burger out of his teeth, and making sure Brian had bottled water and snacks handy. Yet it seemed barely a blink of an eye later that he was sitting outside the little yellow house, waiting.
Chapter 11
One o’clock came and went outside Ari’s house, while Nick sat in the car, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Knock on the door? Assume she’s not coming? He reminded himself he’d once waited fourteen hours for some scum drug dealer to leave his apartment. He could manage a little patience for his own sister.
About twenty past, the front door opened and Ari came out wearing a short winter jacket and carrying a purse. She opened the car door, hesitated a long moment, then got in. “I didn’t tell Randy where I was going.”
“No?”
“He worries. He knows I had a brother way back when, who was in too much trouble to come with us when the Taylors moved out of the Twin Cities. He’d tell me to be very careful.”
Nick nodded. He’d say the same, if he didn’t know himself. “Is that what the Taylors said? That I was in trouble?”
“Something like that. You were fighting and being bad. So you couldn’t come.”
“Ah.”
“Why did they take you away?” Her voice held a hint of a child’s pain. “I remember you hugged me, and then you never came back.”
“I got caught fighting that day. I had a reason, but I was angry a lot. The Taylors didn’t want to deal with that. With me.” He tried to be fair to the family that raised her. “I guess I was a difficult kid.”
“They said you had to stay somewhere else. Because you’d been bad. For years, I thought you were in jail.”
“I was nine fu—freaking years old!”
“I know. Eventually I figured it out. You seemed so big to me, but you were just a little kid too. But by then… I don’t know.” She glanced out the window at her house. “Can we drive somewhere?”
“Where? You want to get coffee?”
“Anyplace open today will be a zoo. Drive down by the river.”
“You’ll have to direct me.”
“Left at the end of the block.”
He followed her terse directions along a divided street, across a major intersection, a bit more south, then a few blocks until they entered a small park. The road curved around and there was a paved pullout overlooking a small, tree-lined river. “Stop here,” she said.
He put the car in park. Ari made no move to get out, so he left the motor running against the chill in the air. She stared out the windshield at the leafless trees, the browning grass, and the gray water winding along in the river gully. “The Big Blue,” she said eventually. “Overhyped, like a lot of stuff in life.”
“Huh?”
“The river. Should be the Little Beige.”
He glanced at it. “Must be pretty in the spring and fall.”
“Yeah. I guess.” She went silent again. Before he couldn’t stand it and said something inane, she added, “I’ve been here five years now.”
“With Randy?”
“Kind of.” She picked at the purse on her lap, worrying the end of a thread that was coming loose. “He’s a good guy, Nick. You don’t need to worry about me now.”
He’d make his own call on that. “What about the Taylors? Are they close by?”
“No.” She fussed with the purse more, then set it by her feet, undid her seatbelt, and turned slightly to look at him. “Tell me about you first.”
“I’m pretty boring. Foster homes, which were a mixed bag, but I graduated high school. Drove a truck a couple of years, did community college while I was working, got accepted to the Minneapolis PD. Worked on the force for three years, did some undercover ops, decided to quit. Moved to North Carolina.”
“Why’d you quit? North Carolina? Are you doing okay?”
He shrugged. “Being a cop was mostly good— felt useful— but in the end, I had to make some choices I didn’t like. North Carolina’s a fresh start, with a couple of good friends.” That was all he wanted her to know, for now. “I’m doing okay. Better since I found you.” Time to shift the attention off himself. “I worried about you for years. I searched. Couldn’t track you down.”
“We moved a lot.” She sighed. “Pops was a good guy, but he couldn’t hold a job for more than a year without getting bored.”
“Were they kind to you, at least? You had it okay, growing up?” He held his breath, needing a yes but ready for