Matthew's Choice (6 page)

Noah glanced up at her after she’d disconnected. “Do I have to go back?”

“You don’t like it there?”

He shrugged. “Miss Sarah’s nice. And Logan’s okay. Lucas is a pain....”

“But?”

He shrank back into the chair and lifted his thin shoulder in a timid gesture. “Have you ever stayed in a place like the shelter before?”

Noah glanced toward the exit sign. She cupped his chin and turned his face back to her. “Where was it, Noah?”

He licked his lips. “In another state. Before we came to Cedar Grove. Mom was...sick, and this woman came and took me to this house.”

“What happened?” She forced out the question, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.

“I ran away.”

* * *

A
FTER
THE
DOOR
closed behind Allie, Matt pressed his fingers against his eyelids, then slid his hands to the side of his head and massaged his temples. If New Year’s Day was any indication of how the rest of his year would be...he didn’t want to go there.

“Matthew...” Jessica stood at the sliding door with her back to him. She turned to face him. “I think we need to talk.”

He rose and went to her, taking her hands. “You’re right.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about your sister? I mean, I realize you may not be all that proud, her being on drugs and all, but you could’ve told me. Did you think it would change the way I feel about you?”

He wanted to say he didn’t know why he never mentioned Mariah to Jessica, but he did know. Just like he knew why he never mentioned anything else about his past, and it had nothing to do with Jessica. “I know you better than that. It’s like I said before. Mariah and I have grown so far apart, it’s almost like she wasn’t there. I didn’t even know about the kid.” He rubbed the locked muscles in the back of his neck.

“But family is important. I think you should go.”

Matt stiffened. Jessica didn’t have a clue what she was asking him to do. He wasn’t ready to go back to Cedar Grove, where everyone remembered him as the kid from Beaker Street. The kid who had said he’d own his own company by the time he turned thirty. Well, he was thirty and still working for someone else. It didn’t matter that he pulled in six figures a year—he wasn’t his own boss, and that’s what everyone would remember.

His cell phone rang, and he glanced at the caller ID.

“It’s Clint.” Allie was calling in the big guns. “I’m not going,” he said when he answered.

“Did you know her heart stopped? And she’s in a coma.”

Clint’s blunt words startled Matt. He sank onto the couch. “I...had no idea. How about the boy? Has he been found?”

“Yes, he was at the hospital. Do you want me to go with you? You know, so you won’t have to face this by yourself.”

Or to make sure Matt went. “No. You have responsibilities here.”

“You’re going then?”

Matt sucked in a breath of air through his nose and exhaled. A memory of Mariah standing between him and their drunken father surfaced. Mariah taking the beating. He closed his eyes. “Yes, I’m going.”

“I’ll text you Allie’s number so you can let her know,” Clint said.

“Is she worse?” Jessica asked after he hung up.

“She’s in a coma.”

Jessica crossed the room and sat beside him, squeezing his hand. “I’m going with you.”

“No!”

Jessica flinched.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bite your head off, but I don’t know how long I’ll be there.” No way was Jessica going to Cedar Grove. He could just see her in his mother’s tiny frame house. No amount of paint or chrome and fancy furniture would transform it into something other than the four-room, white-clapboard dump that it was. And even though it wouldn’t matter one way or the other to Jessica, he wasn’t quite ready to show her how he’d grown up. “Not this time. There’s the boy to consider, and I don’t even know if Mariah will make it.”

“Oh, Matthew.” She put her arms around him. “That’s all the more reason for me to go.”

He stilled. Jessica could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be. “Maybe next time.”

“But—”

A plaintive meow interrupted her. Matt had forgotten the kitten.

Jessica glanced toward his bedroom. “Where did you get that kitten? And what are you going to do with it?”

Good question. Jessica certainly couldn’t take it, because of her allergies, not even for the two days until the animal shelter opened. “Maybe Clint will take it.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Tell me about you and Allie. You two seem very close.”

