that trip to the cabin off the lake. Before Uncle Danny left? Grace had never been on a family vacation before, and remember? He couldn’t think of a souvenir for himself. I think he just liked that you and Felix and Danny would play games with us and talk.”
“I remember,” she said softly. “Grace means a lot to all of us, honey. But—” She looked at Hunter, who nodded. “—if he’s grown up enough to have a real relationship, he’s grown up enough to deal with this moment from his past.”
“I hate this moment,” Josh muttered, sagging. Hunter recalled that instant downstairs when Josh had looked exhausted. Now he looked almost green. His mother put a comforting arm around his shoulders.
“I do too. And I’d wager Grace isn’t excited about it either. But he needs to see he’s outgrown it.” She shook her head. “He’s matured so much since then. I know you can’t see it. But the way he’s become a leader in his dance troupe, and the discipline he’s shown over the last couple of months…. He’s got this.”
Josh nodded disconsolately. “Yeah.”
“Now we have to go finish the briefing, honey. Your father and Danny have discovered some truly alarming things about those ripples they were talking about. Our little mission to protect Tabitha’s grandfather has become more high stakes than we first imagined. We can catch Grace up later, but we need to have this meeting now.”
“Of course,” Josh said, magically transforming into the tough young leader Hunter had grown to appreciate. “Hunter?” He offered his hand.
Hunter took it. “I’m, uh, sorry,” he said.
Josh shrugged, like he hadn’t been fighting hard enough to nearly best Hunter when violence was what Hunter did.
“Completely my fault,” Josh said, his usual air of pleasant courtesy descending like a mask.
“It wasn’t,” Hunter told him, because Josh was too young not to let his vulnerability leak through. “I… I hope I did the right thing too.”
Josh gave him a weak smile. “If he’s not okay dealing with this, he’s not okay being in a relationship with you,” he said. “And there’s not enough emerald earrings in the world to fix that.”
They started down the stairs, and Hunter asked casually, “So what were in the other black boxes?”
“Hm….” Josh thought about it. “My father’s onyx cufflinks, my class ring, the watch my Uncle Danny gave me when I graduated from middle school, and one just like it that Danny was wearing when he and Felix first met.”
Hunter’s heart constricted. “Anything else?”
“Tabby’s promise ring from Sanjay. The first one. She thinks she lost it.”
Hunter fought the urge to rub his chest. Of course, because Tabitha was a friend and a promise ring meant a little less of that friend to go around.
Great.
“Anything else?” He tried to keep the fear out of his voice.
Josh looked at him and grimaced. “A pack of gum you had the day you guys first met—when we were eating pizza—and your tactical pen.”
Hunter’s eyebrows went up. “I have that on—”
“Your spare one. It was pink.”
Hunter blinked slowly. “That was in my gun safe,” he said. He’d had to ask Danny and Felix for permission to have it brought in and concealed in his closet. He, of course, had a larger gun safe in his apartment in the city, but this way he didn’t have to visit it for small missions.
“Well, yes, Hunter. If stealing was easy, everybody would do it and Grace wouldn’t be a prodigy, now would he?”
Hunter eyed him sourly. “You know, I hate to point this out to you, but you are not, legally, old enough to drink.”
Josh shrugged. “Tell that to my many fake IDs.”
“You know he has fake IDs?” Hunter accused Julia, and her shrug was the mirror of her son’s.
“Of course. Who do you think introduced him to the forger?”
Hunter shook his head and finally gave in to the temptation for that chest rub. It didn’t make him feel any better.
“Hunter?” Julia said softly.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Grace will come back. You were right to let him go.”
Hunter nodded, feeling wretched, and then pulled his big boy Kevlar on. They needed to see the rest of Danny’s presentation, at the very least.
“Where’s Dylan?” Tabby asked as they returned.
“Taking a breath,” Josh said gruffly.
She grimaced. “I don’t see why. Gabriel Hu is slimier than moldy cat shit. The only way to blow that guy off properly is to fart small.”
The shocked silence was broken by Molly, who erupted into peals of laughter. “You and Grace are perfect for each