by Wendy Smith
“So, how did you know about Max’s exploits?” I slide my knife into the pie and thick gravy and cheese oozes out onto the plate. My mouth waters at the thought of it.
“I heard it from the desperate housewives of Copper Creek,” he says, taking a bite of his pie.
“The what?”
He laughs. “You know. The ones who turn up for morning tea and make eyes at the custard squares while choosing the feta and spinach rolls. Because flaky pastry is healthier when there are green vegetables involved.”
Laughing, I roll my eyes. “What did you hear?”
“That Max went missing and the police were involved. You could have called me.”
I nod. I should have. Owen cares about Max. “I’m sorry. I was running on adrenalin and called your brother.”
His eyebrows knit in confusion. “Which one?”
“Adam.”
Owen puts down his food and studies me intently. “Why would you call him?”
“It seemed the right thing to do. We’ve seen him a few times lately. He helped fix my car.”
Owen leans back in his chair. “I’m surprised.”
“He is a mechanic.”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
I let out a breath, sighing loudly. “Yeah, I do. He seems to want to make amends. He’s been nothing but good to me, and he found Max.”
“Where was he?”
I stand, taking my empty plate to the sink. “A few days ago when I was having trouble with the car, Adam helped me pick up Max from school. He stopped to take a look at Mum’s house. Max wanted a closer look.”
Owen slams his fist on the table. “So it’s his fault for showing Max.”
“No. It’s not.” I walk back to the table and sit. “Max’s curiosity got the better of him. He could have talked to me, but instead he decided to sneak out.”
“What if he does it again?”
“He won’t. We spoke about it. He got a fright and got confused in the dark. Adam brought him home.” I reach for Owen’s arm and rub it. “All I care about is that I got my baby back.”
“And Adam? Is he going to stick around this time?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. But I do know that it’s not taken long for him to bond with Max, and while it scares me a little, it’s so good for Max.”
“How about you?”
We might be like family, but telling Owen about the kiss crosses a boundary for me. “I wasn’t sure at first, but he’s not pushed me in any way. We’ll either spend time together or we won’t.”
“I hope like hell you know what you’re doing. The last thing I want to see is you or Max hurt again.”
I nod. “I know. It’s scares me, but Adam getting to know Max feels like the right thing to do.”
“Just be careful.” He smiles, but there’s caution behind it.
“Maybe it’s time Adam got to know his son.”
17
Adam
By Saturday I’m itching to see Lily. I said I’d give her space, and I know she’ll be busy today as the farmers’ market is on in town. Tomorrow will be quieter, and I’ll go and see if she and Max want to spend some time together.
Now I watch out the window over the garden below. James is down there, tending to a row of tomato plants that are just taking off. Dad says he has the greenest thumb in the house, which is saying something. Dad is the king of making plant cuttings thrive. James apparently has the magic touch, and I wonder if it’s because he seems to be stroking the leaves and talking to them.
It won’t be long until he leaves home, either to university or out on his own. The last of the Campbell boys. He was just a child when I left, a boy I didn’t really know. Maybe it’s time to remedy that. We keep missing one another, so now’s as good a time as any.
I push open the window. “Hey, James.”
James turns and looks up, grinning. “What’s up, big brother?”
“Want to take a trip to town? We’ll get some beers for after dinner.”
He nods. “Sounds great. I’ll just clean up.”
Pulling the window closed, I make my way back downstairs and toward the door to the backyard. Dad stands at the kitchen counter, looking out the window. Was he watching his youngest son too?
“James and I are just going up the road to get some things for tonight. Want anything?”
Dad turns, shaking his head. “Are you going to be back for dinner?”
“Sure am.”
For a moment, his brows knit together and my eyes see the sadness, or is it something more in his? “What is it, Dad?”
“We need to talk at some point.”
“Sure. What do you want to talk about?”
“About when you were away.”
I lick my lips. My curiosity itches. “Like what?”
“Ready.” James stands in the doorway, a big grin on his face.
“See you soon, Dad. And tonight, I promise.”
He nods, his lips curling into a small smile. “Sounds good, Son.”
I lead James out the back to my car, and he grins as I unlock it. “I bet this thing goes fast.”
“Pretty fast. Want to drive?”
“Serious?” His eyes light up.
I nod toward the driver’s door. “I’m assuming you have your license. Come on.”
“I do.”
“Is it good to be home?” James asks. The windows are all down, a light breeze blowing through the car. I lean on the open window, my elbow propping me up. It’s not a long drive, but a scenic one, with trees either side of the road interrupted only by the odd driveway.
“It’s already turned out better than I’d hoped,” I say, glancing at him. He’s sitting back and relaxed, and he seems happy in my company. Of all the brothers, he’s the one I have the fewest memories of. I never got in any trouble with James.
“Mum told me off for calling you. I figured you’d want to know. It wasn’t fun tracking you down.”
I laugh as we reach the end of the road.
“When do you leave?”
We turn the corner. The store is right down near the end, toward the road to the cove. Toward Lily.
