He smiled. “I’d like that.” He felt like he’d been given a reprieve.
* * *
THE TWENTY-MINUTE DRIVE into Lima was quiet, except for the wind whistling through the open windows of the pickup and the hum of tires on the hot asphalt. Neither had spoken more than a word or two since leaving the farm.
Kai sneaked a peek at Luca as he stared out his window, his elbow resting on the window frame and his index finger tapping its rim. He was obviously lost in thought. Their lunchtime talk had left her wound up and confused. She resented his interest in her feelings about being on the farm. Had he thought she’d been complaining? Or worse, feeling sorry for herself?
When they reached Lima, Kai broke the silence. “Whirlwind tour first, or shopping?”
“How about the tour? Then perhaps a bit of shopping. I need to get some shirts for this warm weather.”
The distraction of some sightseeing would be good, she thought. “All right, since we’re just coming into town, now would be a good time to swing by the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center.”
“Huh?”
She smiled at his puzzled expression. “Used to be called the Lima Army Tank Plant but was renamed many years ago.”
“An army tank plant here?”
“The chief producer of the M1A1 Abrams tank, and we’ll drive past one any second now.” She turned left and the display tank at the entrance to the compound came into view. She braked, letting the pickup idle.
“Haven’t seen one of them for a while,” he murmured softly, staring out his window.
Kai waited a few seconds. “And if you look over there, you’ll see the Veterans Freedom Flag Monument.”
He followed her pointing hand. Across and down the road from the tank plant loomed five rectangular towers in red, white and blue.
“It’s quite spectacular, isn’t it? You can see that the towers form segments of the flag, and each brick is engraved with the name of a fallen veteran.” Kai stared at the striking monument, overcome as always by its sheer magnitude and beauty. “Shall we drive over and get out for a closer look?”
“No,” he said quickly. “Maybe some other time.”
Well, that was a strikeout. She noted his tight jawline and the way he avoided her gaze. “Okay, let’s head to the mall for some shopping then,” she said, feigning enthusiasm for a pastime she’d never enjoyed.
Fortunately, Luca’s clothing needs were modest and his attraction to shopping on par with hers. They rolled out of the mall parking lot scarcely half an hour later. They were on their way to the farm supply outlet so Kai could purchase another bag of chicken feed when she had a brain wave. Though later she realized it was more of a brain interruption, when the cerebral area for reasoning completely shut down.
“I was thinking... I’m going to need a week to do the planting. Obviously, I don’t know what your plans are and I really appreciate how much you’ve helped so far, and I’m almost embarrassed to ask this...”
That caught his attention.
“Would you be interested in staying on for that, and if so, would you like to stay at the farm? Instead of commuting every day from here?” She paused, his frown highlighting her babble. “I mean, stay in the bungalow, of course. So you’d still have some privacy.”
He considered the proposal long enough for her to wonder if she’d made a terrible mistake. “All right. I can do that. Sure.”
And at such enthusiasm, Kai braked sharply, checked her side mirror to make a tight U-turn and headed back to the center of town and Luca’s motel.
* * *
LUCA STOOD IN the doorway of the bungalow, his senses flooded with the stale odors of a place closed up for a long time. He set his duffel bag on the floor, blinking away the dust motes that swirled around his head. The wave of unease that had attacked him on the way back from Lima resurged. He had strong misgivings about Kai’s idea for him to stay at the farm, but she’d seemed so eager to have him agree that he hadn’t had the heart to say no. Besides, he was in no hurry to return to his mother’s house.
He’d noticed a few things about Kai Westfield the last couple of days as they worked together. In spite of her many years living in big cities, she didn’t shirk from hard labor. He’d had many glimpses of the “farm girl” at her core, whether she was hitching the rototiller to the tractor or mucking out the chicken coop. Though McDougall had told him she was a photojournalist, he’d yet to see a camera or photograph. He wondered why.
