Coming Home Read online

  Vanessa glared.

  Steffie shrugged. “I’m just saying.”

  “I’ve met most of the others, and they’re all really nice.”

  “What happened to the other brother? The creepy one?”

  “Oh. Brendan.” Vanessa nodded. “All I know is that he’s dead, and everyone’s okay with that.”

  “Maybe the one from Montana’s hot.” Steffie wiggled her eyebrows. “It could make for an interesting day.”

  “I’ve met Andy, and I have to say, he is really cute. Mia said once that all the guys in her family look alike, so Mountain Man probably is pretty cute, too. But I’m thinking he’s gotta be strange, living by himself all this time. So thanks, but no thanks.”

  “So what? You’ve done strange before.”

  “That’s exactly my point. I’ve met so many guys with issues that I’m starting to believe there’s no other kind. I don’t care how hot the hermit is. I’m done with all that.” She shook her head. “Uh-uh. Give me boring and normal, if you give me anything at all. No baggage, no issues, no drama.”

  “Doesn’t sound like much fun to me.”

  “I’ve had fun enough to last a lifetime. If there is a next guy-and I’m not sure I will ever want another one for any length of time and for anything other than occasional sex-he’s going to be excruciatingly bland.” She held up her empty ice-cream cup. “Vanilla, not rum raisin. Someone who washes the car in the driveway on Saturday morning and who rakes the leaves in the backyard in the fall and reads the newspaper at the breakfast table. He’s going to be one of those guys whose idea of a good time is watching a movie at home with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and me in the other.”

  Steffie rolled her eyes.

  “I can’t believe I’m hearing this. You’ve just described my sister’s excruciatingly dull life, and it terrifies me to think that someday I could end up like that. It’s my worst nightmare.”

  “Which nicely explains your commitment phobia.”

  “Don’t knock it, since you obviously haven’t tried it.”

  “That was a low blow, Stef.”

  “Sorry. Really. Damn. I am sorry.” Steffie looked contrite. “Give me a minute to remove my feet from my mouth.”

  “It’s okay. It’s true. At least, it was true, once upon a time. But two really bad marriages have cured me of all that.” She finished the last of the ice cream and licked the spoon clean. “Anyway, like I said, Mountain Man is probably as weird as they come after living like a hermit for a couple of years, so it doesn’t matter how hot he is. I’ll be my usual sweet and pleasant self at the wedding, because he’s Mia’s brother, but if what she’s said about him being antisocial is true, he’ll be on a plane back to Montana before his sister even tosses her bouquet. And that’s just skippy with me.”

  “Well, if he gets bored and lonely while he’s in St. Dennis, you can send him my way.” Steffie lowered her feet to the floor and wearily pushed herself up from the chair. “Do you mind if we do dinner at Captain Walt’s tonight? I’m not really dressed for Lola’s and I’m too tired to go home to change.”

  “Walt’s is fine. I love their broiled seafood platter.” Vanessa stood and gathered the paper cups, napkins, and plastic spoons and tossed them in the trash near the front door, all thoughts of the potentially hot guy already replaced by visions of a few broiled scallops, a piece of rockfish, and one of Walt’s famous jumbo lump crab cakes.

  Chapter 2

  FROM the top of the ridge, Grady Shields reined in the chestnut mare and watched an unfamiliar Jeep pull all the way up his driveway and park near the barn. He unsnapped his binoculars from the saddlebag and raised them to his eyes, corrected the focus, then smiled broadly when he recognized his unexpected visitor. He urged the horse down the path, but halfway to the bottom of the hill, he froze in the saddle, his smile fading slowly as he recalled the last time she’d come unannounced.

  A knot in his stomach, he followed the path to the bottom of the hill and crossed the field to the paddock area next to the barn.

  “Gray!” Mia shouted joyfully. As he swung down from the saddle, she jumped into his arms, startling the horse.