“Who said anything about leaving, little brother?” I laugh, and James raises an eyebrow at the answer.
“Don’t you have an army to get back to or something?”
“Not anymore.”
James holds his curiosity in until the beer is loaded in the car and we turn around, this time with me at the wheel. I wear the silence, knowing there are a bunch of loaded questions just hanging in the air, waiting to spill out.
We turn down the long road leading home.
“You left the army?”
I nod. “It’s time for me to get my life back. Settle down or something.”
James laughs, leaning back in the seat. “You came back for Lily.”
“No. I mean, I thought about her. A lot. I didn’t know if she was available, or if she’d want to see me.”
“She has a hard time, you know. Max is so full of energy, and she has a lot of other things to deal with.”
At that, I shoot my brother a curious look. “How do you know?”
James grins. When he does that I can see the physical similarity between us. He’s so much like me.
“I’ve helped her out. Max just needs to burn it off sometimes. Whenever I go into the city to get things for Mum and Dad, I stop in and visit.”
My heart thuds. All this time I haven’t been here for Lily, but James has. I’m grateful, even if I don’t know the full story of what happened after I left, where Lily had gone, why she’d fled. Maybe it’ll come out. Maybe James will help fill me in.
“He’s a good kid. You’re right about him being a handful though. She does an incredible job with him.” I swing into the backyard, parking on the concrete pad in front of the garage.
“I always guessed he just needed a dad. Someone to teach him all the boy things.” He gives me this intense look, and I don’t know what’
s behind it.
I shrug. “Maybe. He seems to be doing okay. I think he’s a lot smarter than people give him credit for.”
James lights up. “Yes. There’s a lot going on in that head that he doesn’t let people know about. He and Lily have such a close relationship.”
My chest tightens. If I’d stayed, worked things out with her … If I’d stayed, she wouldn’t have Max and they’re so close it doesn’t seem fair. But there’s hope for the future. Hanging over me is the knowledge she’s lived perfectly fine without me all this time.
“Have you told Mum and Dad you’re not leaving?”
We get out of the car and I retrieve the box of beer from the back seat. “No, and I don’t want you saying anything. The last thing I need is Mum telling me again I should be overseas doing something.”
James grins. “You’re really going to get a place and move here?”
I nod. “You know, when we first came here, I couldn’t stand the thought of coming to this tiny little hick town. Things change, though. If I was going to settle anywhere, it’d be here.”
I walk toward the house, and James follows me. Mum’s in the kitchen, and she shakes her head as she watches me unload the beer into the fridge.
“Just a little something for after dinner, Mother.” When I finish, I walk over and kiss her on the cheek.
“It’s not you I’m worried about.” She nods towards James, and I laugh at the thought of corrupting him.
“A couple of beers won’t hurt. He’s old enough. Corey had me drinking beer at a younger age.” Corey was good at talking people into buying beer for him before he was old enough to buy it himself.
“Your brother wasn’t exactly a good influence on you. Look at the trouble he convinced you to get into.”
I don’t even have to ask. It’s not come up much since I first arrived here, but I just know she’s talking about Lily, always about Lily. Somehow my quiet, introverted girl is the reason for everything that went wrong in my life. Corey was the one who backed me the most when I asked Lily to marry me.
“Whatever, Mum.”
“Don’t you whatever me,” she snaps.
“I never did anything I didn’t want to do.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see James make a quick exit out the door.
“Anything she wanted you to do anyway.”
I close my eyes and shake my head. I can’t let her get to me. “All this time and you still can’t let that go. Lily never did a thing to hurt you.”
Mum turns to face the garden out the window. “The best thing you ever did was leave. You have a real job, travelling the world. You did so much better when you left. Obviously I would have preferred you stay, but you’ve achieved so much. I often wonder if we did the right thing bringing you here in the first place.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. I always suspected she felt that way, but she’d never said it out loud. Perhaps facing her own mortality has brought the words to the surface.
I have no ability to speak. I’m upset, angry, and I want to yell at her, but I can’t. She’s so stubborn, and nothing I say will change her mind about anything. It never has.
Instead I walk out to the deck, slamming the screen door behind me.
“You okay?” James asks from the other side of the door. He pushes it open and follows me.
“If there weren’t a million other reasons for me to stay here, I’d go right now,” I grumble, but it’s not James’s fault.
“I never told her I visit Lily.”
I smile and slap him on the back. “Thanks, bud. I appreciate it more than you know. She’s never been far from my thoughts.”
“Yeah, figured as much. I know the old lady won’t say it, but I’m glad you’re home.”
“Me too, James. Me too.” I look back toward the house. I can’t see her behind the curtain, but I know she’s there. Bearing a grudge after twelve long years. She never wanted Lily and I together—always thought she’d end up taking after her mother.
I still don’t believe that.
Over dinner, the silence is deafening. I don’t want to speak to Mum or I’ll say the wrong thing. James and Dad spend the time looking between us.
