Free Shattered Justice by Karen Ball

would.”
    Okay. Dan was more surprised. “You did?”
    The sheriff shrugged. “Just seemed a good fit. From what I hear, it’s a nice little town. Great place to raise kids. And it’s in the middle of the mountains.”
    He picked up his pen and waved it in the air. “You’re always spouting off about how the valley’s getting too full of people.” He turned back to the report he’d been reading. “Can’t hurt to check it out.”
    Nope. Couldn’t hurt at all.
    The second confirmation came that evening, when Dan got home and sat the kids down to tell them what he was considering. When he’d given them all the information, he waited, not sure what to expect. Questions? Maybe. Resistance? Possibly. Anxiety? He wouldn’t be surprised—
    “What’s the name of the town?”
    Dan searched his daughter’s face for signs of apprehension, resistance. He saw only curiosity. And a glimmer of something else … something he couldn’t quite pinpoint. “Sanctuary.”
    “Ohh—” that indefinable emotion deepened, bringing a warm glow to her chocolate eyes—“I like that.”
    Understanding dawned. Hope. That’s what Dan saw in her eyes. Hope.
    “Me, too.”
    Aaron agreeing with his sister? “You do?”
    The boy stuck his feet straight out in front of him, wiggling them. “Yeah. Sanctuary.” He repeated the town name, as though seeing how it fit not only on his lips, but in his heart. “It sounds like, I don’t know …”
    “Like home.”
    Aaron glanced at his sister, apparently letting her words roll around in his head, then nodded, a smile tiptoeing across his mouth. “Yeah.” He looked at Dan. “It does. It sounds like home.”
    Dan leaned back in his chair. Okaaay … God
had
to be at work here. His children never agreed on anything.
    Not ever.
    Clearly, he was witness to a miracle.
    Dan called personnel the next day, and a Realtor the day after that. The job was his in three weeks. His house sold in four.
    Before he knew it—less than two months after asking his sisters to pray—Dan stood on the front lawn of the home he and Sarah had shared, surveying the loaded moving truck.
    Kyla stood next to him, patting her brow with a mono-grammed handkerchief. She’d taken over the second Dan arrived with the moving van, orchestrating them all with precision and authority.
    The woman was born to commandeer.
    Normally Dan would have given her a run for her money—he was bigger and taller than she; he was sure he could take her—but today he was grateful that someone else took control. He had all he could handle dealing with the grief that kept popping up, seizing his heart and superseding his ability to make logical decisions.
    “Well—” Kyla folded her handkerchief into a precise square and slid it into her pocket—“I think that’s everything.”
    “It’d better be. I don’t think there’s an inch more of room in that truck.”
    His sister’s one raised brow warned him a reprimand was coming. “Well, I
did
tell you to get the larger truck.” She gave a little sniff. “I do similar kinds of things for a living, Avidan. One day I hope you’ll actually listen to me.”
    “Only if he’s totally lost his mind.”
    They both turned, Dan to grin at Annie and Kyla to glare at her offending sister. Annie responded to the reprimand by sticking her tongue out.
    Kyla drew back. “How lovely, Annot.
There’s
a picture to capture in stained glass.”
    Annie was the picture of wide-eyed innocence. “Ya think? Hmm, it just might work.” She struck a pose, her tongue sticking out. “Take a picture of me?”
    Dan stepped around the two women, shaking his head. “I’d like to say I’m going to miss these little exchanges between you two …”
    Annie’s goofy face evaporated. “Aw, that’s so sweet.”
    He reached the front door of the now empty house. “I’d
like
to, but I can’t.” He winked at them. “ ’Cuz I won’t.”
    Dan stepped inside, closing the door against Annie’s