  One hand managed to hold on to the spooked animal while the other hugged his sister, in spite of his anxiously pounding heart. If someone had died, would she be so happy?

  “Don’t you look all Marlboro Man?” she teased. “You’ve gone totally cowboy.”

  “Well, when in Rome…” He removed the wide-brimmed hat from his head and placed it on hers. It slid down onto her forehead.

  “Wow, I almost forgot that you have such a view here.” She adjusted the hat and looked past him to the hills beyond. “And you have a horse!”

  She stretched a hand out to stroke the animal’s neck.

  “The view is mine, but the horse is not. I rent out the paddock area to some neighbors. The horse belongs to their son, who’s away at school for another two weeks, so Chance here and I keep each other company most afternoons. Right, girl?” He patted the horse affectionately, then asked cautiously, “So. Is everything all right at home? Everyone’s okay?”

  “Everyone’s fine. Everything is better than fine.”

  “Good.” He sighed his relief. “When I saw you, I wondered if maybe… at first I was afraid…”

  He left the thought unfinished.

  “Afraid? Why afraid?” Mia paused midsentence. “Oh. You’re thinking of when Dad died and Andy and I came to tell you?”

  He nodded.

  “This time the news is all good.” She held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger. “Gray, I’m getting married.”

  “You and the cop…?”

  “Beck. You met him at Dad’s funeral.”

  “I remember. He seemed like a nice enough guy.” He took her hand and turned it to him. “That’s a really pretty ring, Mia. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks, Gray. He’s a great guy. The best.” Grady couldn’t help but see that her face glowed.

  “You could have called me, you know. You didn’t have to make the trip all the way out here to tell me you were engaged.” He looped the horse’s reins over the fence, wondering what was coming next. “Not that I’m not happy to see you.”

  “I needed to ask you something, and I wanted to ask you in person.”

  “Uh-oh,” he teased. “When your little sister flies three-quarters of the way across the country to ask you something, you know it’s something big.”

  “It is big.” Mia became very solemn. She followed him to the fence. “I want you to walk me down the aisle at my wedding, you and Andy. I want you both to give me away.”

  He fell silent and unhooked the saddle’s girth.

  “Gray?”

  “Mia, I…” He struggled with his words. How to explain…?

  “I know,” she said softly. “I know you hate to come back. I know you hate to be away from here. I know that-”

  “It’s not so much that I hate to go back, Mia. It’s because I’ve made a life for myself here.” He slid the saddle from the horse’s back and went past her through the open barn door.

  Mia grabbed the horse’s reins and followed behind him, leading the mare.

  “I know you feel guilty about Melissa. I know you feel that it’s your fault that she died,” Mia told him.

  He swung the saddle onto a rail and took the horse from her and led it to a stall.

  “We all know you stay here because-” She trailed behind him.

  “Stop right there.” One hand on the stall door, he looked over his shoulder at her. “You only think you know.”

  “Okay, then, explain it to me.”

  “I put the blame for Missy’s death squarely where it belongs: on Brendan. I don’t feel guilty about her dying because I refuse to take on his guilt for him.”

  “Well, if it’s not guilt that keeps you here,” she asked bluntly, “why do you stay here by yourself?”

  “Like I said, I’ve made a life for myself here.”

 
; “You have a life back with us. You could come back home.”

  “Come back to do what?”

  “The boss asks about you all the time. He’d love to have you back at the Bureau.”

  Grady nodded. He’d heard from John Mancini numerous times. “I know. He’s been in touch.”

  “What do you tell him?”

  “I tell him that I’m probably done with the FBI. It just doesn’t mean what it used to mean, Mia. At least, not to me.” He turned back to the horse and guided her into her stall.

  This was something else he couldn’t explain. The Bureau had been his life before Melissa’s murder, but her death was so closely connected to that job and the people there that he couldn’t just go back as if nothing had happened.

  He walked past Mia to a deep sink inside the door. He grabbed a bucket from under the sink and proceeded to fill it from the tap. When the bucket was filled, he returned to the stall and poured the water into the trough.

