Jon ignored the bow and flicked open the latches that held the box locked shut. He realized as soon as it was open why it had felt so light. Inside were papers, presumably placed in particular order, and his name jumped out at him from the one on top.
“Letters from your grandpa?” Jenna asked softly.
Jon lifted it, skimming as his heart beat faster, then forced himself to read again, slower.Jesus.He’d known he wasn’t the only one dealing with a rift in the family, but he never would have expected an inheritance like what his grandfather had left him. He’d honestly assumed his mother—and George—had taken everything of value when his grandfather had passed.
But his grandfather had seen that greed coming, too.
“He left it to me,” he said aloud, the words no less believable to his ears than his eyes.
“He leftwhatto you?”
Jon looked up from the letter and met Jenna’s curious stare. “Everything he had left. The house, the land, whatever money was still in the bank—fucking all of it.” He shook his head. “He was on his own, traveling back and forth for treatments. Says here sometimes he even stayed two or three days in the city at a time for them without anyone around.” Jon felt his throat swell at the visual. If he’d known—if he’drealized—how abandoned his grandfather had been in those later months, he wasn’t so sure he could have stayed away.
Jenna stepped closer and laid a hand on his arm comfortingly.
Jon exhaled. “He took advantage of that, made up an appointment trip, and spent a couple days rearranging everything … so that I would have something to come home to.”While he was sick and fucking dying, he still did that.
Jenna leaned her head against his shoulder and spoke in a soft, choked tone. “I know the inheritance is nice,” she said, “but that’s heartbreaking.”
Jon made a sound of agreement and finally looked away from the letter he had already decided to put in a goddamn frame. His gaze shifted to the next paper in the box. Unobscured, he could clearly see it was a deed. Carefully, he lifted that out, and beneath that was one more paper containing contact information for the law firm and the bank he’d mentioned in his letter. He would need to approach the law firm first, of course, but knowing all the information meant whoever had taken over the case in the years that had passed would have a harder time playing games if they were so inclined.
It was the most bittersweet windfall he’d ever experienced.
Jenna straightened and Jon returned all the papers to the box, then motioned to the larger box still in the safe. “And that,” he said, “is ‘some money to get me by’ in case any of these things don’t go smoothly.” Which explained the sealing, kind of. A little tape was not going to stop anyone who’d cracked a digital code or simply broken through the thick steel shell.
Jenna bent forward to peek in, then blinked bleary eyes up at him. “Jesus, Jon, that’s … a lot.”
“Yeah.” He swallowed hard and relatched the box with the precious papers.
Jenna stepped into his space and planted a hand on his chest without warning. “Jon, look at me.” He was, of course. There was so much emotion dancing in her eyes and he didn’t know if he was strong enough in the moment to handle any of it. Least ofall the softness in her voice. “Are you okay? This—none of this—can possibly be what you were expecting. It’s okay to need time.”
His hand fell away from the blue box and Jon let himself pull her closer, both hands gripping her shirt. “I grieved my grandpa years ago,” he said, hearing the strain in his own voice. “Or I thought I did. I came back to reconnect with the same roots that bound me to him, but not like this.” His jaw clenched as he sought the right words to express the storm burning through him.
Jenna reached up and framed his face in her palms. “Grief isn’t a one-and-done thing, Jon. And I’m willing to bet you were doing something that didn’t allow for you to be openly vulnerable and emotional when you got the news back then, anyway.”
He dragged in a hard breath. She wasn’t wrong. He hadn’t literally read the letter through a hail of gunfire, but one had only been an hour or so removed from the other, and that was how he remembered it in retrospect. The chaos of enemy fire had made it feel safe to cry just a little, though.
The memory rolled over him, bringing with it the smell of too much smoke, gunpowder, and shouting voices he could no longer hear clearly. He may never have heard them clearly that particular day. He couldn’t even remember the uniforms of the enemy from that fight.
Then the memory shattered, reality crashing back with Jenna’s insistent lips against his as she pushed up onto her toes, her body leaning into his. Her arms wound fully around his neck, and her grip only marginally slackened when he regained enough of his senses to kiss her back.
He plunged his tongue past her lips and twisted one hand in her hair. She wasn’t shy in her response and her throaty moan, the sweet taste of her, had his dick rising for action of its own. An entirely justified response he knew he couldn’t indulge. Buthe didn’t rush the kiss, instead taking his time to taste her thoroughly. He sucked her tongue into his mouth, swallowed her little whimpers, and sank his teeth into the meat of her lip just for an excuse to suck on that, too.
When the kiss did break, Jenna dropped back to her heels. Her face was beautifully flushed and Jon’s hands anchored over her hips, and it only took a handful of seconds for her expression to turn almost sheepish. “You got this … painful look,” she said. “I know I’m the one who encouraged you to feel your emotions, but I don’t actually want you to hurt, and all I could think to do was…”
His lips twitched. “Kiss me?”
She attempted an innocent shrug. “Apparently.” She rolled her lip between her teeth as if he hadn’t abused it enough and her blush deepened, but the expression on her face settled into something steadier. “You said you didn’t like seeing me sad.”
His grin broadened at the reminder. “That’s notexactlywhat I said.”
She poked him in the chest. “Well, I don’t like it on you, either, turns out.” Her tone immediately gentled again. “I still want you to feel what you have to. I just don’t want you to, you know,have to.”
Jon snorted, lifted a hand to cup her cheek, and ducked down to kiss her roughly one more time. Mostly because she was the perfect amount of sweet and it seemed to be the balm he needed. When he straightened, he said, “That shit is why women are so confusing. For the record.” He gave her a wink so she would know he was teasing, then forced his attention back to the safe and the secrets it had revealed.
The small, portable, metal box of papers he wholly intended to take with him because that needed dealing with sooner than later. It would also be smart to know how much cash was actually in the safe, but he wasn’t broke, so that felt less urgent.Ultimately, he decided to use the safe as temporary storage for a few of his more valuable items that he’d been hauling around but didn’t expect to need on-hand at the drop of a hat. He sent off an email of introduction to the lawyer’s office, requesting a meeting, and told himself that was sufficient. If he heard nothing by day’s end, he’d take a more proactive approach.
There was certainly plenty left to occupy his focus in the meantime.
