by Pamela Tracy
“What is it?” Annie whispered.
“It’s not what is it, it’s who is it?” Joe replied.
That’s when the man came close enough for Annie to read the name stenciled on his shirt.
Kyle Hicks was home and did not look happy to see them.
Chapter Seventeen
“When did you get back?” Joe asked.
The expression on his face, the way he stood so nonchalantly, and the matter-of-fact tone of his voice all seemed to imply that it was just another day, just two men who happened to be acquaintances suddenly meeting up with each other after a few years.
But Annie knew better. This had been Joe’s best friend until their senior year. Their shared memories were a foundation that should not have been made of sand. It should have stood the test of time when the rains came, the streams rose, and the winds blew. It made no sense that it fell with a great crash. Not over something like coins gone missing and misplaced accusations. No, there was something else. Something Joe either didn’t know or wasn’t telling her.
It appeared that Kyle had no intention of answering Joe’s question, of acting like anything besides a tow truck driver.
Annie stepped forward, one hand held out, and Kyle somewhat reluctantly shook it. “I’m Annie Jamison. Joe’s told me so much about you, about your friendship. I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet you.”
He looked a lot older than Joe, rougher around the edges. His skin, like Joe’s, was tan from long hours spent outside. His hair, light brown and thin, was mostly under a baseball cap that read CHIEFS and was a lot longer than Joe’s. His handshake was as firm as Joe’s, his skin as calloused.
Kyle looked from Annie to Joe, his expression dour, his lips turned down in a frown. “I’m still the subject of most conversations, huh?” he asked.
“My mom is an armchair detective,” Annie explained. “She’s here to find the coins.” As an afterthought, she added, “Among other things.”
That pronouncement at least wiped some of the attitude off Kyle’s face. He looked at Joe. “She kidding?”
“No, my dad actually hired her mom. He was thinking about moving and wanted to make one last effort.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Kyle said to Annie, heading back to his truck. “Quite a few people think I took them. You probably need to be detecting me.”
“Nah,” said Annie. “That would be a waste of time. Joe said you didn’t take them. We think they’re somewhere in the house.”
Kyle shook his head and said to Joe, “You still live with your dad?”
“No, I have my own veterinarian practice and live in the apartment upstairs.”
“Where?”
It took Annie a moment to realize Kyle wasn’t just making small talk. He was filling in a form with pertinent information. In quick succession, Joe provided not only his phone number but also his insurance card, followed by a signature that he was good for paying whatever insurance didn’t and that if something went wrong during the retrieval, he wouldn’t hold the company responsible.
Once the paperwork was finished, Kyle headed toward Max’s car. Jacko looked up at Joe and Annie inquisitively and then followed Kyle as if to say Someone needs to make sure this guy doesn’t steal the car.
“Did your old man start drinking and driving?” Kyle asked when he got close enough for a good look.
“No, apparently a cow and her calf were in the road and he really went out of his way to avoid hitting them.” Joe made his way toward Kyle. Annie leaned against his truck and waited. In the silence of the Kansas outdoors, she could hear every word they said.
“Dad broke his ankle when he fell getting out of the vehicle.”
“Lucky that’s all he broke.” Kyle did a quick assessment before saying, “You realize this is probably totaled.”
“Just the bumper,” Joe said.
Kyle disappeared under the car and after a moment reappeared and stood, brushing off his pants. “Your dad was making some good time. The way the car shot across the ditch, hit the other side, and then crumbled, I’m thinking the crossmember is bent, which means he’s going to lose his axle. Insurance companies usually total before taking a chance that there’ll be a domino effect of costly repairs.”
Joe looked accusingly at the car, as if it were somehow to blame for all the bad luck his dad had suffered. Then he returned to his original question. “When did you get back?”
“I moved to Kansas City just over two months ago. I’ve been working the tow truck three weeks. It’s a job.”
“Did you recognize this address when they gave you the call?” Joe asked.
“Yes, but since I operate the boom truck, I’ve been called to this area twice already for the offroad retrievals. I didn’t realize it would be you.”
“Would you have taken the call if you’d known?”
“I’m not sure,” Kyle admitted. “But I’ve not been with the company long enough to pick and choose my assignments. I figured I’d run into you sooner or later, I was just hoping the later would take a bit longer.”
“I was at your parents’ house last Sunday night helping birth a bull calf. They didn’t mention that you’d returned to Kansas.”
“They don’t know.”
“Kyle!” Joe’s exclamation was so loud, so sharp, that Jacko barked and ran over to him.
“I don’t want to get their hopes up until I’m sure I’m going to stay. If they know I’m in Kansas City, they’ll start talking taking over the farm. I’m not ready for that.” Kyle headed for his tow truck and leaned inside, doing something with a calculator and writing down things on his clipboard. It only took him a minute before he returned to where Joe waited. “This isn’t going to be cheap. You know that?”
“I know it,” Joe agreed. “If it’s going to be totaled, maybe I should just hook up a chain and pull it out.”
“Not with your truck. You’ll wind up with two damaged vehicles.”
