A Home for Her Family

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“Hold on. I thought you were quitting as soon as Dad was well enough to come back full-time.” Evie sat up ramrod straight in the chair across from her twin and arched a brow. Jack knew that look and pretended he didn’t see it.

The morning sun was blazing through the window and the office seemed about ten degrees too warm. Jack pulled at his tie, wishing he was on Wolf Mountain at that very minute. It had snowed four inches that morning, and the boarding on Horseshoe Bowl would be phenomenal. But he was being good and was at work, like a responsible man.

“I am. Just not quite yet. I’m playing it by ear.” His mahogany desk was polished so brightly he could see his reflection. He shuffled a few papers.

“Not yet? You’ve been unhappily employed for five long years, planned the big exit, plotted out a new business venture and now it’s not yet?” She leaned forward. “Getting cold feet? I’ll be there. Gavin will be there. You won’t have to do this alone.”

“Thank you.” He meant it. Evie was closer to him than any other person, and he couldn’t think of making such a huge change without her input. “But I had a sort of revelation and think I should give it another try.”

There was a small pause. She looked as if she was choosing her words. “May I ask how this revelation came about?”

Jack snorted. Leave it to her to cut to the chase. Not the why, but the how. “Just talking to a friend yesterday and I realized that I had always treated this job like it was an option, not a necessity.”

She shook her head, dark hair the color of his own brushing her shoulders, blue eyes the same shade as his narrowed in thought. “We’ll get back to that idea, but first, which friend?”

“A new friend.”

“Girl?”

“Not a girlfriend.” He waved a hand as if to say that was silly to even ask, even though he had to admit the thought had crossed his mind. More than crossed it. The thought had walked in and set up camp in a corner.

“Tell me about this not-a-girlfriend girl.” She leaned back, arms over her chest. She managed to look completely uninterested, but he knew her better than that. She was going to get all the details, sooner or later. Probably sooner.

“The mission mechanic who was working on the chopper. Marisol asked me to help. We were just talking.” He shrugged, hoping that would end the interrogation.

“And in five minutes you scrapped the plans you’ve made so carefully, for another, what, ten years of this?”

He winced. Ten years. The very thought made him want to run from the office, out the door, down the stairs and into the sunshine. “It was more than five minutes.”

“I want to meet this girl mechanic.”

“It really doesn’t have anything to do with her.” Right? He stared at his hands, remembering the grease under her nails, the softness of her skin.

“Amazing. She must have really helped you understand this decision and be great at giving advice.” Evie’s voice was light, but she wasn’t smiling.

He sighed. “I didn’t tell her anything about my life. We talked about her job.” Now that it came down to it, he didn’t even know if he could explain. “It was more than that. She’s taking care of her little nieces. I got the feeling there wasn’t anybody else around to help. It made me realize that I don’t carry a lot of responsibility, but I sure whine like I do.”

Evie leaned across the desk and gripped his hand. “Just because someone else doesn’t have the choices you do, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer. I understand the guilt, I really do. But there are better ways to contribute to the world than by making yourself unhappy.”

“I know that. But I wonder how hard I’ve been trying.” He looked up, feeling the residual humility of seeing his choices in a new light. “Really trying, not just wasting time. I wanted to get some numbers on the production costs here locally and asked a few questions. Bob Barrows shot me down and I just...walked away, thinking of how soon I could get out of here.”

“You don’t have a lot of power, just a title. What else can you do?”

“I’m the vice president of the company. I can act like it for once.” Resolve had been building ever since that conversation with Sabrina in the kitchen and it stiffened his back. “I emailed Bob this morning for the numbers. I want to make sure our local packagers are keeping costs as low as possible. The numbers have gone up for the sixth month in a row. Something’s off and I want to know what.”

Evie leaned back in her chair. “I don’t understand how one conversation can make you rethink your plans. But whatever you decide, I’m behind you.” She paused, biting her lip. “Just make sure you’re not acting out of guilt. We can’t help which family we’re born into.”

“But I’ve sure spent a lot of time complaining, rather than using it to my advantage.”

Her eyes went a bit wider. “You’ve never wanted much to do with the family business. Now you’re ready to take on responsibility? Maybe Dad shouldn’t be trying to come back as president after all.”

“Come on, Evie.” He laughed but it sounded strained to his own ears. He wasn’t interested in being the president of the company, he was sure of it. But he’d like to be a better vice president.

