Huntington Family Series

by Rachel Ann Nunes

  He could see the shadow of her lashes on her cheeks, the moistness of her lips. He moved closer, and she looked up startled. Belatedly, Tyler realized he had been going to kiss her. What was he thinking? She was too vulnerable; even he could see that.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  He drew away slowly, his eyes never leaving her face. “I’m sorry. I–I . . . Savvy, I know this is a difficult time for you, but I want you to know that I’m here for you. And after all this is over, I still want to be in your life–and not just as a friend.”

  She stared at him as if he had suddenly grown horns.

  “I’m serious,” he added.

  “Maybe today, right now.” She shook her head, her eyes dark with emotion. “There was a time when I would have loved to hear you say that. But now, well, I love you, Tyler–but as a friend. That’s all we have.”

  He heard her words loud and clear, but she wasn’t looking at him like a friend. He knew her well enough to see that. She cared for him as much as she ever had, maybe more. The discovery made his heart soar. It made him want to shout in triumph. It made him want to weep. For the first time he understood why Mitch had started acting so strangely after he met Cory. Tyler had never felt this way before; it could only be love. But how to convince Savvy that this time he was for real?

  “Savvy, I–”

  Then he stopped. What if he was wrong. What if Savvy really didn’t love him anymore? What if he had ruined things between them forever? In one brief, brilliant moment of understanding, everything was different. Now he was the one who risked rejection, he was the one whose heart might be broken. The thought of losing Savvy was almost more than he could bear.

  “Savvy, please–”

  The door opened behind her, cutting off whatever crazy words might have spilled from his lips. He was keenly disappointed.

  “Ooooo!” Lexi glared at Savvy. Tyler heard her suitcase drop to the floor. Savvy gave Tyler an I-told-you-so glance.

  “Ready, Lexi?” Tyler asked, deciding to defuse matters himself before they killed each other.

  “For what?” the girl growled, though her gaze softened when it touched him.

  “To help paint Kerrianne’s fence.” He smiled at her in what he hoped was a disarming manner. “Unless you’d like me to talk to your father first. You know, arrange a time for us to have a chat with him.”

  Lexi lifted her chin. “I am feeling quite bereft today,” she said in what he knew was her best adult voice. “I don’t want to paint or talk to my father.”

  Tyler stifled a grin, but Savvy said, “We’re not asking, Lexi. We’re telling.”

  Lexi placed her hands on her hips, glaring at them, looking every bit as intimidating as any woman did with her hands in that position. Tyler was ready to back down and offer to take her to a library instead to bone up on her vocabulary, but Savvy didn’t seem in the least bothered by the hands-on-the-hips thing. “We’re going,” she said.

  Tyler knew he had to support her as she had him, though doing so unnerved him when Lexi seemed so adamant. Maybe this was how the politician had felt with his daughter. Tyler began to feel a real pity for the man.

  “Come on,” he said. “I have some old painting clothes you two can borrow. I wouldn’t want Lexi to ruin that outfit. Is that one of the shirts you bought for her, Savvy? I like it.” Bypassing Savvy on the stairs, he led the way into the house, feeling two pairs of eyes digging into his back.

  * * *

  At Kerrianne’s Tyler began organizing the painting party. Kerrianne was watching Amanda’s children while she was at her lawyer’s, so there were a lot of so-called helpers. He and Kerrianne decided that the older children–Kevin, Misty, and Benjamin–would have their own brushes and sections of fence to paint. The younger children–Mara, Caleb, and Blakey–would be allowed to help one at a time with adult supervision.

  Things were going smoothly, and Tyler was considering stealing into the house to make the calls he’d promised Savvy when Amanda arrived, looking businesslike in a fitted suit that hid all signs of her pregnancy. Blakey, who was “helping” his aunt paint at the moment, waved to his mother.

  Tyler’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the unfamiliar number. “I wonder who that is?” he murmured. The area code was from out of state, but he didn’t think it was from the newspaper in California as he’d first hoped. “Hello?”

