“I was born old,” June said.

Wasn’t that always the mantra with people who were too young? Kevin mused. His eyes swept over her beautiful face. Her perfect, smooth heart-shaped face. “You don’t look all that old to me.”

“I could say the same about you.” Her smile flashed, casting a spectrum like the northern lights. Mostly within him.

“Of course, you might need to take a little closer look at me. Sometimes your eyes play tricks on you.” June stepped closer to him, raising her face up for his inspection.

Kevin doubted if he’d ever seen a complexion so flawless. Or compelling. “No, no tricks,” he murmured. Other than the one his own pulse executed by vibrating faster than he could ever remember.

The grin entered her eyes and then slowly, enticingly, faded as she looked up into his face. It took her a second to find her voice.

“So, do I kiss you or do you kiss me?”

The Bride Wore Blue Jeans
Marie Ferrarella

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Michael,

who never gives up.

Love,

Marysia

MARIE FERRARELLA

earned a master’s degree in Shakespearean comedy, and, perhaps as a result, her writing is distinguished by humor and natural dialogue. This RITA® Award-winning author’s goal is to entertain and to make people laugh and feel good. She has written over one hundred books for Silhouette, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide and have been translated into Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Polish, Japanese and Korean.

Dear Reader,

Well, here we are, at the end of the line for this miniseries. Who would have ever thought we’d come so far? The very first story of The Alaskans was inspired by a TV series I watched aeons ago, a turn-of-the-last-century tale that was set in Alaska. Wife in the Mail was only supposed to be a single story about a lady who wanted to find a fresh start in a pristine part of our beloved country. But while telling her story, I fell in love with the hero’s best friend, Ike, the guy who ran the old-fashioned saloon in Hades. And well, he had a cousin, whose future wife had two brothers and a sister and…well, you know how it goes. I’ve always been a little long-winded.

But now it’s time to tie up the tales with a bow by giving you Kevin and June’s story. I hope you enjoy reading it half as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it, and if this does strike a chord or two, maybe you’ll find the time and the urge to go revisit some of the other citizens of Hades. When you do, say hi for me. I miss them already.

I wish you love and happiness.

Best,

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

Chapter One

He missed them.

Kevin Quintano carefully placed the framed eight-by-ten photograph he’d been looking at for the past ten minutes back on his coffee table and sighed. He could almost hear the laughter in that photograph, taken at Jimmy’s graduation from medical school. It was of the four of them. Alison, Lily, Jimmy and him.

He truly missed them.

Missed the sound of their voices, missed the good-natured bickering between his younger siblings that he’d once thought would send him up a wall. Missed life the way it used to be.

There were times when the silence became overwhelming. To get away from it, he’d turned on a radio or a television set in every room of the house, just to hear people talking, just to see images.

But the silence wasn’t the worst of it. The loneliness was.

You’d think now, at thirty-seven, with no debts and more money than he knew what to do with, for the very first time in his life he’d kick back and enjoy himself.

“Damn, Kevin, you can live the high life now,” Nathan had said enviously at his recent farewell party. The big, strapping black man and the other cab drivers who used to work for him had come together and thrown a party just for him.

Trouble was, Kevin mused, moving into the kitchen to prepare a lunch he had no desire to eat, he had neither wanted the high life, nor known what to do with it should he ever wind up stumbling across it.

What he wanted was the busy life. The life that barely gave him enough time to draw two breaths together in succession.

Kevin stared into the refrigerator. It was nearly empty. He’d forgotten to go grocery shopping. Again. Lily used to take care of that for him because he was always too busy to do it himself.

Too busy.

That’s the way it had been ever since he’d turned seventeen and, through some creative doctoring of his birth certificate, had gotten himself placed in charge of his orphaned brother and sisters. Overnight he’d become both mother and father to three kids without the comforting benefit of having a spouse or ever having procreated.

And now, he thought, he was experiencing the empty-nest syndrome under the same set of circumstances.

Big time.

That was probably why, in a moment of weakness—because Nathan and Joe had talked him into thinking that perhaps a huge change might shake him out of his doldrums—he’d sold his taxicab service. The very same service that had seen his fledgling family through the hard times. The same service that had allowed him to put food on the table and take out a loan so that Jimmy could go to medical school and graduate as something more than a pauper with an incredible debt to repay.

It was Kevin who had shouldered the debt. And he who’d been so damn proud of his brother at graduation.

In its time, the taxicab service had also allowed him to put Alison, the baby of the family, through nursing school and to set Lily up in her very first restaurant when they’d all decided that she had an incredible gift for creating meals but no capacity for taking orders.

And where had all that loan-incurring finally gotten him?

Alone, that’s where.

Alone while the rest of them, the three people who mattered most in his life, had gone off, one by one, to live in Alaska, in some godforsaken place aptly labeled Hades.

Hell.

Wandering back into the living room, Kevin dropped down into the sofa and stared blankly at a woman trying vainly to escape a horde of rampaging twelve-foot spiders. Midday programs were hellish, too.

That was where he felt he was right now. In hell. And he’d discovered something these past few weeks. It wasn’t fire and brimstone that created a hell, it was bare-bones loneliness. Loneliness comprised of slick, glasslike walls that sent him sliding back to the ground no matter how quickly he tried to scale them.

He knew he should be proud of his siblings and the selflessness they’d exhibited to varying degrees. Alison had gone first, because Hades needed a nurse and she needed to get certified as a nurse-practitioner by putting time in a place like that.

Only problem was, she’d put in her heart as well and so had remained.

When Jimmy had gone to visit her, he’d lost his heart as well. Not to the region, but to April Yearling, the granddaughter of Hades’s postmistress. Hades and the surrounding region badly needed another doctor and Jimmy had found his true calling.

Lily’s broken engagement had brought her to the same place to recover, Alaska being the only place that could withstand the heat of her anger without frying to a crisp. Intending to stay only two weeks, Lily found solace for her wounded pride and chipped heart with Hades sheriff, Max Yearling, who just happened to be April’s brother.

It was as if the Fates were conspiring to bring his family to a place that spent six months of every year in a deep freeze, cut off from civilization except by air travel.

Kevin had thought—hoped—that Alaska might be a passing phase with Lily. Lily had always been the mercurial one, the one who never invested her emotions for fear of being hurt. But this time, she apparently was sticking it out, and the last time he’d spoken to her, she’d said something about bringing real food to the residents of Hades and had her eye on opening a restaurant there. He knew the signs by now. Lily, like Alison and Jimmy before her, was settling in for good.

Unable to watch the giant spiders destroy yet another campsite and assorted campers, Kevin flipped the channel. The afternoon news looked no less disconcerting. He dropped the remote on the table, giving up.

The restlessness refused to abate.

It was this restlessness that had made him so susceptible to Nathan and Joe’s suggestion about selling the cab service. He’d done it on a lark, put the business up for sale. His heart hadn’t really been in it. And then that offer had come in. The one he couldn’t refuse without submitting himself to a sanity hearing because it was so incredibly lucrative.

So here he was, a man of leisure who knew absolutely nothing about taking it easy except what he’d learned lately, which was that he hated it. That he wasn’t cut out for it in any manner, shape or form.

Which was why he’d been searching through the Seattle classifieds this Sunday morning, looking at the section that listed businesses for sale and trying to figure out what to do with himself other than making the electric company rich by pumping electricity through every room of the empty house. The house where he and his brother and sisters had grown up in.

