Picket Fence Surprise. Kris Fletcher

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СКАЧАТЬ filled him in on some of the big picture stuff—a new account here, a new employee there—and told a few stories about some of her coworkers. He laughed in all the right places and gave her a few excellent comeback lines to use should the occasion ever arise. All the while, she fidgeted with her notebook and wished she could tell him about the things that really mattered.

      Experience had taught her it would be a waste of time.

      Travis would try to empathize, but their lives were too different. How was someone supposed to understand how it felt to negotiate shared custody when his life was spent negotiating plea bargains?

      He told her a few safe stories, asked if she’d heard from any of their cousins. He didn’t bother asking about their mother. Neither of them had done that for years. Probably because they were afraid that the other would actually have heard from her, and then they would be back on the “contact her–stay the hell away from her” hamster wheel.

      “Listen,” he said after a few minutes, “I should get going. I’ve got a sweet job working as a bouncer at a friend’s bar, and it’s almost time to report for duty.”

      A bouncer. Well—at least it was legal.

      Probably.

      “Sure.” And then, because she couldn’t help herself, she blurted out, “Trav...you’re okay, aren’t you?”

      “Right as rain, sunshine.”

      Yeah. Like she hadn’t heard that line too many times to count.

      “But listen, Heather—how about you? Are you okay? With, you know, Hank and his new kid and everything?”

      Oh God. Everything that had happened in their lives and he was still the big brother who tried to stand between her and the world. Still the big brother who understood, better than she had, why their mother’s latest boyfriend had been so interested in fourteen-year-old Heather. Still the same big brother who had walked in on that boyfriend pressing Heather into a corner and ordering her to be quiet.

      Still the same brother who had defended her the only way he knew how—with his fists. And who, after the boyfriend ended up in the hospital, had been taken away from her in handcuffs.

      His last words to their mother had been an order to keep the bastards away from Heather.

      She closed her eyes and gripped the phone, taking a moment to breathe past the tightness in her throat. “Yeah. It’s good. I’m glad for him, but I guess I’m like you. Too damned old for that nonsense.”

      “You sure?”

      Crap. He knew she was upset. He would never believe the truth—that it was worry about him that had her on edge.

      “Right as rain, sunshine.” She flipped through the pages of the notebook, grounding herself in the safety of the one thing she could control—her work. “Right as rain.”

      * * *

      XANDER CLOSED DOWN his computer, cracked a few jokes with his fellow employees as they walked to the parking lot, got into his car and stared at the wheel. Where to now?

      It was Friday night. He didn’t have Cady. He didn’t have a date.

      He could call Heather...

      But no. She’d been upfront, honest and determined. It wasn’t gonna happen.

      Move along, Xander. Nothing to see here.

      Some of his coworkers were getting together for a beer, but the couple of times he’d joined them had been enough. They were great people. Salt of the earth, easy to work with, and none of them gave a rat’s ass about what he had or hadn’t done before he landed at Northstar Dairy. If any of them needed help moving or decided to have everyone over for a barbecue, Xander would be glad to join in.

      But they tended to fall into two groups: the ones who would close down the bar, and the ones who had to book off to get home to their families. He wasn’t either of those. And since he didn’t want to end the evening feeling either ancient or jealous, he opted to pass.

      Instead, he sent Darcy a text. Going out for a ramble. Want me to take Lulu?

      Her reply was swift: Perfect timing. She’s been whining at the fence all day, and I have to meet the florist. Come and get her.

      Darcy had barely opened the door when Lulu bounded out of the house and ran in excited barking circles.

      “Easy girl! Easy!” He squatted and scratched behind fuzzy ears. “You been driving Darcy crazy today?”

      “Put it this way—we’re both ready for a little bit of time away from each other.” Her smile took any sting out of the words. “Ian already took Cady over to his mother’s. They’re having high tea, I believe. I’m supposed to meet them there after I’m done.”

      “You mean Ian doesn’t have to sit through flower discussions? How’d he get so lucky?”

      “Oh, trust me, he’s not getting a free ride. He got stuck figuring out the seating arrangements.” She tipped her head conspiratorially. “With both his mother and mine.”

      “And he was still willing to go through with the wedding? Damn, Darce.” He whistled. “Now that’s love.”

      She laughed and waved him away. “Go on. Lulu is going to claw the paint off your car if you don’t get moving.”

      He retreated, opened the door for the whining, wriggling dog and hit the road. Fifteen minutes later, he bounced his way down a rutted, overgrown path and pulled up behind a bank of aging willows. He killed the engine, hopped out, stretched and opened the door for Lulu.

      “There you go, girl. Stay close.”

      She barked and bounded away. Probably hunting for squirrels, not that she would know what to do with one if she caught it. He watched her run for a minute, leaning against the car and letting the peace soak into him. Funny. At home, silence made him itchy, but it had the opposite effect out here in the boonies.

      After a couple of minutes spent with his face tipped up to the sky and happy barks echoing in his head, he opened the trunk, grabbed his camera and headed for the sagging buildings beyond the willows.

      He’d stumbled across this place by accident soon after he moved, when he got lost while trying to see the sights around his new home. He hadn’t ventured off the road that time. But something about the droop of the roof and the way the outbuildings were falling into piles of brick and stone had stuck in his memory. The next time he saw Ian—who had spent the bulk of his life in Comeback Cove—he asked about it.

      “Sounds like the old Cline place,” Ian had said. “It’s been empty since I was in high school. Maybe even longer. It used to be the place to go on a dare. Or a date when you really wanted to impress someone with your bravery.”

      Was it any wonder that Xander felt compelled to explore it after that?

      The first few times he came out here, he hadn’t had an agenda. He’d simply wanted to get a feel for what it used to be like, to see what years of emptiness could do to a building. He always stayed outside, walking the perimeter, cupping his hands to peer through dust-coated СКАЧАТЬ