Nate was a police officer in Boise. When they’d first learned of their half siblings, Max had done some digging of his own. He’d easily discovered Nate was a good cop, both by the cases he’d closed as well as the reputation several of Max’s contacts shared. Tenacious. Focused. Willing to dig for the truth instead of accepting things at face value.

  It was obviously a personality trait, because here he was, basically confessing he’d known about Robert Colton’s secret life for close to two decades.

  All while Chase had known nothing.

  “I’m sorry. And more than that, I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about it from our very first meeting.” Nate glanced down at the grass before his gaze lifted, that vivid blue direct and focused. “You deserved better than that. You all did.”

  Chase wanted to be angry. A very large part of him was angry, but oddly, it was an anger that sort of seethed with amorphous edges, swirling around yet having no place to land.

  Would he have liked to have known this information sooner?

  Of course.

  Would another month have made a difference, seeing as how he’d spent a lifetime in the dark?

  No, not really.

  Am I giving it all too much power?

  He’d asked Sloan that question earlier, in her apartment.

  For all his confusion, anger and raw fury at his father’s selfishness, Chase had genuinely begun to wonder about his own role in it all.

  In what came next.

  His father was dead. The image he’d crafted of the man was riddled with holes, all now visible in the light.

  He could resent it and allow it to rule his actions, or he could find his way to some level of acceptance that every member of his family had the same disservice done to them as he had.

  Which also meant he had a choice.

  A very clear one, Chase knew, that he couldn’t lay at Robert’s feet.

  He could turn on them, his newly discovered siblings most especially.

  Or he could build something real and true in spite of his father’s actions.

  As he stood there beside his brother, his family laughing and shouting and enjoying one another across the expanse of lawn, Chase knew what he wanted.

  Placing a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder, he turned toward Nate. Their gazes met, and Chase saw clear traces of himself in the younger man.

  The deep need to hold it together.

  The feelings of responsibility.

  And the determination to be strong, even when the world around them was cracking in half.

  “We deserved better, Nate. We.”

  “Yeah, but I—”

  “Not I, brother. We. This here—” He gestured toward their family. “That’s us. All of us. And we all deserved better than what Robert and Jessie did.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “Maybe it is. If we choose to make it that easy, we can have what they never dreamed of.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Family.”

  As that last word lingered between him and his youngest brother, Chase felt his first moment of peace since this all began.

  He had a family. A rock-solid one.

  And there was nothing he wouldn’t do for each and every one of them.

  Chapter 7

  A carefree bubble of laugher filled Sloan’s chest as Fancy shot straight up from her position on her lap.

  One minute the puppy was conked out, sleeping like the dead, and the next one, Sebastian had gotten close enough with a huge platter of steaks that the dog was launching herself off her thighs so she could follow the man like he was the pied piper.

  “Training is a process,” Kiki sighed as she watched her small charge racing around Sebastian’s feet.

  “She’ll get there,” Della assured her before standing. “But it’s probably time to get her and Charlie settled in their crates.”

  As she and Kiki went off, and Ruby and Frannie headed into the kitchen to get the additional sides to go with the steaks, Sloan found herself alone with Sarah.

  “Have you and Chase been dating long?”

  Sarah’s smile was sweet, and Sloan had observed how hard the woman had worked to fit in that evening. She’d been kind and a bit deferential, obviously still trying to figure her place in the Colton family.

  “We met on Monday.”

  If Sarah thought less than a week of dating was fast, she didn’t show it and instead only nodded. “It might be cliché, but it’s surprisingly accurate. Life really does turn on a dime.”

  “With respect to romance, it’s one of my mother’s favorite sayings. She met my father and six weeks later was engaged.”

  “And things worked out?”

  “They celebrated thirty-two years of marriage back in April, so things seem to be going okay.”

  Sarah laughed at that before something seemed to crumple in her face, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I swore to myself I wasn’t going to cry and then something triggers it. I—”

  “It’s okay.” Sloan moved closer, angling her body so she and Sarah faced each other on the patio furniture. “I hope you don’t mind my saying, but Chase told me about what you’ve all been living through. His father’s death and then the discovery for all of you that you had siblings you didn’t know about.”

  If it was possible, Sarah’s visage twisted up even more. “That they didn’t know about. We knew. Nate and I. It was all of them that didn’t.” Sarah swiped at tears, even as more spilled over her fingers. “Surprise!”

  It was uncharted territory—Sloan figured on some level she was a handy listener, and on another she was safe since she was an outsider. But regardless of the reason, she was here and Sarah needed someone to lean on.

  “You were children. How could you have known how to handle something like that?”

  “They’re my brothers and sisters.”

  “Who share parents with you. Parents who had a far greater responsibility to tell them the truth of their lives than you did.”

  “They’re a family and we’re just the interlopers who have turned it all upside down.”

