right.” Lia stepped away from the door and aimed her daughter toward the path through the overhanging trees. Kristen took off like a shot, much braver now that she was fully awake. Lia smiled at the enthusiasm, wishing her courage was as easily reinstated. “Howie, please watch out for Kristen.”
Lia waited until she heard their voices before giving in to her own curiosity. With one more glance at the Grudge, she walked around to the back of the house. Sam’s head had sunk below window level.
Lia inhaled. The sharp, spicy scent of pines filled her lungs. God, the air was fresh here. The house had no lush suburban lawn, only ragged patches of grass poking out from beneath a thick blanket of coppery pine needles. Inside a sagging wire fence, a patch had been cleared for a garden, the rich earth freshly overturned and planted with seedlings. The level area near the house became a slope that steepened down to a reedy riverbank.
Lia shielded her eyes. The dark river swirled and eddied, rushing white where submerged rocks had been worn silky and smooth by the constant flow. Cattails nodded in the breeze.
Despite the shabbiness, the setting was idyllic. A piece of paradise. Lia began to understand why Rose had returned despite her less-than-idyllic childhood. If Lia had grown up in a place like this, she might not have been in such a rush to leave home that she’d latched on to her first real boyfriend and mistaken his intense feelings for true, deep love.
Rose had told her own tale, those long evenings when they’d sat out on the small lawn of their apartment building, sharing a pack of cigarettes and the sad tales of their lives while the kids played Kick the Can. According to her, paradise wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be. But Rose had found a happy ending here all the same.
A happy ending was more than Lia dared to dream of. Even though a piece of paradise might be nice, she’d gladly settle for simple peace.
She sighed, rubbing her forehead. Had she made a mistake becoming a fugitive instead of trying to work things out within the law, even if that had already taken years and every cent she earned? It seemed so now, when she was tired and broke, but in her gut she knew that fleeing was the only way she and the kids had a chance at a normal life. If they’d stayed, Larry would have never let up.
Lia turned back to the house. She’d suspected Rose might be gone, but what had happened to her mother? And there’d been a brother, too, back from the Army. Or maybe it was the one who’d been in prison.
At the window, she made a visor with her hands to peer inside. No one in sight, but there was a table stacked high with gift boxes that probably contained enough small kitchen appliances to stock a department store.
She groaned. She should have brought a present. But what? A used coffeemaker? A blender that could only puree on low?
Dismayed with herself, Lia reached inside her shirt to rescue a fallen bra strap that was held together by a pin. She’d once been a genuinely cheerful girl—a cheerleader, even—with shiny blond hair and a set of days-of-the-week underpants. The most important appliance in her life had been her curling iron. So how had her life turned into a wreckage of broken-down motors and tatty undergarments?
She was startled by a deep male voice. “Find anything good in there?”
Her fingers clenched on the bra strap. A deflated but still serviceable pair of 34Cs was the answer that popped into her mind before she realized the man was referring to her spying through the window.
“I was looking for Rose.” She withdrew her hand from her shirt and tucked it in the pocket of her shorts. “Rose Robbin? Am I in the right place?”
The man gave her a once-over, his blunt, stony face betraying none of his thoughts. He was tall and rawboned, thick with muscles in the way of a hard worker who’d developed an iron-hard physique with years of physical labor. He wore heavy boots and khaki cargo pants despite the warm weather. The open collar and cuffs of his shirt displayed a strong neck and massive forearms inscribed from wrist to elbow with complicated tattoos. There was something not quite civilized about him.
Lia’s heart beat a little faster. Rose’s brother, she presumed, but was it the ex-con or the military man? What direction had he come from? And where were her kids?
She sidled over a couple of steps. “I didn’t mean to snoop. Well, yes, I suppose I did, since I was snooping. But I didn’t mean to be rude. I wondered where everyone had gone, that’s all. The house seemed deserted. I, um, that is, we—me and my kids—came for the wedding.”
“You’re late.”
“I know. My car broke down.”
“The wedding was yesterday.”
“I’m sorry we missed it.”
He scanned her again, apparently not happy with what he saw, because he scowled, the color in his tanned face getting even darker. “Rose is on her honeymoon.”
“Oh.” The dregs of Lia’s last hope leaked out of her. She realized what a bind she’d put herself in. No cash, nowhere to stay. Only a small amount of wiggle room remained on her credit card. “I figured it was something like that. But we had a long drive and it was too late to turn back.” She crossed her fingers inside her pockets. “So we came anyway.”
“How many is we?”
“I have three children. Oh—I didn’t introduce myself.” But then, neither had he. She didn’t stick out her hand. He looked as if he might bite it. “I’m Lia Howard.”
“Jake Robbin.” He didn’t budge an inch.
“You’re Rose’s oldest brother. She’s mentioned me?”
“No, ma’am.”
“She invited me to the wedding a while back. I told her then I couldn’t make it, only I changed my mind at the last minute. We were neighbors several years ago.” She was babbling.
His nod was neither an acknowledgment nor an agreement. “Too bad you missed her.”
“Yes, too bad,” she said. The sympathy on his face was underwhelming. “We’ll move on, of course.” She gritted her teeth so the desperation wouldn’t show. “We wouldn’t want to put you out.” Not that he’d offered. “My kids can be quite a handful.” She gestured toward the front yard, embarrassed to see Kristen’s stretchy pink-lace-and-glitter ponytail holder around her wrist like a bracelet. “They’re over there—”
On cue, Kristen came chugging around the side of the house with her hands flapping. “Mom! Mom! Howie found a skunk!” She barreled into Lia’s legs. “It’s gonna bite him.”
Lia winced. “Do skunks bite?” she asked Jake. Before he had time to answer, she hurried off the way Kristen had come.
Jake loped beside her, ducking tree branches because he was so tall. “Probably not. Unless it’s rabid.” He put out his arm, slowing her down as they reached the path to the cottages. “Don’t run. Sudden movement will scare it, and—believe me—you don’t want that to happen.”
Kristen had caught up to them. She stared up at Jake with a finger in her mouth. She took it out. “What happens if we scare the skunk?”
Jake’s firm lips twitched. He squeezed
