Promise to a Boy

by Mary Brady

  “They might be his family, too.”

  “Kenny wanted to take me boating on the reservoir today, and he invited Kyle to go with us. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, so I said maybe another time, but…”

  “Kenny wanted to take you out? Way to go, Mom.”

  “He’s so nice and so sexy, Abby. I hated turning him down.”

  “Well, call him and tell him you changed your mind and that Kyle will love it.” And the reservoir was far enough away from St. Adelbert that Reed would not find them on his own.

  “I’ll keep Kyle safe, Abby. You can depend on me.”

  The sincerity in her mother’s tone made another teardrop fall down onto Abby’s cheek. Her mother was a changed woman. She would not let Kyle down, and Kenny Fuller was a fool if he didn’t fall head over heels in love with Delanna Fairbanks.

  Abby closed the call and started her car. She’d go visit the mountains before work. She might have to leave them soon.

  REED STOOD IN THE DOORWAY of Abby’s kitchen dressed in a towel. His clothes had been missing when he got up and his worst fear was realized when he heard the washing machine running. He couldn’t careless that Abby might have washed the sample. Barely a thing would have been lost if she had. Collecting it had been cheap and easy and in retrospect, stupid.

  But she had found it. Abby must feel as if someone had stabbed her in the back. Just like he felt. The big difference was, all he needed to recover was time and a little prudent care. The kind of wound he had inflicted on her might never fully heal.

  The sight of the empty spot in the garage where her car had been caused an equally empty spot in his chest.

  He never meant to hurt people. He was much better with hard data. Data was cold and without feeling and he wondered if he had become like that. He turned away from the doorway to go check the progress of his laundry.

  After he tossed the clothes into the dryer, he paced the house for a while, stopping from time to time to very gently stretch the injured muscles of his back. He wished he had his laptop. He didn’t want to boot Abby’s computer and invade her private space any more than he already had.

  When seven-thirty finally rolled around, he sat down on the couch and called Denny at the office.

  Reed was relieved and oddly pleased. The issue with the client had been ironed out. The land had been purchased at a fairly reasonable price, and it looked like smooth sailing from now on and the biggest deal they had ever brokered.

  “And we’re getting along quite nicely without you. Take all the time you need,” Denny told him.

  All the time you need. Forever had a nice feel to it. Maybe letting Denny have more control would help him in a lot of ways.

  “I have some more information for you.”

  “What do you have?”

  “I sent our P.I. to Denver—”

  “You sent our P.I. to Denver?” Reed sat up straight on the couch, ignoring the stab of pain in his back. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Yeah, he said—”

  “Denny, stop.” That was what Abby had meant the other day by the river. He didn’t know if he wanted to find out anything about Abby’s past. She must already feel he’d betrayed her trust, but the boy’s welfare might be at stake and he’d listen. If someone had been interested in the welfare of two poor little rich boys, Jesse might not be lost and maybe dead right now. “Go on. What did he find out?”

  “Well, I’ll apologize in advance for this. What I have isn’t going to make your life any easier.”

  Reed slumped shoulders he didn’t even realize he had been tensing. “What do you have?”

  “I think you should read the report. There’s a lot here and you’ll have to make up your own mind about what it means.”

  He trusted Denny’s instincts. “You sent it?”

  “It should be in your in-box.”

  The next couple minutes was spent talking about Reed’s mother and about how Denny was working around Reed’s absence quite well. Then Reed disconnected the call.

  When he slipped on the pants and shirt from the drier, they were warm but still damp, good enough to get him to the apartment without giving the neighbors a view of the city guy in a towel.

  Once in the apartment, he changed into dry clothes and hung the damp ones on the back of the kitchen chairs in the sunshine. Then he downloaded the information Denny had sent. The sections on court records got Reed’s attention first. He leaned toward the computer’s screen as if it would help him understand words that didn’t seem to fit with the Abby Fairbanks he knew so well.

  No wonder she had fled the city. If she thought he planned to take Kyle to Chicago, it must have her frightened out of her mind.

  He wanted to hold her in his arms again, but that couldn’t lead to anything except more heartache for all of them.

  He had been reading and digesting the information from Denny for a couple of hours when his phone rang.

  “Good morning, Mother.”

  The conversation went as most of his conversations with his mother went.

  It wasn’t until he hung up that he realized he should try to see the human side of her. She was self-centered and totally dependent on the people around her. Until she sobered up, she had never put any time or effort into being a parent. If there was a mother who deserved to have her children turn their backs on her, it was Frieda Hale Maxwell. Now that she was sober, she wished she had a family and seemed to think wishing should make it so.

  He couldn’t help think of another woman who wasn’t a mother, but should be. Abby. She had every reason to reject the world, to be withdrawn and bitter, to turn inward and think only of herself. She had more reasons than most to complain about how unfair life was, but she didn’t.

  Maybe his mother, who had no reason to be selfish and demanding could be more like Abby—if someone gave her the chance. Maybe there was more humanity in his mother than the people around her gave her credit for. He vowed to try to find it when he got home.

