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This was once Sheldon’s home. But nothing about him remained in it today. He didn’t own the Kendall. Jason didn’t own it. Jason wasn’t even here. And he had a son.
What did Sheldon have other than regrets?
* * *
KELLY HAD TO stop and think. Her jaws were clenched so tight, her back teeth ached. Sheldon’s arrival was the last thing she needed today.
With so many people all over the house, his being here only added to the confusion, when a clear mind was essential to deal with the guests and staff.
What was he doing here, showing up unannounced? Had Jace asked him to come?
Forcing herself to relax, Kelly walked slowly down the back stairs, leading to the kitchen. She clutched the handrail due to her wobbly legs. Were the brothers joining together against her? Jace told her he wanted the property for him and Ari. Was Sheldon here to support that goal?
“What’s wrong?” Mira asked.
Her voice drew Kelly’s attention.
“You look like a ghost.”
“Sheldon Kendall is here,” Kelly said.
“Why?”
“I have no idea. I literally found him on the doorstep.”
“What did he say?” Mira asked.
“So far, nothing significant. He wants to talk to Jace.”
“Where is Jace?”
“I don’t know.”
That was her problem. She had no answers for the questions that crowded in on her.
“Where is Sheldon now?”
“Upstairs, in one of the bedrooms. I came to get him something to drink.”
Mira reached for a pitcher of water and a glass. “What happens next?”
Kelly shook her head. “I suppose I’m going to have to ask him and Jace what’s going on.”
* * *
JACE AND ARI came out of the day-care center and Jace strapped his son into his car seat. Whistling, Jace pulled his tie loose and laid his suit jacket on the cab’s seat. He had good news for the boy. He decided to take him to the ice-cream shop to celebrate while he told him.
Walking around Drew and Mira’s truck, he jumped as he recognized Emmett Cruz’s SUV coming straight at him. Emmett drove wildly across the road, roaring to a stop as he blocked him in. The short man jumped out of the vehicle clearly looking for someone.
Jace had heard that Emmett was working at the Kendall. “Emmett, there could be kids out here. Be careful.”
“Sorry,” Emmett said. “I’ve been searching for you for the past half hour.”
Immediately Jace’s mind went to Kelly.
“What’s up?” Jace asked. He stood beside the truck, blocking the door, protecting his son from whatever might be happening.
“Kelly sent me to find you.”
“Why? Is she all right?”
“It’s not her exactly. But she does need you to return to the Kendall as fast as possible.”
“Why?” Jace asked.
“Just come.”
Emmett was a man of few words. He preferred horses to people. He got back in his SUV and pulled away. He drove slowly until he was out of the parking lot, then the truck zoomed up the road as if it was late for something important.
Jace got in his truck and headed in the same direction. What could Kelly want? First, she asked him to leave, now she sent Emmett looking for him and wouldn’t say why. When Jace eventually turned into the Kendall’s long driveway, Ari let out a shout.
“We’re home!” the boy said, with obvious happiness. Jace didn’t have the heart to say a thing.
Out front was a sign for visitors’ parking and the procession of cars told him the open house was well under way. He parked by the stables, away from the flow of visitors and next to Emmett’s SUV. The moment he released Ari from his car seat, the boy took off running for the house and calling Kelly’s name. Jace took a slower route, entering through the garden he’d built under her office window.
Of all the noises in the building, people talking, guides explaining, Jace heard Ari. He followed the boy’s excited voice to Kelly’s office. She turned and looked at him. She’d changed her hair. It was swept up off her neck and coiled around her head. Sunlight poured through the window, forming a red halo around her.
Jace swallowed. He started across the room, coming to a stop so close that he could reach out and easily pull her into his arms.
“I’m going to go on the tour with Amy,” Ari said, scampering away. He slammed the door as he left.
Jace stared at Kelly. He hadn’t realized how much he could miss seeing someone. He wanted to kiss her, long and hard.
“You wanted me,” he said. His voice was several notes lower than usual.
Her eyes opened a little wider. Jace realized what he’d said, but he didn’t take it back.
