Second Thoughts (14 page)

Fortunately, Andy woke up and stretched,
and immediately caught the woman’s attention. She cooed to him, and he talked right back. Connie smiled, answered questions about age and gender, and concentrated on trying not to fidget.

“Almost an hour late,” the woman said, probably catching on to Connie’s preoccupation. “But it’s finally landed. Are you waiting for someone coming in from Hawaii?”

Connie nodded but didn’t elaborate.

Derek said under his breath, “Here we go.”

Connie followed his gaze. A horde of people appeared, seeming to race at them from the International gate. Her nervousness growing, she scanned the faces for familiar ones. Christopher stood up, gaze moving excitedly as he searched the crowd, then he took off at a run.

“Chris,” Derek admonished, then possibly thought better of it because he smiled, stood, and followed his nephew.

The woman frowningly watched Derek instead of the crowd of arrivals. She knew she knew him, and eventually she’d come up with it. Connie hoped they’d be out of there before she did. She had enough to deal with; one thing more and she might go mad.

Kevin caught Chris and swung him up, gaze moving beyond Derek to Connie. He wore a long-sleeved, blue button-down shirt tucked neatly inside belted Levis. It took Kristy longer to find them, probably because she was shorter, but once she eyed Connie and the twins she made a beeline for them. A black, rounded-neck blouse that hugged her bosom and hips topped her white Capri-length pants. She looked like a fashion statement.

She lifted Andy out of the stroller and hugged him close, reverting to baby talk. Andy was beside himself, clearly not able to find a way to let his mother know how happy he was to see her. Crushing one baby to her, Kristy knelt next to the sleeping Abbie, smoothed her hair and kissed her forehead, but Abbie continued to snooze.

With moist eyes, her mouth still next to Andy’s cheek and her hand on Abby’s head, Kristy glanced up at Connie. Connie stared back, wondering at her questioning look, then made a face and helplessly shook her head. She hadn’t realized, until that moment, the implication in the fact that she and Derek were there together.

Over Kristy’s head, Connie noted that the attention of the woman sitting opposite them remained on Derek. She’d caught her lower lip between her teeth and was slowly nodding her head. She almost had it.

“We’d better get out of here,” Connie said.

Kristy glanced behind her, followed the direction of the woman’s gaze, and nodded. “Uh-huh.”

She gave Andy to Kevin and smilingly watched father and baby. Andy’s jabbering spurred up a notch. Excitedly patting his dad’s face, he almost squirmed out of his arms. Kevin pointed to his cheek. Andy put pudgy arms around his neck and planted an open-mouthed, juicy kiss on his
parent’s cheek.

His father grinned at his mother. “He’s using his teeth.”

Kristy took Christopher’s hand. She’d given him one hug already and now gave him another one. Connie pushed the double stroller holding the sleeping Abbie, Derek grabbed the two carry-on bags, and the group was on its way.

“So how did you enjoy your vacation, Chris?” his mother asked. “Looks like you got both Auntie Connie and Uncle Dare. You were lucky.”

“Yeah, it was fun. We went fishing and I fell in the water. I ate chips and Abbie ate dirt. We ran out of gas and had to go for a walk, and then we got kidnapped. Annie Connie got to use a gun, but I didn’t get to see her do it. It was the most fun vacation I ever went on, but I miss Petey. I miss him real bad.”

His parents managed a full step each before they froze. They looked blankly at Christopher, each other, Connie, and in unison their gazes rose to Derek, who stood behind her.

Edging her way between them, Connie anchored the stroller with her foot and put an arm around each person. She looked sideways at Kristy, twisted her head and glanced up at Kevin, and in return she got identical expressions of unblinking disbelief. Andy, still in his father’s arms, continued to jabber and pat his dad’s face, vying for his attention. People coming up on them from behind parted as vehicles do around traffic islands and passed on either side. Some showed irritation and others took the jam-up in stride.

