The Girl's Got Secrets (Forbidden Men #7)(91)

Half an hour later, we knocked on Reese and Mason’s door. Eva answered, and her face brightened when she saw me.

“Asher.” She pulled me in for a tight hug, murmuring into my ear how much it was going to mean to Mason and Reese that I’d come. Then she noticed the guy behind me. “Oh! Hi, there.” I introduced her to Remy, and he waved a respectful hello before following us down the hall to a kitchen where Pick and Reese were hovering over a phone book, debating which funeral home to contact.

“Look who I found at the door,” Eva announced.

Reese looked up, and though her face was red and puffy from some obvious crying, she smiled when she saw me. “Asher. Thank you so much for coming.” She swept around the table toward me and pulled me in for a hug.

Afterward, I heaved the grocery bag at her.

She peeked inside and brightened. “Oh! Thank you. That was so thoughtful. This’ll probably come in handy more than anything else.”

I glanced back at Remy, ready to give him the credit, but he nudged my elbow and whispered, “Your line is you’re welcome.” So I dutifully turned back to Reese and shrugged.

“No problem. So...?”

I wasn’t sure what to ask. But Reese leaned in and quietly murmured, “She overdosed.”

Shock spread through me. “Mason’s mom? Shit. I wasn’t aware she...”

“She wasn’t. Not really. I guess she’d had a problem with prescription pills a long time ago. She used to filch some of Sarah’s medicine to handle...well, life, I guess. But she’d stopped long before I’d come along. Mason didn’t even tell me about it until after we’d moved here from Florida. But I guess, lately, these last few months...it became a problem again.” She shook her head as tears filled her eyes. “Sarah’s the one who found her. After she called us, she hasn’t spoken a word.”

“Shit,” I murmured, feeling for Mason’s poor sister.

“And Mason...my God.” More tears filled Reese’s eyes. “He’s been busy on the phone, calling lawyers and social workers, so hell-bent on making sure we can get custody of Sarah he hasn’t stopped to think about what really just happened. I don’t think he wants to think about it.”

I didn’t blame him. Before I could say anything, offer help—just anything she needed—two small children scampered into the room. “Mama, Dada,” they called, going to their parents.

Watching what I guessed were my niece and nephew now run to Eva and Pick for attention, I shook my head. They were so damn cute, and so damn lucky they had two parents who cared, who wouldn’t overdose and abandon them, who just...loved them.

From the hallway, more people appeared: Noel and his family, and Quinn and Zoey, toting a super-small baby.

As Reese went in to snatch baby J.B. from Zoey’s arms, saying she really needed a dose of cuteness right now, Brandt glanced around the suddenly cramped kitchen and asked, “Sarah’s here, right?”

Pain clouded Reese’s face as she jiggled the baby. “Yes, but I’m sorry, Brandt.” She shook her head. “She’s not talking to anyone right now. Mason can’t even get her to respond to him. She’s pretty upset.”

Determination glittered in Brandt’s eyes. “Can I go see her anyway?” I had a feeling he would’ve found a way, even if Reese denied him access.

But she nodded. “Of course. She’s lying down in Mason’s and my room.”

He took off, and hushed, respectful voices filled the kitchen as Aspen and Quinn handed food dishes off to Eva, who packed them away in the refrigerator. When Mason entered the room, looking pale, worn-out, and a bit shell-shocked, the ladies gathered around him for a round of hugs, while us guys stood back, giving him one of those sorry-for-your-loss nods.

Julian and Skylar kept trying to scream and run around the kitchen, so Pick gathered them both up under his arms, announcing, “I can take them home. Tink...go ahead and stay here as long as you need, be with your cousins. And call when you’re ready to come home.”

I about spoke up, and volunteered to take her home so he wouldn’t have to come back, thinking Remy had a car Eva could actually ride in, but then Remy lifted his hand. “Oh, hey. I can watch them. No problem. If you have an extra room here we could hang out in, you all could stay.”

Reese laid her hand on his arm. “Thank you so much, Sticks.” Then she glanced my way. “Could you show him where the office is? There are some kids’ DVDs and toys in there to occupy the kiddos.”

I nodded and helped Remy gather up Pick and Eva’s little heathens.

We started down another hall, but when we passed Mason and Reese’s room, Brandt’s murmured voice made me pause at the half opened door and glance inside.

“It’s going to be okay,” the kid murmured as he lay spooned up behind Sarah on the bed and stroked her hair. “Living with your big brother isn’t so bad. It’s actually been better for me since I have. You’ll see.”

Sarah grabbed hold of his shirt at his shoulder and squeezed it tight. “Please...don’t...leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Brandt assured her. “I’m staying right here with you.”

Behind me, Remy nudged me on, silently telling me I was listening in on a private conversation, but as soon as we reached Mason and Reese’s office, he grinned and said, “Well, if that wasn’t the sweetest shit you’ve ever seen. I think I just fell in love with that kid.”