“Got them,” Jackson straightened and held out a pair of keys.
“Thanks goodness,” Katie said tiredly. She reached out and wiped off some off the gook on them. She looked up at Jackson. “These aren’t mine.”
He looked down at her. Katie seemed dispirited and weary. He wondered where the tomboy he remembered who had been so full of energy had gone. “Good gravy.”
Katie had a smile at the familiar turn of phrase. Donna Davis, Jackson’s mom, refused to allow swearing in her home which meant the kids had come up with some entertaining alternatives. Her eyes were starting to smart, either from weary desperation or from the fumes in the dumpster. Unfortunately, she didn’t dare wipe them because of the junk on her now freezing fingers. Her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, good gravy.”
“It’s starting to get dark. Do you want me to get the flashlight out of the truck?” Jackson offered.
Katie nodded and sniffed. She bit her lip. She was not going to cry over this. It was just a set of keys. She bent to search some more.
Jackson hesitated a moment before going to get the flashlight. For a moment he thought Katie was about to cry which was something he hadn’t seen since she’d broken her arm falling out of a tree in the apple orchard when she was ten. He hoped he had been wrong.
He came back directly with the flashlight and they searched for another hour before giving it up for the night. Katie accepted Jackson’s offer to drive her home. They made sure the dumpster wasn’t going to be emptied tomorrow and left the grocery store. Katie held her freezing hands to the vents, enjoying the heat. The heater in her car had quit two weeks ago and it was becoming a problem as winter approached. She would have to scrape up the money somehow to get it fixed.
Jackson offered to help her bring in her groceries but Katie declined. Fortunately, she had a second house key under the potted plant on the tiny porch of the townhouse. The row of houses were tired and tiny, not in the best location of town. However, rent was cheap and it was home for now. Katie grabbed her three bags and thanked Jackson for the help and the ride. She’d have to go searching through the dumpster again tomorrow. Hopefully she’d find her keys.
He watched her until she opened the door and gave him a wave. Jackson frowned as he thought over what had happened to Katie. She didn’t look like she was doing so well. The Suttons had sold their farm a few years ago when things began a downturn in the area. Prices for operating farms were always edging upward while the profit each farm received seemed to get smaller every year. A number of families in the area had given up and moved to the cities for jobs. It was a crisis in the area. Jackson hadn’t seen much of Katie since she had gone to college. He’d known she’d returned but Trent was still at college, doing extra courses and working toward a doctorate and since Trent was the main reason she came to the house, he hadn’t been in contact with her.
Jackson drove to the family farm. It didn’t take him long to bring the groceries in to the kitchen. His mother came to help put things away, wrinkling her nose.
“Why do you smell like a compost pile?” she asked as she pulled items out of a bag.
“You’ll never believe it but Katie Sutton accidently tossed her keys in a dumpster,” Jackson put away jars of peanut butter and jam.
“Oh, that girl,” Donna shook her head and clucked in sympathy. “She has the worst luck.”
“She doesn’t seem to be doing too well. She lives in the poorhouse apartments,” Jackson frowned. The nickname of the townhouse complex was apt. Each building was split into small apartments which only the poorest people in town inhabited.
“Um, Jackson? Is there something I should know?” Donna looked at her son, raising an eyebrow. Jackson looked at the box his mother was holding up.
It was a pregnancy kit.
“That’s not our bag,” he took a deep breath and wondered just how much trouble Katie was in.
