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“You’ll stay for dinner, right?” she asked Alex, her eyes wide with encouragement.
He hadn’t planned on it. He’d planned to talk to his brother and make a quick escape, just as he had in every interaction with his family since he’d returned. But he couldn’t say no to Merry’s hope. “How can I resist?” he asked, gesturing toward the picture on her bright pink T-shirt. “I love a girl who knows her Dr. Who references.”
“You know Dr. Who?”
“I spend a lot of time in hotel rooms streaming old TV shows.”
Merry squealed and jumped forward to give him a big hug. “You’re awesome.”
“You’re easy.”
She gave him a little shove and headed up the stairs of the trailer while Shane held the door open for her. “Uh-oh. Shane’s been telling tales.”
Alex followed her laughter up the stairs to Shane’s temporary home. He was surprised to see that the place actually looked livable. The rust eating up the siding on the outside hadn’t promised much, but the small living room was softened by a blue shag rug and a black leather couch piled high with gray and blue pillows. Merry had obviously helped him decorate. Alex might not know his brother well anymore, but he was damn sure Shane hadn’t picked out the hip-looking lamp with the blue streaks in the glass.
Merry grabbed plates and napkins and set them on the coffee table along with a few beers. The Chinese food was surprisingly good. Alex had been spoiled by time spent in California and this was, after all, Wyoming, but even chefs liked to ski. Good food had made it to Jackson along with tourism money.
“You look funny,” Merry suddenly said.
Alex looked up from his kung pao in surprise. “What?”
“You look like some kind of biker felon with your tattoos and your shaved head, but you use chopsticks like a pro.”
“You’ve obviously never met any Chinese felons. Scary motherfuckers.”
Merry burst into laughter and Shane looked at her with a smile of delight. Like just her happiness was enough to make his day. Jesus. Alex looked away, letting them have that moment to themselves.
“Have you been to China, Alex?” Merry asked.
“No, they’ve got damn good engineers there. No need to import me.”
“So...” She glanced at Shane before continuing. “Where have you been?”
He thought about Alaska and all the stuff he’d told Sophie. For some reason, he didn’t want to share that.
Shane leaned back into the couch with his beer. “Yeah, where’d you disappear to, brother?”
Alex grabbed his own beer and settled into the chair. “I went to Colorado first, meaning to go to Colorado State, but I couldn’t afford the tuition.”
Shane looked sh
ocked. “You got in? You never told me.”
“We weren’t talking much by high school. Anyway, I knew I couldn’t afford it, so I moved out there to work for a year. They held my spot and I went on in-state tuition for two years. Then I transferred to the School of Mines.”
“Wow.” Shane blinked a few times. “That’s impressive.”
Alex shrugged. “I did well there. I really liked my hydrology professor, so that’s what I went with. He was a real mentor to me. Took an interest. He died last year.”
Shane nodded, and Alex meant to keep talking, but for a moment he couldn’t. Oz Thompson had been an amazing engineer with forty years of fieldwork under his belt, and for some reason, he’d singled Alex out. Maybe because Oz had been tattooed and scary-looking, too. For whatever reason, they’d clicked. He’d looked out for Alex, pushing him when he needed pushing. But now he was dead.
Maybe that was how Alex had ended up back here, looking for...something.
Alex cleared his throat. “Anyway, I worked with some natural gas companies while I was going for my master’s, and now I’m a contractor. It keeps me from getting stuck in one place too long.”
“Where have you worked?” Merry asked.
“Alaska, Canada, all over the continental U.S. A little bit in South America. The Netherlands.”
