Emotions he couldn’t swallow almost choked Dalton, who needed a moment to breathe in deeply before saying, “That was a low blow, Caden. I told you guys why I didn’t say anything. I had promised Mom.”
“Well, have you thought that maybe we made promises, too, Dalton?”
Dalton glared at him. “Did you?”
Caden shrugged. “No. But I was here, and you weren’t. You could have come back home on occasion like Jace and I did.”
Jace decided it was time to step in. “Look, Dalton. The old man confided in me because he felt I needed to know. And, like I told Eve, what Granddad and Hannah did was nobody’s business.”
“And nobody told me,” Caden said. “Not Granddad or Hannah. It was just something I sensed whenever I came home. The old man seemed happier. Not as reserved. More relaxed.”
Dalton nodded. “And Hannah?”
Caden smiled. “The usual Hannah. Happy. Merry. Cheerful. It seemed some of her was rubbing off on him.”
Dalton couldn’t imagine the old man happy, cheerful and merry. “How long had it been going on?”
Jace sat down on the table’s edge. “Not sure. It started at some point after we all left for college. I figure they were both two lonely people. Hannah was always someone he could trust. Talk to and confide in. They had both lost their spouses, whom they’d loved deeply, so I can understand them falling in love.”
Dalton’s head snapped up. “In love? What makes you think they were in love?”
“Because Granddad told me so,” Jace said. “He loved Hannah, and she loved him. Not everybody has sex just for the hell of it.”
“Sex! They had sex?” Dalton asked as if horrified, as if he couldn’t fathom such a thing. Just like he couldn’t imagine Richard Granger happy, cheerful and merry, he couldn’t imagine him being interested in sex, either.
“I don’t know what they had, Dalton,” Jace said, rolling his eyes. “It might have been nothing more than companionship between them.”
Yes, Dalton thought, nodding. Companionship. He could accept that a lot better than the other idea. “Is Hannah aware that both of you know?”
Jace leaned back on his palms. “She knows that I know. We talked within a week or so of the funeral. I walked into the kitchen one night and found her sitting at the table crying. I told her I knew and that I also knew that they genuinely loved each other.”
“I think she has an idea that I know, although we never discussed it,” Caden responded.
“You think Dad knows?”
“We’ve never discussed that, either,” Jace said. “But, then, we had no reason to. Dad and Hannah are close...and so were Dad and Granddad. But I have a feeling Dad knew.”
“And Hannah really loved the old man?” Dalton asked, as if he found the thought totally beyond his comprehension.
“Yes, they loved each other. She took his death hard but kept it inside. More than once, when she stayed overnight at the estate instead of going home, I would get up and find her crying.”
Dalton shook his head. “Damn, I had no idea.”
“And just because Granddad was elderly and set in his ways didn’t mean he didn’t need someone to love. Everyone needs someone to love.”
Dalton snorted. “Speak for yourself.”
Jace studied his brother a minute and then asked, “At the reading of the will, when Granddad bequeathed Hannah all that property, that trust fund and all those other assets, you didn’t think anything then?”
“No,” Dalton said honestly. “I thought she deserved everything she got for putting up with our asses all those years. She was always there for us. I love Hannah.”
“We all do,” Caden said softly.
Then changing the subject a little, Caden said, “I’m glad security recorded every aspect of our conversation with Eve. She was entirely vindictive.”
“Evil,” Dalton added. “She certainly lived up to her name today.”
“That was a smart move on your part, Dalton,” Jace said. “We can thank you for having security send Eve to a room that was already set up for surveillance.”