Huntington Family Series

by Rachel Ann Nunes

  Well, at least in a few days her proximity to Tyler would be behind her. She would be with her family and could concentrate on finding Lexi’s home. She would finally, after all these years, meet her birth father. Of course, with the way things were shaping up, that meeting wasn’t likely to go smoothly.

  With a sigh, Savvy stepped away from Tyler. “I’d better get going. I need to pack some things for tomorrow, and I think I know where a suitcase is for Lexi.”

  “Hey, look!” Lexi pointed down the road where an ice cream truck was stopping in front of a group of teens. “Didn’t you promise me ice cream?” She gave Tyler a pleading grin.

  “Sure, why not?” Tyler looked at Savvy. “What kind do you want?”

  She shook her head. “None, thanks. But you two go ahead.”

  Tyler’s brow wrinkled and he looked about to protest, but Lexi grabbed his hand and pulled him down the sidewalk. Savvy took the opportunity to slip away.

  Inside her apartment, the temperature was stifling. She turned on the cooler and went to the front closet where she remembered stashing an old suitcase she’d used on her mission. She didn’t need it for her visit home, so Lexi might as well get some use from it. Her already bulging backpack wouldn’t fit a hairbrush, much less the new clothes Savvy had bought for her. Much of the backpack’s contents were now strewn across their room–Lexi’s handiwork that morning as she had fought with Savvy over what to wear for her outing with Tyler. Savvy might as well pack it for her.

  In the bedroom, Savvy folded Lexi’s clothes neatly into the small suitcase. Some of the clothes were fit only for a fire, but Savvy couldn’t throw them away–not yet. Until she knew how things would work out with Lexi’s father, she would have to let her keep the clothing.

  When the clothes were organized, Savvy hefted the backpack, tempted to dump out the rest and pack it as well. But she didn’t want Lexi to think she was going through her things. The pack was heavy, extraordinarily so, and was still more than halfway full. Books, Savvy guessed, tracing the outline. But what kind? Romance novels? Mysteries? Classics? She didn’t know Lexi well enough to be sure.

  Glancing at her watch, Savvy saw that it was after one. Where are they? Sighing, she tossed the pack onto her bed with a little more force than necessary. With a loud riiiip, the backpack burst, spilling out a book: Little Women.

  Savvy smiled. No wonder she came to find me. That book would make anyone want a sister. There was no way she could sew up the hole before Lexi came inside, but she could at least put the book into the suitcase. As Savvy approached the bed, reaching for the book, something protruding from the rip in the backpack drew her attention. Sucking in a deep breath, she shook her head. It can’t be. Her hand went out, almost as though it possessed a mind of its own.

  The wad of green bills was real. Savvy pulled it from the pack, gaping. The half-inch stack was made up of twenty dollar bills, secured with a rubber band that looked as though it had come from a newspaper. Lexi had mentioned money, but Savvy had no idea she had this kind of money. Her jaw clenched until it ached.

  Warily, she eyed the backpack, knowing she had to look inside. She could wait for Lexi, but then she might learn nothing. Holding her breath, she unzipped the backpack and upended it, hoping it contained only books.

  There were more books–Anne of Green Gables, the entire Narnia set, The Secret Garden, Ella Enchanted–but among the books sat more short stacks of the offending green. Stacks of tens, fives, ones, and another one of twenties. Without actually counting, Savvy estimated that there were several thousand dollars–maybe more. What was Lexi doing with this kind of money?

  “Savvy! Savvy! Are you here? We’re back!”

  Savvy started at Lexi’s voice and braced herself for what was to come.

  Lexi practically flew into the room, her face bright and excited. “Savvy, you should have tried one of the–” She broke off as she spied the contents of her backpack on the bed and a wad of bills in Savvy’s hand. She went from excited to furious instantly. “What are you doing!” she screamed, diving for the money. “You just couldn’t wait to start snooping! I can’t believe you!”

  More words tumbled from her mouth, some of them not repeatable in good company, as she lunged at the books and money, shoving them back inside the pack. When she jerked it toward her, two books and a wad of money fell from the rip onto the floor. She stared at them for a second before glaring angrily at Savvy.