It took almost an hour for Kyle to situate the winch securely and lift the Cadillac from the ditch. Once the car was on solid ground, Kyle handed Joe some paperwork to sign and said, “Do you want me to take it to Ed’s?”
“If you take it to Ed’s,” Joe said, “then the fact that you’ve returned won’t be a secret any longer.”
“You’re the customer. You make the call.”
Joe didn’t hesitate. “What’s the best auto repair place in Kansas City?”
Relief washed over Kyle’s features. Unfortunately, the men moved back toward the truck just then, and Annie could no longer hear what they said. She saw Kyle’s lips moving and Joe nodding. Then, Joe put his hand on Kyle’s shoulder and said something. After a moment, it looked like the two men were praying. Annie almost lost her breath at the sight of them, one so lost and the other so solid.
Could they be praying?
Annie thought back to her last attempt at prayer. All she could come up with were the words help and please. No doubt, if the two old friends were praying, those words would be used.
They shook hands and Kyle headed to his truck, hoisted himself into the driver’s seat, and, with a quick wave, started the engine and drove off.
Joe watched with Jacko at his feet. Neither moved until the tow truck disappeared from sight, and then slowly Joe walked over to where Annie still waited.
“You want to know what I just realized?” he said.
“What?”
“All the players are back.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What players?”
“Aunt Margaret’s back, Missy’s back, and Kyle’s back. From that night when the coins went missing. Everyone who left has come home.”
“Margaret left after that? You didn’t tell me.” Annie felt indignant, like a key piece of information had been kept hidden.
But Joe wasn’t listening. He was staring at the empty dirt road. All that remained of the tow truck was a billowing swirl of dust heading away from them.
“Now, if we can just keep everyone home
.”
The look he sent Annie made her want to be part of the everyone.
Forever.
* * * * *
The drive back to Bonner Springs went by quickly. Annie tried to talk about Kyle, even asked if they’d prayed together, but Joe didn’t seem inclined to share. The only comment he would make was, “I can’t believe he hasn’t let his parents know where he is.”
So they drove mostly in silence until they reached the city limits. Joe offered to feed her, but it was dark and they were both tired. “I’ll just make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” she said. “Your aunt makes the best jelly.”
“She does,” Joe agreed. “She’s a master at anything to do with growing things.”
“You said she went off to teach…”
“In Nebraska, teaching horticulture at the university. She was what they call a visiting professor. She doesn’t have a master’s, just a two-year degree. But they needed someone who knows tomatoes, and that would definitely be my aunt. She’s had a hundred or more articles published in garden magazines. She’s spoken at more conferences and club meetings than I can count. People drive here from all over the United States just to get advice from her.”
People often asked Annie for advice about cleaning. For the first time she wondered just how passionate she was about her cleaning business. Was she passionate enough to write articles or lecture? For so long, being the one who kept things neat defined her. But was she passionate enough to want to clean, or run a cleaning business, for the rest of her life?
Annie shifted in the seat. Here in Kansas, sitting next to a handsome veterinarian, it was so easy to think that life could be entwined with faith, hope, and love. Oh yeah, her time with Max was having an influence. But Bonner Springs wasn’t her home. It wasn’t where her job was and it wasn’t close to her sisters.
So why, then, was she so content?
* * * * *
“You could have called,” Margaret said, opening her front door and stepping out on the porch. Her house was silent, the usual noise from the television absent. “I was starting to think we’d need to send a posse out looking for you two like we did for your parents.”
“We wound up needing the tow truck.” Joe didn’t mention who the tow truck driver was.
“I could have told you that,” Margaret grumped.
Joe had made it to the porch by that time. When he reached down to rumple his aunt’s hair, Annie was again struck by how tall he was. While Margaret shared a lot of Joe’s and Max’s features, she wasn’t nearly as tall. She shook him off but smiled while she did it. “I need to go tell Willa you’re back. She was starting to worry.”
“And if she wasn’t worried,” Joe said, “Aunt Margaret would convince her she needed to be.”
“Every family has a worrier,” Annie said. “In my family, it’s Beth.”
“I thought you’d said it was you.” Joe sat on the cement steps leading down from Margaret’s porch. Jacko circled three times and settled down next to him.
“No, you said it yourself. I’m the one who fixes things. I don’t have time to worry. I’m too busy.” As if to prove her words, the music from her cell phone sounded. She checked her caller ID, saw it was Beth, and said, “I need to take this.”
Something flickered in his eyes that vaguely resembled disappointment.
“Her fiancé called off the wedding,” Annie explained. “She’s hurting and needs me.”
He nodded and left her on Margaret’s porch. As he walked away, Jacko trotted dutifully next to him, looking back at Annie as if to say, Are you crazy? Why are you letting us leave? We don’t want to leave.
She opened her mouth, wanting to ignore the phone in her hand and tell him to come back.
But they’d been together almost six hours.
She wanted six more hours.
