Grayson Brothers Series Boxed Set (4 books in 1) by Wendy Lindstrom Page B

each other during those tense moments. Their angry words had stripped away their pretenses and left them vulnerable to each another. There was a depth to Radford she hadn’t known existed, deep wounds that still pained him. And he was afraid. He’d said he was failing as a father, but she sensed a deeper despair, a level of desperation buried beneath his heartbreaking confession.
    She closed her eyes and rolled her neck to release the tension. Radford’s secrets were none of her business.
    “You have paint on your chin, Evelyn.”
    She opened her eyes to find Radford watching her, wearing a tender smile. She lowered her face and wiped her chin across her lifted shoulder to avoid his eyes.
    “You’ve made it worse.”
    She used the bottom of her shirt to scrub her chin then displayed her face for his inspection. “Gone?”
    His smile widened and Evelyn forgot about everything outside the realm of Radford’s face. There was something warm in his smile, something personal in the lazy way it developed, something in his eyes that said it was just for her. But his smile faded and Radford gave her a curious, probing look that made her tighten up inside.
    “You know, I wouldn’t have paired you and Kyle,” he said, surprising her with the unexpected comment. “I don’t think I know two people who are more opposite than you.”
    It hadn’t always been that way, but Evelyn had no wish to discuss feelings better left unexplored. “We’ve been friends for years.”
    “So have you and Boyd.”
    Evelyn laughed. “Yes, but I couldn’t handle all that wildness and oozing charm.”
    “Then why not Duke?” he asked with a grin.
    She shook her head. “I could never marry a lawman. I’d always be afraid he’d go to work and never come home. Duke is steady, but too high a risk. Besides,” she added with a grin to lighten the conversation, “neither one asked me to marry him.”
    Radford smiled. “Well, it’s a good thing one of us did. Ma’s sure happy about getting you for a daughter-in-law. She’s always bragged about her little angel.”
    Evelyn didn’t feel like an angel. She had noticed far more than was modest about her future brother-in-law since he’d been home.
    “Your mother’s biased because she helped raise me.”
    The reminder made Radford sorry he’d said anything. He could see how Evelyn’s eyes lost a bit of their sparkle, though she tried to hide it.
    Radford crossed the porch then knelt beside her. The urge to stroke her hair was strong, but he withheld the hand that started to lift of its own accord. “I’m sorry I brought up hurtful memories. Since my father passed away, I’ve gained a deep appreciation of the pain you’ve suffered. We all lost someone special when your mother died.”
    For the second time, he found himself searching her eyes, trying to recognize her as an old friend. But it dawned on him that she had never been his friend. She was the little neighbor girl who had played with Kyle while Radford was helping his father at the mill. During the war, she was William’s daughter. Now Evelyn was Kyle’s fiancée.
    Then why was Radford seeing another woman in the shadows of Evelyn’s eyes? And why did he feel the need to reveal that woman?
    Uneasy with his thoughts, Radford sought to redirect them. “Did you know that your mother used to spit watermelon seeds with me? She usually beat me, but we had a grand time seeing who could hit the trunk of the oak tree.”
    Surprise erased the shadows in Evelyn’s eyes. “My mother did that?”
    He lifted a strand of Evelyn’s hair and tucked it behind her ear. He trailed his fingers down the silky skein before releasing it. “Your father laid wagers with my dad.”
    A gasp of laughter escaped Evelyn. “They wagered on my mother spitting?”
    Radford nodded and swiped at a maple leaf that skittered across the porch floor. He was glad he’d made her laugh. He liked her laugh. The leaf, slightly tinged by autumn color, landed on the