Читать книгу Magick Run Amok - Sharon Pape - Страница 15

Chapter 7

“I don’t understand,” I said. Travis had never mentioned a brother. When he’d talked about his childhood and his family, it was always his mom, dad, and him. Plus Ryan’s last name was Cutler, not Anderson.

Travis was staring straight ahead through the windshield. “It’s complicated.”

“If you don’t want to go into it now, that’s okay,” I said, though my Nancy Drew alter ego was kicking me in the shins.

He turned to me. “I’ve been avoiding the subject, because I’m not exactly the good guy in this story.”

So that was the reason he’d avoided telling me about it until now. I put my hand over his on the console between us. “It can’t be harder than it was for me to admit that I’m not your typical girl next door and that my family has more in common with the Addams Family than The Brady Bunch.”

“Yeah, and remember how well I took that news.”

“I promise not to run,” I said. “In fact I dare you to scare me off.”

His mouth curved up in a rueful smile. “Well, when you put it that way, how can a guy resist?”

“C’mon, give it your best shot.”

“Okay, here’s the unvarnished story.” He looked down at our joined hands as if it was easier not to face me. “Up until my freshman year in high school, I was a happy, slightly spoiled only child in a middle-class household. Ryan was a freshman in the same high school. We had a lot of classes together, but we ran in different circles. Never clicked as friends. There was this silent kind of rivalry between us that I don’t think either of us signed up for. I bested him academically; he beat me out for quarterback. Stupid high school crap. One afternoon he’s called out of class and he doesn’t come back. We’re all wondering what kind of trouble he’s in. Was he suspended? Expelled? That night my mom tells me his parents died in a car crash. One minute Ryan has a family and the next he’s all alone.”

“No siblings?” He shook his head. “No grandparents or aunts and uncles?”

“Nope, not a one. So Ryan winds up in the foster system. Enter my mom, social worker extraordinaire with friends in all the right positions to bend a few rules and overlook a few others. She knew the Cutlers casually from school functions and was heartsick about Ryan’s circumstances. The next thing I know, we’re his foster family.”

“Did your mom run it by you?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I guess she had to run it by my father though, get him to sign some papers and be approved.”

“Wow” was all I could think to say.

“Yeah,” he said wryly. “Mom is a steamroller when she has a cause.”

“I take it the transition wasn’t easy for you.”

“To be fair, it was harder on Ryan. But that wisdom was a long time coming. I felt like my home, my whole life had been invaded. I tried to be cool about sharing my room, my parents, my world, but most of the time I know it came across as grudging.”

“You were fourteen for goodness sake. I don’t know if there could have been a worse time for that to happen. For both of you. How did he handle it?”

“He was stoic. I never saw him cry. Made me think he didn’t even appreciate what my family was doing for him. What I was giving up for him. My mother tried to help me understand. She said he was numb. When pain is too difficult to bear, the psyche copes by repressing the emotions. ‘What about my pain?’ I asked her. ‘What about what I’ve lost?’ It took me years to recognize how selfish and crappy that was.”

“So at some point your parents adopted Ryan?”

“Fast forward to May of our junior year—May tenth to be exact. The day is etched into my mind. They told him they wanted to adopt him, make him their son in the eyes of the law. It was like lighting the fuse to his emotions. He blew up, said he didn’t want any part of it. He was proud of the name Cutler and it had been left to him to see that it survived.”

“He could have hyphenated the names.”

“My mom told him that. She said he didn’t even have to change his name. He thanked my folks for everything they’d done for him, but he’d had wonderful parents too and he refused to think of anyone else in that way. I could tell my mom was disappointed, but she said she understood. To me it was the final insult. Which made no sense, because I’d been against the idea until he turned them down.

Anyway, Ryan and I muddled through the last years of high school, living as separately as we could under the same roof. I knew it saddened my parents, but I didn’t care. The whole damn thing was their fault to begin with.” Travis paused to look up at me. “Ready to run yet?”

“Not even close,” I said softly, not wanting to interrupt the flow of his words.

“Man, I couldn’t wait to go off to college and be done with him. My grades got me a free ride to Duke. He was offered a football scholarship to Penn State. Distance didn’t make our hearts grow fonder. I dreaded going back home for the holidays. Summers, Ryan found jobs so he could stay in Pennsylvania. I was thrilled. At least I expected to be. The longer Ryan stayed away, the more I found myself thinking about him, which irritated the hell out of me. The first time he didn’t come home for Christmas, I finally had to admit that I missed him. My small family had been more than enough for me all the years before Ryan joined it, but somewhere along the way, in spite of myself, he’d become an integral part of it. I could tell my folks felt the loss too, but to their credit, they never blamed me. I think they took it as their failure, which only made me feel worse.”

I was so engrossed in Travis’s confession that I nearly went airborne when the theme from Star Wars rang out. He pulled out his cell and listened to the caller for all of twenty seconds. “Got it,” he said before clicking off and turning on the engine.

A groan almost escaped my throat, but I managed to swallow it. I was learning to dread the music. Whenever I heard it, Travis had to leave. I was Pavlov’s dog, minus the all-important reward. I didn’t say it to Travis, not even in a joking way. News happened when it happened. It didn’t run on a schedule. If I wanted him in my life, I had to learn to live with the interruptions and sudden changes in plans. The way he was learning to live with magick. “What’s happening?” I asked as he pulled away from the curb. I doubted it could be as important to me as the story of him and Ryan.

“The ME is going to release a preliminary report on Ryan’s death at four.”

“That’s fast. Doesn’t it take longer for the toxicology results?”

“Maybe he found something he doesn’t want to hold back until then.”

“I guess I can watch on my phone,” I said, thinking out loud. “Unless I have a customer.”

“Not a problem. I’ll call you as soon as I’m off the air. If you don’t answer, I’ll leave a message.”

“My very own breaking news report. I must really rate.”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” he said, hitting the gas. “I’ll just have time to drop you back at your shop and make it to the press conference. Listen, I wanted to let you know that Ryan’s wake is tomorrow evening; the funeral’s the next morning. It’s in Huntington, out on Long Island, so I don’t want you to feel obligated to attend.”

“I’d like to be there for you,” I said. “Besides, what will your folks think of me if I don’t come at such an important time?”

“They know you have a business that would have to close if you were out of town. And they know you never had a chance to meet Ryan. My mom actually made me promise I would tell you to stay home and take care of your business. She said it’s ridiculous for you to travel so far. But she and my dad would like very much to meet you someday in the near future.”

“That’s very thoughtful of her,” I said, “especially when she has so much to deal with.”

Travis shrugged. “She’s pragmatic, always has been. She deals with life head-on.”

“But what about you? Don’t you need some emotional support?”

“The best thing for me is to get back to finding the killer. That’s my way of honoring Ryan. And you’ve already done a lot to help.”

“If you change your mind, all it takes is a phone call and I’ll be there.”

“I know you would.”

“By the way,” I said a minute later, “what type of business do your parents think I own?”

“I told them it was a magic shop, but when they asked if you sold magic kits and tricks for kids, I didn’t correct them.” He stole a glance at me. “I’m sorry. I’m not quite ready to enlighten them.”

“You did the right thing,” I said. “My family prefers to reveal ourselves to the least number of people possible.” Besides I didn’t want to scare his parents off before I met them.