Page 31 of Family Affair

“Yeah, we’ve had a chance to catch up, remember old times.”

“It must be nice to have many siblings. Do youmiss Atlanta?”

That earned her a surprised look. “No. And I have no plans to come back.”

“Oh. Well. What do you do? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“As of last year, nothing. I have an old farmhouse in Kentucky, it belonged to an uncle on my mother’s side. I’ve been spending a lot of time fixing it up. Figuring out what’s what at the farm.”

“It must be beautiful there. But I’m surprised to learn you're into farming. I picture you working for Sheffield Investments, like Dan and Alex.”

Cade gave her another one of his unreadable sidelong glances. “My expertise isn’t something the company can ever use.”

She fidgeted. For some reason, it took an effort to maintain the conversation with him. Most people liked to talk about themselves, but evidently Cade wasn’t like most people.

“Dan mentioned you hold a degree in business administration.”

“Dan should know that I never graduated.”

“You didn’t?”

“Nope. My father needed me home to help with the company and… other ventures he had going at the time.”

“Well, then, you have your experience, at least.”

“Sixteen years in the military considerably reduced my knowledge in the investment arena and pretty much ruined my social skills. And did you and Dan really talk about me?”

“Why not?” He made her feel a little defensive with his implication she and Dan had nothing more exciting to discuss on their dates. “Admittedly, Dan’s not into gossip, but he told me a little about his family, Alex and Ross, you, and even Frank.”

“He talked about Frank?” Close as they sat in the confinements of Dan’s car, she picked up a subtle change in his demeanor. “I’m shocked. Dan usually pretends Frank never existed.”

He wasn’t far off the mark. If Coco hadn't seen the old photograph and pressured him about it, she doubted Dan would have volunteered any information.

“Dan didn’t say much about Frank,” she admitted. “I mostly learned about him from my mother. She’s a librarian, you know, and always rustles the archives for information.”

“Oh, yeah?” One of his eyebrows flew above the rim of his glasses in a nice, expressive curve, briefly transforming his stern expression into one of mischief and pure male confidence. “I bet her research had an objective. She was warning you against the skeletons in Dan’s closet.”

Coco’s cheeks warmed. “This is how it started, yes. But I became curious about Frank because… well, because he died surrounded by controversy, and because he was an artist.”

Yes, this was how it had started. But then she developed a fascination with him, curious about what kind of man he had been underneath his brooding looks, and why he made the questionable choices that he had during his short but eventful life.

Cade fell silent for a few moments. “You paint, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she said but didn’t elaborate. Dan’s reaction had been more than enough to make her leery of extrapolating on her dreams with a Sheffield.

Cade readjusted his grip on the steering wheel, and suddenly Coco realized how tense he had grown. What was it about Frank that elicited such a strong reaction from his brothers, seventeen years after he’d taken his last breath?

“Do you paint? Or draw?” she asked for the sake of a distraction.

“No.”

“Are you into pottery? Maybe a sculptor?”

“No.”

“Web design? Architecture?”

“No and no.”