Page 30 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“At that time of the mornin', all alone out here?”
“She works the night shift, brother. Stopped by when she got off.” And man did she ever get off—three times by his count. “She fell asleep while we were talking, and I didn’t have the heart to wake her. Hell, Ethan, it’s a bunkhouse. Everybody crashes out here when they feel like it.”
Ethan lowered his head, and maybe his temper cooled a little bit.
Jeremiah said, “You want to come in? Talk for a minute?”
His oversized brother looked past him toward the kitchen counter. “You got coffee?”
Jeremiah turned to the coffee pot, then he remembered what Willow had done for him that morning and hit the button. The brew started brewing. When he turned again, his cousin scowled at him. He realized he was wearing a goofy smile and promptly wiped it off, cleared his throat, and changed the subject.
“I had emails waitin’ after Will left,” Jeremiah said to change the subject. “Lawyer says somebody’s contesting our father’s will. I might never see a nickel, the way things are going.”
“He said that, did he?”
“No, I added that last part. He says I oughtta wind up with at least half. They’re liquidating everything.”
“Cuttin’ you a check when it’s settled?”
“Not even a check. Electronic deposit soon as the judge rules. Gavel comes down, money comes in. Whatever’s left of it.” He grabbed a pair of mugs from the cabinet above the pot. He’d been in the bunkhouse long enough that he knew where everything was. And he knew the trick of swapping the carafe for a mug, then swapping that mug for another mug until both were full. He expertly shifted the pot back into place, and handed a mug to his brother.
Ethan took it, took a sip, nodded in approval. “Good coffee.”
“Thanks.” He’d have to ask Willow for tips.
“So do you know who it is?” Ethan asked. “The person contesting the will?”
“No, they’re anonymous for the moment, but it’ll have to come out, he says. I’m not ashamed to tell you, brother, the investments I’ve been living off have taken a hit this year.” He’d be all right, though, once he found the gold.
Ethan had a way of listening that made you feel like he cared about every word you uttered. “Come be a bouncer at Two Lilies,” he added at length. “We’d be proud to have you. And I’ll tell you, we’re fixin to need more help once the baby comes.”
“I’m considering it,” he said. But not until he finished his mission.
“Why do you want to retrace de Lorean’s steps in Quinn?” Ethan asked as if he’d read his mind.
Jeremiah sipped his coffee to avoid meeting his brother’s eyes. It was getting harder to lie to peoples’ faces since he’d come here, and he was damned if he knew why.
“I don’t expect you to understand. You barely knew our father. You were still a baby when your mother left you on the doorstep of the Texas Brand. But I did, even though he was in prison, he was my dad. I visited every weekend, and for a long time I thought he…”
“Loved you,” Ethan said. “That-son-of-a?—”
“This is the last place he was free,” Jeremiah said. “He never made bail. He was convicted fast, sentenced faster, and he died in prison. I just…I want to walk his steps in those last few days. I want to see if I can figure out who he was, at the end.”
Ethan nodded slow, and there was a long stretch before he spoke. He said, “You want to find something that redeems him in your eyes? For pushing your mother to suicide and killing mine with his bare hands?”
“There is no redemption for that. Not for what he did to our mothers.”
Again, his brother nodded. “What, then?”
Jeremiah replied without any forethought at all. “I want to find some trace of decency in him. I think that’s what it is. I want to find one good thing. I think I need to.” It amazed him to realize it was the truth. He hadn’t even realized it himself until Ethan had asked.
“You know why you want to find it?”
“No. I got no idea.”
“I think I do,” Ethan said. “But I think you have to find out for yourself.”
His brother nodded slow. “Well, if I never do, enlighten me at some point, huh?”
