Page 109 of Winter Vows

“After this is all over, you and I will talk,” he promised eventually. “About Shane and a good many other things, I imagine. Will that do?”

She was disappointed by the delay, but she nodded. “Yes. That will do.”

“Then it’s a date, darlin’. Now let me get out of here and catch up with Jeb. I’m not doing you a bit of good standing around here in your kitchen.”

“Yes, you are,” she said, but she stepped back just the same. “You’re just not finding Bobby. And that’s the only thing that matters now.”

He bent down and pressed a hard kiss to her lips, then took off without another word. Kelsey watched him go, then sat down at the table and rested her head on her arms.

“Dear God,” she whispered. “Make this the day that my son comes home to me. And in the meantime, please keep him and all the people looking for him safe.”

“Amen,” Lizzy said, adding her voice to Kelsey’s.

Either her timing was impeccable or she had never strayed far from the kitchen and had heard Dylan leave. Kelsey looked up at her friend. “I am so incredibly lucky,” she told her. “I have you and your family and this community to lean on.”

“And Dylan,” Lizzy reminded her.

A half smile formed. “And Dylan,” she agreed. “He’s an amazing man, isn’t he?”

“Definitely one of the good guys.” Lizzy searched her face intently. “Have you fallen for him, Kelsey?”

“I can’t even think about something like that right now,” she insisted, but in her heart she suspected that she was indeed falling in love with Dylan Delacourt. Finding out for sure was something that would have to wait until her son was safely home again.

Dylan drove himself to exhaustion that day and the next. He kept thinking of that little boy, his body flushed with fever, missing his mommy.

“I could wring the man’s neck,” he told Jeb. “Which is why I’m here, to keep you from doing something stupid. We’re going to find Bobby, take him home to Kelsey, and leave his daddy in one piece for the authorities to deal with.”

Dylan regarded his brother ruefully. “Don’t make me regret bringing you over here.”

Jeb laughed. “You know I’m right. That’s exactly why you brought me over here, to temper your hot head. I’m the cool, rational thinker, remember?”

“Since when?”

“Okay, compared to you, I am,” Jeb amended. “And you don’t have the slightest urge to pummel Paul James’s face to a bloody pulp?” Dylan asked.

Jeb drew himself up and returned Dylan’s skeptical look evenly. “Absolutely not. Do I look like a thug?”

“No, you look like a man who’s having the time of his life. When are you going to tell dear old Dad that you want to come to work with me full-time?” Jeb’s expression fell. “On his deathbed, probably. The news will probably revive him just so he can make sure it doesn’t happen.”

“Life’s too short to waste it doing something you hate,” Dylan said.

“I did talk to him about doing some corporate investigative work for him,” Jeb revealed. “He looked at me as if I’d suggested there were cockroaches in the pantry and I wanted to play at being an exterminator.”

“Is there something going on at the company that needs investigating?” Dylan asked, startled by the suggestion that there might be. “He hasn’t mentioned anything.”

“Because he’s in denial. You know Dad. He thinks he’s in total control of his universe. You were his first slipup. Then Trish’s defection shook him badly. He’s got the rest of us under tighter rein than ever. As for anyone stealing from him, to hear him tell it, it’s impossible.”

“But you don’t think so?”

“There are too many coincidences for my liking. Twice now, just when we were about to close a deal for a new site, another company has come in and snatched it out from under us.”

Dylan was stunned. He didn’t believe in coincidences of that magnitude, either. He was surprised that his father did. “Why isn’t Dad acting on this?”

“Either he’s in denial or he doesn’t want to admit the obvious, that his new geologist is on the take.”

“Beautiful Brianna is selling corporate secrets?” He thought he heard something else in his brother’s voice, too. “You’re unhappy about more than the soured deals, aren’t you? Is it Brianna?”

Jeb sighed. “She’s a terrific woman. I don’t want to believe she’s involved, but everything points to it.”

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