“Ah, when did you get the new coat? I like it,” Joan said.
The woman’s smile was wide. “Strick got it for me.”
“Strick? Is that the new man?” Julian asked, grabbing a muffin from the plate and peeling the foil wrapper away and then taking a bite.
“Yes. You’ll meet him later tonight when I get back from the office. He’s coming to dinner.” She turned to Georgie. “I’m Grace, my inconsiderate brother’s older sister.”
“Inconsiderate?” Julian hooked his sister with the arm that didn’t have the half eaten muffin. “You haven’t seen me in nine months and that’s what I get from you?”
She kissed him on the cheek. “You made me introduce myself to your girlfriend.”
Julian glanced at Georgie and winked. “Because I know you can’t help yourself. You beat me to it.”
Grace made a face and glanced at Georgie. “You really want to put up with this guy?”
Georgie shrugged and said, “He didn’t exactly give me a choice.”
Grace’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. Don’t let him get away with that.”
“It’s not even sixty seconds and you’re already at each other. Save it for later,” Joan said.
“I need to get to work anyway,” Grace said. She hugged Liam and the kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll see you tonight. Listen to Grandma. Don’t listen to anything Uncle Julian says,” she whispered loudly.
“Hey!” Julian said.
“Don’t worry, Uncle Julian. Mom says that about all the uncles.”
Georgie chuckled as another stab of envy pierced her heart. This house and the people in it were so unlike what she’d known growing up. And she hadn’t even met the entire McKinnon family yet. Suddenly the simple dinner that was planned for tonight seemed terrifying. She was going to stick out like a sore thumb.
“I’ll stop by Aunt Kate’s on the way home from the office and pick up some pastries from the diner,” Grace said.
“Don’t bother,” Joan said. “Kate and Don are coming and I think Wade and Skylar. Ethan has a shift at the police station, but he might stop by with Maddie at some point. Sam and Summer are still in Colorado but they're coming back in a few days so they won’t be here tonight yet.”
“What about Logan and Poppy?” Julian asked.
“I’m not sure. The baby had a cold and Poppy doesn’t want her to be sick for the wedding.”
Georgie listened to them rattle on about family members that would be at dinner tonight wondering how she was going to be able to keep them all straight.
Julian leaned towards her. “Don’t worry, they won’t eat you alive.”
The warmth of his body enveloped her even though they weren’t touching. He’d showered already and the scent of soap tickled her nose and filled her head.
“Are you sure about that?” she whispered.
As he flashed her a quick grin, that fight or flight feeling she’d had so many times during her life filled her. How the hell was she going to keep up this charade with Julian for a whole week?
* * *
It was always good to catch up with his family. Sitting down around the dining room table and sharing stories of their childhood was something Julian had missed these last nine months since he’d been home. Some of his cousins had decided to come for dinner after hearing Julian had finally come home. His cousin Wade, who had been missing for five years and presumed dead, knew how important a McKinnon homecoming was to the family. He made sure to come by with his new wife, Skylar, and their six-year-old son, Alex.
Julian had known Skylar for years because she worked with his aunt Kate at the diner in the center of Rudolph. She’d been a fixture at many McKinnon family outings long before any of them knew that she and Wade had been lovers in Samoa before Wade disappeared. To see the two of them now, you’d never know they’d ever been apart. Skylar sat at the table talking to Grace about how her morning sickness had finally passed but she was already uncomfortable sleeping.
Grace and Skylar traded pregnancy stories. His older brother Ian and cousin Wade traded military stories. Julian glanced at Georgie, who was sitting at the table taking it all in.
His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Pulling the cell phone out, he glanced at the caller ID. He let the phone ring as he made his way through the kitchen, to the mudroom where he hoped he wouldn’t be disturbed.
By the time he’d gotten there, the call had ended, so Julian called Kelly back. Kelly answered on the first ring.
“You made it to South Dakota,” he said.
“Yeah, thank you for giving me leeway on this.”
“You can thank Georgie. If she’d put up a fuss, we would have had to make other arrangements. Is she fitting in okay with your family?”
“Like she belongs.” The words had been automatic, but it was something that had been on Julian’s mind for the past twenty-four hours.
“Really? Well, that’s a plus. Nothing has come through on her phone.”
“As far as I know she hasn’t had any contact with her cousin or Sanchez.”
Kelly’s sigh was heavy and distorted the line. “We have a situation.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning things are more complicated than we’d originally thought.”
“How so?”
“My oldest son, Dylan, has discovered that Cash was married. There are ties to Colombia with this woman’s family. It may be the reason he went to Colombia in the first place. We’re still gathering information about the woman.”
“Well, that’s good news, isn’t it? If Dylan can find out why Cash went to Colombia without the DEA’s knowledge, we might get closer to finding him.”
“That’s what I’m hoping. We need to know if she heard Eduardo talk about a man named Manuel Turgis. We have people looking into his connections to Eduardo Sanchez, but we don’t want to raise any red flags in the organization down there. If they knew we were doing an investigation it could put my son’s life at further risk.”
“Understood. Georgie did tell me she heard Eduardo talk about sending Cash to a private facility. He wanted Cash alive to find out what he knew and who else knew.”
“She didn’t hear a location?”
“No. Eduardo called him The American.”
“Well, as hard as it is, it’s good to hear they want him alive. Hopefully they’ll keep him alive until we find him. One final thing. Has she mentioned the Aztec Corporation?”
