Dana Mentink - Secret Refuge

“She said coffee today,” Aunt Viv said with a laugh. “I let her pour some creamer into my cup and it went everywhere, so now she says, ‘coffee, oops!’” Viv stroked one of June’s soft blond pigtails as the child examined the pages of the book Keeley had brought.

“How did the OT go?”

June had worked with Mrs. B., her occupational therapist, since before she was old enough to walk.

“She’s trying hard to pedal that tricycle. Almost there.” Viv looked Keeley over. “I’ll say it again. If you want to live here, I’ve got a closet-size extra room with your name on it. Not the Ritz, but clean, more or less.”

Keeley shot her a look. “Why are you bringing it up?”

“You’ve got that worried ‘my paycheck might not be enough to get us to the end of the month’ look on your face.”

Keeley turned the page, and June leaned her head against Keeley’s side. There was nothing more she’d like than to spend every moment with June. When LeeAnn gave birth, Keeley had been there through it all: the shock of finding out the baby had Down syndrome, the denial, anger and grief that followed. Keeley had paced miles around that small hospital room, each step bringing her deeper and deeper in love with her precious niece, those wondrous eyes with the beautiful flecks, the most perfect tiny mouth. Little did she know then that her role would change from auntie to mother when June was only a year and a half.

Tucker hadn’t wanted the baby, had urged LeeAnn to get rid of it and then promptly gotten himself into trouble with the law for stealing a car. A devastated LeeAnn had moved away to live with their mother in Colorado, never letting Tucker know she’d had their baby.

“Don’t tell him,” she’d begged. “Ever. He doesn’t want her, and she shouldn’t know her father is a criminal. Promise.”

Promise. The entreaty still rang in her ears. Even when LeeAnn had moved back to Oregon and she and Tucker had patched things up, LeeAnn had not told him the truth, leading him to believe June was Keeley’s. She’d waited and waited, to be sure Tucker was on the straight and narrow. She’d died still waiting. And now? Did Tucker have an idea? Had he figured out the truth about June?

I want what’s mine...

She pulled June closer. The little girl discarded the book and climbed onto Keeley’s lap, laying her plump cheek on Keeley’s chest.

“I have to make a life for us, Aunt Viv,” she said, rubbing circles on June’s back. “I need to get my business established, and I can’t take June with me on the shoots. By summer, if I take every job I can get my hands on, I’ll be able to hire someone reliable to watch her while I’m working until she’s ready to start the prekindergarten program.”

Just the thought of it made little flutters roil through her stomach. Would the public school understand a special-needs child? Could they see past the label to the amazing, exquisite person underneath? Would she be teased and tormented by the other children?

“Just remember, it’s an option if things get too hairy.” Aunt Viv reached out her arms. “Give that little sweetie pie to me. She’s sound asleep. I’ll put her down for a nap.”

Keeley smiled. She knew that meant Viv would lie down next to her and take a snooze, as well. Aunt Viv earned every moment of her rest time. The energetic fifty-five-year-old tended to four rambunctious preschoolers in her at home day care setting and toted June to her various appointments when Keeley was working. Since she’d retired from being an emergency room nurse when she’d moved to Colorado the year before, June had become her full-time work.

“I’ll put some chicken in the oven for dinner,” Keeley said.

“I won’t be noble. You can cook for me anytime.” She disappeared down the hallway, her long black braid trailing behind her.

After the chicken was seasoned with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and a generous handful of crushed garlic, it went into the oven to bake. Keeley began gathering up the toys June and her friends had scattered about the playroom and swept and mopped the kitchen floor. Her phone indicated an email.

It was a request from a magazine she’d queried in the past. Short notice, but can you photograph the Quaker parrots? Our guy dropped out and we need it for a midnight deadline. Fred. Her pulse kicked up a notch. If she could deliver, it might mean steady work with Bird’s Away Magazine .

Hurriedly, she emailed her acceptance and checked her phone. Four o’clock. She’d have just enough time to drive to the industrial part of town the colony of feral parrots called home and take some pictures before sunset.

She tiptoed into the bedroom and found Aunt Viv snoring softly. June was rolled into a ball sleeping next to her. Something warm and soft settled into Keeley’s heart.

“Thank You, God,” she said for the millionth time. Nothing would ease the pain of what Tucker had done to LeeAnn, but there was June, sweet June. Each word she spoke was balm to Keeley’s broken heart, every boisterous laugh salve to the pain.

Keeley knew that every job brought her closer to being the mommy that LeeAnn would have wanted for her precious child. Keeley closed the door quietly. She packed up her gear while the chicken finished cooking, and left it cooling on the counter with a note.

“Job! Wild parrots. Back in a couple of hours. Save me some chicken. K.”

She sent a text to John, telling him she would not volunteer at the clinic that evening. It gave her a sense of relief, she was ashamed to admit. She’d taken over LeeAnn’s volunteer role of tending to the wild birds John rescued. LeeAnn had loved the birds so much, but being around John meant Keeley would feel both his pain as well as her own. It was too much.

She tiptoed out the door and hustled to her Jeep, stopping short as she saw Mick Hudson leaning on her front bumper. He straightened as he saw her approach.

Her stomach somersaulted. How had he known to find her here? She forced a calm pace until she reached him.

“I thought you’d left town,” she said.

“Came back.” His gaze made her squirm, as if he knew all her secrets.

“What do you want?”

“Tucker did say something to you out there on the mountain, and you kept it to yourself.”

Her cheeks burned. “Things happened fast. I can’t really recall exactly...”

“Do you have reason to think Tucker knows the child is his?”

The words sucked the breath right out of her, and cold gripped her body. She tried to go around him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He put a hand on her shoulder, heavy, strong.

“Yes, you do. The little girl your sister gave birth to. Tucker’s the father, isn’t he?”

“Who do you think you are?” she said, fear sparked into anger as she yanked out of his grip. “Coming into my life and spouting accusations and prying into private information that you have no right to. June is mine, I’m her legal guardian and her biological father is none of your business.”

“It’s Tucker’s business. He’s come back to take her and punish you.”

Coming for you.

Ice spread throughout her body. “June is my daughter.”

“You need to tell the police.”

“Tucker’s gone. He’s taken off.”

“Sure about that?”

The flat brown eyes, the arms folded across the broad chest infuriated her. “You have no right to interfere. You’re not a cop.”

“I’m trying to help.”

“The time to help was when Tucker should have been under house arrest. You helped then, didn’t you? You made sure he was a free man, and then he killed my sister.” The wide river of anger flowed out of her and caused him to flinch. He looked away. She would not, could not, stop. “The one thing I want more than anything else in this world is my sister back, but you can’t help with that, can you?” Her throat thickened.