GARY HAD ALWAYS loved spending time with his aunt Bianca. She’d been the one who’d pushed him—not quite a teen—out the door, handed him—an angry kid—his skateboard and said, “Don’t return until you’re too exhausted to talk back.”
His own mother had kept a tight rein on her brood and had only tightened her grip after their father was gone. She’d followed Gary to the skateboard park as if afraid he, too, would disappear. He pushed her away with both hands. He knew he was the son responsible for the most gray hairs. Every once in a while he thought about calling to say he was sorry, but the words never came, so he did the next best thing. He sent her money and when he came home, he fixed things around the house. It was Aunt Bianca’s place in Sarasota Falls, however, where he’d always felt he could breath. Something about small towns and open spaces.
Since she didn’t have any guests currently staying at the B and B, she’d invited his brother Oscar’s family for dinner.
“I saw Officer Bailey today,” Gary informed Oscar after taking the biggest chicken leg before his brother could.
“Officer Bailey?” Oscar’s wife, Shelley, queried, taking a napkin and brushing something off the high chair tray. Little O, Oscar and Shelley’s one-year-old, didn’t notice.
“He met Leann the other night and now can’t stop talking about her.” Oscar scooped most of the mashed potatoes onto his plate and then passed the almost empty bowl to Gary.
“What?” Gary frowned at the empty bowl that landed in his hands.
Shelley stared at Gary. “Have we ever heard you mention a woman before? You never tell us about anyone you’re interested in.”
Aunt Bianca stood and took the empty mashed potato bowl. She winked at Shelley.
Oscar laughed, but to cover it he pretended to choke on his green beans.
“Whoa. I’m not interested in Officer Bailey, or anyone else for that matter,” Gary said.
“Why not?” Shelley queried. “She’s great.”
“Because,” Bianca said, handing Gary a now full bowl of mashed potatoes, “she’s settled. Happy here in this ole small town. Knows what she wants. Gary, here, is afraid that if he let himself like a woman, really like a woman, he might be tempted to settle down.”
Oscar choked again. This time Gary wasn’t sure his brother was pretending.
“I’ll admit,” Bianca countered, “I was surprised when Leann came back to Sarasota Falls to stay. In fact, I almost fell off my porch I was so surprised.”
Gary started to say something but noted the rapt attention his brother and sister-in-law were paying to Bianca.
“Why did it surprise you?” Shelley asked. “My dad said Leann and Ryan were born and raised here, although, much too young to get married.”
“They were. And, Leann married Ryan Bailey to get away from her parents. He was a good kid but had no direction. When Leann left him, I’d have expected her to go anywhere but here. She’s got grit, that girl. Doesn’t matter where she settles, she’ll do fine.”
“Her parents are rich. Surely she’d come here for their support,” Shelley sputtered.
“Sometimes glitter hides imperfections,” Bianca said. “Think about it. Have you seen Leann’s parents with her boys? Do they watch Tim and Aaron while Leann works? No, Ryan’s parents watch over the boys.”
“Aunt Bianca’s right,” Oscar said. “Leann talks about Ryan’s parents, and she talks about her sister and her parents’ housekeeper, Clarissa. I’ve never heard her say anything about her own parents except that they disapprove of her being a cop. I know they don’t help her.”
Shelley frowned. “I always thought she had the perfect life.”
“No life is perfect,” Aunt Bianca said.
“If it makes you feel better,” Oscar offered, “I feel you’ve given me a perfect life.”
Shelley smacked him, and then looked at Gary. “Where did you see Leann today?”
“Did she come out here because of the dogs, again?” Oscar teased.
“No, I ran into her just as she left Fred Balliard’s office.”
Oscar nodded. “I’d forgotten. She was meeting the lawyer because of her ex.”
“That explains her mood,” Gary said, finally getting around to putting a heaping scoop of mashed potatoes on his plate and passing the bowl to Shelley.
“What do you mean?”
“She was on edge. What’s happening with her ex?”
“Ryan’s getting out of the service and coming home.” Bianca handed Little O a green bean he’d just thrown at her.
“I thought he was in for life,” Shelley commented.
“I saw his mother at the grocery store,” Bianca put in. “She said he should be home in the next week or two.”
“And,” Oscar reported, “he’s already hired a lawyer to get his child support reduced.”
“Ohhhhhh,” Shelley whispered. “This makes it hard.”
“What?” Gary knew he was missing something important, but the way the Guzman clan was bouncing around, no way could he keep up.
Oscar wiped some sort of orange glob from his son’s chin and said, “Lucas Stillwater submitted his retirement papers this morning.”
“So?” Gary knew Oscar wanted a promotion. This was good news.
“So,” Oscar said, “there are two officers vying for his position.”
Gary whistled, the truth finally dawning. “You and Leann, and now Leann’s really going to need the money.”
“And so are we,” Oscar said, giving his wife a look that almost made Gary want to step out of the room. His brother had found his soul mate, and their commitment to each other was tangible.
