Home to Sparrow Lake (Harlequin Heartwarming)

by Lynn Patrick

  “You know what,” Alex said. “I’ll bet it’s both. Memorizing words helps you remember them when you see and hear them at the same time.”

  “Oh.” Addison licked the ice cream off her spoon.

  That easily, Alex avoided a confrontation. Kristen was impressed. While the twins seemed to have energy, Kristen could tell they were tired, too. Alex had such an easy way about him when dealing with the twins that they actually behaved—well, so far—undoubtedly because they liked him a lot.

  Kristen had to admit that she did, too. Why had she fought so hard against getting to know him? She enjoyed his company. Admired the way he thought about others. And he really was a fine-looking man. She was admiring his chiseled features when he caught her staring. His mouth curled into a slow smile that sent a jolt through her. The spoon she aimed at her mouth missed and chocolate ice cream dribbled down her chin.

  Flushing with embarrassment, she grabbed a napkin, but before she could repair the damage, Taylor said, “Aunt Kristen spilled her ice cream!”

  Not only did they laugh at her, but she heard snickers from somewhere nearby. And Alex was biting back his own laughter. In the end, she laughed at herself.

  Alex’s grin made him look even more attractive. “You should do that more often.”

  “Spill ice cream on myself?”

  “No, laugh,” Alex said. “You have a nice laugh.”

  Flushing again, she met his gaze and felt a real warmth inside. Why had it taken so long for her to admit she was attracted to him? From his actions, the attraction was mutual.

  As if they were mentally in tune, he said, “I’m taking tomorrow afternoon off so I can go into Lake Geneva to pick up a window I’m having repaired.”

  She arched her eyebrows. “A window? Were you trying to break in somewhere?” she teased. “And why didn’t you fix it yourself? I seem to remember you’re good at that.”

  “And you have a good imagination,” he said, grinning. “But it’s a stained-glass window from a transom over my kitchen door. It’s needed fixing since I bought the place. No one around here does that kind of work. If you can play hooky that afternoon, maybe you’d like to come with me for the drive.”

  That he wanted her company made her smile. It wouldn’t be a long drive—less than an hour each way—but it would be pleasant to spend that time alone with him. Why not, then? Having one afternoon off wouldn’t hurt anything. She looked at the twins. Alex had taken his own time to help her with them. She would make up the hours at the store during the rest of the week.

  “All right. I’ll go with you.”

  “Great.”

  The twins had finished their ice cream, and it was time to drop them off at home.

  A half hour of relaxation and laughter had done her a world of good. Not to mention being able to look forward to a date with Alex. Holding hands with both girls as they headed for the patrol car, she realized she actually felt happy…a feeling that had eluded her for months while her life had spun out of control. But things were changing…shaping up…and Alex was partly responsible.

  They secured the girls in their car seats and Kristen slid into the passenger seat. Relaxed, she sighed and laid her head against the headrest as Alex drove out of the parking lot.

  “Thanks for your help tonight, Chief.”

  “Alex,” he reminded her, finding her hand and giving it a warm squeeze.

  Kristen felt happiness bubble up in her. “I meant your official help with the manager of FamilyMart. And thanks, Alex, for the ice cream break. I definitely needed to wind down.”

  He gave her a quick glance that warmed her inside again. “My pleasure.”

  She was so relaxed that she was actually wondering where this connection with Alex might lead when he said, “I don’t know if you heard, but there was another incident in town last night.”

  His words chilled the smile right off her face. “Oh?”

  “Yep. I didn’t know about it when I talked to you before, but some teenagers used chalk to draw graffiti on the back wall of the old gas station at the edge of town. That’s a little more serious than a harmless prank. The building is stucco and the chalk didn’t wash out with a hose. The owner had to spend hours scrubbing that stuff off to get rid of it. He’s really ticked.”

  Though Kristen was certain she knew the answer, she asked, “Why are you telling me about it?”