  Silence.

  “Is anyone there?” He thought he heard breathing on the other end of the line before whoever it was hung up.

  The instinct he’d felt earlier at the house in Sandy kicked in. The call might have been a wrong number, but it might also mean something more. He checked his recent calls. Sure enough, his phone had placed a call to that same number the night it had supposedly gone missing.

  He started toward the house. “Who was it?” Lexi asked, an odd look on her face that fueled his purpose. She had something to hide–something regarding his phone.

  “Someone I have to call back,” he said. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  Amanda followed him inside. “What’s up?” she asked as Tyler found a pad of paper in the drawer beside Kerrianne’s phone.

  He sat at the kitchen table inside the sliding glass door. “I think Lexi took my phone and then pretended to find it.”

  “I knew it was odd when you said you lost your phone,” Amanda said. “Mitch can never find his, but you’ve never misplaced yours.” She opened the phone book and leaned over to look at the number he was writing on the paper.

  “I can’t believe she took it,” Tyler said. “She looked so happy when she found it for me.”

  Amanda clicked her tongue. “Honey, you have a lot to learn about children. Look, I found the area codes.” She pointed to a page in the phone book. “Let’s see . . . it’s in Colorado. I bet she lives there.”

  “Well, we’ve got a phone number.” He grinned at his sister. “Why don’t we use it?”

  Amanda returned his grin. “Oh, let me, please!”

  Tyler handed her his phone. If they were lucky, they might momentarily fool the person on the other end into giving them information.

  “No, let’s call from Kerrianne’s phone.” She set his phone on the table. “Whoever called knows you have the phone again and that Lexi won’t be using it any time soon. But Lexi might call them from another phone, if the call was a signal of some sort.”

  “Good idea. And that way we can both be on the phone.” Tyler ran upstairs for the portable extension in Kerrianne’s bedroom. In less than a minute he was back at the table as Amanda dialed the number, her green eyes sparkling.

  “Hello?” came a hesitant voice.

  “Hi.” Amanda’s voice sounded breathy and remarkably young.

  “Lex? Thank heaven! I’m sorry for calling on that phone, but I didn’t know how else to reach you. I tried the other phone you called from, too, but no one answered. I thought if I called, you might be around and realize I was trying to reach you. Anyway, your dad was at the school today. He looked mad–furious! The police were there, too. They know, and they’re looking for you. I left right away and came home.” The girl’s voice trembled. “Oh, Lex, it’s only a matter of time before they come for me. Everyone knows we’re best friends. They’ll make me tell about the phone, and I’ll get in trouble for the notes. My parents are going to kill me, simply kill me!” Her voice raised in a wail.

  Tyler met Amanda’s eyes. Her grin had faded at the earnest fear in the girl’s voice. “Listen,” she said, “everything is going to be okay.”

  “Hey, you’re not Lex! How did you get this number? Oh, it must have been . . . I’m hanging up now.”

  “No!” The word burst from Tyler. He tried to remember the name of the friend Lexi had talked about. “Look, are you Amber? Do not hang up, young lady, or you will be in much deeper trouble than you already are!”

  “We’re trying to help,” Amanda put in. “Please don’t hang up. We’re Lexi’s friends and we care about her.
We’re going to work this out with her dad, I promise. That’s what we’re trying to do. You know Lexi’s in over her head, don’t you? Please let us help. If not, we’ll have to call the police.”

  “Lexi’s dad already did. He found out she was gone. I know he’s coming here next. I’m going to hide until my mom gets home.”

  “Give us his number,” Tyler urged. “Come on. I promise this is for the best. And we’ll keep you out of it as much as possible.”

  “I don’t care about that.” The girl hesitated. “Well, not only that. I want Lex to be happy and safe. You won’t let him take her to Minnesota? She’d really hate it there. She never liked those people, not since her mother . . .”

  “The number?” Amanda reminded her gently.

  “Okay.” The girl was remarkably helpful after that first concession. She gave them not only Derek Roathe’s number and address in Brighton, Colorado, but also the name of the junior high where Lexi attended school.

