The Comeback Girl

by Debra Salonen

  THE STEWING CHICKEN in the Crock-Pot filled the bordello’s kitchen with a spicy aroma that made Kris’s mouth water as she entered the room.

  “Smells good, doesn’t it?” she asked Ida Jane.

  The small, bookcase-style CD player Andi had installed played a pretty song—nothing Kris recognized, but she immediately liked the singer’s voice. She listened as she opened the refrigerator to get out the eggs and milk. She quickly finished mixing the dumplings, then added large gooey globs to the bubbling stew. As soon as her hands were clean, she poured two cups of tea and sat down beside her aunt.

  She wondered how to explain to her aunt what had happened today. Would Ida understand the magnitude of Tyler’s plan. Or the depth of Donnie’s betrayal?

  “Ida, I should tell you about the meeting.”

  Her aunt sipped her tea then said, “Donnie did.”

  Kris sat up a little straighter. “Did what?”

  “Told me.”

  “He did?” Donnie had come to the bordello and hadn’t stopped to see her? True, she’d had back-to-back appointments, but still… “What did he say?”

  “I forget. But it was nice.”

  Tears gathered in Kris’s eyes. Before she could say anything else, the kitchen door opened and two young people walked in. Zach and Beth Murdock. Kris hastily wiped her face with the floury apron she’d pulled on. “Hi, guys, dinner won’t be ready for an hour, but Beth, you’re welcome to stay. I made plenty.”

  The look that passed between Bethany and Zach made Kris’s heart skip a beat. “What’s wrong?”

  Zach seemed to find the courage he needed from Beth’s nod. After a slight pause, he said, “Mom, I need to talk to you. About Lucas.”

  A skitter of apprehension raced down her spine. “Where is he? Is he okay?”

  Zach frowned. “He’s been avoiding me ever since he socked me in the gut yesterday. He was swinging his guitar like a crazy person and when I tried to stop him, he punched me.”

  Kris groaned. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell—”

  “Zach’s not a tattletale, Mrs. Grimaldo,” Beth said. “He didn’t plan to tell me about this, but we were talking and he thinks Lucas is into some kind of drugs.”

  Kris’s stomach plunged, and her extremities turned to ice. “No. Please, no. He’s only ten.” She looked at Ida who had nodded off, then herded the kids to the table a few feet away and sat down across from them. “Talk to me Zach. Why do you think this? What kind of drugs? Marijuana?”

  Zach shook his head. “That, too, but from the way he’s been acting lately, I’d say more like speed or crank.”

  “Crank is cheapest,” Beth said frankly. “And the most dangerous.”

  Kris had been meaning to take a parents-of-teens drug awareness course, but she hadn’t had time. Now she took a deep breath to assess her options. Donnie needed to be told, but they had to have more to go on than Zach’s assumptions. “I guess the first thing I need to do is talk to Lucas. Do you know where he is?”

  Zach shook his head. “He wasn’t on the bus, but one of his friends said he was in detention. You could call the school and find out.”

  Kris was mentally calculating the time in South Africa. Sandy would need to be told, too.

  “I will. Although I don’t remember signing a detention slip.” She looked at her son. “Honey, do me a favor and call your father. See if he can come and get you for a few days. Jonathan said your grandmother is on a cruise, so maybe you two could stay at her house.”

  “Why?” he exclaimed. “I didn’t do anything.”

  She walked to him and put her arms around him. “I know. You’re not being punished, but there’s bound to be some fallout, and I just don’t want Lucas taking his anger out on you.” She squeezed him tightly. “Besides, didn’t you tell me Gloria just got a new spa? A couple of days in a fancy house with a Jacuzzi sounds like a vacation.”

  A reluctant smile teased the corners of his lips. “Oh, all right,” he said, motioning Beth to follow. “Can I use the phone in Andi’s office to call him?”

  Kris nodded. “She and Jonathan are at a doctor’s appointment and won’t be back until later.”

  Once the kids were gone, Kris started to set the table. She talked to Ida—who was still snoozing—as she walked back and forth to the counter. “I’ve been worried about Lucas’s moodiness lately, but I told myself no one could blame him for being a little upset. His life has been turned upside down.”

