Mary Brady - Promise to a Boy

Reed pulled on the handles of the second drawer. The drawer stuck, but when he pulled harder it opened only to contain a very old pair of jeans and a couple T-shirts, each with a rude saying.

“Maybe the kid lives with the aunt because Angelina isn’t mother material.” Much like Reed’s own family. One brother stayed and made something out of himself, turned the family misfortune around. The other brother couldn’t be bothered with responsibility, family or otherwise, and just disappeared into the West. And then there was their mother…

“There’s more.” Denny rustled more papers. “Seems to be some confusion because they are both A. Fairbanks.”

“Go on.” The next two drawers were empty. Again a reflection of his brother’s life.

“Apparently their Denver departure was rather abrupt and it might have had to do with the sister and not Angelina.”

Reed put his free hand flat on the dresser top. “Any details?”

“I’ll see what I can find out. I assume you don’t want me to tell your mother anything.”

“That’d be correct. Thanks, Denny.”

Reed hung up and crossed the room to where a wood-framed picture sat on the bedside table. The photo was of Jesse, Angelina, a toddler and Abby and it looked to be a few years old. Abby looked serious and the others were grinning. The kid was probably the child on “Aunt” Abby’s porch. He picked up the snapshot. The boy looked familiar, but maybe that was because all kids looked the same to him, they just had different colored hair.

He placed the picture back on the table and continued searching. There was nothing in the bathroom except a dry, cracked bar of soap and a neatly folded towel. On top of the refrigerator in a basket was an old letter from their mother ranting and raving in the tone of a chronic alcoholic. This would be the address Abby had used. It was their summerhouse in the Chain of Lakes area and no one was there this year. The letter would probably arrive in Evanston soon and the housekeeper would forward it to Reed’s office in Chicago with any other mail that might upset his mother and contribute to a relapse into the bottle.

Where the hell are you, Jesse?

ABBY TOSSED TOYS INTO the wooden “pirates treasure” box while Kyle ran to get a new game, undoubtedly leaving another mess on the floor outside the game cabinet as he tried to decide which one. There was nothing left of the cookies but crumbs and Kyle had beaten her at most of their half dozen games of Candy Land.

All the time they played, she wondered if she had done the right thing, letting Jesse’s brother into the apartment. Legally, she supposed the apartment wasn’t Jesse’s anymore. He hadn’t paid the rent due before he left, he kept meaning to and now his brother had.

Maybe Reed would find something she didn’t know about and get a clue as to where Jesse had gone after Utah. A stab of dread hit her as she thought of something happening to Jesse.

She picked up a picture of the four of them. It had been taken at the zoo in Denver and she’d had a copy made for Jesse. They were so young in the picture. Lena had just turned eighteen when Kyle was born and he was barely two in the picture.

Abby always wondered about Jesse and Angelina, how their relationship went.

“Is Mommy scared?” Kyle stood, holding the Shoots and Ladders game.

Abby put the picture back and smiled at Kyle’s sweet face.

“Maybe she is sometimes.” She handed the photo of his mother in uniform to Kyle and he left a kiss print on her face where he’d placed so many others. “But she’s in a place where there are a lot of people to make friends with. I bet she misses you a lot, though.”

“She left her bunny slippers. Do you think she misses them?”

On Kyle’s feet were large pink bunnies with floppy ears and black button noses.

“I think they look great on you,” she said, and smiled.

He grinned and then his expression grew serious enough to wrinkle his forehead. “I’d be scared.”

What did she say to that? She couldn’t tell him not to be scared, but she could listen.

“You’d be scared?”

“If I had to go and live with strangers.”

She reached for him and pulled him into a hug. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry too much about that, you rascally rabbit slipper wearer. You’ve got me and your grandma here.”

She tweaked his nose and he grinned again.

“Do you promise, Aunt Abby?”

“I promise,” she said with as much animation as she could stuff into her tone.

The doorbell rang. In the reflection in the hallway mirror, Abby could see Reed Maxwell silhouetted in the sheer lace curtained window of her front door.

“Is that the man again?” Kyle wiggled out of her arms. “Can I see him this time?”

“I want you to stay in the house. I don’t really know this man. He’s a stranger.” And he’s poking and prying. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to know how he found out that Lena and Jesse were friends. And if he found that out, how much else did he know? And what did he plan to do with that knowledge?

“We don’t like strangers. Do we?” he said in a serious little-boy tone.

Abby tugged one of his blond curls. “We want to be safe around strangers. That means you stay inside right now. I’ll put a DVD in if you want.”

“Land Before Time. Land Before Time.”

She popped in the kid dinosaur DVD as the bell rang again.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Please stay here.”

He gave her a half nod, already holding the remote control in anticipation of the movie starting.

Ah, if life were that simple.

Now all she had to do was send Jesse’s nosy brother away and she could watch the movie with Kyle. She should clean the bathroom and address a few cobwebs, but she wanted to spend as much of her day off with her young nephew as she could. Being a nurse at the only clinic in St. Adelbert didn’t leave her much free time.

Abby opened the door and this time stepped out onto the porch to greet Jesse’s brother. “Did you find anything that would help?”

“There’s not much there.”

“Rolling stone and all that. It’s too bad he’s not here. If you had come in the spring…”

He seemed as if he was trying to decide something. Maybe he just wanted to make sure he asked all his questions before he got back in his rental car and left town.

“I’ll give you my phone number and if you think of anything else, you can call me. Anytime.” Abby felt an urgent need to reassure him and send him on his way.

His brow furrowed.

“I don’t mean… I mean I’m not trying to get rid of you,” she hurried to say and then to prove her point she sat down on the top step and invited him to sit. His brother was missing, after all. There had to be some middle ground between the bum’s rush and trying to keep Kyle’s and her little world undisturbed.

He declined to sit, but descended and put one foot on the lower step as he had earlier. He was tall, and sitting, she did feel at a disadvantage. Maybe that was good. Let him think he had the upper hand.

“Do you know where in Utah he went hiking?”

“There are several parks—Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and more—but he didn’t name one specifically.”

“Do you know if he went hiking alone?”

“He usually did. He said it gave him the space to think.”

“Was there anyone else in town Jesse was friends with?”

“Maybe, but he didn’t confide in me. Like I said, he and Lena were friends. She lived in the house with me for a little while.”

He nodded toward the house. “Is that little boy Angelina’s child?”

Abby turned to see Kyle peering out the window beside the door.