LITMIR.BIZ

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in a house that has animal hides on the furniture.”

      She glanced toward the leather sofa and armchairs and gave a philosophical shrug. Everyone was entitled to their causes. She would have mentioned that, too, except she didn’t want to hold him up from letting Zach go now that the man had what he’d come for.

      Zach obviously wasn’t interested in being held up, either.

      “Listen, Sam.” He pulled open his vest, tucking his precious file between the waterproof fabric and his shirt. “I need to talk to you this afternoon. It’s important.”

      There wasn’t a trace of curiosity in her brother’s obliging, “Sure. Come back when you’re through. I need to talk to you about switching flights tomorrow, anyway. I want to take the first mail run.”

      “I mean at the office,” Zach replied, completely ignoring what Sam wanted to do. “It’s business.”

      “We can’t talk business here?”

      “Humor me. Okay?”

      Looking as if it really didn’t matter to him one way or the other, Sam shrugged. “If that’s what you want,” he murmured. “What time are you leaving?”

      “I’ll wait until you get there.”

      Sam gave a mechanical nod. An instant later, having pointedly avoided meeting her eyes, Zach bounded down the steps to his truck and her brother finally closed the door on the cold.

      Wearily running his fingers through his hair, he turned to where Lauren knelt to pick up the jacket Jason had left in the middle of the wine-colored rug. Jason himself was at the television set, opening the long drawer under it that housed videotapes. His denim-covered behind rested on the heels of little hiking boots that looked like miniature versions of his dad’s and he appeared, for the moment, totally preoccupied.

      So did his father.

      Lauren had thought a few moments ago that Sam looked a little ragged. Studying him more closely in the light of the bright brass lamps, she decided that he simply looked worn out.

      “Do you want me to get you something to eat?” she asked, because food was the only real comfort she could think to offer. “Mom said she left a couple of casseroles in there.”

      “She did. Lasagnas, I think. But you don’t have to worry about me. It’s the kids I need help with.” He blew a breath, forced a smile. “I really appreciate you coming, Sis.”

      She knew he did. He’d practically broken her ribs when he’d wrapped her in his greeting hug. Yet, when she’d hugged him back, just as fiercely, he’d immediately eased up and let her go. She’d just wanted to hold him and absorb whatever she could of his pain. But he wasn’t the kind of man who could handle sympathy. Rather than make things worse for him by offering it, she would simply offer her support.

      That meant doing whatever she could to keep anyone from making his life any harder than it needed to be. And that meant dealing with Zach McKendrick.

      She knew exactly what he wanted to talk to Sam about. She knew why he didn’t want to talk to him at the house, too. He didn’t want her around to point out what a louse he was. He’d said he had his reasons for grounding her brother. But she didn’t care what those reasons were. She simply couldn’t bear the thought of him telling her brother he couldn’t do the only thing that provided any real escape for him right now.

      “Sam,” she began, intent on ignoring the sudden sick sensation in her stomach. “I know your partner asked to see you, but I need to run an errand before you go. Just a quick one,” she assured him, darting a glance down the hall. “Jenny’s still asleep, so I guess everything should be okay here for a while.”

      Jason spun around and scrambled to his feet. “Can we watch Rugrats?” Holding up the video he’d selected, he marched past his aunt and handed it to his dad. “It’s a new one.”

      Weighing questions from sister and son, Sam sank into the deep cushions of his favorite chair. Catching his little boy under the arms of his sweatshirt, he hauled him into his lap. “Sure,” he said to him. “Do you want to put it in or do you want me to?”

      “You do it.”

      “Why don’t I do it?” Lauren smiled as she reached for the brightly colored box. “I’m already up.”

      Jason didn’t look too certain about relinquishing his prize. He didn’t really know her. Not the way he knew the grandmother who’d left yesterday and certainly not the way he knew his dad. Lauren knew the child’s only real memories of her would have been of three days last Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and the two days she’d been in Tacoma two weeks ago. He’d had no problem at all crawling into her lap for a story or sharing his cookies with her at Christmas. But, during the awful time over New Year’s he’d wanted only his dad and the woman who’d left just yesterday.

      “Let Aunt Lauren help, Jase. She’s going to be here for a while taking care of you and your sister while I’m at work. Okay?”

      Beneath the fringe of honey-colored hair, the child’s big eyes looked uncertain. The coaxing helped, though. After another moment of hesitation, he handed over the video he’d chosen, then laid his head on his dad’s big solid chest.

      Had she not been in such a hurry, Lauren would have worried about how Jason would react to being left in her care. With him safe in Sam’s arms, her only thought as she slipped the tape into the VCR and got the thing running was that she might not need to be alone with the children at all if she couldn’t convince Zach to change his mind.

      There was a certain irony in that thought. Especially when she considered how much more comfortable with the kids she would be if Sam were around during the day. Yet, as she shrugged on her long black raincoat without bothering to change into more suitable clothes, and fished her keys from her shoulder bag, she dismissed the thought completely. This wasn’t about what she was comfortable with. If it were, she wouldn’t be leaving the house.

      “Don’t be gone long okay?” her brother asked, his eyes, like his son’s, glued to the cartoon characters on the large screen. “I need to see what Zach wants.”

      It was a fair indication of how detached Sam was that he didn’t ask where she was going. She’d only arrived ten minutes before he’d left for the preschool. Given that she’d passed the majority of places to shop when she’d driven off the ferry, it was doubtful she needed anything from a store. He knew she didn’t know a soul in the area, either. But she was grateful he didn’t ask. She could evade, but she’d never been able to outright lie.

      “I’ll hurry,” she promised, keys jangling. He looked as numb as he’d told her he felt. “It won’t take you long to get to your office, anyway. Will it?”

      “Ten minutes. It’s only five miles to the airstrip.”

      Lauren wasn’t exactly sure where she was going. She had only been to Harbor once before. That had been three years ago with her now-ex-husband and that time as this, she’d taken the ferry. They’d been there for two days over a summer festival weekend and she never had made it to her brother’s office.

      Driving along the narrow, desolate road now, she rather wished she had asked Sam for a tour of his base of operations. She knew his office was at the airport. She just wasn’t exactly sure where the airport was. When a person drove off the ferry, the town was right there. All fourteen blocks of it, including the boardwalk which lead to an aquarium with a huge mural of a killer whale painted on the side. The sign at the end of the pier read, Welcome to Harbor, Pop. 1,200.

      Just beyond that greeting a twelve-foot-high post sprouted signs that pointed in eight different directions and included the mileage to the North End, where thousands of hikers and campers headed in the summer, and Hidden Sound, where she understood the kayakers hung out. It also indicated the directions of Seattle, New York and Tibet, useful information to someone she was sure, but there was no indication of where one might find the airport.

      The

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