LITMIR.BIZ

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Having managed little more than six hours sleep, she was tired. No late night, working or otherwise, for her today.

      “So take a break. We’ve hardly had a chance to talk since you got here.”

      “It’s not like we haven’t talked in ages,” Kristen said, thinking of their weekly Sunday-night phone calls.

      “But now I can see you.”

      “Okay, okay.” Kristen smothered a yawn. “I need coffee anyway.”

      Heather poured two cups. “You seem to be taking to working here.”

      Kristen didn’t want to get her sister’s hopes up. “It’s only temporary, you know. Until I get on my feet.” She took her mug from Heather. “Then I’m going to start job hunting again.”

      That was the agreement she’d made with Aunt Margaret. She would work here while sending out her résumé and driving into Chicago for interviews. If she could get them.

      “You’re going to look for a job in Chicago?” Heather asked, her voice filled with disappointment.

      “That is my home.”

      “Not anymore.”

      “You mean, not at the moment.” Kristen sipped her coffee, willing it to give her extra energy to get through the day.

      She was hoping to be back in a new job and a new Chicago apartment before winter. Surely that would give her enough time to help grow Sew Fine into a more viable business.

      “What have you got against living here?” Heather demanded. “I miss you. Aunt Margaret misses you. And now that Brian is back, he would miss you if you left again.”

      “Wait a minute. Isn’t Brian supposed to be working this morning?” Kristen had thought he could sweep up the broken glass.

      “Brian doesn’t always keep to schedule.”

      “And you’re okay with that?” Heather was the manager, after all, Kristen thought.

      “He is very helpful, Kristen. He’ll do anything I ask of him.”

      “When he’s here.”

      “So I give him a break. He’s had a hard couple of years since Mom remarried and moved to California.”

      “Losing his friends in the middle of his freshman year of high school must have been difficult,” Kristen admitted.

      “Not to mention he lost his job. Mom used to call him the man of the house. You remember that, don’t you? Even as a little kid, he took on a lot of responsibility, so he wouldn’t let her down. Well, maybe you don’t really know, because you went away to college so soon after Dad left. Mom was so proud of Brian. Mom thought it was great that he didn’t have to keep that responsibility anymore when she married Mike, but I’m not so sure.”

      Kristen understood completely. “Brian lost his identity.” He must have felt as if he had failed their mother. Just as Kristen had failed at the career she’d so wanted.

      Now Kristen felt even worse about Brian than she had before. Their kid brother could probably barely remember having a father in his life, and then when their mother had remarried, he hadn’t taken to his stepfather. According to Mom, Mike and Brian had been continually at odds. No doubt Brian resented having a man tell him what to do if he’d considered himself the man of the house all his young life. Her mother had mentioned increasing problems with Brian and decided the only way to make the kid happy was to let him go to college in Wisconsin.

      According to Aunt Margaret, Brian could do no wrong. The change in address had seemingly made the difference. Now if only he would get to work on time.

      And if only she would get a new job even better than the one she’d had.

      Kristen said, “You can all come down to Chicago to see me for more than a day or two, you know. And I can come back here more weekends than I did before. It’s not that I don’t like Sparrow Lake, because I do, but there’s no opportunity here for me to prove myself.”

      “You always had more drive than anyone I know. Except for Mom, if in a different way. She was always working, too.”

      “To support us,” Kristen reminded her. “You know Mom didn’t have a choice. She didn’t have a career when Dad left. She had to take whatever job she could get.”

      Which for years had been two and three part-time jobs all at once to make ends meet. Kristen had vowed then to get an education that would provide her with enough security so she never had to scrape by. She would never be a failure like her father, who couldn’t seem to succeed at anything, not even at having a family. Losing her job, then her savings and finally her home had been humiliating to someone with her work ethic.

      She had to get back everything she’d lost. It was a matter of pride.

      She just needed a time-out first.

      “Have you heard from Jason?” Heather asked.

      Okay, he was one thing she’d lost that she didn’t want back. “No, why would I?”

      “You were together for nearly three years.”

      “And I was fooled into thinking he loved me.” At least, that’s what he’d told her. “When you care for a person, you support them, good times or bad. He didn’t want to hear about my job search or my fear that I would lose my condo when I went through my savings. He wanted me to be the same bright, busy working woman who supported him emotionally.”

      Eventually, he’d simply moved on to someone less complicated, though of course the way he put it was I’m doing this for you because you’re using me as a crutch and you need to stand on your own two feet.

      Right.

      Soured on relationships, Kristen would focus all her energies on rebuilding her career. She’d always known she had to learn to rely on herself, and nothing in her experience had changed her mind.

      * * *

      ALEX PARKED IN his spot in front of the police station and hurried inside to meet with Officer Owen Larson. After his late-night adventure, Alex had slept in. On the way here, he’d stopped in front of Sew Fine for a moment. He hadn’t been able to help himself. Part of him had wanted to go in and see if Kristen Lange was as feisty as he remembered. He hadn’t been able to put her out of mind.

      He stopped at the desk. “Is Owen in?”

      Before the receptionist could answer, Owen called, “Over here!”

      Alex waved and walked back to the desk where Owen was checking his smartphone. His buddy was twenty-six but looked closer to sixteen with reddish hair, freckles and a wiry body that had little discernible bulk. Looks could be deceiving. As slight as he appeared, Owen had incredible muscle strength, could bench press his own weight and dead lift even more. He was fast on his feet and could jump a fence without hesitating. He’d been the star of the high school cross-country team and a champion in college.

      “You’re late,” Owen said. “What’s up?”

      “Late night.”

      “So I heard.” Owen set his phone down, but he kept one eye on it.

      “Expecting a call?” Alex asked.

      “A text.”

      Alex didn’t have to ask from whom. Owen and his new wife, Trina, had to text each other love notes all day. As long as Owen wasn’t behind the wheel of a patrol car when he did so, that was fine with Alex. Owen had become his good friend in the two years since he’d left the city and moved to Sparrow Lake, and he’d even been best man for Owen’s wedding a few months back. Though he was younger than Alex, Owen seemed to have his life far more together. Owen now had a wife he loved and plans to start a family.

      “So what’s with you and Margaret’s niece?” Owen asked.

      Alex

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