Coert stared at him a beat before he burst out laughing.

Jake let him but crossed his arms on his chest while he did it.

When Coert got it under control, he stated, “That does it. Clearly Lydia had lost it before she passed, leavin’ her girl to you.”

“Bite me,” Jake muttered good-naturedly but tensed when he saw Coert suddenly get serious.

“Thought the world of you,” he said quietly. “Your kids. Everyone knew it. You were the son she never had. The son she always wanted. Your kids the grandkids she never got outside your girl in there. Straight up, man, after you scraped off Sloane, lots of talk in this town, wondering why Lydia didn’t fix you up with her girl when she was around, seein’ as she was around often enough. Anyone who knows her would not be surprised Lydia wanted that as her final wish. You could get a hundred folks in a courtroom to say that same thing and do it under oath. I am not kidding.”

Jake could say nothing. Coert’s words about him being the son Lydie never had were stuck in his throat, making it prickle.

When Jake was silent, Coert kept speaking.

“And I only moved here fifteen years ago but think it says a fuckuva lot that I only got a decade and a half under my belt in Magdalene and the specter of Davis and Chester Malone still haunts this burg and those two little motherfuckers didn’t even live here. Just caused mayhem whenever they visited their grandparents, the kind it was hard for a lot of people to forget. Including how they took treatin’ their mom to new and unprecedented piss-poor levels.” He took in a breath and concluded, “What I’m sayin’ is, you guys hunker down, it’s all gonna work out. You need me in the meantime, call. I figure you got some pains in the ass to deal with for a while but in the end, this will go away.”

Jake nodded and murmured, “Thanks, man.”

“You still owe me,” Coert noted.

“You didn’t tape the game?” Jake asked.

“You know it sucks not seein’ live,” Coert returned.

“Hardly. You get to go home and fast forward through the commercials. Figure we livened up your night and you owe me.”

“You’d figure wrong,” Coert replied. “I want one of Tom’s omelets and I wanna eat it with you buyin’ it and bringin’ your woman along with you.”

At that, Jake grinned. “No way you got a shot. Ask Mick. She’s into me.”

“Man can still look.”

Jake shook his head.

Coert extended his hand.

Jake uncrossed his arms to shake it. “Appreciate it, Coert.”

“My job, not a problem,” Coert murmured, let Jake go and gave a low wave as he moved to his cruiser.

His deputy was already gone.

Jake didn’t wait to watch him pull out. He went into the house, locked the door behind him and went to the family room where he’d left Josie with his kids, Ethan trying to pretend he wasn’t freaked for Josie but doing this sitting close to his woman, Amber shocking the shit out of him and hustling around the house to get beds made without anyone asking.

But when he got to the family room, only his kids were there.

“Josie got a call, Dad,” Conner informed him immediately. “She went to the light room to take it.”

Jake nodded once, turned on his boot to retrace his steps and hit the light room.

A call could be anything. The last two weeks, after Gagnon fired her, her phone rang all the time.

And it could be something bad if Stone, Terry or Josie’s uncle had her number.

But when he made it up to the light room, he saw from the single light she’d turned on that she was in the window seat, her gaze to the sea and she was not on the phone.

Her eyes came to him and he saw her face still blank.

He didn’t like that. Not only because it was not Josie but because he couldn’t read it and he needed to know where her head was at.

He moved to her, sat behind her and arranged them so he had her between his legs up on the window seat, arm around her chest, the other around her ribs, her back to his torso.

He felt better when she rested her head on his shoulder and her arms over his.

“Amond called. He’s going to be here Tuesday,” she shared once she’d relaxed into him.

Fucking fantastic. Just what they needed. A protective, internationally known hip-hop artist showing up to pass judgment on Jake.

He did not share these thoughts.

He said, “Good you got that visit to look forward to.”

She said nothing, just looked out at the sea.

He let her do this for a while and then he was done letting her do it so he gave her a squeeze and said gently, “Baby, you’re freakin’ me out. Lots to think about, I know your head’s gotta be full of it but you’re givin’ me nothing.”

That was when she gave him something.

“How did Dad die?” she asked but she did it like she’d ask what was for dinner.

That was bizarre, but not for Josie. She’d needed to build that wall since the moment she was born. But in the end, her father did it for her.

Still, he drew in breath and pulled her closer before he suggested, “Maybe we can talk about that tomorrow.”

She twisted in his arms and he dipped his chin to see she was looking up at him.

“How did Dad die, Jake?”

Fuck.

“A lot hit you tonight. You ready for real?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” she answered immediately.

It was the immediately that convinced him. He nodded and gathered her closer, pulling her up his chest so they were near to eye to eye.

Only then did he give her real.

“After Lydie got custody of you, he got himself another woman. He also knocked that other woman around. Unfortunately for him but fortunately for the universe, she had a family that didn’t like that much. They got her out of that shit and got her to press charges. It stuck. He went down. Short-term sentence but he clearly was not the kind of man who made friends easily. He got shivved but not bad, guards didn’t see it or didn’t like him much and didn’t report it. For whatever reason, he hid the injury. It got infected and by the time he got treatment, that shit was in his bloodstream and they couldn’t fight it. Six month sentence for assault turned into life.”

“He died in prison?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Jake answered.

“From an infection from a knife wound?” she went on.

“That’s what’s in his file.”

“Because he was too much of a badass to get it stitched up and get a course of antibiotics,” she kept on.

Jake said nothing, though he did it fighting back a smile seeing as she used the word “badass.”

“That’s whacked, Jake,” she declared.

At that, he grinned.

“Not sure your father’s insanity was ever in question, Slick.”

She shook her head like she couldn’t believe all she’d heard but did it turning and nestling into him, putting her head on his chest and training her eyes to the sea.

Jake’s arms went tighter.

“He’s not getting Lavender House,” she whispered.

“No, he isn’t, baby,” he whispered back.

“I don’t care if it takes every penny I have, he’s not getting anything that was Gran’s.” She was still whispering but her tone was fierce. And hearing it, he finally felt relief.

“It won’t take every penny, Josie. But this will go away,” he promised.

She nodded, her cheek moving against his chest, before she declared, “Boston Stone is not a toad. He’s an asshole.”

Jake grinned again and pulled her closer.

“Got that right, Slick,” he agreed.

“And that Baginski woman is odious,” she kept at it.

He said nothing.

“What’s her problem anyway?” she asked with mild curiosity and in a way she didn’t expect an answer. Then again, she couldn’t know Jake actually had one.

Shit.

So she had it all, something at this point she needed to have, he had to give it to her.

So he did.

“I regrettably fucked her about ten years ago and didn’t go back for seconds,” Jake shared cautiously and she jerked in his arms so she could look up at him again.