LITMIR.BIZ

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As she reached for it, the front door closed behind her. Thankfully, she’d be heading back to her old life in a month. Then the family business, and all it entailed, was someone else’s problem.

      * * *

      TAKING A SIP of hot coffee as he exited Sit a Spell Coffee Shop, Deke Matthews struggled to hold back a satisfied grin. Step number one taken care of. He’d landed a job and now had a cover story to justify hanging around Golden. Pleased with his progress, he pulled his cell phone from the back pocket of his jeans and hit speed dial.

      “Deke, any success?” his brother Dylan promptly asked when he picked up.

      “I got a job.”

      “That was fast.”

      “You know I always take care of matters in a timely manner.”

      “A trait I appreciate. Especially now.”

      Deke heard a rustling on the other end, then, “So what’s your new profession?”

      “Outdoor tour guide. Leading tourists up mountain trails, boating on the lake, that sort of thing.”

      “Sounds more like fun than work.”

      “Someone has to do it.” Deke took another sip of the tasty almond-flavored coffee, swallowed, then asked, “Is Mom still in the dark?”

      “Yes. And I plan on keeping it that way.”

      “Agreed.”

      “Derrick and Dante are on the same page, too.”

      “Still, this is Mom we’re talking about. She has no clue?”

      “No. James Tate has totally duped her.”

      Deke frowned. He hadn’t met his mother’s boyfriend yet. In fact, none of her boys had had the pleasure. That made him very wary of the guy. Along with the fact that his mother and Dylan lived in Florida, it made a quick pop-in to scope out the situation almost impossible. But their mother’s recent behavior had set all the brothers into a tailspin.

      First of all, this was their mother. She didn’t date. Or at least hadn’t, not since their father had died. In the years after Daryl Matthews’s passing, she’d never once gone out with a man. Friend, romantic interest or otherwise. This Tate guy must have sold her an attractive story for her to finally move on from their father’s cherished memory and try to hide it from her sons.

      “Is she still giving you the runaround?”

      “Every day.”

      At the frustrated tone of his brother’s voice, Deke grinned. It took a lot to throw his brother Dylan off task, but Jasmine Matthews was good. Very good.

      So were her sons. They’d learned from the best.

      “I thought you had plans to run into them while they were on a date?” Deke reminded his brother.

      “She caught wind of it and moved the location.”

      “Classic Mom.”

      Dylan let out a short laugh.

      If there was one thing their mother was good at, it was bending her sons’ wills to do her bidding. Not in an evil-queen kind of way. More like she’d mastered the art of manipulation after raising four boys. He guessed it was a survival tactic. But the Matthews boys loved their mother and would do anything to keep her safe. Even if it meant Deke detouring to Golden to follow a lead they’d uncovered about their mother’s boyfriend.

      At least that’s what he told himself. Escaping from Atlanta had been the primary goal because the truth was much more complicated.

      “Did you find the store yet?”

      “I’ll be passing it any minute.”

      At the intersection, Deke looked both ways before striding to the opposite side of the downtown street. A mix of busy storefronts and specialty boutiques lined each side of the avenue. As casually as possible, he stopped at the front window of a store named Blue Ridge Cottage. Shoppers milled about inside, but he couldn’t see the store owner.

      “It’s just like the intel promised,” Deke conveyed.

      “Do you have a visual on the target?”

      “No.” As two older women exited the store, he nodded and moved on. “Give me time and I’ll see what I can dig up.”

      “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

      Here it comes. “Why would you ask me that?”

      “Because you escaped to the mountains.”

      “And that’s a crime?”

      Dylan’s voice went tight. “That’s what you do, Deke. Withdraw when you should be with people.”

      “I don’t want to discuss this.”

      “You never do. Hiding away instead of confronting your past isn’t good for you. You can’t keep closing yourself off.”

      “Why not? It works for me.” Deke shut his eyes and counted to ten. “Look, I told you I’d find something out about this mystery woman and I will.”

      “And then you’ll deal?”

      “Don’t push me.”

      Deke went silent, pinching the bridge of his nose. Tired of the same refrain. He hated when his brothers pushed him to be social when he was better off with his own company.

      “Listen, Deke. We’re counting on you.”

      “No pressure, huh?”

      “Never, brother. Gotta run.”

      Dylan ended the call and Deke replaced his phone in his back pocket. He walked over to a bench and lowered his lanky frame to the wooden seat.

      Once Dylan had discovered their mother was dating, the brothers had decided to stick their noses in where they didn’t belong. It was only fair play. Their mother would certainly do the same to them. Had done the same at one time or another in their relationships. She’d made it clear she wanted daughters and in order for that to happen, her sons needed to marry. They’d all disappointed her, she’d complained. Hadn’t she set up impromptu meetings with single women or invited the “perfect” woman to dinner if one of his brothers planned to stop by her condo? It was a little trickier since he and Derrick lived in different states. Dylan and Dante had finally met their matches, but was his mother so lonely herself that she’d fallen for a guy no one knew anything about?

      Deke loved his mother. Had felt helpless over the grief she’d tried to hide after their father’s death. He wouldn’t let some guy swoop in and take advantage of her. They also wouldn’t violate any protocols and use their law enforcement jobs to do an extensive background check on the man just because they didn’t trust him. When asked, Deke had gladly stepped in to try to find some easy answers.

      The first break had come when James offered to do some work around their mother’s condo. Curious, Dylan called the company James claimed he worked for. Turned out the place had never heard of him. After a little digging, Dylan suspected James Tate was not who he claimed to be, sending up huge red flags. Dylan laid it out for their mother, but she refused to heed his warning. She trusted James, she’d argued. He would never hurt her. There were things Dylan didn’t know. And with that, she shut down further conversation on the subject.

      More determined than ever to find out who this man really was, their younger brother, Dante, had pulled his new girlfriend into the loop. Eloise called in a favor and unearthed information they could actually use. They’d learned James regularly called a number here in Golden, which they traced to Blue Ridge Cottage. A young woman owned the shop. So who was she, exactly? And why did James call her? Since Deke was already up this way to hike the Appalachian Trail, once he was in range signal, Dylan had called and asked him to conduct the second part of their investigation. He was on leave of absence from his job, giving him the

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