“It’s not an accident that none of us are settled down and happily married,” Zack pointed out. “Let’s face it, we didn’t exactly have a good example growing up. I would never have said that Mom and Dad were happily married. I remember them arguing, and Mom crying.”

  “We all heard it. Except for Sam. Apparently, he didn’t hear anything. He thinks Dad is normal.”

  Zack didn’t think that was the case at all. Sam knew that Joel Winslow was an asshole. He worked for him, after all, every day. At this point, Zack would have lost his mind, but Sam had more patience than anyone on the planet to deal with Joel on a daily basis.

  Zack had his theories, and not one of them was that Sam believed in his father. But Sam wasn’t going to be confiding in Zack. Somehow, the two of them simply never seemed to get on.

  He knew one thing for sure, though. Sam Winslow was smart as hell, and just might be playing chess when everyone else was playing checkers.

  The pizza was half gone when Tate brought up the wedding again.

  “So you’re not going?” he asked Cooper. “I thought I’d convinced you last week.”

  “I thought about it and decided you were wrong,” Cooper said with a wicked grin. “As you so often are. Besides, Dad doesn’t give a shit if I’m at the wedding. Or you or Sam or Frankie and Piper. He only cares that Zack is there. That’s it.”

  Zack shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He couldn’t deny what Cooper was saying.

  And that pissed him off.

  He’d never asked for the position as the “favorite” of Joel Winslow. If anything, he’d ignored his father’s wishes, deliberately going to university in the east and taking the Wall Street job. Every year Joel would ask when Zack was going to join the family financial firm, and Zack would give the same answer.

  Never.

  He might be unemployed, but he still wasn’t going to. That was a circle of hell he wasn’t anxious to visit.

  Tate’s attention swung to Zack.

  “You’re going to be there, right? You are going?”

  “I am, but I’m not happy about it. I’m here mainly because of familial guilt. I don’t support this marriage any more than any of you do. Which I pretty much said to Dad right before I came here.”

  “And he didn’t care,” Cooper laughed. “You can do no wrong in our old man’s eyes.”

  “Believe me, I’m not trying to be the favorite.”

  “But you are,” Tate replied with a shrug. “We’ve all made our peace with it. Except you, of course. You hate it with a passion. It’s kind of amusing to watch from the sidelines.”

  “Glad we could entertain you,” Zack shot back. “Seriously, I don’t want to be the favorite. Why can’t Sam be the favorite? Or you? Or you, Cooper?”

  “There is no way I would ever be the favorite,” Cooper said. “Dad thinks I’m going to hell. He’s not sure exactly why I’m headed there, but he’s positive that’s the direction I’m going. You should have seen his face when I told him I was divorced. He was almost apoplectic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that mad. He said that Winslows don’t get divorced.”

  “What did you say to that?” Tate asked.

  “I said that was true. We disappear them instead.”

  Cooper had a habit of not coddling their father. He was blunt as hell with Joel Winslow, and simply let the chips fall where they may. Zack’s brother hadn’t cared about their father’s approval since he was about eight years old. And maybe not even then.

  “I’m surprised you even walked out of that conversation alive,” Tate remarked. “Dad must have been furious.”

  “If he wants to judge me, he needs to understand that shit is a two-way street,” Cooper replied. “I’m not going to take any crap from him just because we share some incidental DNA. And he didn’t get mad, by the way. He just turned around and walked away. Which tells me that he has a guilty conscience.”

  “You don’t honestly think that our father killed our mother, do you?” Zack demanded. “Because that’s crazy. Joel is an asshole of the first degree, but I don’t think he’s a killer.”

  “I don’t think he’s a killer,” Cooper agreed. “But I think he knows more about Mom’s disappearance than he’s told the cops. He knows something. I’ve seen the guilt in his eyes on more than one occasion. He’s not telling everything.”

  Zack had seen that same expression on his father’s face in the past. Did Joel Winslow know more about his wife’s disappearance than he’d told the police?

