new, all starched and proper, and he didn’t know her name. He nodded to her all the same. Then he turned back to his grandfather.
“I thought it would be obvious—now that Scarlett is here.” The elderly man smiled and then he paused the way he did when he wanted someone’s full attention.
No one ever said his grandfather didn’t take full advantage of a suspenseful moment, Hunter thought.
“What is it?” Hunter asked, focusing completely on him now. That was the only way to find out anything. “What are you doing this time?”
“Well,” his grandfather said softly, seeming to relish his announcement, “I warned her about you because women like a little excitement in a man.”
“And?” Hunter knew he wasn’t finished.
“I’m trying to find you a bride since you won’t do it yourself.”
“A—b-bride,” Hunter stammered, staring at the old man in astonishment.
The sky outside had gotten darker and the café was filled with shadows. Hunter told himself that he should have stayed home today. His grandfather as a matchmaker was preposterous. Only then did Hunter realize the letter, lying so innocently open on the table, had been bait. His grandfather had known he would charge in like a knight on a white horse to save the unknown Scarlett.
“There’s no one like those Murphy women,” his grandfather noted in satisfaction as he rested the palms of his hands flat on the table, looking pleased with himself. “You’re my grandson. You deserve the best.”
“I don’t need you to find me a wife.” The thought was alarming.
“Well, you sure aren’t looking for yourself,” his grandfather retorted as he lifted his hand and slapped it down for emphasis. The old man looked startled at how loud the smack was. The sound of a cup shattering sent Hunter’s attention over to the waitress. She was staring down at the broken cup at her feet as coffee ran all over the floor.
“I’m sorry,” Hunter said to her as he started to rise. The cat had already snuck off to lie under another table.
“No.” The waitress held up a hand to stop him. “I’ve got it. You just stay with your grandfather. See that he doesn’t have any salt.”
Hunter sat back down and looked at his grandfather. The circus had only just started. “Why are you doing this?”
“Well, you’re not getting any younger. A man like you needs a family.”
Neither one said anything for a moment. Hunter focused on the red plastic carnation in the middle of the table as he counted to ten.
“I’ve got a family,” he finally whispered.
He’d never understood what happened to make his father swerve so fast that the car flipped, but when it did, a fire started in the engine. He’d tried to move his unconscious father, but when Hunter hadn’t been able to do it, he’d climbed out of the vehicle alone. He’d gone to his mother, hoping she could help, but she was on the ground bleeding and hadn’t even seemed aware of the fire. She’d taken his hand in hers, begged him to promise he’d keep the family together no matter what happened. The younger boys had been lying near a ditch crying, but they hadn’t heard her. Hunter had looked back at the increasing smoke but couldn’t leave his mother—or was it that he wouldn’t leave? That question had tormented him for years. Had he been too afraid of the fire to return?
He’d finally made the promise to his mother just as a pickup had come screeching to a halt a few feet from them. His grandfather had been there then, lifting him up in a hug. The old man had set him down and raced to the burning car. Hunter had tried to stop his tears, but he hadn’t been able to. The ambulance and Sheriff Wall, their red lights all flashing, had come soon after that. They’d put the fire out, but Hunter had never seen either of his parents alive again.
Hunter hadn’t told anyone about the promise he’d made....
But maybe his grandfather had suspected, because he grunted and said, “I mean a proper family. Not just people you think you have to take care of.”
Hunter shook his head. “I don’t mind.”
“I know you don’t,” his grandfather said gently. “That’s not the point.”
“This woman will likely sue us,” Hunter said before the other man could say anything else. A man didn’t always choose his family, but he still had an obligation toward them. The cat had come back to sit at his feet like a sentinel. Loyalty was bred into those cats, too.
The older man looked taken back. “You mean, Scarlett? She can’t sue us. I didn’t promise her you’d marry her or anything. I’m not that daft.”
“No, but you did promise her some land.”
“Well, she wasn’t going to come down here from Alaska for the pleasure of meeting us, now was she?” his grandfather said, unrepentant and still more cheerful than he ought to be in Hunter’s opinion.
Just then he heard the door of the café open and he turned around. The woman stood there, silhouetted, the sun shining behind her and—Hunter gulped—a small red-haired boy’s hand in hers.
“She’s got a son,” he whispered as he turned to his grandfather. “She’s already married.”
That would teach the old man a thing or two about meddling, Hunter thought in relief.
“Divorced,” his grandfather said as he gallantly rose and gestured for the woman and boy to join them. “Desperate and broke, too. You should have no trouble.”
Hunter was speechless. He would have nothing but trouble. He could tell that much already.
* * *
As Scarlett stood inside the doorway, she could see that the sun-faded curtains didn’t quite reach across the windows in this place. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed long, thin strips of light shining through the gaps and falling across the full length of the nicely polished black-and-white tiled floor. Steel stools with red upholstered tops were lined against a small counter. A dozen tables, a few of them in use, were scattered around. She saw the cat from earlier stretched out under the table where the Jacobsons sat.
She tightened her grip on the handle of her leather briefcase. Her grandmother had given her the power of attorney to sign Colin’s papers. The document and a letter for the man were inside.
Hunter stood from the table where he had been sitting with his grandfather as she examined him. Square jaw, muscular, belligerent. Unfortunately she’d had her fill of men like him. She’d been married to one and learned the hard way that they strutted around giving orders as though they were kings of the world, never giving a moment’s thought to anyone but themselves.
She wondered what Hunter’s real reasons were for trying to stop her. She’d been under the impression the Jacobsons were rich enough to part with that small piece of land easily. He must be greedy—the kind of man who wouldn’t give a beggar a crust of stale bread even if he had a dozen loaves himself.
Before taking a step farther, Scarlett glanced down and put a hand on the shoulder of her five-year-old son, Joey. She felt a tremble in his slight body. It sent an answering shudder through her. Her son used to sparkle with mischief. But he had lost all his confidence lately. He’d insisted on bringing his old beat-up brown teddy bear along with him on this trip. His father had given it to him when he was a baby. She’d packed the bear away last summer and Joey had seemed fine without it. But then he had regressed. Now he carried it everywhere with him. Joey was the reason she was anxious to move out of Nome. She’d do battle with a thousand kings to see him happy again.
“There’s a chair beside the restroom,” she told her son. He’d used the side of the road earlier so she knew he didn’t have to go. “Can you sit there quietly for a minute by yourself?”
He thought a minute and nodded.
Joey