Sealed With a Kiss (18 page)

“Rachel wanted to go back there. The sale
ends tomorrow, so we bought extra decorations for next
Christmas.”

“Next Christmas?”

John glared at his brother. “Would you stop
repeating everything I say?”

“So there are more decorations packed away in
your garage?”

“Not exactly,” John muttered. “We got carried
away when we started to put the extra decorations around the house.
Bella wanted to put all of the lights up, so we did.”

“What about the blow-up monsters on your
front yard. Were they Bella’s idea, too?”

John knew they’d gone a bit far with the
blow-up figures, but as Rachel had told him, Christmas only comes
once a year. It was just as well no one could see his home from the
street. Otherwise, they’d have cars and trucks parked along the
sidewalk at all hours of the night, watching what was going on in
his front yard.

“They aren’t monsters.” John took a couple of
logs out of the basket. The sooner it was empty, the sooner he
could get away from his brother’s close scrutiny. “We’d already
bought the Santa and the reindeer. The snowman, seven dwarfs, and
Sleeping Beauty were last minute additions.”

“Who wanted Shrek?”

“That would have been me. It’s Bella’s
favorite movie.”

Grant shook his head. “Bella, huh? Are you
sure it isn’t your favorite?”

John decided not to answer his brother. He
was a successful businessman, an ex-Navy SEAL, and a security
specialist. He had a reputation that needed to be maintained, and
Shrek wouldn’t win him six-figure contracts.

John zipped his jacket to his chin. “I’ll
fill one more basket. That should give us enough wood for the next
few days.”

“Not so fast, twinkle toes. I went into Angel
Wings Café the other day. Tess was behind the counter talking to
someone. They mentioned Rachel and the Christmas play. Your name
came up in the conversation, too.”

“Eavesdroppers never hear good things about
themselves.”

Grant snorted. “They weren’t talking about
me. Tess is worried that Rachel’s getting too involved in your
life. She thinks Rachel has taken more than a professional interest
in Bella.”

John glared at Grant. “Says, Tess. There’s
nothing unprofessional going on here.”

Grant’s gaze sliced through all of the
Christmas decorations, the sparkling tree that stood taller than
either of them, and the Christmas cakes sitting on the table,
waiting to be boxed.

John picked up the empty wood basket. “Rachel
normally puts together food parcels for families around Bozeman.
Bella and I decided to help her this year. We made a few Christmas
cakes to go with the non-perishable items.”

Grant counted the fruit cakes. “Thirty isn’t
exactly a few.”

“The families will appreciate it.”

Grant stood up. “You’re right. If you need a
hand to deliver them, I can help.” He picked up two more logs and
stacked them on the pile. “I still haven’t met Rachel. What’s she
like?”

John knew how Grant’s mind worked. He’d
psychoanalyze what he said about Rachel, put two and two together,
and come up with twenty. “You’ll meet her on Christmas day.”

“She’s coming here? Isn’t that going above
and beyond what you’d expect a teacher to do?”

John had conveniently forgotten to tell his
brother that Rachel had been living with him. Grant only came
around once or twice a month. He’d figured that by the time his
brother came back, the people sending him death threats would have
been caught and life would be back to normal. But in all of his
plans, he’d forgotten one thing. Christmas.

“Rachel’s living here.”

Grant dropped a log on his foot and said
something short and not so sweet. “You want to repeat that?”

“She’s not living with me…well, she is, but
not how you’re thinking. I’ve been away a lot. I’ve got a problem
I’m dealing with at work. Rachel offered to look after Bella. It
made sense that she stay here instead of going backward and forward
between her apartment and my home.”

Grant looked at him as if he’d just come up
with the lamest story he’d ever heard. “Are you sure she doesn’t
want to be the next Mrs. John Fletcher? You’ve got a few more
zeroes behind your name now.”

Someone cleared their throat behind John.
Someone that sounded like Rachel.

He turned around. Rachel was standing in the
doorway.

“I don’t know who you are, but I’m not a gold
digger,” Rachel said frostily to Grant from the other side of the
room. She looked at John and her expression didn’t change. “We’ve
arrived back from Safeway. I’ll be in the kitchen sorting through
the groceries if you need me.” She turned quickly away and stomped
down the corridor.