  “If you’re quite finished,” Savvy said.

  “You’re horrible!” Lexi shouted. “I hate you!”

  Savvy forced down her hurt at the stinging words and tried to stay calm. “Well, that’s okay. You’re entitled to feel any way you want. But for your information, I didn’t plan to go through your things. I was packing the clothes you’d left all over, and when I moved the backpack, it ripped and the money came out. Only then did I dump it all out.”

  Lexi had clasped the backpack against her chest. “You still had no right!” she cried, her face red from fury.

  “I had every right!” Savvy raised her voice only slightly. “You’re thirteen years old, walking around with thousands of dollars in a backpack. What did you do–rob a store?” Savvy’s heart jumped. Maybe Lexi’s father was a fugitive and that’s why he hadn’t reported his daughter missing.

  “No! It’s mine. I swear! All of it. I have more, a lot more, but I didn’t bring it all.”

  Savvy didn’t see how the money could be hers, but she didn’t want to show how little she trusted Lexi. “Do you know how dangerous that is? Not only could the money have been stolen, but you could have been hurt by someone who wanted it. Haven’t you ever heard of a bank?”

  “I didn’t know how much I would need.” Some of the flush had begun to fade from Lexi’s face. “How else could I use it? I don’t have a checkbook.”

  Of course not! Savvy had forgotten her age. Her legs felt suddenly weak, and she sat on the bed. “I didn’t get my first checkbook until I was seventeen,” she mused aloud, “and my mother had to co-sign.”

  Lexi bent to sweep up the books and the wad of bills. Her chin still jutted out defiantly, but she was calmer now. After a long silence, she also sat rigidly on the bed. The quiet of the room was heavy and oppressing.

  “So where’d you get the money?” Savvy asked when she couldn’t stand it any longer.

  Lexi didn’t look at her. “Mostly from the airline. They paid it to us after the . . . the plane crash. My dad put it into a savings account for me. I can only get out a certain amount each week.”

  The notion of her birth father opening an account for Lexi was difficult to merge with the other ideas Savvy had of him. Surely an abusive father would have kept the money for himself. Of course, the law might not have allowed that. But if the law was involved, the money would probably have been in a trust fund for Lexi, not a regular savings account.

  “And the rest?” Savvy prompted.

  “My school shopping money.”

  That surprised Savvy even more. If Lexi was given money to shop for a new school wardrobe, then someone was obviously caring for her.

  Savvy shook her head, abandoning the attempt to reconcile the contrasting views of her father. “I’m sorry if you feel I violated your privacy, but when I saw the money, I felt responsible to find out what was going on. To tell the truth, I’m glad it was only money, and not something more dangerous.”

  “Like drugs? Alcohol?” Lexi snorted. “I’m not stupid. Besides, Dad drinks enough for both of us.” Before Savvy could respond, Lexi added, “You still shouldn’t have looked. It’s mine.”

  Savvy scooted across the bed. “If you’ll trust me, I’ll put that money in the bank–or most of it. Then when things are settled, I’ll help you open a personal account.”

  “I already have an account,” Lexi said, twisting slightly so she could look Savvy in the eye. “But I didn’t know how to get the money out unless I went to the bank.”

  “We’ll figure something out.”
/>   “What if I need it?”

  “You shouldn’t need it–yet.”

  “But what if I do?”

  “Then ask and it’s yours.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.” Savvy offered a tentative smile. “Truce?”

  “You promise not to go through my things again?”

  Savvy considered for a moment. It was one thing to promise to give the money back if Lexi asked for it but quite another to promise never to snoop again. Finally, she shook her head. “I don’t know. If there seems to be a reason, I think I would have to, right? I mean, if one of my brothers started acting strange–getting bad grades, acting out, being depressed–I know my mother would search his room for clues. It means she cares, that’s all.”

  Lexi pursed her lips. “Or it means she’s controlling.”

  “Lexi, when people care, they sometimes have to insist on knowing what’s going on. If you think about it, you’ll see that I’m right.”

