“Xander!” she yelled at its peak.

“Rose, Rose...” he repeated in response, driving harder and faster than before until he stiffened and groaned. He gasped her name one last time as he surged into her body, leaving him exhausted and trembling.

He dropped over to her side, sucking ragged breaths into his lungs as his muscular chest rose and fell. They both lay together quietly for a few moments before Rose pushed herself up onto her elbow to look down at him. His hair was damp and plastered to his forehead. His brow was furrowed as he lay with his eyes closed and his hands just barely trembling.

It made her think of the very first time they’d made love. Ken had loaned Xander his truck to take her to dinner and a movie, but they’d opted for a picnic by the river with a blanket spread out in the truck bed. Under a blanket of stars, she’d given herself to him, heart and soul. Afterward she remembered looking at him as he lay just like this. A dozen years had passed since that moment, but it seemed as though she’d never gotten either of them back.

He had her, still. Heart and soul.

Eleven

We have a problem, the text from Brody read. Deborah Wilder just identified the remains of her brother.

Xander’s stomach sank. Returning to Cornwall and reality after his fantastic time with Rose in D.C. was hard enough. He wasn’t ready to face this yet.

He set his glass of tea on the kitchen counter of Rose’s apartment and frowned at his phone. The moment of truth had arrived. And the timing couldn’t be worse. There was never a good time for that sort of thing, but they were on the verge of telling Joey that Xander was his father. He needed to be here with Rose and his son for this big moment, not at the farm fighting off the press and police that would come when the news broke. But that was why he was here. Why he’d returned to Cornwall in the first place.

Xander looked up from his phone. Joey was playing a video game on the television, shooting at zombies or something. He was wearing a headset that allowed him to talk to players networked in other places around the world. A far cry from the Nintendo Game Boy he’d had at Joey’s age. Fortunately, his son was immersed in slaying the undead and oblivious to everything going on around him.

Rose was in the shower. He could still hear the water running. They’d returned to Cornwall on a morning flight and then driven to camp to pick up Joey that afternoon. Rose wanted to shower and change before they shared the big news with Joey and, assuming all was received well, went out for a celebratory family dinner.

His gaze drifted back to the words on his screen. How? he managed to type despite how badly his shaking fingers were stymying him.

His ring, Brody texted back.

Xander silently cursed and refrained from texting the same sentiment. Of course. He had burned all of Tommy’s things that night, but they’d all been too freaked out by the body itself to remove anything from him. Tommy had always worn a large gold ring with a black onyx stone in the middle. It was large, like a class ring, and left a distinctive welt on the skin if it came in contact with your face. Wade had found that out the hard way. Xander had luckily not gotten close enough to Tommy’s hands to get a good look at it, but it was distinctive enough for someone, especially his own sister, to recognize. He’d always worn that ring and it had been buried along with Tommy.

After all these years, it was probably the only thing left behind and damned if it wasn’t the one thing that someone would recognize.

She heard about the unidentified remains and called Sheriff Duke. He asked her to come down from Hartford and take a look. They’re working to match dental records. Expect things to start happening anytime now, Brody added.

Before he could respond, his phone started to ring. It was Heath. Word was spreading fast. He got up from the barstool and carried his phone with him into the bedroom. The water was still running, so he had time to take the call.

“Hey,” Xander answered, his tone flat. He sat on the edge of the bed and muted the television that was playing.

“You hear from Brody?” Heath asked, skipping pleasantries.

“Yes.”

“Are you at the farm?”

“No,” Xander admitted. “I’m at Rose’s apartment. We were...going to tell Joey tonight.”

Heath whistled softly through his teeth. “I’m sorry. Not the best day to ID a body. What are you going to do?”

“Postpone, I guess. Hopefully, she’ll understand.”

“Xander,” Heath began, and then paused. “It’s probably all going to come out now. What happened that night. I’ve been thinking about this awhile and I’ve decided that I’m okay with it. I know it isn’t all about me. You all have something at stake here, too. But I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret trying to protect me.”

“Of course I will. You’re—”

“No, Xander. Listen to me.”

Heath’s voice was firm, resolved and very much unlike him. Xander didn’t like it. He much preferred his carefree, fun younger brother. Why fate had trapped a boy so young and innocent into such a terrible deed, he would never know. He’d wished a hundred times that he had been the one to find them. That he had been the one to stop Tommy.

“I’m tired of all of this. I think the game is up. You have your own family to protect now. That’s more important than taking care of me. I’m a grown man, now, not a child. It’s not ideal, but I will tell my story and deal with the consequences. I don’t want this hanging over our heads any longer.”

“What about Mom and Dad?”

There was an extended silence on the line. “I’ll tell them. I think Dad will understand what I was doing and why we couldn’t tell him before now. Hopefully, I can beat the cops to the punch.”

“What about Julianne? Have you spoken with her?”

He heard Heath sigh. “No, but I’m certain we’re on the same page. She’s been under this dark cloud for as long as we have. All of us knew this moment would come eventually. She probably feels responsible for it.”

“They’ll make her come back and make a statement. You, too.”

“I’ve been thinking about taking a few months off from the firm anyways. Things are going well. I think my partner can take the reins for a while. I need to spend some time in Cornwall and deal with all of this. I can’t do it from Madison Avenue.”

“So what do you want me to do, Heath? Just let it happen? I can’t do that. Don’t ask me to. I came to Cornwall to handle this and now you’re asking me to forget why I’m even here.”

“I’m not saying you should march into the police station and confess everything. But be prepared for it to unravel. I am.”

Xander didn’t know what to say. He’d spent more than half of his life protecting this secret. It was against his nature to just let the truth come out now.

The water in the bathroom turned off. Rose would come out any minute. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “I need to talk to Rose.”

“Good luck with everything,” Heath said. “I can’t wait to meet my nephew. And for Mom to find out. I really want to be there when she does. I want a front-row seat and popcorn.”

As if he didn’t already have enough to worry about. “Shut up, man.”

He heard his brother laugh, and then the line went dead. Shaking his head, Xander slipped his phone into his pocket and tried to think of what he would say when Rose came out. Like any political speech, he thought through his words and practiced it several times in his head. It made him wish he had one of his staffers here to help him draft something. He never was the best speech writer.

She exited the bathroom a moment later. Her body was still slightly damp and wrapped in a fluffy cotton towel. Her hair was wet and combed out down her back in long straight strands. She smiled at him as she settled onto the bed and started rubbing lotion into her legs.