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Before Tessa could respond, another teen, Jill, came up to them. Dark-eyed and intense, she said, “Hunk alert.”
Tessa laughed. She’d gotten used to the girls drooling over her brother-in-law. Nick was the center’s school liaison and focused on keeping troubled kids in classes, steering them away from drugs and into healthier endeavors, helping them keep their grades up. Dan, who’d had contact with Nick over the years, had been shocked to find out that he’d earned a degree in counseling in Rockford. “Is Nick here already?”
“Yeah.” Jill sighed. “He wants to see you when you’re done steering us to lesson-laden literature.”
“Great alliteration.” She cocked her head. “Do you mind so much? I thought reading about teenagers your age might help you figure things out.”
“You’re such an easy mark, Mrs. L. We’re cool. We like it better than those classics you had us reading when we first came here. Except maybe that doll’s house play, where the chick finally blows off her deadbeat husband.”
Tessa left them and found Nick staring at a glass-enclosed case full of books. From a distance, she could admire the long lines of his build, his dark hair and his almost navy eyes. In some ways he looked like his brother, and in some ways they could be complete strangers.
“Hey, how’s my favorite brother-in-law?”
Nick winked at her. “I’ll bet you say that to Brad, too.”
“That’s right. I’m an equal opportunity sister-in-law.”
“How are you feeling today?”
Nodding to the stacks where the girls had been drooling over him, she said, “I’m well enough to do this. I’m coming back to work here tomorrow.”
“Bruises look better.”
Self-consciously, she touched her face. “Finally!”
“How are my girls doing?”
“They’re on to me.” She told him about Jill’s remark.
Nick laughed. “You’re pretty transparent. I think that’s why they like you. What you see is what you get.”
She had to clear her throat. “I like them, too.”
“I’m ready to take them back, then go pick up my nieces at their friend’s house.”
“Thanks for watching them tonight.”
“Dan said he wanted an evening alone with you.” He squeezed her shoulder. “I think you scared him half to death with that accident. Me, too.”
“Still, you have better things to do than babysit.”
“I have nothing better to do than spend time with my two nieces.” He glanced at his watch. “You can return the favor, though.”
“Anything.”
“The guys at the center are jealous of this little Thursday excursion the girls get to take. They want equal time. Could you manage that somehow in your schedule? They could come to the library when you’re working your part-time shifts.”
She hesitated only a split second, but Nick must have caught it. Sometimes, he was too good at reading people.
“You don’t like working with the boys, do you?”
“I prefer to be with the girls.” The boys reminded her too much of someone else, long ago.
“Forget it then. I can do something else with them that they’ll like as much.”
“No, no, I want to help out. You never ask me anything.”
“Tessa, really, it’s okay.”
Dan came bursting through the front door of the library, precluding any further discussion. His face was lit with excitement. Anticipation. She knew him so well, had studied his moods, so she could prepare for them.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hello, sweetheart.”
“Hi.”
“You look like you could scale Mt. Everest,” Nick said. “Did something happen?”
“Yeah. I’m glad you’re both here.” He grinned at his brother. “And that I have Tessa alone tonight. We’ve got something to celebrate.”
“What?” Tessa asked, already smiling.
“I’m being named Citizen of the Year.”
“Oh, Dan, that’s terrific.” The award had been instituted two years ago, and Tessa was hoping it would fall his way.
“Yeah, terrific.” Nick tried to sound enthusiastic, but Dan’s need for respectability always grated on him.
“Come on, Nick. It’s my thing, even if it isn’t yours. There’s a banquet honoring me next month. I want everybody there.”
Tessa had caught his excitement. “The girls, Janey and her family…”
“And our mother, right?” Nick asked.
“Of course.” Dan said.
“I’ll let you know.” Nick clapped Dan on the shoulder. “Congrats, Dan. I’m happy for you.” He started to walk away. “I have to find the kids.”
“Nicky?” Tessa called out.
“Yes?”
“Will you come to the award dinner?”
“Sure.”
After he left, Dan said, “He won’t. Not if Mom’s there.”
“Oh, dear.”
“Don’t.” In a rare display of public affection, he picked her up and twirled her around. “No negative thoughts. Nothing’s going to spoil this for me. Nothing.”
JACKHAMMERS WERE GOING OFF in his head. He sneezed into his handkerchief, then blew his nose. Frankie was ready to smash somebody’s face in as he rode the Iverton bus to the outskirts of town. Trixie wasn’t here. How could she not be here?
He’d scoured the place for her. First, he’d gone to her grandmother’s house. The shingles were new and the porch refurbished, and somebody else owned the place. Grandma Addie was gone. No loss there. She’d hated him….
Get out of here, you’re not welcome.
Trixie says I am.
