Prowl.

Grandma stood behind me, clearing her throat. I glanced over at her. She raised her eyebrows, urging me to say something.

Well, I sure wasn"t going to talk to him in front of her.

"Okay. But let"s go outside."

Grandma frowned as I led Isaac out the front door. Even though it was morning the air was warm. A hummingbird buzzed next to the feeder, its beak darting inside. I watched it as I moved to the porch swing and sat down. Too bad my life couldn"t be that simple. Just fly around and eat food people left out for me. No more of this relationship junk. Isaac followed me and sat down so close our legs touched. I scooted as far away as possible. Keeping my eyes glued to the ground, I rocked the swing gently and waited for him to talk.

"I just wanted to come by to say sorry."

I turned to him, shocked. "For what?"

"For whatever I did to upset you."

I bit my lip.

"Look, I"ve thought a lot about our last conversation."

Shame burned through me as I recalled my last words to him.

He continued, "I know you"ve been hurt by guys in the past and that"s why you"re pushing me away. But I really like you, Kenzie. I"m not promising to never hurt you because I know that no matter how hard I try I"ll end up breaking it, but I do promise to never intentionally hurt you. I just want you to give me another chance."

Seriously?

"Why do you even bother?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just can"t understand why you"re going to so much trouble for me. I can"t figure out your angle."

Isaac chuckled. "That"s because there isn"t an angle. I just like you." He grabbed my hand, taking my tiny one in his large calloused one. As he folded it over my fingers a strange sensation ran through my arm. I felt protected, safe. "I don"t know what other guys have done to you to make you so untrusting. I don"t know why you can"t see how amazing you are. But please believe me when I say that I"m not playing a game here."

I pulled my hand away. "You didn"t do anything to me."

"Then why are you so upset?"

"I was upset about what Brooke said."

"What did she say?"

"She said that you have a rescue complex. That you prey on girls in need and then get bored of them and move on to the next one."

Isaac narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "I can"t believe she told you that."

My stomach tightened. "So it"s true?"

"No, not at all. Brooke is just jealous. Our relationship was entirely different than yours and mine."

"But you did have a relationship."

"Not the way you"re thinking. We were just friends. When I realized she wanted more I stopped hanging out with her. I wasn"t interested in her that way and I didn"t want to lead her on."

"Isn"t that what we are? Friends?"

"Yeah, but I"d be lying if I said I didn"t want to be more."

My heart leapt in my chest.

"What do you say? Can I have another chance?" He shot me a dimpled smile, sealing my fate.

"So it looks like you and Isaac made up," Grandma said over dinner as she spooned noodles onto her plate.

My cheeks warmed.

"See, I told you everything would work out."

I stuffed a forkful of pasta in my mouth and chewed, not wishing to spill the details of my conversation with Isaac to her. I wanted to pinch myself to make sure it really happened.

"So, what are your plans for tomorrow?" Grandma asked, lifting a gla.s.s of iced tea to her coral lips.

"During the day I thought maybe I"d hang with Rhiannon but tomorrow night Isaac and I are going out."

Grandma smiled, raised her brows. "Really? Where are you going?"

I shrugged. "Not sure. Dinner probably. He"s picking me up at six."

"What are you and Rhiannon going to do?"

No way could I tell her what we did. She"d flip. I couldn"t let Isaac find out either. He"d never understand. But it was something I just had to do. If there was even a remote chance that Wesley was my dad I had to pursue it.

"Um, just hang out."

"What does that mean?"

"Just, you know, talk, listen to music. Chill, you know?"

Grandma chuckled. "Okay, well have fun chilling or whatever."

Intently, I studied my food praying she wouldn"t ask any more questions about it.

Setting down her fork she said, "Mackenzie, I wanted to talk with you about something." She squared her shoulders and narrowed her eyes. "I"ve thought a lot about our conversation this morning about your dad."

I nodded and held my breath as I waited for her to continue.

"You were right. He"s your dad. You have a right to know about him."

My mouth dropped in shock. No adult had ever told me I was right before.

"I talked with your mom today and told her I was going to tell you what I know about your dad. I thought it was only fair to warn her."

"How"d she take it?"

Grandma pursed her mouth like she"d sucked on lemon. "Not so well. But it doesn"t matter. I"ve made my decision."

I wiped my clammy hands on my thighs. My heart hammered in my chest. Finally someone was going to give me information on my dad. I sat forward in antic.i.p.ation.

Chapter Nine.

"Your mom met your dad when she was just your age. I remember her coming home from an outing with her friends one day and she was walking around with her head in the clouds. Not like that was unusual, but I could just tell she"d met someone. I guess you could call it a mother"s intuition. I pressed her about it but she wouldn"t tell me a thing."

