at Julia. “We’ll take a spin through downtown, which is a lot more attractive than this stretch.” He explained that the commercial strip had grown up outside the city limits until a fairly recent annexation changed that. He didn’t figure they needed to hear about the headaches that annexation had brought to an understaffed police department. Once he’d been on board long enough to see the big picture, he had begun an aggressive campaign to increase funding for the department. He didn’t much like his boss, Mayor Noah Chandler, but had to concede Chandler was backing every budget demand he’d made to the city council.
He drove down the main street, once the traditional downtown when Angel Butte’s population had been a third of its current size. The hardware store, dry cleaner’s and newspaper office had retreated to side streets; the false-fronted buildings here now housed trendy bistros, boutiques, galleries and sporting-goods stores. The economy had become heavily dependent on tourism. From what he’d been told, the change had happened so quickly, old-timers were still in shock.
Thus, he figured sardonically, the reluctance to admit a small-town police department was no longer adequate.
He pointed out the redbrick public-safety building where he worked and the historic courthouse with a wing that housed city hall. They detoured by the middle school, bland as schools built in the 1970s usually were, and then the more modern elementary school where Liana would go.
Finally, he drove past the upscale part of Old Town where people with money lived, and then to the neighborhood of modest ramblers where the worker bees felt lucky to own homes. The duplex he’d bought was on a corner, which gave it a slightly larger-than-average lot, but he hadn’t done anything yet that could be called landscaping. Right now, a lawn with sun-browned patches surrounded it. A few overgrown shrubs crowded front windows. The only thing he had done to the exterior was to have the place painted, going for a dark green with cream-colored trim.
He pulled into the driveway on his side of the duplex, set the emergency brake and turned off the engine. In silence, all four of them stared at the forty-year-old rambler clearly built as a rental. Each side had a single-car garage. Two concrete walkways led from the sidewalk to the identical front doors.
Matt broke the silence. “You’re kidding.”
“This is only temporary,” Julia said uneasily. “You know that. Having Alec right next to us is ideal.”
He cleared his throat. “It’s a good neighborhood. Liana can walk to school. You can get almost anywhere in town on your bikes.”
He’d actually considered a place outside of town so Matt wouldn’t be able to get anywhere on his own, but that had other drawbacks.
“Can we see inside?” Julia asked, unhooking her seat belt.
“Sure,” he said, sounding hearty and phony even to his own ears. They got out and approached the door on the side he’d decided would be theirs. He made a business of taking the key from his ring and giving it to Julia. “Uh...it’s pretty bare-bones still,” he warned.
He was glad they hadn’t seen it before the work was done. He’d discovered that beneath the badly worn brown carpet were hardwood floors. Instead of replacing the carpet, he’d had the oak refinished to a glossy sheen. Bathrooms on both sides had new vinyl floors and shiny new fixtures. Julia knew he’d had the floors refinished, but not about the bathrooms, and he had no intention of telling her the duplex hadn’t come this way.
The kitchens he hadn’t touched yet, on his side because he hadn’t been home enough to bother, and on Julia’s side because he figured she would have her own ideas about what she wanted to do.
They moved over the threshold in a clump, even Matt sticking close to his mother. There was no entryway to speak of; the front door let straight into a cramped living room with white walls and a white-painted brick fireplace. The floors looked damn good, if he did say so, but Alec still winced at the comparison with the living room in the house Julia had just sold. It had had a bay window, glass-fronted built-ins, high ceilings and open, dark wood beams.
“There are three bedrooms,” he said, “but only one bathroom.”
“We’re going to have to schedule morning showers,” Julia said lightly.
They all peered into the bedrooms, two of them the standard ten-foot-by-twelve-foot boxes with inadequate closets. The master bedroom was only slightly larger.
He saw Julia breathe a sigh of relief when she saw the bathroom.
“Brace yourself,” he said in a low voice just before they reached the kitchen with some extra floor space optimistically designated as dining area.
Dark brown Formica countertops went with the ugly dark cabinets, which were scarred in places. The flooring was a dated orange-and-yellow vinyl that at least was in good shape.
“You should have let me have this remodeled before you got here,” Alec said, feeling inadequate as he watched them inspect their new home.
Despite her tiredness, Julia appeared undaunted now that she’d seen the worst. She smiled at him. “We’ll eat with you while the kitchen is torn apart.”
“Mine’s no better,” he admitted, looking around. “I bought new appliances, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.”
“It’ll be fun,” she insisted.
The kids stared in disbelief. Even Liana seemed shell-shocked. Matt had an expression Alec didn’t like. There was something a little smug about it, as if he’d hoped the new home sucked. Did he imagine his mother would turn tail and retreat to L.A.?
“Who wants which bedroom?” she asked gaily, as if the two rooms weren’t virtually identical.
“I call first choice!” Liana declared, racing back toward the bedrooms.
“Like, who cares?” her brother said disagreeably, but he thundered after her anyway.
“Hey.” Seeing Julia’s expression, Alec violated his own rules and wrapped his hands around her upper arms. “You okay?”
Her laugh broke. “I’ll recover. The drive was horrible. The only time they quit squabbling was when Matt was sulking. Liana was almost as bad. She sobbed when we drove away from our house. She was sure she’d never see her friends again.”
“She may not,” he said softly.
Her face crumpled. “I know. Oh, God, Alec. Did we do the right thing?”
He wanted to promise her they had, that Angel Butte was the idyllic town they’d hoped for, but he was beginning to wonder if there was any such thing. He’d grown up in Southern California, used to the tangle of overcrowded freeways and the yellow light of smoggy mornings. He wondered guiltily what her Minnesota hometown looked like.
“I think so,” he said, unable to resist a gentle squeeze before he had to let her go. “It’s not like Liana knew her friends that long. Maybe moving so soon after the last time is hard on them, but I have to think doing it quickly is better than waiting.” He hesitated. “I’m sorry the house is so, uh, unprepossessing.”
“What?” She lifted her face to his, surprise in those extraordinary eyes. “Don’t be silly. The duplex looks like it did in pictures, except better. You’ve had more work done than you admitted to, haven’t
