The Family Gathering (Sullivan's Crossing #3)(76)

15

FOR A WEEK or two, Neely seemed to have disappeared. She didn’t come in the bar, didn’t bother either Sid or Dakota, wasn’t seen around town. Dakota wondered if all that had been required was for him to be very stern, very unapproachable. He did check around his cabin for signs of footprints, tire tracks or other disturbances, and he looked through his surveillance video. He looked quickly, but he looked.

“She doesn’t live in Timberlake,” he said to Sid. “Maybe she’s wandered off to greener pastures.”

“Didn’t she say she was invested in businesses around here?” Sid asked.

“Yeah, she said that,” he answered, smiling. “So what? She said a lot of things.”

“I’m going to look up business licenses in Timberlake,” Sid said.

“Would that necessarily show you investment partners?”

“I’m very good,” she said. “If there’s a record, I can find it.”

“Let’s not obsess about this. I just want her to go away without leaving a trail of destruction.”

“And I want to be ready, if she happens to come back. She hasn’t bothered your sister, has she?”

“I’ve only seen Sierra twice since the Fourth. She was fighting off some stomach thing and said not to come near her in case she was contagious, but she’s fine now. You ask me? I think she’s exhausted. Sam is awesome but he’s a handful. He’s crawling. And waking up very early in the morning and not wanting to go to bed at night.”

“We all need to get together,” she said. “Maybe on the weekend?”

“Sure. But I have to tell you, I really like being in a routine with you. We can both work, see each other regularly, there haven’t been any surprises...”

“It’s only been a little while.”

“But it’s been good,” he said. “What would you say if I told you I don’t need much more than this to be completely happy for the rest of my life?”

“I’d say, I’m not ready to talk like that,” she said.

“All right. But can I talk like that?”

“You said you weren’t ready to put down roots.”

“I’m pretty surprised by how much I enjoy being around Cal and Maggie and Elizabeth as well as Sierra’s sudden family. I kind of feel like this place is peaceful enough to calm the inner beast. I could live and work here. I’d like to see this place in winter. Do you ski?”

“Me?” She laughed. “You saw the leg, Dakota. I missed that stage.”

“I could teach you. I bet Rob and the boys ski.”

“You want to haul trash for the rest of your life?” she asked. “Because I don’t want to be a bartender forever.”

“What do you want to be?” he asked.

“I have a few other skills. In fact, my old boss called me. I’ve been trying to help him with a programming issue long-distance but I think I should go back to my old lab, work with him for a few days. It would be good in a number of ways. It would tell me some things about myself—like how over it am I? Do I really want to move on to something new? Am I fully healed from my bad experience and my awful divorce?”

“Tell me the truth, Sid—do you need to find out if you should run away from me?”

“Oh, Cody, no,” she said. “You’re the best guy I’ve ever had in my life! Not that there were many. I’m so crazy about you. It’s just that... Well, there’s just this one thing. I don’t want you to rescue me.” She put her palms on his cheeks. “I want to rescue myself.”

He was quiet for a moment. “I’m not sure I get it.”

“I know,” she said. “I can’t really be with you until I’m sure of who I am. And who I am is more complicated than you realize.”

“Try me,” he said. “I come from a wacko family, my sister is in the hospital on drugs to calm her frazzled head, I’ve been in military jail—you have no idea how much I can understand.”

“Kind of a dramatic résumé, now that you mention it,” she said.

“Sid, that has nothing to do with you and me...”

“All right, take it easy,” she said, smiling. “I think it’s a good idea for me to go back to California and work with Dr. Faraday for a few days. Maybe a week. I should take a look at my old job, my past friends. I’ve talked with Rob. He’s trying to work it out with the other night manager. It won’t be for long and I will talk to you every day.”

“When are you leaving?”

“In a week or two. When Rob has the schedule worked out. This is a good time—the kids aren’t in school and they’re helping out in the kitchen almost every day.”

“The best piece of news in this is that I don’t think Rob can manage without you,” Dakota said. “That’s good for me.”

*

It took a while for Tom and Lola to work out a time when Tom might catch Trace alone. July was already in its fourth week and it was hot, even in the higher elevations. It was steamy but the forest was brittle.

Tom sat outside on Lola’s porch. Trace was due home from his job at Rob’s bar and had told his mother he was going to get together with a few friends that night to play baseball. It was his typical routine. If Trace worked days, he played ball at night, and if he worked nights, he played ball during the day. Whatever the schedule, he played ball. It made Tom smile.