“I did not.” East laughed at him. “Lila and I are already married. Legally, anyway.” He picked up and cracked a peanut like that wasn’t bombshell news.
“What?” Wade and I said in unison.
“Yep. Hattie was in the hospital, and we realized that we’d been wasting a ton of damn time for nothing.” He shrugged. “We’re going to have a big party at Christmas, and do the whole thing at the Christmas tree farm.” He gave us a nervous sideways look as if we might explode. “I don’t want you to feel bad about it, though. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Wade, you were wrapped up finishing the case with Casper, and Kipp, you were with Hattie.” He gave us a wicked smirk. “Neither one of you was going to get to be my best man anyway. I was going to pick Jett.”
“Liar, but congratulations, brother.” Wade swallowed hard. “We’re happy for you. Really.”
“Love you, man, and love her. You’re right. There was no reason to wait. We’d love to celebrate with you guys. To Mr. and Mrs. Holt, then.” I raised my glass. East grinned, and even though Wade smiled at him, I knew we bothwould have liked to have been there for the ceremony, but it was their choice.
Music started up, and the Electric Slide began. Holding back a smile, I watched Hattie as she fumbled around and nearly knocked over someone on her left. Sage was literally steering her, but Hattie was laughing and smiling the whole time, like it was the most fun she’d ever had. Over the last couple of months, she had grown her online marketing company. She’d already had some clients, but she added more and took on the cabins, too. I almost wished she hadn’t, since we had more business than we could handle. That wasn’t exactly true, but we were full — even the Annex cabin was booked. Hattie and I had even started talking about building our own place away from the main rentals so we could have a bit of separation from them.
“Hey, jerkwads.” We all startled as Rhodes sat heavily, squishing himself into the booth. “Surprised?”
“Hmm, yeah? Happy to see you, man.” Wade looked at him curiously. “Never really known you as a visiting type. You decided to come down just for giggles or what? Not that we’re not happy to see you.” He squinted at him, but Rhodes just shrugged.
“How’s Hattie?” Rhodes deflected, not answering. He looked over at the dance floor and then winced. “What’s wrong with her? Brain damage?”
“She’s fucking fine,” I ground out. “She’s all healed up.”
“She’s not adancer, that’s for sure,” East said calmly. “But she’s family, so shut the hell up.” He sipped his beer and leaned back against the booth like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Rhodes held his hands up. “No offense meant, man.” He shot another look over at the dance floor. “So, what’s good here?” He picked up a bar menu.
“Not the food.” Wade snatched it away from him. “Have a drink, but the Holy Pig is where it’s at for food.” Rhodes raised his eyebrows.
“The Holy Pig? The name alone sells it.” He shifted again against the booth, his bulk trying to find room between the table and the three of us. It was a tight fit. “Why are these tables so small?” he grumbled.
“You’re just too big,” Wade shot back. “Maybe you should go on a diet, and you’re getting old. You’re out of shape.”
We all laughed at Wade’s outright lie and Rhodes’s outraged expression. My guess was that the guy did a hundred push-ups before I even opened my eyes, and then started on sit-ups. The guy was stacked.
Wade wasn’t lying about the food recommendation. The barbecue joint was fantastic, and I couldn’t believe Rhodes hadn’t been there before, but it wasn’t as if he’d been hanging around a lot. If I didn’t have plans with Hattie, I’d suggest we all go, but there was no way I was taking the big guyanywhere when I could be between her thighs, making her moan softly until she came apart. Since she was all healed up and feeling a hundred percent, I’d made it my mission to do my best to give her that baby she wanted. We hadn’t had any luck yet, but it was fun to try. Pretty soon, I was going to put a ring on her finger, too.
“What if I wanted to build a house on the Annex property for Hattie and me? Could you do it?” I asked East, rubbing my thumb along the edge of my water glass.
“Yeah, we can do it. Why don’t I come out so we can look at the property and see where you’re thinking? I’d need to bring a crew down for it, but I’d be proud to help you.” He slapped me on the back, and I knew that I would take him up on his offer. “Thanks, man.”
Just as I was about to get up from the table, Rhodes stopped me. “Can I get a minute in private?” he asked, his expression serious.
Confused, but intrigued all the same, I nodded as Rhodes had to wedge himself back out of the booth, grumbling the entire time.
“Your brother is such an asshole,” he complained as we moved over to a quieter spot at the edge of the bar.
“Don’t I know it.” Wade and East were still laughing with each other, and it struck me that East was a married man now. Hell, that was quite the thing. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”
He pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket and unfolded it before handing it to me.
“What’s this?” I asked, peering at it as I skimmed the information, shock hitting me as I realized what I was looking at. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack.” He crossed his arms.
“How?” Because what I had in my hands was the DNA confirmation that the remains of an undisturbed gravesite had come back belonging to Hattie’s sister Jane.
“Are you sure you want to know?” Rhodes asked, his face cold and unreadable.
“I really want to know, and I don’t care what you had to do to get it.” It was the first time that I meant that.
He nodded and took the paper from me, tucking it back into his pocket. “I’ve been digging since our first conversation, but kept coming back to the husband. Sometimes it really is that simple. Like Hattie, I just couldn’t find anything, so I went back to basics.” I gave him an annoyed look because I didn’t know what that meant. He rolled his eyes. “Torture, dumbass.”
