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regardless of how she acted.
    "Does she party?" Shayla threw her arm around Nova's shoulders. "Heck yeah, she parties. Who has the drinks?"
    Emmett looked away and grinned. None of the losers had a beer to their name. Not on the twenty-eighth day of the month. His liquor sat on a shelf in his bedroom where the assholes wouldn't find it.
    Over the next couple of hours, he enjoyed the conversations, the insults, the memories each one of them recounted as the night grew later. He'd joined the men closer to the burning barrel as the mountain chill laid down on all of them while keeping Nova in his view opposite the fire.
    "The back corner blocks of old man Stuart's trailer are sinking again." Nick pulled out a cigarette from the inside of his coat and lit the end while the others were distracted.
    "I'll check it out tomorrow after work." Emmett picked up a couple of pieces of dry lumber scraps left over from repairing Ms. McKinley's carport and tossed them on the fire. "Spring thaw shifts the ground each year on the back loop. One of these years, Stuart's going to wake up and find his house tipped off its blocks."
    Half the mobile homes in the park had sat on their lot since before the seventies. The next generation of residents had their hands full keeping the rotting floors and leaking roofs from ruining the only home they'd ever own. Emmett stepped back from the smoke. He'd moved into his trailer at twenty years old when an elderly woman decided to move in with her daughter in a different state due to health problems and her hardship turned into good luck for him.
    Once he got rid of all the crap Mrs. Dolores sat on the porch and tossed the wind chimes away, he had the best home in the park. It served the purpose of having a roof over his head without throwing his money away on rent, and when the other residents weren't pissing him off, he enjoyed the nights like tonight.
    He looked across the fire and lost track of Nova. His body tensed and he turned to ask Nick where she'd gone and found Nova approaching Nick's other side.
    "All right, cuz. Give me some of your time." Nova slipped her arms around Nick's waist and smiled up into his face. "I listened to your bullshit story about how your job is good, your sister is good, and beer is good. Tell me everything else. How did you pick Federal to settle down in? Have you missed me?"
    Nick ruffled the top of Nova's hair. "Ran out of gas and decided to check out what was available around here to rent when we got foreclosed on back in Washington. Instead, I got a good deal on a private contract to buy the trailer. I haven't missed you at all."
    Nova groaned on a laugh. "You're such a liar. What about the meatloaf I used to make just for you?"
    "Damn," muttered Nick. "I have missed your loaf."
    "Play nice while I'm in town, and maybe I'll give Shayla the recipe for the meatloaf and she can make it for you." Nova hugged her cousin. "God, I've missed you, even though you always pick on me."
    "Is that why you came to Federal? You missed us?" asked Nick.
    Nova pushed away from Nick and grinned. "Of course, I missed you."
    "Where are you staying?"
    Nova gazed over at the fire. "In town."
    "The Inn?"
    "Yeah." Nova bumped her hip into her cousin. "I saved up some money and thought 'What the hell. It's time for a family reunion' and here I am."
    Emmett studied Nova. She lied to her cousin.
    Oh, she covered up her fib and blew it off as a spontaneous decision to show up in a mining town. But, her story stunk worse than the farm down the road from the park.

Chapter Five
    A ware of Emmett listening to her conversation with Nick, Nova steered the topic of why she came to Federal to a safer subject. Only Shayla knew about her job with the Network and swore never to tell. It wasn't to save her reputation. She'd lost that a long time ago.
    Nick, while a loner by nature, he took personal responsibility for Nova as the only male relative. Learning the truth would cause problems, and he'd demand she