“Parker!”
Hunter and Parker both turned their attention to me. I was so worried, so scared at the sight of my little boy hurt that I couldn’t even think straight. The moment I reached Parker, I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around him.
“Mom!” he shouted, not pleased at all by my behavior.
“What happened?”
“Mo-om,” he said, embarrassed. “Sto-op. Mr. Anderson’s taking care of it.”
“Taking care of what?”
“Mandy,” Lizzie said, snapping me out of my frantic state of mind. “Let’s let the nice man explain, alright?”
I turned my eyes to him, Hunter’s blues as piercing as ever.
“I was coming down to the mailbox,” he said. “Spotted your boy just in time to see him take a tumble. Scuffed up his leg a bit, so I told him to stay put while I got my medical kit.” He raised his hand, his fingers wrapped around the handle of a first-aid kit that I hadn’t even noticed through the panic.
I looked down again at Parker’s leg again.
“Nothing serious,” Hunter said, his voice gruff. “But ought to be taken care of all the same. Can’t be too careful when it comes to infection.”
“And you know what you’re doing?” Lizzie asked.
“Medical training in the service and on the police force,” he revealed. “I’m not a medic, but I can handle a ding like this.”
As he turned his attention back to Parker, the strangest thing happened – he smiled. It wasn’t a big, beaming smile, but a smile all the same.
“And the little man here’s been pretty tough about it,” he said. “Didn’t shed a single tear.”
“I’m not going to cry,” Parker said, a hard look on his face. “I’m tough.”
“That’s right, you are,” Hunter agreed. “But I ought to ask your mama before I tend to that gusher of yours.” He lifted his blue eyes to look at me.
“Um, sure,” I said. “If you know what you’re doing.”
I knew how to handle a scrape – not like I didn’t have experience with situations like that raising a boy. But as I watched Hunter drop to his knee and treat the wound, I noticed how skillful he was. He cleaned the scrape with some rubbing alcohol, applied some antibiotic ointment, and bandaged it like he’d done it a million times before.
“There you go,” he said when he was done, giving Parker a pat on the shoulder. “Good as new.”
“Yeah!” Parker said. “Easy, right?”
Another slight smile from Hunter. “Yeah, easy.” He stood up. The man was so tall he made Parker look even smaller than he already was. “Anyway,” Hunter said. “I’ll get on my way. I’m sure you can take it from here.”
He mussed Parker’s hair, the kid’s reaction shocking. Instead of squirming away or looking embarrassed, he grinned broadly as if he liked that kind of attention from a man like Hunter.
I watched as he started back up the hill toward his home, disappearing over the top. As soon as he was gone, I turned my attention back to Parker.
“You okay, kiddo?” I asked.
He looked at me with an expression of surprise, as if he couldn’t believe I was even asking. “I’m fine,” he said. “It doesn’t even hurt.”
Before the conversation could continue, a car appeared in the distance. As it drew closer, I saw a dark blue BMW SUV, the man behind the wheel wearing sunglasses.
“Shit,” I said under my breath, realizing who it was. I caught myself, but Parker’s attention was on the car and hadn’t noticed my swear.
“Oh no,” said Lizzie. “Is that…?”
The car arrived just as she spoke, coming to a halt next to us. Adam Barnes. He was an old friend of Michael’s from back in the day, a kind of mirror image of my and Lizzie’s relationship. But while Lizzie and I were close as they came, Adam and Michael…were different. I’d always had the impression that Adam had been jealous of Michael. Michael was all-American, a popular athlete. Adam was more bookish, the two of them seemingly friends simply from childhood inertia.
“Hey!” he said, slipping off his sunglasses and smiling wide, that familiar intense look in his eyes. “I’ll meet you at the house.”
He didn’t give me a chance to respond before driving on, dust from his tires flying into the air and forcing a sputtering cough out of my lungs.
“Figured it was only a matter of time before he showed up,” Lizzie commented as the three of us started back to the house. There was a sharpness to her tone, one that suggested she wasn’t crazy about seeing Adam either.
“What’s that all about?” I asked, curious about the cause of her attitude.
“With Adam? Just get a weird vibe from him.”
“Ever since Michael passed, he’s been in touch, checking up on Parker and me,” I told her.
“Mr. Barnes bought me a PlayStation,” Parker said. “He’s nice.”
“Guess he’s got the money to throw around,” Lizzie murmured. “But…I don’t know. I’ve just always gotten a weird vibe from him.”
“Well, I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’d odd but harmless. And he’s been…nice.” I borrowed Parker’s word, not sure which other one to use.
“Nice is what people say about someone when they want to be polite,” Lizzie said with a slight smirk.
“Well, he’s kind of, um, intense. He checks up a lot. Really, I’m surprised it took him this long to come out to see us.”
Adam was already out of his car, the sleeves of his expensive white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. The guy wasn’t bad-looking – tall and trim with close-cropped dark hair and a face of sharp features that always reminded me of a fox. Adam had stayed in town after most of our friend group left and scattered around the country. He’d made good money as a local businessman, forming solid connections with the elite people in town.
He didn’t turn to me and Parker and Lizzie as we arrived, instead looking around the house as if inspecting it. “These solar panels are no good,” he commented, staring at the roof. “About half need to be replaced, and what you’ve got won’t be able to hold a charge. I’ll talk to Roy down at the industrial supply store in Bedford and see about getting you a deal on some new ones.”
“Good to see you, Adam.”
He gave a quick nod over his shoulder before turning back. “And these windows are really poorly insulated,” he continued, causing slight irritation in me. “You’re going to freeze come winter. I know a guy at a local contracting place – we’ll get this sorted out.” He turned back to the three of us, a focused look in his eyes. “Who built this place? It’s a damn energy suck.”
“My dad did,” I told him, lifting an eyebrow. “With his own two hands.”
Adam realized his misstep, but I gave him a small smile to let him know I wasn’t too peeved about it.
“Oh, sorry. Just…want to make sure you’re taken care of out here.” He spotted my car with its back bumper still crumpled. “And what the hell happened here? Did you get into an accident? What happened? With who?” He stepped over to me, his features worried and intense.