Rose planted her hands on her hips and scowled at her brother. He’d always been an overprotective bear. She appreciated the role he played in Joey’s life—that father he didn’t have until now—but she didn’t need his two cents on this situation. And she certainly didn’t want him giving Xander a good talking-to.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said. “You’re not my daddy.”

“Daddy would do it if he were here. This talk is ten years overdue.”

Rose opened her mouth to argue, but Xander held out his hand. “It’s okay. I don’t have any problem talking with Craig. It’ll be fine.”

Rose scowled at her brother and swung her purse over her shoulder. “Fine, but there’ll be none of that stepping-outside nonsense. If you’ve got something to say to him, you’ll say it while I’m standing here or not at all.” She could see some of her brother’s bravado dissipating. He couldn’t be the macho jerk he wanted to be while she watched and Rose knew it. “Go ahead,” she said, her tone sharp. “Say what you’ve got to say, Craig.”

Craig took a deep breath and turned to Xander with a frown. “Fine.”

“Before you start,” Xander said, “I wanted to say thank you.”

That brought Craig’s rant to a sudden stop. “You want to thank me?”

“Yes. Apparently, a lot has happened while I’ve been gone. I wish I had known the extent of it, but I can’t go back and change things now. So thanks for being there for Rose and Joey. She told me how you take him to games and practices. It means a lot to me to know that Joey wasn’t missing out because I wasn’t a part of his life.”

Craig’s square chin tipped up as his chest puffed. “You’re right,” he said. “He hasn’t missed out. I’ve done everything I can to make sure of it. He’s a happy kid. He knows he has family that loves him. I’m not going to let you waltz in here and hurt him.”

“Craig!” Rose chastised, but her brother ignored her.

“No. It needs to be said.” He pointed his finger at Xander but stopped short of touching him. “If you’re going to be in his life, you can’t half-ass it. No announcing you’re his daddy and then hightailing it back to D.C. and forgetting about him for months at a time. That’s not how it works.”

Rose held her breath. Xander was a busy man with a schedule that didn’t leave time for much, especially the obligations of a child. They hadn’t talked about this yet. There were a lot of things still to discuss, but she worried if Craig pushed too hard, Xander would walk away from the whole thing. At this point, she couldn’t prove Joey was his child. He was taking this on what she told him and what his eyes perceived.

“You’re absolutely right,” Xander said, and the air rushed from her lungs. “You can be certain that Joey will be our number-one priority as Rose and I work this out. This isn’t something that can be resolved in a night. And for now, we’ve agreed not to tell him about me yet. Or tell anyone, for that matter. I’d appreciate it if you would help keep this secret until we’re ready.”

Craig seemed to follow along in agreement, but when Xander finished, her brother tensed up and eyed him with suspicion once again. “Sometimes I forget you’re a politician. This all sounds real good, but I can’t believe a word you say. I’ll keep this secret for Joey’s sake, not yours. You’ve got to prove to me with actions, not words, that you mean what you say.”

“I’ll do everything I can to prove to them, and to you, that I mean it.” Xander offered his hand to shake on it.

Craig accepted it, but before he let go, he leaned in and said something else Rose couldn’t hear. Xander stiffened slightly at the quiet words, and then he nodded and pulled his hand away. Whatever the discussion, it seemed to satisfy her brother.

“Night, Rose,” Craig said, heading out to his truck with a casual wave. “I’ll pick you up about ten for work.”

Rose just shook her head. She would never understand men. She watched Craig drive away and glanced at her watch. Great. He’d be back in about six hours. Who needed sleep? It was highly overrated.

“I’d better go,” Xander said. “Do you need anything else tonight?”

She turned to him and sighed. “No. You’ve done enough, thank you. I’m sorry about my brother. He’s not very sensitive to how all this must be for you.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “If my sister was in this position, I’d probably do the same thing. Only I’d have my three brothers and Ken scowling behind me.”

“I’m surprised Julianne can date at all.” Rose could barely stand one overbearing brother. How Julianne managed with all four of the Eden boys and her father watching, she didn’t know. Last Rose had heard, Julianne hadn’t married yet, either. Maybe the brothers were successful.

Xander smiled, confirming her suspicions. “If she does, she’s smart and keeps quiet about it.” He took a step toward her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Rose allowed herself to be pulled against him, the protective cocoon of his body welcome after a long, distressing night. He dipped his head to kiss her again. Reluctantly, he pulled away and took a step toward the door. “See you soon, Rose.”

After the door shut, Rose let her body sink back against the wall. A swirl of emotions in her gut, compounded by exhaustion, made it hard for her to keep herself upright.

The future was wide-open now and she had no idea what to expect. It scared the hell out of her.

* * *

If you hurt my sister or my nephew, I swear I’ll be sharing a cell with my dad that very same day.

Those were Craig’s exact words, yet they’d inspired more confusion in Xander than fear. The threat was clear and Xander understood how concerned Craig was with keeping Rose and Joey happy and safe.

But a cell with his dad? Admittedly, Xander was out of touch, but certainly he would’ve heard something if Billy Pierce was in jail. Right?

There was only one way to find out for certain. Xander rolled out of bed sometime around lunch that afternoon. He got dressed and made his way from the converted barn known as the bunkhouse, where he and the other boys stayed growing up, over to the main house to talk to Ken or Molly.

He opened the back door, walking straight into the old kitchen he’d raided repeatedly during his teen years. His foster father, Ken, was sitting at the worn kitchen table, hovering over a bowl of soup and crackers.

“Morning, son,” Ken said, looking up and then back down at his watch. “Good afternoon, rather.”

“Hi, Dad.”

“Grab some soup and join me.”

“Sounds good.” Xander went to the stove, where beef-and-vegetable soup was simmering in a large pot. Even though it was only Ken and Molly on the farm now, she still cooked as if she had a houseful of teenage boys to feed. He ladled soup into a bowl and took it and a glass of tea with him to the table. “Where’s Mom?”

“She went into town to the farmers’ market. Everyone is getting ready for the strawberry festival this weekend. She wanted to pick up a bushel or two of Joe Wheeler’s berries and plan her entries for the baking competition.”

Every summer, Cornwall hosted the Strawberry Days Festival. Friday, Saturday and Sunday would be filled with parades, carnivals, food booths and contests. Someone would be crowned Queen of the Berries. Molly would cook herself half to death this week in the hopes of bringing home one of the coveted blue ribbons. The most cutthroat of competitions were the strawberry-preserves and the strawberry-pie categories, and the winner could lord it over all the other women in town the rest of the year.

Xander could remember eating so many of Molly’s practice dishes as a kid that he went nearly two years in college without eating strawberry anything. He swallowed a spoonful of soup and shook his head. Molly worried herself sick every year and never won, even though her stuff was great. “I’m surprised she’s still butting her head against that wall. You and I know it’s a setup and the mayor’s wife always wins. I know corruption when I see it.”