Love Under Two Kendalls (6 page)

Jake had rarely seen Adam this upset. He’d actually raised his voice to their mom. Jake figured it must have been a first. Mom hadn’t seemed surprised or particularly upset that he had, either.
Another first
.

“Jake. Adam. Sit
down
. Have dinner before you go flying off to New Jersey.”

“They’re in New Jersey?”

Adam’s calm had returned, likely because their mom had astonished him with that little tidbit of information. His question had sounded quite conversational, more his normal tone.

Conversely, Jake felt his own temper spike through the roof. “What the hell are they doing in New Jersey?”

He didn’t get an answer. What he got was Samantha Kincaid Kendall in all her Irish-temper glory, arms folded across her chest, green eyes shooting sparks. For a moment it even seemed to him as if her red hair had caught fire.

A wise man would backpedal fast, and Jake was no fool.

“I beg your pardon. I apologize for my outburst. Why don’t Adam and I just sit down here and have dinner? Your Irish stew smells wonderful, as always.” Jake ensured he backed up those words with the best smile in his repertoire.

A snicker from the vicinity of the dining room table assured him that at least he and his brother’s turmoil was providing a bit of entertainment for the rest of the family.

“Yes, why don’t you?” His mother continued to give them both
that look
.

Jake took his usual place at the table and caught the laughter in Peter Alvarez’s eyes. It appeared the entire family had assembled for dinner tonight—and it wasn’t even a Sunday.

Adam sat beside him, and just the way his brother’s gaze swept the assembled family, Jake understood he was thinking the exact same thing. Everyone seemed to know what was going on with their woman except them.

Morgan, Henry, and Tamara along with Jordan, Peter, and Tracy were all in attendance. Normally, there was nothing Jake liked better than to sit down at the table with his entire family. The only problem was, his entire family wasn’t in attendance tonight.

Ginny and Benny aren’t here, and they’re the heart of my family
.

“Thank you, that’s much better. Charles, if you’ll start passing the salad around, and, Taylor, if you’ll pass the cornbread, please. Preston, will you begin to ladle the stew? Thank you.”

Jake shot a quick glance at Adam. Whenever their mother had reached the end of her rope, she would give instructions to the dads, who said not a word but did just exactly what she asked of them. It usually only took a few moments after that for her calm—and her reason—to return.

“Tamara, I understand you’ve found your wedding dress?”

“I did! Wait until you see it, it’s gorgeous. There’s this new designer just getting started that Julia knows…”

Samantha Kendall sent a beaming smile to Morgan and Henry’s woman and seemingly turned all her attention to the subject of lace, silk, and where to find the best shoes to match.

Jake fought his impatience. If Ginny was in New Jersey, then they’d have to fly there themselves. Normally, family members wanting to utilize one of the families’ two corporate jets had to clear it first with the Town Trust. Permission was always granted provided the supplicant had good cause and no one else had booked them.

Since Jake managed the business of the Town Trust, he knew one of the Lear jets was in the hangar here in Lusty, and no one had asked to use it. No question their cause was just. Henry would fly them, as that was one of his jobs. They just needed to find out where in New Jersey Ginny had gone, and then they had to get the jet ready to fly. That would take less time than if they called one of the major airlines at this very instant and tried to book a flight.

Mother, as usual, was right. There really was no reason for them not to have dinner first. And there was something else happening here, as well…

“She’s testing us.” Adam’s words, just above a whisper, assured Jake he wasn’t alone in his assessment.

“That usually means we fucked up and she’s giving us time to figure out where we went wrong so we can make it right,” Jake said.

He met Adam’s gaze. Until that moment he hadn’t considered that they’d taken a misstep with their woman, and he knew Adam felt the same way.

Jake sat back, any interest in eating now gone. In his mind he backtracked over the last few weeks with Ginny, the times they’d popped in to see her at the restaurant, the time they’d brought pizza and played monopoly, the four of them behaving just like a real family.

He replayed that fabulous kiss out at the hangar, when Julia had been kidnapped and everyone had been on tenterhooks, waiting for word from those two Navy SEALs who’d set off to rescue her.

And then there was last night, when they’d come to her at the party to tell her about Walters. He relived that scene, how they’d told Ginny that she didn’t have to worry. They’d told her they would do all they could to keep her safe, reiterating over and over that she could trust them. And she did trust them. He’d seen the truth of it in her eyes. And then they’d told her…

“Well, hell.” Jake exhaled and shook his head in disgust. Between him and Adam, they’d
told
Ginny a hell of a lot last night. But they
hadn’t
asked, and they
hadn’t
listened.

At the same instant Jake sat back in his chair, Adam tossed his napkin down in what Jake knew was a show of total disgust with himself.

“Could we have been any more stupid?” Adam asked.

“Is this a question open to all of us? Because, frankly—”

“Morgan.”

Jake looked from his mother to his eldest brother.

“Sorry, Mother, I couldn’t resist.” Morgan’s grin was unrepentant.

“Just remember the law of sowing and reaping,” Samantha advised.

“Yes, ma’am.” Morgan’s words may have been words of contrition, but his tone sure as hell was not.

“We get it,” Adam said. “It wasn’t us Ginny had to learn to trust. She’d done that weeks ago, or else she wouldn’t have…” Adam closed his mouth, but Jake could easily finish his sentence for him. Ginny did trust them or she never would have let them kiss her, never would have indicated that she was seriously considering taking them both on.