  “Just wondering if you know where Brian was in the middle of the night.”

  Of course. Brian, again. This time she wasn’t angry, the way she’d been the first time he’d brought it up. She didn’t believe Alex made accusations willy-nilly. In fact, she was starting to worry there might be a basis to his suspicion.

  Still, she said, “My brother was in his bed sleeping.”

  “You know that for sure?”

  Actually, she didn’t. She remembered a noise waking her. She hadn’t been able to identify it and hadn’t heard it again. She’d figured someone had gotten up to go to the bathroom or to the kitchen for an early-morning snack. It could have been Brian sneaking inside in the early hours.

  Not that she was going to share that information with Alex. Not yet.

  Somehow she was first going to have to find out if something was going on.

  *

  KRISTEN WANTED TO believe in Brian, but she was wary of his friends and couldn’t help wondering if they were all responsible for the recent pranks Alex kept telling her about.

  The problem was, how could she know for certain if her brother was involved?

  By the time she got home, it was nearly eleven, and Aunt Margaret had already retired to her room. There was no sign of Brian, not in the living area, not in his room. She opened the door to check. The bed was as messy as the rest of the room, but there was no sign that he’d been there recently. The room was dark and still except for the light indicating his laptop was fully charged.

  His laptop…

  Kristen moved to the desk and stood staring down at the computer, torn between respect for her brother’s privacy and worry that he was headed down a slippery slope. She didn’t want to believe Brian was acting out, doing things that were questionable as Alex had indicated, but she would be a fool if she didn’t consider that the police chief could be correct.

  In the end, worry won.

  Brian was always using his smartphone for social networking. She decided to try to figure out where that networking had led.

  When she lifted the lid of the laptop, the monitor awoke immediately. She scanned the icons on the desktop and spotted a big BS in red. She knew that BS stood for BuddyShare Network, one of the new social networking sites. Hesitating only a second, she clicked on the program icon, half expecting she would need a password to get in.

  To her surprise, she didn’t.

  Brian’s recent life unfolded before her. Photographs and amusing graphics from the internet. A calendar that had his schedule at the store. That he’d taken her advice certainly surprised her. But the calendar also had some kind of coded entries that all took place at night.

  Taking a deep breath, Kristen started to read the entries.

  Nothing startling in the last few. It looked like a bunch of college students or soon-to-be college students were sharing the trials and tribulations of college life.

  But in the left column, there was an item called PrivateTalk. And below that, a link that simply said SL.

  Meaning Sparrow Lake?

  Clicking on it, she saw there were only three buddies with code names. Brainiac, Hollowboy and Muscleman. Brainiac—Brian because he was the smartest? Hollowboy—Andy because he was so skinny? Muscleman—Matt because he was the big guy of the trio?

  The last entry was from Hollowboy: Meet at our usual time and place. Got some new ideas that’ll be fun.

  So Brian had gone to the usual place, wherever that was. And what was the usual time? When had Brian left the house? It seemed to her that he must slip out after he thought it was safe—after she and Aunt Margaret
retired for the night.

  More importantly, what kind of ideas did Andy have? she wondered, as she continued to read down the page. There were several entries between the three boys that made the hair on her arms stand up.

  Brainiac: Ignore them.

  Muscleman: Parents were invented to give us grief.

  Hollowboy: We can do what we want, when we want.

  It was a little weird reading in reverse order, so Kristen went to the bottom of the page and read upward, in the order the messages had been relayed. The boys talked as if they thought they were hotshots, suggesting that they could fool everyone and as long as they didn’t get caught, who cared.

  Caught doing what?

  Though she scrolled to other pages, she got nothing specific from the conversations. Just these vague entries about things happening and how they could have a good laugh.

  Deeply upset, Kristen exited the program, and when the desktop reappeared on the monitor, she closed the lid.

