Page 48 of See You There

People we both care about are gone.

I don’t want to see either of us lose anyone else who matters.

Chris

Luke’s bloodsurged hotter than the steam beginning to float from his shower. His hand clenched as he resisted the urge to hurl the phone across the room. It was a threat.

Chris wasn’t stupid. Nothing in the letter proved anything. The comment about Dr. Keller having assured Luke about David Bloom was interesting—particularly because it wasn’t true.Elliott Keller had confessed to Luke that he’d helped forge the will.

Was Chris fishing? Was this his attempt to figure out what his father had told Luke before Dr. Keller was killed?

He stepped into the steam, but his muscles refused to relax. If Chris actually cared about his father, he wouldn’t write emails to a man he claimed the police considered a suspect. A fact the police would never have shared with Chris.

Chris knew Luke would share his email with the others. The email served one purpose. To illustrate to the Blooms how far Chris was willing to go. Had Chris killed his own father to protect himself and Courtney? Had this monster been hiding under their noses the whole time?

Luke turned the shower off, and wrapping himself in a towel, he sent a text to Declan, James and Cara requesting a meeting that night. He hated to welcome Cara home from her honeymoon this way, but if Chris was threatening them, they all needed to be aware.

His thoughts went again to the car? Was Chris worried that his father had told him the truth? Had he tried to stop Luke before he could find out more?

Luke and Jamesarrived at Cara’s new home in Brookhaven at the same time. James lifted his chin toward the potted flowers on the steps leading to the front porch and the wreath on the bright blue door that read ‘Evans.’

“When did Cara become Martha Stewart?” Luke asked. A little more than a year ago, his sister was better known for partying her way across the globe with her jet set friends. He wasproud of how she’d turned her life around in the year since their father died.

“Think she’ll be wearing an apron?” James joked.

“Now, that’s something I’d like to see. Better than that Star Trek shirt she was wearing the last time I saw her.” Luke shook his head. “The two of them are becoming bigger dorks by the day.”

“They seem happy,” James said, ringing the bell.

“Yeah.” Luke’s voice was a little wistful, and James gave him a strange look. “What? I’m happy for her.”

James opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted when their little sister swung the door open, and Luke burst out laughing.

Cara glared up at him and crossed her arms across her chest, obscuring the picture of Captain Picard. “What?”

James coughed to cover his own laugh. “Nice apron.”

Cara looked down at her ensemble and grimaced. “I forgot I was still wearing this. I got an idea for a new eye cream on the plane and wanted to work on it right away.”

A couple months before, Cara had begun selling her homemade natural skin care at local farmer’s markets. “Come in. Wes is just finishing up something in his office, but I made hors d’oeuvres.” She stepped back and led them into her spacious kitchen. The wide counter of the island was covered in the detritus of her homemade science experiments. “Declan said to call him when you all got here. What is this about? All you said was Chris.”

James sat on one of the high-backed bar stools and plucked a cube of cheese from the charcuterie board Cara had set out.

“I could get used to domesticated Cara,” James said.

“Don’t let her fool you.” Wes laughed, coming up the steps that led from their finished basement. To effectively run his cyber security firm, Wes had converted the area into a computerlab that would rival any think tank. “She bought it at Whole Foods.”

Cara scowled at her husband as he bent to press a kiss on her lips and ruffled her blonde hair. “You aren’t supposed to reveal all my secrets,” she complained with mock anger.

Wes wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her in for another kiss. “I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”

Cara’s eyes shined up at him as James pretended to gag. “We need to set up some ground rules for when your brothers are in the room.”

Cara stuck her tongue out at James, but Luke watched how Wes and Cara interacted as if they could communicate without speaking. It was the little touches and smiles.

He wanted that. Someone he could let in and would accept him for all his quirks. Not that he had any as dorky as Wes’s Star Trek obsession, but still. His mind drifted to Dahlia and their conversation at the food truck, before he jerked it away.

Cara opened a laptop on the counter and placed the video call to Declan, turning the screen so they all could see. She returned to her spot, cuddled against her husband.