Free Harbor Lights by Sherryl Woods Page A

readily. “Usually when something’s wrong.”
    His lips quirked up at that. “Okay, you got me there. Look, it’s nothing for you to worry about. My mood has nothing to do with you.”
    “You’re here, so it does affect me,” she told him.
    “I could leave.”
    “Now you’re being ridiculous,” she said irritably. “I don’t want you to leave. I want you to talk to me.”
    “Shanna, I appreciate the concern. I really do, but you don’t get to try to fix what’s wrong with me. Believe me, others have tried and failed.”
    “So, you’re a real hard case, is that it?”
    Again, his lips twitched. “Something like that.”
    “You know, I’m actually a good listener,” she said, not sure why she was so determined to get to the bottom of his mood. “I don’t even have to offer any advice, though that might be a test of my willpower.”
    He laughed then, which was a breakthrough of sorts. She grinned back at him. “That’s better.”
    “Can we consider your work here done?” he asked hopefully.
    “For the moment. Laughter really is the best medicine, don’t you think so?”
    He gave her a somber look, then. “If only it were that easy,” he murmured, putting aside his coffee cup and standing up. “I’m going to finish with these books now.”
    She watched as he went back to the task, deliberately shutting her out.
    “You might take a look at a couple of those books on positive thinking,” she called out as she went back to her own section of the store.
    To her delight, he laughed again.
    Maybe, she thought, if she worked at coaxing that laugh out of him, in time it would get easier. It might not chase away all his demons, but it could be a start.
    She sighed at the thought. Here she was again, trying to save a wounded soul. She thought of her ex-husband.She’d worked so hard to try to save him from himself, convinced that she could make things better for him and his son, but in the end alcohol had won.
    It had taken a very long time, but she knew now it had never even been a fair fight.

5
    W ith all of the physically demanding work finished at Shanna’s store, Kevin needed to find an excuse to be away from the house over the weekend, so he could avoid an encounter with his mother. Despite his father’s willingness to let bygones be bygones, Kevin wasn’t interested in a reconciliation with the woman who’d left them. It still shocked him that his sisters seemed to be mellowing toward their mother, especially Jess, who’d suffered the most when she’d gone.
    Friday evening, assured that Davy was welcome to spend the night at Abby’s, he’d called Jake and scheduled a guys’ night out with him, Will and Mack. The quick agreement to the last-minute suggestion was one of the few benefits of having everyone worried about him. Bree had immediately given Jake her blessing to join the outing. Apparently she considered the invitation to Jake a sign that Kevin was finally on the mend.
    Kevin wondered what she would have thought if she’d known how little he’d had to say all evening. Jake and Mack had filled the conversational gaps, while Will had studied him with way too many speculative looks. That was the risk of having a shrink for a friend, though Willwas halfway decent about waiting to be asked for any kind of advice. If Kevin had been in a better frame of mind, he might have chuckled at the number of times he caught Will practically biting his tongue to keep silent.
    Since Kevin had nursed a single beer most of the evening and gotten home early, he was up barely after dawn on Saturday and heading for Abby’s a half hour later. He was fairly confident that he’d be long gone before anyone else in the house awoke. He hadn’t formulated a plan for the rest of the day, but he definitely wouldn’t be spending it here waiting for his mother to pounce with advice or comfort.
    Unfortunately, he’d just stepped off the porch, when he spotted his mother crossing the lawn, obviously returning