“I wanted...” She stopped and looked down.
Jace wanted to reassure her, so he waited. He’d wait forever for Kelly.
“You wrote to your brother,” she said.
Jace nodded without thinking. How could she know that? He hadn’t told her.
“He’s here,” Kelly said.
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. He showed up an hour ago asking for you.”
All the old taunts came back to Jace. The insults and comments on how he wasn’t a true Kendall. How he was an illegitimate child with no home and no one to love him. How their father only let him live there to keep tongues from wagging. But he didn’t want him there, which was why they were always sending him away.
“He’s in his old room,” Kelly told him. She paused a moment, scrutinizing him.
Jace had told her some of the things that happened when he was younger, but no one who hadn’t experienced it could truly understand.
“You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to. I can ask him to leave.”
Jace said nothing. He was trying to think of what to do. He hadn’t been prepared for this. He never thought Sheldon would actually show up when he wrote the letter. Instead, he was here. In person.
“Are you going to see him?”
“I don’t think I have a choice,” Jace said.
“I took him some food. He looks like he could use it.”
Jace gave her a quick nod and turned. Slowly he walked to the door.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Kelly asked, stopping him.
He once more saw her in the brilliant sunlight. Shaking his head, he said, “I’ll be all right.”
Jace maneuvered through the crowds and found Ari with the tour guide he’d befriended at the first open house.
Amy smiled at him. She was holding Ari’s hand. “He’s okay,” she said. “He can stay with me.”
Jace affectionately touched his son’s head and moved around a group of visitors. He’d take the back stairway to avoid the rest of the craziness.
Grabbing a bottle of water from the kitchen, he walked up the back stairs. They opened onto a long, wide hallway that led to a master suite and six other bedrooms. On the next level were storage rooms where he used to hide and cry.
Jace didn’t look at the steps to the third level. His eyes were fixed on the door to Sheldon’s domain. The angle of light from the window behind him made Jace’s shadow appear distorted over the maroon runner and the polished wooden floor. What was he going to say to his half brother? Why had Sheldon made the trip all the way here without any notice?
Jace moved toward the door. There was only one way he could find out. He was no longer the scared little boy. And he wouldn’t be intimidated by a man who wouldn’t give him a drink of water on a hot day. Remembering the bottle of water in his hand, Jace looked at it. Twisting the top off, he took a satisfying drink, replaced the screw cap and knocked on the door.
He didn’t wait for an answer, but opened the door and went inside, closing it behind him. His brother was pacing the room, his back to Jace. Sheldon looked smaller, shorter than Jace remembered. Then he turned to face him.
And Jace saw the image of his father, stern and unforgiving.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE TWO BROTHERS faced each other like the Clantons faced the Earps at the OK Corral. Words weren’t called for or necessary. Just draw and shoot, Jace thought. The only question was who would shoot first.
Sheldon’s face was dark and craggy, as if he spent a lot of time in the sun. His hair was a mixture of grey and black, the black was still winning.
“How are you?” Sheldon finally asked. His voice was more raspy than Jace remembered, like a man who’d smoked all his life. But Sheldon didn’t smoke.
Jace ignored the question. His half brother hadn’t traveled four hundred miles to ask about his health.
“More important, why are you here?” Jace asked.
Sheldon cleared his throat and took a step forward. Jace looked at the table where the remnants of his meal sat. His brother stopped near it and lifted a glass of water. Setting it back on the table, he opened and closed his fists like a man who was nervous. Jace wondered what he had to be nervous about.
“I came to apologize,” he said.
“Apologize,” Jace repeated, feeling a little of the tension leave his body. “Apologize for what?”
“For being the person I was.”
“Was? That indicates you’ve changed.”
“I’m different,” he said with a shake of his head. “I understand better now what I said and did to you, not what I should have done and not what you needed.”
Sheldon could have written that in a note. He wanted to know what the real reason was for his coming here. Jace looked at his clothes. They were old and seemed as if he’d worn them for days. His shoes were dusty and he’d lost a lot of weight. Yet he was deeply tanned and appeared to be strong with toned muscles.