  “So I guess now we have to call Derek.” Tyler hefted the portable phone in his hand.

  Amanda grimaced. “Don’t look at me. I’m not going to be the one to tell this man we have his missing daughter. I have my own problems with birth parents.”

  Tyler searched her face. “That’s right, you were at your attorney’s this morning. I was going to ask you how it went when I got that call.”

  “Well, it all looks very good–in our favor, that is. Except . . .”

  “Except what?”

  She shut her eyes for several seconds. When she opened them, he was almost startled by the intensity of the tear-washed emerald color. “Blake and I’ve been praying . . . and we feel, well, that we’re supposed to do nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  She nodded. “We’ve felt that before. Remember? Right before Savvy went on her mission and Paula came to visit. We were going to approach Paula then about custody, but in the end Blake couldn’t bring himself to do it.” She heaved a long sigh. “Doing nothing then was the right thing–look at the wonderful two years we’ve had with the kids. So as much as I want to do something now, to end all this uncertainty, I think the Lord wants us to wait.”

  “I see.” Tyler shook his head. “You have a lot of faith, Manda. More than I do. You’re an example to me, you know that?”

  “Maybe.” She snorted lightly and gave him a twisted grin. “Or maybe I’m just afraid.”

  “You? Never.”

  She pointed to the phone in his hand. “Nevertheless, you’re making the call to Lexi’s father.”

  “I’d better check with Savvy first.”

  “I’ll wander out there and send her in. No use in getting Lexi suspicious.”

  “Stay out there and watch Lexi, okay? Just in case.”

  “Will do.”

  In a few minutes Savvy came in through the sliding door. He met her gaze and a bond as thick and strong as it ever had been sprang between them.

  “You found him, didn’t you?” she said.

  Tyler nodded. Her face was speckled with paint, as were her hands, but he wished he could hold her. “I talked to her friend Amber. She says Derek found out Lexi wasn’t at school and called the police.”

  She sighed. “Where’s his number?”

  “I’ll call for you.” He didn’t like how pale her face was or how her hand clung to the top of the chair.

  “I can do it.” She sat at the table.

  He admired her strength, but her expression made his heart squeeze. He wanted more than anything to protect her. “Savvy, please, let me break the news, let him blow off a little steam. Then I’ll hand the phone to you.”

  After regarding him mutely for a few seconds, she nodded.

  In the end neither of them had to talk to Derek Roathe. He didn’t answer his phone. After checking with information for the number, Tyler called Lexi’s junior high, thinking Derek might still be there with the police. Instead, he learned that Derek had collapsed at the school and been taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

  Tyler’s third call was to the Brighton police.

  * * *

  The painting crew was washing up for a lunch break when Tyler and Savvy opened the glass door and strode out onto the patio.

  “Lexi, we need to talk to you.” Savvy motioned her over.

  Lexi approached them, her narrow face alert and waiting. Did she guess that they had important news? Savvy looked at Tyler, nodding for him to begin.

  “I’ve been on the phone to your school in Colorado,” he told Lexi.

  She gasped. “How did you–”

  “Never mind,” Savvy said. “Tell her the rest.”

  Tyler kept his eyes on Lexi. “Apparently, learning that you’ve been gone for a week was too much of a shock for your dad. He collapsed at the school.”

  Lexi gasped. “Is he all right?” Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at Tyler.

  Savvy put an arm around Lexi. “Tyler talked to a detective. He said Derek was all right but that the hospital was keeping him overnight for observation. He should be home tomorrow.”

  Tyler wanted to point out that Derek’s hospitalization was Lexi’s fault, but her face was so pale that he worried she might faint. The recriminating words died in his throat.

  “We’ll go see him as soon as possible,” Savvy continued. Her face was full of the doubts about her birth father that she’d confessed to Tyler that morning, and his protective feeling grew stronger. He couldn’t let her do this alone. She needed support. Would she accept his?

