6

Saturday evening, Vaughn was surprised to see a text from Saffron. He’d been wondering if she’d bother to let him know that she’d arrived safely in California, but he hadn’t requested it, knowing she was upset with him. Besides, he knew her foster mother well enough to know she’d probably checked in with the girls several times during the trip. He hadn’t even tracked the GPS location of his car, though he was considering doing so when the text came in.

So apparently my dad is dead, she wrote.

He nearly dropped his phone. That wasn’t at all the text he’d expected. He hurried to answer: What? How? When? I’m really sorry.

I didn’t really know him, she answered. He died about six months after I left home. Heart attack.

All this was more about her family than she’d shared with him in the year he’d known her. He shut his laptop, hiding the simple animations he was grading for a class. Stretching out on his couch, he hit the call icon for Saffron’s number.

She answered immediately. “Hi.”

Her voice didn’t sound like she’d been crying, but there was a distant tone that reminded him of how she’d been last night when he’d ended things. Shock, he supposed, but at least she was talking to him. “So you met your sister? How’d she look?”

“She looked great, but she’s eighteen and pregnant.”

“Oh, wow.”

“She says she’s going to marry the father, but . . . well, I haven’t met him yet, so I don’t have an opinion, but eighteen is really young.”

“For most people, maybe.” His own parents had married out of high school and had his sister ten months later.

“Yeah, you’re right.” She sounded relieved. “It might work out. She seems really in love.”

Silence. Was there more? Because she wasn’t hanging up. “How was the drive?” he asked in an effort to keep her on the line.

“Good. The GPS took us right here. We had a bit of a delay because of a fender-bender in front of us, but we still made good time. I made up the lost time by driving really fast.”

“I bet you did.” He laughed to show her he didn’t care. Well, not much anyway.

“Ha ha. Look, I wanted to thank you for lending me your car. Mine would have been fine, but it made Lily happy.”

“Anything for Lily.”

“You’re grading programs again tonight, aren’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“That’s what you always do when you aren’t taking people rafting or . . .” She trailed off.

Or spending time with her. He was glad she didn’t say it. “Let me know if you need me to bring anything when I come down with your car.”

“And when is that?”

“Well, fixing the car should only take a day or so, but I’m not sure when I can get away from work. Might not be until Friday. Would that work?”

“Not exactly. Halla has a test on Wednesday that she can’t miss, but it doesn’t look like you’ll be coming down before then.”

“She can use my car to drive back for the test, if she needs to. Not a big deal.” That meant he’d have to figure out how to get himself back to Phoenix after dropping off Saffron’s car, but he wouldn’t worry about it now. He could always fly.

“That’s nice of you.”

“Have you seen your mother?” It was safer than asking what he really wanted to know—if she’d seen the man her sisters had talked about. The man he didn’t know but wanted to kick into the past where he should have stayed.

“Not yet.”

He didn’t miss the slight tremble in her voice. The same emotion she’d displayed when she’d told him about the abuse her foster sisters had experienced as children. What had Saffron endured? He wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to push her any further away. He had won a small victory just in the fact that she’d contacted him. “You want me to come down and see her with you? I will if you want.”

She laughed. “Thanks for the offer, but I can handle her. I’m not looking forward to it, but I can do it.”

“I know you can, but should you? I guess that’s what I’m saying. Think about it. Anyway, I’m glad Halla is there with you.”

“Me too.” A long pause. “Well, I’d better go. I’m meeting my sister again tonight for a late dinner. Oh, and Vaughn?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you. For the car . . . and for everything.”

For everything what? he wanted to say. For pushing you away? For not telling you that I’d wait for as long as it took if there was even a slight chance? “You’re welcome. I’m here if you need me.”

“Thanks. Talk to you later.”

“Later.”

She hung up and he stared up at the ceiling. She’d texted him with personal information. She’d reached out to him. He hoped that meant something because being away from her was already killing him.

Saffron hung up the phone, feeling oddly better after talking to Vaughn. Maybe this being friends thing wasn’t such a bad idea. The pressure she used to feel when he talked about his family or the future no longer existed. Thanks to Halla and Elsie, he knew about her coming here to find a man from her past, and he hadn’t challenged her on it. She’d told him about her sister and father. It was freeing.

She glanced over at Halla, who had already listened to her rundown on her talk with Kendall right before Saffron had decided to text Vaughn. Halla was staring at her from the table with a thoughtful expression. “What?” Saffron asked.

“I find it interesting that you talked to Vaughn when you were barely civil to him this morning. You talked to him before Lily, before Elsie or the others. In fact, you barely explained to me what happened before you called him.”

