Down the Hidden Path (16 page)

Miah knew what this was about, but it wasn’t Caleb’s business and he needed to establish that. At the same time, Gray had warned him about the way he handled Caleb. Geez. Why did this have to be so hard? He scrubbed at the day-old scruff on his jaw. “I just can’t . . .” Miah shook his head and pointed at the door as if Gray were standing just beyond it. “How could she come here day after day and look me in the eye knowing,
knowing
she’d lied to me all this time?”

Caleb looked less than interested.

But if Miah could make him understand, make him see, this would be one less disaster he’d have to deal with. “She spent her days here, Caleb, then went home to him. How does someone do that?”

Caleb sniffed. “Don’t know. I’ve never been a scared, alone, eighteen-year-old pregnant girl.”

“The sarcasm really helps, Caleb.”

He took a bite of his sandwich. “How’s the drama helping?”

Miah curled his hands into fists. No one got under his skin like his little brother. “You call this drama?”

“She did what she thought she had to do. It’s not like you were there for her.” Caleb’s open hands rested on the counter.

“You were a kid. You don’t know anything about it.”

At that, Caleb threw the half-empty can of pop at the trash. He spun to face Miah. “Really? I know what it did to Dad when he realized you were gone.”

Fire shot from Caleb’s eyes and Miah knew he’d gone too far.

“You ran off. Just like that. Supposed to be getting ready for basic, and bam! You’re gone. It was three days before we knew you were in LA. Dad went through hell in that time and I was right there with him. So, don’t tell me I don’t know anything about it. It hadn’t even been a year since we’d lost Mom.”

Miah swallowed. The fury in his brother’s voice, the pain he must have felt, stole a little of the anger from Miah. He opened his mouth, but didn’t have words. “Gray left first. She was gone the day after—”

“The day after you what, Miah? The day after she gave herself to you?”

He was trying to sort it, but it was a long time ago. “She left that next day.” And honestly, he’d felt relieved she was going to be gone for a while.

Caleb ran a hand over his right arm. Miah knew he did this because it sometimes felt numb.

“I asked her about it,” Caleb said. “She told me you knew she was leaving for a week. Counseling at that camp in Laver. You slept with her, but you couldn’t wait for her to get back before running away with Cransden?”

“I shouldn’t have. It was really stupid. I should have been there when she got home. But what happened between Gray and me spooked me. I was a kid.” It didn’t excuse his actions. Nothing did. He’d hurt his best friend so badly she had never wanted to see him again.

“She was a kid, too, Miah.”

Caleb was right. Still, this was between Gray and him and Caleb needed to keep a distance from it. Whether Miah’s actions were right or wrong, nothing excused twelve years of secrecy. “You don’t have to tell me I messed up, okay? I get it. I didn’t do everything right.”

“No, bro.” Caleb tossed the rest of his sandwich in the trash. “You didn’t do anything right.”

CHAPTER 9

A ray of sun split the room into two parts as Gray squinted against the glare. It was morning. She stretched, tried to muster, but the bed was warm, the air was chilly, and she was in Miah’s private space.

Reality settled over her like a frozen slushie and she slithered out and made her way to the master bath. Inside was a claw-foot tub that beckoned her, but she ignored it. She needed to check on David.

She found them all downstairs in the kitchen. Miah stood over the stove, David at the sink, and Caleb was sitting at the counter on a barstool. They all looked up when she came in. She grunted and David giggled. “She’s not a morning person.”

Caleb leaned forward. “You’re
always
perky and chipper when you arrive in the mornings. What happened?”

David laughed. “That’s
after
coffee. Before coffee, she’s a bear. And not like a little panda bear; like a grizzly, all showing her teeth and growling. It’s scary.” He looked good. Seemed well, even a bit of color to his cheeks and a smile still firmly planted on his face.

She gave him a mock glare. But this was good. He was feeling more comfortable in his surroundings. Oh. This was
bad.

“Do I mix the batter like this, Jeremiah?” Innocent golden eyes searched out his father’s face, and Gray’s heart sputtered in her chest. It was such a normal and average thing for a son to ask his father, yet Miah really had been denied little inquisitions like this one. For twelve years. Because of her.

Miah had on a sweatshirt and jeans. He looked fine. He leaned over from the stove and stared into the bowl of batter David stirred at the sink. “Great. Skillet’s ready; you want to drop them on?”

Gray took a seat beside Caleb and stretched to look in the bowl. Oh. Pancake batter. Miah poured a cup of coffee and shoved it across the counter to her.

