* * *
After dinner, the entire Driskill family gathered in the expansive living room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the lights of Denver.
While they’d eaten, Cameron had listened more than he’d talked. His father and Pops had talked primarily about business, even when Gran had tried to steer the conversation to something else.
Since Deron worked for Flock, Velocity’s competitor, Cameron couldn’t believe that his father and grandfather would bring up concerns about shipping-container shortages and a lack of workers in front of a rival executive.
Even if that executive was now a member of the family.
Cameron was equally shocked when Deron admitted that Flock was experiencing the same issues. Cameron’s brother-in-law had even brought up manufacturing problems due to factory shutdowns in Indonesia.
Now, as Cameron sat on the sofa with Eve on one side and Hal on the other, swirling the brandy in his snifter, the talk continued. Cameron had accepted the drink from his father when they’d left the dining room table—not because he’d wanted it, but because saying no had seemed to require too much effort.
“You’re awfully quiet this evening.” Hal’s voice, low and soothing, sounded to his right. “Is everything okay?”
With Eve engaged in conversation with Nyla, Cameron didn’t feel it was rude to turn his back to her to more fully face his grandmother.
Though Hal’s dark hair was liberally peppered with gray, the blue eyes behind her stylish tortoiseshell glasses missed nothing. She was a trim, petite woman with a backbone of steel and a razor-sharp mind.
Tonight, all Cameron saw was concern in her bright blue eyes.
“I’m just tired.”
She studied him for a long moment. “Maybe a trifle sad, too?”
Cameron offered a noncommittal smile and took a sip of brandy.
“Would you like to talk about it?” she asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
“Talking won’t change anything, so what’s the point?”
Without saying another word, Hal rose.
“I’m showing Cameron my lemon tree,” Hal announced to the family. Something in her tone made it clear this would be a private viewing, by invitation only.
Cameron opened the door to the outside terrace, then followed his grandmother into the warm summer air. The large terrace reminded him of the gardens she’d tended when the family had lived in Silver Creek.
Miles tended the gardens there now.
Strong and healthy vegetables and herbs, as well as a wide variety of flowers, showed this area was much-loved.
“Aren’t they adorable?”
Cameron gazed at the three lemons hanging from the tree, none of them particularly large.
“Nice.” Then, because he knew his grandmother deserved more, he added, “I’m putting in an order for fresh-squeezed lemonade as soon as these are ripe.”
Her delighted laugh was his reward for the effort.
Looping her arm through his, she walked with him to the railing and stood with him, gazing into the darkness.
“Tell me what’s troubling you.”
That was Hal, he thought, going straight to the heart of the matter.
Cameron considered. If there was one person he could speak with about this, one person who might understand just a little of what he was going through, it was this woman.
Growing up, she’d been his rock, the one who’d listened and tried to understand even when everyone else in the family judged.