“He called me.”

Halla rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. You texted him first.”

She had a point. “Well, I hadn’t told him we’d gotten here safely. Or gotten his car here safely.”

“Uh-huh, right.” Halla didn’t look impressed.

“Besides, you heard me—I wanted to thank him. I wouldn’t be here for Kendall if he hadn’t . . .”

“Broken up with you and made you cry?”

There was that. Saffron scowled. “I wasn’t crying for him. Anyway, at least now I don’t have to worry about disappointing him like I always did when he’d ask me to go see his family.”

“Only because he won’t be asking you. But it’s something, I suppose. So when are you going to see Tyson? If he’s practically engaged, that changes things.” Halla came to sit next to her on one of the queen beds.

Saffron wasn’t sure. She still needed to talk to Tyson, but that seemed even more frightening than confronting her mother. She wished she didn’t have to see her mother at all, but thoughts of Kendall stopped that idea as quickly as it formed. Kendall needed her. Saffron had abandoned her sister once when there hadn’t been a choice, but now she had a choice.

I’m strong enough to face my mother, she told herself. She didn’t feel as confident as she had when talking to Vaughn.

Aloud, she said to Halla, “Either way, I still have to see Tyson. I need to know why he never called. Why he didn’t look for me.” It was possible she’d seen their relationship differently than he had. She’d witnessed that scenario repeatedly from the girls who’d gone through Lily’s House. Watching those girls pine for guys who cared nothing for them had taught her as much as she’d learned from her own experience with Tyson. She never wanted to be that girl again.

Her thoughts drifted back to Vaughn. He was a good guy, and once she got over being mad at him completely, maybe they really could be friends. But if she was honest, she had to admit, if only to herself, that she sure missed kissing him already.

Tyson Dekker surveyed the new ramp leading into his parents’ house with satisfaction. In the past six months, his father had gone from partial mobility to complete reliance on a wheelchair. Putting in ramps, reworking the counters to make them shorter, and updating the bathroom was part of a plan to give his father more independence and his mother a well-deserved break.

Not that his mother ever complained, but he could see exhaustion in the slump of her shoulders. She’d made the decision to retire early from the grocery store where she’d been working for the past twenty years to take care of his father, just as she had once shouldered the responsibility to make up the difference between his father’s disability and what they owed in bills.

Tyson had been five years old when his father had come home injured from some ultra-secret skirmish overseas. His father had been a broken man, in constant pain, but he’d slowly healed enough to take care of the house and yard. Anything more was out of the question.

Sometimes when Tyson had watched his friends playing football or some other sport with their fathers, he’d wish his dad could be like them instead of hobbling around embarrassingly on his cane.

Only after many years did he realize he was the lucky one. At least his father had come home—and had been injured early on in his time overseas, before anxiety or nightmares set in. He’d been there for Tyson on his first day of kindergarten, was waiting for him in the kitchen when he came home from school each day, and gave advice as he prepared for his first dance. He was gruff and sometimes pushy, but Tyson knew he wanted the best for him. The best back then had meant the army, though somewhere along the way, Tyson had found another path.

“Whoa,” his father said, steering his motorized wheelchair down the ramp for the first time. “This is a nice piece of work, son. I think you outdid yourself.”

Before this ramp, his father would leave the motorized wheelchair in the single garage and, after painfully walking up the two steps, transfer to a manual wheelchair inside the house. Tyson’s mother wasn’t strong enough to pull the motorized chair inside, and without the motorized wheelchair, his father had needed a lot more help in the house. Hefting the wheelchair inside was one of the main reasons Tyson came here each day after work.

“Soon you’ll be having races up and down it with all your friends,” said Joel, one of the men he’d hired to help with the remodeling. The kid wasn’t the brightest of the lot, but he had good hands and an eye for design—which Tyson never would have realized if it hadn’t been for Roz’s sister.

Roz. He’d been thinking of her almost every day since coming back to Temecula, which had at first surprised him. It shouldn’t have. Temecula had been their place, and even though his parents hadn’t encouraged their relationship, and Roz’s parents had forbidden it, memories of her filled almost everywhere he turned. Like the school bleachers where they’d shared their first kiss, the In-n-Out Burger where they’d hung out on colder evenings when school was closed, the tree in his back yard under which, unbeknownst to his parents, they’d watched the stars and planned for the future.

A future Roz had thrown away.

