Homecoming at Hickory Ridge. Dana Corbit

as Uncle Kyle the Jailbird or something. These kids couldn’t help who their stepfather was, so he shouldn’t have involved them.

      Brett stepped forward, putting himself between his family and his younger brother. “You haven’t been beating down my door to see me, either.”

      “Why would I? You think I need this abuse?”

      “Well, wouldn’t want you to have to put up with any criticism after the perfect life you’ve led. A real example. Just the person I want around my kids.”

      “Can’t you see—forget it. You’ll never change.”

      “That’s a laugh, coming from you.”

      Kyle fisted his hands at his sides, bitterness welling within him. He could have told Brett that he wasn’t the same man who went into prison three years before, that he’d become someone that just maybe even Brett could respect, but now he was too angry to try.

      “Glad I could entertain you.”

      “Buddy, your antics stopped being funny years ago.”

      “Enough.” Tricia stepped in front of her husband, her presence surprisingly commanding despite her petite size. She raised a hand to stop the conversation. “You two have to stop this.”

      “Don’t worry. I’m done,” Brett said with a frown. He looked past Kyle to the Sims sisters. “I’m sorry about this. Thank you for inviting us, but I think we’d better leave.”

      He stepped to the table, lowered the dishes his family had brought for the picnic and then, lifting the baby from Tricia’s arms, ushered his family to their car. The children kept peeking back, but they didn’t ask questions.

      “That didn’t go well,” Julia said as she watched their car pull back out onto Main Street.

      “Ya think!” The words came out louder than he planned, but Kyle didn’t care. What she’d done was wrong, and she needed to know it. He closed the distance between them. “What were you thinking inviting Trooper Lancaster here?”

      Julia stared at the ground. “I just thought if I got the two of you together—”

      “That we’d start up again in front of my brother’s whole family? I’d never even met those people before. Well, I hope you got the show you were looking for.” He gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw ached.

      She started to shake her head. “That’s not what I—”

      “Intended?” he interrupted her again. “Just what did you intend when you were sticking your nose where it didn’t belong?”

      “I was trying to help.”

      “No, you were trying to fix my life.”

      “I wasn’t,” she began, but she must have thought better of it because she clicked her teeth shut.

      He should have stopped there; he realized that. But Julia had started this, and he just couldn’t stop the words from coming. “What I don’t get is why you go around trying to fix other people when you haven’t dealt with your own scars.”

      Confusion and maybe hurt registered on her face, but he refused to let it get to him. Without giving her time to ask what he was talking about, he turned to Rick and Charity, who were doing a poor job of pretending not to listen, and thanked them for the picnic.

      After a quick thanks to Julia, he turned and strode across the parking lot. His hands kept fisting, so he shoved them in his pockets. That didn’t go well. Julia’s words reverberated through his thoughts. She could say that again. And again.