Until The Ride Stops

Might she turn up something he didn’t want to know? Not that he believed his family was covering something up, but the failure and subsequent sale of the company made him wonder. He didn’t want it dredged up, especially with his stepfather’s poor health.

“That was before I was born,” Matt said. “I’m afraid you’re asking the wrong guy.”

Caroline blew out a breath. “I keep trying to find the right person to ask, but—”

The police chief walked up and started taking pictures of the back bumper of the dump truck.

“We’ll have him out of here in a few minutes,” the chief said, “and then the insurance companies can fight about it.”

Matt handed the chief the keys to the dump truck, nodded at Caroline and walked to the open gate to wave in another truck full of stone that had just arrived. Dwelling on an old story wasn’t going to help him meet his deadlines, and Caroline’s questions made him wonder if he should try to keep his distance from her or keep her close by.

CHAPTER SIX (#ua32b0c63-fd2b-5923-8518-3d87215e3c13)

STARLIGHT POINT TOOK its role as the flagship business of the local community seriously, Matt thought as he ran through the park in the early morning hours. Already this summer, he had endured the Campout for Charity, purchased advance tickets for the Beer and Barbeque for Bikes event on the July Fourth weekend, and today he was running with his brother in the Starlight for Shelters 5K, a race benefiting the local homeless shelter.

The running part was easy. Turning off his brain was the challenge. Everywhere he went, Matt Dunbar saw structures that ignited his engineering imagination. The roof of the Starlight Saloon’s porch that probably didn’t slope enough for rain runoff. The authentic copper rain gutters on the train station’s passenger depot. The emergency staircase spiraling down from the ride platform on a roller coaster.

Although he was no architect, he appreciated the thought and science behind every construction decision. Loved the smell of blueprints and the feel of the paper rolled out under his fingers—even though laptops were replacing paper blueprints on construction sites.

Matt remembered the home he’d grown up in. The wide sandstone steps where his mother had taken his picture on the first day of kindergarten. He should go back there sometime, just to see the Craftsman-style house with an engineer’s eye. An adult’s eye.

When his mother had remarried, he and his brother had a much larger and finer home. His stepfather’s construction company had built it, and Matt and his brother, Lucas, had reveled in having their own rooms joined by a walk-through closet and bathroom. It was a nicer home in every way, but someday nostalgia might take him back to the place where he’d taken his first steps.

Someday. Maybe running with his brother was making him nostalgic.

“Walk break,” Lucas said, holding his side and slowing down.

Matt instantly adjusted his pace to match his younger brother’s. Their first mile had been strong and they almost kept up with the lead pack, but they had gradually slowed somewhere around the Wonderful West railroad station.

The early morning run had drawn a sizable crowd. Possibly because the entrance price for the race also included a ticket to Starlight Point for the whole day. And a very cool neon orange T-shirt with a roller coaster motif.

“Sorry,” Matt said. “I’ve been running a lot in the past year, but you’ve probably been too busy at college to run.”

“Busy,” Lucas said. “Out. Of. Shape.” He took breaths between each word and wiped his forehead with the edge of his race T-shirt. “Sorry to...slow you...down.”

“Heck, I don’t care,” Matt said, putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I’m here because it’s a good cause. They’ll get my donation whether I win or not.”

They walked along the Western Trail, shade trees blocking the morning sun. Some runners passed them, but there were other walkers around them. The race had started three hours before the park opened, and even the slowest runners would be off the course before the day’s crowds arrived.

“Thanks for paying my entrance fee,” Lucas said. “I’m thinking of volunteering at the shelter in Bayside. Maybe they need some art on their walls.”

“That would be nice. Maybe you could do a mural.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Lucas said. “I remember the white walls in that shelter where we ended up when the police locked our house and seized everything.”

Matt’s chest constricted and he risked a look at his younger brother. The brother he’d always tried to protect. “You were only five,” he said. Matt had been eleven—too old to be protected from the truth but too young to understand it. “Long time ago. And things have improved considerably for us since then.”

“No thanks to dear old Dad,” Lucas said. “If he was going to steal all that money, I wish he would’ve put some away to pay my tuition.”

“You can’t go to college on embezzled money. Besides, Bruce is covering your tuition. Just like he did mine.”

“Two years to go,” Lucas said. He cleared his throat and kept his eyes on the trail ahead of him. “I’m sure you’re worried about Bruce, too.”

Matt thought about the doctor’s prognosis that had Bruce making plans for the company’s future. His stepfather obviously believed his time was short, but Matt hoped the doctor was wrong, overly solicitous.

“It was a hard winter for him,” Matt said. “When Uncle John died, it seemed as if... I don’t know.” He almost said it seemed as if his stepfather had lost the will to live, but Matt didn’t want to think that. Not with the well-being of his mother, his brother and Bayside Construction on the line. Bruce was not a selfish man. He wouldn’t want to leave the people he cared about.

Unless he knew they were provided for.

“If things go bad with him,” Lucas asked, “what do you think will happen to the family business?”

“We talked about it, Bruce and I,” Matt admitted. “He’s worried about the future. Wants to make sure you get to finish school and Mom is set.”

“How’d we get so lucky to end up with a stepdad like him?”

“Believe me, I’ve wondered the same thing,” Matt said. “But we’ve earned his love. And his trust.”

“Does that trust include letting you take over the business?”

Matt did not want to talk about this. Not now when so much was on the line. But his brother deserved to know. They’d never held secrets from each other, each of them somehow knowing that their father’s legacy of lies ended the day he was sentenced to jail and permanently out of their lives.

“Bruce believes he has two options. Sell the business soon and invest the money for our family. Or take a chance on leaving it to me.”

Lucas sucked in a breath. “That’s a lot of pressure. But if I were him, I’d take a chance on you.”

Matt’s throat was tight. The stress of building a major project combined with wondering what the future would bring made his shoulders feel like ropes holding a wild horse. And hearing his brother’s confidence in him only made the stakes seem higher.

“I think he’d be taking a chance on us. The company will be yours, too, when you’re ready.”

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, and their breath returned to an easy rhythm.

“I could run again,” Lucas offered.

They jogged past the midway train station, the Sea Devil and along the fence at the construction zone. The five-kilometer course had started in the parking lot, wound all the way down the Starlight Point peninsula and back, and would end under a balloon arch near the marina. Bagels, bananas and a live band awaited them at the finish, but there were water stations staffed by off-duty employees along the way.

With only a half mile to go as they ran past the scrambler ride, Matt wouldn’t usually have stopped at a water station. He didn’t need a drink, but he couldn’t resist taking a cup from Caroline Bennett’s outstretched hand.