Why did he have to say that in front of the kids? Curious guests gathered at the pocket door, currently wide open, that separated living quarters from work space. Wanda bustled in and unplugged the larger pot to carry it upstairs. Spence insisted he carry it. Too heavy for her, he said. As if Wanda didn’t do this very job every day. Bettina followed Spence out into the public area, and Wanda firmly locked the family space from prying eyes, several of which had been children the boys’ ages.
“Okay,” Chloe said. “Eat your cereal, and we’ll go to the beach.”
“Are you going to pack sandwiches and juice boxes?”
“Of course. But you still have to eat your cereal.”
“You buy the most boringest cereal. Dad had chocolate cereal in his cottage.”
Figures. The sober Spence had a serious sweet tooth.
The boys quickly shoveled down the boring cereal and went to put on their bathing suits. Wanda knocked and Chloe told her to come in.
She sat at the kitchen table while Chloe cleared the cereal bowls, still sloshing with milk.
****
Luke had escaped from Chloe and all her baggage with his heart intact. He didn’t give his love away easily, and now he knew for certain why he shouldn’t break the only rule he had when he came to letting a woman into his life.
He’d done the day’s work on autopilot, and his house was dark when he got there. Chloe had never seen it, a good thing. He turned on the hall light and looked around the empty spaces. This he knew. This he was used to. He went into his living room, turned on the ball game. This room had one chair, one table, and one television. It met his needs. Tigers were losing, batting zero to six in the last inning.
She’s just like Abby. He went to the kitchen, opened the fridge, pulled out a beer. Why did he have to fall in love with her? Sure, it had been great hanging with her and the boys. But that wasn’t love. He hadn’t really known her then. Now he did.
The Tigers struck out, Don-O hit a pop up way out in the field, ending the inning and the game. He clicked off the television and sat drinking his beer. This gloomy and quiet house seemed unnatural after spending so much time with two talkative little boys. He might have misjudged Chloe, but her kids were all right. Hell, he had enjoyed the times he’d spent with them. Josh, always so serious, except when joy rose in his eyes and his little body hopped with excitement. Tommy, a bundle of live wires, always sparking off happy vibes. He’d miss them.
He finished his beer and took the bottle into the kitchen. He kept the empty case right next to the fridge. Not very stylish but convenient. Chloe would have tried to fix things up around here. Women were famous for that. He rinsed the bottle out at the sink before stacking it into the case.
The newspaper folded onto the sports section on the table where he’d left it this morning. He didn’t want another beer. It would work with his mood to bring him down farther than he wanted to go. He sat to read the paper, but couldn’t concentrate. He kept thinking about what Chloe had said. The whole “unfulfilled” woman bullshit. Any woman who would take her kids so far away from everyone who loved them and everything they knew, was not the kind of woman for him. Better to learn that now. End of story.
He pulled the sports section out of the paper and went back into the living room. He’d find another game somewhere on cable. But he clicked through the channels without seeing anything of interest. He’d thought for sure Chloe had been falling under the spell of Blue Lake. He’d seen it happen time after time. People came for vacation and then found a way to stay.
His heart hammered in his chest. She had asked him to move to Seattle with them. Had she meant it? It didn’t matter. Any woman who would break up a home, deprive her children of a father for purely selfish reasons, not a woman for him. He resolutely put Chloe and her children out of his mind.
Chapter Sixteen
Two days went by, and Chloe didn’t hear a word from Luke. Not that she expected to. Her mother didn’t mention him, Eva didn’t mention him, the boys didn’t mention him more than a million times.
It was as if she’d made it all up. Or as if he was just another guy out for a good time, not thinking of what happens next but only what happens now.
The Seattle job waited. She really had no choice. She had to do the best thing she could for her kids. To stay here would just be to hope and hang around waiting for Luke to say he loved her. That would not happen.
She sat on the beach as the boys built castles in the sand. That’s what dreaming of a life with Luke was like—a castle made of sand. When she got to Seattle, everything would be clear again. She’d be working like a machine again, she’d be in control, she’d have money and a house and a nanny for her boys. Her life would line itself right back up again.
That night, the boys begged to stay up late at the fire. Her mom showed up with a fresh bag of marshmallows. Spence and Bettina were there. Eva sat down next to Chloe when Tommy got up to run to his grandmother.
