Gavin’s body tensed and his face went hard as stone.
Right. She snapped her mouth closed. Maybe not the time to sell him on his dad. “Anyway. He’s sober now.”
“Wait.” His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “You’re what—midtwenties?”
He was doing the math. She pushed aside her dread and answered his question. “Twenty-six.”
A second later he gave a mirthless laugh, shaking his head. “Of course. He cheated on my mom. Don’t know why that would surprise me. Why anything he’d do would surprise me. Listen, do yourself a favor and stay away from him. He has a way of—” His eyes sharpened on her again. “Wait. When?”
She blinked. “When what?”
“You said a while after your mom passed, you found that stuff and realized he was your father. When exactly was that?”
Here came the hard part. “Okay... so I originally found the contents of the safety-deposit box back in March, but—”
“March.”
“I know. But please try to understand. The items she left were kind of vague—newspaper clippings about you and Cooper, a medal, a photo of a man with my mom...”
“What kind of medal?”
“What? I don’t know. A war medal of some kind, I guess.”
His jaw flexed. “The Distinguished Service Cross.”
“I—I don’t know. Maybe?”
He gave her a flinty look. “My mom’s been searching for that for years. She wanted Coop and me to have it.”
Her eyes burned with tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You can have it.”
“That’s not the point. And you still haven’t told me when you realized Craig was your father.”
She shrunk at his angry tone. “I was getting to that. I originally thought Jeff was my father. I thought he was your and Cooper’s biological father, and then I found out he wasn’t, so I did all this research to figure out who he was.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me?” he spat out.
“Are you kidding me? I had no idea how he might feel about me showing up in his life. Or what if he was married and didn’t want his wife to know about me? And what if you and Cooper didn’t want anything to do with me because he cheated on your mom with my mom?”
He swatted the air. “You still haven’t told me how long you’ve known.” He pressed his lips together and pinned her withhis intense stare. “It was before we built your barn, wasn’t it? You hired us because you wanted to snoop around and get your answers without telling us who you were.”
“I needed that barn!” She swallowed against a mountain-sized knot. “But yes, I also wanted to get to know you. Is that a crime? You’re mybrother.”
“That’s why you were staring at me like that.”
Her cheeks heated. “Please understand where I was coming from. I wasn’t trying to do anything underhanded. I was just trying to see if you might—”
“We welcomed you at our family suppers. I welcomed you into my home. At mytable.You know my wife and daughter. What more could you have possibly needed to know before you told me the truth?”
“It’s not just me now. I only met your dad—our dad—a couple months ago. He didn’t want—”
“Two months?You met him two months ago.” He shifted away, ran a hand through his black hair.
She took his arm. “Just listen, please. Craig wanted a full year of sobriety before he told you and Cooper. He wanted you to know he was serious about quitting. I know you’re terribly angry with him, but he’s been working hard, and he’s really hoping to have a relationship with—”
“You don’t know anything about Craig or my relationship with him! You weren’t there when he didn’t come home or when I heard my mom crying at night. You weren’t there when he didn’t show up for baseball games or award ceremonies or birthday parties because he was too busy getting drunk. Or when the police hauled him away from our elementary school because he was hanging around, peeing on the brick walls andembarrassing himself in front of all our friends. You don’t have the first clue.” Gavin turned and paced away from her. He stopped and braced his hands on his hips, his shoulders rising and falling.
A vise tightened around her heart. She couldn’t even imagine growing up with that kind of father. “You’re right. I don’t know what that was like.”