  Lexi leaned into Savvy. “Okay,” she said in a small and hollow voice. She looked defeated now, not a sign remaining of the truculent child who had argued with Savvy only a few hours before. The skin around her eyes was wet with tears.

  Tyler was surprised to find his own vision moist, and he blinked his eyes behind his glasses, hoping no one noticed.

  “What about your brother?” Savvy asked Lexi. “Should we call him?”

  Lexi shook her head. “Dad will. Or somebody else–the hospital maybe. I don’t have his number.”

  “Do you have any idea how long it will take to drive to Colorado?” Savvy asked Tyler. “What city did you say it was?”

  “Brighton. It’s north of Denver.” Amanda came onto the patio and bent to wipe Blakey’s hands with a damp rag. “But it shouldn’t take long if you’re flying. Blake can take you to the airport later tonight or tomorrow morning. Or, better yet, you can leave the Jeep at the airport.”

  “Jeep?” Savvy questioned at the same time Tyler said, “Flying’s out.”

  Amanda smiled at them a moment, shaking her head. “Okay, no flying. I’m sure you have a reason.” When no one rushed to explain Lexi’s fear, she shrugged. “And I said Jeep, Savvy, because I just assumed Tyler would go with you, especially with your mother’s car in the shop.”

  Savvy shook her head. “I can’t expect–”

  “Oh, would you go with us?” Lexi had come out of her trance and gazed at Tyler so hopefully that he forgave her everything.

  “Sure.” He grinned at Savvy. “See? I’ve been invited.”

  Savvy’s smile made his stomach twist in knots. “Thanks, I appreciate it. Let’s go tomorrow morning so we don’t have to drive at night. And that way Derek will have time to leave the hospital before we barge in on him.”

  That she gave in so easily told Tyler how nervous she was to face her birth father.

  “There, it’s settled,” Amanda clapped her hands, her expression smug.

  But it was far from settled. Watching Savvy’s face, Tyler knew she was fighting the urge to run. His fearless Savvy who had always faced her demons head on. He reached out to touch her shoulder, to let her know he was there, but she stepped away, averting her gaze and shaking her head slightly. She still didn’t trust him. Not yet.

  But you will, he vowed. I’m in this for good–if you’ll only let me. I promise.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Savvy couldn’t believe the direction her life was taking. L
ast week she’d been in California with no thoughts other than school and her relationship with Chris. And making sure she stayed over Tyler, of course. Now, less than a week later, she was living in uncertainty, a new sister shadowing her every move, and a father she’d never seen awaiting her arrival the next day–a father who had given her away. To complicate matters further, there was Tyler, acting like the romantic character he’d once played in her old, girlish dreams.

  The phone rang, and Savvy went down to the kitchen to answer it. She hoped it was her father, who was due home from his business trip to Japan. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Savvy, it’s me.”

  Her first thought was Tyler, but it didn’t sound quite like him. But who–“Chris! Hi.”

  “I called your parents’ and your mother gave me your number. She mentioned you’d found Lexi’s father but said to ask you for the details.”

  “We found him in Colorado. A city named Brighton.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Me neither. It’s north of Denver. Take us about eight hours to drive there. We’re leaving in the morning.”

  He made a sympathetic sound. “Not exactly the vacation with your family you envisioned.”

  “You can say that again.” Yet, Lexi was family.

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  Savvy smiled at his willingness, at the tenderness in his voice. She could picture him as she’d seen him in her kitchen, his tall, muscled frame sprawled in the chair. She had no fear of not measuring up in his eyes; there was no history of watching from the sidelines as he dated other women while her heart was silently breaking. Whatever relationship she had with Chris would start now, with no past to obscure their future.

  Thankfulness flooded her body. Chris was a choice person sent to her by a loving Father in Heaven. He knew her troubles and her worries about Tyler, and here was a way out, a way to a life free of the old insecurities–if she wanted it. And if not with Chris, then perhaps someone like him. Someone who was as solid and dependable as Chris but who made her heart race as much as Tyler did. The path was hers to choose.