  It was a distinct - and very sad - possibility.

  3

  “I’m going to take these cakes over to Tate’s,” Lucy said to Jane. “Piper was in a hurry, so I offered to do it.”

  It wouldn’t hurt to get some sunshine and fresh air either. It was a beautiful day, and she wouldn’t mind taking a little walk, too.

  “I’ll watch the store. Have fun.”

  Tate’s Tavern was just down the block, and it only took a minute to get there. It was summer and most of the students were gone, so it wasn’t all that busy inside when she pushed open the door. There were a few tables of people, and some at the bar.

  To be specific, it was Tate and his two brothers, Cooper and Zack. It had been at least a decade since Lucy had seen Zack Winslow. He’d been a year ahead of her in school, while Cooper had been a year behind, and Tate had been three years behind. All the Winslow siblings had been born almost exactly two years apart.

  All the kids looked like their mother - dark hair, blue eyes, and good-looking. There wasn’t a homely one in the bunch. Lucy had always thought that Zack, however, was the handsomest by far. There was something about how he carried himself, confident and self-assured. He always seemed like he knew where he was going, and he had life all figured out. Maybe he did. She’d heard from others that he had a high-paying job on Wall Street, and he dated supermodels.

  “I told Piper I’d drop these off for her,” Lucy said, placing the cake boxes on the gleaming oak bar. Tate ran a tight ship, and everything was always clean and inviting. No sticky floors or beer smell was allowed. “I think it’s a coconut cake and a cheesecake.”

  “What did she drop off for you?” Tate asked with a smile. “Let me guess. Pineapple upside-down cake?”

  “Nope, angel food. The customers are eating it up. There won’t be any left by closing time.”

  “I love angel food,” Cooper sighed. “She didn’t bring me any.”

  “If you hurry to the store, you can grab a slice,” Lucy teased. “But you better shake a leg. Jane said something about saving the last piece for her and I to share.”

  “I’ll let you guys have it. I can probably convince Piper to bake one just for me.”

  “Wait a minute,” Zack said. “Piper is making you cakes? What for?”

  “Lucy owns the bookstore,” Cooper explained. “It has a little coffee shop inside. Piper makes the cakes for it because she’s always baking for her YouTube show. She sends the extras here to the bar, too. You knew our little sister was a social media star, right?”

  Piper had a YouTube baking channel that was extremely popular which meant that she baked every day.

  “I knew but I didn’t even think about what she was doing with all the stuff she baked.”

  “She couldn’t eat it all herself,” Tate said. “We made a deal with her that I’d buy her extras. They’re very popular. Right, Lucy?”

  “I can’t keep her baked goods in the case,” Lucy affirmed. “They’re delicious. I’ve had people just hang around the coffee shop waiting for Piper to deliver something good.”

  “I’ll put these in the back,” Tate said. “Lucy, can I get you something to drink?”

  “I can’t stay long. Jane is watching the store.”

  “That woman is more than capable,” Cooper declared. “She scares the crap out of me. She’s too efficient. It’s not normal.”

  “Jane is amazing,” Lucy agreed. “I can’t wait to tell her that she scares you.”

  “She’s probably doing it on purpose,” Cooper said.

  Maybe. Jane liked to mess with Cooper whenever he came into the store. The two of them had a strange friendship that Lucy didn’t quite understand, but they seemed fine with it.

  “You bought the bookstore?” Zack asked. “When did you come back into town? I thought you had moved.”

  “I moved back about five years ago,” she laughed. “I guess I missed the snow. It doesn’t do that in Los Angeles.”

  “No, it doesn’t. Get tired of the earthquakes?”

  “Those didn’t bother me that much. I came home when Mom’s health had a bad turn. She’s fine now but I decided to stay.”

