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toward the nearest books. “I was hoping to find something on the history of Kings Meadow and the area.”
    Despite her wish to remain silent, she said, “Heather keeps those books up toward the front of the store.”
    â€œThanks. I’ll look there.” He touched his hat brim a second time. “Appreciate your help.” Then he walked away.
    Letting out a rush of air, Penny leaned a shoulder against the bookshelves.
    â€œGet used to seeing Trevor Reynolds around,” her dad’s voice whispered in her memory.
    How could she get used to it when seeing him made her feel this way? Angry and sad and weak and speechless, all at the same time. This was her hometown. What right had he to come into it and ruin whatever semblance of peace she might manage?

    Trevor stared at several shelves containing the local interest books, but his thoughts were in the back of the store and on the pretty blonde woman with the beautiful, pain-filled blue eyes. Penny Cartwright looked so much like Brad. The siblings could have been twins, if not for the years that had separated them.
    Penny blamed Trevor for her brother’s death. She’d made that clear. And he could even understand why. He should have insisted that he and Brad stop for the night at a motel rather than pushing on to their final destination. A gallon of coffee couldn’t have overcome the depth of exhaustion both men had felt that night.
    For a moment, he relived the terror he’d felt as his shoulder slammed into the front seats, jarring him awake. Beforehe could understand what was happening, he’d been tossed up, then down, then up again. Grinding, screeching, breaking sounds had deafened him. And then everything had stopped with an abruptness that stole the air from his lungs. Silence, followed by pain.
    With iron resolve, Trevor forced the memories back into a deep, dark corner of his mind. He ignored the aches in his body that still plagued him and drew in a deep breath through his nostrils. He let it out slowly through parted lips.
    Better. That was better.
    He reached for a book on the shelf at eye level and thumbed through the pages, scanning chapters and old black-and-white photographs without actually seeing them. Finally, he carried several books to the counter, paid for them, and left the bookstore.
    He paused on the sidewalk and checked his watch. Almost one o’clock. He had an appointment at one thirty to interview for a part-time job as a town maintenance man. From what little he’d been told about the position, it sounded perfect for him. One day he might be cleaning up at the high school after a tournament and the next blowing snow off the sidewalks along Main Street. And since it was part time, it would leave him free to do what he could to fulfill his promise to Brad.
    He turned right and set off walking in the direction of the mayor’s office. Kings Meadow, he’d discovered, wasn’t difficult to navigate. Streets tended to wind a bit rather than being laid out in straight lines, but they still ran in mostlyan east-west or a north-south direction. Block sizes weren’t uniform, but that gave the town character.
    Christmas decorations glimmered in shop windows along the way, reminding Trevor that he needed to do some shopping for his mom. She had urged him to come home to California for the holidays, but he’d declined. His heart told him Kings Meadow was where he needed to be this year. The belief didn’t make complete sense to him, but for a change he was going to pay attention to that small voice inside of him.
    It wasn’t long before the mayor’s office came into sight. It was a single-story building made of white brick, perhaps the size of most of the two-bedroom homes that had been built in the forties. When he opened the door, he heard a small electronic beep, alerting the two employees working in the front office that someone had entered. The woman at a desk off to the