“How are you?” Eva asked.
“Fine.” Chloe hoped Eva wouldn’t bring up Luke. She’d been thinking about what he’d said the past few days. Doubting herself. Was it wrong to take her kids away from their father? Their grandmother? “Where’s Daniel tonight?”
She tried to distract herself by asking about Eva’s husband. She’d have plenty of time for the boys. There would be nobody else, after all. Just work. And them. Every move she made was for them. So they’d have stability, insurance, a college fund.
“He’s working on a project.” Eva stopped speaking for a minute, touched Chloe’s hand. “You’ve been so quiet the last couple of days.”
Chloe nodded. “I’m okay. It’s just—”
“What?”
“Luke and I had a fight.”
Before she could say anything more, the boys crowded around her with their s’more sticks and freshly roasted marshmallows.
Eva got up so Tommy could have his seat back. “I won’t see you tomorrow. Daniel and I are going to Traverse City for a long weekend. So have a safe trip. Email when you get to Seattle.”
“I will,” Chloe said. Then she finished making her boys their final s’mores.
The next day, Josh didn’t want to collect treasure on the beach with Chloe and Tommy, so she let him stay in the bungalow for an hour with his handheld video game. Josh was a good kid, a responsible boy, and Wanda was on the property, taking care of the daily chores.
Tommy was such a happy child. Any little piece of smooth rock or glass thrilled him, and he reverently placed it into his yellow pail.
“Mommy?” Tommy had his head down, searching the sand.
He bent down to dig and then let the waves wash his latest find, a bottle cap. Just another treasure to Tommy.
“Why doesn’t Josh want to move to Seattle?”
Chloe’s skin turned to gooseflesh even though the sun beat down.
“Is it because it’s so far away? From Daddy? I’ll miss my daddy too, but he can come on weekends, right? And Grandma. We can still spend the night with her sometimes, right? Josh says we can’t. He says it’s too far. But it’s not too far, right, Mommy? Right?”
Chloe took Tommy’s hand and led him over to the shore, away from the water. They sat down together.
“It actually is a little too far, honey. Josh is right.”
Tommy’s hurt expression was like she’d slapped him.
“But Mommy, I’m going to have a new brother. Or it might be a sister, it’s a surprise. But I have to be the big brother now. And big brothers have to be there. You know that!”
Chloe sighed.
“Let’s go see how Josh is doing, and then we can all talk about this together.”
Tommy still seemed upset, but he followed Chloe when she got up and led the way toward the bungalow.
Back at the house, no sign on Josh. Chloe noticed that Dumpster, cage and all, was also missing. Oh-oh.
“Wanda, have you seen Josh?” Chloe found Wanda in the laundry room, folding sheets.
“He said he was taking that rabbit for a walk,” Wanda said. “I just figured you’d meet him on the beach.”
There had been an old red wagon out by the shed. Eva said it was from when she’d been a girl, and she allowed the boys to play with it. Now Chloe couldn’t find the wagon. It wasn’t Wanda’s fault. She was working, not babysitting. But now Chloe felt real fear, dark and chilling. Josh would not take the wagon and the rabbit, in his cage, down to the beach. There were too many steps. He must have gone down the highway.
She quickly checked Josh’s room. His backpack was gone and his toys and clothes were strewn around the room.
“Come on, Tommy, we need to find Josh.”
“Oh, dear,” Wanda said. “I’m sorry, honey.”
“It’s not your fault,” Chloe said. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
Chloe’s call to her mother’s cell went to voice mail. She and Tommy had been at the beach less than a half hour. Josh couldn’t have gone far. But what if someone had picked him up off the road?
Her heart beat wildly. Her stomach sickened. Tommy picked up on Chloe’s distress and started crying.
Chloe knew she’d go out of her mind in another minute if she didn’t take action.
“Wanda, if Josh comes back, would you please call me?”
She wrote her number down on a pad in the kitchen with shaky hands.
She might throw up, but she had to go right now. She had to find Josh.
“Come on, Tommy.” She grabbed keys from her bedroom.
