The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

Uncle Cullen. If you did, I’d end up stuck playing chess and beating his ass every time we play. He needs someone who will let him win once in a while.”

“Next time I offer ye a cigar, it won’t be from my premium selection,” Braham scolded.

“Damn. I know when to reel back an insult. You’ll always be a better player than I am. And that’s something I never admit.”

Braham laughed. “And don’t ye forget it.” Then he dug into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out three cigars. “A man thinks better when he has one of these.”

Austin accepted one and toyed with it for a moment, rolling it between his fingers, and for some reason, he thought of Ensley, about the kiss they shared and about how much more he wanted to share with her. But he wasn’t entirely sure about her. Did she feel the same?

Braham handed one to Cullen before clipping a cigar and lighting one for himself. Then he walked back around the desk and sat in the swivel chair, exhaling. A blue cloud of smoke soon hazed the air throughout the room.

Austin sniffed the cigar before striking a match against his thigh and waving it in front of the tip. He took a long, satisfying draw, leaned his head back, and blew smoke at the ceiling. “Ensley asked where I was going, and I told her you wanted to meet. She’s curious and might barge in here to find out what’s so important.”

“She’s welcome to join the discussion.” Cullen took a deep draw. “This has to be from Cuba. It’s as smooth as the inside of a woman’s thigh.”

Austin choked on the smoke and coughed, replaying what his uncle just said.

Braham balanced his cigar between two fingers. “Correct all around. And I expect a review, and that goes for ye, too, Austin.”

“Sure. I know that’s always part of the deal.” Austin’s eyes were still watering from choking on the smoke. Cullen’s comment shouldn’t surprise him. He’d heard plenty of sexual innuendos from all the men in the family. And there was never a shortage of PDAs at family gatherings.

“This won’t take long,” Braham said, “Ye can bring Ensley up to speed as soon as we make a decision.”

“About what?”

“It’s time to go home, and trying to talk to Elliott is useless. I’ve never seen him like this. He reminds me of ye, Austin,” Cullen said, waving his cigar, leaving a trail of smoke in the air. “But from what Kit tells me, ye weren’t on drugs all this time. Ye just wanted more independence from the family.”

“Something like that.” Austin brushed off Cullen’s comment. He didn’t want to discuss his life with his uncles right now. He wanted to go home. Figuring out how to do that was his number one priority. “I don’t understand why Elliott doesn’t want to leave so he can take care of JC.”

Cullen rolled his cigar ash into a crystal ashtray. “He did, but now he’s given up. He just sits in his room, drinks whisky, and won’t talk to anyone.”

“Can’t Meredith talk to him?” Austin asked.

“She won’t, and Kit tried,” Cullen said, “but he locked her out. He realized it doesn’t matter how long he stays here because he’ll only be gone a few minutes in our time. So he can sit his ass here for a year or longer. And by staying, he doesn’t have to confront what’s waiting for him at home.”

“That doesn’t sound like Elliott. He never lets any grass grow under his feet.”

Braham puffed on his cigar, blowing rings, which seemed to entertain him. “He’s afraid he’s lost his son and his wife.”

Cullen took a short draw, then removed the cigar from his mouth and studied it. “I’m afraid Meredith isn’t much better off.”

“Yeah, I know. She looks like she’s lost her best friend. And I guess she has,” Austin said.

“Then we have to find a way to get them in the same room. Alone. And soon.” Braham looked down at his cigar and used the stub of the match to trim the ash evenly. Then his attention lifted. “I wonder if Ensley can reach him.”

“Elliott hardly knows her.” Austin glanced at his cigar, using how much he had smoked of it as a measure of time, knowing Ensley would be getting impatient if she was kept in the dark much longer. “But she does or did know Erik. This might sound crazy, but Elliott had a connection with Erik, and Ensley did, too. She can try to draw Elliott out by telling him what Erik told her before he died. It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

Cullen flicked his cigar’s gray ash. “It won’t hurt. Maybe we should try that before we lock Elliott and Meredith in the attic.”

There was a quick rap on the door before Sean partially opened it and stuck his head into the room. “The conspirators have been missed. Ye should come on out.”

Braham chomped down on his cigar. “Come in. After all, it is yer office.”

Sean walked in and closed the door. “Did ye come up with an idea?”

Cullen frowned behind a cloud of smoke. “We’re implementing a plan to use Ensley first. If she can’t intercede and break the stalemate, then we’ll lock Elliott and Meredith in the attic until they resolve their issues.”

“If using Ensley or putting the contrarians in the attic don’t work, I know a brambleberry thicket Elliott can’t get out of by himself.”

Braham took one last puff on his cigar before extinguishing it in a silver-hinged ashtray sitting on a desk. “I’d hate to leave him in a thicket, but that might be the best outcome we can hope for.”

58

MacKlenna Farm, KY (1885)—Ensley

Two hours after Braham, Cullen, and Austin met to plan an intervention that hopefully would get them all home, Ensley, the designated sacrificial lamb, carried a dinner tray to the wounded lion’s den.

Every step she took, she wondered how she got nominated to take one for the team.