Free HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN by Tina Leonard Page A

bag?” His sister stood, reached for her coat and backpack.
    “Whose joint is this, anyway?” He glanced around one final time. It was a great place for a honeymoon—if two people wanted to be alone together. Sawyer hadn’t wanted that.
    “It’s Grandfather’s,” Ash said, sounding surprised.
    Jace took further stock of the cabin. “It can’t be. It’s too frilly.”
    She smiled. “Poor Grandfather. Don’t you think he has a life of his own?”
    Jace looked at her. “What are you trying to tell me?”
    “Close your eyes.”
    His sister was trying his patience, but he complied.
    “What do you feel?” she asked softly.
    “Pissed.”
    “Besides that. Look beyond your own emotions.”
    He focused on the smell of the cabin, the feel of the hot mug in his hand, the sense of home that pervaded every corner of the small house. “A woman lives here. A happy, contented woman.” He opened his eyes.
    Ash smiled at him. “Yes, she does.”
    “Who?”
    “You’re older than me. You have to remember more.” She slung her backpack over her shoulder. “It’s time to go.”
    He followed his sister out, glanced behind him one last time, then locked the door. After putting the key back under the board where he had found it, he stared at the cabin a moment longer, its presence in the wooded mountain joyfully framed by the sun. Icicles hung from the eaves, and in the sky overhead, a hawk soared.
    He looked at Ash. “Our parents?”
    She smiled. “I don’t know where our parents are. I only know I feel their spirits here.”
    Jace followed her to the truck and they got in. “Grandfather told you something.”
    “He told me that the cabin is the family’s. That it’s vacant right now because it always is in winter. Winter can be harsh on the mountain.”
    Jace drove slowly through the snow. “It’s not the winter that’s harsh here. It’s the loneliness and solitude.”
    “That’s right.”
    He was amazed by his sister’s knowledge. She always seemed sort of otherworldly—had from the time she was born. “Did you even try to talk Sawyer into staying?” He’d liked to have told Sawyer about his parents. They’d never mentioned their families to each other. He had a faint memory of his mother and father; as the second eldest, he’d been old enough to remember when they’d gone.
    It had been like a knife wound in his heart that hadn’t eased for years. For so long he’d felt deserted, betrayed, angry. He’d known why they had to leave, but he was still angry at the people who’d made them go.
    The same people for whom Sawyer had been wearing a wire. Betrayal and anger ripped through him again. “How could Sawyer do it?”
    “Family is important to her.”
    “Damn it, I’m supposed to be her family. We’ve made a family together!”
    “Easy, hoss,” Ash said. “No one ever said our lives were going to be easy. The path isn’t straight, with magical road maps.”
    “I know that.” He knew that only too well.
    “We are all on the journey, even Sawyer.”
    He grunted. “You’re starting to sound more like Running Bear all the time.”
    “I hope so,” she said softly, so softly that he glanced at her curiously.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing,” Ash said. “It’s just that sometimes I know I’m not as good as Sawyer is. Or even my brothers. I’m the misfit in this family.”
    “Ash!” Jace was completely stunned by her words. “You’re not a misfit at all!”
    “I’m going to sleep,” she said, sticking her backpack under her head for a pillow. “Wake me when we cross the state line.”
    “Why the state line?”
    “Because it’s important to see where I’ve been and where I’m going.”
    Jace was bothered by her words, but not really certain why. He should be angry with her, yet he wasn’t. In a way, she’d helped him and Sawyer. Ash was right: Sawyer’s confession had changed everything. They needed time to absorb the new twists in their relationship. He still