan was going to come with me to the airport,” Nick said, “but he got caught up at the garage. He left a cell phone for you with his number punched in.”
Jed had to grin at that. He followed Nick’s gaze to a shiny cell phone on the nightstand and shook his head. Dan clearly hadn’t changed. The dude had never been subtle.
“You haven’t asked about Dad.”
Jed stifled a world-weary sigh. He’d been waiting for this, but still found himself unprepared. “What about him?”
“You know he’s in a nursing home in Portland, right?”
“So I hear.” In the years of silence between the two brothers, Nick’s wife, Kim, had taken to sending him erratic postcards filled with Cooper family news. Somehow, they always found him, no matter which ass crack of the world required his attention.
“Thanks for the money you sent,” Nick said. “The home is pretty expensive. I can manage it on my own now, but things were tight back then.”
Jed glanced around the room again, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He had a healthy savings account, but of the two of them, Nick was clearly the one with cash to burn. “I sent the money for you to get through college. Not for him.”
