Page 44 of Forever Finds Us
Once I’d gotten her settled in her bed, I made her a cup of chamomile tea and handed her the remote to the TV mounted on her bedroom wall, and I stepped back into the hallway and grabbed my phone from my back pocket.
When my sister answered my call now, she sounded freaked out, like she was ten years old again, looking up to her brothers to protect their family. “What’s wrong? Is Mama okay?”
“Oh, sorry. Yeah, she’s okay. She’s in her happy place, watchin’ Forensic Files in her room, but I wanted to ask you about somethin’. I didn’t mention it when you were here in case she overheard.”
“Ask me what?” Abey said.
“Who’s the woman I remember hearin’ about who finds people? She lives around here, married a rancher, if I remember it right.”
“Billie Cade.”
“Do you think she could find Dixon? Merv brought him up on the drive home this afternoon. She’s scared of dyin’, scared he’ll blame himself the same way he did when Candy died.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. Don’t tell Bax. The last thing he needs to be reminded of is his dead wife and kid. He and Bea are happy. I don’t want Dixon to fuck it up. He’s not even here and he still has the power to break us. Just like Dad.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” my sister said and then mused, “I don’t know what Billie can do that I haven’t, but it’s worth a shot. Billie’s kind of a mastermind. If anyone could find Dixon, it’d be her. I’ll call her.”
“Tell her money’s not an issue, if that matters.”
“Not to Billie. I’ll let her know, but she and Carey are good friends, and she’s in my book club. She probably won’t take your money.”
“Okay, but offer it anyway.”
“I will. I’ll let you know what she says.”
“Thanks, sis.”
“You got it. I’ll talk at ya tomorrow.”
“Night.”
Because of Merv’s heart attack, I had completely forgotten about bringing dinner to the Manning family. Natalie had been released from the same hospital Merv had just been discharged from, and the family was resting at Cowboy Court, gearing up for their drive home.
When Bax, Bea, the kids, and I finally visited with them, I offered to fly them home and hire someone to drive their vehicle back to Nebraska, but Xavier had declined. Maybe it was pride, or maybe it was just that the father needed to find some kind of control after what happened to his daughter.
I could respect that, and I damn sure understood it.
So, instead, we ate José’s food together from paper plates, all of us crammed into the Mannings’ cabin, and then pigged out on dessert made by Carey’s wife, Frannie. Natalie said she was in a chocolate coma because Frannie had heard that Natalie loved hazelnut chocolates. The rich indulgences Frannie had made for the Mannings had crispy, candied hazelnut centers surrounded by dark-chocolate mousse and a milk-chocolate ganache coating, and they were the most decadent things I’d ever tasted. They could’ve been served in the most expensive restaurant in the world and wouldn’t have been out of place.
I’d invited Roxanne, but she and my sister were busy at work and couldn’t get the time away. But Roxanne promised to see the Mannings before they left town the next day. Natalie wanted to say goodbye to the woman who’d found her when she was lost.
Plus, there was still the issue of our time together being a secret. The Mannings wouldn’t have cared, but if Bax and Bea knew, they’d tell Abey, and Roxanne wasn’t ready yet.
I’d started to wonder when she would be ready. But whatever this thing was between us, it was still new, so I didn’t push.
Over the last several days, I found myself missing her, but work caught up to us both, and in the blink of an eye, a week had passed. The Mannings had made it safely back home to Nebraska, and life seemed to be moving on.
Abey called her friend, Billie, but after a few days, Billie had reported back that she’d found no sign of Dixon, wherever he was, but she wasn’t done searching. It would of course take time, but Billie was some kind of computer genius, so she’d set up programs to do the work for her when she couldn’t focus on Dixon.
I didn’t hold much hope, but I’d kept the truth to myself. For the purpose of her searches, I’d told Billie what I knew when she called to get more information from me, that Dixon’s last known location was Redding, California, but Abey still had no clue. If she knew, she’d tell the rest of our family, and then all hell would break loose.
Maybe it was self-preservation that made me withhold possibly the most vital piece of information concerning Dixon, but like a coward, I had hoped Abey’s friend would find our brother, and then the decision to come clean to my family would be taken out of my hands.
Would I ever feel clean where Dixon was concerned?
Before I knew it, Tab was rushing me out of Merv’s house because we were meeting Gina Scott at the coffee shop downtown, and then she and I had reservations at a restaurant in Jackson to discuss the new affordable-housing project we’d both been hired to build in the spring.
