by Jenny Penn
GD had already been to the ranch and back while Nick and Seth had searched the camp for Kevin. They’d all come up empty. Seth was still out there looking, but GD and Nick had regrouped in his room to try and figure out something better.
“Are you sure?” Nick asked again, despite the absurdity of making GD repeat himself when he’d been perfectly clear the first time.
“I looked all over, man. Short of waking up everybody and searching high and low, all I can say is I didn’t find Kevin. Now you got to decide if you want to wake everybody up.”
“Damn it!” Nick snapped, flailing a fist into the air as he spun around and vented his anger with another deeply belted out curse. “Damn it! Where the hell else would he go?”
“Where else could he get to is the real question.” At least to GD’s way of thinking it was. “We’re pretty secluded out here. He’s probably lost somewhere in the damn woods. We’ll be able to track him better in the morning.”
“Morning? We don’t know where he is, or what dangers he’s facing. He could be dead by morning,” Nick shot back, clearly not a fan of that idea.
“How?” GD scoffed, thinking Nick was overreacting more than just a little.
“Exposure to the elements.”
“It’s eighty degrees out there! He isn’t going to freeze.”
“He could get bit by a snake.”
GD snorted and rolled his eyes, recognizing in that moment there was no reasoning with Nick.
“He could!” Nick insisted. “He could fall and break his leg and hemorrhage to death. He could be picked up by a pedophile and be tortured to death. He could—”
“But he’s not,” GD cut in, sensing Nick was working himself up to a point where he’d be totally useless. “There is no pedophile running around in the woods. The moon is full enough for him to see the holes and not fall down.”
“And snakes?” Nick lifted a brow, all but daring GD to dismiss that possibility.
He couldn’t. That could happen. GD just doubted it.
“Look, if anything happens to Kevin, I could lose this whole place,” Nick stated, sounding suddenly rational.
He really was like a mother hen who liked to sit on his eggs and smother them. GD, on the other hand, was a little more reasonable in his reactions. The kid had traveled all the way over from Louisiana on his own, not but a few months back. That was a long way to walk and a lot of woods to survive. He could probably make it another night.
Nick might not, though.
Neither would GD if he went and told Kitty Anne he was abandoning the search. She wanted to be out there looking, too, but they’d put her on duty in front of Kevin’s room, assuring that if he returned they’d know about it. That position also kept her conveniently out of the way, but that wouldn’t last forever.
They really did need to find this kid.
* * * *
Kitty Anne sat with her back resting against Kevin’s door, wondering if she was wasting all her time waiting there. When GD had explained that they needed somebody to let them know if the kid returned, it had sounded like a reasonable request, but an hour and a half later she was bored enough to reconsider the matter.
It felt as though the kid would never come back. With each passing second, Kitty Anne began to worry that he really had run away and hadn’t just skipped out to go steal ice cream out of the freezer in the dining hall. That possibility grew dimmer as her worry grew greater.
In hindsight, Kitty Anne wondered if she hadn’t really screwed up that afternoon. Perhaps Kevin had been offended by her wanting him to write about his life. Maybe he felt like it was minimalizing what had happened to him, but it wasn’t as though she knew what the hell she was doing anyway. She didn’t have a degree in either education or child psychology.
In fact, Kitty Anne was completely unqualified for her current position. That had become clear by the end of the day, as she’d constantly had to look things up. Shockingly enough, the ability to speak and read English did not actually equip a person to teach it. She’d have to have a talk with Nick about that. He was going to need to hire a real teacher, and she…hell, Kitty Anne didn’t know what the hell would happen with her.
She didn’t exactly have anywhere to go and that left her just where she was—sitting around doing nothing. That was the epitome of boring, and that could very well be the death of her relationship with Nick and GD.
Heaving a deep sigh over that grim thought, Kitty Anne glanced down at her watch and wondered just how long the two of them planned to leave her sitting there. She was just about ready to leave when the door behind her swung inward and she went toppling backward as a set of deep brown eyes blinked down over her.
