Love Walked In (Stevens Book 7)

Chapter 4

"I told you to leave it Elizabeth." Brian dragged Lizzy further into the house towards the kitchen where many of the Stevenses were cleaning up from the party.

"Brian I didn't know did I?" Lizzy yanked her arm from his grasp.  "I felt that there was something there. Something like we have, and if Bryce hadn't of invited you to that party who knows where we would be today."

"Leave me out of it," Bryce said drying a wine glass.

"And I was right, there is something there or else the girl wouldn't have been so distressed."

All eyes were on Lizzy and Brian.  Their disagreements were notorious in the family.  It was an ongoing joke that either they or Cassie and Mason could be counted on for the evening's entertainment.

Bryce, Mason, Dana, Alice and Cassie were all focused on the heated discussion.

"The girl was distressed because she didn't expect to see Caleb," Brian insisted

"I missed something here, Caleb has a girlfriend?" Mason looked from Brian to Lizzy, neither one of them speaking.

"Will someone please fill us in on what is going on with Caleb?" Dana asked calmly.

"It seems Caleb is-,"

Just then the Grace, Laura, and Davis entered the kitchen.

"Mom and Dad wanted a minute to discuss the situation.  I'll say one thing for you Lizzy, you know how to end a party." Davis shook his head with a grimace on his face.

"For the last time I did not know Caleb was married!" Lizzy shouted, her eyes closed in frustration.

A glass dropped shattering and again there was a stunned silence.

"Shit!" Mason exclaimed

"That's exactly what I said." Davis dropped into a chair.

"Let me get this straight," Dana began to retrieve the pieces of the glass that Mason had dropped from the floor. "Caleb is married and his wife is here, but neither she nor Caleb were expecting to see each other?"

"That sums it up," Laura said sitting next Davis.  "You should have seen the poor girl.  Caleb was upset but he kept it together. Norah, on the other hand, almost passed-out, I thought for sure she was going to be sick." Laura generally didn't join in the family conversations so this long statement from her and it caught the others off guard almost as much as the information that she provided did.

"That's her name, Norah?" Alice asked.

"Hmmm yes...Norah Radcliffe or is it Stevens?" Lizzy wondered absentmindedly, already trying to figure out how she could fix the problem she had created.

"Radcliffe? Bryce, didn't Rodger Radcliffe have a daughter?" A look passed between Brian and Bryce that the rest of the family saw, the look meant it could be something serious.

"Yes, I don't remember her name but if it is the same girl then she has had a rough time this past year." Bryce thought aloud as he finished drying the last glass.

Brian was silent, a frown marring his handsome face as he tried to remember what he knew about the situation. "I sent Caleb to do an audit when Radcliff's house was being built, about three years ago.  I remember I was concerned about my Branch Director stealing from me."

Bryce nodded as the two of them pieced the events together. "That would make sense."

"If it is her, why has she had a hard time?" Laura asked, joining in on the conversation once more.

"Let me make a few phone calls see if I have my facts straight."

"Which means none of our damn business," Cassie snorted.