Of all the noises in the building, people talking, guides explaining, Jace heard Ari. He followed the boy’s excited voice to Kelly’s office. She turned and looked at him. She’d changed her hair. It was swept up off her neck and coiled around her head. Sunlight poured through the window, forming a red halo around her.
Jace swallowed. He started across the room, coming to a stop so close that he could reach out and easily pull her into his arms.
“I’m going to go on the tour with Amy,” Ari said, scampering away. He slammed the door as he left.
Jace stared at Kelly. He hadn’t realized how much he could miss seeing someone. He wanted to kiss her, long and hard.
“You wanted me,” he said. His voice was several notes lower than usual.
Her eyes opened a little wider. Jace realized what he’d said, but he didn’t take it back.
“I wanted...” She stopped and looked down.
Jace wanted to reassure her, so he waited. He’d wait forever for Kelly.
“You wrote to your brother,” she said.
Jace nodded without thinking. How could she know that? He hadn’t told her.
“He’s here,” Kelly said.
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. He showed up an hour ago asking for you.”
All the old taunts came back to Jace. The insults and comments on how he wasn’t a true Kendall. How he was an illegitimate child with no home and no one to love him. How their father only let him live there to keep tongues from wagging. But he didn’t want him there, which was why they were always sending him away.
“He’s in his old room,” Kelly told him. She paused a moment, scrutinizing him.
Jace had told her some of the things that happened when he was younger, but no one who hadn’t experienced it could truly understand.
“You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to. I can ask him to leave.”
Jace said nothing. He was trying to think of what to do. He hadn’t been prepared for this. He never thought Sheldon would actually show up when he wrote the letter. Instead, he was here. In person.
“Are you going to see him?”
“I don’t think I have a choice,” Jace said.
“I took him some food. He looks like he could use it.”
Jace gave her a quick nod and turned. Slowly he walked to the door.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Kelly asked, stopping him.
He once more saw her in the brilliant sunlight. Shaking his head, he said, “I’ll be all right.”
Jace maneuvered through the crowds and found Ari with the tour guide he’d befriended at the first open house.
Amy smiled at him. She was holding Ari’s hand. “He’s okay,” she said. “He can stay with me.”
Jace affectionately touched his son’s head and moved around a group of visitors. He’d take the back stairway to avoid the rest of the craziness.
Grabbing a bottle of water from the kitchen, he walked up the back stairs. They opened onto a long, wide hallway that led to a master suite and six other bedrooms. On the next level were storage rooms where he used to hide and cry.
Jace didn’t look at the steps to the third level. His eyes were fixed on the door to Sheldon’s domain. The angle of light from the window behind him made Jace’s shadow appear distorted over the maroon runner and the polished wooden floor. What was he going to say to his half brother? Why had Sheldon made the trip all the way here without any notice?
Jace moved toward the door. There was only one way he could find out. He was no longer the scared little boy. And he wouldn’t be intimidated by a man who wouldn’t give him a drink of water on a hot day. Remembering the bottle of water in his hand, Jace looked at it. Twisting the top off, he took a satisfying drink, replaced the screw cap and knocked on the door.
He didn’t wait for an answer, but opened the door and went inside, closing it behind him. His brother was pacing the room, his back to Jace. Sheldon looked smaller, shorter than Jace remembered. Then he turned to face him.
And Jace saw the image of his father, stern and unforgiving.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE TWO BROTHERS faced each other like the Clantons faced the Earps at the OK Corral. Words weren’t called for or necessary. Just draw and shoot, Jace thought. The only question was who would shoot first.
Sheldon’s face was dark and craggy, as if he spent a lot of time in the sun. His hair was a mixture of grey and black, the black was still winning.
“How are you?” Sheldon finally asked. His voice was more raspy than Jace remembered, like a man who’d smoked all his life. But Sheldon didn’t smoke.
Jace ignored the question. His half brother hadn’t traveled four hundred miles to ask about his health.