LITMIR.BIZ

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But I also forgave my father. Because not to forgive him made me bitter.” He touched her cheek, making her look up at him, trying to make her see. “And bitter is a terrible way to be.”

      Frustrated, June sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

      “Good.” He followed her into the hall. She hurried across the floor like a woman with a purpose. “Where are you going?”

      “I’ve got to go into town.” She saw Kevin looking over toward the telephone. “This isn’t the kind of thing you do on the phone.”

      She probably had a point. “All right, I’ll go with you.”

      She didn’t need a guardian or a protector. “No, you don’t have to.”

      “Yes,” he said quietly, “I do.”

      Irritated without fully knowing why, she stood her ground. “Just because we made love doesn’t mean you own me.”

      “That has nothing to do with it. You look like you need a friend.”

      She was going to answer that she didn’t need anyone, but that was a lie and they both knew it. Everyone could always use a friend. Her heart warmed. She threw open the front door, then looked at him over her shoulder. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

      He followed her across the threshold. “Not a thing.”

Chapter Twelve

      “You know?”

      June stared at her grandmother, dumbfounded. It had taken her several minutes just to work up to the subject of her father’s reappearance, afraid that the shock might be too much for the woman. Despite her rigorous protests to the contrary, Ursula’s heart was not as rock solid as it had once been.

      But instead of shocking her grandmother, the woman had wound up stunning her.

      Ursula Hatcher sat complacently behind her desk, presiding over the small government domain that had been hers all these many long years. Her eyes were kind as she looked at her youngest grandchild.

      “He was already here.”

      Obviously all her worrying about the state of her grandmother’s heart had been pointless. The woman appeared to be taking this far better than she was.

      “And?” Impatience surrounded the single word.

      With a great amount of care, Ursula began to reorganize the first-class stamps filed away in her drawer. She kept her eyes on her work. “He said his piece and left—after I put him to work for a while.”

      The sigh that escaped her granddaughter’s lips was just short of being classified as a gale. “Grandma—”

      She glanced up as she continued refiling the stamps by age. “I don’t throw stones, June.” She closed the drawer with finality. “And everybody deserves a second chance, especially if they’re sincere.”

      Was her grandmother getting naive, or had she always been that way? “He’s not sincere.”

      “Oh, I think he is.”

      Ursula prided herself on not having wool pulled over her eyes. She’d seen through Wayne Yearling when he’d first come calling on her daughter. And saw him for what he was now. A broken man looking to right at least one wrong before he died. She judged by the way June was carrying on that she didn’t know about her father’s limited status on this earth.

      “Doesn’t hurt anything to give it some time.” She sat back and looked at the two young people before her. She sensed that Kevin knew what she was talking about. “I couldn’t find it in my heart to throw him out. Maybe I could have once,” she allowed, “but not now. I don’t think Max will either.” Ursula paused to think for a moment. “I’m not a hundred percent sure about April.” Her words were addressed to Kevin. “She was the oldest and thought she was his favorite.”

      June laughed shortly, dismissing her grandmother’s words. “He was his own favorite.”

      Ursula’s voice was calm, considerate. “Don’t think that’s true now, June-bug.”

      Kevin raised his eyebrows in amusement as he looked at June. “June-bug?” Somehow, it fit.

      Ursula nodded. “Nickname we gave her when she was a little bit of a thing.” She shifted her chair to better face him. “June was always exploring, crawling into things and getting stuck.”

      The grin was so wide it nearly split Kevin’s face. “June-bug, huh?”

      Her grandmother was the only one allowed to call her that. “Don’t even think it,” June warned.

      Ursula saw this as the perfect opportunity to steer the conversation away from the subject that was so painful to her granddaughter. “Kevin, I hear you’re looking to invest your money in something.”

      Investing made it sound so distant, as if he was going to sit back and let his money do his earning for him. That held absolutely no appeal for him.

      “I’m looking for a new business venture.” After working on the farmhouse for all this time, he was acutely aware of things in need of repair. He looked around the post office. It could use work. “Why, do you need renovations?”

      When Ursula smiled, there was still a great deal of the young girl who had once captured the hearts of all the men in the area. “No, but I hear you’re pretty handy at that, too.” Her eyes sparkled as they shifted toward June and then back to him.

      June rolled her eyes. When she was younger, there were times when she thought her grandmother had built-in radar. Things hadn’t changed all that much. “Meet my grandmother, our answer to the Internet and a gossip column, all rolled into one.”

      “It’s not gossip if it’s true.” Ursula pretended to sniff. Her explanation, again, was for Kevin. “It’s a public service. Otherwise, people might stay in the dark for months at a time.”

      “Not hardly.” This time, there was a touch of fondness in June’s tone.

      Kevin perched on the edge of Ursula’s desk. “What’s this business you want me to invest in?” He had no intention of looking into a business up here. It was too far away from everything he knew. But there was no reason, he told himself, not to keep an open mind.

      “We need a transport service.” Ursula told him only what had been on the minds of those who cared about Hades. “We’re growing and we can’t always wait for Sydney or Shayne to fly out to get supplies for us, or take one of us where we need to go if we haven’t got the time to waste with winding roads and wayward bears.

      “It’s not so bad in the summer,” the postmistress allowed, “but winters are a challenge. If someone came here, say brought in a couple more planes and pilots with him, hell—” she snapped her fingers “—he’d see his money just come pouring back in no time. After that, it’s gravy.” She leaned in to him like a fellow conspirator. “So, what do you say?”

      She was putting him on the spot, but he didn’t mind. Ursula was like the grandmother he’d never had and he’d become instantly fond of her on their first introduction. “Not shy about things, are you?”

      She snorted at the observation. “This is Alaska, boy. If a woman’s shy, she winds up frozen on an ice floe somewhere. A woman has to say what’s on her mind up here.” Her eyes took measure of him. She could see the verdict was undecided, but she was hopeful. “How about it? Are you game to bring flight to the citizens of Hades?”

      His first instinct was to say no, but the second one made the possibilities sound at least somewhat intriguing. He was aware that June was moving about the room restlessly. They had to get going. “I’ll give it some thought.”

      Ursula drummed her

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