Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(98)

I never had the heart to tell him that stuff had never been anywhere near New Orleans.

“Hey, big brother,” she says, coming over, hugging me tight.

I kiss the top of her head, too choked up to say a damn thing.

She gives me another tight squeeze, then steps back. “Thanks for the money, but we’d rather have you.”

I have to look away from the moisture in her eyes. My gaze meets Bella’s, and I have to look away from her too.

“Why don’t you two go in the house,” Bella says, laying a friendly hand on Terry’s shoulder and then the other on Sherry. “While I show these two the smartest horse in the world.”

“That black one over there with the white spot?” Sherry asks with excitement, bobbing up and down on her heels.

“That’s him,” Bella answers, spinning the kids around. “His name’s Edison, and he loves a good pet.”

She’s right. The kids don’t need to hear me tell Angie to go the hell home. Now.

I turn, gesturing for her to walk up the steps so I can take a stab at putting it nicely.

“I was afraid you still didn’t want to see us,” Angie says as we step inside the house. She huffs out a breath. “Damn it, Drake. You scared me. Sometimes I didn’t know if you were dead or alive.”

I walk into the living room so nothing we say can float out through the screen door. “I’ve been sending you money. Nothing would’ve come if I was six feet under. Use your head, sis.”

She snorts and smiles. “Same old attitude, I see. You sent it from some weird ass Western Union account. I seriously didn’t know whether or not I should expect a telegram next.”

I try not to smile. I’d used it so she couldn’t trace the money easily to any bank.

“I always said 'DL.' How many other Drake Larkin’s do you know?”

“Oh, please. Anybody could’ve opened an account in your name and sent me money with your initials. You had a lot of people in the Army who’d do you a favor like that. Like that nice guy from Louisiana, what was his name? Gabe! That’s it. I hope he’s happy, wherever he is.” She shakes her head. “I set up a Google alert for your name if it ever showed up in an obituary. That’s always how I thought I’d find you...”

Shit. She doesn’t say she expected the obit to be me, but it isn’t hard to read between the lines.

It also explains how she found me.

“Look, I’m sorry, Drake. I never should’ve said what I did that night after Dad went missing. I planned on being home within half an hour of when you left, but when I got to school to pick up the kids, Terry had lost one of the gloves you’d given him for Christmas on the playground. He wouldn’t leave until we found it.” She presses two fingers to the bridge of her nose. “It was just an hour. God. One damn hour before I got home. But I couldn’t let Terry think he was the reason his grandfather was missing. The reason he died...so, yeah. I was emotional. I beat you up. I pinned it all on you, like an idiot.”

I hadn’t known that, but it still doesn’t matter.

I was the one who’d left him alone.

“It’s not the right time for this. You need to go back home, Angie. When this is all over, I’ll come home to Kinsleyville and we’ll talk, sort this out.”

It comes out half mushy. For some reason, home doesn’t jibe with Montana these days.

It’s her home. Has been for years. But it doesn’t feel like mine anymore.

“When this is all over? When what’s all over?” She slaps the back of the chair next to her. “My God! You’re still looking for Winnie’s killer, aren’t you? When are you going to believe there was no killer? It was an accident. She died of hypothermia because she took her snowmobile to chase down the dealer who beat up her little brother.”

That was the story people believed, even after Winnie’s body was found. With no coat. Barefoot.

Not me. I know different. “She wouldn’t have done that, Ang. Never would’ve went off after some prick while Drew needed medical attention.”

“Why do you still have such a blind spot when it comes to her? I know you loved her, Drake. She was your best friend and a part of your life. I have two kids and the only good thing their father ever did was give me full custody when he practically booked it. Damn it, Drake, you two were nothing...were you? Just friends. I just don’t understand the obsession–”

“She had four siblings to raise. No help from anyone. No fuckin’ shoulder to cry on but mine, and what did she get for it?”

Angie shakes her head, turning away with a rough, barely muffled huff.

The anger in her eyes surprises me. “I didn’t know you hated her so bad.”

She throws her hands in the air. “I didn’t hate her. At one point, I loved her too, until...until she kept you away from your family for four damn years. Four years, Drake. You want answers. Closure. I get it. But going through all this, letting it eat up your whole life? She’d have begged you to do different.”

Fury fills me. “Winnie never begged for anything. She was too proud.”

“Well, she didn’t have to when you were always there. The hero big brother she never had who’d always come running. I just wish you were mine.”