“What you need, boy, is a fine-looking woman to take your mind off everything.” That had been Nathan’s solution, delivered sagely over a mug of ale.

Fine-looking women were Nathan’s solution to everything, up to and including global warming and the threat of an alien invasion. However, that wasn’t his solution, Kevin thought. Not even remotely.

He got up and shut off the television set and picked up the classifieds again. Maybe there was something he’d missed the first time.

Looks had never meant anything to him. Heart did. Heart and soul and patience. But all the women he’d known possessing those qualities had been taken long before now.

Besides, there wasn’t much chance of a woman like that showing up at his door, and that would be the only way he’d run into one. He didn’t believe in any of the conventional ways of “hooking up” with members of the fairer sex. That had never been his way. And now that he no longer occasionally drove a cab, there was absolutely no chance of his meeting anyone.

Kevin paused, trying to remember the last time he’d actually gone out on a date. Nothing came to him.

But dating, or finding a lifelong partner wasn’t why he was looking to put his newfound fortune into another business. He just wanted to be doing something. Something productive.

Anything productive.

He’d been out of the taxicab business for exactly five days and was going stir-crazy.

The phone rang and he grabbed the receiver like a drowning man grabbing at a twig floating by him in the river.

If it was a telemarketer on the other end, he thought, this was their lucky day. He was buying, as long as buying meant he could hear the sound of another person’s voice responding to his own.

“Hello?”

“Kev?”

Kevin could feel himself lighting up inside like a Christmas tree the instant he heard his sister’s voice on the other end of the line.

“Lily, how are you?” He bit back the desire to ask the next question that loomed in his mind in twenty-four-foot neon letters: Are you coming home? He already knew the answer to that. Asking wasn’t going to change it.

“I’m terrific, Kev. Better than terrific, I’m spectacular.”

He didn’t have to see her to know that she was positively glowing. So much for her throwing in the towel and deciding to move back to Seattle.

There was something else in her voice he recognized as well. “You’re getting married, aren’t you?”

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “God, but you’re good. How did you—?”

A small laugh escaped him. “I’ve had this conversation before. Twice,” he reminded her. “When Alison called to say she was marrying Luc and when Jimmy called to say he was staying on as a doctor in Hades and, oh, by the way, yes, he was getting married.”

If Jimmy, a guy known to his friends as the eternal happy bachelor could succumb to the charms of a homegrown native, Kevin had known in his heart that Lily wasn’t far behind. Especially when she’d called before to give him a detailed description of Max Yearling right down to his worn, size-ten boots. It was only a matter of waiting for the shoe to finally drop, that’s all.

Kevin knew he was happy for her, even as he was sad for himself. He did his best to sound cheerful. “So the sheriff makes you happy, does he?”

Lily sighed, contentment of a caliber he didn’t ever recall hearing before in her voice. “The way you wouldn’t believe.”

Kevin felt his mouth curving in a grin. “I don’t need details, Lily.”

“And you’re not getting any,” she informed him with a laugh. “But I want you to come up here. For the wedding. It’s in three weeks and I wouldn’t feel as if it’s official unless you’re here to give me away.”

He refrained from saying that no one had ever held on to her long enough to pretend that she was his to give away. Lily had been her own person from a very early age.

Yes, he thought, he really was going to miss her.

“I’d be proud to, Lily.”

He heard her clear her throat. Lily hated to get sentimental. “Now I know how you feel about getting away from the business, but maybe Nathan or Joe could take over while—”

He cut her off briskly. “Not a problem. I sold the business.” In response, he heard nothing but silence on the other end. Everything had happened so quickly he hadn’t even had time to tell any of them that he was thinking about selling, much less that he’d signed on the dotted line and made Quintano Cabs a thing of the past. “Lily, are you there?”

He heard her take in a sharp breath. “Yes, I guess the connection just went weird for a second. I thought I heard you say—”

He didn’t want to hear her say it. He couldn’t exactly explain why hearing one of his siblings give voice to what he’d done would make it that much more difficult to bear, but it did. “You did. I did.”

“But, Kevin, why?”

The last thing he wanted to do now was discuss what he’d impulsively done over the telephone. He needed to reconcile himself to today’s wrinkle first, then think about his late business.

“Seemed like the thing to do at the time.” He changed the topic. “Anyway, three weeks, eh? That’s really short notice. You’ve got a lot to do before then.”

“I know.” She sighed, as if trying to brace herself for what lay ahead. “I can manage—”

He suddenly knew what to do with himself. At least, for the next three weeks. “Especially with help. I’ll come up early.”

“How early?”

Unless he missed his guess, he’d managed to stun Lily twice in the space of two minutes. “I’m not doing anything right now. I’ll be there as soon as possible.” He was already walking toward the cabinet where he kept the phonebooks stashed. “Let me book a flight and then I’ll get back to you.”

Still very numb, Lily murmured a half-audible “Okay.”

“Great. Talk to you later. Bye.”

The line went dead. Lily let the receiver drop slowly as she turned around to face the rest of her family who were gathered in the room around her. Her brother and sister were there with their spouses, as well as Max and June, who absolutely refused to be left out of anything, family oriented or otherwise. Alison and Jimmy looked at her in surprise, clearly disappointed that they didn’t each get a chance to talk to Kevin on the phone.

Closest to her, Jimmy stared at the medical clinic telephone, one of the few in Hades that didn’t still possess a rotary dial. He raised his eyes to hers in protest. “You hung up.”

“He hung up first,” Lily muttered, still staring at the receiver and feeling as if a piece of the known world had just disappeared from her life.

Max came around to face her. “Lily, what’s the matter? Isn’t your brother coming?”

Slowly she nodded her head. Sold, the business was sold. Gone. Wow. She would have thought that the Space Needle would have wound up on eBay for an auction before Kevin would ever even consider selling the taxicab service.

“Oh, he’s coming all right.” Raising her eyes, she looked at the others.

“Then what’s the matter?” Max asked.

Lily’s eyes met his. “Kevin just told me he’s sold the business.”

“He did what?” Jimmy’s jaw went slack. He’d put in seven summers driving one of Kevin’s cabs. It was as if a member of the family had died

Lily turned to look at him. “Sold the business.” Unable to fathom it, she waved her hand vaguely in the air. “Said it seemed like the thing to do.”

She looked from one face to another as if waiting for one of them to unravel the mystery for her, to make sense of the situation. Why would Kevin do that? He loved the business.

June Yearling lifted her slender shoulders, wondering what the big deal was all about. People sold businesses every day. She had, just recently. The one-time owner of the only auto-repair shop in over a hundred-mile radius, she’d sold the business that had been passed on to her, because it had felt like the right thing to do at the time.

“Maybe it was,” she said to her brother’s fiancée. “Maybe he has an itch, and selling his taxicab service is the only way he knows how to scratch it.”

Lily sighed. It still didn’t make any sense to her. Kevin was acting rashly, especially for Kevin. Why hadn’t he discussed this with any of them? She looked at Jimmy and Alison, but they looked as mystified as she was.

Lily ran her hands up and down her arms, despite the fact that the day was warm. “But he’s had that business forever.”

