Free A Brother's Honor by Brenda Jackson Page A

Jules’s book, and her sister would have had the woman thoroughly vetted by now.
    “I’m not seeing anyone, technically. Mona and I run into each other every so often in the grocery store.” He chuckled. “We talk over the fresh vegetables, but haven’t gone out on an official date.”
    Shana was trying desperately to follow him. “And already you’re thinking about marriage?” she asked. Those had to be some strange-idea-inducing vegetables in that grocery store. Her father had to be the most logical man she knew, and she was beginning to worry because he was thinking illogically.
    “Yes, just thinking of the possibility. She’s the first woman I’ve had thoughts about since your mom, so that must mean something. You know the story of how your mom and I were attracted to each other at first glance when we met that day in class?”
    Yes, she had heard the story and had always thought it was special that the two had begun dating in their sophomore year and married a month after graduation, two years later.
    “So tell me, what is there about her that makes you think of marriage?” she asked, picking up her coffee cup and taking a sip.
    “She’s pretty. Dresses nice. Smells good.”
    He’d gotten up that close to the woman? “What do you know about her, Dad?”
    Her father leaned back in the chair and the smile that appeared on his face at that moment was one she had never recalled seeing before. It was different somehow from the ones he had for her and her sister, Shana thought.
    “I know she’s friendly with a pleasant personality, and I like that. She’s also kind and generous. Everyone at the store knows her. And she teaches.”
    Shana raised another brow. “She’s a schoolteacher?”
    “No, a college professor at the University of Virginia. Political Science. I never liked talking about politics until now.”
    Shana leaned back in her chair, as well. She just couldn’t imagine her six-foot-three-inch, sixty-two-year-old father hanging around the vegetable stand in some grocery store talking politics with anyone, never mind a woman.
    But, then, to be fair, in all the years since her mother died, Shana had never known Benjamin Bradford to be involved with a woman. Oh, she knew he’d dated once in a while—she could still recall the packs of condoms she and her sister had found in his drawer one year. But he had never brought any of those dates home for his daughters to meet. Their mother had died of pancreatic cancer thirteen years ago, right before Shana’s fifteenth birthday. Jules had been thirteen. Now they were grown women with lives of their own, so it stood to reason that if he was ever going to be seriously interested in a woman, it would be now.
    But still... Marriage?
    “So her first name is Mona. What’s her last name?” Shana decided to ask. There was no harm in Jules checking her out. This was their father they were talking about.
    “Underwood. Her name is Mona Underwood.”
    “How old is she, Dad?”
    He chuckled. “Hey, I never ask a woman her age.”
    “Yes, but I’m sure you have some idea. Take a guess.”
    He scrunched up his forehead. “I recall she said she was thinking about retiring in a couple of years when she turned fifty-five. So I guess she’s in her early fifties.”
    That meant he was anywhere from ten to twelve years older than this Mona Underwood. That wasn’t too bad. It could have been worse.
    “Is she a divorcée, widow, never been married...?”
    “Divorced. I do know that.”
    Thank God. “How long ago?”
    “For what?”
    Shana rolled her eyes. “Since Ms. Underwood got divorced?”
    Her father squinted his dark eyes at her. “Why do I feel like I’m being interrogated?”
    She couldn’t help but smile. “Because you’re an ex-cop. Comes with the territory.”
    She was about to ask a few more questions when her cell phone went off. “Excuse me a minute, Dad,” she said as she pulled her phone out of her purse. It was her office calling.