I remembered all the secret phone calls she"d been getting before I left.

"Pretty soon the phone started ringing a lot and your mom would race to get it before your grandpa or I could answer it. One day I got to it before her and a boy was on the line. I asked his name and he said it was David."

I pictured my dad on the phone waiting for my mom to get on the line. He must have really liked her. I wondered if he treated her like Isaac treated me.

"Of course your mother was livid. I asked her about him when she hung up and she told me it was none of my business. Well, that didn"t fly with your grandpa so he grounded her. The next night I went into her room to talk with her and she was gone."

"She ran away?"

"Well, that"s what we thought. We got in our car and drove around looking for her with no luck. In the middle of the night we heard her stumble in through her window. I marched right in there fully prepared to punish her but what I saw was so awful I never ended up doing it."

I leaned forward. "What happened?"

"She was a mess. All scratched up, tears streaming down her cheeks, snot running down her nose, hair tangled. I asked her what was wrong but she just cried. For the longest time I just held her and let her cry."

"What was wrong with her?"

"I honestly don"t know. I begged her to tell me but she never would. In fact she told me she never wanted to talk about that night ever again."

"And you just let it go?"

Grandma snorted. "Of course not. She was my daughter. I wanted to help. I made her see a counselor and had her talk with our pastor, but she never opened up to anyone. Shortly after that we found out she was pregnant. We a.s.sumed the two things were related but she never actually told us that they were."

"Do you think she was raped?" It burned my throat to ask the question.

"I asked her that many times but she a.s.sured me she wasn"t."

"And you bought it?"

"I really don"t know. Part of me believed her because she seemed so adamant, but I know what I saw that night and something bad occurred."

"Did you ever see David after that?"

Grandma shook her head.

"How do you know he"s even my dad?"

"I don"t. I just a.s.sumed."

I thought back to the night I found the picture of Mom and David. When I showed it to her and demanded an answer she told me that he was my dad, but she could"ve been lying.

"Grandma, did Mom know anyone named Wesley?"

Grandma furrowed her brow, deep in thought. "That name does sound familiar. Yeah, I think maybe she did. Why?"

I shook my head. "No reason."

Grandma eyed me skeptically.

My mind swirled from everything she"d told me. Was it possible that David wasn"t my dad after all? That my dad was someone named Wesley? Someone who was dead and trying to reach me? And if so, did he rape my mom? If so, what happened to David? Why had he suddenly disappeared? I wished Mom would just tell me the truth, but I knew she never would. She was the queen of secrets and she"d been keeping this one for a very long time. No, right now my only hope was Wesley. He held the key to unlocking this mystery.

I woke up early the next morning and headed straight over to Rhiannon"s. As I rapped on her door, anxiety swept over me. What would I find out today? After several minutes of knocking, Rhiannon still hadn"t appeared. I glanced around and spotted her car parked on the street. Puzzled, I walked around to her bedroom window and attempted to peek inside but the curtains were shut. Maybe she was sleeping. It was pretty early, after all.

Behind me a car pulled up. I shielded my eyes against the glare of the sun and peeked out from under my hand as a Hispanic woman emerged from the vehicle. In her hand she carried a basket of cleaning supplies. Glancing behind her I read the housecleaners sign splashed across the pa.s.senger side door.

"Hi," I said as I approached her.

"h.e.l.lo," she answered looking down warily.

I guess I did look suspicious, peeking in the windows. "I"m Kenzie. I live next door. I"m a friend of Rhiannon"s."

"h.e.l.lo," she repeated, stepping around me. As she walked to the front door I followed her. Before she stuck her key in the lock she turned around. "Can I help you?"

"I"m just here to hang out with Rhiannon. She"s not answering but her car"s out front and so I know she"s home. She"s probably just sleeping in. So, I thought I"d just slip in with you." I realized I sounded like a lunatic but I needed to get to that Ouija board.

The house cleaner shook her head. "No, they"re not home. They"re on vacation."

"Vacation?"

She nodded. "But...I don"t understand." My mind whizzed through all my prior conversations with Rhiannon. Never once did she mention anything about a vacation. "Did they say how long they"d be gone?"

"Two weeks."

"Two weeks?"

Again she nodded. "I"m sorry." She unlocked the front door. Before I could ask any more questions she slipped inside. I heard the click of the deadbolt locking. I had probably scared her to death.

Defeated, I headed back to Grandma"s front porch and collapsed on the swing. How was I going to get the answers about my dad? I needed that board. But it wasn"t like I could break into her house and steal it. But I also couldn"t wait a whole two weeks to find out the answers.

Maybe I"d have to buy my own board. I knew I could buy one at any toy store. But I wondered if Wesley could find me on any board. Was Rhiannon"s board the only one Wesley would appear on?