  She didn’t mention out loud that she hadn’t had much to go back to. She had just ended a relationship with a guy that hadn’t wanted to grow up. He’d been a perpetual child, and eventually she’d grown tired of it. To be fair, he’d never made a lot of promises or pretended he was any different than what he was. She was the one who had fooled herself into thinking he’d grow up eventually. They’d parted on good terms, but she hadn’t spoken to him since she’d left Los Angeles.

  Last she’d heard from her friends, Michael was divorced and already engaged - again. Her life had been mostly serene and peaceful since she’d moved back home.

  She hadn’t noticed when it happened, but Cooper had drifted away to talk to some people at a table, and Tate still hadn’t returned from the kitchen. She and Zack were alone. That meant she needed to make small talk. It wasn’t her forte, but she could give it a try.

  “Are you home for the wedding?”

  It was a perfectly reasonable question for Lucy to ask considering, but Zack’s face told a different story.

  “I’m guessing by your expression that I should have kept my mouth shut. Sorry, it’s none of my business.”

  Clearly, she’d opened a can of worms. Jane was right. The Winslow siblings weren’t thrilled that Papa Winslow was tying the knot.

  “It’s fine,” he replied, grimacing. “But I am a bit conflicted about it, I guess. But I came here because I thought I should. It seemed the right thing to do.”

  “I can see why. This has got to be a difficult situation.”

  “Lucy, difficult doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  She didn’t have a clue as to why she’d offered that. It wasn’t like she and Zack had been best buds in high school. They’d been acquaintances at most. Friendly, but not friends. They hadn’t shared any deep thoughts with one another.

  It might be because she could see that he was truly conflicted. She’d always thought of him as a person who had it all together, but he might just be a mere mortal like everyone else. And she felt for him. Family squabbles weren’t fun, and the Winslows had more than their share.

  “I mean…sometimes a stranger can be helpful. We’re not as invested.”

  “You’re not a stranger, Lucy.”

  Chuckling, she shook her head. True, but they weren’t old friends either.

  “We haven’t seen each other since you graduated high school. We may not be complete strangers, but we don’t know one another well, do we? We just knew each other as kids, and we weren’t close back then either. I was a year younger than you, after all.”

  “You’re still not a stranger.”

  “Okay, think of me as a non-biased person then. I don’t have any skin in this game although I’m also going to the wedding.”

  “You’re going?”

  “Your aunt is a good customer, and she goes to the same hair salon as Mom, and the same dentist as my dad. In this town, that makes us practically family.”

  “I guess it does. Six degrees of separation and all that. Or in this town, we probably only need two degrees at most.”

  “Careful, we’re not marrying our first cousins,” she laughed. “We’re just…interested.”

  “Interested? Is that the polite word for gossip?”

  “It is, I think. It sounds much nicer. And this town runs on being interested.”

  “And everyone is talking about the wedding tomorrow.”

  He didn’t state it as a question. She was sure he already knew the answer.

  “Yes,” she replied honestly. “This has brought up…a lot for the town.”

  They were quiet for a moment, neither of them speaking.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Zack finally said. “It doesn’t seem to help or change anything.”

  “I’m not the type to push.”

  Zack finished the last of his beer, placing the glass back down on the bar.

  “Are you the type for dancing, Lucy Gilbert?”

  “I’ve got two left feet but what I lack in talent I make up for in enthusiasm.”

  He laughed at her joke, real and true. He wasn’t just humoring her. This guy totally got her strange sense of humor.

  “Sounds like my perfect dance partner,” he joked. “Save a dance for me, okay? I want to see a friendly face at the wedding.”

  “You don’t think anyone else will be friendly?”

  “I can’t count on it. You never know when it comes to my family.”

  Winslow angst. It was something she didn’t quite understand but she knew it existed.

  If she was Zack, she’d go to that wedding and then get the hell out of town. But she knew from experience it was easier said than done.

  Somehow Winslow Heights always dragged a person back.

  “You didn’t have to leave me and Lucy alone,” Zack said when Cooper came back to the bar.

  “I didn’t do it for you, although maybe I should have. Lucy is attractive, and you’re a grouchy old bachelor.”

