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Ethan shook off a shiver as he recalled how he’d gone to the prom in the Jetta. But his date had gotten ill halfway through the evening and he’d taken her home by taxi. He’d returned to the party to discover Brad and Kelsey had left with Todd and Lissa. Understandable, as he wouldn’t have been any fun solo. While it had been a disappointment at the time, Susie Moore’s flu bug had probably saved both their lives.
“I can’t help but wonder how she found out about the reunion in the first place,” Lewis grumbled.
“She probably was sent an invitation along with the rest of us.”
“Who’d do that!”
“Does that really matter?” Ethan asked quietly.
“Yes. I’d like to know who was so careless, who didn’t even think to consult me first.”
The self-appointed town leader would expect to be shown such deference. Over the years people had helped fuel his huge ego by catering to him even as they accepted his advice and help in all sorts of civic and business matters. He’d always been extremely generous with his time and money, as long as no one challenged his autocratic streak. Lewis’s biggest weakness was his habit of holding grudges.
“Derek’s wife was her best friend….” Lewis scowled. “But she wouldn’t dare. Not after all I’ve done for Derek.”
Of course she’d dare! Ethan pressed his lips firmly to conceal a smile. Sarah Yates never deferred to her husband and had always stayed close with Kelsey. Small tidbits about Kelsey slipped out of her on occasion, confirming they were still in touch.
Ethan landed in a beige club chair near Lewis’s, regarding him with concern. “This stress can’t be good for you, Lew. You already had that one heart attack.”
The aged and fleshy chin lifted. “It was just a flutter.”
That wasn’t true at all. It had been fairly serious, and he had been hospitalized for several days while they’d run tests. “Whatever you call it, you’re not supposed to get too riled.”
This attempt at reason seemed to bounce off Lewis’s granite features, still trained on the fire. “Pity those old manslaughter charges didn’t stick. I sure wish there was a way of charging that girl now.”
The very idea made Ethan sick to his stomach. “There wasn’t enough evidence then, so it would be even harder today.”
“When I think how my critically injured boy managed to crawl round the car to reach her. It surely hastened his death. If only he’d stayed put. If only I’d gotten help there in time.”
It was that murky issue of time that had Ethan running the siren tonight. Just in case another Cutler life hung on a matter of minutes. But whatever Brad had done on his own in the end, it had been his choice, not Kelsey’s.
Lewis ponderously sipped some brandy. “Wonder what she wants. Exactly…”
Seemed obvious to Ethan. “To see her mother, I should think.”
“Do you really believe it’s that simple?”
“Yes…” Ethan’s voice trailed off as he stared at Lewis, wondering if there was something significant behind his wizened look. But what could it be? “I seriously doubt Kelsey has an ulterior motive,” he said more strongly. “She and Clare must miss each other terribly. A family of two, unless you count Clare’s brother, Teddy.”
“Who’s never counted for much,” Lewis grunted.
“There’s not a more gentle woman in town than Clare Graham. Their separation has to be painful, all those holidays apart.”
“At least when Clare talks to Kelsey, she gets an answer. No long-distance line has yet been invented to connect me with Brad.”
Ethan lowered his head. “I know you miss him. I do, too. I’ve tried my best to be there for you—in his place.”
“Of course you have. Why the minute I sized you up years back in that cheap Sunday suit, with a crummy haircut and first-class brain, I knew you were special. You’re the spare son Bailey and I longed for and you’ve never let us down once,” he assured. “However, that has nothing to do with my ongoing issue with the Grahams.”
“But it does for two obvious reasons. In my role as sheriff, it’s my duty to serve all citizens of Maple Junction equally, including the Grahams. And as a former next-door neighbor to the family, I’m fond of Clare. I know I’m asking a big favor, but I think it would be in everyone’s best interest for you to soft pedal your reaction to Kelsey’s visit.”
“Huh. I’m entitled to my opinion!”
“But your opinions carry so much more weight than most,” Ethan reasoned. “People will follow your lead on this without giving Kelsey a fair chance.”
