Promise to a Boy

by Mary Brady

  “Well, then. Did you accuse her of helping your niece become a juvenile delinquent?”

  “Her wouldn’t be Dr. DeVane would it?”

  Daley grinned. He didn’t have to answer.

  “She must be a saint.”

  Daley threw his head back and laughed. “She is a very forgiving woman. Funny thing is, the only thing I had to do was to believe her when she said none of it mattered because she knew why I had done it.”

  “How well do you know Abby Fairbanks?”

  “She’s a very forgiving woman.”

  It was Reed’s turn to laugh, only his was more of derision directed at himself. “I didn’t give her the chance.

  I couldn’t believe she wanted one.”

  “She’s too good for you.”

  Reed snapped his gaze up to see Daley smiling. “That’s probably true. She faced a whole boardroom full of administrators and physicians and never backed down when they accused her of nearly killing some one and then she faced a judge and a courtroom full of people who also accused her.”

  Daley raised his eyebrows.

  “No, I don’t believe she did it.” Reed answered the unspoken question quickly enough to surprise even him self.

  Daley nodded. “I’m going to rebandage this and I want you to keep it clean and dry for three days. Then have it checked again. Take the antibiotics I gave you until they are all gone. And you need to talk to her.”

  “I need to leave her alone.”

  “For what it’s worth to you, my wife says you’re an idiot if you walk away. Take it from another idiot—she might be right.” When Reed gave him a questioning look, Daley shrugged and lifted one shoulder. “You’d be surprised how much you’ve been the topic of conversation in this valley. Stay here and you’ll give them something to talk about in the grocery store for a long time.”

  Take all the time you need, Denny had said and he had thought forever had a nice feel to it. He hadn’t taken the time to wonder where that came from. Maybe he should.

  ABBY SAT AT HER KITCHEN table admiring the large bouquet of flowers in the beautiful old vase. Her mother had given her the vase and it was apparently her grandmother’s, the only object Abby had that connected her to her ancestors.

  Travis Fuller had stopped in and brought the flowers.

  They had made small talk for a few minutes. He told her the explosion had been caused by a propane leak and had nothing to do with Fred. The fire chief’s preliminary investigation showed a possible faulty valve.

  She told him about the extent of the injuries as a result of the blast. He said he knew, because everywhere he went there was a lot of backslapping and smiles that no one had been seriously hurt. Even the men who had been sent to Kalispell had been discharged.

  At first Abby had been afraid she would have to find a way to let Travis down gently. As it turned out, Travis was here to let her down as easily and as politely as he could, with a big beautiful bouquet of flowers.

  After they laughed about how their parents had used them and then about how their parents hadn’t needed to use them at all because Delanna and Kenny seemed to be made for each other, Travis shook her hand and left.

  The flowers were beautiful. They were light and fragrant and gorgeous colors. Maybe she should be feeling sad that Travis didn’t want her? He was so obviously a very sensitive man.

  She was still admiring her flowers when she heard more footsteps on her back porch. How she ever thought she’d be lonely in this town, she had no idea. When she opened the door this time, it was to a stranger.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  THE CLEAN-SHAVEN MAN with short dark hair smiled at her. “I hear you’re looking for me.”

  It took Abby another fast assessment of the man in the belted khaki pants and striped dress shirt before she recognized him. The lower half of his face was lighter than the rest as if he’d recently shaved his beard.

  “Oh, my God! Jesse! What happened to you?” She held out her arms and he stepped into them.

  “Am I still welcome?”

  “Of course you are.”

  He hugged her hard. “Is my brother still here?”

  “You heard about that, too.”

  “Sheriff Potts called me when the Utah Highway Patrol told him I was in Boulder again.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Do I ever?”

  “No, but you should.”

  “I will from now on. Promise. Being alone in Escalante helped me get my priorities together and I just wanted to get back here.”

  “Come in. Come in.” She tugged on his hand and pulled him into the kitchen.

  “Is Kyle here? I missed him.”

  “He missed you, too.” He made your brother come down and eat butter eggs with us, she thought. It was a bad idea and she had loved every minute of it. “He went with my mother, boating on the reservoir with Kenny Fuller. They should be back at her house anytime now.”

  He rubbed his naked chin. “Kyle boating, your mother and the funeral director, many things have changed. Nice flowers.”

  “Thanks.” She told him about Lena’s unknown status, about the explosion at the auto shop. He reacted, concerned and shocked, as she thought he would. She looked for any special reaction regarding Lena, but deep friendly concern was all he offered. She didn’t tell him about the DNA sample or the photograph of him and Reed. Later. She finally asked, “What brought you out of the park now?”

  “Somebody stole my stuff.”

  “They didn’t steal your stuff. They were collecting clues. They thought you might be, um—”

  “Dead. Well, I’m not.”

  “Clearly.”

  “Got any food?”

  “Always.” She hugged him again. “It’s so good to see you. Hot dogs with cheese?” She couldn’t make grilled cheese, not today. Not after sitting at this table consuming melty grilled cheese sandwiches with Reed.

  “Mmm. Sounds good. I’m finished bumming from you, though.” He pulled out a roll of cash, put it on the table and pushed it toward her.

