A Brother's Honour

Caden held his brother’s gaze. “So what are you saying?”

Jace rubbed his hand down his face before saying, “We’re losing him.”

Caden closed his eyes and switched his gaze off Jace to some abstract picture on the wall. The thought of losing the old man was hard on him, almost as hard as it had been to lose his dad. The only difference was that his father hadn’t died, and Caden could go see him whenever he wanted...in accordance with the penitentiary’s visiting hours, of course. And he made it a point to visit his dad as often as he could. It had been fifteen years. Fifteen hard and lonely years without his father being free.

He looked back at Jace. “Have you told Dad?”

Jace nodded his head. “Yes, I contacted him before flying out here and spoke to Warden Smallwood. He promised to get the message to Dad. But Dad has no idea of how bad things are.”

Caden didn’t want to be the one to tell him and knew Jace didn’t want to be the one, either. He took a sip of his coffee and studied his brother. This had to be hard on Jace, since he and their grandfather were extremely close. Caden had always chalked it up to Jace’s being the firstborn grandson and all that. But later, as they got older, Caden realized just how much like Richard Granger Jace truly was. He had the ability to put everything in the proper order. He could be tough when there was a need. Uncaring, firm, rigid, inflexible...and all those adjectives that meant the same thing. But then there was a side of him that demonstrated he had to be the most caring person in the world. You just had to know how to work it to get that side exposed.

“Jace, are you okay?” Caden asked softly.

Jace, who’d been staring down into his cup of coffee, lifted a tormented gaze to him. “Not really. Remember how after Dad’s trial we thought our world had ended? After losing Mom, we had to hear all that bullshit about Dad killing her, losing our friends and seeing what asses our neighbors were?”

Caden recalled those difficult days. “Yes.”

“It was hard for me, but the one bright spot was Granddad. He was there, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for a sixty-year-old man to take on raising three teenage boys.”

Caden agreed. It probably wasn’t easy. “And he did so while keeping a firm managing hand on Granger Aeronautics. Who’ll be looking over things now?”

Jace shrugged. “Probably Freeman. He’s vice president.”

“Only because the old man couldn’t convince you to move from out West and into the spot. He always wanted you to take his place, Jace.”

Jace’s dark brown eyes narrowed at his brother. “It’s kind of late for that, isn’t it? Besides, if I remember correctly, he wanted all of us to take a part in the company, not just me.”

“Yes, but with you being the first Granger grandchild, it would have been your place more than mine or Dalton’s. It was expected.”

And it had been. Richard had made sure all three of his grandsons worked for the corporation during their summer months of high school and college, whether they had wanted to or not. He had been crushed when all three told him they had no desire to work in the company their great-grandfather had formed. But that decision from Jace had disappointed him the most. He still held hope that Jace would change his mind and take his father’s place once he completed law school. When he saw Jace wouldn’t change his mind, Richard had finally left the matter alone.

“And it wasn’t expected of you?” Jace asked with an edge to his voice.

Caden refused to back away from the truth. “Not as much. He knew I was too much into my music to think of ever fitting in with the business suit crowd. I wouldn’t last a year. I would have been fired for playing my sax during work hours.”

Jace nodded. “And Dalton?”

Caden grinned. “Our baby brother wouldn’t have been able to keep his hands to himself when it came to a pretty woman.”

Jace threw his head back and laughed. “Now, that’s the truth.”

It felt good to hear Jace laugh, Caden thought. He wondered how often his brother laughed at all anymore. And what about Dalton? How many times did he laugh these days? Caden could only speak for himself, but his own laughter was a rare thing, with long stretches in between.

“And speaking of Dalton,” Caden spoke up to say. “Where the hell is he? And don’t tell me he doesn’t plan on coming.”

The amusement was immediately wiped from Jace’s face. “Okay, I won’t tell you.”

“Why?” Caden asked, and heard the disgusted tone of his own voice. “Did you not tell him how serious things were?”

“Yes, I told him, and it’s his feeling that the old man wouldn’t care one way or the other if he were here or not.”

“Bullshit.”

“I know, but Dalton has a hard head and is stubborn to a fault. He never forgave Richard for not letting him claim his trust fund when he turned twenty-five.”

Caden frowned. “Granddad had good reason for doing what he did, and you and I both know it. Dalton was chasing anything in a skirt and had already blown most of that endorsement money, which should have set him up for life.”

“Yes, but evidently Dalton doesn’t see it that way. Having to wait until he’s thirty to get what we got at twenty-five is a thorn in his side,” Jace said.

Caden didn’t say anything for a moment, and then, after taking another sip of his coffee, he said, “I could have waited since I haven’t touched mine, anyway. What about you?”

Jace shook his head. “I haven’t touched mine, either.”

Neither man said anything else for a while, and then Caden asked, “How much did you tell Hannah?” Jace had made the call before they’d stepped on the elevator. Hannah was glad they’d made it to Virginia but was disappointed Dalton hadn’t come.

“Exactly what Sedrick told me,” he said, standing. “She’s not handling it well.”

“I can imagine,” Caden said, easing from his chair while thinking just how long Hannah had been with the Grangers. Close to fifty years. They didn’t consider her a housekeeper but a member of the family. Their grandfather had depended on her a lot when he’d taken on the task of raising his grandsons. “So what are you going to do now?”

Jace glanced over at him as they headed for the elevator. “I’m operating on Pacific time, so I’m good. I plan to stay here so that if Granddad wakes up he’ll know one of us is here. You can go on home and—”

“Home?”

“Sutton Hills,” Jace clarified. “Keep Hannah company. I doubt she’ll get any sleep tonight anyway.”

“I’d prefer to stay, too,” Caden said. “Like you insinuated earlier, I’m a late-nighter.”

“All right.”

The two had made it back to their grandfather’s room and had pulled chairs close to the bed where they planned to park it for the night when a nurse walked in. She offered to bring in cots. After all, she’d said, their money had paid for this particular wing, so it was the least she could do.

She’d done more by bringing in fluffy pillows and blankets, as well. Since the room was pretty sizable, probably the largest one in the wing, Caden and Jace figured they could make themselves pretty comfortable.

Deciding to end all conversation so as not to disturb their grandfather, they settled in for the night. A few hours after they’d dozed off, they were awakened by the creaking sound of the door opening. They figured it was a nurse coming in to check on their grandfather. Suddenly, the fluorescent light burst to life overhead, nearly blinding them.

“Now why am I not surprised to find the two of you here, goofing off?”

Jace leaned up and his mouth dropped open in surprise. “Dalton?”

“Hell, yeah, it’s me.”

“I thought you weren’t coming,” Jace said, squinting against the bright light and inwardly downplaying just how good he felt that his brother was here.

“I changed my mind.”

Caden tossed off the blanket and sat up on the cot. “Fine time for you to show up, just when we were trying to get some sleep.”

“Go to hell.”