Burning Secrets

They have it all.

And what did he have? The house next door, a house he hadn’t been inside since long before he’d bought it on a whim to allow Emily to have this one. A family whose love and affection made him want to run. And enough guilt sitting on his shoulders to sink a battleship. Quite a summation of a man’s life.

“Uncle Jesse?”

He roused himself and looked down at his nephew. “Yes, Danny?”

“We’re having a welcome home barbecue for you tomorrow. Mom says so.” The boy made the declaration as if Honey’s word ranked right up there with the Pope’s.

Jesse looked at Honey, who smiled from her place at Matt’s side. Jesse didn’t have the heart to tell her that a family reunion wasn’t high on his to-do list. All he wanted was some time alone to come to terms with the mystery of his best friend’s death.

He laughed uncomfortably, then sobered and cleared his throat of a surprising surge of emotion. “You guys don’t have to do that.”

Emily came forward and touched his arm. “We want to. We missed you.” Then, as if realizing she was causing him discomfort, she stepped back and lightened her tone.

Jesse felt another nudge to his side. Again, it was Danny. “Mom says maybe you can even bring a date, if you want.”

Jesse’s thoughts flew immediately to a pair of brilliant green eyes and hair the color of buttercups at twilight. In a strange way, the image surprised him by easing the tension from his coiled nerves. But it didn’t make the idea of spending an entire day as the center of his family’s attention any easier to swallow.

His expression must have telegraphed his hesitation, and Kat caught it.

“Your sisters have worked all week preparing your favorite foods, so don’t think you can hide out there in the woods.” Kat gestured toward the thick forest bordering the back lawn, where Jesse had taken refuge as a child. “Old Goldie’s got a nose like a bloodhound and can find anyone.” Kat winked at Jesse, making light of the veiled warning not to disappoint his sisters.

Jesse looked around at their smiling faces, still amazed that they’d go to these lengths for him and that they even remembered what foods he liked.

“I guess I’d better show up, then.” Trying to make light of his hesitation, he winked at Kat. “There is one condition. Emily isn’t cooking, is she?”

Emily laughed, then stepped forward and raised her small fist as if she was going to punch him in the arm. Jesse instinctively pulled away. She dropped her hand and then shoved it in her pocket. Looking nervously at her husband, she moved into the circle of his arms. He held her loosely while she glanced back at Jesse.

The expression on Emily’s face, as though she’d run into an invisible brick wall, burned into Jesse’s mind. Was that how his sisters saw him, aloof and untouchable?

The next day, as Karen drove down Bristol’s main street, she inhaled the sweet scent of the flowers blanketing the square. The hum of people hurrying down the street toward the church lent life to the morning ambience of the small town. The sheer peace of the scene seeped into her tired body.

Having overslept and missed the eight o’clock B and B deadline for breakfast, Karen had opted to eat at the Diner. While she’d been eating, she’d asked the waitress for directions to Jesse Kingston’s. The waitress had told her that she was fairly new to the area and had no idea about Jesse’s residence, but she did know where Jesse’s sister Emily lived because she’d been there to buy one of Emily’s golden retriever puppies for her daughter.

With Emily Kingston’s address and directions lying on the passenger’s seat, Karen headed toward the outskirts of town. Passing down tree-lined streets with kids scattered everywhere engaging in a variety of Sunday activities, she touched her flat stomach and allowed the contentment of the place to calm her.

Oddly enough, with the calm came thoughts of Jesse Kingston. What was that bleakness she’d seen in his eyes? Why was a good-looking man like him sitting alone in the local eatery, looking lost and sporting the hair-trigger temper of a bull in heat? And why did she care?

Judging by Jesse’s rude behavior in the diner the day before, he was not going to be terribly forthcoming with information about Paul. But what she didn’t understand was why. Why refuse to talk to her about his best friend? And it hadn’t been just the refusal. The look on his face had almost dared her to push him, but to be ready to suffer the consequences.

Well, whatever his reason, she would not leave Bristol until he answered her questions. She gently caressed her tummy. “Don’t worry, little one. We’ll find your family. I promise.”

About fifteen minutes later, she pulled up to a beautiful old Victorian house. Several cars were parked in the driveway. Too many to belong to the small family the waitress had said Emily had. Not wanting to interrupt what looked like it might be some sort of family gathering, Karen reached for the key to start the car and leave.

“Hi, can I help you?”

Karen started and for a moment could only stare at the blond woman peeking in her open car window. Then as if someone had jabbed her in the ribs, she roused herself.

“Hi. I’m Karen Ellis. I’m looking for Jesse Kingston, and I was told I could find someone here who could tell me where he lives. I need to talk to him on an urgent matter.” She glanced around at the other vehicles. “But I don’t want to interrupt your party. I can come back another time.”

The strikingly lovely woman extended her hand. “I’m Honey Logan, Jesse’s sister. He’ll be here shortly. This is a welcome home party for him. And you’re here now, so why don’t you wait?”

