Chapter 22

I was still unsettled and shaky over what had happened with Melissa as Jude drove us to the village, only to find we were way behind the 8-ball on arriving for the festivities.

The parking situation was…not good. Crescent Covites took their holidays very seriously, and if the townsfolk were supposed to show up to prove their support, they absolutely did. The streets were completely crammed with cars and families and couples roamed the sidewalks, laughing and waving glow sticks.

"Baddie, what's that? Glows?"

"What those kids are waving around?"

"Yes!"

"Those are glow sticks, buddy. They're for sale in some of the tents. Soon as we find a place to park, we'll get you one, promise."

Owen let out a loud, impatient sigh. He was clearly Jude's son, all right.

"No way. I'll leave you two off and find somewhere to park even if it's a mile away. And it just might be," Jude said with a laugh, reaching over to rub my knee. "No reason for all of us to be stuck in the car on such a nice night. Hoping the rain isn't a factor tonight."

"Me too. Are you sure? We don't mind staying with you until we find a spot. Actually, I have an idea." I sat up straighter. "Duh, not sure why I didn't think of it sooner. Brooks' Greenery has a lot in back and he lets locals park there on nights the shop is closed if they have a pass and they manage to find a place." I whipped out my pass from my purse and flashed it to him. "Can just leave it on your dashboard."

"Oh, you're just a lifesaver in every possible way, aren't you?" Jude cupped my knee and the warmth from his touch spread up my thigh and kept going. "My lucky charm." Jude flipped on his signal and aimed down a side street, quickly heading toward the street behind the florist. The lot looked mostly full, but he signaled into it and swerved down the aisle on the far left, smoothly slipping into the last slot. Then he turned his grin on me and plucked my laminated pass out of my fingers to toss it on the dashboard. "Lucky us."

"Yay, Baddie," Owen said, bouncing his feet up and down. I was pretty sure I'd be stuck carrying the slicker because the radar had no rain in sight and it was a humid night.

Jude hustled around the car to open my door. I slipped out, but before I could take a step, he hauled Owen out of his car seat and set him on his hip, though he immediately protested and wanted to get down.

And apparently, run ahead of us across the lot toward Main Street, where all the action was.

"Hey, slugger, wait up." I hurried after him and I assumed Jude was right behind me, but when I looked back, he was facing the building on the other side of us.

Hamilton Realty, of all things.

I looked between Jude and Owen, torn between them. But Owen was a child, so of course he won. I rushed to catch up to him, snagging him under both arms and swinging him in the air so his giggles rang out. We turned toward Jude, who'd sped up to reach us.

"Sorry," I said under my breath as I set Owen on his feet. "I wasn't thinking."

"They practically own this town, so there's no way to avoid them. Hell, I don't want to. I'm going to talk to them soon, and get all of this out in the air. I'm tired of fucking secrets, my own most of all."

"Well, you tackled one earlier, so this should be a piece of cake." I took his hand. "Not that you were keeping Owen a secret, just it was kept from you for a bit."

"Yeah." He tightened his hand around mine and lifted it to his lips. "You make everything better, Maddie. Even me."

Just then came a very loud screech of my name and my niece Reagan shot across the street, darting through traffic and clusters of families to come to a stop in front of Owen. "Well, aren't you the cutest thing?"

He stared up at her then he looked back at us and announced, "Stranger danger."

I laughed so hard I clutched my stomach.

Jude's eyebrow did that climbing for his hairline thing. "And you are?"

"That's Reagan, Christian's daughter," I explained.

"Oh. How old is she?"

"Almost her age, which is too young for you." But Rea held out a hand just the same. "I'm Reagan. Nice to meet you."

"Same." He gave me a sidelong look. "Am I going to see literally everyone today?"

"Looking that way." I lowered my voice. "Don't look now, your virtual twin brothers are headed this way with their wives."