  “Well then, no snooping unless there’s a reason. A real reason.”

  “Like the money?”

  “I guess.”

  Savvy would have to be satisfied with that reluctant agreement. “So what about the money?” she said. “We can go to the bank now.”

  Lexi began taking out the stacks and handing them to Savvy. “I’m keeping this one,” she said, waving a stack of twenties.

  Savvy had no choice but to agree.

  “Oh, no!” Suddenly Lexi threw her stack of twenties onto the bed. “Tyler! I left him waiting outside. It’s been like forever. Hope he’s not too mad.”

  Savvy dropped the bills in her hand on the bed and started for the door. “He’ll be fine.”

  As they moved down the hall, Savvy envisioned Tyler’s face as she told him about the cash. Maybe she’d ask him to drive them to the bank. A part of her rejected the idea–why prolong her agony? But the other part, the part that still cared, craved to spend more time with him.

  When they opened the front door, there was no van out front. Tyler was gone.

  * * *

  “So how’s it going?” Lexi kept her voice to a whisper so that Savvy couldn’t hear her as she made dinner in the kitchen. The last thing Lexi wanted was to be discovered talking to herself in the bathroom. Or worse, talking to Amber on Tyler’s cell phone.

  “Fine. He didn’t call or anything on the weekend, and today I left the note like you asked,” Amber said. “But won’t he expect to see you sometime tonight or tomorrow morning?”

  “It depends how he’s feeling.” Lexi was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet seat. She pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest. “Sometimes when it’s bad, he sleeps all day.” She paused and then asked, “So did you see him?”

  “Yeah, he came home when I was putting out the note today. I heard the car and got out the back door. Then I hid in the bushes. He’s lost a lot of weight since last summer, hasn’t he?”

  Last summer. The memories flooded her of camping near the lake, of swimming in the cool, clean mountain water while the sun warmed their arms and heads. Things had been pretty good then. Lexi never would have guessed how horribly their lives would change. She barely recognized him now.

  “Lexi, are you there? I said, he’s lost a lot of weight.”

  “Yeah. I know. But other than that?”

  “He was whistling.”

  Whistling was a good sign. It meant he didn’t know what she had done–yet. Lexi swallowed hard. She would have to tell Savvy soon.

  “When are you coming back?” Amber whispered. “I can’t believe he’ll keep accepting notes.”

  “You don’t know how bad it is watching him get worse,” Lexi told her. “You don’t live with him.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry. It’s just that all this sneaking around . . . My parents found your phone, you know. I said you’d left it.”

  “I did. I left it with you. Look, Amber, I’m trying, but I don’t know when I’ll get back. There’s stuff I have to do here first. I have to make sure she likes me enough to keep me when she finds out.”

  “You are coming back, though, aren’t you?”

  Lexi almost wished she didn’t have to. As insecure as she felt at the moment, anything was better than the heartache she endured at home. “Yeah, but I don’t know if my”–she swallowed hard–“my sister will go along with everything. She doesn’t like my dad.”

  “Well, neither do you right now. Still, Minnesota can’t be all that bad. You might like living there.”

  “I’m not going to Minnesota. Not ever!” Lexi couldn’t even think of that. Minnesota would mean that her father was lost to her forever. “Please, Amber. Could you put another note on the table tomorrow? Use the kitchen door. The key I gave you works there, too. Look in the window first to make sure he’s not there. Please?”

  “Okay, okay. But if my parents ever find out, I’m going to be grounded until I go to college. Of course I might get grounded anyway since you aren’t around to help me with English. Sheesh, why do teachers have to make it so hard?”

  “I’ll help you when I get back.” Lexi was gripping Tyler’s phone so tightly that her fingers were numb.

  “I’ll see you then,” Amber said, her voice full of doubt and anxiety. Lexi wished she could have done this without her friend’s help, but she’d seen no other way.

