| |
Maxwell sat nursing his warm cup of coffee. He was in town later than he had been in a long time, but he had made a date with Annalise in a moment of weakness. After a decade, he was at his wit's end and trying to decide how to fix this situation alone was not something he was equipped to do any longer. He and his father had been a united team for a long time, but with his passing, the last six years had been a heavy trek alone.
This family secret was the reason he didn’t focus on anything but farming the majority of the time. The only exception in the past six years had been the occasional trip someplace chasing a tip about Trista’s whereabouts his mother received from several dubious sources. It was a lonely existence, but he didn’t know anymore how to get out of this circle of destruction. He had loved the time he spent at the Grazinski farm with that loving family. It reminded him of what could be, even if Casimir had gotten the wrong idea and tried to set him up with Katherine.
Katherine was lovely, spirited, and the perfect match for Troy. He had never felt the spark there; somehow, she reminded him of a younger sister. He loved her passion for her horse therapy program and having someone to bounce ideas off. Friends and neighbors had always been the extent of his relationship interest in Katherine. As he glanced out the window waiting for Annalise, he knew that how he felt about her was the opposite of his feeling for Katherine.
He could remember the first time he came upon Annalise working with a horse. She was chatting at the animal as if she expected it to respond. The young woman had captured him completely when she turned, showing her windswept hair, intense blue eyes, and a fantastic smile on her face. Unfortunately, after some well-placed questions, he realized how young she was and knew that she would never be interested in a big old farmer such as he. This did not mean he wouldn’t give his eyeteeth to spend some quality time with her? He knew she might have a fresh take on his “situation.”
“Hi,” Annalise’s voice cut into his reverie.
“Hey,” he said, standing as she stood. She caught him entirely off guard by standing on her tiptoes and hugging him before sliding into the booth opposite him.
“What was that for?” He asked with a grin.
“You looked like you needed a hug,” she said with a shrug.
He laughed lightly; she wasn’t wrong; he thought. He raised a finger to beckon Shirley, who was waiting tables, over to their booth.
“What can I get for you?” She asked Annalise.
“What pie do you have left?”
“Strawberry and a rhubarb are to die for,” Shirley offered.
“Rhubarb, it is, and lots of whipped cream and ice water, please.”
“Coming right up,” Shirley swiveled to get the order.
“So,” Annalise said, with a raised eyebrow, “what is going on in your world?”
Maxwell felt his stomach clench, “Please know I haven’t spoken to anyone about this before. I have been carrying this weight for over ten years now.”
“Isn’t that about the time you came to Little Bend from what Katherine once told me?”
He nodded. “We came here for a fresh start, and my dad hoped that my mom would follow us after we settled,” he sighed as his heart constricted. “She never did.”
“Where did you live before?”
“A small community in southern Illinois about two hundred miles south of Chicago.” He said, imagining the old farm in his head. “It was my mom, dad, and twin sisters living on a smaller spread, and we raised longhorn cattle.”
“Sisters? Mom?” Annalise said. “I’ve never heard you or anyone here mention family, except for your dad.”
“Yeah, the year before we moved, my sisters were involved in a gun violence situation that happened at their high school. It was a tough time, and about six months later,” Maxwell felt the tears well as he recalled the story. “My parents tried everything from counseling to switching schools. It didn’t work, Treena took her own life one night. My mom lost it; she went into a deep depression. Trista, that was my other sister, she struggled something fierce. My dad, well, he did what he always did, and just worked harder on the farm.”
Annalise reached across the table. “I’m so sorry Maxwell, I truly had no idea. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for your entire family.”
Maxwell wiped across his eyebrows, “less than three weeks later, Trista went out for a drive one night and disappeared into thin air. No foul play evidence, cellphone by the bed, and no clue to where she had gone. My mom became obsessed with finding her; she phoned her friends, scoured the web, and just went down a dark path. My father finally had enough and sold the farm, bought the spread here in Little Bend, and prepared to start over. The night before we pulled out with the U-Haul, mom told him she wasn’t coming. She wanted to keep looking for Trista. They fought as I had never heard before, and we left the next morning.”
He saw Annalise’s eyes well up with tears, “Maxwell, I can’t even imagine what you have been through. That must have been hard on your dad living without his family.”
“He called mom, every Sunday until the day he died, begging her to come up here. She never gave in and didn’t even make the trip for his funeral,” he said.
“So, what brought this all to the forefront this morning?” Annalise asked.
“Mom had a mild heart attack last week, which is why I had to leave so abruptly.”
“I thought you said it was business,” Annalise questioned.
“I did. She went home pretty quickly, but now,” he slid a piece of paper across the table. “That came in the mail.”
“Tell mom I love her, but please stop searching for me. It is too painful ever to come back and face life with family again. I am good, but please give up searching for me and help her go on with life, Trista.”
Annalise bowed her head, and he could tell she was struggling with words. Finally, she looked up. “Maybe we take a couple of us and take a trip with you to go see her in person? I mean Belle, Jake, and others who do this for a living. If we could be your support system, maybe we could talk her into coming back here.”
“That would be amazing. I don’t know if she would listen, but I’m at my wit’s end.”
“I love road trips, and even though I’m new here, I have a feeling others will rise up to help. Let me see who we can round up.”
“Thank you, Annalise,” he said sincerely. Just getting someone detached from the situation to give another go at helping his mom, made a hope flicker to life in him. If he could get her to move here to Little Bend, he would feel so much better. Trista was a grown woman now, and while he would give anything to find his sister, he had to respect her wishes.
