The Long Way Home

He shook off the doubt. In the end, he made his way toward her, cognizant of the people in the vicinity, scanning their faces and wondering if he knew them.

But before he’d cleared the first set of lobby couches, Natalie appeared.

He faltered, then stopped. Why did this woman affect him so much? He couldn’t help sensing something...important with her, but that didn’t make any sense.

While he stood there, frozen by indecision, Natalie gave Maureen a quick hug. Then she knelt down to each boy and gave him a soft pat on the head.

Natalie was leaving the reception, too.

Without even knowing why, he switched directions to follow her. She was headed for the elevators that led to the parking garage. As he caught up to her, she stood before the closed doors, the down button lit up red.

He ambled up behind her. Leaned in close and said in a low voice, “I screwed up in there. What I meant to say is I think you’re beautiful, and you look amazing in that dress. Of all the people in that room, you stood out to me. You still do.”

The bell rang, the elevator door opened and Natalie walked inside. She didn’t turn. She didn’t look at him. She kept her face averted.

And then the doors closed, and he was left staring at his reflection in the stainless steel.

He began to laugh. If he’d been looking for a sign that he needed to get out of here, that was it. There was no place for him in this town. The old prejudices were still evident—why else would she have snubbed him? He was enough of a professional problem solver to know that some problems never got solved. They were just worked around.

He jiggled the car keys in his pocket and turned back to where Maureen had been. She was gone, but when he looked for her he found his brothers Mark and Mike instead, holding up one end of the bar, post wedding-reception.

Eight years older than him, his brothers had marched past forty with their trademark stoicism. Their only concession to a midlife crisis was that they’d each bought a boat they moored at the local marina. The two brothers ran Cole and Sons plumbing, and pretty much did everything together. They’d both married girls from their graduating high school class. They each had two kids apiece. Mark, two daughters, a toddler and an infant, while Mike had sons the same age. Their lives were mirror images of each other. Their dad was retired, but now and then when he was bored, he took a small job with them. Of course, there were always the customers who insisted on the “father, not the sons.” That was because Mark and Mike charged top dollar, while Dad could be counted on to fall for a hard-luck story. And sometimes, he plain forgot to bill people.

Bruce stood and looked at his brothers, their backs turned to him. Their blond hair was getting thinner, and their waistlines thicker. But they seemed content with their lives. “Townies” at heart.

Still dressed in their wedding tuxes, they each grasped a beer bottle—Mike left-handed, Mark right-handed—and were watching the baseball game on the big-screen TV. At the bottom of the sixth inning, the local team was losing.

Bruce clapped Mark on the shoulder. “Marcus, I’m headed out.”

Mark turned and blinked at him. “You just got here, B.B.”

B.B. was short for “Bruce Boy.” He’d forgotten that stupid nickname.

“Yup,” he said. “And now I’m leaving.”

Mark took a drink of beer and nodded. He had been in Florida on a plumbing job with their parents back when Bruce had gotten into all his trouble with the law. None of them had ever really discussed it. “Did you check with Moe?” Mark asked.

“What, she runs our lives now?” Bruce said.

“She tries.” Mike took his hand and shook it. “How’s the weather in Florida?”

“Dunno, Mikhael,” Bruce said. “I haven’t been home in a week.”

“Where’ve you been?” Both twins stared at him. They were always slightly bewildered that Bruce traveled for a living instead of staying put in Fort Lauderdale and enjoying his boat and his motorcycle in the sunshine.

“I’m on a project in D.C. The navy hired me to analyze their procurement systems.”

He earned blank stares from his brothers. But that was good—if they didn’t know what he was talking about, they wouldn’t ask questions, which meant he could bug out of town even sooner.

“Bruce! When did you get here?”

Internally he groaned. Mark’s wife, Desiree, stood on her toes to kiss him on the cheek, and Mike’s wife, Holly, followed suit. A real family reunion. At this rate, he’d never be able to leave.

But he smiled, gave each of them the requisite kiss, went through the motions of being a sociable brother-in-law. “You two are looking better and better. How are the kids?”

“My niece Kristen is watching them upstairs in the room,” Desiree told him. “You should go see them.” She scratched her head, and Bruce noticed she had a new tattoo on her wrist. Some kind of Chinese symbol. “Your mother is up there, too. I swear, she’s in her glory. She loves it when we all get together.”

“She’ll be in heaven when we’re all in Disney World together,” Holly agreed.

It was Bruce’s turn to stare. What was she talking about?

Oh, yeah. The whole clan was going together for the week of Maureen’s honeymoon: his parents, his siblings and their kids, mainly so Maureen and Jimmy’s three wouldn’t be too upset by their parents’ absence. Bruce had covered the airfare, hotel and the car rental with his points, so he’d contributed without having to go with them. “I’m sure you’ll all have a good time.”

“It was so great of you to agree to stay here while we’re gone. We’ve got the house all set for you,” Desiree added.

Wait, what? Warnings went off in his head. “No, I’m leaving,” he stated as calmly as he could. “I’m taking the 6:00 a.m. flight out tomorrow.”

“The fridge is stocked,” Desiree continued rapid-fire. Sometimes he wondered at their habit of talking over everybody. Maybe it was part of being in a big family. “And we changed the sheets on our bed, so you can use our room. There’s a copy of the instructions tacked to the refrigerator. All you have to remember to do is to leave the screen door unlocked for the dog-sitter.”

Mark and Desiree had two yapping dachshunds. “Sorry, you’ve got me mixed up with somebody else.” He didn’t do pets.

Holly shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“You haven’t talked to Moe yet, have you?” Desiree asked.

“Where is she?”

“She’s up in the room with Mom and the kids.”

His mother lived and died for her grandkids. She’d been sixty when Nina was born, and on that day, she had promptly retired from being the dispatcher and chief bookkeeper for the family plumbing business. Holly currently did the honors. Desiree was some kind of nurse.

“Or Jimmy,” Holly added. “He’s the one who organized it all.”

What had Jimmy organized? “I’m not part of this plan, whatever it is,” Bruce said coldly.

Holly and Desiree glanced at each other. He was getting all kinds of bad signals.

“I think,” Holly said slowly, “that you had better talk to Maureen.”

“Isn’t she on her honeymoon as of now?” he demanded.

Mark ambled up beside him. The ball game had cut to commercial.

Bruce pointed to his brother. “Tell your wife I’m flying back to D.C. in the morning. Tell her that I work for a living. I’ve already used my two weeks’ vacation, and I don’t have time for a social call.”

“We’re having a family emergency,” Mark calmly explained. “Everybody’s got to pitch in.”

“What are you talking about?” he demanded.