“Yes, but she’s stubborn, just like all of you kids.”

Xander smiled at the incredulity of his father’s statement. “You’re not including yourself in that group? The man who had a heart attack but refused to tell his kids because it was nothing? The man who’d rather sell off huge chunks of land than admit to his extremely wealthy children that he’d lost his medical insurance and needed some help with bills?”

Ken shrugged. “You all come by it honestly, I suppose.”

Xander shook his head and ate his soup. His father had no idea how much trouble he’d caused by selling that land. The unused back portion of the farm had served no purpose to him; it paid off his medical bills without causing a fuss. He couldn’t fathom why the kids were so upset. They were upset because they knew what was hidden in the far section of the property.

And now so did the whole town. They just didn’t know who it was. Over the months, the information had been slow to come and sparse when it did. Cornwall didn’t deal with many murder victims. So far the only information the police had released was that the remains had been buried for approximately fifteen to twenty years and that it was the body of a young adult male.

When they’d found out Ken had sold the land, Xander’s oldest brother, Wade, had come home to deal with the issue and buy back the land before anything could happen. Unfortunately, their parents had sold three plots and Wade had secured the wrong one. They hadn’t found that out until the body was found on another piece of the property.

Then the dead man’s sister had come to Cornwall looking for answers about her missing brother. Brody had sounded the alarm and dug up a mountain of information they could use against her if necessary. So far it hadn’t been needed. There was no information on her brother to find. Everyone had told her what they knew—Tommy had run away from his foster home a week before his eighteenth birthday and had never been seen again.

Now that Congress was out of session and the facial re-creation sketch could hit the news at any moment, it was Xander’s turn to deal with the potential fallout. An entire situation that could’ve been avoided if Ken hadn’t been so pigheaded.

Of course, if none of this had happened, Xander wouldn’t have known he had a son. Everything was a mess, but somehow he couldn’t regret that.

“What kept you out so late?” Ken asked. “Molly said you were going to that new Italian place, but they close at eleven. I heard your car roll in close to four this morning.” His bright blue eyes looked over his son, waiting for his explanation for the five-hour gap, as if he were seventeen and out past curfew again.

“I had to take my date to the hospital.”

Ken’s eyes widened in surprise, his cracker hovering halfway to his mouth. “Go that well, did it?”

“It wasn’t her,” Xander said with a smile. “Her son broke his arm and we had to meet him there.” Xander was surprised how hard it was for him to say “her son.” It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since he uncovered the truth and yet Joey was already “his” in his own mind.

He wanted to tell Ken the truth, but it was too soon. He couldn’t tell Ken and not let him tell Molly. That would put him in a bad place with his wife. Molly was desperate for grandchildren. If she was the last one to find out that she had one—and he was ten—someone would get hurt. “You remember Rose, don’t you, Dad?”

“Your high school girl?”

“Yeah.”

Ken nodded. “Sure. I saw her at the diner a few weeks back. Is that who you went out to dinner with? Your mother didn’t know.”

“I didn’t tell her, but yes, I had dinner with Rose. I didn’t want Mom to read too much into it.”

“I forget that she has a son,” Ken added. “I’ve never even seen her with him, but they live a few towns over, I think.”

“He’s a cute kid. Broke his arm pretty bad on the trampoline.”

“That’s a shame,” Ken said, pushing aside his empty soup bowl. “That whole family has faced one stroke of bad luck after the other. First Billy’s wife got that awful cancer. Things were so hard for them after that. He nearly ran their auto shop into the ground, he was so lost without her. And then...well, it’s no wonder Billy got wrapped up in that bad stuff.”

Xander’s ears perked up. He knew his parents would know what was going on with Rose’s father. Molly knew everything that happened in this town, and whether Ken cared or not, Molly would tell him all about it. “Bad stuff?”

“I forget you guys miss out on everything going on around here. About five years ago, Billy got in with the wrong crowd. He was recruited to drive the getaway car while a couple of them robbed a bank.”

Xander felt his soup start to churn in his stomach. He’d known that Billy being in a cell didn’t bode well, but he’d hoped for check fraud or tax evasion. A crime, but one that didn’t hurt anyone. He’d never anticipated armed robbery.

“Billy just sat in the car and drove off when they ran out. He had no clue what actually happened inside the bank, but apparently, things went badly. One of the guys shot and killed a security guard. It was a big mess.”

Yes. Yes, it was a big mess. Xander tried not to outwardly react, but the universe seemed to be conspiring against him. He’d managed to avoid scandal all this time. Now he had enough circling around him to end his political career forever.

Illegitimate children, murder, armed robbery—it was getting downright juicy. Heaven forbid one of the news outlets got ahold of this. If all this was so easily uncovered, he couldn’t imagine what a determined reporter could find if he really tried. On the bright side, he’d have plenty of fodder for a second book if all this didn’t tank the first one.

Xander wouldn’t lie. He wanted Rose. Badly. Before she got that call, he was pretty certain he’d been on the verge of having her. Her cheeks had been flush, her lips bee-stung with kisses. She’d been pressing against him and making those soft sounds of desire that he remembered from all those years ago. And then everything fell apart. He still wanted her, but was it even possible now? He’d sensed her pull back after their kiss at the restaurant. She might’ve just been worried about her son, but it seemed like more than that. As if she regretted it.

And even if that wasn’t true, the night had ended far more complicated than it had started. They could try to keep Joey and her father’s incarceration a secret, but eventually, word would get out that he was romantically involved with Rose. It wouldn’t take much digging for a reporter to find out the rest and start connecting the dots.

And that was just Rose’s family. Never mind that Xander was fighting to keep his own skeleton buried. “How did Rose take it?”

“I’m not sure. I know that’s when she moved back here with her son. She tried to run her dad’s garage for a while, but her brother took over eventually. Molly mentioned that Rose always seemed so positive when she spoke to her. I think she copes by trying to pretend it didn’t happen.”

“That’s probably true,” Xander said. “She didn’t mention it to me at all last night. That’s sort of a big thing.”

“You can’t blame her. If one of you committed a stupid and violent crime, I wouldn’t be shouting it from the rooftops.”

Xander swallowed a mouthful of soup and opted not to respond. The last year and a half, he and his siblings had been struggling—not to stay out of jail but to keep Tommy Wilder’s death and their involvement a secret from their parents. They’d never wanted or intended to do what they did that day. Their hands had been forced by circumstances and the fear of losing their new home and parents.

But they had committed crimes that day. Heath had killed Tommy while trying to protect Julianne. Wade had hidden the body. Xander and Brody were both guilty of destroying or fabricating evidence. Brody had taken Julianne to the bunkhouse to clean up and change out of her torn and bloody clothes. Xander had gathered her clothes and burned them, along with all of Tommy’s belongings, and then forged a note from Tommy. Heath had cleaned up the scene.