Chapter 12
ANITA BLINKED, NOT SURE IF she understood Mr. Davis’s request to track down a phone number for Susan. Surely Wyatt could do that. Then she realized...Mr. Davis was trying to get her to support his goal to contact Susan.
Wyatt had been the one to agree to find the yearbook in the first place, and Anita didn’t want to get in the middle of any family debate.
Wyatt’s gaze was on her, and he wasn’t jumping in to answer, so she said, “I’m happy to help with whatever is agreed upon.” There. That was neutral, right?
“I can help too,” Carly said. “Our school librarian had us learn about censuses before.”
Everyone looked over at Carly, and Mr. Davis said, “That’s an excellent idea.”
“Gramps...” Wyatt said in a soft, questioning tone.
“Carly, why don’t you go ask one of the aides if we could get some drinks at our table?” Anita suggested.
She popped to her feet. “Okay.”
With her daughter gone for a few minutes, Anita turned to the men. “Carly and I can give you some privacy. I’m truly happy to help with anything, but I don’t want to be in the middle.”
“You’re not in the middle,” Wyatt said at the same time that Mr. Davis said, “You can be in the middle if it means finding Susan.”
Wyatt’s expression went still, and Anita wished she could backtrack. Maybe by not coming to the center tonight with him. Mr. Davis wasn’t her grandfather, and she knew Wyatt was trying to be supportive despite his complicated feelings. But tracking down the truth about Susan was a lot different than tracking her down in person.
“Gramps, I need to talk to Anita for a second,” Wyatt said just as Carly came back, balancing four cups of water.
“Thanks, Carly,” she said, smiling. “Wait here with Mr. Davis. Wyatt and I will be right back.”
Mr. Davis didn’t seem to mind, and he and Carly fell into conversation about her school. Anita followed Wyatt out to the lobby.
He moved to one of the large windows that framed the orange sky from the setting sun. A line had appeared between his brows. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he said, “I didn’t expect Gramps to want to track her down. I don’t know if that’s the best idea...”
Anita had been surprised as well, but maybe not as surprised as him. “Maybe a phone call with her will answer any of his questions, and maybe it will bring them both some peace.”
Wyatt looked down at the ground. “Maybe.” He sighed, then met her gaze. “Was he in love with Susan? I mean, he hasn’t denied it—and they were dating—but was he in love with her the whole time he was married to my grandmother? Or is he just distracting himself from truly grieving over my grandmother?”
“I think he was devoted to your grandma,” Anita said quietly. She wasn’t sure where the assurance was coming from, but she didn’t see Mr. Davis as someone who didn’t care about his wife. He served in the war. He had to be a realist. A man who could care deeply too. “Maybe now that he’s a widower, he’s curious about people in his past.”
“You’re right,” Wyatt conceded. “But curiosity is one thing. Following through—and reaching out—is another thing.”
Anita nodded and fell silent. The orange of the sunset began to fade to a burnished red. “Maybe this can be taken one step at a time. You don’t even know if she can be tracked down. Phone books, censuses, calling a city records office...all of it might be a dead end.”
Wyatt rubbed the back of his neck. “I worry that he hasn’t dealt with his grief over Grandma. That he’ll spend his energy on this Susan woman, only to be crushed again. For whatever reason.”
“We can’t predict any of that.” Anita took a couple steps closer to the window, and Wyatt joined her. Together they watched as the brilliant colors of the sunset faded.
“We should get back,” he said after a moment. “Before my grandpa talks your daughter into some sort of escapade.”
Anita smiled and looked over at him. “They’re often in cahoots about something.”
“She’s been good for him,” Wyatt said, sincerity in his tone as his gaze held hers. “The past couple of weeks, he’s been more cheerful, more alive. As if he’s looking forward to each day.”
Anita swallowed back the emotion. “He’s been good for her too. It was a stressful weekend when we came for that first visit. I was sure I’d be taking home a grumpy teenager to deal with on my own. But only a short time with your grandfather, and Carly gained a new perspective on some things.”
Wyatt’s gaze hadn’t left her face, and she loved that he was really listening to her. He’d loosened his tie at his throat, and scrubbed his hand through his hair more than once, giving it a rumpled look. Put-together Wyatt was a nice visual, but Wyatt a bit on the edge was also appealing.
She pushed those thoughts away. “What do you want to do? I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”
“Gramps is set on this,” he said. “That look in his eye has never changed. Even as a kid, I knew it meant he wouldn’t be changing his mind.” He set his hands on his hips. “I just wish I knew if this is going to be a fruitless search.”
“None of us can know what’s on the other end of this search,” she said. “Maybe whatever this is will bring him some peace about his past.”
Wyatt frowned at that. “What do you mean?”