June thought of herself, of her own feelings when she’d made up her mind to sell. “Forever’s a long time. Maybe he needed something new. Maybe he got tired of having things break down on him and—” She bit her lip, realizing that she’d allowed her own experiences to intrude into her interpretation. “Sorry. They always say, stick to what you know.”

Max laughed shortly, shaking his head. She might have the face of an angel, but June was the wild one in the family, especially now that April had ceased her wandering ways and returned to live in Hades. June had never made noises about moving out of state, the way over three-quarters of the adolescent population had, but she had been a restless pistol in every other way. She was always full of surprises.

“If that were the case,” he said to her, “you wouldn’t have sold the shop to Walter Haley and announced that you were going to make a go of the family farm.”

Family farm.

It was almost a euphemism at this point. In reality, it had been abandoned land for years. They’d left it without any thought when he, Alison and June, along with their mother, had moved in with their grandmother after their father had taken off for parts unknown. The thought of making a go of the property had vaguely crossed his mind, only to be quickly discarded. The town needed a sheriff and he needed to be it. Max knew he was lucky enough to have found his true calling.

June frowned, looking down at her hands. They were scrubbed clean now, but there were still traces of dark stains on them. She’d never been one to dress up or try to compete with her sister, or any of the other girls in town, but even she had a place where she drew the line.

“I got tired of trying to get motor oil off my hands,” she retorted. She looked accusingly at the older brother she secretly adored. “A woman’s got a right to want to keep her hands clean.”

Max gave her an innocent look. “Never said otherwise.”

Concern creased Alison’s fair features as she looked at her own brother. “Think Kevin’s having a midlife crisis?”

Luc laughed at his wife’s suggestion, shaking his head. He’d always liked Kevin. “Thirty-seven’s a little young to have a midlife crisis.”

June looked at him. She might be the youngest in the room, but age to her was not a brittle thing, without rounded edges or flexibility. “Seems to be just about right to me. Unless he’s planning on living until he’s a hundred.”

Jimmy smiled, remembering the promise Alison had extracted from their brother after their father’s funeral. “Kevin is planning on living forever.”

“Well, then you’re right,” she said glibly. “Thirty-seven’s too young for a midlife crisis. Maybe he just needed a change.” With the bluntness of the very young, she looked at Kevin’s siblings. “After all, you all picked up and left him.”

It almost sounded like an accusation. Lily exchanged glances with Jimmy.

“None of us planned it that way,” Alison protested for all of them.

June shrugged. She had to be getting back to work. The land wasn’t going to tend itself. And she still had cows to milk and a disabled tractor to curse. “Still, that’s what happened. Maybe he thinks it’s time to start over.”

Jimmy looked thoughtful. Maybe June had stumbled across something. “In Kevin’s case, it’s starting life in the first place. He’s never had time for a life,” he told his in-laws. “Been there for all of us and never had time to be there for himself.”

June looked triumphant. “Mystery solved,” she announced. “This is his time for himself.”

Alison tried to keep the sad feeling at bay, but it insisted on coming. She looked at Jimmy. “Still, it feels kind of weird, knowing the taxi service is gone.”

Jimmy nodded his agreement. All three of them had taken turns putting in time at the service and driving a cab, even Lily. Driving a cab was how Alison had met Luc in the first place. Luc had come down from Hades, looking for someone to pretend to be his wife in order to cover an inadvertent white lie. He’d wound up saving Alison from a mugger and sustaining a concussion. To pay him back for his trouble, especially after she’d discovered the nursing shortage in Hades, Alison had agreed to the charade and stayed on to play the part in earnest.

Crossing to the door, June placed her hand on the latch.

“Probably no weirder than he’s feeling with all of you gone.” She opened the door. “Well, I’ve got to be getting back to work. I’ll see you all later.”

Max shook his head as June closed the door. He put his arms around Lily, giving her a hug to stave off the bout of guilt he saw in her eyes. “Always said June was the cheerful one in the family.”

Jimmy looked after his sister-in-law thoughtfully. The last time Kevin had come up here, it had been to take part in his wedding. At twenty, June had seemed too young at the time. She wasn’t too young now.

“Maybe that’s what we can do to get Kevin’s mind off whatever’s really bothering him.”

“Do?” Lily echoed. “Do what? What are you talking about?”

But Alison was already on Jimmy’s wavelength. “We’ll tell Kevin that June needs cheering up.” She brightened immensely. “Kevin’s at his best when he’s dealing with someone else’s problems.” She looked at the others. “The man is a problem solver. He misses having to deal with all our baggage.”

Lily sniffed. “We didn’t come with baggage.”

Jimmy gave his older sister a pointed look. “You had your own luggage store.”

She laughed shortly. “And Casanova didn’t?”

Max grinned as he tightened his arms around his wife-to-be. “I’m beginning to understand what Kevin did in the family. He kept the peace.”

Lily got off her high horse. Turning, she brushed a kiss against her future husband’s cheek.

“I’d say that gives Kevin something in common with you.”

Dealing with Lily was where his people-reading skills came in handiest—and were the most challenged. “I’m not flattering myself,” Max told her. “I keep the peace for any one of a number of residents here. I know better than to try to exercise control over you.”

“This marriage,” Jimmy announced to the others, “should work out just fine.”

He ducked, but Max was quicker and caught Lily’s hand as she went to throw her cell phone at him.

“Yes,” Max agreed, looking at Lily meaningfully as he gently pushed her hand down again, “it should.”

Lily’s eyes sparkled, negating the frown she was attempting to form.

Chapter Two

Kevin slowly looked around at the groups of people milling around him at the Anchorage airport. He’d only gotten off the plane from Seattle fifteen minutes ago.

It seemed longer.

He felt a little homesick already, which was odd because Seattle had never been anything more to him than steel girders set against an almost continually misting sky.

He supposed it had to do with his all-too-common need for the familiar. He wasn’t a man who suffered change well, although he wouldn’t have admitted this out loud to anyone, not even one of his siblings.

The irony of it struck him as he continued to scan the interior of the airport. He might not do change well, but here he was, right smack-dab in the midst of it. Change. Change in his family structure now that they were all up here in Alaska and he was back in Seattle, and change in the very fiber of his life since he’d sold the only business he’d known for the past twenty years. Driving a cab had been his very first job. He’d started out as a driver for the company, saving and working endless hours, until he could manage, with the help of a bank loan and the money in the small trust fund his parents had left him, to buy the cab service when it was put up for sale.

Back then, it had been only a three-cab company and the venture was decidedly risky, but he felt it was the only way to assure the futures of the three people who were depending on him.

The thought added another blanket to the sorrow that threatened to smother him these days. There was no one depending on him now. Not his family, not the people who worked for him, because there were no people who worked for him anymore.

It felt incredibly odd, being this free.

Freedom, Kevin decided as he took yet another pass around the busy airport, was highly overrated and completely unfulfilling. At least as far as he was concerned.

Dueling with a feeling of irritability, he glanced at his watch. His plane had been late getting in. His “ride,” otherwise known as the connecting private plane flight that would finally bring him to Hades, was even later. At least, he didn’t see his brother or either of his sisters in the vicinity.

Maybe something had happened and they weren’t coming. Maybe there’d been another cave-in at the mines and the whole town was involved in a rescue operation. It wouldn’t be the first time.

He didn’t see why they couldn’t all just move back to Seattle.