  Whether it was her rapidly fading objectivity on this case, or just the sheer indignity over Robert and Jessie Colton’s behavior she couldn’t quite get past, Sloan wasn’t sure.

  But she refused to sit there and let Sarah take this all on herself.

  “You’re part of a family, no qualifier needed.”

  “I was part of a family.”

  “Please don’t do that to yourself. It’s not past tense.” She reached for the woman’s hand, putting hers over top of Sarah’s. “I’ve watched you all tonight. There’s genuine effort and care there. Between you and Nate and all your siblings, too. It’s hard and no one’s saying it’s not, but you and your brother are welcome here.”

  “Everyone has made me feel welcome. Even Uncle Buck, who probably had the biggest right to feel otherwise, has been so kind to me. To Nate, too.”

  Although Buck was absent this evening, just like Chase’s mother, Jenny, Chase had filled her in fully on his whole family. Buck was his father’s brother and had been married to Jessie, the two of them bringing Greg, Malcolm, Max and Lizzy into the world before Jessie up and left when Lizzy was three.

  How shattering would that have been?

  For Buck, yes, but for his kids? To lose one’s mother like that? A woman who was an essential aspect of a child’s stability and foundation, to just vanish?

  She may not have died, but Buck and Jessie’s children lost her and they’d still all found a way to move forward.

  To forge ahead.

  Jessie might have gone on to a new family, but that also meant Sarah and Nate were now dealing with the reality of who their mother was. Any illusion they might have had about her character had to have taken a hard blow with the obvious proof she’d walked away from four children.

  It was difficult and convoluted and a terrible example of what atrocities people could commit to those they claimed to love.

  But it didn’t have to define Sarah and Nate’s future. It didn’t have to define any of their futures, not if they didn’t want it to.

  “Your brothers and sisters want to get to know you.”

  “I keep telling myself that. And most of the time I can feel it. And then I stop and look around and all I can think is why? Why would they want to welcome us into their lives? The two people who are the living proof their parents perpetrated a lifetime of lies.”

  “You and Nate are dealing with the consequences of that choice as much as anyone else.”

  Sloan was under no delusions that a few well-meaning moments could erase what the woman was feeling, but she did take heart when Sarah brushed away the remaining tears and glanced toward the large picnic tables set up about ten yards off the back patio.

  “I do think I’m hungry.”

  “Why don’t we go get some dinner then? The steaks smell wonderful, and it looks like Frannie made enough potato salad to feed an army.”

  Sarah glanced around at the assembled people throughout the backyard. “We’re sort of a small one when we’re all together.”

  “Fair point.”

  Chase had crossed over to the porch and came up to the two of them, his smile broad even as Sloan saw a distinct gentleness in his green gaze.

  There was a subtle haze of sadness, too.

  “We’re definitely an army. And our drill-sergeant sister, Ruby, will see to it that we all get into a line to fill our plates.”

  “I’d best get to it then.” Sarah headed off and it left Sloan and Chase briefly alone on the patio.

  Chase waited, watching until Sarah picked up a plate and began talking to Fletcher, who was already in line, before he spoke. “I overheard a bit of what you said to her. That was incredibly kind.”

  “It’s true.”

  “It’s still nice to hear.” Chase looked around at the large group of people filling the yard, laughing and talking under the lights strung around the space. “And when we’re here, together, it’s easier to remember. It’s when we scatter back to our lives it’s a little harder.”

  “You’ve all dealt with a major trauma as a family. Everything about your life has been upended and changed. That takes time to process, and from this outsider’s view, you’re all handling it admirably.”

  Chase moved in, putting his arm around her and pulling her close. The move was casual and it wasn’t especially romantic, but it was intimate. And as his well-muscled arm held her against him, Sloan felt her heart kick hard in her chest.

  She placed a hand on his chest, looking up into his eyes.

  Once again, that distinct sense of sadness was pervasive, even as he seemingly fought to keep his smile bright.

  “Maybe even more important, Chase, you’re all trying. I think that says all I need to know about this family.”

  * * *

  Chase still hadn’t figured out how Sloan had managed it, but in a matter of hours she’d charmed his entire family, become the adoring subject of two dogs and had somehow managed to make him even more enchanted with her than he already was.

  And based on how hard he’d tried not to look at her with anything but professional attention in their private moments, that was saying something.

  But, wow, the woman was amazing. She had a quality, he’d quickly come to realize, that was the epitome of effortless grace.

  Most of all, he acknowledged, she was there.

  With him.

  With his family, each of them fighting a battle to understand what had made them.

  And all desperately trying to forge a new path forward.

  He didn’t need to be looking at her this way—needing her close—but heaven help him, he couldn’t look away.

  Even earlier, when he’d gladly have punched Greg, he’d understood his cousin’s interest. Sloan was beautiful, yes, but that beauty went so much deeper than the surface.

