gangbangers, murders, drug addicts and thieves. “They’ll get caught someday.”
She adjusted the blanket. “I hope so. It isn’t fair that they got away.”
He frowned, the impact of her words constricting his heart. “I know.” If only he could go back in time, if only there was a way to change what he’d done that night. He reached for Lexie’s hand, skimming her fingers with his.
But there was nothing Nick could do but fulfill the promise he’d made to Grant. His brother was gone, and Lexie needed a father.
Three
At nine that evening the wind blew furiously, but inside Nick’s house the air was calm and warm. An orangeand-gold flame danced in the fireplace, scenting the living room with a woodsy aroma.
Lexie was perched on the edge of the sofa in youthful anticipation, waiting for Nick. Elaina sat next to her, watching Lexie through the corner of her eye. She hadn’t realized how important Grant’s deceased relatives would be to her daughter.
Grant hadn’t liked talking about his childhood, and Elaina had never pressed the issue. She preferred not to dwell on her childhood, either. And most of her relatives were still alive.
“Here it is.” Nick entered the room carrying a card board box. He placed it on the coffee table, and Lexie got up and knelt on the floor. Elaina leaned in, too. She couldn’t help being curious about her husband’s past, about all the things he didn’t like to talk about. But then his family had been struggling-to-survive poor, and Grant had valued the finer things in life.
“I meant to put all of this stuff in photo albums,” Nick said, removing three vinyl-covered albums. “But I never got around to it.” Shoving them aside, he grabbed a stack of loose photos. “Everything’s kind of mixed up. We’ll just have to sort through it.”
“I don’t mind.” Lexie lifted the picture on top. “Oh. Wow. It’s you and Daddy, isn’t it?”
He rested his chin on the child’s narrow shoulder. “Yep. That’s us. Holey jeans and all.”
“Who’s who?”
He chuckled. “Hell if I know.“
“Come on, Uncle Nick.” Lexie brought the picture closer. “You have to know.“
“Maybe, but I’m not telling.”
Lexie rolled her eyes. “Then we’ll figure it out. Won’t we, Mom?” She handed the photo to Elaina. The teasing banter between uncle and niece surprised her, and so did the snapshot.
Two adolescent boys mugged for the camera, straight black hair falling to their shoulders. Their plaid shirts were frayed, their jeans torn in the same spot, as if they’d skinned the same knee. Elaina examined each face, each identical feature, and when she compared their smiles, she knew. The difference was subtle, barely there, but she still knew. Nick was on the left, his grin just a little more crooked.
“I can’t tell,” she said, unable to admit the truth. She didn’t want Nick to know she had studied him so closely. Besides, it should have been Grant’s boyish smile that struck familiarity, not Nick’s.
Lexie peered at the photograph again, and Nick flashed the giveaway grin. “Your dad’s the cute one,” he told his niece.
They were both heartbreakers, Elaina thought. Lean, lanky boys standing in front of a tree they had probably climbed a thousand times.
“Look at this, Mom.”
The next snapshot made Elaina’s heart thump. It was
Grant posing during his early college days. She could see the California campus behind him. The university where they’d met just a few years later.
Nick glanced up, and the moment turned strangely quiet. Firelight played upon his features, making his cheekbones more prominent, his skin a liquid shade of bronze. She actually wanted to touch him, to see if his face would feel as compelling as Grant’s.
“My brother thought you were the most beautiful woman on earth.”
She blinked, trying to keep herself from crying in front of her daughter. “He told you that?”
“Yeah. He called me after your first date. ’I just kissed the most gorgeous girl in the world,’ he said. ’And someday I’m going to marry her.’”
“And what did you say?” This came from Lexie, her youthful voice surprisingly romantic.
Nick continued to stare at Elaina. “That she must be something special.”
Her husband. Her brother-in-law. Their faces were blurring, and it scared her. She needed to remember Grant’s features, his smile, his slow, sexy drawl. And she couldn’t bear to have Nick watching her with those stirring dark eyes, reminiscing about things that made her ache.
Elaina wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. She placed the picture back on the table and picked up a different one.
Immediately the image of a young Indian woman caught her attention. Her trendy clothes and retro hair-style depicted the mod era of the sixties. She sat on a worn-out sofa, a colorful miniskirt revealing shapely legs and chunky-heeled boots. Her eyes were heavily lined and her lipstick a bit too frosted, but she was still stunning.
“Who’s this?” Elaina asked, passing the photograph to Nick.
He gazed at it for a moment. “My mom.”
Lexie leaned over, bumping Elaina’s shoulder. “Wow. She looks like a model or something. How did she make her hair have that little bubble on top?”
Nick shrugged. “I don’t know. Lots of hair spray, I guess.”
“She’s pretty. Isn’t she, Mom?“
“Yes, she is.” The young woman in the picture was fashionably slim, with a rebellious tilt to her frosted lips. Between the tastefully teased hair, the vinyl go-go boots and the fishnet stockings, Lexie couldn’t take her eyes from the photograph.
And neither could Elaina. “She must have gotten a lot of attention.” Especially, she thought, in a quiet Oklahoma town.
“Yeah,” Nick said. “She always fixed herself up.”
His voice sounded a little too casual, a little too un affected, like the tone of someone feigning nonchalance.
“Now let me see if I can find a picture of Grandma.” He scoured the pile, and even though he didn’t bury the image of his miniskirted mother, he managed to steer the conversation away from it. “Here she is. Her name was Delores, but most people called her Dee.”
Contrary to her striking daughter, whose name Nick had yet to mention, Dee Bluestone exhibited homespun qualities. Her black hair was streaked with gray, her dress an old-fashioned housecoat. And although she smiled for the camera, she seemed tired, aging and overworked.
Now Elaina wanted to know everything Grant hadn’t told her. Every detail that had shaped his life, but she wasn’t comfortable asking