Feeling antsy, Kevin scanned the back walls to see if he could spy a car rental counter. It was the tail end of summer, and snow hadn’t come yet to cut off access to the small town his family had chosen to live in. If worse came to worst and no one showed up for him, he figured he could drive there—as long as someone handed him a map or at least pointed him in the right direction. He’d always prided himself on being able to find any place, given enough time.

Kevin supposed that made up for the fact that when it came to interacting with people, he’d always found it better just to listen rather than talk. Alison had once said that gave him a wise aura. He thought of himself as shy.

“Kevin?”

He didn’t recognize the woman’s voice coming from behind him. Turning around, he didn’t recognize the woman, either. At least, not immediately.

His eyes washed over a petite, trim woman wearing a work shirt rolled up at the sleeves and a pair of very worn blue jeans that had either originally belonged to someone else, or were a living testimony that she’d lost a goodly amount of weight. Kevin suspected it was the former. The young woman had hair the color of a radiant sunrise and eyes so blue they drew out the last drops of loneliness that were lingering within him. Her hair was pulled back into a single long braid, exposing a face that was kissed by the sun and was as close to heart-shaped as humanly possible.

And then it came to him.

Two years ago, when he’d last seen her, she’d been a child. Twenty years old and just finding her way into her features. Two years had obviously done a great deal to show her the right path.

She was, without benefit of makeup and with absolutely no care whatsoever, one of the loveliest young women he’d ever seen.

“June?”

Her grin was quick, like lightning that came and went in a blink. While it was there, it transformed her face from remote to warmingly friendly. Kevin felt something within him quicken.

He recalled hearing Jimmy tell him that if June Yearling liked you, you had a friend for life, someone to rely on no matter what. But by the same token, she selected the people she was close to very carefully, as if they were slivers of gold to be separated from the seductive but worthless fool’s gold.

June slipped her hand into his, shaking it before he even realized that he’d offered it to her.

“Hi, they sent me to get you.” She turned then, looking at the blond woman behind her. “Actually, they sent us,” she amended.

June cocked her head to look at him, as if to decide whether or not he remembered them, or if reintroductions were in order.

He recognized the other woman more quickly. Sydney Kerrigan. She was the doctor’s wife. The doctor who had convinced Jimmy to remain here. The one who’d originally enticed his sister to come before that.

No, he amended, that wasn’t entirely right. Luc had been the one to convince Alison where her place was, and April had been the deciding factor in Jimmy’s life. It had been more for love than for work that they had each remained.

Love, it seemed, made the world go around. Just not in his case.

But that boat had been one that had sailed a long time ago. Kevin knew that. He’d made his choice. It had come down to either Dorothy, or his siblings. But that had hardly been a contest. Dorothy had never stood a chance. Anyone who’d asked him to choose between them and his family wasn’t anyone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

It just got lonely sometimes, that’s all. Especially now with so much of life behind him.

The young woman in front of him, he thought, had the whole world before her.

He wondered why she hadn’t left the confines of her Alaskan “prison” the way so many of her age had, according to Jimmy. He was the one who’d told him about the penchant most Alaskan teenagers had for fleeing the area the moment they were old enough.

Jimmy’s own wife, April, June’s sister, had shot out of the region like a bat out of hell the moment she’d turned eighteen. Only her grandmother’s illness had brought her back. Temporarily, she’d thought. She was still here.

As for him, Kevin couldn’t help wondering what the allure was, what kind of magical pull the region exercised over people like April, Max and June. Why were they still here when there was so much more to be had in the lower forty-nine?

“Jimmy and Alison couldn’t get away,” June was explaining. “The vaccine they’d been waiting for came in. They needed to get inoculations underway immediately.”

At least, that was what Jimmy had told her. She still thought the excuse was a little fishy, but she’d needed a break anyway. If it wasn’t for the fact that she hated accepting defeat in any shape or size, she would have begun rethinking the wisdom of her change in occupation. Farming was not the closest thing to her heart, but making a go of the family farm had become a matter of honor to her.

Getting in front of Sydney, June reached for Kevin’s suitcase. “And Lily’s busy getting ready.”

The woman looked as solid as a spring breeze. He placed his hand over the handle, stopping her from picking up the luggage. “Ready for what, the wedding?”

“You,” Sydney told him over June’s head.

“Me?” That didn’t make any sense. Why would Lily be fussing over his arrival? “I’ve seen her first thing in the morning, stumbling down the stairs wearing an old pair of men’s pajamas and looking like hell on an off day. There’s no need to get ready for me.”

An enigmatic smile played on Sydney’s, his pilot’s, lips. “It’s a little more complicated than that,” Sydney told him. “But I’m sworn to secrecy.” Playfully she held up a hand to stop any further exchange on the subject. “Sorry, you won’t get any more out of me.”

“Fair enough,” he allowed, then looked at his future sister-in-law. She made another attempt to take the case from him. “I can carry my own suitcase, June. I’m not that old yet.”

June raised her hand, visually surrendering her claim to the large piece of carry-on luggage. The man traveled light, she thought. An admirable quality. Of course, if this had been winter, it would have also been a foolish one, she silently added.

“You’re not old at all,” she countered. Shrugging, she slipped her capable hands into the front pockets of her jeans. “I’m just used to doing, that’s all.”

The single word hung out there like a forgotten T-shirt on a clothesline. “Doing?”

“Everything,” June said all inclusively. Accustomed to being challenged, she raised her chin. “Just because I’m a female doesn’t mean I can’t hold my own. Better than my own,” she amended.

Kevin exchanged glances with Sydney. The latter merely looked amused. He certainly hadn’t meant to give any offense.

“That was never under debate,” he told June. “But I like pulling my own weight, too.”

Sydney shook her head. This might not go as well as the others were hoping. As for herself, she believed in letting nature take its course. If something was meant to be, it would be. She was living proof of that, having come out to marry a man who had won her heart through his letters, and wound up marrying his brother instead.

“Well, when you’re both finished pulling on the same weight,” Sydney informed Kevin, “the plane’s over this way.”

Turning, she led the way out of the airport. Kevin gestured June on ahead of him. With a tolerant sigh, the latter turned on the heel of her boot and followed Sydney. Her long, shiny blond braid swung behind her and then marked time with her gait before it finally settled into place.

Kevin found himself watching, mesmerized for a brief moment. Coming to, he smiled and shook his head as he hurried to catch up to the two women. You would have thought he was an adolescent, he mused, mildly upbraiding himself.

Kevin stared out the small window. Below him the world had arranged itself in a carpet of green with ribbons of blue cutting through it here and there. In the distance, and getting taller, was a mountain range. The rattle of the plane didn’t detract from the experience. It just made it more intimate.

They hit an air pocket and the plane shuddered. Sydney glanced over her shoulder to see if her passenger was all right. When Alison’s brother had come out the last time, Shayne had been the one who’d piloted him back and forth.

She was pleased to see that Kevin was intent on studying the landscape instead of grasping onto the seat rests for dear life.

“You don’t turn green like a lot of other people flying in this little plane.” Her tone was approving.

Kevin leaned forward in his seat in order to hear Sydney better. “I trust the pilot. Besides, I like to fly. I’m licensed to fly a twin engine.”

She’d loved flying from the first time she’d had her hands on the throttle. “Maybe you’d like to take her up while you’re here.”

He’d like that, he thought. But he had a very healthy respect for other people’s property and this plane was one that was used by Shayne to fly medical supplies into Hades and patients to Anchorage Memorial when they needed serious surgery.

