Read Northern Exposure: Compass Brothers, Book 1 for Free Online Page B

out of here.”
    “Son of a bitch.” Colby crashed his fist into the rough-hewn rail, regretting it as a spike of sensation traveled through his knuckles. “I fucked up, JD. Shit, I’m sorry. All these years. It’s my fault he left. You knew, and you didn’t kick me out?”
    “Don’t go getting stupider than you’ve already been, son.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” He shook the sting from his hand.
    “You three kids have been pissing away time like it goes on forever.” JD rubbed his side, a gesture Colby had spied him making a few times lately. “Quit screwing around and set things straight. Whatever it takes. You’re only given so long around this place. Use it well.”
    A million other questions tumbled through Colby’s mind, but by the time he recovered, JD had already handed his horse to Jake—who worked the stable this morning—then headed inside to his wife. Despite Vicky’s spine of steel, she probably wished for her husband at her side. Colby hoped his marriage, and Lucy’s attachment to him, was half as strong as the extraordinary relationship JD had forged with his woman.
    Anything less would make the fledgling plans kicking around in his brain unravel in a heartbeat. Phase one entailed corralling Lucy alone. Isolated from the herd of folks gathering on the front porch bearing pies, and hoping for extra gossip, as the news spread.
    Less than a half hour had passed since their lives flipped inside out yet several pickups already cluttered the yard. The drone of more engines approaching along the winding drive from the main road, a few miles in the distance, insured extra casseroles and gossip headed this direction.
    Colby should have realized the flaw in his plan when he had to stop twice on the way to the house. “Is there anything I can do?” Cindi, the cute bookkeeper who worked from a little office in the barn, stepped in front of him, swiping a stray lock of hair beneath the pencil wound in her hair.
    “How about putting together a list of supplies from Lucy? She might need equipment we don’t have here and can’t find in town.”
    “Good idea. I have it covered. We’re expecting a shipment tomorrow morning from Laramie. I’ll make sure anything else comes with it.”
    “Great, thanks.” He accepted her hug but didn’t make it more than ten feet before he bumped into Leah Hollister.
    “Whoa.” Colby snagged the covered dish about to smash on the rocky yard.
    “Nice catch, foreman.” Compton Pass’s sweet kindergarten teacher reclaimed the dish with a sad smile. She refused to let him help her carry it, always trying to prove herself. Someday he’d ask her why that was. “Are you hanging in?”
    “Yeah. Need to find Lucy, though.” He kept one hand on her elbow as they climbed the stairs. Such a tiny thing couldn’t possibly see where she stepped around the comfort food she’d carted over in record time. How the hell did women do that?
    “I think you missed her. She ran past while you were talking to Cindi. Said she was headed to the storage shed to dig out a few of Silas’s things.” The door opened before they reached it. Someone piled Leah’s offering with the rest. The crowd swallowed her before he could slip another word in edgewise. He tried to break out, follow Lucy. No use. Someone else interrupted. Damn!
    And so it went.
    Despite valiant attempts, he didn’t manage to isolate his wife until after midnight. All day, prying eyes and pointed comments had eroded his confidence. Lucy’s infatuation with Silas had been no secret growing up. The entire community wondered what would happen if the chemistry zinged between her and Silas when the pair reunited at last.
    Colby most of all.
    What if she only wanted Si? Nothing—no one—more?
    It had damn near killed Colby not to chase after Silas and beg him to come home. Survival without both halves of his soul would prove impossible. Only Lucy had made Silas’s abandonment bearable.
    Sometime in the last