Little O chortled, and Bianca caught another green bean midair and stilled: her eyes gleaming, her lips curling into a wide smile. “Another baby?” she guessed.
Shelley nodded.
“Bro!” Gary said.
“When?” Bianca asked.
“I’m three months along.”
For the next ten minutes, Little O banged on his high chair tray catching the excitement, sending green beans flying, while everyone else focused on Oscar and his family’s future. Gary was relieved they weren’t addressing his lack of future.
After all, he wasn’t addressing it himself.
Finally, Oscar changed the subject from new baby to something else. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come to dinner tonight. It’s last minute, but Shelley and I are going to take a brief vacation. A buddy of mine had booked a cruise for him and his wife. They can’t go now, so I purchased the tickets from him.”
“Where to?”
“Alaska. We’ll fly to Long Beach, and then we’ll be gone six days. I talked to Mom, and she’s dying to look after Little O while we have a second honeymoon because come next June we’re going to be busy.”
“We should be saving our money,” Shelley advised.
“We can make it work.”
“Make it work” had been Oscar’s mantra most of his life. Not Gary’s. While Oscar tried to save the world, Gary focused more on the damage left behind. The problem was he’d never thought enough pieces were left behind to make anything “work” again.
“It’s a good idea,” Aunt Bianca said. “Maybe if your parents had done something like this, they’d—”
Oscar gave her a look. Clearly this wasn’t what he’d expected her to say.
“She’s been talking about our father for days,” Gary put in.
“What’s going on, Aunt Bianca?” Oscar managed just the right look, one that Gary never managed: concern mixed with intent. All Gary could manage was disbelief.
“I’ve asked Gary to look into Berto’s disappearance.”
Oscar set down his fork and stared at Aunt Bianca. Finally, he said, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.”
“It’s time,” Aunt Bianca said.
Oscar nodded. “I agree.”
“What?” Gary broke in. “You’ve never said a word about our father’s disappearance, not since right after it happened.”
“Because it made both Hector and Anna cry,” Oscar defended himself.
Gary leaned forward. “So, you’re telling me that if our father is in, say, Florida someplace with a new wife and kids, you’d like to find him and say, ‘Hey, Dad’?”
“I’m not saying that at all,” Oscar said. “When he first disappeared, Mom was all ‘Something happened,’ then that changed. I’ve always wondered what. Do you know, Aunt Bianca?”
“I don’t. I do know that Berto came here for a reason. He was agitated. I tried to get him to confide in me, but he wouldn’t.”
Gary tried to remember his father. He remembered laughter, and roughhousing, and fart jokes. Most of all he remembered the day his mother told him and his siblings that their father wouldn’t be coming home. Oscar had been all of twelve; Gary ten; Hector eight; Anna just six.
While Oscar took charge, Gary took to the streets; Hector escaped into books; Anna clung. She might well have saved them all. Every time Gary turned around, she’d been there: following him to the skateboard park, grabbing one of his Xbox controllers, sitting next to him spooning Fruity Pebbles into her mouth.
Shelley gave Oscar another look—Gary interpreted it as “We’ll be talking later”—and got up.
Shelley pulled Little O from his high chair, brushed off a few crumbs but left a still-wet orange glob stain. Right now, everyone called the kid Little O because they were trying to differentiate. Shelley tried the “Junior” bit a few times but both Oscar and Gary gave her the evil eye. She’d also tried Ozzie. No better.
So, little Oscar—better yet, Little O—it was.
The kid would hate it once he hit fourth grade. No one wanted to be called little. Gary pushed back from the table and started to excuse himself. He needed to get out of here before Aunt Bianca brought up the search for his father again. He’d already half committed. It would take only a nudge for him to completely take on the task.
“Wait, Aunt Bianca’s bringing the dessert now,” Oscar said, “and we have a favor to ask.”
“Name it, but not babysitting.” Maybe, though, Gary considered, babysitting wouldn’t be so bad. He’d just make sure he had help. Someone like Officer Leann Bailey. It might be the perfect ploy to get her next to him. He needed to make up for their exchange outside the lawyer’s office. He’d known the minute he’d seen her in that hallway that she was upset. He had no clue why he’d decided to push her buttons.
Maybe because they were there and could be pushed.
“It is a form of babysitting, just not Little O. I need someone to watch Peeve while we’re in Sedona,” Oscar said.
Gary shot a look at his aunt, who was shaking her head and stating, “We’ve got two dogs too many.”
Goober and Wilma were outside, mostly because Wilma was a beggar and wouldn’t leave the table. She’d poke her nose in a lap, lay it on the table and scold in an indignant “Aren’t you going to feed me?” series of loud barks. Goober, although incredibly well behaved, probably wasn’t above snatching anything Little O happened to drop. Wilma, of course, would get there first.
“Too many dogs, I know,” Oscar said, “and I wouldn’t ask except we can’t take him on a cruise. He’s not a service animal.”
“I run a business,” Aunt Bianca reminded him. “Personally, my answer is yes to Peeve and no to the other two dogs. Gary, what are you going to do? It’s time to make up your mind.”