“Maybe,” Kevin said.

Sydney detoured, guiding the plane around a cloud formation. He found himself admiring her form. “Are you still the only pilot in and out of Hades? Besides your husband,” he qualified. Shayne, he recalled, had been the one to originally teach Sydney how to fly. Although grudgingly done, that had turned out to be a good thing for him, since she’d been the one who had to fly Shayne into Anchorage when he’d had appendicitis.

She’d gotten so used to the addition it took her a second to grasp the question. Her world had become small enough that it was easy to forget that everyone wasn’t privy to what went on in Hades.

“No, Mr. Kellogg’s son decided that he was going to expand his produce flights and operate out of Hades. That brings our total of planes up to two, but we certainly need more,” Sydney confided. “We’ve been doing a lot of growing since you were here last.”

He looked out the window. The plane was approaching Hades. It certainly didn’t appear as if the town, with its population of barely five hundred, was growing at all. From here, it still looked like a small, colorful dot on the ground. Hardly big enough to occupy even a tiny corner of a city like Seattle.

Sitting next to him, June looked at him knowingly. She could all but read the thoughts forming in his head. “Not exactly a thriving metropolis yet,” she agreed. “But we’re getting there. Slowly.”

He shifted back into his seat. “You still run the only mechanic shop in town?”

“No.” Despite her excuse to her brother, she had to admit that there were times she missed the shop. Missed puzzling over what was wrong with an engine, or how to resurrect a car that seemed to be on its last legs. Missed the triumphant feeling when it all finally came together. “Walter runs it now.”

“Walter?” He tried to recall if any of his siblings had mentioned a Walter. He made the natural leap. “Is that your husband?”

Kevin glanced at her hand. It was barren of jewelry, just as it had been two years ago. But then, she didn’t strike him as the type to have any use for a ring as a symbol of her commitment.

Thinking of the tall, gawky man who had, until recently, tried to convince her that they were meant to be together, June nearly choked. “Hardly. I sold him the shop a few months ago.”

Kevin recalled his surprise when he’d learned that she owned a shop like that in the first place. But she had seemed very capable at the kind of work she did and as knowledgeable as any of the mechanics he’d employed at the taxi service over the years. More. He’d had the impression, the last time he’d been here, that she was going to work on cars forever.

“Why did you sell it? I thought you liked fixing cars.”

“I did.” June shrugged. She had never liked explaining herself. She liked explaining her feelings even less. “Felt like it. Seemed like the thing to do at the time.”

The exact words he’d used to explain the situation to Lily. And to himself, Kevin thought. The coincidence made him smile. Maybe he had more in common with this fledgling woman than he thought.

“Me, too.”

One corner of June’s mouth rose in a half smile. “Yeah, I know. You sold your taxi service.”

She saw that he looked surprised that she knew. Obviously, the man had no inkling of what life was like in a small town. Even a small town that was spread out like Hades was. Any kind of news spread faster than Biblical locusts let loose over Egypt.

June inclined her head toward him so that he could hear her over the roar of the engine.

“I was there when Lily found out.” She still got a kick out of it. “You could have knocked all of them over with a feather.” In a way, she figured it gave them something in common. “Kind of like when I told Max I’d sold the shop to Walter.” She sat back again. “I guess people have an image of you and they don’t feel comfortable changing it.”

Kevin looked at her. She was talking as if she was settled in her ways, on her way to middle age. There was only one of them like that in the plane.

“You’re too young to sustain an image yet,” he told her. “Me, I’m a different story.”

There was that grin again. This time, the lightning came a little closer, singeing a little skin. He wondered if the altitude was getting to him.

“Right.” June nodded her head sagely, a deadpan expression on her lips. “Because you’re an old man. Just a little younger than the hills, right?”

Maybe he’d said too much already. Kevin began to back away. “Well, when you put it that way—”

June cocked her head, studying him. She knew he was Lily’s older brother, but there were no signs of age. He looked no different than Max or Jimmy to her. If she had to make a judgment, she would have said he wasn’t even as old as Sydney’s husband, although she vaguely recalled hearing that he was.

“Just how old do you feel?” she asked.

Her eyes were boring into him, and he blinked to keep from being drawn into the deep light blue pools. “Too old,” was all he’d volunteer.

He wasn’t vain about his age. It was a matter of public record and June could have asked any of his siblings to find out that he was thirty-seven. Thirty-seven when he didn’t even remember ever being twenty-five. How had that happened?

“We’re going to have to do something about that,” June decided. “Hades has a way of equalizing things, making everyone feel more or less the same. The young seem older than their years, the old seem younger. My grandmother and I are the same age, really.” Everyone knew that Ursula Hatcher, the town’s postmistress, was a hellion, given to kicking up her heels and certainly not above taking a lover when the mood hit her. She’d already buried several husbands and had her cap currently set for a man named Yuri, a former miner.

June smiled at him. It was a soft, easy expression that made her seem somehow softer. “That definitely puts us at the same age, old man.”

He laughed, but that was the way he felt at times, like an old man. Old without ever having had the luxury of being young. He didn’t even remember going through the years. They had just gone of their own volition, while he’d been busy working.

He missed that, he thought, missed being young. Thinking young.

But there was something about June’s eyes that made him feel younger.

Feel young.

Watch it, Quintano, that’s one of the first signs of being an old man, having a young woman make you feel like a teenager again.

He shook off the mood before he said something he regretted. “So, what other changes have there been besides you selling the shop and becoming a woman of leisure?”

June was quick to set him straight. “I’m hardly that. I’m working the family farm, now.”

Something else that was news, he thought. “I didn’t know the family had a farm.”

“We did. We do. It belonged to my mother and father.” She didn’t want to launch into a long explanation. “But we left it when he left us.”

This story he was familiar with. Jimmy had told him. Wayne Yearling had had a wanderlust that was legendary. Somehow, it had allowed him to remain in Hades longer than anyone who knew him would have thought possible. But he’d finally succumbed to its call when June had been very young.

She’d grown up without a father. Kevin knew that Max wasn’t that much older than she was. Max hadn’t been able to step in for June the way he had with his own siblings, Kevin thought.

His heart went out to her. “I guess that gives us all something in common.”

She knew his story, too, because it was Lily’s, as well. “Your father didn’t leave you,” she pointed out. “He died.”

“Sometimes it amounted to the same thing.” The loneliness that was the end result was still the same. So was the day-to-day struggle for survival.

But she shook her head stubbornly. “Your father didn’t have a choice—mine did.”

That was where they disagreed. “Mine gave up the will to live when my mother died. He didn’t seem to realize that there were more people than just him affected by her death. Or that those same people would be affected by his if he died. He chose to die.”

His own words echoed back at him. Kevin stopped abruptly and looked at her in surprise. He hadn’t said that out loud to anyone. Ever. Even though it had lingered on his mind all these years. He’d been too busy making things right for the others to deal with his own feelings on the matter.

Well, he wasn’t too busy now. Obviously.

Embarrassed, Kevin laughed shortly. “I’ve never said that to anyone before.”

June pretended not to notice his discomfort. Her tone was glib. “Alaska has a way of drawing confessions out of people. Gives you that kind of intimate feeling when you’re around people. Makes you feel like you’re all friends.”