Luca had to admit that part of his decision to stay on was a desire to learn more about Kai Westfield. So he’d agreed to her suggestion. But now, standing in the home where her brother and his wife and child had started a life together, Luca had doubts.
“I apologize for the dust,” Kai said, coming up behind him with her arms full of sheets and towels. “No one’s been in here since...you know.”
That was it, he thought. What he could see from the small entryway was a medium-size living room with furniture covered in dust sheets and curtains drawn over the central picture window. A scene typical of most American households. Ordinary, yet not, for hopes and dreams had once dwelt here, and been shattered.
Luca cleared his throat. “Should be okay once it gets a good airing.”
Kai brushed past him and began to pull the dust sheets aside. “I’ll get a vacuum cleaner in here later. Bound to be cobwebs.”
“No,” he said. “I’ll do the airing. Thomas will be home soon and you’ll need to—”
“Give him a heads-up about your staying here.”
Luca nodded as the potential impact of this idea of hers struck home with Kai, too. She thought that over for a moment, biting down on her lower lip. A habit Luca had begun to notice when she seemed worried. She looked at her watch. “His bus will be here soon. Thanks for thinking of that, Luca.”
Her dark eyes connected with his. She dropped her armful of linens on the nearest chair. “Just rummage around. I know there’s a closet in the kitchen still stocked with cleaning products. My folks took away all of the clothing and personal stuff.”
She took a deep breath, and he waited for her to go on.
“The fridge will need to be plugged in, but otherwise, once you’ve opened all the windows, the place won’t take too much to be shipshape, as my mom would say.”
Luca watched her leave and was about to get to work when he realized he’d left his new purchases in the pickup. He was just pulling the bag out of the front seat when Kai and Thomas, accompanied by Amigo, reached the truck.
Thomas eyed Luca first, then the bag in his hand. He turned sharply to Kai, frowning.
“Luca has very kindly agreed to help out with the planting, Thomas, so he’ll be around the farm a bit longer. It made sense for him to stay here, instead of going back and forth every day into town. I thought he could use the bungalow.”
A storm of emotion swept across the boy’s face. He shrugged off his backpack and threw it onto the ground, running toward the kitchen door.
“Thomas! Wait!”
The screen door slammed shut. Kai looked at Luca. “Guess I didn’t handle that right,” she muttered.
He didn’t know what to say, unsure about handling anything at all with a kid like Thomas.
She pursed her lips. “Maybe...maybe you’d like to come for supper tonight? It’s just going to be pasta, one of the few meals I’ve mastered. Cooking isn’t really my thing. I know it seems like bad timing, considering what just happened, but I think he needs to know I’m serious. I need your help and it’s...well, frankly, more appropriate for you to stay in the bungalow.”
He thought about that. He doubted his presence at supper would help matters, although he got her reasoning. But she was approaching the situation as an adult, not an eight-year-old kid. “Why don’t I come by at supper and see how things are going?
We can take it from there.”
“Okay. Say about 5:30?”
“See you then.” He headed to the bungalow, the earlier sense of unease coming back all too fast.
An hour and a half later, with some dusting and fresh air, the tomb-like atmosphere in the bungalow had gone, though Luca knew it would take far more than cleaning to make the place a home again.
But now it was time to face whatever drama was unfolding at the farmhouse. He stepped onto the small stoop leading to the kitchen and saw Kai through the mesh of the screen door. He tapped on the frame, and she looked up from where she was chopping vegetables at the counter beside the sink. “Come in. No need for knocking on doors around here.”
She sounded cheery, but there was no sign of Thomas.
“How are things?”
She sighed. “Not good. He refuses to come out of his room. He wouldn’t even let Amigo in with him.”
Luca noticed Amigo lying under the kitchen table, head on forepaws and tail gently thumping. He looked at Kai again, seeing the frustration in her face and more, the sadness in her eyes.
