“Don’t be hurt,” Irma said gently, “but I’m not keeping it bottled up. I’ve told Chastity everything.”
“You have?”
“I just…feel better talking about it with someone of my own age, if that makes any sense, someone who’s not in the family, you know? Someone who’s just a friend. I’m trying so hard to be a better person. But I haven’t completely banished my pride. I’m not ready yet for my own niece to know, specifically, what a terrible fool I’ve been.”
Tanner would call every Friday. He never had much to report.
But finally, on June sixteenth, Brand’s brother called to give her the news she’d been longing for. He’d found her sister.
Charlene bit back tears of hope and joy and demanded, “Tell me. Everything. Please.”
Tanner explained that Sissy had called Dwayne a couple of days before—and reached Zooey. Sissy had evidently played it much too cagey with Zooey, refusing to give any information about herself, just rattling off a phone number and insisting that Zooey have Dwayne call her.
Zooey confronted Dwayne, and he told her everything. He also handed over the business card Tanner had given him. Zooey called Tanner, and Tanner explained how Charlene really needed to find her sister.
Zooey gave Tanner the phone number Sissy had left.
The number was a land line this time. Tanner had matched it with an Oakland address, an apartment rented by a Shawna Pratt. He’d been to the address that morning and observed Sissy emerging from the apartment and returning several hours later. Did Charlene want him to go ahead and make contact?
Charlene thanked him profusely and told him she’d prefer to do the rest herself.
“Good enough.” He gave her Shawna Pratt’s phone number and the address. “And if you don’t mind a little advice from a pro…”
She already knew what he was going to say. “Don’t worry. I remember. I’m not giving Sissy a chance to hang up on me and run off. I’m going there.”
“Good.”
Charlene tried to get her mind around the fact that this was really happening. At last. “Is she…you said you saw her. Did she look okay?”
“Yes. She looked healthy. Uninjured.” He added, “She seemed…alert.” And Charlene took his meaning: Sissy hadn’t appeared to be strung-out on drugs. He said, “I took several pictures. I’ll send them by mail, if that’s okay, along with a detailed report.”
“That will be perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Glad I could help. You should have it all Monday or Tuesday. Give me a call if there’s anything more you want me to do.” She thanked him again for all his hard work and asked for the bill.
He said Brand was handling that.
“I’d like to see the bill anyway. Please.”
He promised to send it.
Her hands were shaking as she hung up.
Brand, with the baby in his arms, came out of Mia’s room where he’d been doing diaper duty. One look at Charlene’s face and he knew something big had happened. “Okay. What’s up?”
“Tanner found Sissy. We’re going to Oakland. First thing in the morning.”
Brand wanted Charlene to leave the baby with Irma and his mother.
“That way,” he reasoned, “if Sissy demands we hand the baby over, we can tell her she’ll have to come back to the Flat to get her. At least it’ll give us some time to decide what to do to protect Mia.”
Charlene knew he was right. She had no idea how her sister was going to behave. And Mia’s welfare had to be the first consideration. But leaving her with Irma…
Was she ready to do that, to trust Irma that much?
Brand must have read her fears in her eyes. “If you’re still nervous about your aunt, I’ll talk to Ma privately, let her know that we’re leaving Mia with her as much as with Irma.”
Charlene had to admit it was the best solution. Brand called Chastity and explained the situation. Chastity promised the baby would be safe at the B&B until they returned.
Irma got tears in her eyes when they dropped Mia off at six the next morning. “I know what this means, your leaving this little darling with me.” She cradled Mia close and gently rubbed her back. “You’re counting on me, trusting me, at last. I won’t let you down.”
Charlene gave her and Mia a hug, wrapping her arms around both of them at once—and refusing to feel sneaky that she’d had Brand call Chastity.
But then, when she pulled away, Irma actually winked at her. “And I’m not the least offended that Chastity will be keeping an eye on me, either. I’m just pleased you’ve come this far toward realizing you can count on me.”
Charlene couldn’t help laughing. “Chastity wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”
Irma beamed. “Chastity tells me everything. After all, we’re the best of friends.”
Brand came down the stairs from Irma’s room, where he’d dropped off a big load of baby stuff. “Ready?”
Irma, holding Mia, with Chastity at her side, stood on the porch to wave goodbye.
Irma called, “Tell your sister I love her.” She was tearing up again. “I know she won’t believe it, but you tell her, anyway.”
“I will, I promise,” Charlene called as they went out the gate.
The drive took four hours. Charlene was too anxious to do a lot a talking, and Brand seemed to understand her mood. It was mostly a long, silent ride, with Charlene counting the miles, begrudging every minute it took to get to the apartment where Sissy was staying.
By the time they turned onto Sissy’s street, every nerve in her body was on red alert. She sat forward in the seat, hands on the dashboard, as if by leaning in the right direction, they could get to Sissy quicker.
The street was clogged with cars, every space on the curb occupied, but Brand pulled into the driveway of Sissy’s building and parked in front of one half of a two-sided garage. The garage door, painted a peeling powder blue, bore a sign that read Tenant Parking Only.