That was one explanation, he supposed. And now that he considered it, it was the most logical. In any event, it was the one he chose to accept.

“Coming in for a landing,” Sydney announced from the front seat, breaking into his thoughts.

Kevin looked at June and wondered if that was strictly true. It didn’t feel as if he was landing at all. It felt like he was still flying.

Chapter Three

“So, what do you think?”

Trying to contain her excitement, Lily gestured out toward the wide expanse of terrain where she had decided her restaurant would stand. Building would begin after she and Max returned from their honeymoon. Unable to wait to show it off to Kevin, she’d brought him here immediately after June had delivered him to the house. They’d only stopped long enough to swing by the medical clinic so that he could quickly say hello to Alison and Jimmy. They were just closing up after an extralong day. With Max in tow, Lily had whisked her brother here with all the unsuppressed enthusiasm of a child unwrapping a long-anticipated gift on Christmas morning.

She looked at Kevin, holding her breath.

Kevin was far more taken with Lily’s joy than he was with the future site of Hades’s first official restaurant. She was fairly dancing from foot to foot.

“What I think is that I’ve never seen you this excited before.”

“I don’t think I ever have been.” She grinned broadly as Max, standing behind her, threaded his arms around her waist.

They looked like a set, Kevin thought. As if they’d always been meant to be together.

“Maybe it’s the land, or the people.” Tilting her head, she cast a glance at the broad-shouldered sheriff at her back.

“Or maybe the fact that you don’t sleep properly,” Kevin said glibly. This giddiness was really unlike Lily. He glanced around. Daylight was permeating everything. Kevin looked at his watch. It was past seven. “When does it get dark around here?”

“It doesn’t.” It had taken her some getting used to. Now she didn’t think she could revert to conventional days and nights easily. “At least, not this time of year. Not so you’d really notice. Sun goes down at around ten, comes up at three.”

Kevin frowned. “And you find this appealing?”

“Hey, lots of daylight makes you happy,” Lily told him.

Max leaned his head down. “Lots of darkness makes you something else,” he whispered against her hair.

But Kevin heard him. “Depressed comes to mind.” The words had popped out almost of their own volition.

“Not if you have the right company.” And then she frowned as she turned and looked at her older brother. “Kev, is anything wrong? I’m sensing some very unhappy vibes coming from you.”

That settled it. She had definitely changed since she’d come up here. The old Lily never even had the word vibes in her vocabulary. He almost laughed out loud, catching himself at the last moment.

“Since when do you sound like a hippie?”

Lily waved her hand at the question. Something was definitely up with her older brother and she was concerned. “That has nothing to do with it. Kev, have you been feeling all right?”

He wasn’t policing himself, Kevin thought, annoyed. There was no excuse for saying things that might bring his sister down. It wasn’t fair. Lily looked as if she was finally happy for what might be the first time in her life and he had no right to rain on her parade.

Or cast a shadow as it were, he thought whimsically, glancing up at the sky.

The sun gave no indication that it was going to set, or ever had set. It could have been ten in the morning instead of well into the evening.

He forced himself to brighten visibly. “I’m feeling great.” His eyes shifted to Max. “Someone is finally going to tame that tongue of yours.”

A playful look entered Lily’s eyes. “Someone is going to try,” she corrected.

Kevin grinned at his brother-in-law. “Max, I don’t think you know what you’re getting into.”

Max brushed a kiss against the top of Lily’s head. “I once faced down a bear in a trap. I know exactly what I’m up against.”

“Flattery like that is liable to turn a girl’s head,” Lily said wryly.

There was no use in pretending that she took offense; she felt far too happy to try to keep up a charade. Her whole family was here with her and it looked as if her whole future was finally in front of her. What was there not to be happy about?

She looked at her brother pointedly. “You didn’t tell me, what do you think of it?”

The future restaurant was to stand overlooking the winding river below and the mountains in the distance. Right now, there was a velvety green carpet as far as the eye could see.

“I think it needs walls.”

She gave him a little shove. “I mean the location.” He knew exactly what she meant, she thought. “Look at that view, Kev.” Her voice took on almost a reverent tone. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“Breathtaking,” he agreed. There was no denying that. But what would that same view look like, buried in snow? He bit back the urge to ask. Instead, he smiled at his sister. “Just like the look in your eyes.” Impulsively he hugged her. “I’m happy for you, Lily.” He looked at Max and Jimmy, who’d just joined them. “For all of you.”

His comment sounded so exclusionary. As if they were on two sides of a fence and they were happy, while he wasn’t, Lily thought. It had a very familiar ring to it. This was just the way she’d felt when she first came up here, running away from heartache without realizing that she’d wound up running to something.

An idea came to her. Lily looked up at her main reason for smiling these days. “Max, don’t you think we should be getting ready?”

Max had no idea what she was talking about, but he played along gamely. “Ready? Are you sure it’s supposed to be now?”

Max really was her soul mate, she thought and she dearly loved him for that and a million other things. “I’m sure.” She looked at her older brother. “We’re taking you to the Salty.” She could see that Kevin was going to beg off. But being around people was just what he needed right now. Especially if she could orchestrate a few things. “It’s tradition, you know. Whenever anyone comes to visit for more than a week, he has to have a party in his honor at the Salty.”

“I came up for Jimmy’s wedding,” Kevin reminded her. “There wasn’t any party at the Salty then.”

Undaunted, Lily pressed on. “You came up for the ceremony and flew back right after it was over. There wasn’t time for a party. But there is now.” She gave him her most beguiling smile. “This way, we can really show you off.”

He didn’t want to be shown off. He wanted to take a quick shower and kick back for the evening. Maybe just bask in being in the same area as the rest of his family.

“I’m kind of tired, Lily.”

Lily wasn’t about to let him back away. She threaded her arms through his.

“No excuses, big brother. You wouldn’t want to buck tradition, would you? It’s bad luck. The miners are a very superstitious bunch. They wouldn’t take it kindly if you turned your back on tradition.”

Kevin sighed. “Wouldn’t want to annoy the miners,” he murmured. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. “Who’ll be there?”

“Everyone,” Max told him. “There isn’t enough room inside for everyone at the same time. But it’s still warm enough for them to mill around outside.”

They all knew that temperature here was a temperamental thing. It was August, but even if the sun didn’t go down as it should, the temperature did at times, dropping down into the mid-forties without warning.

Despite the town’s sudden growth spurt and new enterprises, the Salty Saloon still held the title as the favorite gathering place for the residents of Hades and its outlying regions. Owned by Ike Le Blanc and his cousin, Jean Luc, Alison’s husband, it had been the beginning of the two cousins’ business venture. Its success was indirectly responsible for their eventually buying the general store, restoring the town’s defunct movie theater, beginning renovations on the town’s one hotel and, now, investing in Lily’s proposed restaurant.

Her mind racing with details she needed to take care of, primarily cornering Ike to let him know what she was up to and having Luc spread the word around town about the party, Lily quickly brushed a kiss against Kevin’s cheek. “Jimmy’ll drop you off at the house and then I’ll come for you in half an hour or so.”

Kevin’s eyebrows drew together. Why couldn’t they just proceed on to the saloon and be done with it?