Too late, he wondered again why he’d expected this plan of hers to run smoothly when everything about the place—the houses, the barn, the equipment and especially the people living here—was all so complicated.
CHAPTER SIX
LUCA REALIZED HE had no choice. It was bad enough that he was Amigo’s owner and would eventually be taking him away, but to move into Thomas’s parents’ home—perhaps the last place where Thomas felt safe and secure—must be tantamount to betrayal. The kid must feel he can’t trust any adult to make his world better. Luca ought to have listened to that sixth sense, or whatever sense was linked to intuition, because he knew darn well there’d been a reason for the strong misgivings he’d had when he first stood in the bungalow doorway. So he’d insisted on talking to the boy and now here he was, tapping on a closed door and waiting for a reply that he knew very well wouldn’t be coming.
When he opened the door, Thomas, sitting on his bed, turned abruptly to face the wall. Luca hesitated, unsure exactly what he was going to say. His life experiences had not included dealing with eight-year-old boys; at least, not since he was eight. And even then, he hadn’t been much good at it. So he decided to start with Amigo, for the dog was the reason he was here on the farm, about to reside in the home of this eight-year-old’s dead parents. If anything could bridge the divide before him, it was Amigo.
Luca took hold of a chair at the desk, swung it around and sat. He waited, collecting his thoughts, watching the boy who now had his nose pressed to the wall. Luca knew he was trying to put as much distance as possible between them. Maybe hoping Luca would get his very broad hint and leave. A distant memory stirred inside him. Not of a specific incident, but of the abject powerlessness kids could sometimes feel when up against an adult.
“Thomas, I want to say, first of all, that I’m very sorry I didn’t get your permission to stay in the bungalow. I know it’s still your home, even though you’re here in the farmhouse most of the time. We should have cleared it with you first.”
He didn’t expect a response, but noticed that the right side of the boy’s head had shifted ever so slightly, tilting his way. At least he was listening. “I thought I’d tell you the story of how Amigo and I found each other. Your aunt told you some of it, but maybe you’d like to know it from my point of view.” His memory rewound to that first day. He took a deep breath and began.
“It was daybreak when Amigo and I met, though I’d seen him lurking around our camp the day before. I was sitting outside my tent, eating my breakfast ration, waiting for the rest of my crew to rise and shine. We were camped out in Helmand Province—that’s a big area of Afghanistan. Our job was to survey the area before construction would begin on a road. There already was a road, of course, but not a very good one. More suited to carts and horses than large vehicles.” Like armored ones. But he wanted to stay away from as much of the war stuff as he could.
“A mist was rolling in, so it took a few minutes before I spotted Amigo. He was crouched behind a boulder, watching me, but I didn’t see him until he started creeping forward on his belly. You know that crawl hunting animals do? Well, he wasn’t hunting me—obviously—but he had eyed a chunk of my granola bar that I’d dropped. He was the sorriest looking dog I’d ever seen. He wasn’t just skinny, he looked as though he’d been in a lot of fights and hadn’t won very many of them. Part of one ear had been torn off, and his coat was matted, with sections of it completely bare.
“He bellied closer, keeping one eye on the granola bit and one eye on me. I could tell he was really scared, but he was also desperate to get that food. I knew if I stood, he’d run away, so I sat as still as I could and was very careful not to move my feet. He slunk closer and closer then suddenly lunged, snatched up the granola and was gone before I even realized what had happened. He was that fast.” The scene was almost as vivid now as it had been that day, six months ago.
“Same thing happened the next day and the one after. Early morning, sneaking up. Only now I was purposely dropping tidbits. Later, when we had to strike camp and move on, he followed us. We’d halted for a water break, and when I was scanning the road ahead with my binoculars, I saw a donkey tied at the side of the road. We decided to check it out.” Luca felt sweat break out and wiped his arm across his forehead. He noticed Thomas had backed slightly away from the wall, but still hadn’t turned around.
