Page 2 of Homecoming

“I can’t let Kirby get swallowed up in whatever Keith has done. We have to go for him. He was my best friend growing up.” When tears threatened, she did her best to contain the emotional overload, which was harder than usual thanks to the pregnancy.

Dan put his hand on her face and caressed her cheek with his thumb. “Then that’s what we’ll do, but please know that I’ll throw myself in front of anything or anyone who tries to hurt you, and I won’t be nice about it.”

She smiled. “It’ll be amazing to have someone sticking up for me for once.”

“Baby, I willalwaysstick up for you.”

“Are we still talking about my family?”

Grinning, he leaned in to kiss her. “Of course we are. Where has your dirty mind gone?”

“Right.” She rolled her eyes. “My dirty mind. You’re the one who’s made me this way.”

“That’s a slanderous accusation.”

“It’s not an accusation—or slander—if it’s the truth. My lawyer husband taught me that.”

Dan laughed. “Touché.”

The friendly bickering with him helped to keep her mind off where they were going and why as they finished packing.

Kara received a text from her grandmother, Bertha.Heard you’ve been summoned.

You heard correctly.

Are you okay?

Never better.

You don’t have to do this.

I wouldn’t if Kirby wasn’t involved.

I figured you’d say that. Text me your ETA. I’ll pick you up.

I hate the reason for this, but I’m THRILLED I get to see you today.

Likewise, my love. Safe travels.

She cleaned of anything that would spoil in their absence out of the fridge and put a few things in the freezer. Stephanie McCarthy would water Kara’s plants since she and her husband, Grant, who was Dan’s best friend, had keys to their house.

While Dan walked the garbage out to the curb and took their bags to the car, Kara looked around at the cozy little cottage they called home, wondering how long it would be until they returned.

Soon. They’d be back soon because this was their home. It was where they belonged.

She was giving her screwed-up family a week, two at the most, and then she and Dan were coming home to Gansett.

Their pilot pal,Slim Jackson, had warned them that the climb out of Gansett Island and the flight itself would be bumpy since the atmosphere was still churned up from the recent hurricane.

Kara held Dan’s hand as tightly as she could without hurting him. She hated flying on a good day, and this was most definitely not a good day.

Erin, Slim’s wife and Kara’s friend, looked back at Kara from the copilot seat. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be better when we land,” Kara said with a grimace. Pregnancy had made her nauseated for months, and the bumpy air wasn’t helping.

“Nothing to be afraid of,” Slim said. “Think of it as potholes on a rough road.”

Kara appreciated his attempt to defuse her anxiety, but the only thing that would relax her would be a safe landing in Maine, where a whole new reason for anxiety would present itself. This would be the first time back to Maine since leaving. Since she’d moved to Gansett to start the company’s launch business in theisland’s Great Salt Pond, she’d found the peace and harmony that’d been sadly lacking in her life while growing up as one of eleven Ballard siblings.

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