at him.
“Just like that?” She sounded outraged. “No special fondness required? If that’s not a recipe for disaster!”
“Why would it be?” he countered. “I liked her when we talked. And we did talk quite a bit that night. We’re attracted. We’re having a baby together. Not so many years ago, that alone would have guaranteed a wedding.”
“But it doesn’t anymore. Bran, what if you fall in love with someone else? What if she does?”
He’d kill the son of a bitch, that was what. Bran blinked at the violence of his reaction to the idea. No, he decided, there was nothing surprising about it. She was carrying his baby. She was his, even if she didn’t know it yet. He didn’t share, and when he made a commitment, by God he kept it, and he expected the same of her.
“I’m closing in on forty,” he said. “It’s not happening.”
“So you were drunk that night,” Zach said thoughtfully, rather than asking how old Lina was. “What about her?”
Suddenly wary, Bran asked, “And that matters how?”
“She was at a tavern on her own, maybe getting plastered. Either that wasn’t so unusual for her, which makes me think you should ask some more questions before she puts your name on that birth certificate, or it was unusual for her, in which case you have to ask yourself what was going on that had her there.”
He stared at his brother, who was right. He should have asked himself exactly that. Why hadn’t he? Because she seemed so nice? What kind of idiot was he?
After a minute, he nodded. “Okay.”
“Does she have family in town?” Tess asked.
“No. Doesn’t sound like she’s going anywhere, either.”
Her forehead crinkled. “She won’t be by herself for Christmas, will she?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I didn’t get a straight answer.” He hesitated. “The loan officer Lina saw killed? Maya Lee was her best friend.”
A gasp escaped Tess, who pressed a hand to her mouth. Even Zach looked disturbed.
“She was there because they were supposed to have lunch together. In no time, it’s going to occur to her that, if she’d suggested an earlier time, her friend would be alive. Or she’ll come up with some other reason to start blaming herself. I told her she’s going to have nightmares,” Bran said. “I didn’t like leaving her, but I didn’t have a lot of choices.”
“Do you think she’d join us tomorrow night?” Tess asked immediately, with the generosity he’d come to expect of her.
“Your dad will be here.” Not, thank God, his mother, who had plans with her current husband—number five—and stepkids. Bran would have preferred never to see her again, but he had been polite at Zach’s wedding. He wasn’t looking forward to the next time he had to be polite to her.
“So?”
“I don’t know, Tess. I’ll...think about it. She may not want to.”
“She’s going to be the mother of your daughter, no matter what. That makes her family, in a way.”
“I told her that, but I don’t think she’s quite over finding out why I was there getting plastered that night. She was offended to think I was supposed to get married the next morning. I think she figures she was some sort of stand-in.”
His brother’s eyebrows rose. “Wasn’t she?”
Bran scowled. “No.”
His brother smiled. “You being mad and depressed didn’t have anything to do with you taking a woman you didn’t know to bed.”
“I wasn’t depressed.” He didn’t deny the mad part. “I had no intention of picking up a woman. All I wanted was a few drinks. She and I hit it off. That didn’t have anything to do with the damn wedding.”
Zach’s smile widened. “Then bring her tomorrow. Let us meet her.”
He sighed and took the first swallow of his beer. “I’ll try.”
Zach asked about Mrs. Greaver and Bran’s appointment to see her this afternoon. He had, at least, thought to call her instead of being a no-show. She’d sounded the tiniest bit relieved.
“If you’re tied up with this bank robbery, I can get in touch with her,” Zach offered. “Or has the FBI taken over the whole show?”
“Actually, these two haven’t been bad to work with. They seem to want to collaborate.”
His brother grinned. “You mean, they need minions to do their bidding, don’t they?”
Despite his mood, Bran grunted a laugh. “Probably.”
Not until he left half an hour later did he wonder if he hadn’t stopped by to see Zach and Tess because he was hoping they’d suggest he bring Lina. Something about that small tree with only a few presents under it in Lina’s apartment had saddened Bran, damn it, even though he wasn’t big on holidays himself. This year, he hadn’t bothered to decorate because he wouldn’t be spending Christmas Eve or Day at his own place. Last year, he’d been stuck joining Paige’s family. The year before, he ignored the holiday. This year was different. He had family again.
Discovering he was being driven by impulses lurking in his subconscious didn’t make him happy. He used his head; he didn’t make decisions because of emotions.
And, sure, he’d surprised himself with the announcement that he was going to marry Lina, but the decision itself was entirely rational. It disturbed him a little that his equally rational decision to marry Paige had blown up in his face the way it did, but he was grateful now it had. Lina was a better choice. He’d have stuck to the commitment he made to Paige, but the truth was, he’d been finding he didn’t much like her as the wedding neared.
When she called it off, he’d been mad as hell. He’d never imagined himself in love with her, so it had been his pride that took the hit. Driving through the dark streets on the way back to his lonely apartment tonight, he admitted to himself for the first time that she had made the right choice for both of them. She wanted more than he could give. What he’d never seen before was that he had wanted more than she had to give, too.
Something was happening inside him, and it didn’t feel good. His chest felt compressed as he tried to figure out what it was he did want, beyond wife and kids. Home.
He didn’t have an answer.
* * *
THE PAIR OF FBI agents came to Lina’s apartment. Never having met a real, live FBI agent, she felt intimidated as she let them in. One was a woman, which helped her relax. Probably in her forties, the first thing she asked was when Lina was due. The man, way younger, appeared increasingly uncomfortable as the two women discussed pregnancy and childbirth.
He finally growled, “Can we get on with it?”
His partner grinned. “Scared you, did we?”