  Brian would never know she’d been snooping. She couldn’t lose his trust or she might lose him. She had to talk to him, though, she thought, heading for the kitchen where she would lie in wait for him to come home.

  She had to get through to her brother before he did something that he would regret, something he couldn’t take back.

  *

  BRIAN SNEAKED INTO the house through the lakeside door, the same way he’d left. He tiptoed through the living room, careful not to knock into furniture the way he had the night before. He made it to the hallway before he heard a noise.

  Pulse rushing, he stopped to listen. Nothing. He must have imagined it. No one was going to be awake in the middle of the night.

  He continued on toward his room and was almost there before realizing someone was standing in his way. Just enough light filtered through the windows that he could make out her form.

  “Kristen?”

  “Brian. In the kitchen, please.”

  “I’m going to bed. I’m tired—”

  “l’ll bet you are. It’s 3:00 a.m.”

  He shrugged and kept his voice casual like it was no big deal. “So what? I’m on vacation.”

  “Kitchen.”

  Brian wanted to argue, to push past his sister into his room, but he just couldn’t. He turned and led the way, snapping on the kitchen lights, telling himself his sister didn’t have any power over him. She’d been out of his life practically since he was a kid and she went away to school. Her being around now didn’t make up for those missing years.

  Besides, what could she do to him? He was practically an adult.

  No matter what, Aunt Margaret would be on his side. At least he could always count on her.

  Crossing through the kitchen, he tried to think about what he was going to say. Even if his sister didn’t have any power over him, his stomach was churning.

  Why wasn’t Kristen saying anything? She was staring at him, and he prepared himself for an argument.

  He sat at the island as far away from Kristen as he could manage. Still she didn’t speak.

  Finally, he mumbled, “I thought you wanted to talk.”

  “I do. I’m worried about you, Brian.”

  “Sure you are.” Because she’d spent so much time with him before Mom got remarried and then moved him to California whether or not he wanted to go.

  “Brian, we may not have been close distance-wise in the past few years, but that doesn’t change anything. You’re my kid brother and I love you.”

  Uncomfortable now, he muttered, “And?”

  “And I don’t want to see you making a mistake—”

  “Well, just don’t worry about me, Kristen. Another couple months and I’ll be legal.”

  “I’ll always worry about you, Brian. I only want good things for you. For all of us.”

  He wasn’t going to let her get to him. He got up to leave, asking, “Is that it?”

  Her “No, Brian, it isn’t” stopped him. “You know there’s a midnight curfew for anyone under eighteen. If you get picked up—”

  “But I won’t be.”

  “Brian, please. What could you possibly be doing out so late? This isn’t a big city where things stay open all night.”

  “I’m just hanging with my friends.”

  “Where?”

  “Around.”

  “That’s not good enough, Brian. You can’t keep doing this.”

  His pulse began to tick faster. Did she know? “Doing what?”

  “You tell me.”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything, Kristen. You’re my sister, not my mother!”

  “You want me to call Mom?”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  If she did, Mom might make him fly back to California, and then he’d have to deal with the man she’d married again. Mike tried to act like he was his father…telling him what to do, how to act. In one fell swoop, Brian had gone from being the man of the house as Mom had told him so often, to being nothing but a kid who annoyed the new husband.

  “Look, Brian, I don’t want to be the bad guy here.” Kristen stepped close to him and touched his cheek. “I just want to make sure you’re safe and that you don’t do anything foolish that will get you into trouble.”

  Brian clenched his jaw and pulled his head away. “I’m not in trouble!” And he wasn’t falling for her nice routine.

  It sounded as if she did know what he and his friends had been doing, but for some reason she wasn’t saying so. So what if she knew? He hadn’t done anything wrong. Not really. He and Andy and Matt had just been messing with people’s heads. They hadn’t wrecked anything….

  “I don’t want to see you get arrested,” Kristen said.

  “I haven’t hurt anyone or stolen anything.”

  “What have you been doing in the middle of the night?”

