“You weren’t here,” John grumbled.

Harry paced across the room, leaned his elbow on the upper sill of the window, and looked out at the rain. Then he looked at his brother. “What did Nick tell you about his family, Jack?” he asked.

“What the hell, Harry?” John said. “Why the hell are you asking Jack about that? Lissa’s going to kick him out on his ear the minute she comes downstairs. She would have done it already, if JJ hadn’t gotten sick.”

“What did Nick tell you, Jack?” Harry said.

“I don’t really remember,” Jack said. “Seems to me his mother was a widow. He was an only child. Said he never knew his dad, that he died just before he was born. He said his father was originally from Wisconsin, come to think of it.”

“Hmm,” Harry said, casting a glance at his father. “Overby. We know anyone with that name, Dad?”

“Shut up, Harry,” John snapped. “Just shut up with your damn hotshot reporter questions. Nick is going to be gone the minute Lissa tells him she’s marrying Ty. And everyone’s going to be much happier. Thanks to my intervention! And you’re going around pointing fingers and judging me, when you haven’t been home in three goddamn years? Why don’t you go spend some time with your mother, for God’s sake?”

“That sounds better than spending it with my father,” Harry said. He slammed the door on his way out, and headed for the kitchen.

Elissa raced through the upstairs hall and down the front stairs, reaching the bottom slightly off balance on her high heels. She might have toppled, had Ty not come around the corner of the curved banister just then and caught her by the elbow.

“Hi, Liss,” he said. “I was just about to come look for you.”

“Oh—hello, Ty!” she said. “I—didn’t know you were here.” Not quite a lie, but almost.

“Is JJ all right?”

“Yes, he’s fine.”

“Are you all right?” he said. “You look pale.”

“I—yes. Yes. I was just wondering—did Nick leave?”

A shadow crossed Ty’s face. “Yes.”

Without thinking, she blurted, “Did he say why?”

“He just said he had to go.”

“Oh,” she sighed. She walked out of Ty’s grasp and crossed over to the seat under the front window. She sank down onto it, and looked out over her shoulder through the rain-spotted glass. She could see down First Street a little farther from this angle, but Nick was gone. “I saw him walking away,” she said. “When I was upstairs.”

It was foolish of her to say that, and she knew it. She didn’t know why she was being so foolish. She could feel Ty looking at her. Then he said, “What’s going on, Lissa?”

“I’m sorry, Ty. I’m just—not myself. I—just—I’ll be all right in a minute.”