"Jesus. I need a wife too." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and dragged me against him, making Rea's eyes bug out. She shifted to make room for the Hamilton clan on the sidewalk and apparently, she noticed Jude had twin doppelg?ngers. As the twin doppelg?ngers realized the same damn thing, along with their wives.

Naturally, Oliver's outspoken wife, Sage, realized it first.

"Holy shit, who are you?"

"Who are you?" Jude shot back in the same incredulous tone of voice, clinging so hard to me I was certain I would end up bruised. Even Owen ran back to hide behind my legs, peeking out as if he was afraid to continue onward.

I couldn't blame the kid.

"Here, let's move over so we don't block everyone." I led Jude and Owen to a nearby pair of benches. Luckily, the people sitting on the benches rapidly scattered. Quickly, I lifted Owen to sit on one of them before he could decide to run away. I wasn't entirely sure his father wouldn't do the same as his new family members filled in the other available seats.

One thing I was damn well used to was being part of a large family. Granted, I'd never experienced a thorny familial situation like this one. I'd never had parts of my family I hadn't yet met, other than Reagan, and that was due to her selfish mom. As awkward as it must have been for her to meet us, she'd swiftly integrated into our group as if she'd always been there.

Which meant that when we were in private, maybe my bestie could help my…whatever Jude was becoming to me. Since she'd dealt with a situation not all that dissimilar, as far as coming into a formed family unit as basically a stranger.

Seth ran a hand over his wife Ally's hair and looked to his twin for a moment before wading into the fray. "Uh, hi, I'm Seth. You've gotta be Jude, right?"

"He's Jude," Oliver announced, leaning around Sage to hold out a hand. "I'd been told he'd recently moved here."

"Nice to be kept in the loop," Seth said crossly.

"But no one fucking told us you were a damn dupe. The picture I saw of you years ago, you had way more facial hair, but without it…" Shaking his head, he trailed off. "The three of us might as well be triplets."

Jude shook hands with first Oliver, then Seth. Their resemblance was truly boggling, especially when they were next to each other. Yet somehow I hadn't taken notice of it until this very moment.

Probably because it wouldn't have made any sense to me, so I simply hadn't paid attention.

Plus, the first day I'd met Jude, he'd worn a thick beard that he'd shaved mostly off by the day he'd helped me with my tire situation, which also changed his look. Both of his brothers weren't big on facial hair, at least on any consistent basis.

"Uh, hi, yes, I'm Jude. And yeah, I recently shaved." He laughed awkwardly. You all know Maddie, I presume?" Then he gestured to his son. "And that's Owen, my son."

"Yeah, we definitely know Maddie. Oh, hey there, little buddy." Seth grinned at Owen. "You gotta meet Alexander. He's a few years older than you, and he's with our dad. So are Laurie and Star and Stella. Star and Stella are Sage and my brother's kids." He rolled his eyes. "Well, our dad and his new whatever she is, Cookie. Last we saw them they were buying many things on Founders' Row."

I cocked my head. "Is that something new?"

"Just a new way to drum up business for some of the locals." Seth rolled his eyes again. "Dad insisted Hamilton Realty have a booth there, as well as Sage and Oliver's Hummingbird's Nest B&B, but we managed to con other employees into manning them so we could actually enjoy the holiday."

"Damn straight. Ella is a wonderful woman," Oliver announced. "She's one of our chefs. She doesn't have any kids yet so she was fine with running the booth."

"Cookie?" Jude echoed, obviously a few steps behind as he rubbed his forehead in a way that indicated he was probably getting a headache. I was currently in information overload myself, and I already knew these people and had for years. Poor Jude had never even met them before.

I had a moment to wish we'd discussed a possible plan of attack before just coming to this public event as if there was any chance in hell they wouldn't all be here with most of the other families in the Cove. But we hadn't thought about it. I hadn't thought about it.

"Is Cookie Mr. Hamilton's new girlfriend?" I asked, trying to take some pressure off Jude.

"If you can call her that." Oliver sighed heavily. "We try not to think about it too much."

