* * *
We took Lucas to Nic’s in old town Cottonwood, since it seemed like the kind of place he’d enjoy. He did look right at home in the old-world atmosphere of the place, coaxing Connor into sharing a bottle of chianti after I swore it was okay for them to drink in front of me, then ordering grilled rib-eye and crab legs as if he did that sort of thing every day. Who knows — maybe he did.
Midway through dinner, though, his phone rang, and after shooting an apologetic glance at both of us, he pulled his cell out of his pocket, scanned the display briefly, and said, “I need to take this.”
Connor and I both murmured, “Go ahead,” and Lucas put the phone to his ear.
“Hey, Lester, you have something for me?” A pause. “Really? In Williams? And the address? Great, text it to me. Thanks for everything.” He ended the call and returned to the phone to his pocket, dark eyes twinkling. “Well, I have some good news for you two. That was Lester, the private investigator I told you about. Turns out Angela’s grandmother did move out of Flagstaff, but she didn’t go very far. She’s over in Williams.”
I knew the name, but I’d never been there. Williams was in the Wilcox zone. Now, of course, I had nothing preventing me from going there. “That is great news, Lucas.”
“Yeah, the reason I was having a hard time turning up anything about her was that apparently she changed her name after your grandfather passed away. She’s going by her maiden name now. Jane Bryant. Lester’s texting me her address, and I’ll forward it to you.”
“That was fast,” Connor said. Something in his voice sounded tense, almost nervous, as if he wasn’t as pleased as I’d thought he would be.
“Well, Lester’s good.” Lucas raised his glass of chianti toward me, and then Connor. “Here’s to getting one step closer to your goal.”
I had to toast with my water glass, but I found I didn’t mind so much. Now the only trick would be figuring out the best time to go see Jane Bryant, the grandmother I had never met.
* * *
We saw Lucas off to his B&B, then drove back up to Jerome in silence. Since coming through the rear of the house was almost impossible right now because of the construction, I parked on the street — pregnancy had turned me into the designated driver — and we went in through the front entrance. After I shut the door, I said, “You’re very quiet.”
“Am I?”
“I thought you’d be happy that Lucas found my grandmother. You’re sure not acting like it.”
“I am. Really. It’s just — ” He hesitated, eyes downcast, as if he was studying the patterns of the rug beneath his feet to gain some sort of insight.
“Just what?” I asked impatiently.
“It’s just — are you ready to hear what she has to say? What if she tells you things about your father that you really don’t want to hear?”
“I’m touched that you want to protect me, Connor, but I can handle it. Even if she tells me he was a horrible person, that he made a bet that he could bang a McAllister and get away with it — or whatever — it’s still better than not knowing anything. And maybe she’ll know where he is, if he’s still alive. I have to find out for sure. Can you understand that?”
“Of course I do,” he replied, moving closer so he could take me in his arms and pull me close. “I forget what it must have been like for you, knowing nothing all those years. I had just the opposite problem — I often wished I could forget my father, forget what an asshole he was.”
I snuggled into Connor’s embrace, smelling the warm, familiar scent of his skin, feeling the strength of his arms around me. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“It’s over. Luckily, in his eyes I was expendable, so he didn’t pay a lot of attention to me. Damon was the one he focused all his energy on.”
And see how well that turned out, I thought. “Well, joke’s on him, considering you ended up as primus anyway.”
Connor didn’t reply, and I realized I’d stuck my foot in it with that response. “Sorry,” I said quickly. “That came out wrong.”
“It’s okay. I’ve also been known develop foot-in-mouth disease on occasion.” He let go of me, but gently, and not before planting a soft kiss on my forehead. “It’s been a long day.”
Had it ever. Hard to believe that it was only a little after eight. “So I say we veg out in front of the TV for a while and then go to bed. We can figure out what to do about visiting my grandmother tomorrow.”