“Had to be tough on him. Being left with two small children to raise, I mean.”
“Yes, it was very hard on him. He was lucky to have had his parents here to help him out. They’re a very close family. They rally around each other without hesitation when one of them is in need. Then he and Jamie got married, and they seem very happy now. He and the kids are all crazy about Jamie, and she obviously feels the same way about them.”
Mac found it hard to identify with a family that unhesitatingly supported each other through every difficulty. It was a luxury he and his mother had been denied. “The McBrides have had their share of troubles, haven’t they?”
“Like all big families, I suppose,” she said with a shrug.
Not much help th
ere. “I was thinking about Trent’s plane crash. I understand he’d been on his way to a career in the air force until the crash grounded him.”
She nodded, looking distracted, her eyes on the staircase. Thinking about her brother again? Mac wondered. But at least she was answering his questions.
“Yes, Trent always dreamed of being a pilot. He was as smart as his sister and brother, but grades weren’t quite as important to him. He made A’s only because he needed them to get him into the Air Force Academy. Tara and Trevor were always rather serious, very focused. Trent was the clown. The daredevil. I suppose that’s hard for you to believe now. The crash changed him so much. He’s just now learning to enjoy life again. Thanks in no small part to his fiancée, Annie, he’s learned that he can be happy doing something other than flying.”
“It couldn’t have been easy for him to give up the one thing he’d always wanted.”
Sharon shook her head. “I’m sure it was the hardest thing he’s ever done. His family was so worried about him. Bobbie told me once that she wasn’t sure he would make it through—but I always knew he was stronger than that.”
“You wouldn’t still be carrying a torch for the guy, would you?”
That got her attention. She let out a peal of laughter that was obviously genuine, to his satisfaction. “Good heavens, no. I’ve always considered Trent a friend. In fact, I probably think of him more like a brother—a cousin, maybe—than anything else.”
“Just checking out my competition,” he murmured, pleased when she blushed prettily.
“It isn’t Trent,” she assured him.
“Oh?” He lifted an eyebrow. “Someone else?”
“I’ve told you, I’m not romantically involved with anyone. I have male friends I see sometimes, but that’s all.”
He gave her a wicked smile that made her blush deepen. “Good.”
She made a pretense of concentrating on her coffee, looking so flustered and vulnerable that it was all Mac could do not to pull her into his arms and make her flush with desire rather than embarrassment. He cleared his throat and forced himself back on topic. “Trevor’s several years older than Trent, isn’t he?”
She seemed grateful that he’d veered into less personal waters. “Almost six years, I think. Trent’s twenty-six, and Trevor is thirty-two.”
“And their sister is older?”
“A year older than Trevor,” she agreed. “Tara’s thirty-three. Um—about your age?” she hazarded, obviously hinting.
“The same,” he agreed. “I’m thirty-three.” He wondered if the fact that he and Tara McBride had been born only months apart made it more or less likely that they had the same father. He couldn’t help wondering how Sharon would react if he made that speculation aloud. She’d proven to be even more helpful than he’d hoped in providing information about the McBrides—but something told him that would stop abruptly if she suspected he had an ax to grind against the family she obviously admired so greatly.
“I’m looking forward to meeting Caleb and Bobbie McBride,” he commented, hoping he wasn’t pushing his luck. Mac had a pretty strong suspicion that Caleb wasn’t the man he was searching for but he might as well find out everything he could. “The way everyone in town talks about them, they sound intriguing.”
Sharon smiled. “They are. You’ll like them, I’m sure. Caleb’s a true Southern gentleman. Jamie says he plays the part of the small-town Southern lawyer to the hilt. She’s crazy about him, of course—as I am.”
“He’s the founder of the McBride Law Firm, right?”
“Right. He opened the practice long before I was born.”
“I, um, suppose he has to travel quite a bit in his line of work.”
Laughing a little, Sharon shook her head. “Caleb never leaves Honoria. You wouldn’t believe what his family went through just to get him to take this vacation. He calls himself the original homebody, someone who is perfectly happy to live his entire life in the town where he was born. I don’t remember him ever being gone for more than a day or two at a time, and never without his wife and family to accompany him.”
So Caleb never left Honoria. Mac nodded somberly. “He and his wife sound very close. They must be a lot alike.”
“I’m sure they are in some ways. But Bobbie—well.” She seemed to grope for the most suitable adjectives.