Page 72 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

“Excuse me,” Allie said.

“I see you’ve weaseled your way back into this house.” Millie glanced around. “I bet you just couldn’t resist seducing the poor young man as soon as you knew he had your house.”

Allie’s temper flared, but she simply crossed her arms as a realization hit her. Millie didn’t just hate Clara because he took David. She hated her for the life she’d had with him. Kids, this house, happiness, all things she lacked with Mr. Douglas. Allie thought of the picture of her dad with Millie. Millie had looked genuinely happy in it. Maybe that’d been the last time she’d been happy.

“Actually . . .” Brandon came in behind them and wrapped an arm around Allie’s shoulders. “I’m pretty sure I seduced her into marrying me, isn’t that right?”

Allie gave one sharp nod. “That’s how I remember it.”

Millie lifted her chin. “I want my necklace. It’s been months. Do you have it or not?”

“Not,” Allie said. “I haven’t seen it.”

“If you’re keeping it from me,” Millie said, “then you’ll be seeing me in court.”

Allie shook her head. “No, I won’t. I know the truth, Millie. I talked to my mom. In court, it’d be your word against hers, and you’d have to face the embarrassment of retelling how my dad picked my mom over you.”

“Your mother stole him!” Millie yelled.

Allie shook her head, for the first time in her life feeling bad for the older woman. “Items can be stolen, Millie. Not people. My mom’s a kind person. Always has been. Maybe you were once, too, but now you’re just bitter and mean. And I feel sorry for you.”

Brandon tightened his grip on her shoulder.

Millie’s face fell. She looked like she’d been punched. Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t let them spill. “Fine, keep it,” she snapped. “It’s not like it’s very valuable anyway.” She turned and stormed out as quickly as she’d come.

“You okay?” Brandon asked.

Allie glanced up the stairs and nodded. Since last week, Allie had been all over upstairs, the embarrassment of entering private sleeping rooms gone the moment she’d gone from girlfriend to fiancée. She’d been delighted to discover that Brandon had chosen to sleep in her old bedroom instead of the master. She loved thinking of him curled up on her bed at night.

She grabbed Brandon’s hand. “Come with me.” She led him upstairs and into the master bedroom.

He squirmed as she pulled him through the door. He ran a hand over the back of his neck as his gaze went to the bed and then the ceiling. “Uh, Allie, what are you doing?”

She shot him a grin. “Something interesting on the ceiling, big guy?”

He narrowed his gaze at her in a warning.

She went to her mother’s old dresser, which was three feet too far to the right. She liked it where it was now better. She opened the top drawer, reached in the back for the button to the secret compartment, and pushed.

Brandon hovered over her shoulder just as the bottom of the drawer popped open, revealing the strand of black pearls. “Whoa, that’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen—you couldn’t even see the seams.”

She puffed out her chest in pride at her dad’s work. “He has a compartment like this in almost all his pieces.” She picked up the pearls. They were as beautiful as she remembered.

Brandon touched them. “I don’t care what Millie says. This is very valuable.”

And her dad had given it to Millie. “He must have cared about Millie very much at one point.”

Rubbing a hand over her back, Brandon nodded.

“Brandon?” She glanced up at him, her stomach knotting with nerves.

He stood back, clearing the way to the door. “Go get her.”

She smiled, went up on tiptoe, and kissed him. He knew her so well. She raced downstairs.

Allie grabbed her bag off the hall table and was digging for her keys in her purse as she flew out the front door. But she didn’t have to go anywhere, because Millie sat in her little convertible . . . crying. Allie approached and knocked on the window.

Millie jumped, then quickly wiped at her eyes. “What do you want?” she yelled through the window.

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