“We grew up together, went to the same college.” His hometown wasn’t the only thing Matt wasn’t ready to tell Jessica about. “Sweetheart, I have a lot to do, and I need you to leave so I can do it. I’ll call you tonight after I see Mariah.”

She patted his cheek. “I could help you. You know, clear the table, put the dishes in the dishwasher...”

“Thanks, but you would be a distraction.”

“You mean, like this?” Jessica slipped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.

He leaned into the kiss...until the kitten intruded again with another insistent meow. He eased his lips away from hers and he turned her to face the door. “Yes, like that.”

After he closed the door behind Jessica, Matt leaned his head against the wood. How he dreaded returning to Cedar Grove.

* * *

J
UST
OUTSIDE
OF
M
EMPHIS
, a black sports car with its top down passed Matt on the four-lane highway. Unthinkable for it to be warm enough to lower the top on New Year’s Day, and if it hadn’t been for the kitten he’d been forced to bring along, he’d be enjoying the fresh air.

“Thanks, Kiddo,” Matt muttered to the kitten curled up in the pet carrier he’d stopped to buy after Clint had been unable to come for it. Something about his apartment lease. Maybe Cedar Grove had a good animal shelter. At least he’d been able to reach the real estate agent who managed his mother’s house for him. The last renters had moved out before Christmas, and it hadn’t been rented yet. The agent assured Matt that linens and a few basic items would be waiting for him. He’d forgotten that aspect of a small town—the willingness to accommodate.

His cell phone chirped, and he glanced at the ID. A Cedar Grove number, but not Allie’s. That one he knew by heart after trying to reach her for the better part of two hours. He’d finally given up and left her a voice mail that he was on his way and should be there by four-thirty.

“Hello?”

“Peter Elliott here. Clint gave me your number.”

“Hello, Peter.” Matt deadpanned his voice. “If you’re calling about Mariah and her son, I’m on my way to Cedar Grove. I understand the boy has been found.”

“Yes. Noah will be returning to the shelter, and that’s where he will remain until Tuesday’s youth court hearing. I’m looking for a foster home to place him in until it can be determined that Mariah can care for him.”

Matt gripped the phone. Who did Peter think he was, making decisions for his nephew? A car whizzed past him, the horn blowing, and Matt glanced at the speedometer. Fifty miles an hour. Time to pull over and focus on one thing. “No. He’ll be staying with me. I’m his uncle,” he said as he maneuvered the car onto the shoulder of the road.

“He’s a ward of the state, Matt.”

“He can’t be. Not legally. It’s New Year’s Day, and there’s no way that you’ve been able to file the paperwork. And when Mariah regains consciousness, I’m sure she will agree.”

“It’s not that simple, Matthew.”

His phone beeped, and he glanced at it. A text from Allie.
Noah and I are at the hospital. ICU waiting room.
“I’ll contact you when I reach Cedar Grove, Peter.” Matt broke the connection. In a pig’s eye he would.

Maybe he should call his attorney. He hated to on New Year’s Day, but on the other hand, Matt needed to know his rights. He scrolled through his contacts and found his attorney’s cell phone number. Ten minutes later, he disconnected, satisfied that all he needed to do was get a notarized statement from Mariah giving him temporary custody. And one of the attorneys in the office would be available to attend Tuesday’s hearing if he needed one.

An hour later, Matt turned off the highway onto the street to the hospital as dusk edged toward night. He hadn’t planned to stop there first, but he wanted to take custody of the boy before Peter got to him. He parked near the door and glanced at the kitten. Check on Mariah, get Noah. Shouldn’t take fifteen minutes. Kiddo should be fine.

He hurried to the waiting room. Allie sat on a small sofa in a corner of the room, cocooning a sleeping boy in her arms, and it hit him—this was a living, breathing nine-year-old boy. With needs. What was he thinking? He clenched his jaw. Peter Elliott had him cornered. No. Truth smacked him in the face. Nothing but his pride had painted himself into this corner.

Allie saw him and held her finger to her lips. Matt nodded. It was better if he visited Mariah first, anyway. He pointed to himself and then to the double doors. Allie nodded she understood and Matt approached the reception desk. “I’m Mariah Connors’s brother. I live out of state and just found out she was here. Is there any way I can go back and see her now?”

