Wrong Face in the Mirror: A Time Travel Romance (Medicine Stick Series) by Barbara Bartholomew Page B

said. “Nikki told you.” Finally he looked up, the fair skin of his face flushed with embarrassment. “She’s exaggerating, Hart. We’re doing fine and anyway it’s none of your concern.”
    She sat down on the edge of a chair, feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Once again she was struck by the thought that she and Tommy were so unlike. He was a big man with an open face that normally expressed cheerful liking for the world, but which now showed only pain.
    “Nikki said you need money.” It seemed best to dive right in since she didn’t know how to approach this with subtlety. “And that I have some.”
    He laughed. “I think if I’d inherited a couple of million dollars I’d remember that if nothing else.”
    “Well, I don’t. And if I have money, how come you don’t?”
    “My dad married a poor woman, but after she died he married your mom. She didn’t have money, but it was in the family. When your grandma died, she left your mother and you a bundle.”
    “And you need twenty thousand, that’s what Nikki said. So how do I transfer it to you?”
    “You’re not even asking what I need it for?”
    She shook her head. “You’re my brother . . .”
    “Half-brother.”
    “You’re my brother. I keep hearing how expensive everything is today .”
    “You’ve already been more than generous, Hart. I won’t take your money. I just told Nikki you refused because I wanted her to get off my back about this.”
    So she’d given him money before. Well, it seemed only fair. They might have had different mothers, but they’d shared a father, even though she couldn’t remember him.
    “What happened to our dad?” she asked abruptly, suddenly wondering.
    “Your mom and our dad were killed in a car accident when you were in high school.”
    “Oh!” She didn’t know what to say. She was emotionally unattached to this unknown man, but he was all the father Tommy had ever known.
    “ I kind of went off the rails after they died. It’s hard losing your folks. You begin to feel doomed.”
    “I guess,” she agreed doubtfully. She’d been brought up to believe that you kept going no matter what, that you had a duty to survive no matter what life dealt you.
    Then she frowned. Taught by whom? Certainly not Tommy’s father. She still couldn’t think of this unknown man as her dad.
    “Anyway,” she tried to get back on subject. “How do we get the money to you?”
    He shook his head as though knowing he should resist, but was too desperate to do so. “You can just write a check.”
    “My ledge r indicates that I don’t have that much in my account.”
    “Little sister, you have money in more than one bank, not to mention stocks and bonds and some other properties. You financed this house as a matter of fact.” He grinned with wry humor.
    “Okay. If you can tell me which bank and which checkbook.”
    He nodded.
    “I’ll go back to my apartment and look through my papers. If you’ll come by in a few minutes, I’ll have a check for you.”
    “Thanks,” he said. He stood with her when she got to her feet and followed her to the door, but before she could leave he reached out to grab her hand.
    “I have a gambling problem, Hart. I like to go to the casinos and, well, things got out of hand, built up slowly and I was in trouble. I promise you it won’t happen again.”
    She walked slowly out to her car, wise enough to know that her brother probably wouldn’t be able to keep his promise.”
    It didn’t matter. She had to give him the money. This time at least.

Chapter Eleven
    It was easy enough to trace the Larkin family after they left Medicine Stick. He started with further conversations with Mayleen Carson and the Forresters, taking careful notes from their memories, and then going online much as a person would tracing his own family background.
    The Larkins had moved away to California in late 1947, following relatives who had gone to that state during the dustbowl migration years earlier. They