“It’s true,” Connie confirmed. “Every bit of it and more.” Her head continued to swivel between them. “But as you can see, we’re unharmed, healthy, and relatively happy. It’s a long story, and we were hoping we could get home before we have to get into it. Trust us. Let’s collect luggage, then we can get ourselves out to the van. Okay?”

Not waiting for concurrence, she pushed the stroller at a fast walk, joining the crowd, and Derek kept pace. Chris and Andy and their parents, the adults slightly glassy-eyed, caught up to them at the luggage carousel.

“Chris said you didn’t report it,” Kevin said to Derek. He put Andy in the stroller and belted him in, but kept his gaze on Derek. “This didn’t really happen. It’s a joke, right?”

“That bag looks familiar,” Connie said.

“Uh-huh.” Derek grabbed it, took several quick steps and grabbed a matching one. “How many?” he asked.

“One more,” Kristy said. She had the look of one trying to add something up that wasn’t adding up. “A small one.”

“This is not a very funny joke,” Kevin said.

“That’s because it’s not a joke,” Derek said. He grabbed the last bag, then exhaled heavily. “Never been through luggage retrieval this fast. Something’s finally going right.”

He looked pointedly, and critically, at his brother. “You going to take a couple of these bags, or do you want to get one of those carts? I can’t manage all five by myself.”

* * *

Though Kevin sat in the comfortable recliner, he didn’t appear comfortable. He stared steadily at his brother. “Why do I have the feeling you’re not telling me the truth?”

Connie sat at one end of the gray and white striped sofa. Derek was at the other end. He’d shed the ratty sweatshirt and looked much more presentable in a red knit polo shirt. As he watched his brother, his eyes narrowed fractionally, as if he were debating with himself if he wanted to be insulted or not.

Kevin amended, “Neither of you is lying. I know that. But I also know you’re not leveling with me. So far, all you’ve done, both of you, is wait for Chris to say something, and then you clarify it. You haven’t volunteered even one sentence on your own.” He paused, with his gaze traveling between them, clearly giving them a chance to speak. When neither did, he went on. “You may not know their last names or where they could be found right now, yet you are withholding information that would lead us to them. Like license plates, for instance? Are you going to tell me you never even thought to check the license plates?”

Connie made a surprised sound that had both men looking at her.

“Well, she didn’t,” Kevin said, then gave his brother a look with a sharp edge to it.

Connie also looked at the man she’d shared a recent kidnapping with. Had he been as brain-dead as she?

Derek just shrugged. “Yeah, I thought about it, when I drove the van back after we got gas in it. But the Mustang and pickup were at an angle that didn’t allow me to see either the front or the back plates. And the next time I got an opportunity to look, it was no longer important that I noted the licenses.”

“Uh-huh.”

Derek didn’t appear to like his brother’s tone but didn’t comment on it. Apparently giving up on him for the moment, Kevin looked at Connie. She held his gaze, then dropped hers to her lap. “I feel like I got in trouble and was sent to the principal’s office.”

Derek’s chuckle tried to turn itself into a cough. Kevin’s countenance grew tighter, and she scrunched up her face. She hadn’t intended to make a joke; she’d merely voiced the feeling she had
, and now she wished she could take the words back. “I’m sorry, Kevin. I didn’t mean—”

“This is not a joking matter,” he said through his teeth. “We’re talking about armed robbery and kidnapping. And the two of you are dancing around on the fringes of breaking the law yourselves. Withholding information, obstruction, and whatever else is going on you still haven’t told me about.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. Slowly she got to her feet. “But I can’t help you. And I’m tired, and I’m going to bed. If we stay with this any longer, we’re going to be at each other’s throats.”

But she didn’t complete the move to leave. Her gaze remained on Kevin. “Give us a few days, just a few days, and then we’ll talk. Please?”

His eyes didn’t waver. “No. Now, Connie. Not in a couple days. You want me to trust you, but you also need to trust me. You both need to talk to me.”