The receptionist frowned.

Before she could give him a no, he pointed toward Allie and Noah. “My sister’s son is really worn out, and I’d like to get him home. If I could just go back for a couple of minutes, see for myself how she is, it’d be great.”

She waved him back. “But just this once...since you’ve come from out of town. Room twelve.”

Inside the steel doors, his muscles tensed as he counted the glass-encased rooms. Near the end his mother had been in one of these very rooms, struggling for each breath. He stopped outside the door of room twelve to collect himself. Somehow he hadn’t gotten here in his mind. Matt sucked in a deep breath and squared his shoulders, but nothing could’ve prepared him for what waited inside the cubicle.

The woman in the bed could not be his sister. And for a second, she wasn’t. Instead his mom lay in the bed, a tube sending a steady stream of oxygen in her nose. Matt shook his head hard, and the image of his mother cleared. But not the deep pain in his heart. This slip of a girl looked nothing like the Mariah he remembered, even taking into account the swelling in her face and hands.

His Mariah sang and danced and filled a room with her lively spirit. Matt’s hands curled into two fists as he tried to hold on to the Mariah in his memories. He fixed his gaze on the rise and fall of her chest then leaned over and stroked her arm. He’d give anything if she’d just open her blue eyes and laugh at his tears. “Oh, Mariah...what happened?”

He pulled a chair beside the bed and sat beside her, stroking her arm. “I haven’t met your son, yet. Why didn’t you tell me about him? I’m going to take him home with me. He’ll like it in Memphis. Then when you get better, you can come live with us.”

He had no idea where the words came from. Of if he even meant them. But it seemed important to say them. A piece of paper lay under her hand. Matt pulled it out and unfolded it. Some sort of note. The words he read seared his heart. “I don’t know if you can hear me, Mariah, but I want to read you something.... ‘Dear Mom, I’m sorry I went to find something to eat. Maybe if I had stayed you’d be all right. You have to get better. I love you. Noah.’”
Matt cleared his throat. “Sis, don’t leave your son. Not like this.”

Shoes squeaked behind Matt, and he looked around. A nurse charted her vitals. “Can you tell me how she’s doing?”

“She’s...actually improving. I know right now it doesn’t appear that way, but the doctors have her sedated. Her heart has really calmed down.” The nurse put Mariah’s chart back in the holder on the wall. “I’m sorry, but I need you to return to the waiting room.”

He nodded and stood. “When is the next visiting time?”

“Not until eight.”

Three hours. Matt glanced at the monitor over Mariah’s head like he had so many times before with his mom. Her heart rate beeped a steady eighty-two times a minute. A good sign.

Back in the waiting room, Allie’s arms were still wrapped around the sleeping boy.

“He’s exhausted,” she whispered when he sat in the chair across from them. “I’m glad you came.”

Noah stirred, and she shifted his weight. Slowly his eyes opened, revealing blue eyes just like Mariah’s. When he saw Matt, he jerked upright and pulled away from Allie.

“Noah, this is your Uncle Matt.” Allie brushed his blond hair out of his eyes.

The boy needed a haircut, and he didn’t seem at all pleased to see him. Matt stuck out his hand. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

Noah ignored it and wrapped his arms across his chest. Allie leaned over and whispered in his ear. The boy shook his head.

“Noah, I’d really like for us to be friends,” Matt said. “I’d like for you to stay with me until your mom gets better.”

“No!”

“Why not?”

Noah jutted his jaw. “Mom said not to trust you.”

CHAPTER FIVE

H
IS
UNCLE
ROCKED
back in the chair, looking at Noah as if he didn’t know what to do next, but Noah wasn’t about to be friends with this guy. His mom didn’t trust him. Neither would he. He glanced up at Miss Allie. Even she looked at him funny.

“I’d like a chance to get to know you,” Matt said.

“Why?”

