“You’re not a Colton,” Jules blurted. She winced, then amended, “I only mean, you don’t match. You don’t have the giveaway brown hair and blue eyes all these others I’ve met have.”
The man laughed. “You’re right. Ted Barrett, honorary Colton. I grew up with these guys, and they’re kind enough to continue to include me in family functions.”
“Because you are family!” Kelly insisted, throwing her arm around Ted’s shoulders. “He’s the mayor of Red Grove, and we are proud to claim him as ours.”
“Aw, shucks,” Ted said, playfully ducking his head and giving Kelly a peck on the cheek.
“Come on, Jules. I saved a chair for you in the backyard. Would you like a beer or a soft drink?” Dylan said, motioning for her to follow him.
She cast a side glance to Cal as she fell in step with his younger brother. “A diet cola if you have it would be great. I’m sorry, Dylan, I’ve already forgotten what you said you did for a living.”
“Because I didn’t say,” he returned, then called to Wyatt. “Grab a diet cola for Jules, Wy.”
She frowned. He still hadn’t answered the question. Well, whatever. She wouldn’t pry.
As she settled in the lawn chair Dylan offered, an older woman with a stylish, short haircut emerged from the house carrying a large bowl that she set on the picnic table already burdened with a variety of food. Cal walked over to hug the woman and said, “Hi, Mom. You look lovely today as always. Let me introduce you to my date.”
Jules clenched her teeth. She wished he’d stop calling her his date. His family would get the wrong idea about them. Shoving down her irritation with Cal, Jules gave his mother a smile and stood as Cal made the introduction.
“Call me Emily,” his mother said. “We’re so glad to have you here today.”
“Emily Colton…” Jules repeated, the name stirring something in her brain. “Why do I know that name?”
“Do you read mysteries?” Cal asked. “Mom’s written several. She’s really good.”
Jules brightened. “Oh, my gosh! Yes! I love your books.”
Emily thanked her and took a seat beside her, then answered Jules’s questions about publishing and where she got her story ideas. “Before I leave tonight—” Emily reached over to the arm of Jules’s lawn chair and covered Jules’s hand with her own “—find me again, and I’ll send you home with a signed copy of my new release. I have my author copies in my car.”
Jules was so distracted by the comforting feel of Emily’s hand holding hers that she almost missed two key bits.
Emily Colton was gifting her a signed book. Before Emilylefttonight? Was this not her home?
Jules beamed at Emily. “Oh, thank you! I’d love that. I— But what do you mean when you leave? I thought this was your house.”
“Used to be, but Jonathon got the house in the divorce.”
Jules felt like she was mentally running behind a moving train, trying to catch up as Emily detailed things about Cal’sfamily dynamic he hadn’t shared. His parents were divorced. Yet Emily was here sharing the family holiday party, so…maybe it had been a civil parting?
“Callum lives here now with his father, keeping Jonathon on track. I swear that man would work himself to death given half a chance.”
“Cal?”
“No, Jonathon. Callum is a hard worker, no question, but their father would live at the hospital and never sleep or eat if Cal didn’t keep after him.” Emily sighed and glanced across the lawn to the grill, where Jonathon stood with Aiden and Dylan cooking the meats for the picnic. “His work habits were one of the key factors that split us up. He was an absentee husband and father, and I’d had enough of feeling abandoned and alone.”
Jules watched the older woman’s face and sensed a grief there as Emily spoke. “I’d hoped my leaving him would be the thing that woke him up and made him change his ways, but Callum says he still burns the candle at both ends.” Emily finally tore her gaze from her ex-husband and met Jules’s eyes. “And to be honest, I still worry about him. So…fine lotta good it did me to leave, huh?”
Jules stacked a second hand on top of the one Emily still had on hers and squeezed. She wasn’t sure what to say, so she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
What did she know about family dynamics or marriage? Her parents had been so wrapped up in themselves, so uninterested in actual parenting, so distant and…well,dysfunctionalwas the word her counselor had used. A pretty way to say negligent and alcoholic.
Emily closed her eyes and gave her head a brisk shake. “Good lord, I’m the one who should be sorry. You didn’t come today to hear me air old grievances. Forgive me, dear. Please, tell me aboutyou. How did you and Callum meet?”
While she was glad to move on from the awkward conversation about Emily’s divorce, she was disappointed when Emily withdrew her hand to smooth imagined wrinkles from her skirt.
Jules chuckled wryly. “It’s not like that. We’re not…” Jules paused, considering how her denials would sound to Cal’s mother. “We only have a professional relationship. We met…well, over a dead body.”
“Oh, my! That sounds like something I’d write about in my novels! So then…you’re in law enforcement?”