But he knew better than to ask Lily for an explanation. She’d always had her own unique way of doing things and hated being questioned. Besides, he welcomed the few minutes to himself so that he could work on his enthusiasm about this so-called party in his honor. While he was happy to see everyone, the nagging thought that this was only temporary, that all too soon he’d be returning home alone after Lily’s wedding, adhered to him like a slow-moving slug leeching at his happiness. He had to work his way through that before he went to the Salty.

He nodded at her compliantly. “Whatever you say, Lily.”

“See?” She turned her face up to Max. “That’s how it’s done.”

Max merely grinned as he took her hand and walked back to their vehicle.

Kevin envied them their happiness, even as he was glad for them.

There was an entire wall of people in every direction. Noise assaulted him as voices mixed with music. The smell of alcohol and smoke was everywhere. Kevin turned to the woman who had been sent to fetch him when Lily failed to turn up as promised.

“Are you sure this isn’t a fire hazard?”

June grinned and shook her head as she elbowed her way in, cutting a path for him as well. “Most of the volunteer fire fighters are in here already.” She raised her voice as the din went up a notch. “They don’t seem to have any objections.”

He had no idea who the firefighters were, but the mellow, tolerant mood that generally permeated the crowd was very apparent.

“That’s because most of them are probably feeling no pain,” he guessed.

June looked at him. Was that a judgmental tone? Because of the noise, she couldn’t quite tell. She tried to recall if she’d ever seen him with a drink in his hand, other than toasting Jimmy at his wedding. She couldn’t remember. The details of the last wedding were blurry, except for the fact that she’d thought he was one of the best-looking men she’d ever seen. With his jet-black hair, worn a bit long, his piercing green eyes and high cheekbones, he looked like Jimmy, only better.

“You don’t drink?” she asked.

Right about now, he thought, a drink sounded like a pretty good thing to him. “I never said that.”

“Then follow me.” Taking his hand, she began to weave her way through the sea of bodies to the bar. “What’s your pleasure?” she tossed over her shoulder.

The words were eaten up by the din. He raised his voice. “What?”

June stopped. Turning, she leaned in to him. Her hair, worn loose tonight even though she hadn’t changed her clothes from earlier today, brushed against his face. “What’s your pleasure?” she repeated.

You.

The silent response caught Kevin completely by surprise. Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t think about her in those terms. In comparison to him, she was a child, for heaven’s sakes. Why had he even thought that?

Simultaneously clearing his mind and his throat, Kevin said, “Scotch and soda,” a tad too loudly.

She nodded. Her hair seemed to shimmy as it flowed about her shoulders. Kevin stifled the urge to thread his fingers through the strands and push them away from her face.

June was still holding on to his hand. He shoved the other one into his pocket to stay on the safe side.

“Sounds simple enough,” she acknowledged.

Reaching the bar, she elbowed her way in and met with resistance. The man to her right wasn’t budging. Tall and muscular, he was taking up more than his allotted share and laughed when she tried to get him to move. June frowned, annoyed.

“Hey, Haggerty, leave a little room for the guest of honor,” she told him.

The man grinned down at her. “I’d rather leave just enough room for you, June. Say, about this much?” Holding his hands apart, he indicated the tiny pocket of area right before his torso.

Taking a step forward, Kevin found his way impeded by her hand as she waved him back. He saw June’s profile become rigid. “Only if you want to sing soprano, Haggerty.”

The man’s grin only broadened as he struck a cocky stance. “Oh, a few minutes with me, June, and I could have you singing another tune.”

All the protective instincts he’d developed over the years galvanized in a single movement. “The lady asked you to move.” Ignoring the glare June tossed his way, Kevin stepped in front of her. “I suggest you do that while you’re still able to do so on your own power.”

Haggerty’s grin hardened a little. The man’s eyes swept over him, looking him up and down. Kevin had no idea what conclusion was reached, only that he wasn’t about to back down.

And then Haggerty snorted. “Bad luck to punch out the guest of honor on his first night in Hades.” He drained his mug, then set it down on the counter with a slam. “Guess I’ll have to wait on that.”

Kevin didn’t look away. “Guess so.”

And suddenly Ike was on the other side of the counter, breaking up the tension with his easy voice. “On the house, Haggerty.” He placed a tall glass of stout beer before the miner. “As long as you drink it over there.” He pointed to a pocket of space at the far end of the saloon.

Haggerty’s eyes lowered to the drink. When he raised them again, his expression could almost be called amiable. He picked up the glass. “I never said no to anything free.”

Ike watched him until Haggerty was well out of earshot, then turned his attention to the two people directly before him. He wiped away a smudge on the bar. “What’ll it be?”

“Scotch and soda,” Kevin told him.

Reaching under the bar, Ike brought out the good stuff and began to pour. “Goes without saying that yours is free, too, Kevin.” He pushed the glass toward his guest. “And a bit of advice to go with it. Next time, pick on someone your own size,” he cautioned, “not a gorilla.”

Kevin lifted the chunky glass in his hand. “He was bothering June.”

June squared her shoulders. At five-one, she was the shortest in her family, as well as the youngest, and took offense easily because of both. “I can handle myself.”

He wasn’t about to argue with her. “Always nice to have backup.”

Ike grinned and leaned over the bar, as if to impart some deep wisdom.

“Listen to the man, darlin’. There’s strength in numbers.” He glanced over to the man who was standing nursing his beer, watching them even as he was talking to someone at his side. “To my recollection, Ben Haggerty’s not a mean drunk, but there’s always a first time.”

She shrugged, picking up the tall, foamy mug that Ike placed before her. “Worse comes to worst, I can have Max arrest him.”

“Won’t do you much good if it’s after the fact, darlin’,” Ike commented. Someone at the far end of the bar raised his hand and called his name, though the latter melted into the din before it reached him. “Well, I’m off.” He paused to nod at the glass in Kevin’s hand. “Let me know when you need another.” With that he moved to the other end of the bar.

Taking a long sip, Kevin looked over toward where Haggerty had gone. The man was no longer looking at them. “He give you trouble before?” Kevin wanted to know.

June took a long swig of her beer, then wiped away the foam from her upper lip. “Haggerty?” Kevin nodded in response and she shrugged. “No more than some of the others.”

“The others?” Just how many men came on to Max’s sister?

She hadn’t given it much thought. She did now as she considered his question. “The other men.” Despite the sparse lighting in the saloon, she could almost see the thoughts as they formed in Kevin’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or touched. She settled for giving him an explanation. “Kevin, the men outnumber the women in Hades about seven to one and the winter nights out here do get lonely.” She shrugged again. “Sometimes the men get a little pushy, but we’ve never had anyone assaulting a woman if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s not that kind of a place.”

She was young and innocent, he thought. Too bad the world wasn’t that way. “Every place is that kind of a place.”

She shook her head, amused, as she took another long sip. “Spoken like a man from the big city.”

“No, spoken like a man who’s been around, who knows that human nature isn’t always as kind as we’d like it to be.”

There was more, but it wasn’t his place to tell her about Alison, about the way a trusted family friend had, under the guise of comforting her over her father’s death, gone too far and scarred her so much as a young woman that it became almost impossible for her to ever be intimate with a man. That had it not been for Luc and his overwhelming gentleness, his sister might still be alone and hurting. It would have proved his point, but he had no intentions of revealing Alison’s personal business to do it.

Finishing her beer, she set her glass down on the bar and then looked at him. A slight frown played on her lips. “Why do you do that?”

He didn’t follow her. “Do what?”