  And it was time to go home, to get out of town before he caused any more pain to any more people. He wasn’t a complete heel, though. He’d wait for Abby to come home from work and he’d wish her well. She deserved it. She deserved every good thing that came into her life.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  FOR ABBY, THE DAY HAD been long and yet not long enough to find any real answers. She got out of her car and slowly climbed the stairs to the apartment she had rented to brothers who seemed to separately conspire to break her heart. One because he was so irresponsible and one because he was the opposite.

  When she got to the landing, she turned and sat down. She couldn’t bring herself to knock. She had hoped she could figure out what she was going to say, hoped making herself climb the stairs would somehow force her to find the words, the right questions. Her mother and Kyle were still not home and now would be the best time to put all the cards on the table.

  Having Reed say out loud what he had planned would be so final, and now that she was there, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it.

  She put her elbows on her knees and chin her in her hands. She might not be a mother, but she’d be the best damned aunt in the world.

  Now she was afraid an aunt just wasn’t enough.

  I’m sorry, Kyle, she thought. I’m so sorry.

  Lena—she pictured her sister in her camouflage ACU’s, Army Combat Uniform, grinning the day she graduated from boot camp, and Abby prayed she’d see that grin again—if you’re safe, I’m going to kick your butt all around the town when I see you.

  Through the interminably long workday she was at least able to convince herself Reed Maxwell still had no evil intent. This time, like it or not, she had been able to see all sides.

  She had spent the day burying herself in patient care and paperwork. When either of those flagged, she’d started calling patients who had been seen the previous week and who might benefit from or just like a follow-up call.

  Now she had to confront the man who c
ould trash her world.

  Well, enough of this.

  She stood, hoping for boldness she didn’t feel, and immediately saw Reed in the doorway. Funny, he didn’t look any different than he had yesterday morning. He didn’t look any more devious, any more sexy, any more of anything, except maybe he looked a little sad, tired, with a day and a half’s growth of beard.

  He hadn’t slept any more than she had last night.

  “Hello, Abby. Would you like to come in?”

  She tried to read any message in his words, but the invitation was polite, nothing more. Maybe that was the message. Civility could reign between them. All they had to do was keep any feelings out of their predicament.

  “I came to invite you to come over for a cup of tea,” she said, trying to sound calm, though her heart was breaking.

  Reed nodded and he followed her down the steps.

  They sat at her kitchen table in the light of the late-afternoon sun talking of things that meant little as if by a silent agreement they had decided to wait for the tea to be ready before they said what they had to say.

  When the water was hot, and the tea steeping in mugs, Abby folded her hands on the tabletop and studied his face for any sign of emotion. There was only the steady look of interest. Maybe the kind a cobra gives its prey. Well, during the day she’d built up her resistance to anything he would hand out.

  She loved him, or she loved the man she wanted in her life, the man who cared about the people around him enough to fight a fire for them. The man who laughed at the same things she laughed at, who appreciated the bounty Montana’s nature had to offer. The man who instinctively knew her well enough to give her the gift of a meteor shower.

  “What if Kyle is Jesse’s son?” Abby didn’t realize she was going to blurt that out, but she knew it was best gotten out on the table, so to speak.

  Reed’s steady gaze flickered a little and he took a sip of what had to be weak tea from his cup. “But we don’t know that for sure.”

  He was playing with her, testing. “Well, there’s the picture you have.”

  He continued to gaze steadily. Eventually the corners of Reed’s mouth turned up and Abby wondered what that meant. She didn’t dare let herself hope.

  “There are things about Kyle that reminded me of Jesse when Jesse was a kid. The blond curls, the way he runs, and Jesse had a dimple when he was a kid, like Kyle does now. So I had a picture of Jesse sent to me.”

  Somehow the information lightened her heart. “You didn’t already know when you got here. You didn’t bring the picture with you.”

  “I didn’t know and not say anything?” He challenged her with his eyes. “Did you?”

  She expelled a breath of relief and shook her head. “Lena would never tell me who Kyle’s father was. It wasn’t until I saw the picture that I had any real proof.”

  He nodded.

  “Did you have a private investigator asking questions about me in Denver?” she asked without letting her gaze waver.

  He frowned, but didn’t answer.

  “You have to think about it?”

  “Yes, in a way.”

  “I thought that was a yes or no question.” She pulled the tea bag out of her cup and squeezed it against her spoon.

  “My business partner, Denny, is helping me search for Jesse. He sent the investigator we use to find out about prospective customers and the veracity of their assets.”

  He didn’t know about Kyle before he got here. He wasn’t snooping into her past, not really. Suddenly the last vestiges of her anger at herself, at him, at everyone fled. She wanted to leap out of her chair and throw her arms around his neck, but there seemed to be more he was not yet telling her. She stayed sitting tight in her chair.

  “You were right,” she said as she took a sip of tea.

  “About what?”

  “We are alike in some ways. In the way our siblings seem to make their problems ours.”

  He nodded. “Jesse must know. How could he live so close to his own son and not know.”

  “Maybe he’s no better at figuring out such things than you are, than I am.”

  “Maybe.” He gave her a faint smile. “It might be too late for this.”