John rushed across the room. “Rachel, wait.
Grant didn’t mean what he said.” He heard the kitchen door slam and
he turned back to his brother. “Look what you’ve done now.”

“She’s pretty. All that blonde hair and big
blue eyes. A man could get lost in the girl-next-door thing she’s
got going on.”

John clenched his jaw. “Keep away from her.
Rachel’s off limits.”

“Because you like her?”

John closed the living room doors. “No.
Because she’s my employee.”

“Oh, sure. Is that why you closed the doors?
So your employee couldn’t hear you?”

“Sometimes I wish you weren’t such an idiot.
You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.”

Grant sent him a wide-eyed look. “Yeah, but
Tess does. And I’m telling you now, Rachel likes you. Although from
what I just saw, you may not have any relationship to salvage.”

“We’re friends, that’s all.”

“If I had a friend who looked like her, she
wouldn’t be my friend for long.”

John picked up the heavy-duty basket he’d
been using. “That’s why you’re still single. I’ll be back
soon.”

John went outside and headed toward the
woodshed. He’d talk to Rachel later, try and explain his brother’s
overprotective streak. After what Grant had said about Rachel, he
was glad he hadn’t told him about what was happening at work. He’d
end up with a neurotic brother following him everywhere.

His cell phone beeped. He looked at the
screen before answering the call.

Tanner’s voice echoed through the woodshed.
“Rachel’s safely home, boss. Apart from Tank getting an even bigger
complex about being her personal shopper, everything went
well.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you later.” John ended the
call. If Tanner had called ten minutes earlier, he could have
stopped his brother from making an idiot of himself. Rachel
wouldn’t have heard his comments about gold-diggers and he wouldn’t
have another apology to make.

With thirty food parcels to wrap and a
brother who’d decided to stay for dinner, it was going to be an
interesting evening.

***

Rachel watched John’s brother as she ate the
beef casserole that Patty Daniels had made. The two brothers were
so different that she was still having a hard time believing they
were related. Grant was as dark as John was fair. His thick wavy
hair brushed the collar of his denim shirt and his brown eyes were
even more secretive than John’s.

She had a feeling that their cautious nature
was about the only thing the two men had in common.

Grant reached across the table for a bread
roll. “You’d better put Rachel out of her misery, little brother.
She can’t work out if we’re really related.”

“Some days I wish we weren’t,” he said dryly.
“But for my sins, Grant Byers is my brother. Same mom, different
dads.”

“Uncle Grant lives on a ranch,” Bella said
proudly. “He has ten horses and lots of cows.”

Rachel smiled at Bella. “That’s pretty
impressive.”

Bella nodded enthusiastically. “Uncle Grant
said he’s going to teach me how to be a cowgirl.”

“That sounds exciting. What are you looking
forward to the most?”

“Going on a cattle drive. Tank and Tanner are
coming, too.”

Grant dipped his knife in the stick of butter
in front of him. “Did you grow up on a ranch, Rachel?”

She shook her head. “No. My mom was a
secretary and dad was a mechanic.”

“Must have been a busy life?”

Rachel cut a green bean in half. “It was, but
I expect ranching takes a lot of time as well.”

“Too much, sometimes.”

Rachel waited for Grant to tell her more
about being a rancher, but he didn’t. “What about you?” she asked.
“Have you always been a rancher?” She was surprised when Grant
shook his head.

“I tried other things for a few years. About
five years ago I came back to Bozeman. When our mom and my step-dad
died, I took over the family ranch.”

“Moving to Bozeman must have been a big
decision to make?” Grant shrugged. It was a little too careless, as
if he wasn’t going to tell her the whole truth.

“Not really. John was overseas and ranching
wasn’t for him. It worked out well for both of us.”

Rachel looked at Grant’s hand. He wasn’t
wearing a wedding ring, so she assumed he didn’t have a wife or
family.

“Dad, can I leave the table? I want to finish
something important.”

John smiled at his daughter. “Sure, Bella.
Remember to rinse your plate and put it in the dishwasher.”

