Home by Dark. Marta Perry

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      “I should have known better than to speak to that reporter.” Jake pulled the brim of his ball cap down as if hiding his identity. “I wouldn’t have, but the senior partner insisted it was good publicity for the law firm.”

      Colin grinned, appreciating the comment for the joke it was, since the senior partner in question was Jake’s father. “You sure he’s not just trying to get you married off?”

      Jake shuddered elaborately. “Please, don’t say that. He reminds me every other week that I’m not getting any younger, and my mother sighs and says that all her friends are becoming grandmothers, and why can’t she?”

      Why indeed? Colin’s heart cramped at the thought of his own mother. If she’d cherished dreams of grandchildren, he’d never known it.

      In a few minutes they were settled in chairs on the back porch, cold cans in hand. His father, having apologized to Duke for leaving him, walked down to inspect the garden with the dog at his heels.

      “He can’t hear us. What happened?” Colin focused on the beads of moisture that formed on the can, not wanting to see the sympathy in Jake’s brown eyes.

      “Nothing too bad,” Jake said easily. “I happened to be passing the antique shop when I spotted him. I figured you didn’t know where he was, so I offered to drive him home.”

      He gave Jake a level glance. “There’s more, right?”

      Jake shrugged. “Your dad thought he recognized a bureau as belonging to his mother. Wanted it sent home right away. If Phil Nastrom had been there, he’d have known just how to handle it, but he wasn’t. The clerk was a spotty teenager who wouldn’t know a bow-front dresser from the kitchen sink, and he was getting a bit riled. I had a word with him. That’s all.”

      It took an effort to unclench his teeth. “Right. Thanks, Jake. I’ll speak to Phil.”

      “No problem. And you don’t need to worry about Phil. Or any of the other old-timers in town, for that matter. They know and respect your dad.”

      “Yeah.” He wasn’t sure whether that made it better or worse. “Look at him.” He gestured to his father, who was tying up a tomato plant that had sagged away from its stake. “Much of the time he’s fine. It’s bad enough that he had to give up the business. I can’t take away his freedom, and he won’t hear of having anyone else in the house to look after him.” It kept Colin awake at nights, wondering what he was going to do when his father got worse, as he inevitably would.

      “It’s rough.” Jake’s voice was rough, too, with the slight embarrassment guys felt when sympathy was required. “Guess it’s part of life, reaching the point that we have to take care of the parents. It just hit you earlier than most of us.”

      Colin nodded. There wasn’t much else to say, and he’d do what he had to do. Right now he’d better change the conversation. It was getting downright maudlin.

      “I stopped by to visit Rachel Mason today. Have you seen her since she got back?” he asked.

      “No, we did most of our business in winding up the estate via emails and phone calls.” Jake set the can down on the porch floor. “I guess either Dad or I should stop to see her, since we represented old Mrs. Mason. How is Rachel doing?”

      “Okay, I guess.” Actually, he doubted it, but it seemed disloyal to say too much negative. “She’s trying to fix the house up to run it as a bed-and-breakfast. Seems to me she’d be better off selling for whatever she could get. What possessed Amanda Mason to leave her that white elephant?”

      “If Amanda heard you she’d be turning over in her grave.” Jake grimaced. “There’s a gruesome thought. The woman scared me to death, I don’t mind telling you. Dad did most of the dealing with her, thank goodness. The one time he took me along to introduce me, she looked at me as if I’d crawled out from under a rock.”

      “She probably remembered you as one of Ronnie’s cronies, leading her lily-white boy into trouble.”

      “She saved that for you, Colin, my boy. She just generally disapproved of the younger generation, which to her was anybody born after about 1950, I figure. Rachel was probably lucky Mrs. Mason cut her and Ronnie out of her life.”

      “I’m not sure Rachel sees it that way.” He studied the beer can again before taking a final gulp. “So what exactly did old Amanda leave her?”

      Jake squirmed in his lawn chair. “Come on, man. You’re asking me to betray a client’s confidence.”

      “The client is dead, and the will is on file in the county offices. Anybody who goes in there and pays the fee can get a look at it. You’re just saving me a trip.”

      “True.” It was Jake’s turn to pick up his beer and gaze at it. “The will wasn’t very complicated. Amanda wanted to put in some harsh language about her son marrying against her wishes, yada, yada, as if anybody cared, but Dad talked her out of that as undignified. In the end, she left the house and a small sum for upkeep to Rachel, not wanting Mason House to go out of the family and be cut up for offices or torn down and turned into a mini-mart.”

      “Hardly likely,” Colin commented.

      “No, but that was the argument Dad used to try to get her to be fair to Rachel. Even so, the amount of money she’s to receive each year will just about cover the taxes on the place. At least the old woman listened to him about the little girl and left a tidy sum in trust for her college education. The rest went to various charities, I understand.”

      “Big deal. So Mandy gets to go to college, but in the meantime she and her mother can barely scrape by. Not what I call fair.”

      “Hey, don’t blame me. It’s the best Dad could do, and believe me, he had to fight for that much.” Jake looked defensive. “Why do you care so much, anyway? I know you and Ronnie were good buds in high school, but a lot of water has gone over the dam since then.”

      He shrugged, having no desire to look too closely into his feelings. “No big deal. Like you said, Ronnie was a friend. I figure I owe Rachel a little support.”

      He’d failed to do the right thing when he was eighteen. If he hadn’t been so intent on following that mysterious code by which teenagers lived, he might have prevented Ronnie and Rachel from a decision that had messed up several lives, as far as he could tell.

      That wasn’t his only failure, of course. He was doing his best to make amends for not being here when his parents needed him. Now he had a chance to make amends to Rachel, as well, if he could figure out how. And if she would let him.

      CHAPTER THREE

      THE WOMAN COMING out of the market stared at Rachel with such curiosity that Rachel almost felt compelled to explain her presence. She’d forgotten that open curiosity about one’s neighbors wasn’t just tolerated in a small community like Deer Run, it was also expected. Ushering Mandy ahead of her, she slipped into the store and let the door close behind her with a jingle of its bell.

      “Wow. What a cool store. Did you used to come here when you were a little girl, Mommy?” Mandy stared with fascination at a case labeled Live Bait, and Rachel suspected a question about that was coming up next.

      “I СКАЧАТЬ