“Not that I recall.”
“Okay. Keep me informed if anything changes. Enjoy your time with your family.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Julian hung up the phone and replayed the conversations he’d had with Georgie in his mind. When everyone turned in later, he’d sit down at the computer and see if he could find out anything about the Aztec Corporation. If Georgie knew a little bit about it, perhaps it would jog her memory. The day she’d been at Eduardo Sanchez’s compound had clearly been traumatic for her.
Wade appeared at the mudroom doorway behind him. Julian’s back was turned, but he knew his cousin had been standing there for a while.
“So,” Wade said.
Julian glanced at his cousin. Wade was the oldest of the McKinnon clan and he’d been through a lot more than Julian could even fathom. He had the same dark hair and deep blue eyes that most all the McKinnons had. But there had always been something wise about Wade. Aunt Kate had said that even as a baby Wade was an old soul. Growing up, Julian never understood what that meant, but now that they were both adults, he had a bit more of an understanding of it.
It was always good seeing Wade, especially now. Julian had always looked up to his cousin for his sense of adventure and courage.
“So, I heard you skipped all this fanfare and just married Skylar the first chance you got,” Julian said.
Wade chuckled low. “It didn’t exactly win points with my mother. But since Sky and I are about to have our second child, I figured it was probably best to marry her quick before we had to deal with planning for another McKinnon wedding. That can be an endless prospect.”
“You don’t like weddings?”
He made a face. “I like them just fine. I like even more that I get to see my family, especially since I have so much time to make up for.”
“True enough.”
“They’re all a little worried about you, Julian. But I don’t have to be the one to voice it to you.”
“No.”
“You’re not going to tell me who Georgie really is, are you?”
He was silent a moment. “She’s my date for the wedding.”
Wade nodded.
“I can be of help. That is, if you need it,” Wade said.
“What makes you think I need help?”
“Let’s just say I can see things that others in the family might miss. Being a special agent for so long, learning how to hide things, makes those things clearer to me than they are to most people.”
Julian nodded.
“I won’t bring it up again unless you want to talk,” Wade said.
“I appreciate that.” Before Wade could leave the doorway, Julian stopped him. “I can count on you not to mention this to anyone, right?”
Wade turned and smiled. “Mention what? You haven’t told me anything.”
It was after eleven when the last of the family had left. His father had long since gone to bed. He’d insisted Georgie turn in as well after it was clear to him that his family had worn her out and she looked as if she were about to fall over. Wanting to use the computer without suspicion from anyone, Julian helped his mother finish cleaning so she could turn in as well.
He walked into the kitchen carrying the last of the dishes that had been on the coffee table in the living room. His mother had her back to him as she scraped leftover food into dishes and covered them with plastic wrap. She glanced at him when she heard his footsteps.
“I’m always afraid there isn’t going to be enough food and then there is always too much. I wish Kate and Grace had brought more home with them.”
“Look at the bright side. We have enough leftovers that you won’t have to cook for a few days so you can just concentrate on the wedding.”
His mother laughed. “Your father hates leftovers.”
“I love them. These are empty.” He lifted the dishes in his hands to show her and then placed them on the counter by the sink. Then he opened the dishwasher and started adding dishes.
His mother paused in her task of putting the leftover pasta and sauce in a bowl for just a second to watch him. Then she finished her task and put the covered bowl in the refrigerator.
Wiping her hands with a dishtowel, she asked, “Where’s Georgie?”
“She went to bed.”
“Already?”
He smiled. “This family is enough to tire me out at times. She’s not used to us.”
“Fair enough.”
He glanced at his mother and frowned. “What does that mean?”
She shrugged. “I would have thought you’d want to spend a little time alone together before you both turned in.”
“We were together all day, Mom. How much more do you want?”
She cocked her head to one side. “I’m not a prude, Julian. And you’re not a young teenager. You travel all over the country without your old mother to take care of you and I don’t expect you live like a monk. I can appreciate you both wanting separate bedrooms while you’re staying in your parents’ home. In fact, I think the fact that Georgie is a little old fashioned that way is sort of sweet.” She sighed and then shook her head. “How long have you known each other?”
“About a month.” In truth, Julian had been following Georgie for several months since she’d contacted the FBI and then bolted. But his mother didn’t need to know that.
“Really? Just a month?”
“You don’t sound convinced. Georgie is very important to me.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
“Then what’s this all about?”
“From the moment Ian met Abby, I knew she was the one for him. I knew it before he did. A mother knows. It’s a look. The way Ian followed Abby’s every move. Sometimes I see that in you. Your eyes are always on Georgie. But the two of you don’t exactly look like a
couple
in love.”
“Not everyone has what Ian and Abby have.”
“You’re right. You can’t compare. And that’s not fair of me.”
Having finished loading his stack of dishes, he grabbed a dish from the sink and put it in the dishwasher, needing something to do to avoid his mother’s probing gaze.
“What’s really going on, Julian?”
Julian glanced at his mother, stopping short of putting the last dish in the dishwasher when he saw the expression on her face.
“I’m helping with the dishes.”
“Am I dying?”
His eyes widened. “Good God, I hope not. Why would you ask that?”
“When was the last time you helped me in the kitchen?”
He dropped the dish in the rack and then closed the dishwasher door. Grabbing the dishtowel on the counter, he wiped his hands.