At least Reagan had led Owen over to one of the stands that sold glow sticks and he was now clutching two of them, one per hand, waving them in every direction at once.

Thank God, because he'd had enough flux in life already. He didn't need to be introduced to a whole new huge subset of his family on the same day his mom had re-entered his life—and immediately left yet again.

"At all," Seth added, holding onto Ally in much the same way Jude was still holding on to me. The difference was Seth and Ally had gone to high school together before getting married much later on, and Jude and I hadn't known each other for more than a couple weeks.

Even if it felt like much longer.

Sage reached out to take my hand, which she patted as if I was in extreme emotional distress. "Maddie, don't tell me you got yourself sucked in too. Did you know I dated two of your brothers in high school?"

"What? God, no." I wanted to hold up a hand before she launched into what was likely to be a blistering diatribe of how one or both of them had done her wrong in some way or another, leaving her no choice but to fall madly in love with—and make babies with—Oliver Hamilton.

Almost everyone in town knew how they'd hooked up and were married in Vegas by an Elvis impersonator. But I wasn't sure Jude could handle that story without something stronger to drink than the lemonade Seth had just brought him from a neighboring tent. The one he was currently gulping like a man in desperate straits.

"I mean, I kind of knew about you and Moose, but who else?" I asked weakly, thinking I'd likely accrue major good karma points for acting as if I wanted to know.

"Christian too, although to be honest, we never dated. We just, you know."

"Had sex?" I gasped.

As if on cue, Honey and Christian appeared on the sidewalk, although they had the better part of a block to cover yet since Honey was pushing Jacob in his stroller.

Sage looked at me, aghast, holding a hand to her chest. "Why, Madison Masterson, you very well know I was a virgin until marriage."

"Um, no, since you were very largely pregnant for the ceremony, turtledove," Oliver said with a smirk that made her poke him hard in the chest.

"You had deflowered me before, yes, but I have never been with another man but my husband, as you very well know."

Her indignant reaction made her bestie, Ally, snort. "Everyone knows, Sage."

"You can't talk. You were an innocent even longer than I was." When Ally chose not to respond, Sage leaned toward me, nearly causing her bountiful cleavage to fall from her red, white, and blue dress adorned with flags and fireworks. She must've taken the idea of stars and stripes literally. "I just flirted with Christian, by the way. Since I'd dated Moose on and off here and there. On occasion."

"How can anyone be with only one man forever?" Reagan asked, leading Owen in front of the bench while he continued pinwheeling his arms with his glow sticks. "Oh, hi, Dad," she said sheepishly as Christian loudly cleared his throat as he, Honey, and Jacob reached us.

I said nothing. I'd been with several, but that didn't seem like the best conversation to have while Jude was turning green from all the facts he was rapidly learning about his new family.

All at one time.

Not to mention that was not a discussion I wanted to take part in while my brother was lurking nearby, doing his best to not seem like a by-the-book cop though everyone knew he was one.

"So, yeah, we've known about you and your sister for some years, Jude," Oliver said smoothly, clearly looking to change the subject from the topic of his wife's lady business.

"How did you find out about us? Certainly no one told either of us." Jude shifted on the bench, giving me a bit more room though he absolutely stayed close. His grip on me relaxed a fraction, though, so I let out a breath.

"PI," Oliver said matter-of-factly. "After originally consulting the PI, I had a conversation with our father about the, uh, compensation he'd given our mother to…disperse. Which led to some other revelations recently. Very recently." He cleared his throat, sliding a glance toward Owen, who wasn't paying any attention. At least as far as I could tell.

"You hired a PI to check on your own mother?" Jude demanded before cracking a smile. "Me, too. Guess we are family."

"No kidding?" Oliver smiled too. "Call it curiosity. Then I talked to Dad about what I'd learned and he admitted what happened. He paid her off to go, because a number of years before, she'd been unfaithful. But she took something with her he didn't realize until very recently when he learned of your existence and did some math. Apparently, they'd tried once previously to reconcile." He hissed out a breath. "I'm sorry to tell you this way, man. I know it sucks."

