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.
She looked at him, appalled. “How can you say that? They’re perfect for each other.”
“You think they’re perfect for each other,” he pointed out. “They may have other ideas.”
She frowned as she looked after her older brother. He was almost half a room away from June. This was not going well.
“Then they’re wrong.” When she heard Jimmy laugh directly behind her, she swung around, immediately ready to take umbrage.
But Jimmy was looking at Max. “Better get used to that, Max. Lily’s a control freak who always has to be right.” Lily shot him a dark look. “Well, you are, you know.”
Before Lily could retort, Max slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her even closer to him than the allotted space already warranted. “We have ways of dealing with control freaks around here.”
“Tell me more.” Lily forgot all about putting her brother in his place. Or trying to create a place for Kevin. Any words she might have spared melted as Max kissed her.
“Get a room, you two,” Jimmy hooted.
“Got one upstairs,” Ike volunteered, picking up a handful of mugs from the table behind them. “You’re welcome to it.”
“I think you might be needing it for a few other people,” Max commented as he looked around. Here and there were the faces of men who had started wetting their whistles and lubricating themselves hours before the gathering had been labeled a party at the last minute. “Looks like some of these guys have already come close to filling their hollow legs.” Max took Lily’s hand in his. “Let’s go talk to your other brother and see if we can get him to unwind a little.”
She loved him for things like that, Lily thought, following Max. And for a whole lot more.
He’d watched her for most of the evening. In a room so crowded that air had to take a ticket in order to work its way in, Kevin found that he’d still been able to zero in on her.
June had blond hair like her sister, but April’s was short and curly, while hers was long and straight and so light it looked like spun moonlight.
He doubted if he’d ever seen a woman so beautiful.
He’d thought that before, he realized.
Kevin looked accusingly down at the glass in his hand. He felt intoxicated, but that wasn’t possible unless Ike had slipped something into his drink. He’d been nursing the same Scotch and soda, his second, for the past hour and a half. He held his liquor a lot better than that.
Still, every time he looked up and saw June, something strange began going on in his chest, and in his gut. Both felt as if they were tightening.
Maybe it was the lack of air.
Maybe not.
Though the room was echoing with unharnessed noise, he could have sworn he’d heard June laugh just then. He wondered who that was she was talking to. Over the course of the evening, there had been an endless parade of men seeking out her attention, some boisterous, some whispering things into her ear.
All of them appearing to be far more familiar with her than he was.
Which just made sense. But he didn’t have much use for sense tonight.
He knew what was eating at him. He hadn’t kissed her when the opportunity had presented itself. Just something else he was going to have to live with.
He’d had his chance and he’d turned it down.
No, that wasn’t strictly true. The chance had all but been shoved into his face. Ever since he could recall, he hadn’t been the type to be led around by his nose. If he kissed someone it was because he wanted to, not because someone had dared him to do it.
Trouble was, he really wanted to kiss her.
When was the last time he’d kissed any woman?
Damn it, it had been far too long. He was on vacation, he argued silently. Nothing that happened in these three weeks was going to matter in a month. In three weeks, he would go back to being himself: steadfast, dependable, honorable to a fault. And living a life that was just this side of boring.
But this was the end of the world as far as a lot of people were concerned. What a man did here could be completely out of character and still not count in the long run.
He took another long drag from his glass, letting the Scotch snake its way through his system.
For all he knew, Alaska could just be some strange dream, a product of some hermit’s overactive imagination. That made what a man did here inconsequential.
Damn it, he was babbling to himself. Now he knew he’d had too much to drink, even if he’d been able to consume three times this amount and not feel its effects. There was no other explanation for the wild thoughts ricocheting around in his brain.
She was leaving, he realized. Rather than meander toward someone else, June appeared to be purposely aiming for the door.
He wanted to catch her.
Looking at the old Russian miner who’d been steadily talking to him for the past fifteen minutes, the current beau, he’d been informed, of June’s grandmother, Kevin suddenly excused himself. He hadn’t really heard half of what the man had been saying anyway, just nodding whenever there’d been a pause in the man’s narrative. It didn’t seem to faze the old man any.
“I’m sorry, there’s someone I need to talk to.”
“But of course, my boy. Go. Hurry. Now,” Yuri all but ordered, sending him on his way.
Kevin made it to the front door just as June was about to go through it. His hand on her shoulder caught her attention. “You’re leaving?”
She turned to look at him in surprise. She’d been sure she’d seen the last of him this evening. As a matter of fact, she would have preferred it that way.
Her voice was crisp as she said, “I’ve got to get up early tomorrow, so I thought I should call it a night.” She’d been the one who’d brought him here, so maybe an addendum was in order. She gave him one grudgingly. “I thought that April and Jimmy could take you home, seeing as how you’re staying with them until the wedding anyway.”
“Sure, no problem.” He could feel the frost. Instinctively,