  Almost as if on cue, the back door opened and Lucas walked in. His coat was black—naturally—and seemed to shroud him. The boy was just a face under a black ball cap—worn backward. The tips of his ears, visible between lanky strands of hair, were bright red from the cold. Kris wanted to scoop him up and hug him tight, but she’d learned that boys of this age did not appreciate such spontaneous displays of affection.

  “Lucas. Thank goodness. Zach said you weren’t on the bus. I was afraid something might have happened to you.”

  “I was on the bus. I sat in the back.” His eyes shifted to the right when he spoke. “What’s for dinner?” he asked, turning away from her.

  “Chicken and dumplings, but I’d like to talk first.”

  He must have sensed her tension because he gave her a long, probing look. “Why?”

  Kristin took a deep breath. “Lucas, are you using drugs?”

  His face turned the same pasty color as her dumplings, and she saw a look of fear, which was immediately followed by anger. He threw his backpack to the floor. The crash was so loud even Ida Jane startled in her chair.

  Kristin put a comforting hand on her aunt’s shoulder. For some reason, Ida’s presence bolstered Kristin’s resolve. “Lucas—”

  He cut her off. “Who told you? Zach, right? So I smoke a little pot once in a while. Big deal.” He glanced from side to side like a trapped animal. “Why is everybody picking on me? You’re not my mother.”

  Kris kept her tone level. “No, honey, but I do care about you.”

  “No, you don’t. No one does. I’m leaving.”

  Kris raced to beat him to the door. “No.”

  He looked angry enough to go right through her, but a voice from the hallway made him freeze. A man’s voice. Jonathan popped his head in. “Hey, what smells so good? I’ll trade you a squiggly photo of our baby girl for whatever it is.”

  Kris looked at him pleadingly, and his grin faded. “What’s the problem?”

  “Lucas and I need your help,” she said. “We need you to find Donnie right away.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “LUCAS. KRISTIN. What’s going on?”

  “Thank God, you’re here, Donnie,” Kristin said, her voice breaking.

  Donnie felt a powerful surge of emotion. He’d spent the afternoon trying to catch up with Kristin, but they’d somehow missed each other at every turn. Donnie suspected she was avoiding him. He wasn’t surprised. He expected her to be mad; he hadn’t expected his brother-in-law to meet him at the door and drag him into the bordello’s kitchen where his wife and son stood braced in some kind of face-off.

  He stepped closer, looking for a way to defuse the tension that radiated off his son like heat. “Well, I’m here, now. Let’s all take a step back and a deep breath and talk about what’s going on.”

  Kristin’s gaze hadn’t left Lucas, who looked as though he were prepared to run through her to get outside. Donnie placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Lucas, can you tell me why you’re upset?”

  He shrugged off Donnie’s hand. “She thinks I’m a drug addict.”

  Drugs. He knew at that instant he’d missed something. There had been signs. He hadn’t been paying attention. He’d been too busy.

  “Lucas, I just want to help.” Kristin spoke calmly.

  “Then leave me alone. All of you leave me alone.”

  The cry echoed in the kitchen. Donnie glanced around. Ida Jane was in her wheelchair by the table, watching them. Jonathan and Andi had slipped in quietly an
d were standing nearby. Back up.

  “I can’t do that, son. None of us can. We all care about you, and we’re not going to let something bad happen to someone we love.”

  “That’s right,” Jonathan said, moving into Lucas’s line of sight. “You’re going to be a new cousin in a couple of months. Andi and I are counting on you to help out with baby-sitting and changing diapers and stuff.”

  Donnie watched his son’s face. It changed from mad and hurt to confused and incredulous.

  Andi marched across the room to stand at Kris’s side. She put an arm around her sister’s shoulders and said, “I hate to break it to you, Lucas, but this is what we call family. You’re in it up to your eyeballs. Your business is our business. And we take care of our own. Right, Donnie?”

  He caught the oblique reference to that morning’s issue of the bypass and the old bordello. He figured this was her way of showing her support. He gave her a nod of thanks, then lightly touched his son’s shoulder. “We have a lot to talk about. I think Lucas and I need some time alone.”

