The days passed in a blur. Rose spent more time at the office and less time at the McBride house, though, strangely, every time she went to the cottage to check on her father, there was no sign of Jackson. It was as though he had vanished, but the rest of the family was still there. If she hadn't seen his shoes outside the front door one day—black Vans caked in mud—she might have inferred that he'd left town. It was a strange comfort that he hadn't, though she was still furious about his strangely passive reaction to his father.

The weather retreated, the blistering heat abating for a few days, but the reprieve was short-lived. By Saturday, the sun was blazing again, and the dogwood trees on First Avenue were bejewelled with blossoms, their white petals strewn across the street like a lacy white blanket.

Rose parked at the end of First Avenue and walked to Lucy's Coffee Shop on the corner. She paused just inside, looking around. The bell tinkled, admitting someone else behind her. She turned to find Lily had arrived.

"Hey, Lil."

Lily gave her a squeeze. "Hey, sis. I hope you don't mind. I brought—"

Mom swept into the café in a breezy caftan. "Rose, darling. You look tired."

Rose inhaled deeply, then held her breath for a moment to quell her irritation before she said dryly, "Thanks, Mom."

"I'm just saying, dear. You're not getting your beauty sleep." Mom put her hands on Rose's shoulders, then kissed her cheeks in rapid succession. "You're gone when I get up, and you're home late. You'll burn out."

Rose shrugged her off. "I have things to do."

"Don't be too busy for living."

Rose screwed up her face and looked at Lily imploringly.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Who wants a latte?"

Rose followed her sister up to the till while Mom found a table on the sidewalk patio.

"Tell me she's going home soon," Rose muttered.

Lily shook her head. "Michael won't let her. I think this is for real. I keep encouraging Mom to sign the divorce papers and move on, but she's waffling on it." She elbowed Rose in the ribs and snickered. "I think she likes staying with you."

Rose scoffed. "Because we get along so well?"

"You're going to have to figure it out. I can't stay here forever."

"What?" Rose furrowed her brow and looked at her sister. "You can't leave."

"I have a life in the city, Rose."

Rose sputtered, searching Lily's face. Her sister looked sullen—a far cry from her usually cheeky, gregarious disposition.

"Did something happen?"

Lily tossed her blond hair. "It's nothing I can't handle. I just—I can't run away from my problems forever. I have to go back to the gallery sooner or later."

"What problems?" Rose frowned with concern. "I'm sorry, Lil. With everything that's been going on, I haven't been there for you. We should talk."

"If I'm supposed to talk about my problems," said Lily with an arched brow, "then I want to hear about Jackson."

Rose opened her mouth to retort, but the barista interrupted them by coming to the till. Rose sighed internally as Lily ordered their drinks. As they waited for their order, she stole glances at her sister. Lily's shoulders were sloped under the weight of some private burden.

"Lil."

Lily's features softened. "Let's just have a nice time with Mom, okay? We'll talk later."

Rose nodded. When Lily made up her mind about something, she was difficult to sway. They joined their mother at the table and found her humming airily to herself.

"Thank you, dear." Mom took her latte from Rose. She looked across the street, toward the hardware store. "How is Herman Huang? Do you see much of him?"

Rose took a seat. "He's good, Mom. He comes to every council meeting."

"He's a widower, isn't he?"

"Please don't make Mr. Huang your next conquest," Rose said, groaning. "He's a very nice man. Whatever happened to that biology teacher from the Trib?"

Mom waved her hand in the air as though dismissing the thought. "Dan's a nice fellow, but he's too uptight for me." She leaned forward, eyes widening as she grasped her latte in both hands. "Between you and me, he's a bit of a stiff in the bedroom."

Lily snickered while Rose made a face.

"Mom," Rose protested, pushing her latte away.

Lily's shoulders shook. "I mean, I would have thought being a stiff in the bedroom was a good thing, but..."

"Lily!" Rose tried to scowl, but her lips twitched with suppressed laughter. "Both of you. We're in public."