“We parked the Humvee about a hundred yards away. Up close, we could see that the short length of rope had double-wrapped around the donkey’s hoof and the animal was braying in distress. Just then there was some kind of commotion from where the rest of the squad was waiting. I heard a dog barking and shouts. I turned around to see Amigo. I think someone threw a rock at him and he yelped. I started to walk back that way.”
Luca had to stop then. Thomas didn’t need to know what had happened next. Besides, whatever Luca did reveal, he knew anyone with any imagination at all—including an eight-year-old—would have some kind of mental picture. He had to skip details, however much they were permanently engraved in his mind.
“There was a bomb near the donkey. Because I was walking away from it, I escaped with fairly minor injuries.” He didn’t mention Lopez, who was killed outright. Or the two others, who suffered various grievous wounds. Or the chaos. Or the fact that he himself didn’t know all that had happened until he’d been treated at Kandahar base hospital prior to being airlifted out of the country.
After a long moment, he went on. “Some of us were picked up by helicopter, and when my squad eventually made it back to base, they noticed Amigo still following them. They decided I might like to have a friend with me while I was recovering. So they got together and made a lot of arrangements to have him shipped here, to the States. Your aunt very kindly agreed to help out.”
He got up, stretching the kinks out of his knee and back. “Kai is making dinner and if you want to eat with us, you should come downstairs in a few minutes. If you want to stay here, she’ll bring you up a tray. I can always go back to Lima and a motel if you’d rather I didn’t stay in the bungalow. Or I can also just head back home, to New Jersey. It’s kind of up to you. I’m sure your aunt will be able to find someone else to help her out with the planting.” That was enough, Luca decided, sensing he was, in typical adult fashion, trying to manipulate the situation just a little. But even an eight-year-old needed to know what was at stake. He headed for the door, leaving Thomas, still silent, behind.
Kai had just served plates of spaghetti and meatballs for her and Luca when Thomas quietly entered the kitchen and sat in his usual chair. Kai glanced at Luca before forking a plateful of dinner out for her nephew. When they were all sitting and about to eat, Kai reached out a hand and placed it on Thomas’s. “Let us know what you’ve decided, honey, so we can make our plans. Is it okay if
Luca stays in the bungalow for a week or so?”
Luca kept his eyes on his dinner.
“Okay, great,” he heard Kai say. “Thanks. Now, let’s eat. We still have chores to do before bedtime, and Luca needs to finish settling in.”
Luca took a deep breath. A temporary pass, perhaps, but at least the boy knew why his men had sent Amigo to the States. And he hoped Thomas would understand why Luca needed to keep him.
* * *
IT WAS SATURDAY, and Luca’s first weekend at the farm. Thomas was up early, watching his favorite cartoons in the family room. Although Kai’s repertoire in the kitchen was limited, since she’d arrived the weekend routine sometimes involved pancakes and bacon. She was finishing up when Luca tapped at the kitchen door.
“Come in,” she said, without turning away from the griddle. Then she called out, “Thomas, breakfast is ready.” As she moved to the table to serve pancakes onto the two plates there, she saw that Luca was still standing inside the screen door. “Would you like to join us?”
“Thanks, but I already had some cereal.”
“We have plenty. I always make too much batter.”
“Well...”
His hesitation clinched it for Kai. She took another plate out of the cupboard and loaded two pancakes and a big forkful of bacon onto it before setting it on the table. He was just sitting down when Thomas came into the kitchen, looked at him briefly, picked up his own plate and his glass of milk and left the room.
Luca raised an eyebrow at Kai.
“It’s a weekend treat,” she explained. “Television. Nothing to do with you. Coffee?”
“Please,” he said, smiling, and by the time she was sitting opposite, Kai was beginning to feel ready to take on the day. They ate in silence for a few minutes until Luca asked, “What’s on the agenda for today?” and Kai knew she couldn’t put her dilemma off any longer.
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