I wish I could, she thought.
But she couldn’t. Not yet. With a sense of defeat, an emotion that had grown too familiar this past week, she turned and left.

Kristy stood next to Christopher’s bed, her sandy-brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, looking down at him as he slept. She looked good in the strawberry-pink robe. She had inches on Connie in height, bust line and hips, but not in the waist. The belted robe enhanced her measurements instead of hiding them. Connie paused in the doorway, hoping Kristy wasn’t in the same
I-want-answers-and-I-want-them-now
mood as her husband.

But when Kristy looked up, her blue-gray eyes were warm and friendly. Connie gave her a smile that she guessed carried her relief, because Kristy said, “He’s really giving you the third degree.”

Connie nodded without elaborating.

“For one thing, it’s his job,” Kristy explained, managing
somehow not to apologize for her husband, nor put Connie down for being at odds with him. “For another, he’s both angry and scared. Having this happen to his own family showed him just how vulnerable and helpless he is. That’s an unfamiliar feeling, and not a good one.” She looked back down at Christopher. “I don’t like it either. But you saw my kids safely through whatever it was that happened, and that’s all I need to know. And for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Again Connie nodded. Though she felt greatly out of her depth, she had an inkling of what these two people were going through.

When Kristy next looked up, her expression held a questioning smile that put that issue behind them. “You and Derek finally figure out who’s sleeping where?”

Connie laughed. With the change of topic, the tension in the room seemed to evaporate. “I lost the coin toss, which I thought meant I got the sofa. But he said it meant I lost the right to choose, so he chooses that I sleep on the cot, which is the way he wanted it in the first place.”

“So the coin toss meant you won the cot, or lost the right to choose the sofa. Hard to lose with those rules.” Then she broke into a grin. “Or maybe it’s hard to win.”

“One or the other. I’d fit better on the couch because I’m not as long as he is, but I give up. That’s my bed over there.” She paused. “And I see my suitcase is already under it. He’s fast.”

They were speaking in normal voices, seemingly unmindful of the sleeping child. With an inward smile, Connie realized Christopher truly was as hard a sleeper as his uncle. She recalled animated conversations between herself and Derek in their farmhouse bedroom while Chris snoozed away undisturbed.

Becoming aware that Kristy’s expression had changed and that she was being studied, Connie candidly returned her friend’s gaze. When Kristy said nothing, Connie lifted her shoulders. “What?”

“I’m wondering how it worked out that Derek was here. Been wondering that since I saw him at the airport.”

“Oh. That’s easy enough.” She crossed to the cot and pulled her suitcase out from under it. “Somehow the dates got mixed up. He thought it was the fourth instead of the fourteenth.”

“Uh-uh. We didn’t misunderstand dates, either one of us.”

Connie was wondering if she should again sleep in her clothes, since she would once more be sharing a bedroom. Perhaps she should invest in a pair of modest pajamas along with a cell phone. She glanced up. “No?”

“Nope. I talked to him the day before we left. He had a photo session on the twelfth, was meeting his agent on the thirteenth, and would be here as soon as possible on the fourteenth. It’d be difficult for either of us to mistake the twelfth and the thirteenth for the second and the third. They don’t sound at all alike.”

“No, they don’t,” Connie agreed. Kristy had her full attention.

“Then he asked me which set of grandparents would be babysitting, and I told him you’d be staying with the kids. There was a long silence, then he told me to have a good time, and he hung up.”

Her gaze on Kristy, Connie lowered herself to sit on the cot next to her suitcase.

“The only thing that man was fishing for by arriving early was his ex-wife,” Kristy added. “And he had to go to an awful lot of trouble to rearrange his calendar in order to do it.”

In the silence that followed, Connie stared into space, and Kristy watched her.

“Not too surprising, I guess,” Connie said finally. “He told me he wants us to try again. To just start seeing each other again.”

“And how do you feel about that, about him? What do you want?”

Connie allowed an even longer silence before answering. Then she said, “I wish I knew.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I wish I knew.”