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СКАЧАТЬ Ben smiled at her.

      “I almost wish people would quit talking about her.” Not until she saw the way the others all stared at her did Olivia realize how vehemently she’d said that.

      “What do you mean?” Ben asked.

      “Oh...I get the feeling a lot of people don’t care about her at all. They’re too busy congratulating themselves for their generosity to bother imagining her as a real person. Someone scared. Cold.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Carson’s body jerk and she wondered about that, but not much. She wasn’t sure she hadn’t shuddered herself. “And then there are the ones who got to see themselves on TV and haven’t gotten over it.”

      Creases in Ben’s forehead had deepened. “Don’t you think it’s normal for people to feel good after they’ve done something a little above and beyond?”

      “Oh, I suppose.” She knew he was right. The people who didn’t want to talk about the girl at all bothered her just as much, but she knew that was dumb. Not everyone was given to brooding about a tragedy that didn’t directly impact their own lives. A couple of times lately she’d caught herself speculating, though... But that was dumb, too. Just because someone was brusque to the point of being rude when the subject arose didn’t mean a guilty conscience. “Where do you hear people talking?” Ben asked, seeming genuinely curious.

      “Mostly in line at Bowen’s.” She rolled her eyes. “I swear sometimes our regulars come in to pick up something they don’t even need just to have a chance to gossip.”

      Ben’s expression lightened. “Aren’t women supposed to be the worst gossips?”

      She made a face at him. “Don’t believe it.”

      “Come on.” He was definitely amused now. “Men are strong and silent. You know that.”

      Olivia snorted. Ben laughed, but Mom didn’t. In fact, she looked strained, making Olivia remember the silence that had run so dark and deep between her parents. Maybe this wasn’t the best of topics.

      “We were thinking about going sledding,” she announced. “Although now that I can feel my toes again, I’m not so sure.”

      “Don’t be a wimp.” Ben smiled at her with warm brown eyes. “It’ll be fun.”

      “I’ll probably be the oldest person on the hill.” Oh, she was pathetic, wanting to be talked into going.

      “Nope. That’d be me.”

      “I don’t suppose you want to come and be the oldest person?” she asked her mother, who shook her head firmly.

      “Not a chance.”

      New widows probably didn’t appear in public playing in the snow, it occurred belatedly to Olivia. Did grieving daughters?

      Dad wouldn’t mind. And the truth was...she’d been mourning him for almost a year already, knowing full well they were losing him.

      Which was true of Mom, too, of course, which made it more reasonable for her to have decided already what she wanted to do about the house. Olivia discovered she didn’t feel that forgiving, though.

       And I won’t think about it right now.

      Instead, she was going to let herself have fun.

      “Oh, fine,” she said, getting up to take her dishes to the sink. “Do you know if we still have a sled out in the garage?”

      “I think so,” her mother said. “Did your father ever get rid of anything?”

      The sharpness in her voice caused a silence that went on a moment too long. Mom must have heard herself, because in a different tone, she said, “Look up on the rafters. That’s where the skis are.”

      “Ooh, do I still have cross-country equipment?” Olivia hadn’t even thought to look last year. It had been a mild winter, for one thing, at least when she’d returned to Crescent Creek. And with Dad looking so much worse than she’d expected, and her having to take over the store, frolicking in the snow had been the last thing on her mind. “I don’t know if I still have ski boots.”

      “Attic,” her mother said. “I’m sure some of your winter clothes are still there.”

      “Oh, lord. I didn’t even think of the attic.” Their eyes met, and they were both thinking the same thing. Packing.

       Not today.

      Her mother ended up shooing them out after wrapping most of the remainder of the coffee cake for Ben and Carson to take home.

      This time Olivia dug out a hat for herself and found dry gloves to replace the ones wet from packing snowballs earlier. Ben followed her into the garage and used a step stool to pull an old-fashioned Radio Flyer sled down. Carson looked thrilled; apparently all he and his dad had was a plastic disc.

      “Man, you can steer those.”

      “Kinda, sorta,” she said, remembering some spectacular crashes. And a few runs down the hill with her squeezed between Ben’s long legs and his arms encircling her, too.

      Ben waggled his hand as he went to the back of the Cherokee. “Keys?”

      Carson dug them out of his pocket with obvious reluctance. “I can drive, right?”

      “I don’t think so. Risking my life, that’s one thing.” A smile flickered at the corners of his mouth. “Olivia’s, now, that’s something else.”

      “Hey!” his son protested. “It’s not that hard!”

      “This actually might be a good chance for him to practice, if you feel brave,” Ben said. “I didn’t let him on the way here because I wasn’t sure if the main roads were plowed. There isn’t much traffic right now, though.”

      “I’m good with it,” she said.

      Grinning his triumph, Carson circled to the driver’s side. Ben rode up front with him—so he could grab the wheel if he had to, she teased—and Olivia settled in the backseat.

      Carson actually did pretty well during the short drive into town. Once he overcorrected during a skid, but he came out of it and nodded when Ben said something quietly.

      She had known where they lived, but was just as glad Ben didn’t suggest going in when they stopped at his house. He jumped out, going into the garage through a side door and returning with the bright blue plastic disc. Waiting, she studied the two-story house, modest like most in Crescent Creek, but one of the oldest in town. It was a simple farmhouse style with a porch that ran the full width of the front. The backyard was fenced. When she asked, Carson said he’d wanted to get a dog, but he was allergic so Dad had said no.

      “It’s dumb. I mean, I can be around them now,” he was complaining, when Ben got back in.

      “Around who?” he asked, fastening his seat belt.

      “Dogs.”

      “Ah. The animals СКАЧАТЬ