  “Whoa.” She waved the money away. “Thanks, but your brother already paid your rent.”

  “Did he, now? Where is he, by the way?”

  Abby’s steps faltered and she dropped the knife she had in her hand.

  “I’ll drag him out into the backcountry and leave him for the bears. What did my excruciatingly responsible brother do to you?”

  “Oh, stop it. He was here on important business.”

  “Convince me.”

  “Jesse.” She sat down at the table and picked up his hand. “Apparently your mother wants to apologize to you.”

  He frowned and leaned on his forearms. “I’ve heard that before.”

  “This time she’s sober. She has been for about a year.” She told him about his mother realizing she had neglected her family and about her wanting to make it up to her sons.

  “So he wasn’t here to drag me back to work for the family business. Huh. There’s no Ritz-Carlton here, so where is he staying?”

  “He was staying at your place, but he’s gone now.”

  “You didn’t tell me what he did to you.”

  “Nothing, really.” Just let her break her heart over him. Nothing, really, except go back to his life after making her believe what a great guy he could be—so much better than anything she had found in the St. Adelbert valley or anywhere else. “And you didn’t tell me where you were when you didn’t pick up your food that guy left for you.”

  “A hiker got hurt. He couldn’t drive. His fiancée couldn’t drive a stick shift, so I helped get him to their car and drove them home to Salt Lake.”

  “You left your stuff behind.” She knew it sounded like an accusation, but it was just worry and she knew Jesse knew that, too.

  “I had a day pack and we were a lot closer to their car than my stuff. I know I should have called, but I planned on being back before the food drop.” He held up his thumb. “This is not the most reliable
mode of transportation to use to cross Utah, especially since it’s illegal there.”

  Reed could be halfway to Interstate 90 by now, because he wasn’t hitchhiking. Too bad he had missed his brother’s arrival.

  “Abby.” Jesse tugged the curly lock at the side of her face. “You keep going out on me. You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?”

  She looked into Reed’s brother’s eyes. She’d never realized how much they looked alike. It must have been the beard. “I was.” She clicked her tongue and gave a wistful sigh.

  “Your turn. What did he do?”

  “He was an ass who didn’t have his head on straight.”

  They both looked up to see Reed standing in the doorway.

  Abby froze like a deer in the headlights. She had never seen anything that looked so good. His face was covered with whiskers, his hair was tousled and his clothes rumpled, and she hardly dared to breathe for fear she’d wake up from the beautiful dream.

  Jesse got up and shook his brother’s hand and then after a minute’s hesitation, the two men hugged.

  Reed grimaced when his brother squeezed, but said, “Who are you and what have you done with my scraggly brother?”

  “Check this out.” Jesse turned to Abby but pointed back at his brother. “I’m the clean-shaven one. I’m not sure that’s ever happened in our lives.”

  “Hasn’t happened since he could grow whiskers.” Reed spoke and the deep thrum of his voice thrilled through Abby and set her heart trembling.

  She smiled but she couldn’t find anything to say. She didn’t know what having Reed standing in her doorway meant. It could mean he had heard his brother was here. Heck, it could mean he forgot his toothbrush. He wasn’t here to whisk Kyle away, of that she was sure.

  For a brief moment, she wished he hadn’t come back. His being here could mean she got to break her heart even more.

  The next second, she was elated to see him one more time.

  Jesse glanced at Abby and then at Reed and then cocked his head a little to the side as if making a decision. “I’m tempted to hang around, just to torture the two of you, but there is obviously something unfinished between you. Even I’m bright enough to figure that out. I’m outta here. I’m going to the diner and then to your mom’s to wait for Kyle to show up.”

  Reed and Abby exchanged meaningful looks.

  “He knows,” Abby said when they were alone.

  Reed walked slowly across the kitchen toward her. The closer he got, the harder it was for her to take in a breath. By the time he reached her, she couldn’t even feel her lips—until he lowered his to them.

  He kissed her softly and then stepped away. “Abby, I am so sorry I left.”

  “It might have been easier on all of us.” She couldn’t believe she was saying this. It might make him turn around and walk back out the door. “You know, the clean break thing.”

  “That’s just it. I don’t want any kind of break.” His expression was almost pleading with her to understand him.

  She gave a weak smile that probably conveyed the confused thoughts running rampant inside her head. “I don’t want a break, either, but eventually that’s what is going to happen. Reed, I don’t know that it will be any easier next week or next month.”

  “That’s what I’m trying not very well to say. It only has to be today or next week or next month if you say it does.”

  He’d put it on her. She took several steps away from him. She had to think more clearly, and she couldn’t do that when all she had to do to touch paradise was to reach out her hand. They could stay together if she came to the Midwest with him. She had to be the one to decide.

  “Wait.” He put up his hand. “Whatever it is you heard me say, that’s not what I mean.”

  He moved toward her and she nearly panicked. “I can’t do it, Reed.”

  “Can’t do what?”

  “I can’t leave. Maybe someday, but I can’t leave now. You don’t understand. This valley gave me my life back. I left once and now I’ve made something of myself.”

