Hope rose in Grandma’s eyes, and a little color came back to her cheeks. “I made a mistake.”
“No, you made a decision.”
“How can I explain-” Grandma’s voice broke. “The boys…”
“Cole and Kyle don’t have to know.” Sydney shook her head. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Seven
“Katie?” Cole held the phone to his ear as he watched the dust billow out behind the doctor’s deep-treaded SUV tires.
“Hey, Cole,” his sister-in-law answered cheerfully around the whistling of a teakettle. “What’s going on? Where was Sydney last night?”
“Can you come down to Grandma’s right away?”
“Why?” The whistling subsided.
Cole shifted away from the closed bedroom door, dropping his voice to make sure he wasn’t overheard. “Because we need you.”
A beat went by before Katie spoke. “What’s wrong?”
“Is Kyle there?”
“Cole, what’s wrong?”
“It’s not…” he began. Not what? Not bad? Not major? Not terrible?
The reality was, it was all of those things and more. He straightened the black-and-white picture of his grandfather that hung above the mantel. “Listen, I’d really rather tell you guys in person-”
The tension rose in Katie’s voice. “To hell with that.”
Cole gripped the carved wood fireplace mantel. “You sure Kyle’s not there?”
“He’s in the barn. Give!”
“Fine. Okay.” Where to start? He couldn’t just blurt out that the brooch was missing. “Sydney and I stayed over in Wichita Falls.”
The concern in Katie’s voice vanished, replaced by interest. “You did? But I thought…”
“Not for that.”
“No? Because, you know, she’s really a-”
“Can you just come down to Grandma’s?”
“Is Sydney still with you?”
“Yes.”
Katie paused and he could almost hear her smiling. “Sure. We’ll be right there.”
“Good.” Cole squeezed his eyes shut, trying to alleviate the pounding between his temples.
The door to Grandma’s bedroom squeaked open and he punched the off button on the phone.
He turned to face Sydney. “She okay?”
Sydney nodded, blinking glassy, reddened eyes, rubbing her upper arms as if the air-conditioning was too cold for her. “She’s fine.”
“You okay?” he asked, peering more closely. Was she upset about her career? That would be understandable.
“I’m perfect.” She waved away his concern, as if it was a gnat buzzing around her head.
Okay. No sympathy. Fine. “What did Grandma say?”
“She said the brooch was at the ranch for several months in 1978.”
“Does she know who faked it?”
“My best suggestion is you talk to the local people who were around back then. Maybe-”
“So, she doesn’t know.”
Sydney took a sharp breath, as if he was annoying her again. “Maybe you could find out who saw it, if anyone seemed to have a particular interest in it…”
Cole told himself to ignore her mood. She had to be disappointed in the turn of events. Her career was on the line, and he couldn’t blame her for thinking about herself.
He nodded. Interviewing the neighbors seemed like as good a place as any to start.
Sydney turned to gaze out the front window, tugging the elastic out of her hair and finger-combing it to redo the ponytail. “While you talk to the local people, I’m going to California-”
She nodded, still gazing at the snowcapped mountain peaks on the far side of the valley. “Gwen is, uh, sending a list of likely antique dealers. There’s a concentration of them in California, and I can check-”
“Uh-uh. No way.” Cole shook his head. He acknowledged that she was a valuable asset to the search, but he wasn’t letting her take over completely. It was his family, his property. She simply had a passing commercial interest.
Sydney turned to face him. “What do you mean no way?”
“
“You don’t know a thing about antiques.”
“If you go, I go.”
“But somebody has to stay here.”
“Kyle can interview the neighbors.”
Sydney jerked back. “Kyle?”
“He and Katie are on their way here.”
“Now?”
“Yes. Now.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You told them?”
“No. But I’m about to.”
“But…”
“But what?”
Sydney bit down on her lower lip, the wheels of her brain obviously churning a million miles an hour. “I just think the fewer people who know…”
“Kyle’s my brother.”
She got a funny look in her eyes.
Was she worried?
Afraid?
Would he ever be able to trust this woman again? She couldn’t have predicted the brooch had been faked. But Kyle had pegged her as an opportunist. Was she trying to make this latest turn of events work for her?
“I think this’ll work better if you stay here,” she said, her gaze darting away from his.
“Not going to happen, Sydney.”
“But-”
“Kyle can do the home front. I go with you.”
“I, uh, work better alone.”
He took two steps toward her. “Tough. Get used to me. Because I’m your new partner.”
Cole just had to come to California.
He had to be underfoot. He couldn’t have stayed home and interviewed the neighbors like a good little cowboy.
Sydney wriggled beneath the desk in her hotel room at the Sands in Oceanside, searching for the power outlet for her rented laptop. Why did they always have the electrical plug stashed behind furniture? Did they cater to contortionists?
It took all her strength to inch the desk away from the wall. Then she yanked out the lamp cord, plugged in her converter and shimmied her way back up to the chair.
