LITMIR.BIZ

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“You didn’t have to. Actions always speak louder than words, especially up here.” She started to walk away, not wanting to share this hallowed ground with him. “And your actions spoke volumes.”

      “June, wait, I want to make it up to you. To you and the others. What can I do?”

      It wasn’t until she was back in her vehicle again that she gave him an answer.

      “Leave.”

Chapter Nine

      June wasn’t at the farmhouse when he returned with the extra containers of white paint he’d picked up in town. But she’d already told him she might not be, so he didn’t think anything of it at first.

      It was only when he climbed back up on the ladder again, and his view of the surrounding area was much wider, that he began to wonder about her whereabouts. The tractor was exactly where she’d left it when she’d returned to the house late yesterday. If she wasn’t using the tractor, what was she doing?

      As the question occurred to him, Kevin shook his head. There had to be a hundred different things that needed doing around a farm. She could be busy with any one of them. Not having been raised on a farm himself, he had no idea exactly what she was busy with or where.

      And he had no idea why an uneasy feeling kept buzzing around in his head.

      He was just a born worrier, he supposed. At least, that was what Lily had called him. Stretching, he reached over to a section he’d missed earlier.

      He hadn’t always been a worrier, he thought. Growing up in Seattle, he’d been as carefree as they came, making plans for himself and the life he was sure was ahead of him, ripe for the taking. He’d wanted something to do with medicine, to be a surgeon and practice in a teeming metropolis, occasionally traveling to third-world nations to help people who would otherwise never even see their twenties without a doctor.

      A smile teased his lips as he began painting another board he’d recently replaced. He supposed he and Jimmy Stewart had a lot in common that way, at least, the character Stewart had played in It’s A Wonderful Life. Planning one life, leading another.

      Nothing had gone according to plan for him, not since his parents had both died within such a short period of time of each other. Rather than attending college with an eye out for medical school, he’d gone to work instead. He’d taken a few courses at night when time permitted and gotten a two-year degree in business to help him eventually take over and run the cab service that had allowed him to put food on the table for his siblings.

      They were right—whoever had said that life was something that happened while you were making plans. His had happened while he shelved his own plans.

      He didn’t make plans anymore. There was no real point. The three people he’d been providing for were providing for themselves now, and living their own lives.

      No, no more plans, he thought, climbing down one rung, but damn, he had to do something with himself once this vacation was over.

      He let his mind drift as he worked. Maybe he’d buy into that home security business he’d been looking into, when he got back to Seattle. Security at home was the kind of thing that was right up his alley, anyway.

      Kevin started seriously considering it.

      The sound of an engine approaching caught his attention and pulled him out of his mental wanderings.

      At first, he thought it might be a plane flying low overhead. Shayne or Sydney making a quick run to Anchorage for one reason or another. But nothing was moving in the sky other than a flock of birds.

      The engine roar was coming from a car. Looking round, he quickly zeroed in on the source. June swiftly approached the house, driving far faster than it seemed necessary.

      From his vantage point, it looked as if she was going over eighty miles an hour.

      She was coming from the general direction of the town. Something had happened. There was no other explanation for the sudden speed. The thought barely registered as Kevin scrambled down the ladder, paint splashing over the side of the can. The container almost tipped over as he hurriedly set it on the ground.

      Running toward her, he saw that June’s face was the color of ashes.

      Something had happened. He didn’t even want to speculate on what.

      June brought the vehicle to a skidding stop less than two feet away from him. But instead of getting out, she remained sitting behind the wheel.

      She was trembling, he realized.

      At her side, Kevin was afraid to touch her. Her expression was like something he’d never seen before. Disoriented, lost.

      “June, what happened? You’re shaking like a leaf.”

      After she’d driven away from her father, the whole situation began to appear almost surreal to her, as if it couldn’t possibly have been true. Her father was dead, she’d been so sure of that. In her heart, she knew that was what April and Max believed.

      Could she have hallucinated the whole thing? Hallucinations weren’t uncommon in places like this, but they were usually the result of severe cabin fever, or being lost in the wild for several days. At the very least, a high fever came into play.

      And she had neither.

      Trying to focus, to shake off the feeling that was struggling for control over her, she heard Kevin’s voice somewhere in the distance.

      “June?”

      Somehow, she’d gotten out of the Jeep. Whether Kevin had lifted her out or she had climbed out on her own, she wasn’t sure.

      The only thing she knew was that she didn’t want it to be true. She didn’t want her father to be back. Not after all this time, not after she’d buried him in her mind years ago.

      “June, what’s wrong?” He curbed the urge to try to shake her out of the daze she seemed to be in. “Did something happen in town? To you? To the others?” A dozen different things occurred to him. He refused to flesh any of them out until she gave him something to work with. “June.” His voice was urgent, even as it was soft, kind. “Talk to me, I can’t help you unless you talk to me.”

      Desperate, Kevin thought of calling the clinic and having Jimmy drive out. From his limited medical knowledge, he thought that June looked as if she was in shock.

      Had she gotten hurt? Been in a car accident?

      Quickly he checked her limbs to make sure there weren’t any injuries not readily visible at first glance. But there were no cuts, no bruises. Nothing except the haunted look in her eyes.

      As if she’d seen something she didn’t want to.

      At a loss, Kevin picked her up in his arms to carry her into the house. It was then that she came to. With a small cry, she began to resist, pushing against his chest. “No!”

      Had someone tried to attack her? He had a thousand questions and not a single answer.

      “All right.” Kevin put her down on the ground again, trying to think of what to do.

      He had no idea what was going on or why she was behaving this way, only that he wasn’t about to leave her until he had some kind of answer and she was herself again.

      Carefully pushing back a strand of hair that had fallen into her face, he peered at her. The color wasn’t returning.

      “You feel up to telling me what’s going on?”

      Slowly her eyes turned toward him, as if she hadn’t really been aware that it was him who’d been talking to her. “He’s back.”

      “Who’s back?”

      Kevin thought of Haggerty, the man who’d tried to corner her at the Salty the other night. But

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