Lost Cause. Janice Johnson Kay

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ mean he was a Bandido or Hells Angel.

      Nonetheless, she circled the back of her car so that she wasn’t too near him on the sidewalk. She gave a vague, pleasant nod in his direction, then started toward the driveway.

      His voice followed her. “Are you Suzanne?” He sounded doubtful.

      “Me?” She turned, startled. “No. Is that who you’re looking for?”

      “Yeah.” He nodded toward the house. “This is the address I have for her.”

      “It is her address.” Should she have told him that? “If you don’t know what she looks like, I guess you’re not an old friend.”

      A nerve jumped in his cheek. “She’s my sister.”

      She gaped. “Your…what? But…”

      “I don’t know what she looks like. Yeah.” His mouth twisted. “Long story. Do you know her?”

      “Not yet. I’m here to interview her.” None of his business, she reminded herself. He didn’t know what his own sister looked like. Sure. “Well.” Out of her element, she said, “Shall we go to the door together?”

      He didn’t move. “No, go ahead. She’s not expecting me.”

      O-kay. She gave another nod his way and continued up the driveway. To her annoyance, she was too conscious of his gaze to assess the house or yard as she walked, or to organize her thoughts.

      She rang the bell, and the door opened so quickly, Suzanne had to have been hovering nervously in the entryway. She looked just like the photo in the file, pretty and petite with warm brown eyes and thick, glossy dark hair bundled on the crown of her head with a scrunchy.

      Smiling, Suzanne said, “Hi, you’re Ms. Wilson?”

      “Rebecca, please.” They shook hands. “What a nice neighborhood! And I see you have a bit of a view.”

      Suzanne laughed. “That’s a generous way of describing the fact that if you stand at the very edge of the porch and crane your neck you can see a sliver of blue.” Her gaze went past Rebecca. “I wonder who that is.”

      Rebecca looked over her shoulder. “The guy with the bike? He says…” Wow, she felt silly even saying this. “He says he’s your brother.”

      She could never have expected the reaction she got. A tiny whimper escaped the woman who’d greeted her with such friendly poise and Suzanne gripped the door frame, face suddenly pale. “My…brother?” she whispered.

      “Well, he said you’re his sister, but he doesn’t know what you look like. I didn’t take him seriously….”

      As if she didn’t hear her, Suzanne brushed past Rebecca and hurried down the steps and then the driveway.

      The man, who’d been half sitting on his bike, legs casually crossed, rose to his feet.

      “Lucien?” Rebecca heard Suzanne say, voice high-pitched, shocked.

      “So I’m told. Gary now.”

      Rebecca watched, openmouthed, as Suzanne Chauvin threw her arms around the dark stranger. Even from this distance, she could see that he was startled and didn’t know what to do. After a moment, he awkwardly lifted his arms from his sides and patted her back as she apparently sobbed on his chest.

      The scene was so bizarre, Rebecca didn’t quite know what to do. Leave and politely deny the application? Wait to hear an explanation? She was fairly new at this, but she’d never had an applicant so completely lose interest in her arrival for a home study. Anyone who wanted to adopt knew that this visit was make-or-break.

      Finally, sniffling, Suzanne stepped back. She and the man spoke for a moment, the words indistinguishable to Rebecca. Then she gasped and turned toward Rebecca. She said something else to him, and finally they both came up the driveway to where Rebecca waited on the porch.

      Tendrils of dark hair had pulled from the knot on Suzanne’s head, and her face was blotchy and wet. “I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed. “You must think I’m crazy!”

      The thought had crossed Rebecca’s mind, but she murmured, “No, no.”

      “I said in my application that my parents died when I was young and my siblings and I got split up. Lucien…” She glanced quickly at the man next to her. “Gary was adopted out. I haven’t seen him since he was three years old.”

      “No wonder you didn’t recognize each other! How on earth did you find her?” Rebecca asked him.

      His mouth tilted in what might have been a smile. “She found me.”

      “Months ago,” his sister filled in. “But he said he wasn’t interested in a reunion, so I tried to resign myself to never seeing him again. And then…and then…”

      “He showed up out of the blue.” Rebecca’s eyes met his, completely unrevealing. Why had he changed his mind? Why decide to just drop out of the sky like this?

      “Yes.” Suzanne dashed at her tears. “Oh, gracious! I so wanted to impress you, and then I fall apart like this!”

      “Getting a little emotional is certainly understandable, under the circumstances.” So why wasn’t he getting emotional? she wondered. “Suzanne, meeting your brother for the first time in…”

      “Twenty-six years.” New tears filled her eyes.

      “…twenty-six years should take precedence,” Rebecca said. “Why don’t you and I reschedule?”

      “Oh, I can’t inconvenience you like that!” Suzanne Chauvin was trying to hide her alarm, but failing.

      Rebecca understood that convenience wasn’t what they were talking about. Suzanne feared she’d just blown her big opportunity.

      Rebecca smiled. “No, I really mean it. You’ll be torn two ways if you and I try to sit down to talk. I can easily come back next week. Maybe even later this week. Let me check my schedule. We can talk tomorrow. Okay?”

      Suzanne smiled shakily and then gave her what appeared to be an impulsive hug. “Bless you. This is…” her gaze strayed to the impassive man standing beside her, “so amazing.”

      “Well.” Rebecca smiled at him, too. What the heck. “Nice to meet you, Mr….?”

      “Lindstrom.” He held out a large hand. “Ms….?”

      “Wilson,” she replied, as she clasped his hand.

      They shook. “Pleasure,” he murmured.

      “I’ll call,” Rebecca promised, and left without ever going in the house.

      As she drove away, she reflected on what the odds were that her appointment would coincide with the arrival of a long-lost brother.

      She briefly wondered if the scene could have been staged, but remembered the shock and blaze of joy on Suzanne Chauvin’s face and dismissed the possibility. СКАЧАТЬ