“Finally, you escaped!” I said before I saw who was on my porch.
“I guess you could say that.” My nephew, Seth, slouched in my doorway. Tall and gangly, with blond bangs hanging in his eyes, it was clear he was Grace’s son. He’d always had her coloring, and now his cute-kid looks were morphing into handsome charm. Tuffy, his ill-tempered shih tzu, glowered from where he was tucked under Seth’s arm. Baxter became aware of his buddy and leaped off the couch. He almost knocked Seth over in his enthusiastic greeting. After coating as much of the teen as he could in dog slime, he turned his attention to the dog. Tuffy was wagging his tail so hard that Seth had to put him down. Both dogs bounded into the living room to complete their greeting ritual.
“What are you—how did you—”
Seth cocked his eyebrow and gestured toward the living room.
“Come in.” I swung my arm wide and watched him push past the dogs and drop his backpack and duffel bag on the floor.
“What are you doing here?”
My older sister and I didn’t communicate often, but whenever she sent her fourteen-year-old son to visit Michigan, she definitely called to make arrangements.
“It’s nice to see you, too.”
“Don’t get snippy with me. Does your mother know you’re here?” Grace was going to freak when she found out he’d traveled half the country.
He dropped his eyes.
“She thinks I’m at a friend’s cottage for the weekend.”
“Where does she think this cottage is?”
“Upstate New York.”
I crossed my arms and took a few deep breaths. I felt a twitch begin in my right eyelid.
“Since you’re now in Western Michigan, I can only assume you took a wrong turn.”
“Actually, I took a car to Ann Arbor, then a bus to Kalamazoo until they found Tuffy in my duffel bag, then I caught a ride here.”
“You took a car? You can’t even drive yet.”
“I got a ride with a friend’s older brother who goes to U of M, and then I took the bus with one of his friends. That guy had a girlfriend who was picking him up at the bus station and they drove me here.”
“We have to call your mother.”
Seth held his hand up. “I just texted her to tell her I’m having a great time—can’t we wait until tomorrow?”
“But, why?”
“I can’t go back there, Clyde.” He pulled his mouth into a sad expression that he probably practiced in the mirror. “I want to stay here with you.”
More deep breaths. Some counting. It was late, and I knew Grace worked long hours. She didn’t need to know tonight that Seth was halfway across the country and not simply a few hours away. Plus, now that he was in my house, he was safe.
“You can stay tonight. I’ll wait to call your mom in the morning and then we have to figure out what to do with you.”
“Great!” Seth flashed his grin. “Do you have any food around here?”
He walked toward the kitchen with both dogs trailing behind.
I spent a few moments alone in my living room pacing and trying to calm down.
By the time I joined them, Seth had emptied almost the entire contents of the refrigerator onto the counter.
“Don’t you have any pickles? How about soda?”
“No pickles. I threw them away after you left. You know—to go home and go back to school?”
“Pickles last a long time; you didn’t have to dump them.” He chose to focus on the food, not the lecture.
I snagged a bag of chips out of the pantry and tossed them at Seth. He and the dogs had settled into their usual places at the kitchen table: Tuffy jumped onto the seat to Seth’s right, Baxter rested his head on the table to his left. The dogs patiently waited for Seth to share.
I sat down in my usual spot—as far across the table as I could get.