“He seems to be sharing nostalgic memories, but I think some of them have a double meaning. I think he’s looking for closure on something that happened between him and Susan.”
His brows lifted. “You’re either very observant or very wrong.”
Anita didn’t mind being called out. She could be wrong, but they’d never know until Wyatt followed this trail his grandpa wanted to take.
“All right,” he said suddenly. “I’ll find Susan for my grandpa. Do you think you could help? I mean...at least be my sounding board if you don’t have time to do any sleuthing.”
He sounded so frazzled that Anita didn’t know whether to comfort him or laugh. She set a hand on his arm. “I can help.”
His shoulders visibly relaxed, and his gaze moved to where she touched him. “Okay, thank you,” he said quietly. “That means a lot.”
Anita dropped her hand. “No problem. I think Carly and I are pretty invested now.”
The edge of his mouth lifted, and she loved seeing the worry lines ease. From her outsider’s point of view, this all sounded like an interesting quest. But from Wyatt’s point of view, she could see how it would tangle up his emotions.
“He’s probably talking Carly’s ear off right now,” Wyatt said. “Let’s go back in and give him the news.”
“Sounds good.” She turned toward the hallway leading to the dining room, and his hand touched the small of her back. For only an instant. Then his touch was gone. She shouldn’t be feeling the warmth spread through her, but she was.
Back inside the dining room, Carly and Mr. Davis were playing a game of Uno. A change of pace from their usual Scrabble, but no less competitive. He set down his cards the moment he spotted them. “Well? Conference over? What did you decide?”
Wyatt sat on the other side of his grandpa, and Anita took her usual place by Carly.
“We’re going to track down Susan,” Wyatt said. “All of us.”
“Me too?” Carly asked, her eyes bright.
“You too,” Anita said with a smile.
Mr. Davis sat back in his chair, a triumphant grin on his face. “Excellent. When do we start?”
Wyatt chuckled. “I can start making calls tomorrow. But first, we need to know as many names and dates as you can remember. There might be more than one Susan Martin out there.”
“Should we start with Medford?” Carly asked.
Mr. Davis smiled. “You remembered the postmark.”
She nodded. “Maybe we should just fly to Medford and start knocking on doors that belong to all the Susan Martins.”
He chuckled. “There’s a few problems with that. First, I don’t fly, and second, I don’t know what her married name is.”
Everyone at the table went silent. “I didn’t think of that,” Wyatt finally said, rubbing his forehead. “That should have been our first consideration.”
“It’s only a minor bump,” Mr. Davis said. “We’ll just have to find out when she married so we can find out who she married.”
Anita didn’t know what was going through Wyatt’s mind, but everything just got a lot more complicated. Instead of this project maybe taking a few nights of phone calls, this could stretch into weeks of phone calls, writing letters, and requesting records they may or may not be given access to.
“Got something to write on?” Mr. Davis asked his grandson. “I’ll give you the names of her family members. Although her mother died about a year after they moved.”
Wyatt was empty-handed, so Anita pulled out a small notebook from her purse that she used to jot down her grocery list. “I’ve got something.”
Mr. Davis rattled off the names of Susan’s parents and siblings, as well as the name of the uncle they went to live with when they first moved.
Then he picked up his Uno cards. “I’ll let the two of you percolate over the details while I beat Carly in Uno.”
“Hey,” Carly said. “You’re putting your cart before the horse.”
Anita chuckled. “I haven’t heard that saying in years, probably decades.”
Carly shrugged, and Mr. Davis only smiled. In moments, they were enmeshed in their game. Wyatt rose and moved to sit next to Anita. “Well? Any idea of where to start?”
She turned the notebook toward him so he could see all the names. “We should probably start with the uncle’s name. Find out the name of the company he owned in Nevada. Then see if we can get a list of former employees?”
“Good idea.” Wyatt tapped the paper with the names. “We could call the city hall of the town and find out if we can access any marriage records.”
“Okay, I like it.” She paused.
He looked at her expectantly. “Do you want to get together tomorrow afternoon? Join forces with our phone calls?”
“What time can you get off?” she asked. “Most businesses will close by five. At least Nevada is in the same time zone as we are.”
“I’ll go into work extra early so I can leave close to three. Then I’ll head over to your place, unless you and Carly want to come to mine?”
“My place will be faster,” Anita said. “I won’t have to wait for Carly to get home from school.”
Just the thought of Wyatt walking into her house had her thinking of all the things she should probably straighten up or clean. Not that she intended to deep clean or anything, but she wanted things more decent than what they were.
“All right,” he said in a low voice. “I’ll plan on being to your place no later than three thirty tomorrow. If anything changes, I’ll give you a call.”
Anita bit her lip and nodded. It was a plan. Her week was definitely turning out to be much different than she could have predicted.