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the one leg.” He took his hat off as he spoke, revealing the mess that had inspired Mitch to talk him into a trip into town.
    “In the wash chair,” she said, snapping open a clean cape. After Josh settled into the chair, she handed Mitch the crutches, draped the cape over Josh and turned on the water. “Lean back.”
    Mitch grabbed a tattered snowmobiling magazine from 2008 out of one of the chairs and sat down, but he glanced over at the wash chair as Katie worked up a thick lather of shampoo in his brother’s hair. Josh made a low moaning sound in his throat, and Mitch watched as heat in the form of a rosy blush crept up Katie’s neck. Interesting.
    And not his business. He’d always thought of Katie as an almost-sister. Rose had started working at the Northern Star the year Katie was born because his mom didn’t mind if she brought the baby along in a sling. She’d practically grown up at the lodge with them.
    But it didn’t look as though she thought of Josh as an almost-brother, that was for sure. And he didn’t want to know any more about it, so he stood and tossed the magazine back on the chair. “Looks like you’re going to be a while.”
    Katie snorted. “I’m going to wash his hair twice, then give him a good trim. I’ll give him a nice hot towel shave, too, and maybe he’ll look human again.”
    “I’m going to take a walk, then. If I’m not back when you’re done, text me.”
    She nodded and Josh ignored him, so he stepped out into the sunshine and debated on a destination. He could walk down to the Whitford General Store & Service Station to say hi to Fran and Butch Benoit. Or he could walk to the bank and transfer some funds into the Northern Star Lodge’s account. Maybe take some of the weight off Josh’s shoulders.
    He hadn’t built a successful business, though, by throwing good money after bad. If the lodge was really in trouble and it wasn’t going to be able to support itself in the long run, a monetary transfusion was a temporary fix. They needed a plan, and then they could work out how to pay for it.
    Aimlessly walking down the sidewalk to avoid standing in one spot like an idiot, Mitch let his mind wander to the Northern Star. And to Josh. He’d changed since the last time Mitch had seen him, and not in a good way. And, while a broken leg wasn’t exactly fun, the change in his mood and general outlook on life went deeper than that. More important than helping out while Josh healed and figuring out the lodge’s finances was figuring out why his brother was turning bitter.
    When he got to the town park—the small one tucked in next to the hardware store, not the big one with the playground equipment and bandstand—he spotted Paige Sullivan sitting on a bench, and he pushed Josh to the back of his mind temporarily.
    She was sitting sideways, with her feet tucked under her and one arm hooked over the back of the bench. In the other hand was a paperback, and she didn’t look up until he sat down next to her. “Mind if I join you?”
    When she almost dropped her book, he felt guilty for startling her, but then she smiled. After marking her page with her library card, she tucked the book into a canvas bag on the ground next to her. It had the Whitford Public Library logo on the front and appeared to be straining at the seams.
    “I only meant to sit here a minute, but it’s so nice out and I pulled out a book.” She looked at her watch. “And there goes an hour.”
    “There are worse ways to spend an hour. Did you leave any books for the rest of us?”
    She laughed. “I don’t have cable, so I read while everybody else is watching TV.”
    “I don’t read as much as I’d like to. There are a few thriller writers I like, so I download their books to my phone and sneak pages when I can.”
    “My cell phone makes calls and that’s it. I have to have internet for the diner and, since I spend most of my life there, I don’t need to carry it around with me.”
    He leaned