“Now you’re saying I’m being unfair to her?”
“We haven’t discussed this situation in quite some time and I must admit I’m a bit surprised at how strong your ill feelings still are.”
“Well, I’m entitled. Give it some deeper thought.”
“I was going to suggest the same thing to you.” Ethan rose, went to set his empty glass back on the wet bar. “Guess I’ll be going. Try and get some rest.”
Lewis watched him anxiously. “How can I sleep without knowing what the Graham girl is really up to?”
Squaring his tense shoulders, Ethan turned back to him. “Trust me, it’s nothing.”
“She must have an agenda,” he persisted. “Everybody does. Do me a favor and dig into it a little.”
“What am I looking for?”
“Find out who invited her and when exactly she’s due back. Call everyone on that reunion committee if you have to.”
Ethan realized he wanted to know those things himself. A word with Sarah Yates would be sufficient. “All right, Lew. I’ll check into it and get back to you.”
“I’ll be waiting by the phone.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Gee, got any other whims that need immediate humoring?”
Lewis held out his empty glass to Ethan for another slug of brandy.
“SARAH! DON’T MOVE.”
“But I heard a car door slam.”
“I know. It’s Ethan.”
“So what?”
“Whisper, Sarah. Whisper.”
“So what?” she repeated under her breath.
Sarah watched her husband, Derek, ease into their bedroom and flatten his body against the closed door. He looked ridiculous. Sarah was curled up in a rocker near the crib. Watching the infant sleep by the light of the moon was Sarah’s favorite new pastime.
Derek wiped his forehead. “Whew! I closed the windows just in time.”
“In time for what?”
“To muffle Amy Joy’s cry. If she cries.”
“Oh, she’s gonna cry, the way he’s started to lean on that doorbell.”
Right on cue, Amy Joy twisted in her crib and let out a squeaky wail.
Derek abandoned his post at the door, snatched the baby off the little mattress and popped her into Sarah’s arms. “Feed her, honey.”
“She isn’t hungry, just mad that she has a crazy dad.”
“She can’t suspect that at two months old.”
“She already knows it at only seven weeks.”
“This isn’t funny. Please quiet her, Sare!”
With a gentle Madonna smile, Sarah tossed a hank of gold hair over her shoulder, opened her shirt and bra, and settled the baby in a suckling position at her breast. “Why are we acting like secret agents, and stupid ones at that?”
Derek’s eyes darted nervously in the shadows. “Because Ethan’s gotta be here about Kelsey.”
“You can’t be sure.”
“Oh no? The news about her coming home got out today. And since Amy Joy arrived, nobody generally bugs us this late anymore.”
“Is that all you have to go on?”
“My instincts tell me I’m right.”
Sarah wasn’t about to argue with his instincts. Born on the wrong side of the tracks to an abusive father and an overworked mother, Derek had been on the loose early, often one step ahead of the law due to the homemade rattletrap motorcycle he’d ridden without a license. For all intents and purposes, Derek was now a new man. Except for that lingering sense of smell that never failed to pick up trouble.
Derek’s features hardened. “He’s just gotta be here on behalf of a very hot Lewis, to get hard answers for the old coot.”
“About who to blame for Kelsey’s return?” she surmised.
“Bingo. He’s stopped ringing the bell….” He opened the bedroom door and stepped into the hallway. Then shut himself back in again with a soft oath. “He’s still out there. Waiting.”
“Ethan is too obliging to that old tyrant,” Sarah complained.
“Sure he is. But when it comes down to it, we can’t afford to anger Lewis either. He holds the title to my garage and has funneled so many regular customers my way.” Derek raked a hand through his shaggy black hair. “I can’t wait to own that place free and clear.”
It would be awhile yet, Sarah knew, even with her teaching kindergarten. “Maybe we should’ve waited to start a family.”
“No, honey, no. We waited long enough. Too long.”
A faint rap now replaced the ringing bell. She sighed, hoisting the baby onto her shoulder to pat out a burp. “I’m not sure we’re gaining anything by hiding like this.”