“Oh…hello there.” Kitty Anne smiled and tried not to sound as awkward as she felt scrambling around on the floor. The kid stepped back, his head tilting to the side as he watched her shove upward onto her knees and then her feet. “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to almost clobber you there, but you caught me off guard.”
“Why are you sitting in front of the door?” Neither accepting nor rejecting her explanation, the young boy asked that question with a seriousness that would have suited an adult better than a cherub-faced little kid still watching her as though she was some strange entity that had invaded his world.
“Well…” Kitty Anne hesitated, not certain if she should mention Kevin or not. Then again the kid had to know his roommate was gone. “I was waiting to see if Kevin came back.”
“Kevin?” The boy snorted and rolled his eyes. “He always returns eventually.”
“So he’s done this before?” GD and Nick certainly hadn’t mentioned that fact.
“Yeah.” The kid nodded with easy acceptance. “He likes to go spy on his sister.”
The kid nearly felled her with that off-handed comment. Kitty Anne stepped back, her mind racing with all the implications to finally settle on a simple question that needed to be answered before she could begin to sort through what the hell was really going on around here.
“He has a sister?” Kitty Anne didn’t have to fake any shock over that question. All she had to do was use her confounded amazement that the kid knew about Patton.
“Yeah.” The kid drew out the word. “So he says, but I think he might have made her up because…you know, his mom was such a whack-a-doo.”
Actually, Kitty Anne didn’t know, but she was interested in finding out and clearly this kid had the goods. Eyeing him as she considered the best way to proceed, she decided to treat him like she would an adult. After all, he kind of acted like one.
“My name’s Kitty Anne,” she offered along with her hand. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”
“Tyson.” The kid shook her hand with a quick, firm grip that matched his serious personality. “And I know who you are. You’re Mr. Dickles’s girl. He already told us.”
“Excuse me?” Kitty Anne blinked, sidetracked by that negligent comment. “He told you?”
“At dinner.” Tyson paused as his lips quivered and he shot her a knowing look.
“That was just a little misunderstanding.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You know I don’t have to explain this to you.”
“Mmm.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“You know my mom had to go to anger management classes when she had her misunderstanding,” Tyson stated with a pointed stare that assured Kitty Anne he considered her in the same boat as his mother. She was sure she wasn’t helping that opinion by snarling at him, but he was kind of aggravating for a child.
“And did it help?”
“Do you think I’d be here if it did?” Tyson shot back, proving that he might be little, but he packed in a whole lot of attitude. “At least, my mom’s not a whack-a-doo.”
“I am not a whack-a-doo!”
“You set your mom on fire.”
“It was an accident.”
“Hmm-hmm.”
Kitty Anne took a
deep breath and prayed for patience because they had gotten way off track. This was supposed to be about Kevin, not about whether the whole campus thought she was a crazy lady. Perhaps they did. Perhaps she was. That didn’t matter right then because Kevin was missing, and she needed to turn this conversation back to a safe course.
“And did Kevin’s mom set him on fire?”
“Nah.” Tyson shook his head. “Kevin’s the little arsonist.”
“Kevin?” Kitty Anne blinked. “He set a fire?”
“Apparently about burned up his sister.” Tyson paused and then qualified that rumor. “Of course, he denies it, but who the hell is going to believe him? Who the hell believes any of us? Look at where we’re at.”
There was a grimness to that statement that cut through Kitty Anne’s heart, and she couldn’t help but feel a wash of shame over her recent, rather immature, argument with the kid.
“You could believe each other,” Kitty Anne suggested. “That’s a place to start.”
“And you believe me?” Tyson asked, his gaze narrowing once again on her as he appeared to take her measure.
“Yes.” Kitty Anne straightened up and took her stand. “Yes, I do.”
