“I asked why you’re here. Dad had the TV set up at Hallie’s house so you two could watch it in private. But you came here late last night and now you’re just sitting there. The wedding won’t wait on you.”
“Hallie invited half the Montgomerys and all the Taggerts to come to her house. At least it seems like that many.” Even Jamie thought he sounded sulky.
Todd put the keys in his pocket and sat on a chair in the shade. “I’ll stay here with you. In case—”
“In case what?!” Jamie said. “In case I need something? In case a plane goes overhead and I freak out at the noise and land face down in the pool?”
Todd had had a couple of years to get used to his brother’s mood changes: smiling one second, enraged the next. He was unperturbed, but then he knew that the girl was Jamie’s problem.
“The old me would have gone after her.”
Todd looked at the sun glistening off the pool water. “I’m not sure about this, but I don’t think this girl would have given the old you the time of day.”
“What does that mean? That she prefers half men?”
Todd was keeping his own temper down, but it wasn’t easy. “Is that why she kicked you out of the house last night? Because you’re a wounded soldier?”
“Of course not! Hallie’s not like that.” Jamie took a breath. “Jilly wasn’t feeling well, so Hallie suggested she stay there with her, in the quiet. It was good advice. Kit used Hallie’s car to drive me out here.”
“What happened at the dinner last night? Anything bad?”
“No,” Jamie said. “It was all good. Uncle Kit and Hallie seem to have formed some sort of alliance over the Tea Ladies. Hallie described her dream and Uncle Kit told about seeing them and I told of seeing one of them.”
“You didn’t tell me that you saw a ghost.” Todd’s voice was sharp. It wasn’t easy for him to keep his opinions to himself. This girl Hallie seemed to be pulling his brother away from him. It was as though the twin bond was being stretched so far that it just might break. War hadn’t snapped it apart, but this pretty girl from Boston might cut the tie.
The problem was that Todd didn’t trust her. He knew his brother was falling for her, but Todd didn’t think she felt the same way about him. She liked him and she hadn’t been repulsed by the sight of Jamie’s wounds, so that was in her favor. But he didn’t sense any real depth of feeling coming from her.
Earlier this morning Todd had called Uncle Kit and asked what the hell had so angered his brother. “He’s back to where he was months ago. What happened?!”
“I think it’s just a case of the green-eyed monster,” Kit said. “At dinner Hallie mentioned that she’d had a call from a guy named Braden and that he was coming to visit. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it, but young Jamie’s face swelled up so red he looked like some poisonous fish. He really should work on controlling his emotions.”
Todd thought so too, but he wasn’t going to side with anyone against his brother.
“Do you know who this Braden is?” Kit asked.
“Vaguely,” Todd said. As a law enforcement agent, he wasn’t going to tell what he knew about anything. “I’ll see you later today.” After he hung up, Todd thought about what he did know about Braden Westbrook. When Todd had visited his mother, she’d gone on and on about how she so very much wanted her son to marry Hallie.
“Everyone complains about mothers-in-law,” Mrs. Westbrook said, “but no one thinks what we mothers have to put up with. I’m scared my son will marry someone like…like Shelly.”
“What does Hallie think of your son?”
“She thinks no one knows, but Ruby—that’s Hallie’s late stepmother—and I used to agree that if Braden said, ‘Hallie, jump into that volcano for me,’ she wouldn’t hesitate. That’s the kind of mother I want for my grandchildren. Do you know what I mean?”
“I do, yes,” Todd said.
He hadn’t told his brother of the conversation, but he certainly remembered it.
His worry was that Hallie was very good at her job and that to her, Jamie was just her client. She cared about him and would do anything she could to help him heal, but it ended there. On the day she’d seen how deeply injured Jamie had been, she’d mainly been concerned that he’d insulted her profession.
Todd feared that when Jamie’s knee had healed and he could walk again, Hallie would consider her job done. She’d kiss him on the cheek, tell him goodbye, and look to the next patient. Add that to what Jamie had already been through and Todd wasn’t sure his brother would ever recover.
“Stop thinking so hard and leave,” Jamie said. “Go enjoy yourself. I’ll be fine here. Actually, I’d like some down time. I’ll sit in the sun and let it heal me.”
Todd looked at his brother. “You want me to go to the house and report back to you, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jamie said and gave a bit of a smile.
Todd stood up. “I’ll take one of the cars Plymouth said we could use, but I’ll leave the Range Rover for you. Keys are in the kitchen.”