LITMIR.BIZ

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could she feel good about sending him away. Again, there had to be a balance point somewhere between the compassionate human being she should be to this man and the vigilant protector she felt she had to be when it came to Kyle.

      She bowed her head. “Jesse hires me to do his cleaning and laundry. I just cleaned his apartment and washed the sheets again a couple days ago. I can repeat the cleaning and do the laundry before Jesse gets home.”

      “I can pay you, better than Jesse did.” The man didn’t pull his gaze from the horizon. “Hell, Jesse could pay you better than he did.”

      “You’ve already paid me enough.” She tucked her fingers under her thighs. “Tell me about your mother.”

      “A piece of work.”

      “She must miss Jesse if she sent you looking for him.”

      He gave a short bark of laughter at that. “My business partner accuses me of coming out here to look for Jesse so I could get away from my mother. He might be right.”

      “You ran away from your mother?”

      “I know how this sounds, but she used to be a nice, tidy drunk who never bothered anyone.”

      Abby turned and leaned her back against the decorative post so she could see him better. The look of regret on his face said he wasn’t kidding about his mother, either.

      “Jesse didn’t talk about your mother much, not specifically, or any of you. He seemed content to think of all of you as some distant, vaguely related people, and he didn’t seem to need to have any of you in his life.”

      “I don’t think any of us can blame him for that, but last year our mother sobered up, and eventually she realized she’d been drunk almost her whole marriage, for sure most of the time her sons were growing up.”

      “That must have been hard on you and your brother.” As dear and funny as her mother was, Abby knew what it was like to be ignored by a parent.

      “When we were younger it was hard. Once we were old enough, it seemed like an advantage. We mainly got our way, any car we wanted, parties at the house, apartments of our own at too young an age.”

      “What about your father?” Since she had hardly known her own before he ran away, Abby found herself wondering about other people’s fathers and how they related to them.

      “He’s probably exactly as Jesse described him. He was either gone or negotiating with someone and couldn’t be bothered with his family.”

      “Ouch.”

      “Kids can survive a lot.”

      “Jesse said he was cut off from the family because he didn’t conform.” She wanted to say to their idea of what a human being should be. She might be prying, but if Kyle’s happiness depended on her knowing what kind of people Jesse’s family were, then she had to dig.

      “I suppose, in a way he was. Jesse was cut off from a paycheck he wasn’t willing to work for. He has a trust fund he never touches and prefers to do his own thing, be his own man. My rebellious brother, the cliché.”

      “That is so Jesse. He tries hard to be different from his family, or his idea of what his family is like or what any family might be like. Sometimes he could be a real pain and sometimes he’s just cute.” Abby smiled at the thought. “As long as he was free to move about, without any real entanglement, he seemed happy.”

      “Our mother wants to see him. I suspect she wants absolution or something. She wants the family she never really noticed before. Maybe she finally deserves her family, her children and who knows, maybe grandchildren some day.”

      Abby didn’t know what to say to that. His brother was funny and often irresponsible and now he was missing. A dread grew inside her. If Jesse was Kyle’s father, what would his family do? They had money. Money often spoke louder than signed papers. Would they try to take the boy, take him to Chicago and make him live, afraid, among strangers?

      Abby wanted to shriek at her runaway imagination.

      But she needed to consider all the possibilities, not let herself be blindsided, not again. She wouldn’t let Kyle down and she wouldn’t let Lena down now that her sister was trying so hard to reform in the army, to grow up. And Abby knew she couldn’t do anything to keep Reed from looking for his brother, but she couldn’t sit here any longer catastrophizing, either.

      “I hope Jesse comes back soon, for your mother’s sake.”

      “She’d appreciate it.”

      “Well, I have things to do,” Abby told him, pushing up from the step. Things that didn’t involve getting to know this man or his history or encouraging him to hang around St. Adelbert.

      Or taking a chance on spilling things she didn’t know if she believed herself, like Jesse and Lena possibly having a child together.

      REED STUDIED THE WOMAN standing over him. Her riot of dark brown curls swept along her jawline and somehow seemed perfect for the angles of her face. She was attractive in a natural, unmade-up fashion. Her figure was tantalizing. But her eyes struck him the most. They flashed light brown, almost yellow like the color he imagined a mountain lioness’s eyes to be.

      He stood and faced her. He had no business noticing her eyes. “Thanks for your time.”

      “I hope your mother gets to say whatever she needs to say to Jesse.”

      “I shouldn’t have bothered you with my mother. I have no idea why I did. Tired, I guess. I was in Denver yesterday.”

      “You drove through the night from Denver? You are tired.”

      “I suppose I look pretty bad.” He brushed his hair back. There was a little extra to push around, as he was a couple weeks past his usual cut. “I slept somewhere in Wyoming, but not long.”

      “Well, I wouldn’t say you look bad, but you do look tired. I wish I had answers for you, but I truly have no idea where Jesse might hike in Utah or where he might have gone after he left.”

      He could see the unsaid “if” in her eyes. He believed her. She was skittish and protective of the boy, but there was an open honesty in the way she presented herself, something missing from most women in his life, for that matter, most of the people in his world. Something that must have made him feel compelled to spill out his history to her. Yeah, he was tired.

      “I have a few things to do, too, people to talk to. I found a couple uncashed checks and paycheck stubs in Jesse’s apartment. I guess I’ll start with those people.”

      “You might want to get some sleep first.”

      The door to the house popped open, and they both turned to see the boy come charging out like a small bull.

      “Aunt Abby. Aunt Abby!” he called in the high-pitched tenor of a small child.

      “You rascal. Is the movie done already?” she asked as the boy stopped just before crashing into her. She leaned over and scooped him into her arms and stood. He grinned ear to ear and when he did, a big dimple showed in one cheek.

      Reed hadn’t missed the look of alarm on the woman’s face when the boy opened the door. He hadn’t missed the look of love, either, as she clasped him in her arms.

      “Gramma’s on the phone and she said to go out and tell you to stop ’gnoring her.”

      She shot a look at Reed and rolled her eyes. “I have to go. I have a mother, too.”

      “Ask her if I can come to her house, please, please, please,” the boy said with one small hand pressed to her cheek as Abby carried him up to the door. She turned and gave Reed an uncertain wave before disappearing into the house.

      He couldn’t help but wonder if she were for real.

      She seemed so, well, nice, and she could carry a forty-five-pound child as if

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