Cedar Cove Collection. Debbie Macomber

found his real calling. After she’d studied the menu and they’d ordered, Mack told her about his training.

      “You’re qualified to be a real fireman now?” she asked.

      “So they tell me.”

      Her brother had held any number of jobs through the years. He’d delivered mail, worked for a moving company, been an apartment manager, a bouncer and at one time, a painter.

      “Do you have a line on a job?” she asked.

      Mack smiled a bit sheepishly. “Dad told me there’s another opening in Cedar Cove.”

      “Do you seriously want to be that close to Mom and Dad?” Although Mack and their father seemed to get along now, Linnette wasn’t convinced that living in such close vicinity was a smart idea.

      “I don’t know,” her brother told her. “I’m putting in my application there and another in Lake Stevens and a third in Spokane.”

      Spokane was on the other side of the state, which meant that both Linnette and her brother would no longer live near their parents.

      “That’ll be good for Gloria, don’t you think?” Linnette said. The situation in their family was an unusual one. Since Gloria had grown up with adoptive parents, she didn’t have the same childhood experiences Linnette and Mack did, or the same memories; in effect, she’d been a stranger to them. The fact that Linnette was already friends with Gloria had only added to the sense of unreality. So much had happened in the past two years and now, with Cal, it all felt overwhelming.

      “Gloria’s going to miss you, though.”

      “I’m going to miss her, Mack. And Mom and Dad. And you …”

      “You’re going to do just fine,” he told her.

      “I know that.” She hadn’t intended to be so defiant. “I’m going to be more than fine. I’m going to be great.”

      “You bet.”

      “I sound a lot like my brother, don’t I?” she teased.

      “More power to you.”

      “Power to the people!” she chanted.

      Mack nearly choked on his tea and soon Linnette was laughing, too. This brother-sister bantering was exactly what she’d needed after the emotional farewell scene with her parents.

      Mack set down his chopsticks and pushed away his plate of Szechuan chicken. “I had a reason for wanting to see you before you left. Besides wishing you well, of course.”

      Linnette stopped him with one raised hand. “I meant what I said earlier, Mack. If this has anything to do with Cal, then save your breath.”

      “It doesn’t.” He inhaled and paused for a moment, as if to gather his thoughts. “Listen, I just want you to know that if you ever need help, you can call me.”

      “That’s really nice, Mack….”

      “I’m serious, Linnette. Don’t brush me off, all right? There might come a time when you’re low on cash and you don’t want to contact Mom and Dad.”

      Linnette almost laughed. For most of his adult life, Mack had lived hand to mouth. The fact that he was paying for their meal surprised her, especially since he was currently unemployed.

      “I appreciate the offer, but Mack, I wouldn’t want you to take out a loan on my behalf.”

      “It wouldn’t be a loan.”

      “You have money?” She couldn’t help sounding flippant; everyone knew Mack lived one step above poverty level.

      “I have enough,” he said with a shrug. “If you need anything, you call me.”

      “What if I need more than fifty dollars?”

      “Linnette, would you stop it?”

      “You have more than fifty dollars you can spare?”

      He nodded.

      “More than a hundred?”

      Again he nodded.

      “Two hundred?” This was fascinating information.

      “More than a thousand,” he said.

      Linnette pressed her palms against the table and leaned forward. “This is a joke, right?”

      He shook his head. “All I’m saying is that I can help you if you need it.”

      She eyed her brother, still unable to believe he’d managed to hang on to a thousand dollars. Mack? “How much?”

      “Money?” he asked unnecessarily. “Why do you want to know?”

      She gestured weakly. “Satisfy my curiosity.”

      “I have enough to provide you with a buffer if necessary,” was all he seemed willing to tell her. “The transmission on your car could go out in some podunk town and I don’t want you stressed out about how you’d pay to get it repaired. Call me and I’ll take care of it for you.”

      “That’d probably cost more than a thousand bucks.” She had no idea how much money he had, but it couldn’t be that much. If Mack had won the lottery she would’ve heard about it. And surely he wouldn’t be driving that rattletrap truck if he had any other option.

      “You’re not going to rest until you wrangle it out of me, are you?” Mack said, shaking his head.

      “You’re right.”

      He exhaled a sigh. “It’s close to six figures.”

      “Get out of here!”

      “I’m not joking, Linnette.”

      Maybe he had won the lottery and somehow kept it a secret. “How … when?” She narrowed her eyes. “You’re not a day trader, are you?”

      “Hardly,” he scoffed.

      “Then how did you come by that kind of money? Hey—” she said suddenly. “Did you receive an inheritance and I wasn’t in the will? Grandma McAfee always did like you best.”

      Mack laughed outright at that. “What’s the matter, don’t you think I could’ve earned it?”

      “Frankly, no.”

      He waggled his finger at her. “Oh, ye of little faith. Anyway, you’re wrong. I bought a broken-down house, spent every penny I could scrounge to fix it up and sold it for a nice profit.”

      “When?”

      “About two years ago.”

      Linnette remembered that house. It’d been a real dump, and at the time she’d assumed he was renting.

      “There, are you satisfied?”

      She smiled and shook her head. “You’re really something.”

      Mack returned her grin with one of his own. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

      “I meant it as one.” Linnette settled back against the booth and looked at her brother with fresh eyes. Not only had he held on to his money, he’d kept quiet about it until now. “I’m proud of you, Mack.”

      “Because of the money?”

      “Yes, but there’s more to it. Despite all the arguments we got into while we were growing up, you care about me, don’t you?”

      Her words seemed to astonish him. “Of course I do! You’re my kid sister.”

      “Your kid sister who’s about to start a brand-new life,” she told him.

      “Do it with confidence, Linnette. Don’t forget, you’ve got a safety net with me.”

      Everyone in her family had fought