Elly in Love (The Elly Series) (14 page)

There she was! His sister!

He knew it was her immediately. His frantic heart slowed a beat and the backpack was suddenly very heavy. He couldn’t look away from her. Elly was pretty—very pretty actually, in a nice, mom sort of way. Her blond curly hair bounced around a heart shaped and lightly freckled face. She had a large mouth and a lovely grin that stretched ear to ear. Her compact body was very curvy but not fat, and she was much shorter that Dennis. She was projecting an insane energy as she bustled around the shop, her happiness apparent from even twenty feet away. He had to wait an hour before the store was empty, when a smokin’ hot blond girl stormed out yelling something about an “old-lady store” and stomped down the street. Dennis said a quiet prayer—to whom, he wasn’t sure, steeled his nerves, and walked inside
. I’ll pretend to buy some flowers
, he thought.
And then she will know.

She’ll have to know. She’s probably been waiting to meet me her whole life.

He took a deep breath and stepped into Posies, the bells clanking loudly behind him and his bright-orange backpack secured snugly against his shoulders. Elly was sitting at a desk with her head down on her keyboard. She looked up at him with a Post-it stuck to her head, her bright-blue eyes an exact mirror of his own.
Please know me,
he thought.

She looked at him blankly. “Oh, sorry about that. I just had an argument with an unruly worker. Can I help you?”

She didn’t know him.

Elly had the strange sensation of floating above the studio showroom, watching the conversation unfold. She felt out-of-body, confused, like she was swimming through thick water.
Is this really happening
? She thought.
Could this possibly be real?
She stared at Dennis, unable to look away, unable to tear her eyes from his scruffy face.
Could everything he said actually be true
?
That he was her, what, her half brother? That the man that had fathered her had been a drinker, a deadbeat? That Aaron had actually helped her?

Dennis licked his lips and ran his hands through his greasy hair. “So, that’s it. That’s my story. Can I have something to drink?”

“
No
,” snapped a shocked Keith.

Right as Elly said, “Of course.”

Dennis shot Keith a nasty look. “I wasn’t asking
you
, dude, why don’t you go home already?”

“Keep it up. You’re asking to get punched again,” Keith replied calmly.

Elly gave Keith a stern look as she grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler. “Here you go.”

Dennis rolled his eyes and took a long sip of water. He cleared his throat and tapped his fingers against his lips. Elly leaned back in shock
. I do that all the time
.

Keith leaned toward Dennis. “So let me get this straight. You left your town of….”

“Sewell.”

“Sewell, to come and find Elly because you believe she’s your sister.”

“She is my sister,” he snapped back at Keith. They began bickering. All the sound was sucked out of the room as Elly stared at him, mesmerized by him, sulking in the chair. His full belly peeked out of a happy-face T-shirt that was much too tight. His jeans were dirty, ripped, and very worn, and the wide feet that poked out of his flip-flops were brown and disgusting. Dirty blond hair hung limp over his eyes, one of which was now swelled shut, with a red mark the shape of Keith’s fist. The other eye, a glowing bright blue—just like hers, thought Elly—hovered angrily on Keith
. I have a brother,
she thought, amazed and delighted and terrified all at once
. I have some family. Could this be real?

Keith was still playing the part of interrogator and at the deep boom of his voice, Elly snapped back to reality. “So, if you arrived here four days ago, when you came into the shop, what have you been doing since then? And why were you acting so shady?”

Dennis took a deep breath and stared at the ground. “Do I have to tell you?”

“
Yes
,” said Keith.

“After I came in that day and saw Elly and she didn’t recognize me, I left. I just thought maybe she had seen a picture or something, I don’t know. But she didn’t. I was hungry, and I wasn’t thinking very clear. I stashed up on some food and spent the last of my cash on one night at that motel over on Hampton.” Elly cringed; that place has a reputation for bed bugs. “Since then, I’ve just been kind of walking around town. I wasn’t trying to be shady or scare her.”

Elly bit her lip. “Where have you been sleeping?”

Dennis’s face blushed bright red and he looked at the wall, totally avoiding her and Keith’s eyes. “Uh, yeah … so, I kind of found my way over to Washington University and have been hanging around with the students there. A nice guy let me sleep on the futon in the dorm lounge, but that was only for one night. I came back the next night to try and find Elly, but you were gone. I left my backpack behind.” He grimaced. “I don’t like dogs. And there was a big one behind the door trying to get at me, so I panicked.”

“And the other nights?”

Dennis wrung his hands. “You know Concordia Park, by the seminary there?”

“You slept in a park?”

Dennis shrugged. “It’s nice weather. Not too cold. I hid under a bench. No one saw me.”

Elly looked over at Keith, exasperated. “Keith.”

He held his hand up. “I know, I know. Dennis, would you mind if I talked to Elly alone for a few minutes? Why don’t you go wash up in the sink in the back?”