  “You were a trauma nurse in Denver, I know,” he said quietly.

  “And for my hard work, they threw me under a bus, a great big one filled with doctors and board members. That resident nearly killed somebody and then he lied and I got fired and a big blot on my record. When I returned here, Dr. DeVane—” She squeezed the edge of the cold, stainless-steel sink and swallowed to relieve the tightness forming in her throat. “Dr. DeVane and Dr. Daley took me on at the clinic without batting an eye because they believed in me when I—”

  “Come here.” He reached out and pried her away from the counter and wrapped his arms around her.

  She put her cheek on his chest and continued, “When I wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. They asked me what the truth was, I told them and they hired me.”

  They stood in the middle of her kitchen without speaking for a long while. He held her tight against him as she clung to the dreams of what it could be like.

  “I don’t want to leave, either,” he said after a while.

  “This place can get to you like that.”

  “I don’t mean, ‘I don’t want to leave but adios.’ I mean I would like you to ask me to stay.”

  Abby held her breath again. Ask him to stay?

  “You’re thinking too hard. I’m not sure I like that,” he said with his lips in her hair.

  “Stay. If all I have to do to get you to stay is to ask you, then please stay.”

  “Now, was that so hard?”

  “Can you possibly mean that?”

  “Can you possibly fall in love with me the way I’ve fallen in love with you?”

  “I—um—I already have.”

  “Then say it. I’ll go first. I love you, Abby.”

  “I love you, Reed. But—”

  His lips stopped her from talking. “Just a simple ‘I love you’ will do, no buts.”

  “How about a ‘so’?”

  “That might be all right.”

  “So, what’s this about you wanting to stay in St. Adelbert?”

  “No. Wait. You asked me to stay and you are not taking that back.” He hugged her tightly.

  “I wouldn’t dream of taking it back. But what about your business?”

  “Egotist that I am, I thought the company wouldn’t be able to get along without my being there to push and prod and keep things in order, but Denny is having a great time and he’s doing a great job.”

  “I thought you loved making billion-dollar corporate deals, buying and selling businesses and continents.”

  “It pays the bills. Maintains the family image. And I do it because someone has to do it.”

  “Oh, please. I’ve seen your eyes light up when you talked about putting together big deals.”

  “That part is fun. Anyway, I do most of the research on the computer. I fly all over the world. The commute to the airport is only a little longer from here than it is from the Loop in Chicago.”

  “You really mean you want to live here?”

  “I told you, you asked and you can’t take it back.”

  “Live here?”

  “I love you, Abby.”

  “Live here and you love me? Am I dreaming?”

  “Do you want me to pinch you?”

  “Maybe you should kiss me.”

  And he did, long and soft, and then demanding and then down her neck and onto her shoulder.

  She pulled back. “Neighbors.”

  He laughed. “Maybe they should all get used to this.”

  Later, by the time the pounding started on Abby’s back door, they were out of bed and out of the shower and heading down to find some food.

  Abby opened the back door and Kyle, her mother, Jesse and Kenny piled into her kitchen, laughing at some thing extremely humorous.

  Kenny was carrying a big bag and Abby realized good smells were coming from it. Delanna started to bring containers of food out of the bag and Jesse was pulling plates and glasses from th
e cupboard.

  Kyle grabbed a glass from the table. “Can I have pop?”

  “Milk.” Jesse said before anyone else could.

  Abby, Reed and Delanna all looked at each other and laughed. Kyle laughed but he liked to laugh, so just having other people laughing was enough for him to start.

  The ringing of the phone interrupted the conversation.

  Abby grabbed for the phone, hoping it wasn’t another emergency. “Hello.”

  The person on the other end said something, but Abby couldn’t quite hear.

  “Who?” Abby waved for everyone to be quiet.

  “Your sister, you creep. You don’t even recognize my voice.”

  “Lena.” That shut everyone up. “Lena, it’s so good to hear the sound of your voice.”

  “Mommy!”

  Kyle grabbed for the phone and Abby willingly gave it to him.

  Kyle kept shaking his head and nodding.

  Abby smiled at how rapt he was at the sound of his mother’s voice. “Talk to her, sweetie. She can’t hear you shaking your head.”

  He kept shaking and nodding, but he added the yeses and noes and a giggle from time to time.

  His mother must have told him to pass the phone to someone else, because he shoved it at his grandmother and dived into the chicken and mashed potatoes she had scooped onto a plate for him.

  By the time the phone came back to Abby, everyone else, even Reed and Kenny, had said hello.

  “Jesse’s brother? Way to go, Abbs. And Mom has a guy? Guess I should have gotten out of the way sooner.”

  Abby stepped into the hallway for privacy.

  “Lena, I think Jesse knows.”

  Lena went silent. Neither sister had to ask or explain.

  “But it’s okay.” Abby hurried to reassure her sister. “He just got back from Utah and the very first person he asked about was Kyle.”

  Another pause.

  “Are you sure he’s changed?”

  “He even talks different. He sounds more like his brother now. He looks more like his brother now. It’s as if he wants to be a part of a family now.”

  There was another long pause.