Charlene, who normally would have obeyed such a sign, couldn’t have cared less at that moment that they were taking someone’s space. She had the door flung wide and was jumping to the pavement before Brand pulled to a full stop.
He got out and met her as she came racing around the nose of Cherokee. It was one of those courtyard apartment buildings, single story, in a U-shape, powder-blue doors along either side, a cracked concrete walk running up the middle to meet another walk and more doors lined up in the base of the U.
The address Tanner had given Charlene was the second unit on the right. Three steps led up to the blue door, patches of brown grass on either side. A strange, scraggly looking cactus plant sat in a pot at the edge of the bottom step.
Since there was barely room for both of them at the door, Brand hung back at the base of the steps and Charlene marched up and rang the bell.
A thin, pale-skinned girl with long, straight black hair answered. “Yeah?”
Charlene forced a smile. “Shawna?”
“Yeah.”
Oh, God. What to say? How to make certain this girl let her see Sissy. She should have—planned this better. She should have decided ahead of time on the perfect approach.
Shawna’s dark eyes looked past Charlene and narrowed on Brand. “Okay. What?”
“I’m…I’m here to see Sissy Cooper. I’m her sister, Charlene.”
Shawna swore. A very bad word to be coming out of such a young mouth. “I kicked that bitch out last night. She ripped me off for two hundred bucks and then she brought that loser Jet around here when I told her not to. Not putting up with that noise. Uh-uh.”
“Please. We just need…a phone number or an address where we could reach her…”
Shawna laughed. “Are you kidding? I told you. I kicked her butt outta here. The girl is gone. Mooching off somebody else by now.”
“But if you could just—”
“Sorry. Can’t help you.” She started to shut the door—but Charlene reached out and grabbed it. “Hey!” Shawn
a shoved at the door, but Charlene held on. “What is your problem?”
“Please. You said she stole your money. I’ll be glad to pay you back, if only you can tell me some way to contact her.”
Brand stepped up beside her then. It was a snug fit, the two of them on that small slab of concrete stoop, but, boy, was she was glad for his presence.
He had his wallet, open, in his hand. “Two hundred, you said?”
Shawna looked longingly at the inside of Brand’s wallet, but then she shook her head. “You want to give me the money she stole, fine. But I still haven’t got any information for you. She’s gone. Like I said, all I want is for her never to come back.”
Brand took out six fifties, folded them neatly in half and slipped them through the crack in the door. “If she calls or shows up, try to get a phone number from her.”
Shawna still didn’t reach for the money. In spite of her bad attitude, she seemed to have an honest streak. “That’s three hundred. She only took two.”
Brand didn’t pull the money back. “If you can’t get a number from her, ask her to please call her sister.”
Charlene was already fumbling in her purse for a scrap of paper and a pen. She scribbled down the numbers. “Here’s my home phone and the number at my business. Please call if you learn anything, if she contacts you, if you hear from her. Please.”
Shawna peered at Charlene as Brand continued to hold out the money. “You got her baby, huh?”
“Yes. I do…”
“That baby okay?”
“She’s great. Healthy. Beautiful. Tell Sissy that, please. If you see her…”
Shawna took the money. “Okay. But I warn you. Don’t go holdin’ your breath or anything. Your sister’s not likely to be coming around here again.”
They were home by a little after four. They went to the B&B first to pick up Mia.
Irma came running out to greet them. One look in Charlene’s face and she knew that the news wasn’t good. She hugged Charlene and whispered kind, meaningless reassurances, “It’ll be all right, honey. You wait and see.”
They put the baby’s stuff in the car and hooked Mia into her seat and drove back to Charlene’s.
Charlene felt numb. What next? she wondered constantly. Should she call Tanner back and ask him to start searching for Sissy all over again? Should she just let it be for now? Just take care of Mia and wait until Sissy finally decided it was time to come home?
The next day, Sunday, Charlene and Brand and the baby went over to the Sierra Star to have breakfast with Chastity and Irma. Charlene enjoyed the meal and the good company. The numbness of the day before was slowly fading.
They got back home at ten past eleven. Charlene put Mia in her playpen and sat at her desk to pay a few bills. Brand sat on the sofa with his laptop, catching up on something from work.
The phone rang at noon.
Charlene reached over automatically and grabbed the cordless extension off the corner of the desk. “Hello.”
“It’s me,” said the sulky voice that haunted Charlene’s dreams. “You taking good care of my baby?”
Sissy. Oh, God. At last.
Charlene clutched the phone in a death grip as her pulse went galloping and all the saliva dried up in her mouth. “Yeah.” The word came out barely more a whisper. She swallowed, tried again—louder that time. “I am. Taking real good care of her. Oh, Sissy. I promise you. Mia’s fine…”
Brand appeared at her side. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She sent him a hopeful, desperate glance as she groped for a notepad and a pen. “It’s so good to hear from you. Where are you? When are you coming ho—?”
“Don’t talk.” Sissy cut her off. “Listen.”
“But I just—”
“Charlene. Are you listening?”
