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“My beautiful Arien.” Matthew went over to her, and in a tender embrace, smoothed the hair down her back. “Daddy’s so sorry, baby.”
“There are no coincidences. You told me that, remember?” She pulled away and reached for his hand. “C’mon, food’s ready.”
Tanner watched his brother shovel mashed potatoes in his mouth like their dad hadn’t just announced he suspected their grandfather of being a murderer. While everything looked really good, and he was sure it was, Tanner wasn’t hungry. He had way too much on his mind.
The mothers he only knew through stories and photographs. Jennifer. The more he thought about it, the more he had to agree, death didn’t befall them by accident. There were too many similarities to chalk it up to happenstance.
Three wives.
Three deaths.
Three sons.
Dad had to be swallowed up by his own guilt and grief to think John had anything to do with it. Pops might be eccentric, but he was no killer. Though it was becoming apparent, someone in Brookside was.
When I find out who you are, motherfucker, I’m gonna end you with my own two hands.
Tanner glanced to his wife, bouncing Benjamin on her lap as she ate her dinner. Bile rose to his throat just thinking of what could have happened to them if she hadn’t gotten out of the house. How had Matthew survived it, not once, but three times? Might as well just put him in the ground with her. Arien was everything in the world to him, and he couldn’t imagine a life without her in it.
Victor Gantry and Aunt Kim were sleuthing across the table between forkfuls of Arien’s braised short ribs. With the go-ahead from Jake, Emily was on her phone messaging Shiloh to ascertain if John Jacoby had an alibi. All of them bound and determined to find evidence to convict the man. As if.
This ain’t no episode of CSI.
“You okay?” Arien’s fingers trailed up and down his arm. “You’ve barely touched your supper.”
“Yeah, pretty girl.” Breathing in chypre from her hair, Tanner kissed her temple. “I’ll eat later. Gotta go check on Airdrie. Promise I won’t be too long.”
He couldn’t sit here, listening to the nonsense for another minute.
The mare was due to foal soon. She’d been pacing some this afternoon and her teats were waxing up.
Airdrie came over to him the moment he approached her stall. She lowered her head in greeting, and Tanner rubbed her muzzle. “How you feelin’, Mama?”
The horse whinnied softly, looking for more rubs.
“Not tonight, huh?” He patted her, giving her a handful of oats.
Airdrie’s ears pointed forward, a signal to him they were no longer alone.
“I know that was difficult to hear, Tanner, but we’re all in this together, okay?” Jake’s hands pressed down on his shoulders. “Grams, Kim, Emily, my dad, and yours. All of us. Whether it turns out to be Jacoby or not, we’re gonna figure it out. But until we do, you need to keep Arien and Benjamin close.”
“Day and night, one of us will always be with ’em.”
Turning around, Tanner gave Jake’s arm a squeeze. That was a given. He and Kellan had already talked about it. Their wife and baby brother were not going to be left alone, in the house, or anywhere else for that matter.
“Good, and you know we’ll help carry the load here.”
That he did. “Appreciate it.”
Later, after everyone had gone home and he’d managed to eat some dinner, Tanner stretched out on the sofa with his brother. His mind was still reeling, and surely Kellan’s was too. They sat in contemplative silence, not even the TV on, while Dad took Benjamin upstairs to bed.
Carrying a plate of cookies she’d baked for Christmas, Arien set it on the table and got herself comfy in between them. He loved how she did that. Never choosing to sit beside one over the other, she always kept them both close to her. The three of them together. The way they were supposed to be.
“Baked these just this morning. Chocolate cheesecake.” She winked, feeding each of them a cookie. “Whatcha think?”
This girl. God, how he loved her. Only she would think to bake cookies in the middle of all this crazy shit.
“Mmm-mmm.” His mouth full of cookie, Kellan kissed her. “You know how much I love me some chocolate.”