“It was herself she needed to trust,” Jake said. “She needed to know she could handle whatever life threw at her.”

“Like she did the day we grabbed Ramos. She saw in his eyes he meant to shoot someone, and she acted to defend herself and her friends.”

Jake met Adam’s gaze. Then they both looked at their mother. They knew they had it right, but seeing Samantha’s beaming smile confirmed it.

“The jet’s mostly ready,” Henry said then. “Won’t take long to finish the process and file our flight plan.”

“I still don’t know if I understand why New Jersey,” Jake said.

“I do.” Adam took his napkin back, placing it across his lap. “Ginny mentioned once that her mother was from New Jersey, and that, just before Benny was born, she’d learned she had an aunt—her mother’s baby sister—still there. Prior to that she’d believed she had no family alive at all on her mother’s side.”

Adam closed his eyes, and Jake waited quietly, knowing his brother was searching his very good memory. “Morrison. Margaret Morrison. She runs a motor hotel in Wildwood Crest called…”

“The Leprechaun,” Samantha said. “Now eat.”

“I really wish now we’d been able to talk her into taking a cell phone,” Adam said to him. “After that success we had in tracking Julia…”

“I know.” Jake spooned up some of his dinner. He’d been right, of course, when he’d said his mother’s Irish stew smelled wonderful. It tasted wonderful, too. Too bad he didn’t have very much of an appetite. “I figured we’d have her convinced in another week, two tops.”

“She has mine,” Samantha said.

Jake looked up at his mother, and then grinned. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, intending to call Ginny right there and then.

“No.” Adam put his hand over the top of Jake’s phone. “Let’s leave her be, for now. She’ll call if she needs us. Let’s give her the room she seems to need.”

“Good thinking. We’ll give her the rest of tonight, anyway.”

“There, see, you are my sons after all!” Samantha said.

Tamara leaned over so she could look at Tracy. “I don’t know about you, but I’m taking notes.”

“I have done so for years. Come over anytime. I’ll share.”

Jake grinned at his family. “It seems the newest members are fitting in just fine.” He turned to look at Peter. “As I did recognize just who it was who snickered, earlier.”

“Nice to know my efforts are appreciated,” Peter said.

“After dinner, I’ll call Matt and bring him up to speed on what we accomplished today—which wasn’t much,” Adam said. “I haven’t taken any vacation time in more than a year. I’m due. He and Jasper can handle things.”

“How long you plan on staying out East?” His father, Preston, sat back from his plate and waited for his answer.

“I guess as long as Ginny wants to stay there. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. Maybe while we’re gone, that bast…” Jake pulled back the rest of the cuss word just in time, shooting his mother an apologetic smile. “I mean, fugitive, Walters, will be apprehended again.”

“We’ll all pray for that,” Taylor said.

“I’ll arrange for you to have a car when you get to Atlantic City. I’ll also have the rental agency give you a map and directions to the inn,” Charles said.

“Thanks, dads.” Jake found his appetite had been restored. Adam began eating in earnest, too. Now that they knew where their woman was, and they had a plan, they both felt better.

“It’ll only take us about fifteen minutes to pack,” Adam said. “Then we’ll head to the field.”

“When we’re done here, we’ll leave,” Henry said. “Morgan and Tamara are coming, too. The three of us are going to spend a few days in Atlantic City. If you’re not ready to come back to Lusty with us then, I’ll come back for you when you
are
ready.”

Jake nodded. He still intended to call Richardson. He was willing to step back for the most part, and let the Abilene PD and the Rangers handle the search for Walters while he and Adam focused on their woman and what she needed.

But that didn’t mean they had to be hands off—or that they couldn’t pull a few strings, even from New Jersey.

“I’ll take my laptop. Easier to stay in touch that way,” Adam said.

Jake exchanged a knowing look with Adam, and knew they were on the same page. Adam would make a few inquiries, too, and they’d both keep their fingers on the pulse of the manhunt.

That was, after all, how Kendalls did things.

Chapter 5

Benny’s delighted laughter took the scowl right off Ginny’s face. She couldn’t help but smile when her little man was having such obvious fun.

“Mama, did you see? I beat that wave!”

“I did see that, Benny Rose. You just be careful now. That water’s cold!”

Benny just grinned, and ran back to the water’s edge to race the waves again.

Ginny sighed and relaxed into the beach chair Maggie had forced upon her. She’d offered, as forcefully as she knew how, to help her aunt with the cleaning of the rented units. Maggie, maddeningly, had refused. She’d gone on and on about needing the exercise, and there only being a handful of rooms rented out at the moment, anyway.

Ginny figured she’d been outmaneuvered by a woman who could give Grandma Kate, Bernice Benedict,
and
Samantha Kendall a run for their money.

She’d helped Benny build one sand castle already today. She figured she’d let him play on his own for a while—under her watchful gaze, of course—and try and get some relaxation in, herself.

Ginny closed the book that sat open on her lap as she continued to watch her son play. She’d given up trying to read the novel that had come with the chair. Honestly, she’d never cottoned to romance stories. The heroes and heroines always seemed so unreal. Not an uneducated waitress in the bunch.

Of course, sheriffs and lawyers always figured prominently in those stories, but still.

Ginny exhaled deeply and allowed herself to think the truth.
There’s only one romance story I’m interested in at the moment, and it’s not one that’s in any book
.