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.
“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