“I…” What was he going to do? He didn’t want to apply for jobs; he wasn’t staying. And, two dogs made traveling a bit difficult even when you knew what you were doing and where you were going.
“I should have said no to both Wilma and Goober,” he admitted. “Now I’m stuck.”
“It’s a good thing someone in the family knows how to make decisions as well as get what she wants.” Aunt Bianca stood, walked out of the room and soon they heard the old rolltop desk in her office open. After a moment, she came back with the big envelope Gary had picked up from her lawyer’s office on her behalf.
Shelley cleaned up the rest of the table and wiped it down, and Aunt Bianca laid three photos as well as a deed in front of her nephews.
Gary stared at a picture of slender green trees rising high in the sky, grass that needed cutting and a decrepit cabin in the midst of it all. There was a hole in the red tin roof, two of the beams holding the porch’s roof up sagged, and the rock chimney was missing more than a few rocks.
“A beautiful mess,” he muttered.
“Like your dog ownership,” Oscar added.
At that, Shelley snickered, Aunt Bianca laughed out loud and little Oscar crooned along with them all.
“I need to make some changes to my will,” Aunt Bianca said. “Not right away, and before I do, I want to see what I have.”
“You own this?” Gary asked in awe.
“It belonged to my great-grandparents. I’m ashamed at how I’ve let it go.”
“It looks pretty good,” Oscar observed, “for being that old and let go. Shelley and I have been out there a time or two?”
“Where is it exactly?” Gary asked.
“Just inside city limits, about three miles down County Road 6 and off to the west. It’s a mile from the base of the Jemez Mountain.”
“Blackgoat land?” Shelley said.
“They still own over a hundred acres. Our family bought at the same time, not as much, forty acres just behind them. For a while, both families raised sheep.”
Both Gary and Oscar raised their eyebrows.
“What?” Aunt Bianca queried. “You mean you didn’t know how long the Guzman family has been in this area.”
“Guess not,” Gary admitted.
“The Guzmans were here when this area was little more than a settlement. There’s a rumor that one of our relatives even tried to name the town Dead Bull’s Corner.”
“Sounds like something a Guzman would do,” Gary deadpanned.
Shelley studied the photos. “It still has an outhouse. That’s what I remember.”
Bianca nodded. “Yes, but indoor plumbing was added in the sixties. Until your father disappeared, it was kept up. It’s just been the last seventeen years that it’s fallen apart.”
“Exactly how long our father has been missing,” Oscar noted.
“The cabin was left to Roberto and me. When your mother had him declared legally dead, it came to me.”
“Why aren’t you using it, or selling it, or something?” Gary asked.
“The last time I saw Roberto,” Aunt Bianca said, her voice quavering, “he was standing on that porch noticing how much work needed to be done to the beams. He was going to fix it up. Oh, he’d talked about it before, but this time he sounded like he really meant it. I don’t know. In the back of my mind, I think I’ve left it be because I kept expecting he’ll show up one day and be glad I saved it for him.”
“And you no longer feel that way?” Shelley asked gently.
“He had no intention of coming back,” Gary said.
Bianca gave Gary a look, one that would have stilled a weaker man, but Gary wasn’t weak. Gary had never believed his father would return. He’d made his little sister, Anna, cry more than once by telling her the hard truth, and to this day, whenever Gary thought of his father, he became angry and often felt frustrated.
“No,” Bianca admitted. “Not after all this time.”
Using one finger, Oscar pushed the photos closer to Gary. “We went there as children. Do you remember?”
Gary shook his head.
“Your mother didn’t like it much,” Aunt Bianca said. “She got bit by a spider the first time she visited and that ended her forays into the woods forever. It’s time to fix it up. If nothing else, I can rent it out. Make some money.”
Looking at Gary, Aunt Bianca said, “You should move out there, Gary. Take the dogs, take time to think about your future, and while you’re doing that, fix up the place and see if there’s any hint of what Berto was really doing out there.”
“I’m out of your price range,” Gary half joked.
“When you were young, you’d work for kisses.”
“That was Oscar, not me.” Gary pushed away from the table. He felt a little like he’d just been given orders and would have to head someplace he didn’t really want to go. He’d be all alone out there, and since leaving the military, he’d been wary of solitude.
Right now, though, he seemed to be a dog magnet, had no place to call his own, and it was starting to drive him crazy. Aunt Bianca, with her infinite wisdom, probably knew that.
“It would take me a couple of weeks to make it livable,” he finally said, aware that everyone was watching him. “A couple of months to make it livable for anyone else.”
“You can borrow our camper,” Oscar offered. “Live in it.”
“You never let me borrow your things.”
“Yes, but I want you to watch Peeve.”
“Borrow the camper,” Aunt Bianca suggested and gave him “the look.” He had two, no three, dogs to take care of and she had a business to run and complaining neighbors.
Yup, Oscar—as always—was taking charge of his future, while Gary was being forced to dwell on his lack of one.
Gary was a loose end that needed to be tied.
He didn’t like it one bit.