  The connection broken, Lexi sat on the toilet lid and stared at the silver phone in her hand. It was vibrating. She didn’t recognize the number and didn’t dare answer it. Let Tyler’s voice mail pick it up. After the phone stopped vibrating, she poked around it for a long time, trying to find a way to delete the evidence that she had used the phone. The only thing she succeeded in doing was running down the battery.

  Well, I’ll just have to hope Tyler won’t notice my call until I’m ready for them to find out where I live. Besides, the number she’d called was a cell phone. She didn’t think that was easily traceable.

  Now all she had to do was find a way to slip the phone back to Tyler without his realizing she’d ever had it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Savvy and Lexi were waiting outside when Tyler and Kerrianne drove up to the apartment early Tuesday morning. Savvy smoothed her lightweight summer skirt and tried to think if there was anything she hadn’t taken care of. She’d seen Chris last night and promised to keep in touch. She’d also talked to her co-teacher at the college, and he’d agreed to teach their first two classes alone if she’d do him a similar favor around Thanksgiving. This meant Savvy could extend her vacation another week. Her own classes would be easily made up so early in the semester when class changes were still going on.

  Tyler jumped from the van to collect their luggage, greeting them with a warm smile that showed no anger at their neglect of him the previous day. Savvy’s stomach clenched at his easy manner. Did he feel nothing for their ruined friendship?

  Before she could dwell further on that, the sliding door to the van opened and three children burst from the interior. “Savvy! Savvy!” they called.

  The oldest, Misty, reached her first. Savvy caught the white-haired, blue-eyed girl in a tight hug. “Why, Misty, you’re so grown up!” The little girl looked more like a porcelain doll than ever, with her hair in ringlets and her pale skin smooth and unblemished.

  Caleb and Benjamin had reached her now, but they didn’t hurl themselves into her arms as they once had when she had lived in Utah. Savvy knelt down to their level. “Hey, guys, don’t you remember me?” Benjamin nodded; Caleb shook his head. Benjamin shyly leaned forward to give Savvy a hug. “Well, you’ll know me better soon enough,” she said. “We’ll have lots of fun on the drive to Utah.”

  “We’re going to watch cartoons!” Benjamin said.

  “How fun! Hey, there’s someone really special I want you to meet.” Savvy stood and turned, motioning for Lexi to approach. “This is my new sister. Her name is Lexi.”

  “Uncle Tyler told us.” Misty looked up at Lexi, taking in the cut-o
ff shorts and tight, stretch T-shirt without remark.

  Benjamin wasn’t so polite. “How come your belly is showing? You’re not supposed to show your belly. Only boys can do that when they’re swimming.”

  “Come on now, to the van,” Tyler interrupted. “Quick, let’s see who gets there first.” That was all he needed to say. The three children sprinted toward the van as though their lives depended on reaching it.

  “I won!” Benjamin shouted.

  “No, I did!” Misty protested.

  As Kerrianne began buckling Caleb into his seat, Savvy put her arm around Lexi, propelling her gently to the van. “They’re little kids,” she said softly. “They don’t think before they speak.”

  “I don’t care what they say.” But Lexi’s belligerent tone showed clearly that she did care.

  “Well, for what it’s worth, they’re right. Are you sure you don’t want to change before we go? I bet Kerrianne would rather not have to explain your belly button ring to her children today.”

  Lexi stopped walking and shrugged off Savvy’s arm. “I don’t want to change,” she said tightly. “And for your information, I’m not wearing my belly ring.”

  “Great,” Savvy said with a smile. “Let’s get in, then. Looks like we’re in the middle seat.”

  Lexi didn’t return the smile but climbed into the van without comment. She set her small black purse on the floor by her feet. Within minutes they were on their way to Utah, watching a Disney DVD on the van’s built-in screen.

  “What time will we get back?” Savvy asked Tyler.

  “Let’s see. It takes about ten hours, plus an hour for the time difference and another hour or so for stops. We’ll probably be there sometime around eight tonight, give or take.”

  “I should call my mom to let her know. Could I use your phone?”

  Tyler frowned. “I seem to have lost it. I remember having it yesterday when you talked to Kerrianne–I was going to ask you if you’d accidentally stuck it in your purse.”