Jen slid off her stool and retrieved it, before opening the door for Mara.
Took care of the broken window. And the bat. But now I owe you a badminton racquet. It didn’t survive the fight. —L
All the puzzlement of this morning dissipated in the wake of her laughter now. And her gratitude. “I’ll never be able to thank him for all of this.”
Mara peeked around the refrigerator door. “Veggies in the bottom drawer?”
Jenessa nodded. Mara rose and closed the fridge. She marched to the coffeepot, pulled a cup from the mug tree nearby, filled it up, and handed it to Jenessa.
“I don’t know how I ended up with friends like you guys.”
Mara went back to unpacking groceries. “I do. You came waltzing into my world when I didn’t even know how much I needed you. Marsh would say the same.”
“Waltzing, huh? According to Lucas, I barreled into his life and demanded he become my friend.”
Mara grinned. “And my guess is he, in particular, thanks his lucky stars for that every day.”
“Why him in particular?”
Marshall came in before Mara could answer, Sam on his heels. He was here, too? He pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head, glanced at the kids and then at Jenessa. “Nice hoodie.”
“Lucas left it here.” Why that fact would make Sam’s forehead crease, she didn’t know. But she had three hungry kids waiting on breakfast and no clue what to make them, so—
“Froot Loops!” Violet’s squeal broke in and Jenessa followed the direction of her gaze to where Mara was pulling a box of cereal from a grocery bag.
All right, cereal it is. Not exactly the hot breakfast she’d envisioned, but it’d make at least one kid happy.
“Can I talk to you for a sec, Jen?” Sam took off his sunglasses and dropped them in his front pocket.
“But the kids . . .”
“I can get them situated,” Mara offered. “I got milk to replace your expired gallon, by the way. Another instruction from Luke. Oh, and he mentioned a baby, so just in case, I grabbed formula.”
She thanked Mara, then followed Sam into the dining room. “Let me guess. Luke told you about the helmet and the badminton racquet and the bat.”
His forehead creased all over again. “What?”
“He didn’t tell you about falling down the attic steps?”
“I didn’t even know he was here last night. I came to check on the kids. And to give you this.” He handed her a scrap of paper with a scribbled telephone number on it. “An emergency number for a DHS contact.”
Oh. Right. Making that call should take precedence over anything else this morning. And yet . . .
She could see into the kitchen over Sam’s shoulder, to where Violet was bouncing up and down in her seat as Mara poured her a bowl of cereal. Cade had already grabbed a fistful of Froot Loops and was shoving them in his mouth.
And Colie . . . she stared back at Jenessa. Even from here she could read the knowing in the girl’s eyes. The dread.
“Sam—”
“You have to make the call, Jen.”
She met Sam’s firm gaze, kept her voice low. “What if they can’t find their father? What if they do and he’s awful? Or what if the kids have to go into foster care? They could get split up.”
“Jen—”
“I know I have to make the call, I do.” It’s not like she could keep the kids here indefinitely. But Vi looked so happy and Cade seemed so content and Colie . . . a full night of sleep hadn’t erased the shadows under her eyes. She might need a respite more than any of them. “What’s the harm in waiting a bit?”
“The harm is that despite what Colie says, there could be some frantic person—a guardian of some sort—worried to death right now.”
“They’re from right here in Maple Valley. If they had a guardian worrying over them, that person would’ve gone to the police. Which happens to be you. We’d know if there was someone looking for them.”
“Even so.” Sam sighed. “Please, Jen. Make the call. Or I will.”
The headache Lucas had woken up with after only three scant hours of sleep still hadn’t faded.
The only upside was that it’d given him a legitimate excuse when he’d called Kit to tell her he’d be a little late to Apple Fest this morning. He felt guilty about it, though. With today being Saturday, the orchard would be even busier than yesterday.
Flagg hadn’t necessarily needed a ride to the airport, what with the rental car and all, but Noah’s flight was scheduled to arrive around the same time Flagg’s departed. Lucas preferred the idea of meeting the younger man there, away from Maple Valley. It’d give him time to assess Noah.
And decide what to tell everyone about the situation. Perhaps he could just keep it vague. Call Noah a fellow former soldier in need of a getaway. Say a mutual friend had connected them.
Flagg pulled his small carry-on bag from the cab of Lucas’s truck. They’d dropped the rental off in Ames and driven the rest of the way together. “Have to say, I love an airport so small you don’t have to arrive more than forty minutes before your flight.”
“I’m with you there.” And for an international airport, the Des Moines airfield was about as small as they came. They crossed the road that separated the parking ramp from the main building, and Lucas followed Flagg into the revolving door that led into the ticketing area. “My sister’s not as big of a fan of this airport, though. She lived in London for six or seven years after college. I didn’t see her a ton in those years, but the few times I did, she never failed to complain about all the stops she had to make between here and there.”
“For what it’s worth, I would’ve enjoyed meeting your sister.” Flagg slowed as they neared the escalator. He’d already checked in to his flight online.
Lucas stretched one arm and then the other, squelching a yawn in the process. He wasn’t sure whether the sore muscles in his arms and back came from that climbing wall yesterday or the fall down Jen’s attic stairs last night—or all the trips he’d made up them later, carrying one armload of boxes after another.
Nor was he sure what exactly had prompted him to take charge of the task. She’d still have to sort through all her parents’ belongings at some point, after all. But he’d figured if it were him, it’d be easier to do so in small doses. Seeing it all scattered about the house surely made it feel more overwhelming.
And anyway, after finding her sound asleep in the sunroom, he simply hadn’t been in a hurry to leave her house. Even though every speck of common sense told him the best thing he could do for himself was to put some space between them. Get used to the idea of not seeing her every day anymore.
“Did you hear me, Lucas? I said I would’ve liked to meet your family.”
“But, sir, you understand why that’s impossible, right? You know Kit doesn’t know . . .” Anything.
And tired as he was of the secrets and half-truths, the thought of revealing everything to his sister only made him feel worse. She’d be angry that he’d kept it from her this long. Confused as to why.
Sometimes he was even confused. He’d told himself for so long that he didn’t want Kit worrying every time he left on a mission. That so much of it was classified, it wasn’t as if he’d be able to tell her much, anyway.