“Yeah, because he’s never done that before,” Rey commented dryly from the doorway, where he was trying to sneak into the wide-open space that made up the kitchen, dining area, and a living room.
The downstairs had to be rough for him, because the bit over the couches and TV was open to the second floor. There was a railing on the side of the hallway that went past the cook’s room to the second large bedroom in the corner.
I suddenly understood even better why River took the other corner bedroom; Rey would’ve never been able to go to River’s room if he’d needed to pass the railing instead of a wall like it was on the other side.
“Kid’s right. You want a drink, too?” I asked Rey, glancing at him over my shoulder.
“Does it make cocoa?” Rey brightened when he saw the machine. He inched closer, eyes fixed on the shiny chrome.
While Rey preferred tea, cocoa was his comfort drink of choice. “Yup. Here, let me show you how to operate it, okay? We’ll teach River eventually, I’m sure…”
River snorted, then walked to the dining area to close the curtains. There wasn’t much he could do with the living room space, because the two-story windows didn’t have any sort of curtains, but at least the orchard trees gave shade that I hoped would be enough for Rey.
We fixed the drinks and wandered over to sit on the couch, with Rey choosing to sit with his back to the windows.
“What is it specifically here that’s difficult?” I asked gently, nodding at the window.
Rey grimaced. “I just…I haven’t been out of New York, hell, out of Manhattan, a lot. I feel safe with the buildings around me, although…”
“Not anymore there, either. Got it,” River assured him. We didn’t need to hash that bit out again.
“Yeah, so here it’s…there’sso muchsky. Space everywhere. It’s…not easy.” Rey looked at the mug of cocoa in his hands and sighed. “I would love to be able to go outside. I want to meet the horses and see the stables in person…”
I reached over and patted Rey’s ankle. “It’s okay. We have time. Meanwhile, why don’t you figure out the house and where you feel comfortable here. You can do all the stuff here that you did at the apartment if it helps you.”
Rey smiled a little. “I liked the order.”
River had explained to me that Rey needed the order, the organization and no clutter, to feel safe. So, we let him do whatever he needed to reach that calm.
“Sierra said they have a lady who came to clean every week when Ruth was still around. They’ve bumped her to bi-weekly now, because nobody has lived here, other than that cook guy occasionally. They’ve come to have meals and meetings down here, but the upstairs and the master have been virtually unused since…” I sighed. The weird wave of almost-there grief washed over me again. How could I feel so sad for someone I didn’t know? It was as if the grief Sierra, Hudson, and Theo felt clung to me like second-hand smoke, except it was sadness that stuck to my clothing and hair, and I got a whiff of it every now and then.
“If we pull our weight, maybe we can keep her at two weeks?” River mused. “Unless Rey, you think that it’s too much for you?”
Rey shook his head quickly. “No, no I like the idea. It gives me something to do.”
“And then there’s that other thing we want you to think about…” I reminded him.
The expression that came on Rey’s face was mulish. “I know. And I’ll look into it, okay. But I don’t feel like…” He huffed. “I was good at school. It won’t be difficult whenever I want to do it, all right?”
I lifted my free hand in surrender. “Okay, okay. But if you want to learn about anything, not just for your GED.”
Rey glanced toward the front of the house. “River said the office has a bunch of horsey books?”
“Seems like it, yeah.”
“Maybe I can check those out?”
“Sure, whatever you want, buddy.”
Rey smiled. “Okay.” Then he concentrated on his mug, a signal that the conversation was done for now.
I had never thought I’d be a parent, but sometimes I felt like one since we’d accidentally acquired Rey. Of course, the kid couldn’t actually get his GED until he got his ID and all the rest of it, but he had been telling River and me that he didn’t feel safe getting them until he turned eighteen. We were of the mind that if Rey didn’t study anything, he’d fall out of the rhythm of what being a student was like. River had said it several times while he studied nursing; every time he took time off, he felt it was harder to go back. He’d had classmates drop out after being ill for a while, because they couldn’t get back to it anymore.
Rey’s birthday was almost a year from now, and who knew what would happen before that. River and I hoped that Rey would come to another conclusion before then. But we couldn’t force him to make himself known to the authorities. Hell, having Hudson pull strings with someone he knew to get a private jet to fly us to Illinois so that nobody looked too carefully at who exactly was on that plane seemed like overkill. But we also harbored an underage runaway so what did I know. Hudson still wasn’t happy with any of it, but whoa boy did we owe him for getting that jet, because whoever he’d borrowed it from was clearly someone he didn’t want to be associated with.
I wished Rey would trust us enough to at least give us more information, but whatever his reasons, however close-knit a family we’d become in the last six months, the boy wouldn’t budge. River had said that he hoped Rey would find peace somehow, that this wouldn’t end up being his life. River and I had speculated what kind of a family with connections to the authorities Rey could be running from, but all our guesses were moot; Rey wouldn’t tell us even if we asked.
Each of us kind of fell into our own thoughts for a while, sipping our drinks and zoning out. It was perfect, after the day we’d had so far. All of this was a lot.