  “What do you do here that you couldn’t do back home?” Mia had followed as far as the stall door. Without waiting for his answer, she went on: “How do you spend your time if you don’t work? You just sit around and watch TV at night?” She paused. “You do get television up here, right?”

  “Cute. Since you ask, at night, I read. I watch movies. And yes, sometimes at night I do watch TV.” Amused by her assumptions, he tried to keep from smiling. “I do the same thing I’d do if I were anyplace else.”

  “Except that here, you do it alone.”

  “Solitude’s not all that bad.”

  “Have you made any friends?”

  “I’ve gotten to know some of the neighbors, sure. And a couple of people in town. I see folks. It’s not like I lock myself in the house all day, Mia.”

  “Don’t you get lonely?” she persisted.

  “Not so much. Like I said, I have things to do.” He removed the horse’s bridle and looped it over his shoulder.

  He’d finished tending to the mare, so he came out of the stall and closed the half door. He walked out of the barn and toward the house, his sister quickening her steps to keep up. He went directly to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. When he finished, he reached for a towel.

  He finished drying his hands, then draped the towel over the dish drainer on the counter. “When is your wedding?”

  “It’s in five weeks.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  She hugged him from behind. “Thank you, Gray. Thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me, to have you and Andy there with me.”

  “I couldn’t not be there for you, kiddo.” He smiled. He never would have let her down. “I’ll check the airlines, see when the flights are, and I’ll-”

  “Oh, I already did all that.” Suddenly all business, Mia sat her bag on the kitchen table and opened it. “Here’s the itinerary and the schedule for the week.”

  “The week?” He stared at her as if he hadn’t heard correctly. “It’s going to take a whole week for you to get married?”

  “Well, sure. You’re going to need to be fitted for your tux.” Her eyes twinkled. “Oh, sure, the tux might be at odds with your new rugged Wild West look, but hey, it’s my wedding. Maybe you could even shave.”

  He laughed and fingered the week’s growth on his face. “Maybe I could.”

  “Andy said you’re the same size, so he’ll order your tux for you, but you’re still going to have to go into Annapolis-that’s where the men’s store is-and make sure the sleeves are right, that sort of thing. The guy in the store said you needed to do that by Monday at the latest in case they need to make any alterations. There’s a rehearsal and then a rehearsal dinner on Thursday evening instead of Friday because the minister already committed to something else on Friday night. Oh, and the bachelor party is actually going to be on Tuesday night, because Beck has to work most of that week and the weekend before, so…”

  Grady glanced down at the schedule. There was something filled in for every day of the week before the wedding.

  “What’s this on Friday night?” He pointed to the date.

  “Oh, Andy said the two of you should do something, so you’re having a dinner for the wedding party and the immediate family.”

  “Well, that’s nice of us.”

  Mia laughed. “I guess if you wanted to bail on Andy, it would serve him right for not asking you first.”

  “Nah, I’m happy to do it. I’m guessing Andy has made the arrangements, though?”

  She nodded. “It’s going to be at Lola’s. That’s a really nice restaurant in St. Dennis.”

  “I guess it’s too late to try to talk you into eloping.”

  “No way, pal. I’ve waited forever for the right guy, and I’m going to have one hell of a gorgeous wedding to celebrate.”

  “You sure, honey?” Grady asked. “You sure he’s the right guy?”

  “There’s no doubt in my mind.” Mia looked up at him and even he could not miss the stars in her eyes. “He’s just… just the best guy I ever met. Andy agrees. I hope you think so, too, after you get to know him a little better.”

  “If Andy approves, I’m sure I will, too.” He folded the paper she’d given him with the schedule and the flight information and placed it on the kitchen table. “I’ll be there for whatever whoop-de-do you have planned for the week. Just don’t expect me to hang around after the wedding.”