Her brow furrowed with impatience. “Why do you talk as if you’re an old man?”

He wasn’t aware that was what he was doing, only that he was trying to make her a little less trusting. Better safe than sorry. “Well—”

“You’re not, remember? I thought we settled that on the plane.” She cut him off before he could offer an explanation. She didn’t want one, all she wanted was for him to realize that he was still in the prime of his life.

He looked around. It was hard to judge how old most of the men in the area were. But he felt it safe to venture that they were closer to his age than to hers. “Maybe not if you consider the men in the bar.” And then he looked pointedly at her. Funny, she made him feel old and young at the same time. But chronology was chronology. “But I am, in comparison to you.”

She was very, very tired of being thought of as the baby in the bunch. She’d already run her own business and sold it at a profit and was now engaged in a second career. What did it take to get through to these people that she was a grown woman?

“I’m not a child.”

He smiled at her. “I didn’t say that.”

She didn’t care for the indulgence she saw in his eyes. She didn’t like being humored or patronized, only acknowledged. “And I can take care of myself.”

He nodded. “You already said that.”

Annoyed, she blew out a breath, trying not to lose her temper. “So, what is there left to say?”

She reminded him a great deal of his sisters when they were being particularly stubborn. “Anything you want.”

Somehow, through the ebbing and flowing of the crowd, they’d managed to be moved toward the door again. She took a deep breath of the outside air that had found its way into the establishment and calmed down a little. “All right, why are you so sad?”

He could only shake his head. “You don’t mince words, do you?”

She knew she was outspoken and made no apologies for it. “We live life at a different pace up here. We don’t move fast, but we don’t miss an opportunity to say what we mean, either. We’ve got earthquakes, avalanches and cabin fever, and there might not be another chance, so we don’t pass them up when they come.” She fixed him with a penetrating look. “And you’re avoiding the question. Why are you so sad?”

When she looked at him like that, he found he had trouble focusing his thoughts. “I’m not sad.”

“Now you’re lying,” she said with equal bluntness. June shrugged. “That’s okay, you don’t have to answer my question. To you, I’m just a nosy stranger.”

He didn’t want her to think that was the way he saw her. Or that he was deliberately shutting her out. June was family, even if just extended, and family was the most important thing in the world to him. It always had been. “My whole family’s up here. I miss them.”

The answer was simple from where she stood. “Then stay.”

She was very, very young, wasn’t she? “Things are more complicated than that.”

She decided she liked him. Really liked him. And as such, she decided that he needed her help. The man had to lighten up just a little or he really was going to become old before his time.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, commanding his undivided attention. “Things only get as complicated as you let them, Kevin.”

Chapter Four

June paused for a moment, letting her hand drop to her side, as if suddenly aware of crossing some personal line that needed to remain uncrossed. “You have a woman back in Seattle?”

“What?” Kevin was thunderstruck by the question.

Amusement curved her mouth. “A woman. A female companion. A softer version of you,” she added when he made no response. “Do you have one of those back in Seattle?”

He had no idea why he had to keep blocking the urge to touch her. “No, what makes you ask?”

She would have thought that was obvious. Kevin was looking at her oddly. Did he think she was interested in him? It certainly wasn’t meant to be a personal question on her part.

“Well, that’s the only complicating factor I can think of. You sold your business. You just said that everyone you care about is up here.” She connected the dots for him. “That means that you’re perfectly fancy-free if you want to be.”

Oh, when had life ever been that easy for him? He couldn’t think back that far. “You’re twenty-two, aren’t you?”

Because he was Lily and Jimmy’s brother, she fought her natural tendency to take offense. Instead, she kept her voice calm, even. “That has nothing to do with it. I was born old.”

Wasn’t that always the mantra with people who were too young? he mused. His eyes swept over her face. Her perfect, smooth, heart-shaped face. “You don’t look all that old to me.”

“I could say the same about you.” Her smile flashed, casting a spectrum like the northern lights. Mostly within him. “Of course you might need to take a little closer look at me. It’s daylight out here, but your eyes can still play tricks on you.” As if to underscore her point, June stepped closer to him, raising her face up for his inspection.

He doubted if he’d ever seen a complexion so flawless. Or compelling. The woman could have easily done commercials for soap.

“No, no tricks,” he murmured. Other than the one his own pulse was executing by vibrating faster than he could ever remember it having done before. “You still look as if the dew hasn’t come off your life.”

There it was again, that unintentional patronizing attitude. “You’d be surprised, ‘old man’.” The grin entered her eyes and then slowly, enticingly, faded as she looked up into his face. From out of nowhere came the feeling that everything had stood still and was holding its breath within her. It took her a second to find her voice, another to dig up her bravado. “So, do I kiss you, or do you kiss me?”

He suddenly couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to do just that. To kiss her, to feel her lips against his.

But that would be as wrong as wrong could be.

He smiled for her benefit. “Neither. If I kissed you, I’d be robbing the cradle. If you kissed me, there’d be a riot scene.” He nodded toward the men standing just inside the Salty, many of whom were looking at them and trying hard to appear as if they weren’t.

The stillness within her left, to be replaced by the pounding of her heart as it tried to come to terms with anticipation and something that looked as if it wasn’t going to be.

“Afraid?” June challenged. She tossed her hair behind her shoulder in a movement that Kevin found impossibly sexy. “I would have never pegged you for being afraid of trying something new.” She turned neatly on her heel, heading for the entrance, her voice incredibly nonchalant. “Your loss.”

Yes, he thought with a deep pang, his loss. But you couldn’t miss what you’d never had, right? And he had a very odd feeling that kissing June would make him acutely aware of all that he had missed in his life. And would continue missing.

This way was better.

So he watched her thread her way back into the Salty and then entered himself, going in search of a familiar face to talk to.

Lily stepped away from the window and frowned deeply. “Well, that didn’t exactly go brilliantly,” she muttered, acutely disappointed. She’d been watching Kevin and June since the moment of their arrival, waiting for the sparks to come. That they hadn’t left an abysmal feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wanted Kevin to be happy, the way she was happy. And since love had done it for her, she felt it was only fair to assume that it would do it for him as well. It was time her brother found a little happiness. He’d been in charge of theirs all these years.

Max looked down at the surface of his beer, as if contemplating a deep philosophy. He took a sip, then raised his eyes to Lily’s face.

“Wars aren’t won and lost on the first encounter, Lil, or even the second. This kind of thing takes a while. Don’t give up.”

“A while,” she echoed with a deep sigh. “How long a while? The North and South went to fight the Civil War over the weekend and that lasted four years,” she lamented. The most impatient in the family, she always wanted things to happen yesterday.

Max understood where she was coming from and why she felt the way she did. He’d harbored the same feelings about June, worried that his little sister was more interested in resurrecting defunct engines than having a home and family. But unlike Lily, he knew the worth of patience and exercised it every day.

“There’ve been records of wars ending in under a month,” he told her. She looked at him, petulant. He kissed her temple, loving her more. “I’ve spent a lot of time studying people. Not much else to do up here when you’re isolated from the rest of the world,” he qualified. “Your brother’s been in a deep freeze for the past twenty years, Lily. Give him time. Give them both time. June hasn’t exactly had it easy herself. It’s going to take a while for them to realize that they just might be the best thing for each other. Or not,” he threw in, then laughed as Lily’s eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared into her hairline.

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