Free The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber Page B

would be distracting.
    Interrupting his thoughts, Michelle asked, “You ready to slay the dragon?” She seemed anxious to let the comment slide as well.
    Josh had never thought of himself as a dragon slayer, but he liked the analogy. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
    Grabbing his jacket he walked with Michelle across the yard toward Richard’s home. Josh noticed that the house was showing a lot of disrepair. The gutters needed to be cleared and it looked like it was well past time to have the roof checked for leaks. The siding could use a paint job as well.
    Richard had always been a stickler about keeping the house and yard neat—he’d taken great pride in it.
    It seemed his stepfather had given up on just about everything after Dylan’s death. The neglect also said that Richard had been unwell for a long while.
    Michelle didn’t bother to do more than politely knock before she opened the door and let herself into the house.
    “Richard, it’s me,” she called out as she led the way inside.
    “
He’s
not with you, is he?” Richard called.
    By
he
, Richard must mean Josh.
    “I’m here,” Josh shouted back, trying to keep it light.
    They found Richard in the family room, sitting in his recliner, his feet up and his legs covered by a knitted afghan. It was the dark blue one his mother had knit the year before she died. Josh remembered how she’d struggled with getting the cables all to face the same direction. Funny how little things like that stuck in his mind like a protruding nail in a floorboard, catching on things. For an instant Josh experienced a sense of overwhelming loss. He was a man of well over thirty, but he missed his mother. He shook it off before either Richard or Michelle could see his sadness.
    “What do you want now?” Richard demanded. His voice was gruff and weak, as if he’d wanted to shout but didn’t have the strength or the breath to manage it.
    “Just a couple of things that belonged to my mother,” Josh said, keeping his voice level and calm.
    “Like what?”
    “Her cameo.” His mother had worn it nearly every day. She’d loved the small broach that had been passed down to her from her mother.
    Richard frowned and shook his head as if to say he didn’t remember any cameo. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Josh was convinced his stepfather had gotten rid of it just to spite him. “This cameo,” he clarified and grabbed a photo of Richard and his mother off the bookcase and handed it to Richard. “See, there on her blouse. It belonged to her before she married you and I’d like to have it to remember her by.”
    Richard stared at the framed photograph for a long time before he answered. “I buried your mother with the pin … I didn’t think.”
    Josh frowned. He tried to remember seeing his mother inside the casket and couldn’t recall what she’d been wearing or the jewelry she’d had on at the time.
    “The funeral director would have given it back to you,” he insisted. “Right along with her wedding ring.”
    Richard stared back at him and slowly shook his head. “I … I don’t know where it is, and even if I did …”
    Josh didn’t stay to hear anything more. Not even five minutes inside the door and his temper was ready to explode. The two of them couldn’t be in close proximity without an angry outburst.
    “Where are you going now?” Richard called after him.
    Josh ignored the question and headed up the stairs to what had been his bedroom at one time. He heard footsteps behind him and he knew Michelle was trailing after him. Being in Cedar Cove again was proving to be so much more difficult than he’d ever anticipated.
    “Josh?” Michelle reached him just before he entered his old room.
    He heaved in a deep breath in order to center himself. His emotions had gone from grief to anger so quickly that even he was shocked. This entire trip had him on an emotional roller coaster. Josh wasn’t accustomed to dealing with these sharp