She saw her father and Mona talking to an older couple near the fireplace. “Who is that talking to Dad and Mona?”
Shana followed her gaze. “That’s Harold and Helen Owens. According to Jace, Mr. Owens and his grandfather were good friends, and they played golf together regularly. They weren’t originally on the list of invitees, but Jace ran into Harold last week at the bank and decided to invite them since they weren’t in town for our wedding.”
“Well, they evidently have a lot to say. It seems Dad is barely getting a word in. The old woman’s mouth is moving a mile a minute,” Jules said, grabbing a couple more truffles from the tray being offered by a passing waitress.
“I meant to ask where you were last night,” Shana said, taking a sip of her apple juice.
“Last night?” Jules asked, glancing around again, refusing to meet her sister’s eye.
“Yes. I called you and didn’t get an answer even though it was after eleven o’clock.”
Jules knew exactly where she had been at that particular time. But the last thing she would do is let Shana know she’d made a fool of herself yet again by going over to Dalton’s place. “Umm, I was probably in the shower or something.”
At that moment, Kent Fairfield rolled up. Kent worked for Shana’s company as a troubleshooter. A veteran of the Iraq war, he’d been left paralyzed in both legs by the shrapnel from a missile blast. What Jules admired most about him was that he hadn’t let being wheelchair-bound stop him from succeeding in life. He was married and his wife, Marsha, was pregnant with their first child. According to Shana, he was good at his job, and she considered him a key player in her organization and a valuable member of her team. It was Kent’s discovery of the wrongdoings at Granger Aeronautics that had saved Jace’s life a few months ago.
They had been standing, holding a conversation with Kent for a good ten minutes when Shana looked up and said, “Now this is a surprise. I thought he wasn’t coming.”
Following her sister’s gaze, Jules glanced toward the foyer, and her gaze connected to Dalton’s.
“I wonder why he changed his mind,” Shana mused.
Jules broke eye contact with Dalton, glanced over at her sister and shrugged. “Trust me, I have no idea.”
*
Dalton wasn’t surprised when his brothers approached him with wariness lining their eyes. “Dalton, we thought you weren’t coming tonight,” Jace said, taking a sip of his drink and eyeing him closely.
“You said as much,” Caden chimed in.
Dalton shrugged. “Can’t a man change his mind?”
“Depends,” Jace replied, looking at him over the rim of his glass. “Why did you change your mind?”
Dalton grabbed a drink off the tray on the coffee table. “For a number of reasons, which I don’t intend to get into now with the two of you.”
“That might be the case,” Jace said in a firm tone. “But I expect you to be on your best behavior, because I’m sure you know Jules is here.”
Yes, he knew, which was why he’d decided to come, after all. “Whatever. Now if you guys will excuse me, I think I’ll mosey over to Shana and say hello.”
Caden touched his arm. “Jules is with Shana.”
The corners of his lips tilted into a grin. “I know. Imagine that.” And then he walked off, knowing his brothers were watching his every move. He even heard one of them mutter a low curse.
Halfway across the room he was stopped by a couple that knew him, but he didn’t immediately remember them until they told him their names. Damn, the Owenses looked old. But then he figured since they’d been friends of his grandparents back in the day, they should look old. It had been close to ten years since he’d seen them. How had they aged that much in ten years?