Almost A Family

The wide porch, with its log posts and railing, looked out over a small meadow rimmed by a narrow stream on the northern boundary. Stepping inside the double screen doors, she sighed with pleasure. The entryway opened onto a great room with a stone fireplace dominating one wall, an exposed staircase to the loft another. On the left, an archway led into the kitchen.

Lily appeared in the doorway straight ahead, which led to a hallway, two bedrooms and the bathroom. “We figure you should have the big bedroom back here,” she said shyly. “I really like the other one, if that’s okay. It’s real pretty.”

“Of course it’s okay.” Erin cocked her head, listening to the footsteps thundering overhead. “Sounds like the boys found the loft—did you see it?”

Lily shuddered. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t want to stay up there if they did.”

“This is cool!” Drew shouted.

Erin looked up at the balcony, relieved to see the broad smile on his face.

She’d figured the boys would like the loft, with its built-in bunk beds and steeply slanted ceiling. There was a little cupola on the roof, too—a steep ladder on one wall led up into a small lookout tower, glass on all sides, and she could well imagine them up there, playing all sorts of games involving adventure and fantasy.

“Drew!” Tyler shouted. “Quick!”

At the hint of panic in his voice, Erin rushed up the stairs and into the loft bedroom.

She could see just his Nikes and the hem of his jeans up in the cupola, then Drew scurried up the ladder and crowded him to one side. “What is it?” she called out.

The boys were silent for a long moment, then they scrambled down the ladder, Tyler’s face pale and Drew’s alight with excitement. “We saw a wolf,” he exclaimed. “It was huge! Right out there next to the trees.”

One of the movers knocked sharply at the front, then the screen door squealed open. “Ma’am—where do you want this couch?”

“I’ve got to get back downstairs,” Erin said. “I don’t think you could’ve seen a wolf, though. Not here. But just in case, I want you kids to stay within sight of the cabin, hear? Don’t go wandering off. And keep a close eye on Lily.”

“It was a wolf,” Drew insisted, his voice following her down the stairs. “And it had something dead in its mouth, like a big rabbit. Tyler saw it, too.”

On the main floor, Lily stood by the stairs, her eyes darting toward the large casement windows of the great room. “The men say it’s true,” she whispered. “There are wolves here…and you can’t shoot ’em, ’cause they’re pro—pro—”

“Protected, unless you can prove that one of them is killing livestock,” one of the men said as he backed into the living room holding one end of a sofa. “They were reintroduced in the north country ten years ago, and they’ve been ranging farther and farther south.”

Erin thought about the half-mile lane to this cabin, and the fact that there were no close neighbors…and no friends nearby to call in an emergency.

The idea of a dog—a very big dog—suddenly held far more appeal.

CHAPTER TWO

BEING A NEW KID SUCKED. Being a new kid who showed up a week after school started was ten times worse.

Drew scowled at the tips of his sneakers as he waited with Tyler outside the elementary school. Lily sat on a bench behind them, her face glum.

A cabin in the woods was pretty cool, but not enough to make this any easier. Back in Milwaukee, he and Tyler had lived in a tough neighborhood where there were sirens and drug busts night and day, but at least he’d had friends. In Wausau with Erin, they’d finally started to feel at home.

But here the local kids had known each other all their lives and were already settled into the school routine.

Lily, with her white-blond hair and shy smiles, had a better chance of fitting in with kids anywhere, though the meaner ones usually made fun of her weak leg. Tyler got sick a lot and was small for his age, so classmates tried to pick on him. And Drew had never been good at sports or schoolwork, because just surviving had been tough enough.

He gazed at his brother, and thought about the nasty glances in the lunchroom. The snickers out on the playground.

Fed up, he’d shouldered one kid aside as they lined up to go back inside after recess, just as a warning.

He hoped the kids here learned quick. Anyone who thought it cool to hassle his brother or taunt Lily about her limp would have to deal with him. And then he’d end up in trouble himself, like always—with the usual lectures and detentions that had dogged him at every school.

“It’s Erin,” Tyler announced, his voice filled with relief at the sight of her navy Windstar pulling up in front of the school. He hopped off the bench and stood next to Drew. “Don’t say nothing ’bout school.”

Oh, I won’t, Drew thought grimly. To Tyler, he just nodded.

Erin smiled at them as they climbed into the van and buckled their seat belts. “So how did your first day go?”

“Okay,” Lily murmured.

In the backseat, Tyler and Drew exchanged glances.

“Boys?”

Drew caught her looking at them in the rearview mirror, her brow furrowed. She seemed tired and worried, and he wondered if she’d had a bad day, too. Only where she worked, she was the boss—so she could fire anybody who gave her any crap. The thought of that kind of power made Drew clench his fist, thinking of a few guys at school.

When she didn’t pull away from the curb, he finally mumbled, “It was okay. I guess.”

“Good.” She drummed her fingers lightly on the top of the steering wheel. “You know, I was thinking…we worked so hard this weekend, getting moved in. Maybe we could do something fun. Unless, of course,” she added somberly, “you have too much homework.”

Lily beamed at her. “Nope!”

“It isn’t really the first day, though—the other kids have been at it a week now. What sort of makeup assignments do you have so far?”

“Just some reading…and a math assignment. Not much,” she said earnestly. “It won’t take long.”

“Tyler?”

“Just some work sheets.”

“Drew?”

He couldn’t hold back his snort of disgust. “Another one of those ‘what did you do last summer?’ papers. And a bunch of work sheets, but they aren’t due till Friday.”

“Hmm.”

“So, what did you want to do, huh?” Lily tugged at Erin’s sleeve. “We got time.”

Smiling mysteriously, Erin drove slowly down Main and pulled up in front of the Realtor’s building. “Just wait a minute.”

She locked their doors and disappeared inside the building, but was back in only a few seconds. “No luck,” she said as she slid behind the wheel. “I don’t have a phone number for the owner of our cabin and I’d hoped the Realtor might have heard from him by now.”

“About a dog?”

Erin nodded. “I’m sorry, guys. I’d hoped we could go looking today. Anyone up for getting some pizza before we head out of town?”

Scowling, Drew slumped down in his seat. Promises. They never meant much—he’d learned that a long time ago.