His mind made up, Jimmy headed for his white Dodge 250 truck, brushing his hands on his shirt. He thought briefly about going inside and washing up, but if he did, Aunt Shari would either want to feed him or want to know what he was doing.
As he approached, he noticed the brown SUV was parked in front of the house. That told Jimmy the driver was a return visitor. A stranger would have stopped just past the road.
He parked behind the SUV as the porch door opened and a slender girl came out. No, not a girl, a woman. One he knew well. Meredith Stone, all long golden-brown hair, pink sweaters, and endless energy and smiles.
At least that’s how he remembered her.
Today her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, and her hoodie was black. Judging by the way she hurried down the front walkway toward him, the energy was still there, but the smile was gone.
This wasn’t good.
He almost opened his mouth to tell her how not good her sudden appearance was. Now was the worst time for her to return, just weeks before Danny got married.
Danny still avoided mentioning her name.
Heck, sometimes Jimmy couldn’t choke it out, either.
But before he could say anything, Meredith skidded to a stop right in front of him, panic in her eyes, and said, “I can’t find Grandpa.”
WHILE JIMMY CALLED his aunt Shari and quickly gave her the rundown, Meredith paced. She hadn’t changed, not one bit, in the years since he’d seen her last. Today, she was like a two-year-old colt, not quite broke and wanting to move. She wanted to search some more, with or without him.
Hanging up, Jimmy said, “Aunt Shari will get a hold of the neighbors. We’ll spread out and cover more territory. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.”
“My brother’s on his way,” Meredith said. “He’s trying to get a hold of my parents. I—I didn’t know who else to call. I was about to call your uncle, when you drove up.”
Considering that the Stones and Murphys had been neighbors for more than thirty years, she shouldn’t have hesitated. “You can always call my dad, me, my uncle—” he looked her right in the eye “—my brother.”
“I’m so flustered,” Meredith muttered, “that I couldn’t remember a phone number for anyone in your family.”
Any other day, any other moment, Jimmy might have smiled. There’d been a time when Meredith had talked to both him and his brother on the phone daily, either talking or texting. Usually she’d been trying to organize their day to her liking. He’d always reorganized. Danny had actually followed her directions.
But now she looked ready to cry, something she didn’t do easily. He knew that firsthand.
“I’m usually spot on in an emergency,” she muttered.
He knew that, too. “You’re sure Ray’s not in the house?”
“I’m sure. The house wasn’t that hard to search.”
No, Jimmy had to agree with that. There were three bedrooms, which made up half the house. A kitchen, bathroom and living room made up the other half.
“You went downstairs?”
“I did.”
She’d never much liked the basement, Jimmy remembered. It was half finished, which bothered her to no end, and most of it was dirt walls. Sometimes snakes managed to get in.
Though that had never bothered Meredith. She’d just caught them, taken them outside and let them go. He’d helped her—and fallen in love. Who wouldn’t fall in love with a girl who thought snakes deserved a second chance?
“Pepper keeps barking,” Meredith said impatiently. “I can hear him in the distance. I’ve shouted his name until I’m hoarse. I tried to follow the sound, but I can’t figure out where he is. Once I thought he yelped, like he was hurt, so I decided to come back and get help. On top of everything else, I had to keep searching for a location to get cell-phone reception.”
Jimmy checked his own phone again. All the bars showed and the signal was strong. “You want to stay here at the house and wait, or come with me?”
She didn’t hesitate. “I’m coming with you.”
As they stepped out the back door, in the distance Jimmy, too, could hear Pepper’s barks.
“Sounds like Pepper’s well past the end of the field.”
Meredith agreed. “At least to the foothill.”
Surely Ray hadn’t walked all that way. Jimmy had stopped by to check on him just two days ago. Ray’d had trouble just getting up from the easy chair and heading to the kitchen for a snack.
But Meredith was already moving through the backyard and toward the sound. “I don’t get why Grandpa would come out here.”
Jimmy thought for a moment. “Maybe he did what we’re doing. He heard Pepper barking and wondered if something was wrong.”
Meredith had never acted like a rich girl when her parents had had money. She’d preferred being out here with her grandparents and with him and his brother. And right now, she followed Jimmy and didn’t mind that her shoes were getting dirty or that her hoodie was getting snagged.
It had been almost a decade since he’d seen her this close. His family, though, had kept him informed a bit. He’d been in Australia doing a crocodile story when the Stones had thrown Ray a big eightieth birthday two years ago. Jimmy hadn’t received an invitation, but his mother had told him about the event. She’d said Meredith looked good and was doing what she loved.
Mom was wrong. Meredith didn’t look good; she looked great.
Meredith spoke up. “Maybe I should have kept looking for him.”
“You did the right thing, coming back for help,” Jimmy reassured her as she stepped around a paloverde tree and almost lost his balance as the terrain started to slope.
“The right thing is finding him.”
“If you’d found him injured, you wouldn’t have been able to get him home on your own and even more time would have been wasted.”
“He might not even be with Pepper,” she muttered. She muttered a lot more than she used to, that’s for sure. “He might be out looking for Rowdy, and Pepper’s just out here playing with us.”
“Rowdy? He’s been dead for—”
“Almost ten years,” Meredith finished. “Zack says he had to remind Grandpa of that fact just the other day. Grandpa’s getting forgetful.”
“Or maybe Pepper’s out here on his own and your grandpa went into town.”
“Leaving the television on? His breakfast plate still on the kitchen table? Plus, Zack organizes all Grandpa’s trips into town. No, Grandpa’s next doctor’s appointment isn’t for a month, and that’s a specialist in Phoenix, and Zack is taking him.”
“And he wasn’t expecting you?”
She shook her head. “We were afraid if he knew I was coming, it would upset him. I’m...” She hesitated. “I’m moving in for a while.”
“Good. He needs someone.” Jimmy upped his pace, refusing to take the time to consider how having Meredith next door again might affect the balance of his family: Danny getting married; Jimmy home again but intending to leave as soon as the next story, next locale, called.
He followed the barking as it grew louder, more frantic, and Meredith had been right, it seemed to come from different directions: right, left, straight ahead. It echoed, too,