“Oh, I don’t—”

“Please,” Honey said, opening the car door and beckoning for Karen to get out. “No sense in making an extra trip, and if it’s urgent, you’ll be wanting to see him sooner rather than later.”

Karen could have kissed her. “If you’re sure. I don’t want to spoil your party.”

“You won’t spoil anything, and if you knew me better, you’d know I don’t say anything unless I mean it,” Honey said. “Now, let me take you around back and introduce you to the mob.”

Almost unconsciously, because it had become an extension of her arm, Karen grabbed her camera from the seat and hooked the strap over her shoulder. Since she had started working on a pictorial coffee-table book about rural America, she’d brought the camera along on her trip to Bristol, hoping she’d get some shots of the locale after she’d spoken with Jesse.

She followed Honey across the lawn to the backyard. As they rounded the corner of the house, she came face-to-face with a picture that made envy rise up to choke her. Before her was the exact scenario she’d dreamed of seeing her baby a part of one day.

Two identical little girls fought over a tire swing while a man who was obviously their father refereed. In a corner of the yard, a large golden retriever barked at another man and a young boy who were tossing a football back and forth while they watched over a grill emitting mouthwatering aromas. Not far from the grill, two women were setting a picnic table for a meal.

Karen was enthralled with the family scene and turned to thank Honey for including her. Before she could say anything, Jesse’s sister led Karen to the picnic table and within minutes had introduced her to everyone. To Karen’s astonishment, they all treated her like a member of the family and not a party crasher.

Karen adjusted her seat at the wooden picnic table and raised her camera. She looked at Emily for permission. Emily caught her glance, smiled and nodded. Focusing, Karen snapped a picture of Emily’s twin girls pouring sand into each other’s hair in the sandbox. She had just clicked the shutter when their mother discovered them and hauled them both off toward the hose on the side of the house. Once she got Emily and Kat to sign one of the release forms she had in the car, the photo would make a great cover shot for her book.

Karen had been working on the book for months and already had a sizable advance in her bank account, which would help her get through the baby’s birth and a few months after. Now, if she could just find the enthusiasm to finish it. Since Paul’s death, her instincts for survival had made her focus all her attention and energy on her baby and its well-being.

Watching this close, loving family interact made her that much more determined to find Paul’s family so her baby could have this kind of support, love and closeness, a wonderful addition to the love she knew the child would get from its grandfather and Aunt Samantha.

“Aha, we have a shutterbug among us,” Emily announced, flopping down beside Karen and eyeing the camera and its bulky zoom lens. “The expertise with which you handle that complicated-looking thing makes me think this is more than just a hobby.”

Karen laughed and laid the camera on the picnic table. “Guilty. I’m a freelance photographer.”

Before she could say more, something over Karen’s shoulder drew Emily’s attention. Jesse’s sister smiled in the direction of the field beyond the lawn’s edge and stood, their conversation forgotten. “Do my eyes deceive me, or is our brother deigning to join us?”

Everyone, including Karen, turned their attention to the man coming toward them. Jesse Kingston, his measured gait marked with obvious reluctance, slowly made his way through the field’s high grass, his head bent as if studying each step, his dark hair glistening in the sunlight.

By the time he’d reached them, Honey had come to stand next to Karen. Jesse’s older sister laid her hand on Karen’s arm and announced, “Karen Ellis, I assume you know my brother, Jesse.”

Jesse looked Karen in the eye and nodded curtly. Even though his greeting was less than cordial, Karen’s insides twisted with a strange pleasure. When his simmering, dark gaze touched her, a bottomless feeling invaded her stomach and an inexplicable warmth swept through her body. It had to be pregnancy hormones. Determined not to let him get to her on any level, personal or otherwise, she centered her gaze on his face. What she saw there didn’t surprise her. There it was again, that stark loneliness.

Jesse hid any spark of surprise at finding Karen here with his family. “Yes, Ms. Ellis and I have met.” He’d thought of every excuse not to come here and had failed to find anything that he thought his family would accept. Now, seeing this woman again—the woman who had insinuated herself into his dreams last night—he wished he’d tried harder.

Honey looked at Karen, questions evident in her expression. “But…”

“Your brother and I met at the Diner.” She dragged her amused gaze from Jesse to Honey. “But we didn’t have a chance to really talk.”

Her soft voice swept over him like a breeze off his beloved mountains. The woman hadn’t lost an ounce of appeal. And he hadn’t become less reactive to it. He rubbed his palms together to remove the light sheen of perspiration that had broken out there.

“Pleasure meeting you…again, Ms. Ellis.” He dropped his head and his gaze inadvertently landed on her breasts. His groin stirred to life. Quickly, he glanced away, then checked out the activity in the yard. “Looks like everyone’s here.”

“We’ve just been waiting for you,” Honey said, eyeing him with a look that said, We were afraid you wouldn’t show.