At my side, Jude stiffened. And his grip on me grew more desperate once again. "There has to be some mistake. My father is Wayne Keller."

"I'm sure she wanted you to believe that. But I don't believe it's true. Though if I were you, I'd verify via testing. Hell, maybe we should too." Oliver indicated his twin.

Seth's eyes narrowed. "And you didn't feel I should have this info about Jude, as well?"

Oliver tipped back his head to stare at the dark sky. "I didn't know if we'd ever meet. And then Jude moved here…"

"And you still said nothing," Seth pressed as his wife consolingly stroked his leg, much as I was doing to Jude. But Jude had basically gone to stone beside me.

"I didn't know how to handle any of it." Oliver straightened his tie as Sage put her head on his shoulder in silent support. "I've gone over and over it in my head, and I just had no idea. I fucked up, man," he added to Seth, who reached over to clap his brother on the back.

They squabbled here and there, but they were tight. Twins, for God's sake. They'd be okay.

But Jude…

"What about Sydney?" Jude asked in a hollow voice.

Oliver shook his head. "Just you are part of this. Not your sister. I mean, she's mom's child, of course, but not dad's. No chance there. She was conceived years later." He leaned forward to lock his hands between his knees. "Man, I apologize for laying this on you this way. I should have done it in a better way. Eased you in, maybe."

Jude laughed coldly and took my hand when I set it on his thigh. "What way is there to ease me in that I never even knew my own father? Although I gotta say, it explains a lot."

He looked for Owen, zeroing in on where he sat on a nearby raised flower bed. He was swinging his legs as he drew on the concrete with a colorful piece of chalk. Reagan stood at his side, her gaze heavy as our eyes met. Christian and Honey stood nearby too, dealing with Jacob as he fussed.

Obviously, Reagan had heard the conversation. Oliver hadn't exactly whispered. He seemed so disgusted by all of this.

He was definitely not the only one. I just wish they could have gone a bit easier on the big reveal. Not saying there was really a way to say it gently, but I just couldn't see how Jude would be able to enjoy any of this night now. How could he?

First, the Melissa appearance, now this. So much for a fun holiday.

I hurt so badly for Jude that I had absolutely no clue what to say. I felt as if I'd gone mute.

While I knew both of the Hamilton brothers and their wives, to say the least, we were not particularly close. But I was still going to make a suggestion for Jude's sake.

"The Spinning Wheel has lots of drink specials tonight," I said brightly, catching Seth's eye and nodding to Jude. Seth nodded, taking a deep breath.

"Yeah. And there's always pool too." He tried to nudge Oliver, but he was looking anywhere but at his twin. "Whaddaya say, Ol? Feel like maybe a Guinness and a couple of rounds at the table in back?"

"Um, it's only a half hour before the fireworks start. Remember our children?"

"The children currently roaming about with their grandfather?" Seth tried to nod toward Jude while speaking to Oliver, but it took Ally nudging Sage and then Sage nudging her husband for the idea to land.

"Oh. Okay. Right." Oliver braced his hands on his legs and looked to Jude. "You like Guinness? Or pool? Or just getting people off your damn back?"

"Not particularly," Jude began until I jabbed him with an elbow. "What?"

"Go," I mouthed to him until he sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Pool and Guinness. Yay."

I made myself smile. "I'll handle Owen. Don't worry. Go off and have fun with your brothers." I made sure to emphasize the final word and finally, a light seemed to spark dimly in his eyes. Of course that might also have been because it was night time and even with all the lights around, I could only see so much. But I feared any light at all in him might've been squashed by what he'd learned today.

"Thanks, Maddie," Seth said softly. "Does this mean you'll now be part of our family too?"

I hadn't even fully processed the question when Jude replied. "Yes. Because she's absolutely part of mine."