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West cleared his throat, laughing a little. It ended in a choke. “I’m her Beloved?” He shook his head. “That’s… so… stupid.”
His hands tightened on the unopened letter.
Eva took pity on Cadence and reached for the potted rose. Lily’s composed daughter-in-law probably wanted to pass out the rest of her flowers to more grateful candidates. “I’ll take that.”
West shook his head and peeled the pot from her grip. “No.” Eva half expected him to return the Beloved to Cadence, but his hands clenched the flower in a death grip. “I’ve got it.”
Disbelief threaded through her, even more so when she glanced up to see Cole had somehow escaped the clutches of the evil scone mauler and stood near her elbow.
Eva jerked in surprise.
Cole seemed to be taking in the situation with a quick scan before he turned to West, who held the Beloved to his chest.
West scoffed at him, not letting him get out any insult that he couldn’t top himself. “Yeah… you can pack your jaw away. I know what I am—that never stopped Momma from seeing what was in front of her. She…” West took a deep breath, “she was… an angel. Uh… Eva…” His eyes were getting too bright. “Just take…” He pushed the Beloved at her.
Take it! Don’t take it! Make up your mind.
The next split instant, Eva understood the necessity of saving the potted rose when she noticed his shoulders hunching. “Yes, yes, of course!” she cried and grabbed it before he could drop it.
He indignantly wiped at his eyes. “Why? She… she…” A strangled sound escaped the deepest recesses of his soul. “The beloved, huh? Yeah… right… if I was… why couldn’t I save her?”
Eva’s hand went to her mouth.
His words were getting lost in his grief as he turned his back on them all. “I can’t…”
She knew she was asking for trouble, but still she moved forward, every instinct begging her to comfort him. “West?” She touched his back.
He arched away. “Why do you keep trying to push… she was my… heart, okay? And she’s gone.”
She was his heart?
“It’s all… gone,” she heard him say. “I don’t care anymore.”
A flood of shock and sadness coursed through her. So that’s what he’d done!She’d suspected it the moment she’d set eyes on him at that dinner party. He’d dumped what was left of his cold heart the instant he’d lost his wonderful mother. Eva felt her own tears leak helplessly from her eyes.
Maybe this wasn’t anger she was feeling exactly. It felt a lot like it, though.
Cole and Cadence weren’t handling this very well, either. Cadence sniffed. Cole, on the other hand, had turned very stiff. So far he’d refused to even spare Eva a glance and his eyes on his brother seemed almost resentful.
Some celebration of life!
“Eva, take that—that Beloved, or whatever it is you want to call it, and…” West glared at it. “Take it back to the greenhouse. It doesn’t belong with me.”
Cole made a disgruntled sound and stepped in front of Eva. “You know what? West…”
West glowered at him. His hands curled into fists and he looked eager for the fight.
“I just want to say that… well…” Cole sighed. “Oh, forget it!” He wrapped his arms around his brother. West deflated instantly. Shockingly. Unbelievably. Miraculously.
Eva took a step back, her fingers tightening over the pot.
In some strange twist of events, West’s eyes closed like he’d finally let go of his anger enough to surrender to his grief. Tears squeezed through his lids.
A shaking hand found West’s back, and Jase Slade joined his sons to hug them from behind. “She’s never gone, my boys, you know that, right?” He rubbed West’s arm. “A mother’s love reaches past every boundary… there’s no wall she won’t tear down to come after us if we need her. You can be sure of that.”
Porter made a strangled sound behind them and immediately grabbed West on the other side. The rest of the brothers were quick to follow in a family hug. Nash and Hudson crushed them like the ends of a sandwich.
They’d all forgiven West for whatever he’d done to them. That was clear. Eva noticed the flowers they held in a splash of color. Lilacs, tulips, irises, sunflowers—they all kept a piece of their momma with them.