You’re not right in the head. Leave her alone.
And when they’d gotten in trouble she’d screamed at him again. You crazy bastard. You corrupted her. She was a good girl until you came along.
He’d told the old biddy to go to hell. Trixie was his, and he could do anything he wanted with her. Hadn’t she told him that, in the letters stuffed in his duffel bag?
The ugly industrial scenery of downtown Iverton rolled by. He’d checked out the diner where she had worked all those years ago. They had new owners, too, who didn’t remember any Trixie Lawrence.
Now, he was headed to the south side of town. That bitch Janey, who was always trying to interfere, always trying to protect Trixie from him, for God’s sake, had ditched this place, too. But her old boyfriend, Teaker, still lived here. He might know something about Trixie.
Frankie got off at Farrell Street and walked up the hill; the bartender at Crane’s Beer Hall had told him where Teaker lived. Man, what a dump, Frankie thought as he found the shack. An old man tottered out.
“I’m lookin’ for Teaker. The guy at Crane’s says he lived here.”
The man came closer. “I’m Teaker. Who are…holy shit, Frankie, is that you?”
Frankie knew his mouth dropped. “What happened to you?”
“Fifteen years, Frank. You look older, too.”
Can’t be as bad as you. He ran his fingers through his gray hair, noticed the veins in his other hand were more pronounced. “I guess.”
“I had some bad times. Not as bad as you, though. I never went down. How’d ya hold up in there?”
“Letters. From Trixie.”
“I thought she was in the can, too.”
“Got out after a while. She wrote me every day from here. That’s why I’m back.”
“Trixie? She ain’t living in Iverton no more.”
“I don’t get it.” Frankie cocked his head and thought hard. The pain, which had started to recede, instantly came back. “Got any beer?”
“Yeah, sure. Come onto the porch.”
Frankie sat on a rickety chair under an overhang. Once he chugged some ale, he could think more clearly. “You ever hear from Janey?”
“Shit, no. She married some doctor and went to live in New York.”
His heart began to beat fast. “New York’s a big place. The city?”
Teaker lit a cigar and sat back. “Nah. On a lake, I think.”
“There’s a shitload of lakes in New York.”
“I dunno which one.”
“Who might?”
His old drinking buddy raised his bushy gray eyebrows. “I think there was somethin’ in the paper a while back about her doctor husband getting a grant to find a cure for some disease.”
“Yeah? Who’d know about that?”
“Maybe Mrs. Fox.”
Frankie recognized the name of the librarian he and his buddies used to terrorize. “Hell, she ain’t dead yet?”
“She’s too mean to die, Frankie.”
“You remember Janey’s new name?”
“Nope. But the article could tell you.”
Frankie finished his beer and crumpled the can in his fist. Promising to bring up a six-pack later that night and reminisce about old times, he left.
No way was he going to come back, though. He wouldn’t waste his time with that loser when he could be looking for Trixie. Frankie still couldn’t figure out all those letters coming from Iverton, if she hadn’t been here.
He found old lady Fox at the library. She was ancient now and just as nasty. Everybody in this hick town treated him like dirt. Everybody was always after him. The bitch turned him over to her younger staff member, who found the article on the computer for him.
He read it anxiously.
Janey Lawrence…Christopher.
Married the up-and-coming doctor, had two boys.
Bingo! In Orchard Place, New York.
Almost as an afterthought, he googled the husband. The guy had a freakin’ Web site for his practice and the grant thing Teaker told him about. It also had a section on family. He clicked that link. There was Janey. Older, heavier, but Janey all the same. She had Trixie’s looks, but Trixie was prettier. He waded through photos of the kids, the colleagues. The last picture was a family shot of all the Christophers. And arm in arm with Janey was her sister. Tessa. God he hated when people called her that. He stared at the different hair and clothes, but she had the same eyes, mouth and features of his beloved Trixie. He’d recognize that face anywhere. Glancing around, he printed off the picture.
Frankie smiled all the way to the bus station. If Janey was in Orchard Place, chances were her sister would be there. Those two were like Siamese twins. And Janey had hated Frankie with a passion. She’d tried every way she could to break them up but never could.
At the bus station, he bought his ticket. The attendant told him it was a ten-hour ride from Iverton to Orchard Place, stopping several times. But Frankie didn’t care. He was gonna see Trixie. He might have to bitch-slap her around some for not staying put, but after that there’d be pure bliss.
Finally, him and Trixie were going to be together again.
CHAPTER FOUR
TESSA ARRANGED FOOD at the picnic table on the patio of her sister’s home, where the family had gathered for their Memorial Day picnic. The sun was shining and the sky was cloudless; a warm breeze wafted over her, carrying the sweet sound of chirping birds, making this a halcyon afternoon.