  “Why not?” Mia took a seat on one of the two oak kitchen chairs and draped her bag over the back. “Why not visit with Andy and Dorsey for a few days? I know they’d love to have you.”

  When he didn’t answer, she didn’t press, and he was grateful. Some things just were too hard to explain, like how you weren’t sure where you belonged, because your old life just didn’t fit anymore. Besides, there were those things to do.

  “It’s up to you, of course. I’m just so happy that you’re going to walk me down the aisle. Everyone will be happy to see you, Gray. We’ve all missed you.”

  “I’ll be happy to see everyone, too.” He glanced at the clock that hung over the door leading in to the dining room. “Almost dinnertime. We can go out for dinner, or I can cook.”

  Her eyebrows raised almost to her hairline. “I’m sorry, would you repeat that last part? It sounded like you said you could cook.”

  “That’s what I did say.”

  Mia’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

  He laughed good-naturedly. “When you live alone, you learn how to cook, or you eat out every night. You might have noticed, if you drove through West Priest, that there is only one restaurant there.”

  “Right. Sullivan’s. I saw it.”

  “Did you stop in?”

  She shook her head.

  “Everything is hit-or-miss there. One day the soup might be great, but the sandwiches, not so much. Next day, might be the reverse. The guy who runs it has a problem with consistency in his kitchen. Their spotty menu aside, there’s the fact that when winter hits, it hits hard and fast. There are times when you can’t get into town for weeks. You have to keep supplies on hand and you need to know what to do with them.”

  “So you learned how to cook.”

  “It was that or starve. The first year I was here, I bought a freezer and a backup generator to keep things going when the power goes out.”

  “So what can you make?”

  “I make a truly mean mac and cheese.”

  “Like Mom’s?”

  He nodded. “Maybe better.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Grady went to the refrigerator and took out a large brick of Cheddar cheese. From a cabinet he took a large bowl, a grater, and finally, a glass baking pan.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “You can make a salad when it gets closer to dinnertime. Meanwhile, how about a glass of wine or a beer?”

  “I think I’d rather have something hot. Tea or coffee, whichever you have.”

  He
opened another cabinet and pointed to a shelf that held both. “Take your pick.”

  “I think I’ll go with tea.” She rose and took down the box of tea. “Kettle?”

  He shook his head. “I have a small pan you can boil water in.”

  “Good enough.”

  He handed her the pan and she filled it with water, then set it on the stove while he began to grate cheese.

  “Are you chilly?” he asked.

  Mia nodded. “A little. It’s already warm back home. I didn’t stop to think that it would be so much cooler here.”

  “We’ll stay cool for another month or so.” He looked up and grinned. “Summer’s a short season here.”

  “I knew that. I just wasn’t thinking.”

  “Let me get you a sweater.” He put the grater down into the bowl. “I’ll be right back.”

  He returned in minutes carrying a pale yellow cardigan that obviously wasn’t his. He handed it to Mia. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.” She started to put her arm into the sleeve. “You still have Melissa’s things here in the house?”

  Grady nodded. “I don’t know what to do with them. I can’t bring myself to just throw them away.”

  “There must be something like Goodwill, or the Salvation Army, or a thrift store in the area.”

  “There is. But I don’t know what to say.” He picked up the grater and resumed working on the block of cheese. “I mean, do I call and say, ‘Hello, my wife was murdered a few years ago and I have all these clothes of hers that I was wondering if you’d want’?”

  “That’s pretty much it, yeah.” Mia finished putting on the sweater and buttoned it halfway up, then rolled up the sleeves. “I’d forgotten how much taller Melissa was than me.”

  Grady glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “You’re a peanut, next to her.”

  An awkward silence followed. Finally, Grady said, “So tell me a little more about this cop who’s marrying my sister.”

  “Chief of police, remember?” She unwrapped a tea bag and asked, “Cups?”

  “Next cabinet to where you’re standing.” He pointed. “Okay, so he’s chief of police. Tell me about him. What’s his background? What’s his family like?”