Birthright

through the ages,” Callie grumbled, and solved the problem by stepping between them. “Anybody goes a round, we go a round. Now pick up the mess you made and take a hike.”
    “Those papers are an insult to me, and to my family.”
    “Oh yeah?” Her chin didn’t just come up, it thrusted. And behind her shaded glasses, her eyes went molten. “Well, accusing me of being after your mother’s money was insulting to me.”
    “That’s right, it was.” He glanced down at the scraps of paper. “I’d say we’re even.”
    “No, we’ll be even when I tramp around where you work and cause a stink in front of your associates.”
    “Okay, right now I’m putting in some time at my grandfather’s bookstore. That’s Treasured Pages, on Main Street in town. We’re open six days a week, ten to six.”
    “I’ll work it into my schedule.” She tucked her thumbs in her front pockets, stood hip-shot, using body language as an insult. “Meanwhile, get lost. Or I might just give in to the urge to kick your ass and bury you in the kitchen midden.”
    She smiled when she said it—a big, wide, mean smile. And the dimples winked out.
    “Christ. Jesus Christ.” He stared at her as the ground shifted under his feet.
    His face went so pale, his eyes so dark, she worried he might topple over at her feet. “What the hell’s wrong with you? You probably don’t even know what a kitchen midden is.”
    “You look like my mother. Like my mother with my father’s eyes. You’ve got my father’s eyes, for God’s sake. What am I supposed to do?”
    The baffled rage in his voice, the naked emotion on his face were more than her own temper could hold. It dropped out of her, left her floundering. “I don’t know. I don’t know what any of us . . . Jake.”
    “Why don’t you take this into Digger’s trailer?” He laid a hand on her shoulder, ran it down her back and up again. “I’ll finish up here. Go on, Cal.” Jake gave her a nudge. “Unless you want to stand here while everybody on-site laps all this up.”
    “Right. Damn. Come on.”
    Jake bent down to gather up the torn papers. He glanced to his left, where Digger and Bob had stopped work to watch. Jake’s long, cool stare had bright color washing over Bob’s face, and a wide grin spreading over Digger’s.
    They both got busy again.
    Shoulders hunched, Callie stalked toward Digger’s trailer. She didn’t wait to see if Doug followed. His face told her he would, and if he balked, Jake would see to it.
    She swung inside, stepped expertly over, around and through the debris to reach the mini-fridge. “We’ve got beer, water and Gatorade,” she said without turning when she heard the footsteps climb up behind her.
    “Jesus, this is a dump.”
    “Yeah, Digger gave his servants his lifetime off.”
    “Is Digger a person?”
    “That’s yet to be scientifically confirmed. Beer, water, Gatorade.”
    “Beer.”
    She pulled out two, popped tops, then turned to offer one.
    He just stared at her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to handle this.”
    “Join the club.”
    “I don’t want you to be here. I don’t want you to exist. That makes me feel like scum, but I don’t want all this pouring down on my family, on me. Not again.”
    The absolute honesty, the sentiment she couldcompletely understand and agree with, had her reevaluating him. Under some circumstances, she realized, she’d probably like him.
    “I don’t much care for it myself. I have a family, too. This is hurting them. Do you want this beer, or not?”
    He took it. “I want my mother to be wrong. She’s been wrong before. Gotten her hopes up, gotten worked up, only to get shot down. But I can’t look at you and believe she’s wrong this time.”
    If she was walking through an emotional minefield, Callie realized, so was he. She’d gotten slapped in the face with a brother. He’d gotten kicked in the balls with a sister.
    “No, I don’t think she’s wrong. We’ll need the tests to confirm, but there’s already enough data for a strong supposition. That’s part of how I make my living, on strong suppositions.”
    “You’re my sister.” Saying it out loud hurt his throat. He tipped back the beer, drank.
    It made her stomach jitter, and again engaged her sym-pathies as she imagined his was doing a similar dance. “It’s probable that I was your sister.”
    “Can we sit down?”
    “We’ll be risking various forms of infection, but sure.” She dumped books, porn