loved your mother, and there’s nothing wrong with remembering all of the reasons why. Whether you have a formal service or a private burial or merely spread her ashes, you should do something. If not, I think you’ll regret it.”
Hayle leaned toward me and rested his forehead against mine. “How are you so good? You should be the last person talking me into honoring her.”
“I’m not that good.” Even though I wasn’t going to dance in the streets over it, Lily’s death was a relief. Maybe that was terrible. Maybe it was natural. But it was honest.
He pressed a kiss to the edge of my mouth. “I’ll think about it. How about that?”
“Perfect.”
The front door slammed shut, and Leo gave us all a half-grin. “Pretty sure that’s Dad, which means he has some serious explaining to do.”
Vincent always had some explaining to do, but given the humor on Leo’s face, I had a feeling he was talking about more than his father’s trip to the police station earlier today.
Meanwhile, Tristin rubbed at his temple. “Do we have to do this tonight?”
“Not sure that we’re going to have a choice,” Leo replied.
Hayle’s expression was as bewildered as I felt. But, before I could voice my confusion, Vincent entered the kitchen, a gorgeous woman clinging to his arm. Leo leaned around Hayle’s back, his eyes on me. “I just want to see your reaction,” he faux-whispered.
“What?”
He tipped his head toward his father and the mystery woman. “You’ll see.”
Vincent cleared his throat, and I turned fully in my barstool, so that I was facing him. Hayle followed suit, but Tristin didn’t bother reacting at all.
“Hayle. Thea. I would like to introduce you to my wife, Glinda.”
His wife?
Glinda? As in, Glinda Goode, the girl—er, woman—who Vincent was leaving half of his estate to in his will? That Glinda?
Leo reached over and tapped beneath my chin, since my jaw had dropped open without me even realizing it. I snapped it shut and tried to think of something to say. But I had nothing. This was…unexpected.
“Not his daughter,” I muttered under my breath, though the look Hayle shot me let me know he’d heard.
“What was that?” Vincent asked.
“Oh, um, nothing.” I forced a smile at Glinda, taking note of the sparkly diamond solitaire on her left hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Her answering smile was immediate and sincere. “And I’m so pleased to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.” Her gaze swept over the guys. “All of you.”
I couldn’t help but stare at her while she spoke. Her hair was a deep red and hung in ringlets down her back. She wore a flowy white shirt over skinny jeans and caramel-colored boots. If I had to guess, I would put her age around thirty-five, which made her almost a decade younger than Vincent. And I detected a slight accent that suggested she was from the South.
I wasn’t sure if it was her genuine smile or her shining blue eyes or her naturally beautiful face, but something about her made me want to trust her. To open up.
Most of all, it was immediately obvious that she was way too good for Vincent—no pun intended.
Hayle stood and crossed his arms over his chest. Aiming a glare at his father, he said, “Are you going to explain what the fuck is going on?”
Vincent sighed heavily, appearing several notches past tired. If I didn’t know better, I would have said that there was defeat or even surrender in his posture as well. But this was Vincent. He didn’t believe in surrendering.
“That was the plan. Why don’t we go into the living room?”
“I’m going to need some of your good bourbon for this,” Leo said.
Vincent gave him a wry smile. “That makes two of us.”
Tristin, Hayle, Leo, and I all managed to fit on the couch, while Vincent and Glinda took the chairs opposite of us. Everyone was sipping on some kind of alcohol, except for me and Tristin. We’d opted for bottles of orange juice.
Even though I had no interest in being the first person to speak, I couldn’t keep my question inside for any longer. “Can you start by telling us why, after you went to such lengths to keep me quiet about Lily, you spilled everything to the police earlier today?”
Glinda pressed a hand to Vincent’s knee, signaling to him that she wanted to speak. “I’m sorry to say that it’s my fault. I encouraged Vince to come clean, but I had no idea that it