David shrugged. “Sure. Gray burns the pancakes. Always leaves them in the pan too long. They get black on one side.”

She dropped her head to the butcher block. Nothing was sacred. She tilted slightly and peered at David. “You don’t have to tell everything, you know.”

David grinned at her and moved to the electric skillet beside the stove. She hadn’t seen him smiling for days. Maybe this was all going to be okay.

Miah moved closer to him as David hovered over the cooktop. “Stick your finger in the batter and let one drop land on the skillet.”

David shrugged and did as instructed. When his hand got a little too close, Miah took hold of it and raised it a few inches higher. The tiny ball of batter sizzled, danced, and cooked quickly. Miah used the corner of the spatula to lift it and drop it in the sink. “That’s how you know it’s ready.”

The batter bowl had a pour spout, so David tilted it above the skillet and watched as the pancake began to form. “Just one at a time?” David asked.

“You can fit another on there.”

“Will I have room to flip them?”

“Yep.”

He poured another as the first continued to sizzle.

Miah pointed. “When it fills with bubbles that means it’s ready. Pancakes should only be turned over once or they get tough.”

David’s gaze snagged on Gray. “Hey, maybe that’s what’s wrong with yours.”

Again, she gave him a warning look, but had to admit, it was great to see him teasing. Even if she was the butt of the joke.

As David kept a close watch on the sizzling pancakes, he launched into a story. “One time, Gray thought she’d put a cookie in the microwave for twenty seconds, but she hit twenty minutes and walked out of the kitchen.”

Miah’s eyes grew wide as he split his glances between David and Gray. “What happened?”

“She found it after a couple minutes. Said she smelled something burning.”

Miah laughed. “I bet she did.” His shirt stretched across his taut chest muscles and Gray willed herself to look away. She should be happy. David was talking, joking, almost seemed like a normal boy again. But seeing Miah and David navigating life and pancakes and their newly found relationship just made her feel further away.

David’s honey eyes were filled with sparks of gold and mischief. “Tell them what you told me, Gray.”

She sighed, resolved to her morning of torture. “The cookie was on fire.”

Miah’s brows rose. “What?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Who knew? Right there in the middle of the microwave, flames. The neighbors called the fire department. It was quite a spectacle.”

“I love that story,” David said. He used the spatula to point at the pancake. “Is it ready?”

“You tell me.”

He nodded and slid the spatula under the pancake. Miah stepped behind him and cupped his hand around David’s. “All in the wrist. We’re gonna slide it over, then flip it right into the same spot. Go.”

David did, and when the pancake dropped onto the skillet, it was a perfect circle with just a bit of splatter around the edge.

“Good job.” Miah went back to his scrambled eggs and left David cooking pancakes.

When breakfast was finished, and Gray’s stomach full, she leaned back in the wooden chair at the farm table, the big country kitchen and all its wonderful smells surrounding her. “Great pancakes, David.”

“Sorry I didn’t burn them the way you like.”

She placed her fork on her plate. “You know, there are things I
can
cook.”

David grew somber. “She’s right. I’m just giving her a hard time. Gray’s a great cook. She can do salad, fruit, cereal, granola bars.”

Caleb made a gagging sound. “That’s not food.”

Gray tucked her hair behind her ear. “I can cook.”

Miah’s gaze landed on her. His fork dangled between his hands where he’d propped his elbows on the table. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can prove it tonight. I’m grilling steaks. You can make the sides.”

David frowned. “Steaks? Outside? There’s like five inches of snow.”

Miah’s wide shoulder tipped up. “So?”

“Whatever.” David took a bite of his pancakes.

“You want to go play in the snow after breakfast?”

David nodded.

And Gray had to smile because he and Miah were finding some common ground. Only one problem; it was becoming more and more clear, there’d be little room for her.

She’d offered to clean up since the men had done the cooking. After the kitchen was back in order, she went upstairs, changed into warmer clothes and her heavy coat, and stepped outside. Miah had already cleared the back porch and the telltale signs of snow play marred the yard. “Where are they?” she asked Caleb as he came around the side of the house.

“Taking the snowmobile out.”

She didn’t know Miah had a snowmobile. And she wasn’t sure David should be out on one anyway. Then, she remembered. He was with his father. Still, she would have liked the opportunity to offer her opinion.

Caleb pulled a lawn chair from the edge of the house and sat it beside her, then got another one for himself. “They’ll be fine. You know Miah and I grew up on those things.”

