“Yes, and an FBO with a G-2 parked out in front of it. You built up a good business in Newenham, Wy. Had to hurt to leave it behind.”

Wy shook her head once with a finality Jo had to recognize. “It was time to move on.”

“The relatives in Icky getting to be too much of a pain?”

Wy shrugged.

Jo knew that obstinate look. “You’re a little too young to retire.”

“I imagine I’ll pick up some jobs here and there while I figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

As if on cue, Wy’s cell rang, and Jo laughed when she heard the ringtone.

Wy, a little flustered, turned her back. “Hey. We’re both here at the house. You? Okay, that sounds good.” She looked over her shoulder at Jo. “You, too.” She hung up.

Jo, still laughing, said, “Your ringtone for Liam is ‘I Want Your Sex’?”

“No,” Wy said, pink staining her cheeks, “my ringtone for everyone is ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ but Liam thinks it’s funny to change my ringtone to whatever he wants when I’m not looking.”

Jo’s laughter faded and her voice was gentle when she spoke again. “You thinking of adopting again?”

“Because the last attempt went so well?”

“She had family.”

“Yeah, and my relatives in Icky helped so much.” Wy sighed. “I’m thirty-eight, Jo, and Liam says he doesn’t care one way or the other.”

Prudently, Jo kept her own counsel on the matter. With determined lightness she said, “And Tim could provide you with some grandchildren. I dropped into Seward on the way down, took him out for a burger. He looks good. He coming down here when he’s got his A and P license?”

“We’d like that, of course, but he’ll need to go where the jobs are.”

Jo hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “I’m seeing plenty of airplanes at the Blewestown airport.”

“What about you?” Wy said. “You and Mason still making the beast with two backs?”

Jo grinned. “When we feel so moved.”

Wy flung up a hand. “Spare me the details, please.”

“You asked. How long can I stay?”

“Long as you want. Plenty of room.”

Jo gave her the side-eye. “I expect Liam will be overjoyed to hear that.”

“Liam has a bedroom door with a lock on it and me on the right side of the lock. Liam won’t care.”

Jo laughed out loud. “So that answers any questions I might have about how things are with you and Liam.”

“I’m not flying today,” Wy said. “Let’s break open a bottle of wine.”

The courthouse was a sprawling, one-floor building with gray siding and a lot of spruce trees crowding up like they wanted to personally hear testimony in all the cases. The grass beneath one of them rustled and he saw a pair of spruce grouse pecking busily away at the pine cones scattered on the ground. Not ravens, which was good.