“We’re gaining time. Time for Lewis to settle down. Time for us to figure a logical reason for luring Kelsey back.” Derek dropped to one knee beside the rocker. Despite his miffed tone, there was no mistaking the adoring look he bestowed on his girls.
“I suppose I may have acted rashly, sending Kelsey that flyer without even telling you.”
He widened his eyes. “May have?”
“We do discuss important things first as a rule. But I can’t—won’t try to excuse this away with logic. I simply love her. She’s the best friend I ever had—ever could have. Too much time has already been wasted while we miss out on all the dreams we had together as children. If only I could go back and change the day she left on that Greyhound.”
“And do what?” Derek asked gently.
She rubbed her husband’s stubbled cheek, inhaling the smell of motor oil that always clung to him before a shower. There was no answer, of course. Any healing course of action had been up to the adults. Instead they’d chosen to railroad an eighteen-year-old girl.
“All that matters now is that I want her back. I need her back.”
“It’s only a class reunion, hon.”
“Maybe.”
“Sarah…” Derek sounded almost afraid then.
“She might stay. With some encouragement.”
He touched his baby’s downy head. “Please don’t expect too much. People change.”
“Funny, I was thinking how some things never change. How people hold grudges, never give second chances.”
“Sums up our man Cutler, all right. But please, don’t rile him too much.”
“He is being unreasonable.”
“He did lose his kid, Sarah.” He squeezed their baby’s tiny foot. “Something we’ve come to understand so much better in the past seven weeks.”
“Ah, there goes Ethan,” Sarah said suddenly, gazing out the side window just as the taillights of the squad car winked red on the street.
Derek took the sleeping baby and set her back in the crib. Then he put loving hands on his wife. “Come to bed with me.”
Her mouth curved. “You know Doc says we should wait another week before we have sex, because of all my stitches.”
He lifted her in his arms anyway, his voice growing husky. “I just want to hold you for a while. In the moonlight…”
Sarah understood. Sometimes, the town’s insecure ex-bad boy needed a reminder that she was totally his.
Spooned into him on the broad mattress, she was not surprised when his soft snores told her he’d drifted off. He’d been working extra hours at the garage lately with his lone employee, Richard, in an effort to be the big breadwinner, to give her the stay-at-home-mom option next autumn. It was silly, really. She had no qualms about leaving Amy Joy with her mother, Isabel, for a few hours each day while she went to work. Derek’s problem was that he’d watched his own mother drive herself into a frazzle in order to make ends meet. Their situation was nothing like that. She loved her job. It was the perfect part-time career, half days with summers off.
The conflict of interest with Lewis Cutler over Kelsey, however, was a far more troubling issue. It was bound to affect Ethan and Derek, who both enjoyed being close to the powerful man, but who also had connections to Kelsey.
It had all started for Ethan much earlier, invited through the Cutler front door as a toddler by Brad. Such an arrangement had been unthinkable for Derek back then, as his mother, Linda, had actually been a domestic at the class-conscious mansion. Derek hadn’t made the Cutler connection until years later on the high school’s prom night. Too poor to attend the prom himself, and not yet in Sarah’s romantic sights, Derek had spent the evening roaring round the countryside on his motorcycle. He’d happened upon Brad’s smashed Jetta, surveyed the casualties and raced over to the estate to alert Lewis. Even then he’d circled to the back door of the mansion.
Because of Derek, Lewis had managed a last word with his dying son. Suddenly, the class rebel, long taunted by the likes of Brad and so many others, had been in Lewis’s good graces. Lewis had shed a new positive light on Derek along Harvester Avenue, had referred to him as a spirited and scrappy lad who, Lewis had discovered, was a whiz at fixing stuff like toasters, lamps, radios and motorbikes—especially motorbikes. He’d got Derek a room in the widow Watson’s boardinghouse, had eventually arranged for Derek to buy the town’s only auto-repair shop from a retiring Mel Trumbull, using his position as officer at the bank to float Derek a very low-interest loan.
