Promises to Keep

by Shirley Hailstock

  Parker got up and put his computer on the small table where he and McKenna often shared their evening meal. They’d cleared the food away earlier and left only their snacks and drinks and a couple of books.

  He looked at Joanna, silently offering her an invitation to use it.

  “We’ll leave you alone for a few minutes. All you need to do is open the laptop.”

  Parker extended his arm toward McKenna. She stood and walked into his embrace. It wasn’t planned, but it felt right, natural, as if this was what she should do, where she should be.

  They moved toward the door, but McKenna stopped. She turned to Joanna, who hadn’t moved from her spot by the window, although her expression was full of pain and she seemed sadder than she had when she’d first come in.

  “If you decide to call, feel free to use the phone.”

  “And remember, they were looking for you,” Parker added.

  He reached for McKenna again. She took his hand and the two of them left the room. It was a warm night, with a full moon. The porch of the B&B had a bench and they sat on it.

  “How did you find out who she was so quickly?” McKenna asked.

  “Missing persons is a matter of public record. I used her description, age range and figured she had to be from somewhere nearby. Since she’s on foot, or a possible hitchhiker, she couldn’t be that far from her home state. Plus she probably hadn’t resorted to stealing yet, given her Dumpster visits.”

  “How did that help?”

  “The longer she would have been on the road, the more likely she’d try stealing food when she couldn’t find any.”

  “And that’s why you started buying the food?”

  “I didn’t want her arrested. She’d be forced back home then, and I wasn’t sure that she wasn’t an abused child.”

  He wouldn’t want her back in a bad situation. McKenna made a mental note to ask about that later. She felt this wasn’t Parker’s first experience with a homeless child.

  “What else did you do to find her real name?”

  “I checked the four states around this one. When I didn’t find her, I added another four to the criteria. And there she was. Then I went to the news reports. I listened to the mother ask for information. She appeared genuine. What did she tell you?”

  “She said her father died five months ago and her mother is already remarried. She’s hurt, grieving and angry.”

  Parker nodded. “I understand.” He was quiet for a moment. “I read the newspaper accounts and the messages people left about her father’s death. According to them, he was a wonderful man. And he loved his daughter.”

  “What about the wife?”

  “She seems to be way in the background. There’s almost nothing on her. There are accounts of sporting events Joanna took part in, mostly swimming, photos of father and daughter at various school activities, but nothing of the mother.”

  “Maybe the mother was the photographer or she’s camera shy.”

  “I thought of that. You know how everything is credited these days. I checked the photo credits. None of them were hers. In the narratives and posted stories, there was little to nothing about her.”

  “I wonder why Joanna is so upset that she remarried.”

  “She was replacing Joanna’s father, whom she obviously loved.”

  From around the corner of the porch, the young girl appeared. McKenna stood up and took a step toward her.

  “How did it go?” she asked.

  Joanna turned to her. Her bottom lip trembled. Tears were in her eyes. She shook her head from side to side, as if she was trying to shake away the answer. Without a word, she stumbled off the porch and ran out into the night as if the devil were on her heels.

  “I wish we could do more,” Parker said, coming up behind McKenna. He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her back against him. “I feel terrible for her. I thought for sure things would have worked out for them.”

  “Parker,” she said. “I have the feeling we’ve made a terrible mistake.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  MCKENNA WAS SLUGGISH when she got out of bed the next morning. She’d been awake most of the night. She couldn’t get Joanna out of her mind. The look on the young girl’s face when she appeared on the porch haunted her. Had they done the right thing for Joanna? McKenna wanted to go after her, but Parker’s logic that it was dark and that Joanna had a hiding place kept McKenna at the B&B.

  Work the next day went by slowly. At every break, McKenna went outside looking for Joanna. She couldn’t find her. The tree where she’d hidden yesterday showed no sign of her. McKenna checked the entire area, but Joanna was not there.

  When the day ended, she hoped Joanna would show up to collect the food Parker had left for her. She and Parker went into the diner they’d started frequenting and ordered. It was close enough to the supermarket for them to see anyone going that way.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked after the waitress left them.

  “Like a criminal.”

  “You didn’t do anything illegal.”

  “I know. But I feel like I let her down. That we were on the right track, but it was in fact wrong.”

  “It wasn’t,” Parker said.

  “How do you know?”

  Parker glanced around before saying anything. “She’s a survivor. She’ll come around. She needed time to process everything we said.” He paused as the waitress delivered their food. Tonight they’d opted to eat in the diner instead of buying the food and taking it back to their room. “Kids on the street are a different breed. Some of them learn things long before they should. Joanna’s been gone for months. In our eyes, that’s not a long time, but for someone who’s actually living that life, three months is a lifetime.”