  “Jesse’s not dead. I won’t believe anything except that he’s alive and coming back.”

  “I didn’t mean that.” He reached into his pocket. When he brought his hand back out and put it on the tabletop, he was holding the plastic bag with the samples in it.

  “You’re giving this to me now? Why?”

  He reached for her hand.

  “I did not come here to destroy a family.” He looked into her eyes and she knew his words came from his heart. “I came to try to mend one. I spoke with my mother this afternoon, and to be perfectly honest, if it was up to me whether Kyle stayed here with you, happily oblivious to the fact that he had another family, or came back to Chicago to meet my family, I’d choose that he stay here for a long time.”

  Abby could barely breathe. “Who is it up to?”

  “Jesse, if he comes back, or Lena, if she comes back. If they don’t come back, then it’s up to you and someday, up to Kyle.”

  Kyle could stay here. Tears pressed at the back of her eyes and an aching lump filled her throat.

  “I have to go. I waited until you got home to speak with you. Thank you for all you’ve done. Thank you for being the great person you are, the good aunt.”

  He got up from the table, releasing her hand to come around and kiss her on the right cheek. He walked out the door.

  Abby sat in the middle of her kitchen dumb founded.

  Through the window, she watched Reed go up to the apartment. He went inside and a moment later, he appeared on the landing with his jacket and his laptop in his hand.

  He was leaving? He was just leaving?

  She heard his car back out and pull away. It was over, all over. Reed was gone forever. Kyle was safe.

  All the worrying and now Kyle was safe and Reed was leaving her alone. What she thought she wanted felt deeply hollow, and she knew immediately there was no way she could, in good conscience, keep Kyle away from his other family. She would make sure the acquaintance took place at Kyle’s pace, giving him the news slowly, in pieces he could handle. She would do all she had fought against, but slowly.

  How she would tell him anything about his parents being missing, she had no idea.

  She started to laugh. Her own laughter made her laugh more until she released the cup and put her hands over her face.

  Nothing left in her life was funny and all she could do was laugh. She had only an empty ache in her heart and all she could do was laugh, meaninglessly.

  Then, when she had laughed all she could laugh, she didn’t know what was she supposed to do now, so she put her head down on the table and closed her eyes.

  A knock startled her awake. She sat up blinking and then jumped up from the chair.

  REED DROVE UP MAIN STREET in the middle of St. Adelbert for the last time. He pulled into the clinic, where Dr. Daley met him at the door. The two men shook hands.

  “Thanks for checking my back before I left town and for waiting to see me after the clinic closed.”

  “How’s your back feeling today?”

  “Like someone kicked me.”

  Dr. Daley led Reed inside the clinic and into one of the treatment rooms.

  “Slip your shirt off and I’ll take a look at it,” he said and then washed his hands at the sink across the room and dried them on a clean cloth towel.

  Reed took his shirt off and sat on the stool where Dr. Daley had pointed, in the same treatment room where Abby had so meticulously cared for him yesterday—a lifetime ago.

  “I’m afraid the tape coming off is going to be the worst. Are you sure you need to leave town tonight? You’d be much better off staying a couple more days or at least finding someone to drive you to the airport in Kalispell.”

  Before Reed got a chance to answer, Dr. Daley pulled off the dre
ssing.

  He took in a sharp breath and then answered. “It’s best if I leave sooner than later.”

  “There are other benefits to staying in town longer, like basking in the praise of these kindly townsfolk.” Dr. Daley gently probed the area around the wound. “More than one of them would probably like to thank you for pitching in at the auto shop. I’m going to listen to your lungs now.”

  “I’m afraid I have already fallen from grace with the townspeople.”

  Dr. Daley leaned back and looked at him with a knowing smile. “Fast work, city fella. What did you do to Abby?”

  Reed snorted softly. “Enough to be lynched, I’m afraid.”

  Reed felt the telltale cold of a stethoscope as Dr. Daley placed it on his upper back. “Take a deep breath—use your mouth rather than your nose.”

  He repeated the process until he was satisfied. “Sounds good. Abby tells me you’re from Chicago. How did you adapt to living out here?” Reed asked as Daley showed him a percussion hammer and began testing the reflexes on the lower part of his body, presumably to make sure there had been no trauma to the spinal cord that had not shown up yesterday.

  “It was more realizing this was the place I needed to be rather than adapting to it.”

  Reed thought of how the drive through the mountains with Abby had seemed more like coming home than being a tourist on a day trip. “Being here is like nothing I’ve ever known before,” Reed admitted to the doctor.

  “Be careful. That’s how it starts. Throw in a woman who could tear your heart to shreds, but who chooses instead to love you and you get an offer you can’t turn down.”

  “I don’t think I have to worry about the second part. I crossed the line one too many times.”

  Daley stood thinking, tapping the palm of his own hand with the rubber hammer.

  “Did you kiss her to prove she wasn’t good enough to date your brother?”

  “No.” That was an odd question.

  “Did you insult and embarrass her on her first day of residency so she almost quit medicine?”

  “I did not do that.” Reed was starting to see where Daley was pointing the light, but it couldn’t matter.