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As for Megan, she'd grown more beautiful. Justin should hate her for it. Instead, he hated himself for giving a damn. Why couldn't she have become old and ugly in the seven years he'd been gone? Or at the very least, why couldn't she have married and moved away?
He looked at her and caught her staring at him. With his left eye, he gave her a wink.
She flushed and bit her lower lip.
He knew Megan was wondering if he'd caught her sister's salutation. He saw it in the panicked expression in her eyes. She was hoping he hadn't noticed Colleen had called her Megan Bartlett, instead of by another man's name. He'd noticed. She hadn't married while he'd been gone. He moved his gaze down to her full bosom, then back to her heart-shaped face. It wasn't her looks that had kept the suitors away. He remembered the taste of her mouth and the passion she hadn't been able to control. That wouldn't have contributed to her unmarried state, either. Seven years ago she hadn't known exactly what went on between a man and a woman but she'd been eager to experience as much as convention allowed an unmarried couple. She'd even been willing to experience a little more, he remembered, then
cursed the heat that flowed to his loins. So why hadn't she married?
"I say, do you know who I am?" Colleen demanded a second time.
Justin had grown bored with the game. He walked back to his desk, turned the chair around and sat in it. He moved the box to one side and picked up a sheet of paper.
"I remember everything about you, Colleen, including the Sunday you went running out of church so fast that you didn't see the pile of horse manure right below the steps. You slipped and got green muck all over your dress. You cried because you smelled, and no one would sit next to you."
Colleen flushed an unbecoming shade of red. From the corner of his eye, he saw Megan's shocked look. Justin sighed. Maybe he had gone too far with the story, but he didn't care. Colleen had been younger than most of the other children Justin had gone to school with, but her tender years hadn't gentled her spirit. He recalled how, during recess, she'd stood with the older children and taunted him. At five, when her soft voice had still lisped like a baby's, she'd sung the singsongy school yard refrain of "Justin is a bastard." Megan had been one of the few who hadn't joined in. She'd turned away from the taunting children.
The mocking song had continued until he was strong enough to beat up any boy too dumb to shut his mouth and until he'd become good-looking enough to distract the girls. But he'd never forgotten.
Colleen tugged at her cloak and approached his desk. Rage radiated from her. He wasn't impressed, although Megan seemed bothered by her.
"My husband is an influential man in this town," Colleen said.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Justin leaned back in his chair and smiled.
"You'll never be sheriff here, Justin Kincaid. I'll see to that." She pointed at the box on his desk. "Don't bother unpacking. You'll be gone before sundown." She turned to glare at Megan. "I'm glad Papa's dead and not here to see you shame the family this way."
With that, Colleen spun on her heel and marched out of the room. Justin stared after her. When he'd first seen Landing on his return to town, he'd realized there had been a lot of changes in the time he'd been gone. New buildings had sprung up along Main Street. Most of the people he'd seen were strangers to him. But he counted on some things to be the same. He'd expected trouble and had assumed old man Bartlett would still be around to give him hell. He'd spent his whole life trying to hate that man, but found he couldn't even dislike him. The man was Megan's father. Justin knew that if he had a daughter like her, he wouldn't have wanted a boy like him around her, either. He'd always understood Mr. Bartlett's feelings, even though he'd never let on.
"I'm sorry about your father," he said. "I didn't know he was gone."
Megan looked surprised. "Thank you," she said cautiously, as if she wondered if he was going to say something else. "He passed on about five years ago."
"Who runs the store? Colleen and her husband?"
Megan laughed. The sound hit him square in the chest, like an unexpected blow. Her laughter always made him think of summer. He didn't know why, but even now he pictured the two of them on the banks of that stream east of town. Her blond hair streaming around her shoulders, her hazel eyes gazing up at him in adoration. He shook his head to banish the memory. He had no time or interest in the past and if he remembered anything, he would do better to recall their last hour together before he left town. That would be enough to cure any man of dreams.