  “Then what are you?”

  “Handsome and mysterious.”

  “You are so full of shit.”

  “That’s your problem,” Cooper said, grinning widely. “You don’t know how to relax. Just live life. Have a few laughs, and don’t take yourself so seriously.”

  “That’s not my problem.”

  It might be, though. Zack hadn’t relaxed and had a few laughs in a long time. Life had become stressful and serious.

  “You have one more problem, too.”

  “Which is?”

  Conversations with Cooper were always like this. Even so, Zack adored his younger brother. Although he did worry about him occasionally. At some point, Cooper needed to get serious about a career and life. At least a little bit.

  “I assume you’re staying at the house,” Cooper replied. “And that’s going to be a problem. You know good ol’ Joel isn’t going to give up trying to get you to come back and work for the family firm.”

  “Never in a million years. I’m not doing it. But you do have a point about staying there. I tried to get a hotel, but they were all booked. I assume with guests for the wedding. I waited too long.”

  Job issues had taken most of Zack’s attention for the last six months.

  “You can stay with me. I have a spare room. It’s not much, but Dad has never even darkened my door. I think it’s safe to say that you won’t run into him there.”

  “Deal,” Zack replied immediately. “I appreciate the offer. I won’t be a terrible house guest.”

  “It’s no problem. It will be fine. Go get your luggage. I’ll meet you at the apartment. It’s the only one above the old movie theater.”

  “I know where that is. I can run back to the house and get my suitcase. I haven’t unpacked yet. I didn’t get the chance before me and Dad were already into it.”

  “No surprise there. Come over when you can. We’ll go out tonight and grab a bite to eat.”

  Zack’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he checked his text messages. Since quitting his job, he rarely received calls anymore. Most of his friends thought he was insane. He was beginning to realize that he hadn’t made many true friends in New York City. Just work friends. Now that he’d left, they’d moved on.

  He wasn’t going to get all maudlin about it, but it made him think about how superficial his relationships had become. They’d all just skimmed the surface, never digging in too deep. Maybe because all his work friends simply didn’t have the time or energy. Real friendship was a luxury.

  The door to the kitchen swung open and Tate rushed back to the bar, his face pale as if he’d seen a ghost. Zack couldn’t remember a time in the past when his brother had looked this spooked.

  “We have to go right now.”

  Zack and Cooper exchanged a puzzled glance.

  “What are you talking about? Where do we need to go?”

  “They’ve found a skeleton. A body.”

  Zack was suddenly glad that he’d come home.

  4

  By the time Zack and his brothers arrived at the site on the outskirts of town, there were already several police vehicles, a couple of fire trucks, and an ambulance. Yellow tape was strung between some trees, marking off the area, and the cops were taking statements from the young couple that had found the body.

  The man and woman, along with their dog, had been hiking in the forest when their dog began digging in a spot near a fallen log. They’d told him to stop as he was getting muddy - there had been a great deal of rain in the last week - but when they’d tried to pull him away they’d seen something. Upon further investigation it had turned out to be a bone. Afraid that it might be human, they’d called the sheriff’s department.

  A body. Human remains.

  When he’d heard the news, Zack’s heart had fallen to his feet, his stomach twisted into knots. A cold sweat had broken out on the back of his neck despite the over-cooled air in the bar. He simply hadn’t been prepared for his brother’s declaration. He’d raised a shaky hand to his chest, and to his shock, it was still beating. His fingers had gone numb, but his heart was squeezed painfully in his chest.

  It might be their mother - Lily Winslow.

  Memories of his mom flooded his brain, each one more vivid than the last. She’d loved her children fiercely, and she’d brought a happiness into their home that he’d never forgotten. Everyone had described her as a ray of sunshine when she entered a room. Even now, he could remember how she’d smile and give him a hug when he came home from school. She’d want to hear about their day, the teachers, their friends. She’d been to every teacher conference, every Little League game, and his graduation. She’d made every holiday special.