Her phone stopped singing. Annie glanced at it, thinking that she needed to let Beth wait until morning. Beth was a big girl. She started to stand, intending to run after Joe. She could come up with something to say, some unimportant comment, something to keep him there for a while longer. Unfortunately, at that moment, Margaret opened the door and said, “Boots is in your mother’s room. They’re both almost asleep. She says she’s glad you’re home.”
Home.
There was that word again.
Home.
Where was home? She was beginning to think it wasn’t Casa Grande, where she lived with her best friend and work was her life. Was it Tucson? Nobody was there. Not her mother, not her sisters.
Never before had Annie felt so alone.
There was a Scripture that her mother used to quote to the girls when they were younger. Now Annie wondered if Mom had been reassuring herself or trying to teach them.
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
As she’d done a mere thirty minutes ago, she watched a vehicle, Joe’s vehicle, disappear from sight, and suddenly, for the first time, that Scripture made perfect sense. Leaving Annie to wonder at all the decisions in life, the twists and turns, that had brought her here to Bonner Springs, Kansas.
* * * * *
Her phone rang again. Without thinking, she hit the ANSWER button.
Before she could even say hello, Beth started in. “Mom’s going to be fine.”
“I’ve been telling you that.”
“Yes, but the professor of her criminal justice class seems to think the same thing.”
“So you believe him and not me?”
“I believed you, but I was starting to think you were being swayed by the preacher’s son.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, come on. Even Cathy has figured out that this Joe character is popping into our conversations a bit more than necessary. And our proof? Why are you flying home Sunday afternoon instead of tonight? You’re the one who’s so concerned about the Fountain Hills craft show and how Cathy will do by herself selling your jewelry.”
“Cathy’s not concerned.”
“You’re right. Cathy thinks the world is perfect. I’m worried.”
Exactly what Annie didn’t want. Beth deciding to worry about Annie as well as Mom. Time to change the subject.
“Has Charles called?”
Sometimes silence was the only answer necessary. After a moment, Beth said, “I’ve had my cell phone on the whole evening. I’ve checked it a hundred times. Mom’s teacher even asked me if I needed to be somewhere else.”
“You didn’t flush his ring, did you?”
“No. If we make up, I’ll need it.”
Need, not want? How interesting.
“I’ll be home Sunday night,” Annie said. “I already have my plane ticket.”
“Changing the subject to my love life isn’t enough to convince me that nothing is going on between you and this Joe character.”
“Joe is just a nice guy who happened to have some free time and is showing me around Bonner Springs and Sunflower a bit. There’s nothing else going on.”
Margaret snorted.
Before Annie could turn around, the porch door creaked shut. Margaret was back in her living room. Soon the television blared so loud, even Beth remarked, “Where are you? A restaurant or something?”
“No, I’m at Margaret’s.”
“What time is it there?”
“It’s a little after nine.”
“It’s not quite that late here. I just left Mom’s teacher. He had a class to teach, but we’ll probably get together again. He thinks it’s amazing what his students are doing, but there’s a catch. He doesn’t think they’ll be doing it for much longer.”
“Why?”
“Wendy apparently has dropped out of the class because of illness.”
No surprise that. “What about the guy, the one doing the computer?”
“I get the idea this professor isn’t worried about him, per se, but I’ve asked a couple of the other students in the class. They all know what’s going on and think Co
mputer Boy has flaked out. Apparently, he got a job doing something with web pages and no longer has time for anything else.”
“Does that mean he’s no longer helping with the Armchair Detectives?”
“Not sure. I’ll call Alice later tonight when she gets out of class. She, by the way, will probably soon cease to be an armchair detective.”
“Why?”
“She’s been offered a job as a tour guide for some company that does Arizona day trips.”
Annie almost laughed. Her mother had gone three states away, chasing a dream of doing something interesting, and instead, because of a whim that four people actually brought to brief fruition, she’d found something that was beginning to look a lot like love.
Maybe she wasn’t the only one.
Chapter Eighteen
Mornings had always been Annie’s favorite time of day. Growing up, she’d gotten out of bed—usually about five—before the rest of her family and had done what she needed to do without anyone offering suggestions or getting in the way. She’d liked the solitude and the feeling that she’d set the mood for the day.
Since arriving in Bonner Springs, she couldn’t seem to control anyone’s mood, and mornings weren’t so calm.
First, Margaret’s morning shows began at five. Annie’s favorite time of day, at least back in Casa Grande. Here in Bonner Springs, getting up at five was a given, thanks to a house that fairly reverberated from the television’s noise. Annie’s next choice—at least if she wanted a little solitude and quiet—was getting up at four. No way. Especially since Bonner Springs was the land of late nights and no sleep
Second, mornings meant phone calls. And lately, all the phone calls had to do with problems Annie needed to solve and was too far away to do much about. Very frustrating.
Third, if she kept eating breakfast at Max’s house, she was going to be ten pounds heavier when she returned to Casa Grande. It was enough to make a girl think about jogging. Instead, after eating another wonderful breakfast prepared by her mother, Annie put Boots’s box on the kitchen counter, helped herself to a third cup of coffee, and made her way up the stairs to Joe’s bedroom.
