Free Woodrose Mountain by RaeAnne Thayne Page A

him like he wanted to. The kid stared at him for a long moment then climbed back onto his mountain bike and pedaled away without taking the icy treat Hannah was reluctantly fixing for him.
    Brodie stood like an idiot for a moment watching after him, then shook his head. He tried to put the encounter out of his mind as he headed back to the van. This was a good day, right? Taryn was going home. That was the important thing, not some little shit with an entitlement complex.
    At the van, he slid open the left rear door—the one without the ramp—set his own shave ice in the drink holder and then scooped a spoonful of the sugary treat for Taryn.
    “Here you go, honey. Blue. Just like you wanted.”
    She gave that lopsided smile again, the one doctors warned him might be permanent, and opened her mouth for a taste.
    “Mmmm,” she said, so he gave her another one, wiping her face a little where some of the flavored ice dribbled out.
    “Is that good for now?” he asked after a few more tastes. “I can give you more when we get home.”
    “Yeah,” she answered, smiling again, and his heart ached with love for her. He hated that it had taken a tragic accident stunning the entire town to remind him how much.
    “Everything okay?” his mother asked when they were once more heading up the causeway toward his neighborhood above the main section of town.
    “Why wouldn’t it be?” He focused on the drive instead of the jumble of emotions he didn’t know what to do with. Anger at Charlie, love for his daughter, fury at this whole damn situation.
    “You seem tense.”
    In the rearview mirror, he could see Taryn gazing out the window, not paying attention to their conversation, so he decided to tell his mother the truth.
    “Charlie Beaumont was behind me in line at the shave-ice stand.” He pitched his voice low.
    Katherine didn’t seem to think this was all that earthshaking an event. “What did you do?”
    “He’s still in one piece, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    His mother’s smile had a bittersweet edge. “Glad to hear it. I think enough people have suffered from one boy’s foolish mistakes, don’t you?”
    Except Charlie. The kid hadn’t suffered one damn bit. By one of those weird quirks of physics and sheer stupid luck, he’d emerged from the accident completely unscathed—and Brodie was quite sure one part of him would never be content until the kid paid somehow for all the lives he’d ruined.
    * * *
    S HE COULD BE S WITZERLAND .
    Think the Matterhorn, lederhosen, those ten-foot-long trumpety thingies.
    Above all, neutrality.
    Evie stood inside the sprawling Thorne home, wondering at the delay. Katherine had texted her thirty minutes earlier to say they were arriving in Hope’s Crossing. They should have been here fifteen minutes ago but maybe they stopped somewhere along the route to enjoy the outpouring of support from the town.
    She wasn’t sure how word had trickled out but by now everybody seemed to know. Maybe the Chamber of Commerce had started a phone tree or something, because nearly every store in town had some kind of sign in the window or on their marquee and it seemed everyone who came into the store wanted to talk about Taryn’s homecoming.
    Evie only hoped Brodie would take that support in the light it was intended, as a manifestation of the good wishes of people in town and not as some expression of pity. Somehow she doubted the latter would sit well with him.
    “Can I get you something to drink while we wait? A soda or some tea?” Mrs. Olafson, Brodie’s scarily efficient housekeeper, hovered in the doorway. She was squat and apple-cheeked and had seemed stern at first glance. A bit on the terrifying side, actually, but Evie could see by her frequent glances down the driveway that the housekeeper was eagerly anticipating Taryn’s return.
    “I’m great,” she said, her tone gentle. “Why don’t you sit down and wait for her with me?”
    “I couldn’t. I should be