  “You think she’s ready to go home?” McKenna surmised.

  “I do.”

  McKenna glanced out the window, hoping she’d see the young girl. A couple of pick-up trucks roared down the road, but no pedestrian materialized.

  “She didn’t call anyone.”

  McKenna looked at him in surprise. She waited for him to explain.

  “I checked with the desk,” he told her. “No phone calls were made from our room. She did watch the news reports on the laptop. All the windows were left open on the screen.”

  “What are we going to do now?”

  Parker reached over and took her hand. McKenna felt that jolt of awareness again.

  “It’s up to her,” he said. “We opened the door. It’s up to her to walk through it.”

  They lingered over dinner for an hour. McKenna continually checked the window, but she never spotted Joanna. When they left, the bag of food still sat in its usual place behind the diner. McKenna’s heart dropped again when she saw it. Parker took her hand and led her to the car.

  “We’ll only be here two more days. I feel like we’ll be leaving something undone.”

  “It’s not over yet,” he assured her.

  It wasn’t that McKenna wasn’t aware of Parker’s touch. She was super aware of it. He’d done it more than once. At first she’d excused her reaction as the fact that it had been a long time since a man had touched her. But now that he had held her hand, put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him, she felt a real connection to him.

  It confused her. She was with Parker, not her husband, not the man she’d vowed to love until her dying day. How could this be? Parker was all but responsible for Marshall’s death. He’d been there with him. Been the help he needed, yet Marshall had died. McKenna had to be losing her mind. Of course, she was worried about Joanna, but that was no reason to al
low Parker to hold her in a romantic way. And certainly no reason that she should like it.

  McKenna didn’t have time to dwell on her feelings for Parker. As he pulled the car into the lot at the B&B, Joanna was there waiting for them. She sat on the steps leading to their room as if she hadn’t a care in the world. She was clean, wearing a white T-shirt and pink shorts. Next to her sat a paper bag.

  McKenna was out of the Corvette before the moment Parker stopped the car. She ran to the girl. Joanna stood up as she approached. Without thinking, McKenna grabbed her in a bear hug.

  “Is everything all right?” McKenna asked. She pushed back, eyeing her up and down as if to assure herself that Joanna had all her fingers and toes. Parker came up behind her.

  Joanna nodded, and seemed a little taken aback by McKenna’s affection. “Sorry about last night. I wasn’t ready to see and hear all those things on his computer.”

  Joanna dropped her chin and McKenna gave her a moment.

  The girl looked down and picked up the bag. “Your clothes,” she said.

  McKenna took the bag and they led her into the small room they shared, a family reunited after a long absence. Parker took a seat at the table. McKenna sat poised on the end of one of the beds. Joanna perched on the guest chair.

  “Did you believe them?” Parker asked,

  “Yeah. My mom was crying. I started to cry.”

  McKenna saw the emotion cover her face. Tears welled in the girl’s eyes, even though she fought to blink them away.

  “What about her husband?” Parker asked.

  “I’m okay with him.”

  “Are you sure?” McKenna needed to know.

  Joanna nodded. “Last night I thought about how things were before my father died. They weren’t that great.” She paused and swallowed as if she had to force the words out. “My mom and dad fought a lot. I could hear them, even if they didn’t think I could. When we were together, they talked to me or through me, not to each other. I can’t blame my mom or him for falling in love.”

  “That’s very mature,” Parker said. McKenna glanced at him to see if there was any sarcasm in his meaning. She found none.

  “But you didn’t call them,” Parker stated.

  It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. “I’m afraid,” she admitted. “I figured if I just go there I can see if they’ll welcome me. I bought a bus ticket with the money you gave me.” She looked at McKenna. Parker followed her gaze.

  “Of course they’ll welcome you,” McKenna said.

  “You should give them a call,” Parker advised. “Stop them from worrying.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “That’s easy,” McKenna told her with a smile. “Start with ‘I love you.’”

  She wasn’t sure why she looked at Parker as she said that. He was staring at her. Maybe she sensed herself being looked at. Or maybe she looked at him for approval. Whatever it was, the air between them seemed to take on a charge.

  “Your parents will take it from there,” Parker said.

  Parker stood up, indicating the phone. He and McKenna went to the door, giving Joanna time alone to call her parents. Just before the door closed, McKenna heard her dialing the phone.

  * * *

  THEY WERE ON the road again. Parker’s heart was lighter. McKenna practically glowed. He liked to see her happy. She wore her hair down this morning. The wind tossed it back and forth and occasionally she’d put her hand up and push it out of her face. She was brunette. Her shoulder-length curly hair was shining with copper highlights in the sun. It complemented her brown eyes.

  “You look like the cat that ate the canary.”