The memories had made coming home a tough decision, but in the end there hadn’t been much choice. His parents didn’t want to leave their home, and they didn’t have anyone else. They needed him. So Tyson slept in his old room at home and commuted to Oceanside to his job or to see his girlfriend, Jana Reynolds. He’d hoped to move back to his condo in Oceanside once the renovations were complete, but he really didn’t think his parents would be able to keep up everything without him. Jana had suggested a gardener and someone to come in to help with cleaning and baths. She was probably right.

His mother put her arms around him. “Thank you. This is really going to help.” She lowered her voice. “Your father is already much happier.”

“I’m glad.” Because his dad was never going to leave the wheelchair.

An expensive red Audi A3 drove up to the curb, looking slightly out of place in this lower middle-class neighborhood—or it would have looked out of place if his Infiniti Q50 weren’t parked in the driveway.

It was like turning back time as he watched the girl slip gracefully from the car. She was taller than her sister had been, and her hair was over bleached instead of a natural blond, but there were enough similarities that his heart tightened as he watched her run to Joel and start kissing him.

Standing next to Tyson, his mother clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Leave it alone, Mom,” he murmured.

“He’s not good enough for her—anyone can see that.”

“That’s what her mother said about me. And from what I remember, you didn’t have such a high opinion of her sister.”

A swift intake of breath. “That’s Roz’s sister?”

He nodded. “It’s the only reason I hired him, but I’m glad I did. He’s got steady hands.”

“As long as you’re standing over him.” His mother shook her head back and forth. “Whenever you’re not here, he’s more inclined to be on his phone.”

That was true, but there was nothing Tyson could do about it except schedule Joel when he was there too. He was hoping to help the boy develop better habits—for Kendall’s sake.

“No wonder you look at her like that.” His mother gave him a sympathetic look.

What was she talking about? “I’m just trying to help them out,” he said, pulling his gaze away. “She’s a smart girl. We’ve had a lot of conversations, and I think she’d make a good nurse.”

He brought out his phone to check the time. Maybe he could drive back to Oceanside to take Jana to a late movie. Their Saturday nights had been shot since he’d come back to help his parents.

“It wasn’t that I thought Roz wasn’t good enough for you,” his mother said. “But you were too young to be so serious.”

As a result, they hadn’t been welcomed anywhere. He wouldn’t say that now—or how Roz had needed a loving woman’s influence since her own mother couldn’t fill that role. Maybe with support, she wouldn’t have betrayed him like she had. But hearing all that would hurt his mother, so Tyson stared blankly at his phone, feigning preoccupation.

“Everything worked out for the best,” his mother added. “Look at how things are between you and Jana.”

Yes, things between him and Jana were going well. Really well. She was an anesthesiologist resident, and she worked at the Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside where he was working on his residency in pediatric surgery. He’d known her for two years and dated her one. For the past six months they’d been exclusive, not by agreement, but because neither had wanted to go out with anyone else. His parents loved her, and her dad—her only living parent—loved him, and lately she’d begun talking about a future together. No, they’d been talking about it, and if he could figure out a way to overcome whatever was stopping him from proposing, he’d make it official. He was lucky to have her, and he knew it. He’d even bought a ring.

“So,” his mother said, “about you and Jana . . .”

She asked almost every week, often hinting at her need for grandchildren, but it was no more than he’d been asking himself. What was holding him back? He trusted Jana more than he’d ever trusted any other person besides Roz.

Maybe that was the problem. He’d trusted Roz, and they’d planned a future together, but everything had changed in a single day. No, he didn’t believe he was stuck because of that. Jana wasn’t Roz, and he was no longer a sixteen-year-old kid head-over-heels in blind love.

“Tyson?” his mother asked.

“I’ll bring her for dinner tomorrow,” he said. That would satisfy his mother. She and Jana could talk for hours.

Across the lawn, Kendall came up for air long enough to shoot a pointed glance at Tyson. Joel said something and tried to kiss her again, but she pushed at his chest and said something, looking back at Tyson once more. What could she want?

Well, he was going to find out because he was giving everyone Sunday off, but he needed to make sure they’d all be back here Monday night to finish the back ramp. Once that was done and he figured out help for his father on a daily basis, he’d be able to direct a little more attention to his personal life.

As Tyson walked toward the young couple, Joel pulled Kendall to him. Her body seemed to conform to his in a way that screamed of intimacy and brought a sharp stab of pain to Tyson’s chest, stealing away his breath. He and Roz had been like that those last few months.

“Hi, Kendall,” Tyson called, closing the last few feet between them.

“Hey.” She dipped her head in greeting.

