"Dane and Eric did," Leif said softly.
"They told you about Timothy, didn't they?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"I want to hear it from you, Kara."
"I'd met him, I knew something was wrong. But you could tell that nobody in the family wanted to see it. It was the only time that the three of us really argued. I had seen meth use by some of the artists at ASU, and it's not always easy to spot. One of my best friends in college ended up overdosing and dying from it. That's how I knew."
"I know I would have hated to hear that about any one of you," Leif admitted. "I don't think I would have believed it, even if there were signs."
"I had to come back to Seattle. I'd said yes to them. I was in the process of selling this house, and figuring out how to move my studio up to Alaska, and still maintain my relationships with the Seattle galleries. They came down to visit for two weeks. Mom, Daddy and Papa loved them. They brought me Butch and Sundance, Redford was the daddy … " Her voice trailed off again, and the dogs looked up at the sound of their names. They eventually lay back down when they realized nothing was going on.
"While they were down here, Timothy got high and stole a car. Levi was trying to talk him out of it, but there's no reasoning with someone high on meth. We asked Levi why he got in the car with him, but he can't remember. Anyway, he was in the car when it crashed. Tim hit another car head-on. Timothy wasn't hurt badly, but Levi was in ICU. The woman in the other car was in critical condition as well. Timothy was in jail. We all flew up to Alaska. I think Quinn was mad at me for being right. It was awful." She buried her face in Leif's neck, holding in her tears. She'd cried enough.
"Then what happened?"
"I stayed up there with them for three months. Levi needed physical therapy. His back had been damaged, and he had to relearn to walk. Then there was Timothy's trial. The woman came out of her coma, and she was eventually fine. I think that was why Timothy's lawyer was able to talk the court into keeping his case in juvenile court. Between the medical bills and the lawyer fees, the family was financially wiped out. They had to mortgage the house and both the boats. I offered my savings and you would have thought I had suggested they make a deal with the devil." Kara's voice rose a couple of decibels as she remembered that particular fight. "A week later they said they needed to put off any permanent plans for the future, and they understood if I needed to find somebody else." Leif turned and pulled her into his arms for a full hug, and Kara wrapped her arms tightly around the big man.
"Oh, little sister, they didn't understand you at all, did they?"
"That's just it, Leif, I thought they did. How could they say they loved me, hear me say I would marry them, and then expect me to find someone else?" Kara choked back a sob. Leif stroked her hair and crooned nonsense for long minutes.
"Please, Leif, can you tell me about this woman you are going to look for?" Kara begged. She just needed something, anything, to take her out of her own memories.
"Not until you finish it. I know you, Kara. I know you didn't leave it like that. There had to have been some trigger to have you getting together with the cold-fish doctor." Now she remembered why she both loved and hated her oldest brother.
"He's not a cold fish, he's a nice man," she defended. "You haven't even met him."
"Your dogs don't like him. Enough said," Leif said in his decisive, commanding officer's voice.
"Damn gossips," Kara muttered. "Fine-my dogs don't like him. I like him, that's what matters. I'm going to sleep with him, and I'm going to marry him."
"How long have you been going out with him?" Leif asked.
"Five weeks."
"And you haven't slept with him?" he demanded in an incredulous voice. "Well, someone is a cold fish, and I'm betting it's not the one who was thinking about marrying two men."
"Well, I don't know him that well. He might have been considering two men at one time." Kara giggled. Leif chuckled with her.
"Okay, so now that we've established that Jim is a cold fish, and you shouldn't marry him, why don't you tell me about how you tried to lure back your men? Because I know my baby sister, and she definitely didn't let it end with them sending her home," he said, grinning down at her.
Kara gave her brother a squeeze and smiled right back at him. "You're right, I didn't. But I had to wait a long time. I waited until Tim was out of juvie and they were back on track, financially. I stayed in touch with their Aunt Dorothy and she gave me a heads-up when she thought the time was right to make a move. First, I sent them flowers. Lots of flowers." She grinned evilly, and Leif shouted with laughter. "Yeah, Quinn hated that. Dorothy called me. She said it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Quinn is always going to be the harder case."
"Is he the oldest?" Leif asked.
Kara nodded. "Now he's thirty-three, and Ben is twenty-seven."
"How old were they when their dad died?" Leif asked.
"Twenty-two and sixteen," she answered, "and the youngest boy, Levi, was eight."
"God, that must have been tough," Leif commiserated.
"But they got through that. They've gotten through everything life has thrown at them. Sometimes, I think that's the problem. They're so used to sacrificing that they just don't know any other way. When they finally have an opportunity to take what they want, they just assume they can't, that they have to take the hard road instead," Kara said, shaking her head dejectedly.
"So, you sent flowers. When was this?"
"Almost two years ago, then I went back up there about a year and a half ago. I didn't tell any of the family, because if I was wrong, I just couldn't stand to see the pity in their eyes."
"Kara, your family would never pity you. They'd stand by you and kick anybody's ass who would dare to hurt you."
"But that would be even worse," she wailed into his massive chest. "I need to fight my own fights, win or lose. And I lost."
"Tell me," he whispered into her hair.
"One of their boats sank. One of the guys they let captain the boats went out during rough seas, and he made a really bad decision. It was lucky the Coast Guard was able to save everyone. They couldn't salvage the boat," she said quietly.
"Insurance?"
"They had just enough to cover what they owed. They owned forty percent, and that equity just sank with the boat," she said sadly.
"Damn," Leif whistled.
"Yeah," she breathed. "So, once again, they made the decision to suck it up. Kyle and Randy, the next two in age, wanted to take over. They said that they could get a loan, buy another boat, and pick up where Quinn and Ben had left off. They even said that they had enough in savings, that they could buy Quinn and Ben out, so that they could have starting capital for the charter-fishing business they wanted to do down here in Seattle." Kara looked up at Leif. "That's what they had planned to do before the boat sank so they could be with me." She couldn't stop from tearing up at the thought of what might have been.
"And Timothy?" Leif asked.
"He'd really straightened up. Juvie was good for him. They had a good drug rehab program, and he came out straight. He'd even gotten his GED while he was locked up. He's going to a community college and he's studying psychology. I think he's trying to better understand why he fell into the traps he did. There are still legal bills to be paid, and he's working part-time on the fishing boats to help pay for them. All four of the oldest boys are contributing to paying them off. They're such good men, Leif."
"Why didn't Ben and Quinn take their brothers up on their offer to buy them out of their commercial fishing business?" he asked.
"Because they both have families. Randy has three kids, and Kyle has two kids. Both Quinn and Ben don't think it's right to burden them with that kind of debt and responsibility."
"So, why didn't you just stay up there and live with them?" Leif asked.
Kara choked back a sob, and Leif stroked her hair. "It's Quinn," she said. "He watched what his mother went through worrying about his dad. Commercial fishing up in Alaska is one of the riskiest jobs in America, and his dad died doing it. He refuses to put me through that, and he refuses to do what he can to quit. I think deep down he just doesn't want me, and Ben is going along with him. So, I'm done," she said with finality that Leif knew he couldn't budge.
"But they're not, are they?"
"Oh, no, they think when they have this next crisis ironed out we're going to be one happy triad. They're going to come in and sweep me off my feet." Kara heard the tremor in her voice.