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were working for her? Do you know how unbelievable that is?”
    Yes. Yes, she did. “If your deed is real.”
    â€œOh, it’s real.” He spun her around, then held her still, looking at her for a long moment. “But what I want to know is, how a smart woman like you didn’t see through the crap.”
    Wasn’t that just the question. Maybe because she’d been too busy keeping them afloat. Everyone here had counted on her. Still did. They were her family. And then there was the fact that she’d believed she’d been doing Sally a favor, Sally who’d given her everything. “The deed should have been here. We had no indication otherwise. And if your deed is legit, what took you ten years to show up?”
    â€œYou know my father died.”
    â€œYes.” The day Sally went after him, as a matter of fact. Bo would have been just eighteen. And alone. And, she thought, remembering how close he’d been with his father, undoubtedly devastated. “I was very sorry to hear it.”
    His gaze met hers. “Despite what you thought of him?”
    â€œI wanted him gone, not dead. What about your mother?”
    â€œI’d been with Eddie since I was young.” There were memories in his gaze, unhappy ones, and her heart squeezed because she of all people understood unhappy memories.
    He’d been alone. Eighteen and alone. She didn’t want to think about that, or how it softened her, not when she stood so close she could breathe him in, feel the strength of him in his every line. “What did you do?”
    â€œI went into the military, and then to college. It wasn’t until I finally went home that I realized what had happened.”
    â€œWhich was?”
    â€œThat my father’s 1944 Beechcraft was gone, and so was his savings.”
    Leaving him with nothing. She didn’t want to think about that, either. “And you assume Sally took both?”
    â€œNot took. Conned.”
    â€œSally said your father conned her.”
    â€œI’m going to be able to prove my story,” he said. “Can you?”
    No. No, she couldn’t. “You have the quit deed. Possibly forged.”
    â€œNot forged,” he said tightly. “And in any case, it’s not worth anything close to the Beechcraft and the half a mil savings.” He looked around derisively. “From what I see, this place is worth a fraction of what I lost.”
    â€œSo what do you plan to do?” she asked, feeling a bit wary.
    â€œOh, no,” he said. “Now you. Where’s Sally, Mel?”
    She shook her head, reaching behind her for the handle. But he followed her out into the hall, and naturally, Ernest chose that moment to come back through with his damn cart, slowing at the midway point, watching them curiously.
    At a long look from Mel, he sighed and kept moving, cart clanking. God . She had to get Bo out of here before he started waving that deed around. In spite of his saying otherwise, she didn’t trust him not to claim to own everything and everyone, inciting a general panic.
    But the minute Ernest vanished around the corner, Al appeared, and by the look on his face, Mel knew Charlene had sent him to eavesdrop.
    Damn it. North Beach Airport gossip could rival any small town in the country for fast-traveling news. Clearly, an APB had been put out. Get news on the stranger . With a frustrated sigh, she put her hands on Bo’s chest to shove him back into her office.
    But as she already knew, the man couldn’t be budged unless he chose to be. Trying to choose for him was like trying to move a two-ton bull. A damned stubborn one. “In here,” she said with another useless push, exceedingly aware of the heat and hard strength of him beneath her palms as she listened to Ernest’s cart coming their way again. Crap . “Hurry—”
    â€œWhy, darlin’,” Bo murmured, bending his head so that his jaw