There she was! His sister!
He knew it was her immediately. His frantic heart slowed a beat and the backpack was suddenly very heavy. He couldn’t look away from her. Elly was pretty—very pretty actually, in a nice, mom sort of way. Her blond curly hair bounced around a heart shaped and lightly freckled face. She had a large mouth and a lovely grin that stretched ear to ear. Her compact body was very curvy but not fat, and she was much shorter that Dennis. She was projecting an insane energy as she bustled around the shop, her happiness apparent from even twenty feet away. He had to wait an hour before the store was empty, when a smokin’ hot blond girl stormed out yelling something about an “old-lady store” and stomped down the street. Dennis said a quiet prayer—to whom, he wasn’t sure, steeled his nerves, and walked inside. I’ll pretend to buy some flowers, he thought. And then she will know.
She’ll have to know. She’s probably been waiting to meet me her whole life.
He took a deep breath and stepped into Posies, the bells clanking loudly behind him and his bright-orange backpack secured snugly against his shoulders. Elly was sitting at a desk with her head down on her keyboard. She looked up at him with a Post-it stuck to her head, her bright-blue eyes an exact mirror of his own. Please know me, he thought.
She looked at him blankly. “Oh, sorry about that. I just had an argument with an unruly worker. Can I help you?”
She didn’t know him.
Chapter Nine
Elly had the strange sensation of floating above the studio showroom, watching the conversation unfold. She felt out-of-body, confused, like she was swimming through thick water. Is this really happening? She thought. Could this possibly be real? She stared at Dennis, unable to look away, unable to tear her eyes from his scruffy face. Could everything he said actually be true? That he was her, what, her half brother? That the man that had fathered her had been a drinker, a deadbeat? That Aaron had actually helped her?
Dennis licked his lips and ran his hands through his greasy hair. “So, that’s it. That’s my story. Can I have something to drink?”
“No,” snapped a shocked Keith.
Right as Elly said, “Of course.”
Dennis shot Keith a nasty look. “I wasn’t asking you, dude, why don’t you go home already?”
“Keep it up. You’re asking to get punched again,” Keith replied calmly.
Elly gave Keith a stern look as she grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler. “Here you go.”
Dennis rolled his eyes and took a long sip of water. He cleared his throat and tapped his fingers against his lips. Elly leaned back in shock. I do that all the time.
Keith leaned toward Dennis. “So let me get this straight. You left your town of….”
“Sewell.”
“Sewell, to come and find Elly because you believe she’s your sister.”
“She is my sister,” he snapped back at Keith. They began bickering. All the sound was sucked out of the room as Elly stared at him, mesmerized by him, sulking in the chair. His full belly peeked out of a happy-face T-shirt that was much too tight. His jeans were dirty, ripped, and very worn, and the wide feet that poked out of his flip-flops were brown and disgusting. Dirty blond hair hung limp over his eyes, one of which was now swelled shut, with a red mark the shape of Keith’s fist. The other eye, a glowing bright blue—just like hers, thought Elly—hovered angrily on Keith. I have a brother, she thought, amazed and delighted and terrified all at once. I have some family. Could this be real?
Keith was still playing the part of interrogator and at the deep boom of his voice, Elly snapped back to reality. “So, if you arrived here four days ago, when you came into the shop, what have you been doing since then? And why were you acting so shady?”
Dennis took a deep breath and stared at the ground. “Do I have to tell you?”
“Yes,” said Keith.
“After I came in that day and saw Elly and she didn’t recognize me, I left. I just thought maybe she had seen a picture or something, I don’t know. But she didn’t. I was hungry, and I wasn’t thinking very clear. I stashed up on some food and spent the last of my cash on one night at that motel over on Hampton.” Elly cringed; that place has a reputation for bed bugs. “Since then, I’ve just been kind of walking around town. I wasn’t trying to be shady or scare her.”
Elly bit her lip. “Where have you been sleeping?”
Dennis’s face blushed bright red and he looked at the wall, totally avoiding her and Keith’s eyes. “Uh, yeah … so, I kind of found my way over to Washington University and have been hanging around with the students there. A nice guy let me sleep on the futon in the dorm lounge, but that was only for one night. I came back the next night to try and find Elly, but you were gone. I left my backpack behind.” He grimaced. “I don’t like dogs. And there was a big one behind the door trying to get at me, so I panicked.”