Page 451 of A Matter of Time

“Something else?”

“Yeah. Were Caleb and Greg friends?”

“Great friends. I loved Greg too. If Caleb ever comes to realize that he himself killed Greg, that will probably end him.”

I wanted to comfort her, I just didn’t know how.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Oh, Jory, the way you’re looking at me… My God, the capacity for love you have, for kindness. You’re such a good boy, Jory. Your mother did such a good job with you.”

I didn’t tell her it was all my grandmother’s doing. Marlene Keyes had loved me fiercely and desperately with everything she had up until the day she died. My mother had been gone; the only person she’d had left to love was me. I still missed my grandmother, and I wished she had been able to meet Sam and Dane. She would have been crazy about both of them, especially Sam. Stubborn and gruff was her favorite kind.

“Jory?”

“Sorry.” I smiled at Susan Reid. “I zone out a lot.”

She sighed, curling her fingers around mine. “It’s scary in there. I need to let you know that.”

“It’s okay,” I assured her, patting her hand with my other before I eased free. She was comforted, and when were finally called in a few minutes later, we rose at the same time to go to the door.

I had to empty my pockets, and when the door locked behind me after we were buzzed in, I had a moment of uncertainty. There were orderlies everywhere, huge muscle-bound guys who squinted at us as we walked by. The guards at the nurses’ station were armed with batons, and the nurses moved nowhere without an escort. After we checked in, an orderly took us to Caleb’s room. I was expecting a big room with a bay window; the reality was a tiny room with bars across a sealed pane of glass. There was no escape to be had that way. A breeze on his face would be a luxury for Caleb. The only thing that comforted me was that he was under observation at the moment. Eventually he’d be moved to the facility where he would stay, which wouldn’t be in constant lockdown. There would be sun and wind for him again.

He was sitting in a chair when we walked in. On the desk in front of him was one of those sixty-four packs of crayons and lots of paper. My guess was that a pen was out of the question for the immediate future. There were books, the thick ones that most people said they would read before they died. But Caleb had time now to take on all the great Russian novelists. In fact, time was all he had.

“Jory,” he said, and I moved quickly into the room. My name was slurred, and that broke my heart.

“Hey.” I smiled at him, moving to kneel beside the chair so he wouldn’t have to look up at me.

His hand went instantly to my cheek, but it was like he didn’t have complete control over the limb. It trembled, and he moved it robotically, poking at me, rather than the smooth glide of his skin over mine. They had told us that they were working out the meds he’d be taking and the process was a long one.

“Jory, what did I do?”

The look in his eyes… Helpless, lost, forsaken. I couldn’t breathe. I stood up, and he grabbed my hand with both of his, his face imploring me for an answer.

“I’m not sure, buddy, but they’ll figure it out.”

“Don’t go, okay? Stay here and talk to me.”

Talk about what? How I still felt one way about him but feared him at the very same time? How Greg had made the car bomb that had blown up Sam’s car, but that Caleb had been the one to plant it, since Greg was already dead? Everyone was amazed that I could separate the Caleb I liked from the murderous man who had nearly killed the love of my life…but I could. I had never actually seen Caleb try to hurt Sam, I had only seen him try to hurt me, and hurting me I could forgive. And it was funny that I could, but my brother could not.

Dane had completely shut himself off from the Reids, dealing with his father through his lawyer, paperwork being the only contact the two men had. Dane, as well as Aja, had a standing restraining order against Susan Reid. Her giving him up at birth he couldn’t have cared less about. The fact that she had lied to protect Caleb and he had come after me, that was unforgivable. What was worse was that Caleb might have eventually come for him, thus putting his wife in the line of fire. He would never see her, or any Reid, again.

I had consoled Susan with the promise that someday he would thaw. I had a feeling that when he had his own children, when he felt that bond, he might turn to her or his father and look for reconciliation. But until that time, they would both have to wait and hope.

“Jory?”

Zoned out again; it was troubling, that. I looked down at Caleb. “I gotta go, buddy—but I’ll come back.”

He nodded and gave my hand a tug to get me close to him. But I couldn’t hug him, I wasn’t that strong. I patted his shoulder instead, and sigh rose up out of him.

I stepped back, and Susan Reid was suddenly on me, grabbing me tight, startling me a little with the ferocity and quickness of her movement. I was good and creeped out; there was no denying it.

“You’ve been better to me than my own son.”

But that wasn’t true. Dane had saved the business that she still owned half of, that would take care of her ex-husband and all her children, even Caleb. Dane had made that happen. But I couldn’t caution her that she was not allowed to be critical of Dane—my voice was gone. This was more draining than I’d thought it would be.

Pulling free, I stepped back beyond her reach. “I’ll call you.”

“Please do,” she said with a longing that made me cringe. Because we both knew I wouldn’t. This was the end of the road for Susan Reid and me.