Yes, when Missouri was gracious enough to offer snow. Some years there just wasn’t any and some years, there was more than the road crews could handle. “Do they clear your road?”

“Who? MoDOT? They do the road, but not the driveway. Miah’s got a small tractor with a shovel on the front. He’ll get to it eventually. Until then, you’re stuck with us.” And Caleb flashed one of those electrifying smiles. She needed to establish some boundaries with him.

“Since I’m here, we can get back to your therapy if you’d like.”

He scowled. “Nah. I’m enjoying the time off. Just be here, Gray. Stop feeling like you have to work or babysit everyone.”

He didn’t understand. “I don’t want you backsliding. We’ve made good progress. Are you keeping up with your exercises?”

“Yeah, yeah.” That wasn’t an answer, but it placed a bit of much-needed space between them.

She looked out over the yard and realized something was missing. “Where’s the snowman? I thought they were going to build a snowman.”

“Started it. Had a fairly good-size body until I wrecked it.”

She shot an angry look at him.

He scoffed. “Lighten up, Gray. David’s a kid. It ended in a massive snowball fight and I lost. Face-planted in the snow with David standing on me, so stop acting like he’s this frail little porcelain doll.”

It was hard to know the boundaries of protecting someone and smother-mothering them. She caught her hair in the wind. “Face-planted, huh?”

“Yeah. You’d think they’d be more careful with a cripple, but nope.”

“Two against one? That’s hardly fair.” But she had to bite her cheeks to keep from laughing.

“I asked for it.”

“Did you learn your lesson?”

He raised his hands. “Do I ever?”

Gray stood. “I think I hear them coming back.” She walked to the edge of the porch where she could see the long, winding trail through the trees and deep into the forest. Her eyes were adjusting to the shimmering glare of the sun on the snow when down at the far left edge of the property, the snowmobile came into view with a beaming David on the back and Miah hitting the freshly plowed snow with vigor.

David waved as they sailed right on past, headed toward the lake.

A hand pressed to her heart. How could anyone have such a rush of competing emotions? First, there was joy at the genuine smile on David’s face, especially since he’d walked the earth like a corpse since the funeral, where he’d stood at their graves in a suit that he would soon outgrow. Right along with the elation of seeing him happy now was the very real and tangible fear at seeing him on the snowmobile. When had she turned into such a fuddy-duddy? That’s what her grandmother called people who never took risks. Then again, Gray knew. She’d entered full fuddy-duddy status when she learned there was a child growing in her belly.

Miah had taken her out on snowmobiles plenty of times when they were in high school. It was good, clean fun. And David seemed to be loving it. This was a brave new world for him and she’d have to get used to it. Plain and simple. David was staying with a soldier now. A man who spent the biggest part of his life carrying an automatic weapon and dodging gunfire.

She’d be a good balancer. But she’d also have to let David experience the life she denied him. It was only fair.

David’s eyes were sparkling like melted gold; his cheeks were bright red apples. Miah had stopped the snowmobile to show him one of his favorite winter things. He hooked an arm around David’s shoulder and pointed across the lake. “Look at those icicles.” They were at least ten feet long and latched to a rock embankment that overhung the lake.

“Those are cool.”

“Yeah.” Miah slipped off the snowmobile, but David stayed on, resting his gloved hands on the handlebars. Miah gave him a smile. “My friends and I used to come down here and watch as they melted. Sometimes one would drop into the water. It was awesome.”

“You grew up at the lodge?”

Miah dusted the snow from David’s shoulders. “No. Had a friend who lived down there.” He pointed to a trail running along the lake. “I’d stay with him whenever we thought there’d be a snow day. Some of my other friends would meet up with us.”

David chewed the inside of his cheek. “I don’t really have a lot of friends at school.”

“No?”

David shook his head. “They’re all so immature.”

Miah threw his head back and laughed. “Is that so?”

David shrugged. “Yeah.”

“The key to having a friend is being there for him when he needs you most. Know who taught me that?”

David shook his head.

“Your mom.”

David frowned. “You knew Angela?”

“I meant Gray.”

“Oh. She’s my
birth
mom.”

Miah didn’t really see the need for the distinction, but okay. “Your birth mom taught me that.”

David chewed his cheek. “But she said she didn’t really have many friends growing up.”

“Let me tell you something about your birth mom, David. She was the best friend I ever had. She was with me during some of the hardest times of my life. She may not have had a lot of friends, but the ones she had, she was fiercely devoted to.”

He watched as David gnawed on that for a while. “Like she’s devoted to me?”