Dennis nodded and flung himself out of the chair, groaning loudly. “I think you broke my arm.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I definitely did
not
.”

Dennis tripped over an overturned bucket as he headed to the back. Elly eyed Keith’s bruised hand. “You should ice that.”

Keith shrugged. “Are you okay? How is your face?”

Elly raised her hands to her cut cheeks. They stung a little. She looked with dismay at her glassware shelf, now sitting crooked on the ground, surrounded by a hundred shattered and broken vases. “I suck,” she stated. “I totally panicked.”

Keith shook his head. “No. You were alone. It was very suspicious. I don’t think you overreacted at all.” He traced his finger down her cheek. “And your face?”

Elly shook her head. “I’m not worried about that.” She rubbed her hands through her hair, totally bewildered. “What are we going to do? He cannot sleep under a bench again. You heard him, he’s all alone….”

“And playing to your sympathies.” Keith rubbed his sore hand. “I don’t think he’s on drugs or dangerous, but he also doesn’t seem exactly emotionally stable. I mean, you heard him, after what he’s been through … do you believe everything he says?” Keith hushed his voice to a whisper. “I’m just going to put this out there—he seems very naïve. Is it possible that he might have made this whole thing up as some sort of escape from his terrible reality?”

Elly turned to Keith as tears threatened to brim over her eyes. “I don’t know.”
I can’t even think about it yet.
She could barely think with the adrenaline that was pulsing madly through her veins, the hammering of her heart, and the pounding of her head. Elly couldn’t calm down to think clearly, not yet. “What should we do now?” she asked.

“Well, I still think he has a lot of explaining to do. And I’m still of a mind to call the police.” He stood and wrapped his arms around Elly. “I can’t explain what it felt like when I heard you call my name and then just heard glass breaking. I’ve never known fear like that. Or strength, for that matter. I threw him over the desk—did you see it?” He whispered in her ear. “That must have been pretty impressive. There is still some strength in this old bull.”

Elly nodded. “You were very impressive,” she agreed. “My knight in shining armor.”

Keith puffed up his chest. “I played high school football. I know a thing or two.”

“You do.”

Keith raised his hand and felt Elly’s forehead. “Are you sure you don’t want to go lie down upstairs and let me talk to him here? You did faint, you know.”

Elly shook her head. “It happens all the time. I recover quickly. Thanks for catching me.”

“It was nothing.”

“It wasn’t.”

“No really, I was already holding you.”

Elly felt a flash of panic
. Did he think I was heavy
? She thought.
Did he wonder, “Why am I dating a small orca
?”

Keith smiled down at her. “I pray you never get mugged. I hope this doesn’t hurt your feelings, but you did more damage to yourself than he did.”

“Thanks.” Elly said to Keith, noticing Dennis standing at the doorway, wiping blood and snot off his nose with a wet paper towel. He was exhausted, Elly noticed. Exhausted and hungry.
The poor kid.
As she watched him lean against the wall, looking so entirely defeated, Elly was aware that her life was about to change. Her desk clock slowly clicked away the minutes, and with each second, Elly was aware that nothing would ever be the same, now that she had seen his face. Elly noticed that Dennis’s hands were shaking as he wiped his face, and she suddenly had the urge to clasp them into her own in a wave of compassion.

Keith stared down at him suspiciously. “Come sit down.”

Dennis mumbled something to himself, something that ended with “douchebag” and plopped into the chair, his arms folded defensively in front of him.

Keith looked over at Elly and motioned to the phone. Elly shook her head no. Keith turned back to Dennis. “Here’s what we are going to do. We’ve all had a very stressful night and need some time to calm down and take it all in. I’m going to take you over to my deli—I work a few doors down—and get you a solid meal. Then we’ll drive over to the Holiday Inn Express and get you a room booked for the week.”

Dennis looked up at him. “I told you man, I have no money.”

Keith gave him a hard pat. “I figured that. It’s my treat.”

Elly looked up at Keith. “You don’t have to do that. Keith, this is my problem.” Elly realized how bad that sounded and looked sheepishly at Dennis. “I didn’t mean that. You’re not a problem.”

Dennis flipped the hair out of his eyes like he didn’t care, but Elly could feel waves of sadness wafting off him. She turned back to Keith. “I will pay for the hotel.”

Keith shrugged. “Whatever you think. You’ve had a hard day—the interview, this … just, it’s really okay.”

The interview.
Elly had totally forgotten about it. Suddenly, it didn’t really matter. “Does that sound okay to you … Dennis?” The word felt odd and heavy on her tongue.
Dennis. Huh.

He gave a nonchalant shrug. “Sure. Whatever. Can I eat now?”

Elly tried to smile, but instead found herself close to tears at the despair she felt for him. She clutched the end of the table as a second round of dizziness rushed toward her. “Why don’t I come by the hotel tomorrow and we can talk?”

