Page 19 of Her Hidden Smile

I nodded, not committing to anything. Drake knew I hadn’t said yes.

“Say hello to Jase for me.”

“Have you worked with Jase?” I asked. “I thought that East and West Coast SEAL teams didn’t mix.”

“We do, sometimes. We’ve trained together. Good guy. A little nuts, but a good guy.”

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

“I’ll tell him you said hello,” I promised. He got into his truck and drove away.

I pulled out my phone.

“Hello,” Millie answered.

“Your orchard has been cleaned up, and all the debris has been delivered to Irv’s place.”

“To Irv’s?”

“Yeah. I’ll be taking it over to the composting facility tomorrow.”

“Renzo, why are you doing so much? The least I can do is pay you.”

“Nope. I was just happy to be of help.”

“But you’ll end up spending two days doing this. I don’t want you to use your vacation time just to help me.”

“I didn’t. I’m between jobs right now. This helped to fill my time. Anyway, you paid me in cookies. Done deal.”

“But—”

“Seriously, Millie, if you bring up money again, I’m going to be pissed.”

“Oh. Well, in that case, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I hung up the phone with a smile.

Chapter Four

May, Jasper Creek

“You’re going to have to shit or get off the pot.”

I shook my head. My brother sure had a way with words. “I take it Bonnie and the twins aren’t home.”

“I’m over at Gideon’s place. They’ll be over a little later,” Jase chuckled.

“How long have you wanted to say that to me?” I asked.

“About as long as the rest of the family. Seriously, Renz, you have been jonesing to move back to the States for the last three years, why don’t you just face the facts?”

“What do you mean, move back to the States? We hardly lived in the States, not with Dad’s job taking us all over the world.”

“That’s bullshit. Every time a job was over we came back home to Springfield and Grandma Maureen. The house on Westchester Avenue was home. Hell, you know Sandy did her best not to show it, but she was bummed that her wedding had to be in Duluth and not in Springfield.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Peter was a douche for insisting on Duluth. What, he had seven relatives and four friends up there?”