“It’s okay, Nem,” Mikey said from beside her. “Sheriff Ramsey is actually being lenient. I could be in jail now instead of being escorted home.”

She turned to Mikey with a frown. “What did you do?”

Ramsey unfastened Michael’s cuffs. “The boy was pulling another prank with his friends—adolescent stuff. I was trying to scare a little sense into him.”

He pocketed the handcuffs, then brushed Emma’s hair over her shoulder in a fatherly fashion. “Nothing’s going to happen to your boy, here.” He looked over at Ben. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’ll be okay.”

“Can I go home now, sir?” Michael asked.

“I can’t prove you were responsible for the earlier damage to the environmentalist’s truck, Mike, but I caught you red-handed this time. You can go home, but if I ever see you in town after ten o’clock at night again, I’m going to haul your ass to jail. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes, sir.”

Ramsey nodded. “Good. You’re much better than your actions tonight, Michael.” He looked from Emma to Ben, then back at Michael. “And you’ve got other things to be more interested in.”

“He’ll stay out of trouble, Sheriff.” Ben guided Emma back to the Suburban. “Why don’t you sit in the truck while Mike and I fix the wheel.”

“You got car trouble?” Sheriff Ramsey asked.

Ben turned. “Just a loose wheel. We’ll be fine. Thanks.”

Mikey moved to flank her other side. Emma rubbed her forehead. She wasn’t used to leaning on anyone, much less letting them coddle her. It kind of made her light-headed.

“Why didn’t you tell Ramsey about the oil and the tire?” she asked.

“I’m not willing to stir up any trouble just yet, and we can’t prove anything. It could have been kids, thinking I was a tree hugger.”

“What happened to the truck?” Mikey asked.

“It was sabotaged,” Emma told him.

“Take this flashlight and see if you can find any more lug nuts in the ditch, would you, Mike?” Ben asked.

“If you folks don’t need me anymore, I’ll be on my way,” Stanley said from the driver’s side of his truck.

Ben pulled out his wallet. “Let me give you something for the oil, and for helping us.”

Stanley waved the offer away. “I don’t need nothing from you folks. Emma Jean’s pulled my butt out of hot water more times than I can count.”

“Well, thanks again for your help,” Ben said. “It’s appreciated.”

“Thanks, Stanley,” Emma called out from the Suburban’s window, waving at him as he climbed into his rig.

Ben leaned his arm on the roof of the truck and stared at her, silent and thoughtful. She could practically see the wheels turning in his brain.

“I have to go away for a couple of days. I’m needed in New York. Why don’t you and Mike come with me?”

Emma knew he was worried about their safety. “Unfortunately, I can’t, I have a business to run.” She looked at the clock on the dash. “In three hours I have to get in my plane, fly down to Bangor, and pick up some sports. The archery deer season starts Monday.”

His frown deepened. “Hire it out. I want you two with me.”

“Take Mikey. He would love to see New York.”

“I want you to come, too.”

“I can’t.” She reached out and touched his chest. “I’m not in any danger, Ben. You are. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“We’ll discuss this after you get back tomorrow morning,” he said, striding away.

Emma stared at the dark road ahead of them. Sheriff Ramsey had gone back to Medicine Gore, Stanley following him. The lonely stretch of road was covered in silence again, except for the soft murmurs of Mikey and his father working at the back of the truck.

Ben seemed truly worried. She’d heard it in his voice when he asked her to go to New York, and she had seen it in the taut lines of his face when she had refused. It was kind of nice to have someone worry about her.

Kind of … comforting.

She sat in the truck, soaking up the stillness of the night, and wondered if Ben even realized what was happening to him. He was gathering moss by the bucket load now. He had fallen in love with his son, he’d asked his son’s aunt to marry him, and at the dance he had promised the town he would find the man responsible for blowing up the dam sixteen years ago.

Yup. He was definitely knee-deep in moss.

“I’d feel better if you were both coming with me.”

“You’re just worried about missing Mikey’s cooking,” Emma said patiently.

They were all seated around the kitchen table. Ben already had his bags in his truck, but he was making one last effort to get her and Mikey to go with him. Realizing she wouldn’t budge from her position, Ben had conceded that Michael probably should stay with her. Emma had rolled her eyes at his reasoning, and voted that Mikey go see the bright lights of New York. Mikey had simply folded his arms over his chest and softly said he was staying.

So they were sitting at the table, having a good-bye snack.

“Don’t feel so bad, Ben. You’re not the first man who’s had to deal with the two of us in our stubborn mode.” She looked at Mikey and winked. “Judge Bracket didn’t have any better luck.”

Mikey chuckled as he set his cup of coffee on the table. “That man didn’t know what to do with either one of us, did he?”

As she’d intended, the mention of a judge turned Ben’s attention from his sulking. “Who’s Judge Bracket?”

“He’s the judge who awarded me custody of Mikey.”

Ben gave her a curious look. “Did you have much trouble getting it? You couldn’t have been twenty or twenty-one at the time, and you were single.”

“I didn’t apply for custody until Mikey was nearly eight and I was twenty-three. After Kelly left, nothing much was said about his living with me. Everyone in town, including me, thought she would be coming back soon.”

“I was already going to school before Mom left,” Mikey added. “So Nem didn’t have to deal with enrolling me.”

“So Mike was living with you for three years without the state knowing it?”

Emma reached across the table and touched his hand. “You have to understand, Ben. People around here usually saw Mikey with me,not Kelly. When a year went by and she didn’t return, no one was willing to call the authorities. They didn’t want to see Mikey taken away from me.”

“So when did Judge Bracket become involved?” he asked.

“When Michael broke his leg and had to be taken to Bangor to have it set. The Greenville hospital thought he needed special attention, because it was a bad break. I signed the guardian papers, but I made the mistake of mentioning I was his aunt to someone in Bangor.”

“All hell broke loose then,” Mikey added, grinning in memory.

“Mikey called them the ‘kid police.’”

“I was eight,” Mike defended. “They wanted to take me away from you and put me in a foster home until custody could be legally awarded.”

“Jesus.” Ben looked appalled. “They wanted to uproot a child from his home after he’d had the trauma of an operation?”

“Don’t worry, Dad. Nem didn’t let them.”

“Darn right I didn’t. I stole him out of the hospital once he was safe to travel, and flew him to Medicine Gore. I hid him at Greta and Sable’s.”

“But they must have come after you,” Ben said, still looking horrified.

“When they arrived at my door, I gave them hell for losing my nephew.” She laughed out loud. “You should have seen their faces when they couldn’t find Mikey, and I kept raging at them that they had lost the kid.”

Ben didn’t laugh with her. “What about Judge Bracket?”

“I hired a lawyer and petitioned the state for custody. The courtroom was a zoo that day.”

“I hobbled in on my crutches with Nem on one side of me, our lawyer on the other, and the whole town of Medicine Gore behind us,” Mikey explained, grinning from ear to ear. “About ten social workers and state lawyers descended on me like vultures, asking me questions and calling for Nem’s arrest.”