“Will this girl be at the mission on Sunday?”

He blinked, trying to follow her train of thought, then nodded. “I think so. But if you and Grandma Lili pounce on her, she won’t have any idea why. What’s going on with me and this job has nothing to do with her.”

“I never pounce.” Evie rolled her eyes. “I just want to meet her. Usually you shrug off criticism. It’s odd to see you give so much weight to someone else’s opinion.”

“I’m telling you, we didn’t talk about me at all.”

“Then listening to her sad story gave you an early midlife crisis?” His sister was a kind person, but she didn’t have a lot of patience for whiners.

“I was already having a crisis. Maybe she just gave me some perspective.” He rubbed his temples. “And sure, she’s one of those people who has a sad story, but you have to pull it out of them. It wasn’t volunteered.”

Evie considered that for a moment. “Now I really want to meet her.”

He blew out a sigh. “Fine. But let’s keep our family business out of it.”

She grabbed her purse and stood up. “No comments, I promise. I’ve got to get back to the paper and hear what the lawyers have to say about our slave-labor series.”

“You’ve been chasing that story for years. I don’t see why the lawyers won’t let you run something already.”

Her blue eyes turned somber. “It makes me angry every time they catch another group. It’s always by accident, always just a few people kept against their will. And the workers say they were moved over and over, different buildings, lots of guards, rotating groups. We know it’s big and it’s here, right in our own city.”

“Isn’t there enough from the police reports to back up the series?”

She shook her head. “We can run a few small articles, and we have. But this series is different. It takes a lot of information from sources we can’t identify, mostly for their own safety. The lawyers are there to make sure we don’t get sued, but I sure hate having to take that advice.”

“Do you think they’ll give it the okay this time?”

“Not a chance.” Her tone was nonchalant, but her expression was dejected. “But I have to try. There are people in modern-day slavery, right here.”

“I’m proud to be your brother, you know that?”

Her face flashed surprise, then pleasure. “Thank you, and ditto.” She reached the door and turned. “Whatever you decide, I’m behind it. You know that.”

Nodding, he didn’t try to say anything. As the door closed, he swallowed hard. Theirs wasn’t a perfect family, by any stretch of the imagination. Their father was distant and consumed by running the business. Their mother was sweet but distracted by anything that offered a spot on a committee. It had always been that way, as long as he could remember.

Evie had been his cheerleader, his confidante, his voice of reason when he got a crazy new idea. When Evie had fallen in love with his best friend, he hadn’t been worried about losing either one. He’d been thrilled. Gavin was perfect for her.

He wanted what they had, someday. Sabrina’s face flashed through his mind, startling him. Evie had asked a lot of questions, and not the ones he’d been expecting. Certainly not the ones he could answer right now. He pushed the unsettling feelings away.

He stretched his arms over his head, feeling the muscles burn, not used to sitting at a desk for hours at a time. Starting today, he was going to put everything he had into his job. No more soul-searching over finding his purpose. The fact that he was born into this family, and given this job, should be good enough. Of course, he had some serious catching up to do. Proving his value at the company would be an uphill battle after the years of doing the absolute minimum required. And his first task was getting Bob Barrows to cough up those production numbers.

* * *

“But you said the rent change would go into effect on the first of next month.” Sabrina struggled to keep her voice level, but her hands were shaking.

Mr. Snyder shook his head and spoke slowly, as if to a child. “You misunderstood me. I was very clear that the rent would be raised immediately. English can be a tough language to learn.” He shifted his feet, shiny shoes squeaking on the polished tile of the apartment building foyer.

She was momentarily speechless. Sure, English was her second language, but she’d learned it almost twenty years ago when she entered kindergarten. The only thing she had misunderstood was Mr. Snyder’s determination to evict her.

“So, if the rent hike went into effect right away, what do I owe?” Again, she kept her voice calm, as if she really had anything left to give him. Last month it had been a change in the electric bill that meant two hundred dollars for “upgrades.” Then a few weeks later it was a maintenance fee for the small patch of scrub that passed for the lawn. Every resident was now paying fifty dollars a month for upkeep of the “courtyard.”

“Two hundred and fifty dollars.” He watched her face intently, his watery blue eyes barely visible behind the dirty lenses of his glasses.

“Okay.” Sabrina felt despair rise in her throat. Their savings would take a real hit. “When do you need it?”