Mom leaned back in her chair and lifted her chin. "Oh, Rose. A mother is a woman, too."

Rose shook her head and looked away, out at the street. She was well aware of her mother's womanhood. Too aware, in fact. As she watched the foot traffic go by, she spied Decker down the block by the bank. She scowled at his back as he trotted up the steps and into the building.

Mom followed her gaze. "Speaking of stiffs."

Rose furrowed her brow at her mother. "Alex Decker?"

Mom huffed and arranged her long sleeves as she folded her arms. "Yes. Do you know he stood me up three times before I married Michael?"

Rose cocked her head. "No. I didn't know that. When was this, exactly?"

"He was mayor at the time. Two or three years ago. It was the strangest thing. Every time we went on a date, he had to make a stop somewhere."

"He did?" Rose arched her brows. "Where?"

"Oh, just somewhere. The bank, his storage unit, the airport."

"The airport? What for?"

"He never did say."

"That's not even on the way to anything." Rose rubbed her chin. "I wonder what he was doing."

Mom shrugged. "I don't know. But I can tell you he always paid in cash wherever we went, which I found a little odd. Who carries cash all the time?"

Rose's mouth dropped open. "Did he, now!" She leaned back, rested her arm on the back of her chair, and gazed at the bank where Decker had disappeared. "That is kind of odd. Did you notice anything else unusual about him, Mom?"

"Aside from his strange aversion to pleasuring a woman, no." Mom smiled tightly. "Mark my words, girls. A man who is selfish in bed will be selfish in other ways as well."

Rose groaned as she tried to push the mental image of Decker doing anything sexual out of her mind. "That's not what I meant, but...noted. Thank you."

Lily piped up. "Why all these questions about this Decker guy?"

Rose rubbed her eyes. "I don't know. Just a feeling. He's very interested in the McBrides' presence, and it makes my Spidey-senses tingle. There's something off about him. I just haven't had a chance to investigate it."

"Well, I'm not surprised," said Mom. "He certainly had a hard-on for the airport."

"Mom, please." Rose shook her head, then paused, considering her mother's words.

Decker did have a keen interest in the McBrides, and if there was one thing the boys were famous for in Dogwood—aside from their boyhood shenanigans—it was Maple Airlines. Rose rubbed her lip, thinking. Perhaps it was time she paid a visit to the airport manager.

Lily elbowed her in the ribs. "Rose, focus. You're not on the clock."

She blinked and came back down to Earth. Lily and Mom were staring at her expectantly.

"What? What'd I miss?" asked Rose.

Lily sighed. "Nothing. Look, I need to go make a phone call. You two amuse yourselves. I'll be back in a few."

Rose settled back into her seat as Lily got up from the table. She stared at her mother. Mom smiled at her brightly, seemingly unaware of the racing thoughts her offhand comments had riled up.

"Um..." Rose searched for something to say. "So, when are you signing the divorce papers?"

Mom smiled pleasantly. "Let Michael stew. You don't mind my company, do you?"

Rose bit her lip to keep from screaming.

Later, after they'd finished their coffees, Rose bid them goodbye and drove through town toward the highway. She cracked the windows and let her hair fly back from her face. It was a perfect summer day outside: hot as hell and not a cloud in the sky.

She tried to focus on the task at hand, but her thoughts kept drifting to Jackson. It would have been a good day to dip their feet into the creek like when they were kids. Of course, since their showdown last week outside the McBride house, he had left her alone. He hadn't even tried to patch things up. She sighed. For some reason, it bothered her. Salt in the cut.

She shook herself and refocused on the road, her brows knitting together. She wasn't sure why she should be so downtrodden about the whole Jackson affair when she had no interest in marrying him. Let him find his Dogwood wife.

Suddenly, she shuddered, the thought of Jackson marrying another woman leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. Her vision blurred with tears as she clenched the steering wheel with both hands.