* * * *
A half-hour later, Kitty Anne said good night to Tyson, who promised to give them a heads-up when Kevin returned. The kid seemed absolutely convinced that the other boy would return. Kitty Anne wasn’t so certain. Given all that Tyson had told her, it wouldn’t be shocking if Kevin had decided to run away.
After all, everybody was against him. That included his own brother, along with Nick, who Kitty Anne suspected thought he was doing right by the kid. After all, Nick had to know about the fire. According to Tyson, everybody did, though she suspected everybody did not include GD.
If GD knew, then the Davis brothers would have known and then Patton would have known and Rachel would have known and then Kitty Anne would have known. So, based on the fact that she did not know, Kitty Anne could assume that GD didn’t know. That could only be because Nick hadn’t told him, which meant he was protecting the kid, but the kid, apparently, claimed he was innocent.
Nobody believed Kevin. Not even Tyson. That was kind of why Kitty Anne did. Everybody needed somebody to believe in them. That was just what she would have told Nick but knew that if she brought the subject up it would endanger their fragile relationship because then the two of them would be conspiring to keep a secret from GD.
If he ever found out, that would probably devastate him. Kitty Anne couldn’t betray one man over the other like that. So that left her, and Rachel, to help prove Kevin’s innocence. Kitty Anne had no doubt that her friend would help…that is if she told her. Kitty Anne hadn’t made up her mind on that one yet.
First, she needed to talk to Kevin. Actually, first, she needed to find Kevin. According to Tyson, Kevin normally skipped out to go watch his sister. Apparently, the boy was fascinated by her. Kitty Anne could imagine why. To a creature as reserved as Kevin appeared, Patton must have looked like a beacon of chaos.
Chaos and happiness, Kitty Anne qualified as she considered Patton’s almost permanent grin. The woman lived to laugh, and maybe, that was just what Kevin wanted, too. Where would he get a laugh?
Kitty Anne didn’t know the answer to that question because she didn’t know the kid that well, but Tyson did. He’d pointed her toward a lake buried in the back woods and Kevin’s stories about going night fishing with his brother back in Louisiana when he’d been little.
Apparently, those were fond memories for Kevin, and sure enough, as Kitty Anne followed the path Tyson had directed her to, she found a light glowing at the end of it as she came up on the pond Nick kept stocked for those who enjoyed casting a reel. Of course, he probably hadn’t expected it to get used at night, but there was Kevin, floating a light off the bank’s edge as he sat there holding on to a thin rod and staring out across the water with a blank expression.
He glanced her way as Kitty Anne approached, no doubt drawn by the glare of her own flashlight. He held a hand up, shielding his eyes from the bright light, and she clicked it off, forcing her eyes to adjust to the dim, nearly moonless, night.
“Who’s there?” Kevin called out, apparently as blind as Kitty Anne in that moment.
“Hey, Kevin. It’s me, Kitty Anne.”
“Oh.” There was a moment’s hesitation as she sensed him shifting in the dark. “What are you doing out here?”
“Well, I heard there was some good fishing to be had and…I brought a rod.” Kitty Anne could finally start to make out the kid’s shadow and wondered if he could see her thrust the thin pole she’d snatched from the sports pen’s inventory before heading down here. “Mind if I join you?”
“Suit yourself.”
Kitty Anne could more than hear the shrug in his tone. She could see it, as finally her eyes began to dilate enough for the world to start to take form. There was the line of treetops on the other side and the cut of the pond’s bank, along with the bright glow of the lantern Kevin had floated out onto the water’s smooth top.
It was a perfect night, though not for fishing. Kitty Anne didn’t know anything about fishing, but she didn’t intend to let that stop her. In fact, she planned on using it to her advantage, and hopefully, she’d gain a little of Kevin’s trust in the process.
“I’d love to, but I’m not exactly sure what to do with this pole,” Kitty Anne confessed before asking slyly, “Maybe you could help show me?”
* * * *
“We’re in trouble.” Nick stared at his phone as he considered the implications of what Seth had just told him. It wasn’t good. “Seth found Kevin, and you’ll never guess who he was with.”