“Now.” He paused, as if reconsidering. His long fingers fiddled with the zipper on his windbreaker. “But the biggest change is going to be next month. The building is being signed over to a new company and they want a deposit.”

“But I paid a deposit when I moved in! I have the receipt. Seven hundred dollars for a cleaning deposit and first and last month’s rent. You can’t charge me another deposit.” She tried to breathe past the lump of pure panic in her throat.

“Don’t yell at me. I can tell you to get out at any time.” His expression was a combination of annoyance and triumph. “I’m trying to do the right thing and give you fair warning.”

Fair warning...Sabrina put a hand to her eyes and fought to stay calm. All she wanted was to give her nieces a good home, somewhere safe and near a good school, but more than all of that was the need to appear stable. She couldn’t be moving before the custody hearing. Tears burned at the back of her eyes and she gulped in a breath. But unless money fell from the sky, she was going to have to find another place. Maybe they could move quickly, so that they’d be settled by the time the court date came around.

She dropped her hand and met his gaze. “I don’t think I can do that. So next month will be our last month.” At least she wouldn’t have to pay rent. But how she could ever come up with another deposit was a topic she couldn’t even approach yet.

“You mean this month.” His lips thinned out in a smile.

“I paid the rent a few weeks ago. I paid the last month’s rent when I moved in.” She ticked off the facts, knowing that Mr. Snyder wasn’t being reasonable, but still hoping that this wasn’t happening.

“Remember, the new owners want another deposit. Without it, you’ll have to move at the end of this month.”

Not even three weeks to find another apartment, to save up the money, to prepare the girls. Sabrina couldn’t think past the gibbering fear in her head. She turned on her heel and made her way to the stairs. The blood pounding in her ears muffled Mr. Snyder’s last words.

She trudged up the stairs, unseeing. Mrs. Guzman was watching Gabby and Kassey until she got home, probably letting them watch one of the telenovelas on the Spanish cable channel. A lot of shooting, crying, singing and kissing went on. Mrs. Guzman thought they were fun entertainment, nothing harmful. Sabrina thought they were tacky and sent a terrible message, especially to young girls, but nothing she said could convince Mrs. Guzman to turn it off when the girls were there. Just one more place in her life where she didn’t have control.

She stopped on the landing and closed her eyes, leaning against the wall. Mr. Snyder was gouging the residents on the rent. He’d promised to give her a letter that showed the owner’s change in the rental policy, but never had. What could she do to fight it? She didn’t even know where to start.

“Are you okay?” A woman’s voice cut into her thoughts and she stood up straight.

“Sure, just tired.” She tried to smile a little, hoping the pretty blonde newlywed from downstairs wouldn’t think she was crazy. Angie and her husband had moved in a few months ago and seemed to be wonderful tenants. Young professionals who had a dinner party or two, nothing too loud. They were friendly and polite, always saying hi.

Angie’s husband followed her out their apartment, his brown hair smooth and tidy. “Hey, there. I saw your girls going upstairs today. They were giggling up a storm.” He grinned, showing perfect teeth.

“Sounds like them.” Those girls could wake the dead with their giggling fits. “What do you think of the rent changes?”

Angie looked at her husband. “Chad, did you hear anything about rent changes?”

“No. Nothing since we arrived.” His brow was furrowed. “We signed a year lease, so I don’t think they can change the terms.”

“So did I. Mr. Snyder just said, on top of the electrical and the courtyard fee, there’s a new deposit and a rent increase.”

A long silence followed. Chad exchanged a look with Angie, then cleared his throat. “We don’t have those fees. And I just saw him this morning and he never said anything about a new deposit.”

Sabrina felt the blood rushing to her head. She swayed on her feet and put out a hand to steady herself against the wall. “Wait, the new fees, you don’t...” She couldn’t finish her sentence.

“I can ask him,” Chad said, his expression serious. “There must be some explanation. You shouldn’t be paying fees that we aren’t.”

Her shoulders slumped. No, she shouldn’t, but it was very likely that she was. In Mr. Snyder’s world, people like Sabrina didn’t live in apartment buildings like his. People like Angie and Chad did, though.

“Sure, you’re right.” Her voice held no conviction. “I have to go pick up the girls. I’ll see you two later.” She pulled her lips up in what she hoped passed for a smile and moved back toward the stairs.

