Page 79 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

“Your dad is right, hon,” my mom said, gently bouncing Caleb on her leg. He seemed to be enjoying the bit of fun. “If someone is spreading rumors about poor Marcus, shouldn’t we do the opposite and set them straight?”

“Or we can set them straight in another way,” Adam suggested, smiling wickedly. “By just slugging whoever is starting the rumors up again in the first place.”

I sighed, rolling my eyes at my brother.

It was kind of ironic that every single one of my family had jumped in defense of Marcus. They all wanted to call him to let him know that they were on his side and that no one could accuse him of being a murderer on their watch.

Considering how their relationship was mere weeks ago, it was all very sweet and heartwarming.

But then it quickly got annoying.

Everyone was tossing out suggestions on what to do about the recent attack on Marcus’ character, but none of them wanted to hear that Marcus himself wanted to keep the whole thing quiet to run his investigation.

“We’re not going to do anything,” I announced for hopefully the final time. “We’re going to respect Marcus’ wishes and keep quiet about the whole thing. He’s handling it.”

Although I understood their feeling. A part of me felt restless doing nothing.

It was like before all over again. Someone was trying to incite the town against him, and they were succeeding. I wanted to go and start attempting to get to the root of the problem with Marcus, but he insisted he went alone because my presence might be a hindrance to what he had to do. I didn’t know what that meant, but I allowed him this time.

It didn’t mean I was going to stand aside doing nothing, either.

Whether he liked it or not, I was going to protect my man.

“Where’s Dad?” Caleb asked, and it startled everyone in the room.

My dad’s eyes flew to mine, delight shining in them. I smiled back at him. It wasn’t the first time Caleb talked to them, but it was the first time he instigated a conversation. We all shared smiles but tried very hard not to make it a big deal.

“Your father’s at the police station, sweetie,” I said, trying to hide the joy swelling in my heart. “He’s getting some things done, and then we’ll meet him at home for lunch.”

Caleb nodded and happily went back to bouncing.

“What’s he doing at the police station?” Athena asked. I told them that Marcus wanted to handle the investigation, but I hadn’t told them exactly what he would be doing.

“He’s trying to figure out who murdered Old Man Clancy,” I replied, figuring I might as well tell the whole story. “He figures that would help clear his name.”

“That’s a good idea.” My father nodded his approval.

“It might not work, though,” Adam pointed out. “People around town might think he’s only trying to cover up his tracks. It might make things worse. Plus, Evan hates him.”

“Why does Evan hate him?”

“Because Evan used to have a huge crush on you, didn’t you know?”

“He did?”That was news to me.

Adam nodded. “Yup. Used to talk about you all the time. Whenever he came over to our house, he would find reasons to bring your name up and see if you were dating anyone. I tried to tell him you weren’t interested, but I think he held out hope, even after all this time. The minute Marcus came back to town, it was like a honey badger was stuck in his craw.”

“Huh,” I said. I had no idea Evan felt that way about me. His harsh reaction when I went to jail to see Marcus made sense now.

I wondered if that was also the reason he didn’t look into the murder all that much after Marcus was caught. Maybe, deep down, he wanted Marcus to be guilty, even if he wasn’t the culprit.

God, I hated to think about people in that way, but with everything that happened recently, everyone became a suspect.

“Yeah,” Adam said. “You sure you don’t want us to go to the police station to back Marcus up? I really don’t know how helpful Evan will be.”

I thought about it, then shook my head. I had to trust that Marcus had it under control.

Just in case, I pulled out my phone to call him.

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