Bella scrunched her nose up. “Do I have
to?”

“Yes.”

Bella pushed her chair back from the table
and looked at Rachel. “I’ll be in my room. You can come up later if
you want?”

“I’ll do that.”

“But no boys,” Bella said quickly as she
looked at her dad and uncle. “It’s a secret.” She waited until John
and Grant had both agreed not to come into her room before leaving
the table.

Rachel watched her head toward the kitchen.
She knew all about the top secret project that Bella was working on
and how much it meant to her. She just hoped it didn’t bring back
too many sad memories for John.

Grant put down his knife and fork. “I have an
apology to make. I didn’t completely mean what I said about being a
gold digger. Some women get sidetracked when they know how much
money John’s got.”

Rachel had calmed down enough to know that
his comments weren’t entirely directed at her. She kept her gaze on
Grant. If she looked at John, she’d blush beet red and never say
what she needed to. “You don’t need to worry about me. In another
few weeks I’ll be living in my own home, working at Bozeman
Elementary. John’s paying me to teach Bella and that’s what I’m
doing. Things just got a little complicated and it was safer for me
to stay here.”

“Safer?” Grant’s gaze shot to his
brother.

John stopped chewing.

Rachel looked between the two brothers. John
hadn’t told Grant about the death threats. She thought fast, trying
to come up with something that sounded logical. “The weather.
Driving on the roads isn’t safe. It made sense to stay here.”

Grant pushed his plate away. “What’s going
on?”

John clenched his jaw. “Nothing.”

“Are you kidding me? You’ve got extra guards
around the house, Rachel is living here, and whenever Bella goes
outside she has a bodyguard with her. Something has happened and I
wouldn’t call it nothing.”

Rachel cleared her throat. “Do you want me to
leave?”

John shook his head. “You might as well hear
the whole story.” He glanced at Grant. “Someone found out about a
surveillance project my team was working on. A group called the
Oracom Corporation contacted me through their lawyers. They offered
me a lot of money for a prototype of our security drone.”

“When did you start making drones?” Rachel
thought Fletcher Security specialized in keeping people and their
property safe, not designing surveillance equipment. When John had
told her that he’d been sent death threats, she’d assumed it was
because he was rich. She couldn’t have been more wrong if she’d
tried.

“About four years ago. We haven’t told many
people about our technical development program, but somehow Oracom
found out. I turned their offer down and created a new set of
enemies that I don’t need. A few days ago they sent me an email. It
explained just how far they were prepared to go to get their hands
on what we’ve developed.”

Grant’s face became a blank mask. “Where’s
the drone now?”

“We sold it to the Department of Defense. The
technology we used is more advanced than anything I’ve ever
seen.”

Rachel looked at John. “If you’ve already
sold the drone, why are you getting death threats?”

Grant’s mouth dropped open. “Death threats?
Why the hell didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

John ran his hand around the back of his
neck. “I didn’t want you to worry. You’ve got enough happening in
your life without me adding to your problems.”

“You’re my brother,” Grant hissed. “The only
one I’ll ever have. It’s my job to help you.”

John scowled at Grant. “If I’d told you
sooner, you would have left the ranch and camped in my front yard.
I don’t need you getting hurt.”

“So that’s why you’ve got extra security
guards around Bella and Rachel all of the time?”

John nodded. “I’m not taking any
chances.”

Grant didn’t look convinced and Rachel had to
admit that she agreed with him. If the drone was important enough
to kill someone over, there’d be no stopping the people who were
after it.

John looked between Rachel and Grant. “The
chance of Oracom getting anywhere near the drone is almost
zero.”

“What about near you?” Grant growled. “You
know as well as I do how easy it is to kill someone. If that’s what
they’re intent on doing, a few extra bodyguards won’t help.”

“I’ve got more than a few extra bodyguards in
place.”

“What about the people in your technical
team?” Rachel asked. “Are they okay?”

“They have round-the-clock surveillance and
bodyguards with them. I’ve done everything I can to minimize the
danger everyone’s in.” John glared at his brother. “You might want
to consider letting me send a security guard out to your
ranch.”