“So, good job today,” Tyson added to Joel. “We’ll pick it back up Monday night, right? Finish the back ramp?”

“Sure.” Joel hooked an arm possessively around Kendall.

“Sorry about the late night,” Tyson added. “I know it’s the weekend.”

“That’s okay,” Kendall assured him. “I’ve been busy anyway. My sister’s in town.”

“Oh, that’s good.” When he’d first employed Joel, Kendall told him that she’d reconnected with her sister, though he wasn’t clear on why they hadn’t been in contact in the first place.

Kendall was still watching him, so Tyson forced a smile. “How is she?” He didn’t know how much he wanted to know the answer until she hesitated in her response.

“Uh, she looks good,” Kendall said finally.

The response alerted a warning in Tyson. “Good, huh?”

“Well, I think she’s still sad about what happened, which is understandable. Now that I know, I’m furious at my mother for what she did.”

“What she did?” There had been so many things their mother had done.

“Yeah. Poor Rosalyn—or Saffron, I should say. She changed her name, by the way. Anyway, being all alone like that and”—her voice lowered—“having a baby. She had it rough.”

Having a baby, a baby, a baby. He could feel Joel and Kendall’s stares like a weight. This didn’t seem to coincide with what Tyson knew to be true. There was also a decided note of accusation in Kendall’s voice, but why would she be upset at him? He hadn’t been the one to leave and not tell him about the baby. He hadn’t decided to get an abortion without asking her.

His anger boiled under the surface. He wanted to grab Kendall’s shoulders and shake her for more information. But this was between him and Roz. Over the years there was a lot he’d thought of saying to her if their paths ever crossed, and maybe it was time he did just that. “Is she staying at your house?”

“My house?” Kendall laughed. “Yeah, right. Even if my mom would let her, I don’t think Saffron would ever willingly stay under the same roof as my mother. It’d be World War III, right under my nose. No, she’s staying at the Rodeway Inn with one of her foster sisters.”

Foster sisters? This was making less sense by the minute.

“Well, we should go,” Joel said, nudging Kendall in the direction of her car.

Kendall took a few steps and then said over her shoulder, “You should go see her. For old time’s sake.”

The old times hadn’t been all that great, not in the end, and Tyson suspected he should turn his back and not go down this path. But he wanted to see Roz. The need felt like the old ache that had been with him every day for three years after she’d left and he’d been sent away from home.

“What’s her room number?” he called after Kendall.

“It’s on my phone in the car. Joel has your number, right? I’ll text it to you.”

Tyson could think about nothing but Roz as he finished putting away his tools. He remembered their classes together, after school clubs, and sneaking away from football practice to be with her. He’d only been on the team because his father wanted him to try out, so he cut as much as he could. He remembered sneaking food for them out of his house when they couldn’t bear to be apart, of swimming in her pool at night when her parents were out of town. It had all been quite innocent—until the middle of their junior year when her mother had forbidden him to attend her family’s Christmas celebration, and his parents had used the excuse of visiting family to exclude Roz from their traditional dinner. He and Roz had been so angry, so helpless—and so much in love. He hadn’t realized the extent of the risk until it was too late.

“So, did you invite Jana for dinner tomorrow?” He practically jumped as his mother spoke from behind him in the garage.

“Not yet, but she’ll come.” Though he hadn’t given up his condo since coming back to help his parents, more often than not when he had early shifts at the hospital, he crashed at Jana’s place. Before this past month, they’d usually spent Sundays at her apartment as well, just the two of them. She wouldn’t mind coming to see his parents, though. The love his mother had for Jana was mutual.

“You seem distracted.” His mother’s dark eyebrows had a few streaks of gray in them like her hair. When had that happened?

He straightened from storing a box of tools under a workbench. “Roz is back in town.”

Her eyes widened and her lips pursed. “Are you going to see her?”

He shrugged. “Maybe I want to know why she did what she did.”

“It’s been so long. Does it really matter?”

Maybe it shouldn’t, but somehow it did.

Worry pinched his mother’s face, and he wished he could take it away. “Does Dad need anything before I take off?”

“No, he’s good. In fact, I came out to tell you he’s already fallen asleep in bed in front of the television. Are you going back to Oceanside tonight?”

“Probably. But I’ll be back tomorrow.” Tyson bent over and kissed his mother’s cheek.

Her arms went around him in a hug. “Thank you, son. Drive safely.”

She said this every time he left, but tonight the request was more pleading, as if she knew what he intended to do. Because it was time to find out why Roz hadn’t told him herself about the baby, and most of all why she’d chosen to end their child’s life.