  McKenna grinned. Together they had taken Joanna to the bus station and watched and waved as she’d boarded the bus and it drove away. The smile on Joanna’s face was teary, but Parker felt she was going to be all right. He’d seen many students in her predicament. Maybe not so drastic, not too many runaways, but enough that he knew the signs when he saw them. And the signs of recovery.

  “How much money did you give her?” Parker asked.

  McKenna looked at him, her brows raised.

  “I saw you,” he explained.

  “After we got her some new clothes, I gave her enough to buy food until she gets back to Cedar Creek and a little extra.”

  “You mean all you had left in your wallet?” Parker asked.

  “Not all, but most,” she said, dipping her head.

  Parker laughed at her.

  “She needed it, and we can survive.”

  “Don’t feel bad about it. I did the same thing,” Parker told her.

  “You gave her money?”

  He nodded. “She told me you had already given her some, but I wanted to make sure if she decided to take a few days to get home, she wouldn’t be sleeping on the streets.”

  McKenna put her hand on his arm. It was the first time she’d touched him. The electricity that radiated through him made him swerve the car. Quickly he compensated, hoping McKenna didn’t notice.

  She dropped her hand and shifted in the passenger seat.

  “You know, you broke your own rule,” Parker spoke up, needing to do something to break the tension that coiled inside him.

  “Rule? What rule?”

  “The one about email and cell phones.”

  “I haven’t used either,” she defended.

  “But you have to now.”

  “Why?”

  “You gave Joanna your email address and phone number and told her to get in touch with you if she needed anything.”

  “So?”

  “So, now you have to check it to see if she sends a message or calls.” Parker shrugged. “If she sends you a message, and I’m sure she will when she gets home, you’ll have to answer her, even if it’s only to be courteous.”

  Parker laughed again and McKenna joined in, however her expression said something else. “What?” Parker asked, frowning.

  “I didn’t break the rule.”

  “I saw you writing down the information.”

  “It wasn’t my information,” McKenna said.

  “Whose...” He stopped as understanding dawned. “You didn’t?”

  “Well, it’s your computer. You’re always writing on it or looking something up. I thought it only fair that she be able to reach us and since I’m never on the machine, you were the obvious choice.”

  Parker smiled wide. “You are certainly a card, McKenna. You have all the bases covered.”

  For a few moments they rode in silence. Then McKenna turned in her seat and faced him. He was getting used to the subtle way she acted. She had something important to say and even though they were in the car, she wanted his full attention.

  “I’ve been thinking,” she began.

  “Is that a dangerous thing to do?” Parker joked. He liked joking with her, liked to see her let her guard down. He got glimpses of the real McKenna then.

  “In the towns we stop in, even if we don’t need the money, why don’t we stay a few days, get jobs, meet some of the people who live along this route.”

  “Instead of just letting the scenery pass us by?”

  “Exactly,” she said. Her face glowed as if she was a child getting a gift.

  “Well, we could always use the money. And you wanted to see some of the sights.”

  “You could use some of our experiences for a future book. You don’t only write economics textbooks, do you?”
r />   “So far that’s all I’ve written.”

  “But I see you typing new stuff in your computer. I thought you only had to edit your book. Are you adding new material at the same time?”

  “Not exactly,” he said, all noncommittal.

  “Are you keeping notes about this trip?”

  He was. He was keeping both notes and impressions of the places they had been. He wasn’t thinking of writing a book. He told himself when he started that he only wanted to document the trip so he could remember it later. But he knew what he really wanted to remember later were details related to McKenna. She would never forgive him for his part in Marshall’s death. When they returned to Chicago, he was sure they would each resume their separate lives.

  “That was always the plan,” she continued. “To stop and see the area, visit some of the local places, work along the way and meet new people.”

  “Is this because of Joanna?”

  “A little. I felt I was doing something positive, maybe even life changing. Not just giving her a handout and passing her by.”

  “Are you saying you want to try solving people’s problems?”

  “No,” she said. “I just think it’s a shame to drive across the country and not meet some people along the way.”

  “I see. So you’re naturally friendly. It’s probably all that sales training coming through,” he teased.

  “Not necessarily.”

  McKenna had worked in sales for a long time. When she and Marshall opened their first store, she was the face of the business. A few men tested her, but she proved herself. And most became her friends. McKenna was a natural people person. Marshall couldn’t have picked a better salesperson for their business if he’d gotten a Hollywood star to fill the position. Luckily, they couldn’t afford to hire anyone in the beginning.

  Parker understood where she was coming from. He also understood that, whether he agreed or not, they were going to do it her way.

  Two days later, Joanna left an email message for McKenna and Parker. She included a phone number and said she was happy to be home and that she would keep in touch.