  Andi guided her sister away from the door. “The back porch is free,” she said. “Or the office.”

  Kristin shook her head firmly and whispered something in her sister’s ear. “The back porch it is.”

  Donnie nudged Lucas in that general direction. Some of the fight seemed to have left the boy, but Donnie sensed he was still ready to bolt. As much as he wanted to hug his wife, there wasn’t time. Lucas needed him.

  Once the door closed behind them, Donnie directed his son to the top step where they both sat.

  “Can you tell me about it?”

  “I’m not a drug addict.”

  “I know that. But if you’ve tried drugs, which you know are dangerous and illegal, then we have a problem.”

  “It was just some pot.”

  Donnie’s stomach clenched. But you’re only ten years old, he wanted to cry. That was the father in him. As a deputy, he knew that age wasn’t much of a factor any more. “I’m sorry to hear that. It means I screwed up.”

  Lucas turned his head to look at him. “What?”

  “I owe you an apology, Lucas,” he said, putting his elbows on his knees. “I’ve been so wrapped up in my own problems—first, my career, then the campaign—I failed to pay attention to what was going on with you.”

  Lucas’s frown turned to a sneer. “Yeah, right. Are you going to arrest me?”

  Donnie shook his head. “I’m not a cop anymore, remember? But even if I was, I’d try to handle this through the family, not the courts. You made a mistake, but you’re not the only one. So did I.”

  “Me, too,” a voice said from behind them.

  Kristin slipped past him and trotted down the steps so she was facing them both. “I don’t want to intrude, but I need to tell you something, Lucas. You’re a great kid. Talented. Smart. Funny. Kind. You could have made my life hell these past few weeks, but you didn’t.” Her smile was tremulous, her bottom lip quivered.

  “You kept all the things that were bothering you bottled up. I should have known you were hurting.”

  Lucas didn’t say anything, but Donnie could see he was close to tears. “We all made mistakes. We’re human. But we’re going to get through this. Together. Right?”

  She nodded. Just then, a car pulled into the parking lot. Kristin spun about. “Tyler,” she said. “I asked Zach to call him.”

  She turned to face them. “Zach told me what you were doing, Lucas. Not because he wanted to—he’s not a tattletale—but because he was worried about you. I wasn’t sure if you could forgive him, so I asked his dad to come pick him up.”

  Donnie saw Tyler step out of the car and start toward the main door of the bordello. Two figures emerged from the shadows of the porch. Donnie thought he recognized Bethany’s curly hair in the glow of the carriage lights that bracketed the entrance.

  Kristin touched Lucas’s cheek. “I’ll go tell him good-bye.”

  Donnie put his arm around Lucas and pulled him close. “We have a lot to talk about, son. Tomorrow I’ll call that counselor you used to see. We’ll go as a family, all four of us.”

  Lucas sat stiffly for a minute then all the bluster left him. He started to cry. Donnie held him and comforted him. His own eyes were wet with tears, but he wasn’t sad. This was a good thing. A start.

  And he had Kristin—and Zach—to thank for it.

  In the distance, he could see his wife standing in a small cluster a few feet away from Tyler’s car. “Do you want to go home?” he asked his son. “Or go inside?”

  When Lucas hesitated, Donnie added, “They’re our family now, Lucas. What happens to one person affects everyone. And they really do care about you.”

  Lucas wiped his face with the sleeve of his jacket. “I was kind of a jerk yesterday. To Zach.”

  “Maybe we should ask him to stay. We could all talk. And eat.”

  At his son’s nod, Donnie rose. He waited for Lucas to join him, and then they walked across the mostly empty parking lot. The night had grown cold. He could see Kristin, who wasn’t wearing a coat, shiver. He hurried toward her.

  “Hi, everyone. How come you’re all standing around outside? I thought I smelled my wife’s chicken and dumplings.” He took off his jacket and draped it around Kris’s shoulders. “Please tell me my nose didn’t lie.”