We eat quietly and quickly, and afterward James and I do the dishes before stacking our beer in an ice-filled bucket. Mum watches as we head onto the deck where we plant ourselves on the outdoor furniture.
“Now for the best part of the evening.” I hold up my bottle. “To being home and getting to know my brother.”
“Hear, hear,” James says, clinking his bottle with mine. “So what’s the big plan?”
“I’ve put in an offer on the garage. I put my apartment on the market before I left and it’s already sold. With the way prices have gone up, I made a tidy profit.” I smile. “There’s a sleep out in the back yard, so enough space for you if Mum drives you too crazy. If you’re not going to uni.”
He grins. “Thanks for the offer. Never know when I might have to take you up on that.”
I lean back in the chair. It’s a warm night, and I breathe in the country air. I didn’t give this place a fair go when I first arrived, but I love it more than I can say.
“When you called me and said Mum was sick, it gave me the best reason to come home. Finding out that place is for sale has been the final piece to the puzzle. Well, maybe penultimate.”
James cocks his head. “You’re talking about Lily, right?
“Maybe I’m an idiot thinking she’d want me after all this time. I wasn’t going to go and throw myself at her, but when I ran into Max … she still feels so right. And spending time with her and Max is incredible.”
“I’m surprised she let you anywhere near her.” James takes a swig from his beer.
“What makes you think that? Anyone would think it was me who ran out on her.”
James leans forward, flushing red. His eyes narrow. “Holy shit. How do you not know?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, big brother, you did run out on her. What I don’t know is why Mum and Dad clearly didn’t tell you what happened.” He shakes his head before swallowing the rest of the bottle in one gulp. “Shit, Adam. The whole freaking town knows what happened.”
Anger builds in me again, especially after Mum’s sanctimony. Whatever it is has to be big to get this kind of reaction from James. He seems far too level-headed to kick off over nothing. “You have about thirty seconds to tell me.”
He takes a deep breath and continues, “Shit. I feel awful. If I’d known, I would have found some other way to tell you. I thought you knew and still didn’t want to come back. That’s what we were all told. I even thought long and hard about calling you over Mum, she was so insistent that no one contact you.”
“James. You’re not making any sense. Tell me what the hell you know that I don’t.”
He takes another bottle out of the chiller and hands it to me. “Load up. When I’m finished, you’ll need it.”
“What do you know about what happened here after you left?” he asks.
I shrug. “Not a lot. Mum told me Lily had come back and set up house with Eric Murphy. I stopped asking about her after that. It was too tempting to come back and punch him out for stealing my girl. Even if she wasn’t mine by then.”
There’s so much pain in James’s eyes, and he shakes his head. “She did a real number on you.”
“Who? Lily?”
“No. Mum.”
I frown as I gaze at him. “Lily didn’t shack up with Eric? Why would Mum lie to me?”
James’s eyes grow big. “Have you met our mother? She lied to you. She lied to all of us. I knew she was controlling, but this is beyond shitty.”
I’d gone as far away as I could, stayed away as long as I could before I came home. I’d avoided my brothers, my friends, anyone who might tell me about Lily moving on. I hadn’t wanted to hear it, and I’d been too young and stupid at the time to stay and see why she’d left me at the altar. Mum had been all too happy to
encourage me to leave, even finding me a place to go.
“Damn it, Adam. I don’t want to be the one to tell you this.”
Anger grows in me the longer I wait. “James. I am going to beat the ever-loving shit out of you if you don’t spit it out.”
James drops his gaze, shifting it to the ground. “Lily didn’t stand you up that day. Her mother locked her up.”
I let out a sigh. “I went to her house. Nearly tore it apart looking for her. She wasn’t there.”
“Did you check her mother’s sewing room? The basement?”
My stomach drops to my knees.
“Lily’s mum flipped out the night before. Lily made amends with her, or so she thought. Her mother told her she’d forgive her for marrying you, but she wouldn’t attend the wedding. Her dinner was laced with her mother’s sedatives.”
“What?” I hear my own voice crack.
“She took Lily down the stairs to that little space she’d converted into her sewing room. You remember how she used to take in repairs? Well, she shut up shop and kept her daughter down there. I doubt when you were in the house Lily even knew you were there. She was probably still unconscious.” He sighs. “Jesus, Adam. It was in the papers when they found her. Although they gave Lily and her mother permanent name suppression to protect Lily.”
I swallow hard, unable to process what I’m hearing. “In the papers?”
“She was terrified Lily would leave her, and she went off the rails. She kept her there for months and told everyone that Lily had run away.”
I’m numb. “How long?” I whisper.
“Six months. She lived on what her mother fed her, making it stretch when she had to.”
Nausea sweeps me, and I place my beer down and my head in my hands to steady myself. My girl, my delicate flower trapped inside a basement. No daylight, very little food.
“She told everyone Lily ran away.”
My head’s spinning. “What about the report of a blonde girl hitchhiking? I thought that was Lily leaving town.”
He frowns. “Oh, that was Gina Parsons. I don’t know if you remember her.”