The airport came into view as the highway curved alongside the river. She signalled, then turned into the parking lot and turned off the engine. She slumped in her seat miserably with the keys in her lap.

She did not want to marry Jackson. They'd spent fourteen years apart, they had nothing in common anymore, and she didn't love him. She squeezed her eyes shut, pushing away the niggling voice that wanted to protest. She shook her head. She didn't. That kiss had been a mistake. Whatever she felt for Jackson, it wasn't love.

Though if it wasn't love, she wasn't sure why it hurt so damned much.

She pressed her fingertips to her eyelids and inhaled deeply. When she was sure she wouldn't cry, she climbed out of the Bronco and slammed the door harder than was necessary. As she strode into the airport, she caught a glimpse of herself in the sliding glass doors, and she rubbed the furrow between her brows.

It took some talking to find the airport manager. As a town employee, he worked in the back offices instead of out front with the airline staff.

"Mr. Brar," she said, extending her hand when he came out into the airport commons to greet her.

He smiled. "Call me Sukh, please. What can I do for you, Mayor?"

He was a tall, lean man in a light grey suit and yellow turban. His black beard had a hint of grey. He'd come on the town payroll after Rose, so she'd interacted with him little beyond receiving reports from his office—and to her knowledge, those mostly came through the airport clerk—but he'd always seemed kind at their rare meetings. Still, he was a busy man, and she felt terrible taking him away from his desk for what amounted to little more than a hunch.

"Call me Rose," she said, smiling. "I'm sorry to bother you, Sukh. I was hoping you could answer a few questions."

"Fire away," he said, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. "It's nice of you to visit our little outpost."

"Of course." She cocked her head. "Is that something the old mayor did often?"

Sukh shook his head. "I only know what I've heard, since I came on after you, but yeah, I gather he did."

Rose's brows knit together. "And that stopped when I was elected?"

Sukh tilted his head. "As far as I know. Why do you ask?"

She sighed. "I don't know. Just...a feeling. Between you and me, I've had some issues with Alex Decker. I was hoping you could shed some light on his interest in the airline."

Sukh pushed away from the wall. "I'm honestly not sure, Rose. Things are running as smooth as a top out here as far as I can tell, and I haven't seen him hanging around, if that's what you're asking. I will say it's a little—"

He cut off, and his lips thinned.

"What is it?" asked Rose.

Sukh hitched up his shoulders. "Listen, I'm not here to tell you how to do your job, but I was going to say it's a little odd that Maple Airlines doesn't pay a higher lease. I just figured it was the town's way of sweetening the pot, so to speak. I'm sure it'd be hard to attract another airline to Dogwood if they ever go. But this isn't my first management role, and honestly, I'm surprised. That's all."

Rose blinked at him. "The lease is quite low?"

He nodded. "Yeah. It is. Do you know why?"

She shook her head. "I have no idea."

"Well, something to look into, maybe." He rubbed his bearded cheek. "I don't want to step on anyone's toes, though. This is finance department stuff."

"Please," said Rose. "By all means. Look into it. You'd be doing me a favour."

"All right. I will." He grinned at her. "Now, I hate to say it, but I'm a busy man. If there's nothing else...?"

She returned his smile. "I can take a hint. Thanks, Sukh."

He nodded to her. "See you around, Mayor."

As Rose left the airport and drove the Bronco down the highway, she felt lighter. It was good to have allies, and something about Sukh made him seem trustworthy. She looked at the clock on her phone and grimaced. There was still time to go out to the McBride house, but she was torn. Lily clearly needed her, but so did Dad.

She heaved a sigh of frustration as she rolled through town. Instead of turning off toward her own house, she accelerated past the town proper, then turned off onto the backroads. She lifted her chin. So what if she ran into Jackson? She had a right to be at the McBride house, too. It was just as much her home as it was his. Hell, she'd spent more time on the grounds than Jackson had. She bounced in her seat as the Bronco rolled over the bumpy backroad. Steeling herself for the reunion, she pressed down on the gas pedal until the McBride house came into view.