LITMIR.BIZ

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the booth where Jesse sat, his gaze still fastened on her. “Hello, Mr. Kingston. I’m Karen Ellis.” She extended her hand. He ignored it. Despite the obvious snub, she waited for some reaction from Jesse, but none came. “I need to talk to you about Paul Jackson,” she said before she lost her nerve.

      Jesse’s face grew grim and stiff. “I have nothing to say about Paul.”

      Throwing her what could only be classified as a disdainful glare, Jesse laid the paper aside, stood, then tossed a few bills on the table. He shouldered past her and walked out the door to the diner.

      Chapter 2

      Jesse sat in his SUV outside his youngest half sister Emily’s house, his mind focused on Karen Ellis. The woman’s beauty had stirred to life emotions that he hadn’t felt in a very long time, if ever. But he couldn’t allow his testosterone to rule his thinking.

      What did she want to know about Paul and why? Had she heard about the suspicious circumstances of Paul’s death? Was she a reporter?

      Though this parade of questions drummed at his mind, he knew he had other fish to fry right at the moment. He stared at the sprawling white Victorian house he’d grown up in, debating whether or not to go in. Some potent memories awaited him inside that door. Was he strong enough to come face-to-face with them? Did he even want to?

      Still groping for an answer, he glanced up in time to see the front door fly open and his half sister Emily hurry onto the porch. Following her were Rose, Emily’s mother-in-law, who had been the Kingston’s housekeeper for years; Emily’s husband, Kat Madison; and their twin little girls, Cat and Casey. Kat slid his free arm around Emily and pulled her close to his side.

      The family picture created the same hollow ache inside Jesse that he’d felt all his life—he was a part of the household, but not the family.

      A tap on his side window drew his attention. He turned to find his other half sister, Honey Logan, staring in at him.

      “Are you planning on getting out sometime soon? Em has to put the twins to bed before dawn, you know.” A wide smile softened Honey’s words.

      Jesse grinned sheepishly, opened the door and stepped out. Before he knew what was happening, her welcoming arms enveloped him. Quickly, he pried himself from her embrace and took a step to the side, the small distance between them doing little to ease the discomfort he’d derived from the emotional welcome.

      “How are you, Honey?” He shoved his hands in his pockets.

      She stood back, then glanced over her shoulder at a man Jesse hadn’t noticed before, her husband, Matt Logan. “I’m happy, Jesse. Very happy.” Her radiant smile affirmed it. Finally, that was one part of his past he could put to rest. If only the rest would prove that easy.

      Jesse shook hands with his newest brother-in-law. “Matt.”

      “Jesse. Good to have you home.”

      Honey reached for a young boy standing near her and pulled him to her side. “Danny, say hello to your uncle.”

      The boy looked exactly like his father. Danny held out his hand to Jesse. “Hi, Uncle Jesse.”

      “Hey, Danny.” Jesse shook the small hand.

      “Hey, remember us?” Emily called from the porch.

      “Would you let us forget?” Honey called back, displaying the usual banter that had been the signature of his half sisters’ relationship all their lives, a relationship from which Jesse had always felt excluded.

      They all headed for the porch and more hellos. By the time they were ready to go inside, Jesse still hadn’t been able to shake the strange discomfort he’d gotten from their enthusiastic greetings and his inability to return them. Coming into his sisters’ lives at the age of nine, he’d never been really close to either of them.

      Hesitantly, he let Rose lead him into the house. He paused for just a moment on the threshold. Emily’s mother-in-law smiled, patted his arm and urged him forward with a gentle nudge to his back.

      “It’s not the same place, Jesse,” Rose told him softly, then added an understanding smile.

      The house was nothing like what he remembered from the time Rose had cooked and cleaned for his father. Emily had completely redecorated it with bright colors, ruffled curtains and tons of greenery. Two identical playpens filled with toys and stuffed animals occupied the space where his father’s recliner—the chair Jesse had always referred to as “the throne”—had stood. A golden retriever lazed in a puddle of sunlight near the playpens.

      One thing was missing—something that made the most distinct difference, something he’d always associated with this room—his father’s cigarette smoke. This had been the room where Jesse had come face-to-face with his father for the first time, where he’d come frequently to have punishments meted out, where he’d confronted his father over Honey’s impending, disastrous marriage to Stan, her first husband, and where he’d seen his father for the last time. More than anything else, the absence of the smoke that had labeled the room as Frank Kingston’s erased his presence from the house.

      “Dawg!” one of the twin girls shouted and pointed, yanking Jesse from the past.

      As if on cue, the golden retriever stood, stretched and sauntered over to Jesse, then offered her ears to be scratched. As he obliged, he glanced at his family.

      They have it all.

      And what did he have? The house next door, a house he hadn’t been inside since long before he’d bought it on a whim to allow Emily to have this one. A family whose love and affection made him want to run. And enough guilt sitting on his shoulders to sink a battleship. Quite a summation of a man’s life.

      “Uncle Jesse?”

      He roused himself and looked down at his nephew. “Yes, Danny?”

      “We’re having a welcome home barbecue for you tomorrow. Mom says so.” The boy made the declaration as if Honey’s word ranked right up there with the Pope’s.

      Jesse looked at Honey, who smiled from her place at Matt’s side. Jesse didn’t have the heart to tell her that a family reunion wasn’t high on his to-do list. All he wanted was some time alone to come to terms with the mystery of his best friend’s death.

      He laughed uncomfortably, then sobered and cleared his throat of a surprising surge of emotion. “You guys don’t have to do that.”

      Emily came forward and touched his arm. “We want to. We missed you.” Then, as if realizing she was causing him discomfort, she stepped back and lightened her tone.

      Jesse felt another nudge to his side. Again, it was Danny. “Mom says maybe you can even bring a date, if you want.”

      Jesse’s thoughts flew immediately to a pair of brilliant green eyes and hair the color of buttercups at twilight. In a strange way, the image surprised him by easing the tension from his coiled nerves. But it didn’t make the idea of spending an entire day as the center of his family’s attention any easier to swallow.

      His expression must have telegraphed his hesitation, and Kat caught it.

      “Your sisters have worked all week preparing your favorite foods, so don’t think you can hide out there in the woods.” Kat gestured toward the thick forest bordering the back lawn, where Jesse had taken refuge as a child. “Old Goldie’s got a nose like a bloodhound and can find anyone.” Kat winked at Jesse, making light of the veiled warning not to disappoint his sisters.

      Jesse looked around at their smiling faces, still amazed that they’d go to these lengths for him and that they even remembered what foods he liked.

      “I guess I’d better show up, then.” Trying to make light of his hesitation, he winked at Kat. “There is one condition. Emily isn’t cooking, is she?”

      Emily laughed, then stepped forward and raised her small fist as if she was

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