“What you need, boy, is a fine-looking woman to take your mind off everything.” That had been Nathan’s solution, delivered sagely over a mug of ale.
Fine-looking women were Nathan’s solution to everything, up to and including global warming and the threat of an alien invasion. However, that wasn’t his solution, Kevin thought. Not even remotely.
He got up and shut off the television set and picked up the classifieds again. Maybe there was something he’d missed the first time.
Looks had never meant anything to him. Heart did. Heart and soul and patience. But all the women he’d known possessing those qualities had been taken long before now.
Besides, there wasn’t much chance of a woman like that showing up at his door, and that would be the only way he’d run into one. He didn’t believe in any of the conventional ways of “hooking up” with members of the fairer sex. That had never been his way. And now that he no longer occasionally drove a cab, there was absolutely no chance of his meeting anyone.
Kevin paused, trying to remember the last time he’d actually gone out on a date. Nothing came to him.
But dating, or finding a lifelong partner wasn’t why he was looking to put his newfound fortune into another business. He just wanted to be doing something. Something productive.
Anything productive.
He’d been out of the taxicab business for exactly five days and was going stir-crazy.
The phone rang and he grabbed the receiver like a drowning man grabbing at a twig floating by him in the river.
If it was a telemarketer on the other end, he thought, this was their lucky day. He was buying, as long as buying meant he could hear the sound of another person’s voice responding to his own.
“Hello?”
“Kev?”
Kevin could feel himself lighting up inside like a Christmas tree the instant he heard his sister’s voice on the other end of the line.
“Lily, how are you?” He bit back the desire to ask the next question that loomed in his mind in twenty-four-foot neon letters: Are you coming home? He already knew the answer to that. Asking wasn’t going to change it.
“I’m terrific, Kev. Better than terrific, I’m spectacular.”
He didn’t have to see her to know that she was positively glowing. So much for her throwing in the towel and deciding to move back to Seattle.
There was something else in her voice he recognized as well. “You’re getting married, aren’t you?”
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “God, but you’re good. How did you—?”
A small laugh escaped him. “I’ve had this conversation before. Twice,” he reminded her. “When Alison called to say she was marrying Luc and when Jimmy called to say he was staying on as a doctor in Hades and, oh, by the way, yes, he was getting married.”
If Jimmy, a guy known to his friends as the eternal happy bachelor could succumb to the charms of a homegrown native, Kevin had known in his heart that Lily wasn’t far behind. Especially when she’d called before to give him a detailed description of Max Yearling right down to his worn, size-ten boots. It was only a matter of waiting for the shoe to finally drop, that’s all.
Kevin knew he was happy for her, even as he was sad for himself. He did his best to sound cheerful. “So the sheriff makes you happy, does he?”
Lily sighed, contentment of a caliber he didn’t ever recall hearing before in her voice. “The way you wouldn’t believe.”
Kevin felt his mouth curving in a grin. “I don’t need details, Lily.”
“And you’re not getting any,” she informed him with a laugh. “But I want you to come up here. For the wedding. It’s in three weeks and I wouldn’t feel as if it’s official unless you’re here to give me away.”
He refrained from saying that no one had ever held on to her long enough to pretend that she was his to give away. Lily had been her own person from a very early age.
Yes, he thought, he really was going to miss her.
“I’d be proud to, Lily.”
He heard her clear her throat. Lily hated to get sentimental. “Now I know how you feel about getting away from the business, but maybe Nathan or Joe could take over while—”
He cut her off briskly. “Not a problem. I sold the business.” In response, he heard nothing but silence on the other end. Everything had happened so quickly he hadn’t even had time to tell any of them that he was thinking about selling, much less that he’d signed on the dotted line and made Quintano Cabs a thing of the past. “Lily, are you there?”
He heard her take in a sharp breath. “Yes, I guess the connection just went weird for a second. I thought I heard you say—”
He didn’t want to hear her say it. He couldn’t exactly explain why hearing one of his siblings give voice to what he’d done would make it that much more difficult to bear, but it did. “You did. I did.”
“But, Kevin, why?”
The last thing he wanted to do now was discuss what he’d impulsively done over the telephone. He needed to reconcile himself to today’s wrinkle first, then think about his late business.
“Seemed like the thing to do at the time.” He changed the topic. “Anyway, three weeks, eh? That’s really short notice. You’ve got a lot to do before then.”
“I know.” She sighed, as if trying to brace herself for what lay ahead. “I can manage—”
He suddenly knew what to do with himself. At least, for the next three weeks. “Especially with help. I’ll come up early.”
“How early?”
Unless he missed his guess, he’d managed to stun Lily twice in the space of two minutes. “I’m not doing anything right now. I’ll be there as soon as possible.” He was already walking toward the cabinet where he kept the phonebooks stashed. “Let me book a flight and then I’ll get back to you.”
Still very numb, Lily murmured a half-audible “Okay.”
“Great. Talk to you later. Bye.”
The line went dead. Lily let the receiver drop slowly as she turned around to face the rest of her family who were gathered in the room around her. Her brother and sister were there with their spouses, as well as Max and June, who absolutely refused to be left out of anything, family oriented or otherwise. Alison and Jimmy looked at her in surprise, clearly disappointed that they didn’t each get a chance to talk to Kevin on the phone.
Closest to her, Jimmy stared at the medical clinic telephone, one of the few in Hades that didn’t still possess a rotary dial. He raised his eyes to hers in protest. “You hung up.”
“He hung up first,” Lily muttered, still staring at the receiver and feeling as if a piece of the known world had just disappeared from her life.
Max came around to face her. “Lily, what’s the matter? Isn’t your brother coming?”
Slowly she nodded her head. Sold, the business was sold. Gone. Wow. She would have thought that the Space Needle would have wound up on eBay for an auction before Kevin would ever even consider selling the taxicab service.
“Oh, he’s coming all right.” Raising her eyes, she looked at the others.
“Then what’s the matter?” Max asked.
Lily’s eyes met his. “Kevin just told me he’s sold the business.”
“He did what?” Jimmy’s jaw went slack. He’d put in seven summers driving