She couldn’t move fast enough, and yet time crawled by. Once she had Tommy safely belted into the car, she pulled out onto the road, hyper-conscious of the speeding traffic. Blue Heaven was on the main road into town, the main road for the entire thumb of Michigan. Lower speed limits were posted in Blue Lake, but people often blew by them going twice the legal limit. Only a thin shoulder off the road. Josh could have been hit, could be bleeding by the roadside, hit by a crazy summer driver.
Her phone rang on the console and without taking her eyes off the road, clicked on speaker and said, “Yeah?”
“Josh is pulling a red wagon with Tommy’s rabbit in it down Strobell Avenue,” Luke said. “The rabbit’s in a cage.”
“You see him? You have your eyes on him right now?”
“Yes.”
Chloe let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding.
“Okay. Please don’t let him out of your sight. I’m downtown, near the beach steps. How do I get to Strobell?”
“Go down two streets to Taylor. Take a left. I’ll stay on the line until you find us.”
“Is that where your house is?”
“No, I’m doing lawns.”
“Okay. Turning left on Taylor.” Her knees were weak. Now was not the time to think of what might have happened. She sent a thousand thank-yous heavenward.
“Keep on Taylor. Strobell is down three or four blocks. Turn right. It’s a long street. He hasn’t even seen me yet, but I recognized his shirt and ball cap.”
“I’m on Strobell. Oh, I see him.” She clicked off the phone without saying good-bye. Josh, small and defenseless in his orange Tiger T-shirt. His little shoulder blades were hunched, and he trudged along like the weight of the world rested on his small back. Chloe drove slowly by him, but he didn’t notice. She pulled into the driveway, which was when she noticed Luke had put away his riding lawnmower and only pretended to sweep the cut grass off the sidewalk. He had both eyes on her boy. This broke her heart, but she pushed that particular misery aside. Luke didn’t know her at all.
She put the car in park, effectively blocking Joshua, who stopped his progress, red wagon and all. Anguish stood clear on his face.
He usually kept his expressions tucked away inside, and Chloe could see him fold up his disappointment and sadness. He looked at her, gauging her reaction.
She ran over and hugged him, lifting him off the ground. Gratitude for his safety flooded her; she whispered a brief prayer of thanks to the sky.
“Where were you going, honey?”
“To Grandma’s.” He squirmed in her arms, as he did these days after hugs longer than a few seconds in duration.
Chloe glanced around in a daze. Her mother
did
live somewhere around here. Next block? She wasn’t sure.
“I used the GPS on your iPhone,” he said. “Up at that next street, you turn right, and that’s Grandma’s street.”
She hadn’t known her iPhone had a GPS. Or that Josh knew how to download apps, which required her password, another thing she had not even imagined he knew.
“Well, I’ll take you the rest of the way there,” she said. She opened the back door for Josh to climb in, noticing that Luke rested an arm on the open window on Tommy’s side of the car, talking to him. While Josh got in the car, she put Dumpster, cage and all, in the front seat next to her. Luke hoisted the red wagon into the trunk. Josh’s backpack, stuffed with every item of clothing he’d brought with him on vacation, sat on the sidewalk where Chloe and Luke both reached for it. Chloe tried hard to hold in the tears.
“Just give it to Josh,” she said, and got into the driver’s seat, blinking her eyes. “And, Luke, thank you.”
“No problem,” Luke said, as she backed out of the driveway and headed for her mother’s house.
He waved as they passed, but only Tommy waved back.
“He told you where I was, didn’t he?”
Chloe’s upset body didn’t trust her voice to speak. Upset began turning into anger. She needed a calm place where she could talk to Josh like the adult he needed her to be right now. So she just nodded and kept driving.
“Mommy was so worried about you,” Tommy said. “But I wasn’t.”
Josh made some reply. Chloe’s ears roared, waves of anger and helplessness threatened to overtake her. She wondered if she should go back to the bungalow and handle this alone. But there would be more people there, all the folks who’d rented cottages, their kids, Wanda, feeling responsible, even though she wasn’t. Worst of all, Spence and Bettina. Oh, they’d love to get in the middle of this.
So she drove to her mother’s. There were several cars in the driveway. Oh great. Mah-jongg at Mom’s. Chloe called her mom from the car.
“We have a situation here.”
“Did you find him? Wanda called me. She’s beside herself.”
“Yes, we’re in your driveway.”