“Kitty Anne?” GD asked, proving Nick wrong, though he’d made it kind of easy to guess. “Isn’t she supposed to be watching Kevin’s room? Did he return on his own?”
“No.” That would be too easy and make life too simple. Life with these kids was never that simple. “Seth found them fishing in the lake out back.”
GD blinked at that and then blinked again, clearly having difficulty comprehending Nick’s revelation. “Fishing? Kitty Anne was fishing? Are you sure?”
“Seth said she caught three fish.”
“No kidding.” GD snorted as a smile began to spread across his face. “And here I was worried that she wouldn’t make a good redneck woman, but she can kick ass and now she fishes? God is giving!”
“Will you focus?” Nick demanded, shocked and amazed at GD’s cavalier attitude. “Kitty Anne found Kevin.”
That earned Nick another blink as GD’s smile faded back into a look of confusion. “So?”
“So, she’s up to something.” Nick could just sense it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. GD clearly didn’t get that as he shrugged once again.
“So?”
“So?” Nick repeated, amazed and outraged that GD didn’t see the need to panic when it was clearly time to.
“Yes. So as in, so what?” GD shot back. “What do you really think she’s going to do?”
“Tell Rachel about Kevin and Seth.”
“Tell them what?” GD countered. “That they’re brothers.”
“That they’re Patton’s brothers!”
“And how would she know that? Huh?” GD pressed, taking up the argument before Nick could respond. “It’s not like she knows Patton that well, and the only thing that she might have noticed is that they have similar colored eyes. That’s hardly likely to be worth Rachel’s interest.”
“Okay, fine,” Nick snapped, irritated by GD’s reasonable points. “Then what the hell else could Rachel be up to?”
“Nothing,” GD suggested with a shrug. “Why does she have to be up to anything? And even if she is, what makes you think Kitty Anne would rat Kevin out? You really think she’d do that to a kid? Especially not one she’s bonding with by fishing.”
“I’d still feel better if you had a look around Rachel’s desk,” Nick insisted. “Because while Kitty Anne
might not mean to hurt Kevin, she might do so accidently.”
“Whatever.” GD folded with ill grace. “I’ll take a look, but we still got a bigger problem than Kitty Anne, and that’s her mother. Mommy needs to go because I’m not living in that tiny shed for the rest of my life.”
Neither was Nick, but Lynn Anne wasn’t his top concern right then. He made that clear in a way that had GD smirking.
“Whatever.”
“You’re a real snot, you know that?”
“Oh look, here comes Kitty Anne and Kevin.” Nick ignored GD’s question as he shoved past the big man and headed down the path lit by gas lanterns that had been dimmed at midnight.
They cast a molten glow over the cobblestoned way and painted Kevin’s grin in an angelic halo that soothed a little of Nick’s worry. Whatever bonding had happened over their fishing expedition, it was good for the kid’s mood because he was clearly more relaxed and even a little excited as he babbled on to Seth about how he’d taught Kitty Anne to fish. She was a natural…or had beginner’s luck. Kevin didn’t know yet.
They’d have to go fishing again.
Kitty Anne agreed.
The happy trio swept past Nick without even really pausing, though they did gain a member. GD joined their ranks to enthusiastically “ooh” and “aah” over Kitty Anne’s fish. That left Nick standing there watching them and wondering if they didn’t have a problem.
Could he really be in love with Kitty Anne if he didn’t trust her? And why didn’t he trust her? Was he just that jaded or were his concerns justified? Nick didn’t know, but he knew the answer was important.
Chapter Nineteen
Sunday, June 15th
Two weeks later, Kitty Anne stood in the lobby of GD’s church and tried not to fidget. Religion really wasn’t her thing. Like Nick, she believed in a higher-up but considered church to be more a social gathering than a spiritual one. That was exactly why she’d agreed to go when GD had asked her to because Kitty Anne knew how important a step this was for them.