  A few hours had passed since he’d come upon her and his half sister on the patio, but even now he could hear her kind words running through his mind, and how she’d comforted Sarah.

  What he hadn’t expected was how comforting he’d personally found her sentiments. Especially with his own conversation with Nate still ringing in his ears.

  He’d meant what he’d told his brother, even as the heavy weight of Nate’s knowledge of their father’s secret life pressed on him.

  They all deserved better.

  How much easier was it to accept that truth when he was with his family, talking, laughing and being together?

  And how much easier was it with Sloan?

  When he’d hired her, his only goal had been to uncover the rat at Colton Properties. Yet, now knowing they were close, that the answer to that puzzle would be solved soon, Chase found himself at odds about something else.

  He wasn’t ready for her to leave.

  She made it all smoother somehow. Like what he was dealing with was something he could handle.

  Like he had a partner.

  It was the last thing he’d expected, and that depth of need scared him.

  All while it lifted him up.

  Up to now, he’d struggled with the concept of his father’s secret life. His mind knew Nate and Sarah were as innocent of their family drama as his other siblings and his cousins.

  But his heart had struggled with that reality, the betrayal a visceral blow.

  Somehow, Sloan’s presence—and her absolute lack of judgment or disdain—made it easier.

  Better.

  “I keep saying I can’t eat another bite and then something even more wonderful comes out of that house.” Sloan grinned beside him as Kiki and Frannie marched out of the house with desserts. “It’s like a clown car of food. Every time you think there can’t possibly be more, there is.”

  Her comment pulled him out of his wandering thoughts, and he caught sight of the platter in his sister’s hands. “I can promise you that you do not want to miss Frannie’s pound cake.”

  “Then, somehow, I’ll persevere.”

  Although the table was crowded, with shouts, laughter and conversation flowing from one end of it to the other, Chase couldn’t help but feel this moment was somehow just theirs.

  A tender moment in an oasis of happy chaos.

  One he was loath to let go, the seeming spell she managed to weave around him keeping them tethered.

  He wanted to kiss her.

  It would have been okay. More than okay, Chase admitted to himself, as he recalled any number of kisses shared by the couples around the table. Sebastian and Ruby, after hiding their feelings for each other for so long, made no effort to hide their affection now. The deep glances and lingering touches and the big, smacking kiss Sebastian had laid on Ruby as he’d finished up the steaks had made everyone smile.

  Fletcher and Kiki, Frannie and Dante, and Max and Della were the same.

  The Coltons weren’t quite so single any longer and everyone was more than welcoming of the fact that Chase had brought a significant other to the party.

  Which made it a special sort of torture to hold himself back.

  “Your family is special.” Sloan’s voice was low, her observation meant only for him. “I’d initially expected this many people all in one place would be overwhelming. Especially when we drove up and I saw all those cars. But—”

  She broke off, seeming to gather her words. “It’s not that they aren’t overwhelming, because there are certainly a lot of people. But there’s a warmth there. And a sense of welcome. Like every person you meet is happy you’re here. Just as you are. Just for yourself.”

  Wasn’t that the core of it all?

  Somehow, with that easy and rather lovely compliment, Sloan had gone to the heart of what he was so determined to puzzle through and make sense of.

  His family was warm. And welcoming. And for all their size, there was a congenial camaraderie they all shared. Even Nate and Sarah had that quality and had shown it to full effect in a matter of visits.

  Yet for all their generation knew how to care for one another and accept one another, it had all risen out of a cauldron of secrets each and every child of Robert or Jessie Colton had spent a lifetime oblivious to.

  It was the seesaw of emotion he hadn’t fully figured out how to manage.

  He’d worked with his father. For years. And somehow, in all that time, he’d never known the man had a second life somewhere else?

  How did a person live a life so completely separate that it was invisible to his loved ones?

  That had gnawed at him for months now, and yet, when he sat here with Sloan, he was better able to accept it. More, he could settle himself in a way that he acknowledged it was his own father’s choices, not anything self-directed.

  So when her hand came over his, resting there in a show of support, it was incredibly easy for him to shift so that their palms touched. Almost of their own accord, their fingers linked together.

  A solid bond as well as an outward sign to others.

  He knew he shouldn’t lean into that support. But here, with Sloan, surrounded by the family who did help him make sense of who he was in the world, Chase knew his first moments of peace since his father’s death.

  It was small and simple, and the outside world still awaited him.

  But in that moment, it was enough.

  * * *

  Sloan felt herself slipping back toward the passenger seat headrest and fought to keep her eyes open.

  It would be so easy to close her eyes and revel in the warmth of an enjoyable evening and the company of a wonderful man.

  Which were the exact reasons she needed to remain wide-awake.

  She had to stay alert. Sharp. Focused.

  More, she had to stop this lovely, drowsy feeling from taking her over.