She’d had a bad feeling when Mr. Snyder had made a new sign for the front of the apartment building. The old green sign reading Park Plaza had been reworked into something sleeker, more upscale. A bronze plaque attached to the building was understated and elegant, a visible marker of the changes the building was going to make, inside and out.

Mrs. Guzman had bemoaned the new fees but had already mentioned how she wanted to move in with her son and his family. Since Mr. Guzman passed away, she hadn’t liked living alone. She wasn’t the world’s greatest babysitter, but she enjoyed the girls’ company and appreciated their happy energy. Sabrina groaned. She hadn’t thought of finding new child care, too. Moving would be hard enough, but who would watch the girls after school? Her working hours would be cut down even further. Sabrina had brought them to work a few times, to places like the mission, but it just wasn’t appropriate to be taking them across the city on different jobs.

Oh, Lord, please help me take care of them. She fought back a wave of despair. How had everything gone so wrong, so quickly?

She tried to think logically. They had always made it through before. It would be tight for a few months. She’d have to pick up as many repair jobs as she could in the next few weeks. Her mind raced. Besides the amount of money she’d need and the few weeks she had to find a new apartment, it also had to be the sort of place the judge would think was good for the girls.

Pausing before she knocked on Mrs. Guzman’s door, she inhaled deeply and tried to look as if everything was perfectly fine. Gabby and Kassey didn’t need to carry this burden. She would have to find some way to prepare them for the move, but at the right time, when she was calm. There was a lot to do before then.

The first item on the list would be finding a place for them to live.

* * *

“Thank you for picking me up, Jack.” Grandma Lili squeezed his hand.

“My pleasure.” Jack smiled down at the older lady who seemed to adopt anyone within ten feet of her. He was thrilled that his sister, Evie, and Gavin had fallen in love and gotten married, but he hadn’t realized that he’d get a grandmother out of the deal.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t offer to serve?” Grandma Lili gazed around at the packed cafeteria. Tables were pulled into squares and covered with white tablecloths. The centerpiece on each one was a cheery bouquet of paper daffodils and tulips, obviously made by the mission kids. The place echoed with laughter and snatches of conversation. “There are so many people waiting.”

“Grant said they had more than enough servers when I asked on Friday. As for the line, I think they’re going to have us go one table at a time.” Jack pointed at the corner, where a group had started lining up for the Easter brunch. The smell of mashed potatoes, biscuits, ham, green beans and pie was making his stomach growl. Breakfast had been hours before the church service and it was nearly noon already.

“Should we find a seat?” Grandma Lili started toward the far side of the gymnasium, but Jack put a hand on her arm.

“Evie said they had already staked out a place for us. We just need to find them.” How they were going to find anybody in this crowd was beyond him. And he had to admit that he wasn’t focusing completely on looking for Gavin and Evie. He hoped to see another guest here, someone who had weighed on his mind for the past few days.

“Over here, you two!” Gavin waved an arm, catching their attention from across the room. He looked like his usual self, ready for a day at the office, except for a tie patterned with Easter eggs. Evie smiled at them from a table populated by a few older folks and a young couple. As the editor of a local paper, her work attire was often a black suit, but today she’d exchanged it for a light flowered wrap dress. Jack couldn’t help but smile at the happiness that radiated from her face. His sister had carried a heavy burden for years, and Gavin’s love had convinced her to lay it down. Jack would never get tired of seeing her like this, absolutely in love with life.

Grandma Lili and Jack made their way through the crowds to the table at the far wall. “You made me an Easter basket?” Jack leaned over Evie’s shoulder and inspected one of the two white baskets. “I don’t see a lot of chocolate in here. You know I love those little pastel eggs with the candy shell.”

“Not for you, silly. These are for Sabrina’s two girls. Didn’t you say she had kids?”

“Nieces, but they live with her.” He gave Evie an extra tight hug and kissed the top of her head. He hadn’t even thought of bringing something for Kassey and Gabby. “And that’s why you’re my favorite sister.”

“Better be for more than that, buddy.” But Evie looked pleased that he approved of the baskets. “Gavin picked out the toys. He said we should only fill them with sugar if we want her to hate us.”

“My grandson is right.” Grandma Lili settled into the chair across from Gavin, adjusting the cuffs of her light pink silk shirt. “No mom likes what happens when the sugar high wears off.”