A Brother's Honor (Grangers) - By Brenda Jackson Page 0,33

for another two weeks. In the meantime, keep an eye on Dad and the veggie lady.”

* * *

Jace glanced at his watch, noticing it was nine o’clock already. He pushed the documents he’d been reading aside and stood to stretch his body. The office had closed hours ago, yet he was still here, reading as much information as he could. This was sort of like cramming for one of his law exams.

Caden and Dalton had moved into their offices down the hall and at six had quickly headed out for the bar and grill down the street. They had invited Jace to join them, but he had declined. He had received an email from Shana, asking that specific documents be available for her to review tomorrow, and he figured he needed to go over those documents, as well.

He glanced around the office that had once belonged to his grandfather. He’d decided not to change a thing for now, although the green drapes with the matching carpeting didn’t do anything for him. Jace smiled, recalling that green had always been Richard Granger’s favorite color, in all shades.

They would be visiting their father next weekend, and Jace was looking forward to it. Caden would leave to wrap up a few events he’d scheduled and would return in two weeks. Jace was grateful Dalton hadn’t made some excuse to fly to London and wondered if that receptionist downstairs had anything to do with it.

Jace was about to head back over to his desk and read the last of the documents when his phone rang. It was a number he didn’t recognize. “Hello?”

“You could have at least called to let me know your grandfather had passed.”

Jace drew in a deep breath. It was his ex-wife, Eve. “Why would I have bothered? It’s not like the two of you were close. And if you’re calling to see whether you were left in his will, you weren’t.”

“That’s cold, Jace.”

“Goes with the territory, since I recall your calling me a cold bastard the day you were served with divorce papers.”

As if she hadn’t heard his words, she said, “I hear you’re in charge of the place now that he’s gone. I’m happy, since that’s all I wanted for you.”

“That’s what you wanted for yourself, Eve. Let’s get that straight. You were never satisfied with the money I was making as an attorney when you figured I could be making millions working alongside my grandfather. That’s the truth, and you know it.” He dropped down in his chair and added, “And then there was the issue of your not getting your hands on my trust fund. That really teed you off.”

He couldn’t help but smile. She figured she had it all worked out just how much of his trust she would milk out of him. But thanks to his grandfather, things hadn’t worked out that way for her, which is why she couldn’t stand the old man.

“Why do you keep trying to paint me as a gold digger, Jace? When we married, I had just as much money as you.”

“The underlying word is had. By the time we divorced, you didn’t have a penny. You had spent all of yours and were trying to run through mine, as well.”

“I like nice things.”

“No, you like expensive things and then choose not to work to pay for them.”

“I was the wife of a Granger. There was no reason for me to work. Had I given in and stayed pregnant like you wanted, then everything would have been fine. Why can’t you understand that although you wanted a baby, I didn’t? I wasn’t ready, Jace. I was still—”

“Having too good a time to settle down and become a mother, I know,” he interrupted. “But was that any reason to have an abortion behind my back?” he asked in anger. It pained him every time he thought about it. And the sad thing about it was that she never planned to tell him. All the arrangements had been made while he was out of town. When he had returned unexpectedly, he had found out the truth.

“Eve, let’s end this call while we can remain civil. Goodbye, and do me a favor and delete my number.”

She clicked off the phone. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d hung up on him, but if she did what he’d said and deleted his number, then it would definitely be the last.

He had picked up another report when his cell phone rang again. He thought it