“Whatever. Can I get my backpack?”

Elly picked it off the ground and handed it to him. “Here.”

Keith walked a hunched-over Dennis to the door. “I’ll be back,” he said to Elly. She nodded silently. “Let’s get you a sandwich,” he said to Dennis.

Dennis peered up at him, his long blond hair hiding his eyes. “Don’t try to be my friend. You punched me in the face. You’re lucky I was taken by surprise, or else I would have schooled your ass.”

Keith bit his lip and nodded. “I’m sure you would have.”

Dennis suddenly turned back to Elly and walked quickly toward her. Her pulse quickened—he still made her nervous. “Here.” He pressed a crumpled piece of paper into her hand. “Now you can hold onto it. I’m done with it.” He hobbled out the door, his long shoelaces dragging behind him.

The door slammed shut, bells rang out loudly. It occurred to Elly that she had heard those bells clank only an hour ago, when Dennis entered the store, and now her life had completely changed. Elly gently placed the note on the consultation table and walked over to the cooler. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She needed to call Kim, she needed to drink a very large glass of wine, and she needed to think, really think about what had just happened, but right now, she needed to design. The need rose up inside of her, the process that brought her such inner peace.

Elly started with dark-purple sweet peas, their fluttery, tiny wings the first to get thrown into the empty mason jar, followed by bright-green spider mums, plum drumstick alliums (which smelled a bit like onions, Elly noted with a wrinkle of her nose), and lush white garden roses, their creamy petals blown shamelessly open to show yellow seeds. She filled the vase until a gorgeous, rich arrangement poured over its side. She placed it in the center of the table, and sat down on the chair, which gave a loud creak.
Great,
she thought,
now I have a homeless half brother
and
I need new chairs.
The thought was so ridiculous it made her laugh and then want to weep uncontrollably. Tears welled in her eyes as Elly unfolded the note. It was on pale-lavender paper and crumpled badly, making the words hard to read. Even then, her mother’s flowing handwriting was unmistakable, a relic from her past.
You, Barry Tragar, have a daughter. Her name is Elly Iris Jordan and she is the light of my life.
Elly touched the paper softly, missing her mother desperately.
Why wasn’t she here, now when I have so, so many questions? Did she know I had a half brother? Did she know that my father treated Dennis terribly?

Why didn’t she tell me if she did?

What would she tell me to do?

Elly read the paper again, thrilled to be drinking in this leftover trinket of her mother’s love. Unheard words from her mother about Elly; this was an absolute gift, a whisper of love from the past.
I cannot tear myself away from her, not even for a minute, or fathom how this tiny angel came into my care. Elly is the love of my life, and words can never express how happy she has made me.
Elly felt a large tear roll down her cheek as she struggled to remember what her mother had said about her father. “
The best worst night of my life
” was the only line she could remember her ever saying about him, and there was something about her not knowing he was married.
Married to Dennis’s mother then? Or someone else?
Elly gave a loud sniff and watched as dusk settled in outside the store windows. It was late April, and the spring was creeping up on all sides. Practically glowing yellow, a goldfinch fluttered happily in the bushes outside her store, feasting upon invisible bugs. Elly rested her hand against her cheek, tears pooling and spilling with joy and panic in equal measure.
Oh God, what do I
do
with this?
What now? I have a brother, and he obviously needs help. A brother. I am a sister.
Elly reveled at the sound of this.
I am a sister.
She had always been an only child, beloved and a quite honestly, a bit spoiled. Now she could be a sister, a big sister! She could take Dennis to Ted Drewes ice cream, to the St. Louis Zoo, and they could spend hours talking on the phone. Maybe she could plan his wedding. She smiled through her tears.
Okay, she was getting ahead of herself.
First, she needed to close the store. She needed to call Kim. After one last glance at the note sent her back into a flurry of tears—
I will find a way to provide for our daughter and give her the beautiful life she deserves—
Elly finally folded it into her pocket and went about closing the store, locking the doors, sweeping up the remaining pink petals on the floor. Was it today that she had rolled in them with Keith? That seemed a lifetime ago. She emptied the reeking garbage and switched her little retro sign over to CLOSED. Later, she would remember doing none of it, so great was the shock to her system. Emotionally spent, she climbed the stairs to the apartment. She glanced at her cell phone, wondering if she should touch base with Keith, but figured it would probably be best just to wait to hear how the check-in at the hotel went. So she called Kim instead. An hour and many tears (
his mother dead in a car accident, his alcoholic Dad abusive and neglectful, what kind of life has he had?
) and a few laughs (
Aaron and Lucia are miserable … bwaaahh!)
, she hung up the phone with Kim. A voicemail was waiting, and she eagerly punched in her code, expecting to hear from Keith. Instead, the shrill, barking voice of Gemma Reynolds pierced the air.