“Yes. I am. Of course.”
“Then this is the deal. I’m not ready to come back to Hicksville, USA, yet—let alone to handle trying to take care of Mia. I called because I talked to Dwayne and he said you had some detective after me. I want that to stop. I don’t want anyone following me around, spying on me. You understand?”
“Yes. That’s fine. But—”
“Just say it. Tell me you understand. No detectives.”
“All right. No detectives. I understand.”
“And I’m doing just great, I mean it. Don’t worry about—”
“But, Sissy, I am worried. Are you okay? Are you—”
“I said, I’m fine. I know how to take care of myself. I’ll be back in the Flat when I’m ready. You get it?”
“Yes, I—”
“Good.”
“Sissy, I—” Charlene heard the click that meant her sister had hung up on her.
She sat there holding the phone to her ear, unwilling to break the connection, though she knew very well it was already broken.
After the dial tone started buzzing, Brand took the phone, so very gently. He turned it off and pulled her up out of the chair and into his cherishing arms.
That night, he made slow, tender, extraspecial love to her. She cried at the end, holding him close, letting the deep, wrenching sobs have her. Brand didn’t say anything. He cradled her in his strong arms and stroked her hair and waited until she’d cried herself out.
Then he pulled the covers over them, kissed her nose and whispered, “Go to sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
Chapter Fourteen
A fat envelope arrived the next day from Tanner. Charlene looked at the pictures of Sissy and wanted to start sobbing all over again.
But at least she did look healthy. She’d let her hair grow out a little—and she’d stopped dying it purple. Still spiky and wild, it was her natural honey-brown now and reached her shoulders. Her face was bare of safety pins. And, as sulky and hostile as she’d sounded on the phone, she also seemed sober. Just to know she was alive and well, that she wasn’t strung-out on drugs…
Well, that was something. In time, Charlene knew, Sissy would come home. Now it was just a matter of waiting until she finally did.
Charlene could handle that, now she knew that her sister wasn’t dead in an alley or anything. She would take care of Mia and she would wait. She could do that, she could bear that.
A detailed report was in the envelope, too. So was the bill. Tanner had charged twenty-five dollars an hour plus expenses. The work he’d put in had really added up. And she had a sneaking suspicion he hadn’t charged his own brother full price.
She thought of that three hundred dollars Brand had handed over to Sissy’s former roommate on Saturday. When she’d tried to pay him back, he’d refused to take her money. And he was always showing up at her door with bags full of groceries and baby supplies.
Really, it was too much, all he’d done for her. That evening she told him she wanted to at least help with the bill from Tanner.
“Not a chance,” he told her. “We already talked about that when this started.”
“Brand. It’s a lot of money—and I’ll bet he didn’t even charge you full price.”
“He knows where to come anytime he needs a good lawyer at way below the going rate.” He toasted her with the beer he’d just pulled from the fridge. “My only regret is that what he found out didn’t get us any closer to getting this whole thing settled.”
“I know that Sissy’s okay, at least. And that’s important. That means more than I can ever tell you. And I’m serious. I insist. I want to—”
He set down his beer, caught her wrist and reeled her in. “Don’t argue. I can afford it.”
She made a face at him. “So can I.”
He kissed the tip of her upturned nose. “I never said you couldn’t. What I meant was, I wanted to handle this.”
“I shouldn’t let you….”
“It’s done. It’s fine. Let it be.”
She caressed the side of his face, felt the warmth and the beard stubble and thought how dear he’d become to her. Again. After all these years. Who would have eve
r thought that could happen? “Thank you. I’ll find some way to pay you back.”
“I don’t want paying back. What I have is yours.”
It seemed a pretty…strong thing to say. Given the whole no-long-term-commitment thing they had going. But she let it pass. After all, now and then, she found herself feeling the same way. That they were…together in a much more permanent way than they’d ever talked about.
It wasn’t so. And they should probably have a talk about that sometime soon, get the boundaries clear between them again.
But not now. Not when he was being so sweet and generous and all she wanted was to stand there in the kitchen with his arms around her for a lifetime or so—that or twine her fingers with his and lead him off to her bed.
She rested her head against his chest, felt the good, steady beat of his heart beneath her ear. “Oh, Brand. I just wish she’d come home.”
He stroked her hair. “Yeah. I know…” Something in the way he said that, the way he let the words trail off alerted her. A strange little shiver of unease crept down her spine.
She tipped her head up so she could see his eyes. “Something wrong?”
He took her gently by the shoulders. “I don’t know how to say this. I keep waiting for the right moment. It just never seems to come.”
She scanned his face for clues. “What? Tell me.”
“It’s been two months since Sissy dropped Mia off with you.”
She knew already that she didn’t like where this was going. “Not quite two months. Not for a few days…”
He looked infinitely patient all of a sudden. “All right. It’ll be two months this week.”
She eased out of his light grip and moved back so she could lean against the sink counter.
“You’re mad,” he said.
“You make it sound longer than it is, that’s all.”
“Charlene…”
She folded her arms across her middle in a gesture even she recognized as defensive. “What?”
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