Page 40 of Return By Fire

I reach around the circular bench and yank my sister’s body against mine. “Jed isn’t going to run off to share your secrets.”

She bobs her head, but doubt is as plain as day on her face. “Still, that’s my only ask at this point. Don’t assume anything about Kevin without talking with me. He’s the only innocent in all of this.”

I stroke her cheek with the back of my hand. “Do you remember any of what I told you about the day Kevin was born?”

“Mostly I remember wishing Jennings would have hurt himself more when he fell on the log while at the Lumberjack show.”

I give a shout of laughter. “Yeah, me too.”

We exchange smiles. “Then let me remind you. You’re the bravest woman I know, Kara Beatrice Malone.”

“Most days, it’s a ‘fake it till I make it’ kind of attitude.”

“You don’t fake anything when it comes to loving Kevin, Kara. Anyone who has ever met him knows he’s had nothing but love supporting him.”

“In large part because of you, Dean. You helped raise Kevin as much as I did. That’s why I want Jed to meet him. Jed should get to know the child you helped mold into a young man any mother would be proud of.” She bites her lower lip. “You held us up together for so long.”

“That will never change just because Jed’s in the picture.”

“Yes, it will. It should,” she counters. “Besides, we’re in a good place—”

I interrupt. “You think with Jed in Kevin’s life you’re going to be alone? Quite the opposite. I suspect you will have two of us preventing you from doing this alone.”

She lets out a heartfelt groan I know is completely faked because pervasive relief sweeps across her face. “Kara?”

“Yes?”

“I’ll always be behind you but take a chance on what could be in front of you.” Her eyes widen at the reminder. This is advice I’ve given to her since she’s been a little girl—afraid of making a new friend, of reaching out for a new goal, almost skittish. All it took was someone who loved her nudging her, reminding her of the reward as well as the promise to boost her courage.

Now look where she is. Pride surges through me as I gaze down at my beautiful sister.

The waiter approaches with our lunch. I remark, “Life doesn’t stay the same forever.”

I’m almost certain I’m not supposed to hear her say, “No, but I wish certain moments could, just for a little longer.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Present Day

“When did you start to suspect it was serious between them?” Rainey asks me and Maris.

I hold out my hand like a gameshow host, gesturing for Maris to answer first. She takes a deep breath. “Not long after their date to Barbara Jean’s. Every other word out of Jed’s mouth was about Dean. They became inseparable. Kara?”

I let out an enormous breath. “Same. I knew Dean was falling because he wouldn’t take Jed to what we considered our family place unless he was starting to see Jed that way.” Drawing a pattern on my thigh, I admit, “I opened my eyes and did what I had to do.”

Rainey surreptitiously wipes a tear from her eye even as Meadow swallows with difficulty before asking, “Which was?”

My eyes meet Maris’s. I hold them when I say, “I removed what I thought was the final barrier between their happiness.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

My stomach is churning as I raise my hand to knock on Dean and Kara’s door the next evening.

I read all the emails Kara sent to Jennings, spoke to my sister who stubbornly informed me, “Now you know why I didn’t say anything.”

Hell, I’d even took a call from Jennings himself where he blathered on about an art gala he, “Scored a hot date, Jed. She’s a pharmaceutical rep.”

I even led him right where I needed him to go. “Hey, Jennings. I sent an email to you the other day you never replied to.” Lie. “Did you get it?”

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