  She gave him a quick smile before her gaze dropped to Lucas. “I made plenty for everyone, but if you’d rather go home…”

  Lucas coughed then said, “I wanna stay and eat. How ’bout you, Zach?”

  Donnie saw her eyes fill with tears, and he pulled her to him. Zach looked from Lucas to Donnie to Tyler. “Umm…yeah, I guess.”

  Tyler nodded. “No problem. I’ll catch you later, son.”

  Donnie took a breath. “Would you care to join us, Ty?”

  Tyler looked at him a moment, then smiled. “Only if you promise not to talk business. Your little publicity stunt this morning probably cost me a bundle.”

  Donnie kept his answer equally light in tone. “My publicity stunt? You called the meeting. I just suggested we save the old bordello and move it to the historical center. It was Andi who suggested making it a museum dedicated to women of the Gold Rush.”

  Tyler shrugged. “Like I said, moving this old monster and converting it to a museum ain’t gonna come cheap. But Zach was just telling me how much he likes the old place, so if it makes my kid happy, then it’s worth it.”

  Donnie realized one person had been left out of the conversation. Bethany. “Can you join us for dinner, Beth?”

  She shook her head. “My dad’s picking me up on his way home. He should be here any minute.”

  Almost before she finished speaking a pair of headlights turned into the parking lot. She gave Zach a nod then spoke to Lucas. “Don’t worry about me saying anything, Lucas. I won’t—as long as you stay clean. We’re going to have a new sheriff in town soon, and he’s a pretty good guy—but mega-tough on drugs.”

  She waved then dashed to the waiting car.

  Donnie hugged his wife then let out a deep sigh. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but this has been a long day, and I’m starved.”

  IT WAS NEARLY ELEVEN by the time they got home from the bordello. Both boys went straight to their rooms.

  They hadn’t planned on staying that long at Ida Jane’s, but once Jonathan, Tyler and Donnie started talking—with Andi and Kris chiming in from time to time—time flew. Kris couldn’t express how good it had made her feel to watch Lucas and Zach doing their homework at the kitchen table after dinner—just as she and her sisters had done when they were that age.

  Donnie turned off the hall light and yawned. “Oh, man, what a day!”

  She waited until he’d closed the door of their bedroom before turning to face him. “I owe you an apology, don’t I?”

  He pulled her into his arms. “You didn’t really think I’d sell you out just to win a few votes, did you?”

  His tone was
stern, but his arms were gentle—comforting and safe.

  “I love this town too much to see anything bad happen to it. I admit I was ready to jump ship for a while, but that was before you came back. Before I figured out that I wasn’t running away because I hated Gold Creek, I was leaving because I’d lost something I needed to find. You.”

  “Oh…” She sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m so glad I came back. I only wish I could have worked up the courage sooner. I’m such a coward.”

  He moved back slightly. “Coward? You’re the bravest woman I know. You took on Tyler this morning, then faced off with my son tonight. You deserve a medal.”

  “All I want is you. I love you, Donnie Grimaldo.”

  She kissed him, letting her lips and tongue reveal the depth of her feelings.

  “Is it official now? We survived our first kiss-and-make-up fight?”

  She nodded. “It was my fault. I’m a little sensitive—”

  He shook his head. “No. I panicked, Kris. I looked at the difficulties, not the benefits. A baby—our baby—would be a precious gift any time. I’m sorry I let you think otherwise.”

  She hugged him fiercely. “I know how important family is to you. I knew it the minute I saw the bird feeder at Ida Jane’s. As busy as you’ve been lately, you took the time to do something thoughtful for an old woman. That really touched my heart, Donnie.”

  He looked embarrassed. “I have to confess. It was a bribe.”

  “A bribe?”

  He nodded, a look of mischief on his face. “I went there hoping to beg your forgiveness for being a dufus, but you had that Massage-In-Progress sign on the door, so I went upstairs to visit Ida Jane. She was sitting there looking out the window and I remembered how much she liked birds, so I ran to the store. I figured she might put in a good word for me.”

  Kris blinked back her tears. “She did.”

  He bent slightly and picked her up, carrying her to the bed. “You’re calling in sick tomorrow,” he told her sternly.