Page 34 of Return By Fire

“No! I’m certain I would have remembered Dean wearing Jed’s shorts for that conversation.”

I lay my hand on top of hers. “I’m certain I had to have told you.”

“I swear you didn’t.”

“You know why I thought I did?”

“No, why?”

“Because the moment Dean walked in the door wearing Jed’s clothes was the moment I knew the time was coming that your brother was going to meet Kevin.”

“Why did you make Jed wait, Kara?” Meadow questions.

I don’t hesitate in answering. “Jed was wrong and he was right. He was the messenger, yes. I was afraid of what his presence meant—for me but more importantly, for Kevin.”

“You were afraid of Jed?” Rainey is shocked.

I meet and hold Maris’s eyes. “No. I was afraid of what,” who, I amend silently, “came after Jed if I couldn’t make him vow never to share what he knew about Kevin.”

“Did he?”

Maris’s eyes sparkle because she knows exactly what I’m about to say.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A few days after our discussion about the guys that led well into the night, Dean’s words from the first night we met come to my mind as I stare off the bow of my boat.

“Kara’s going to want some major reassurances, Jed.”

“Such as?”

“Such as your promise to never to tell Jennings.”

It goes against the very grain of who I am to entertain the thought of this. “Never is a long time to swear not to tell my best friend something this monumental, Kara,” I snarl aloud.

“Perhaps if you appreciate the number of times I attempted to reach out to Jennings in the last eleven years without a response, you will understand,” states a clear voice through the darkness.

I still as Kara makes her way across the deck to stand beside me. Without a word, she holds out a thick envelope to me. I exchange my beer for it. A part of me is amused when she takes a strong pull and chokes. “Damn, Jed. That’s like swallowing molasses.”

“I don’t drink watered down crap.”

She scrunches her nose.

I lift the envelope between us. “What’s in here?”

Her sigh holds the weight of the world—at least her part of it. “Every attempt up through yesterday where I attempted to contact Jennings.” Her eyes hold mine. “Maybe it was wrong, but it took a while for me to give up my hope he would meet his son before his uncles did—excluding Dean, of course.”

I stumble back and fall into a chair instead of on my ass. The mixture of agony and sincerity on her face is unmistakable. “Christ, Kara.”

She swipes her fingers beneath her damp lashes. “I’ve been clinging onto hope he’d miraculously come into our—I mean Kevin’s life, pop champagne, and raise a toast. But that’s never going to happen, is it, Jed?”

Hefting the file in my hand, I want to reassure her but I refuse to lie in the overwhelming amount of evidence she’s just shoved at me like I was her accountant doing her income taxes. Even if Kara doesn’t, I know that if Kevin is truly like his father, the secret she’s holding has an expiration date. Jennings men are too inquisitive not to ask questions. “I don’t know.”

Kara nods. Her arms are wrapped around herself to ward off the chill or a body blow. Either way, her strength astounds me when she lifts her chin and says, “Read that, then make your decision.”

She turns and heads toward the ramp to lead her off the boat.

“What about my solemn vow on a sacred yak not to tell Jennings?” I shout after her.

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