  “Nothing!” He tore away from her and headed for the door. “If you don’t have anything else to say, I’m going to bed now.”

  “Brian, wait, please. If something is troubling you, if you need to talk, remember you can always come to me with anything.”

  Fat chance.

  The last thing in the world he’d do was give his by-the-book sister ammunition against him.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “IT’S A PERFECT day to play hooky,” Alex said, when he opened the car door for Kristen.

  Kristen admired the sleek black Jaguar convertible parked in front of Sew Fine. It looked like an older model, though it seemed to be in perfect condition. “Is this yours?”

  “It is,” he said as she slipped into the low passenger seat. “Why do you seem so surprised?”

  “I’ve only seen you driving your patrol car.”

  He swung her door shut. “But now I’m off the job.”

  If he’d been on the job every time she’d seen him in the past week, he must be working as many hours as she was.

  Kristen wiggled into the cushioned leather seat and buckled her seat belt, then glanced back at the store window where employees and customers alike watched. Heather’s face pulled into a big grin. Her sister had practically done a happy dance when Kristen had told her where she was going that afternoon. Good grief, they were just picking up Alex’s repaired window and having dinner before driving back to Sparrow Lake. It wasn’t like this was a big deal date or anything.

  Still, when Alex got behind the wheel, buckled himself in and started the engine, Kristen couldn’t help the flutter of expectation that ran through her veins. His light brown hair brushed his sunglasses, making him look more casual than usual. And more attractive. For once, he’d completely shed his police persona. She liked it.

  “You don’t mind if I leave the top down, do you?” Alex asked.

  “You’re kidding. Don’t you dare put up the top on such a gorgeous day!”

  He grinned at her. “Just trying to be considerate. Some women don’t like getting their hair messed up from the wind.”

  “Just drive.” She was looking forward to feeling the
wind in her hair.

  A warm summer breeze rustled the air as they took off down the street and headed out of town. But when they passed a trio of teenagers riding furiously on their bikes, Kristen’s excitement at having a fun afternoon warred with her continuing worry over her brother. Her stomach swirled as she thought about her early morning conversation with Brian. She’d tried to keep the conversation as nonconfrontational as she could. She hadn’t wanted to accuse him of anything, rather had tried to get him to volunteer information.

  And he hadn’t bitten.

  Had she approached her brother the wrong way? She wanted him to feel free to come to her, to tell her what was on his mind.

  Wishing she could talk to Alex about Brian, she didn’t know how to bring up the subject. She’d given him a hard time in the past when he’d tried warning her. Besides, Brian hadn’t confirmed anything. Her brother’s BuddyShare Network page worried her, but the boys had been vague about what they’d been up to. She’d found no proof of any actual wrongdoing.

  They were on the highway headed for Lake Geneva before Alex said, “Are you okay?”

  When he glanced at her as if to see for himself, she gave him a big smile. “I’m fine.” A small fib. She shoved her worry about Brian to the back of her mind, determined to enjoy the afternoon no matter what. “Just relaxing and soaking up the fresh air, something I can’t do in the shop.”

  It was a perfect day for an outing. Kristen was glad she’d dressed down—white capris, yellow sweater set and beige walking sandals. Sorry, Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. Can’t deal with your four-inch heels today. Knowing she would want to explore Lake Geneva on foot—she hadn’t been there since she was in high school but remembered it as a fun walking town—Kristen had decided to wear practical footwear, for once.

  Alex turned on the radio. “Any particular music you like?”

  A classic rock piece was playing.

  “Great guitar. That’s my kind of music.”

  Alex nodded. “Even if it was recorded before we were born.”

  Laughing together felt good.

  So did talking about preferences—not only music, but movies and art. She was enjoying getting to know Alex a little better. They had more in common than she’d ever imagined. She couldn’t believe how quickly the time passed. Before she knew it, they were in Lake Geneva and parking in back of a building a block off Main Street.