“Uh...” His uncle scratched his head. “You’re my nephew? I know I haven’t been around, but that’s not entirely my fault. Your mom never told me about you.”

“Give him time, Matt.” Noah blinked as Miss Allie smiled warmly at him. “Your Uncle Matt really didn’t know.”

Matt leaned forward. “I really do want you to live with me until your mom gets better.”

“No, you don’t. Mom said you didn’t want to be bothered with us, that you were too busy getting rich.”

His uncle looked like he’d eaten a lemon, but Miss Allie seemed to think what Noah said was funny.

“Well, your mom had it wrong, but if you’d rather stay at the shelter than to trust me...” Matt shrugged. “I’ll just return to Memphis so I can go back to getting rich.”

The shelter. Noah hadn’t thought about that. His stomach growled. He was hungry—really hungry.

“Tell you what,” Matt said. “I haven’t eaten since lunch, and it’s kind of hard to think when I’m hungry. What do you say we go get a burger? Then we’ll sort all this out.”

He wasn’t going anywhere with this guy by himself. “Can Miss Allie go?”

Matt shrugged. “If she wants to.”

Miss Allie didn’t look like she thought it was a good idea at all. His stomach growled again, and both of them looked at him. “You are hungry,” Miss Allie said. “Tell you what. Matt, you can follow us in your car to this great burger place over on Second Street.”

Suddenly his uncle gasped like he had a pain. “I have something in my car I need to check on. Are you ready to go?”

“Can we come back here later?” Noah asked.

Miss Allie and Matt looked at each other, and then Matt checked his watch. “I don’t see why not. There’s one more visiting hour tonight at eight. We can come back for that.”

They followed Matt as he hurried out of the hospital. It was already dark, but still not too cold. Miss Allie told him to zip up his jacket, though, and Noah did. He wished his mom would wake up so he could ask her about Matt. Noah kind of liked him. His uncle didn’t talk to him like he was a baby.

“I’m parked over here.” Miss Allie pointed to the left.

“Me, too.” Matt jogged to a small black car parked beneath the security light and opened the passenger door. A loud wail spilled out into the night air, sounding almost as scary as the siren Noah had heard earlier.

“What in the world...” Miss Allie peered over Matt’s shoulder as Noah drew closer to her.

“I’m sorry, Kiddo,” Matt said as he turned around, cradling a small ball of white and black and orange fur.

“Matthew Jefferies, did you leave that kitten in your car all this time?”

His uncle stared at Miss Allie. “Where was I supposed to leave it? It’s not that cold, and Kiddo has a fur coat and an old T-shirt.”

Noah edged closer to Matt. The kitten fixed its dark eyes on him and wailed again, but not as loud. Noah held out his hand, and the kitten rubbed his finger with the side of its face.

“Want to hold Kiddo?”

Noah nodded and Matt placed the kitten in his arms. Kiddo nudged his chest. “I think she’s hungry.”

“You think so?” his uncle asked. “And how do you know it’s a she?”

Noah rolled his eyes. “It’s a calico.” Boy, his uncle was dumb.
Everyone
knew a calico was a girl kitten. He looked up. “Do you have anything to feed her?”

Matt was looking at him with a funny expression in his eyes. The kitten nudged him again and meowed just as loud as before. “When I bought the pet carrier, I picked up a couple of cans of kitten formula and some solid food. Why don’t we go to my house and feed this kitten before we go eat?”

His uncle had a house in Cedar Grove? He bit his lip. Maybe he’d go with him long enough to feed Kiddo.

“I have an idea,” Miss Allie said. “Why don’t you two go to the house while I pick up the burgers? If there’s a table and plates and stuff, we can eat there.” She looked at Noah. “You okay with that?”

He cut his eyes up at Matt, then back to the kitten. His uncle didn’t know much about kittens. He rubbed the top of Kiddo’s head, and she tried to find his fingers, looking for something to eat. “I guess I better. You’d probably feed her too much and then she’d get sick. But I’m not calling her Kiddo. That’s a stupid name.”

* * *

O
NE
SMALL
VICTORY
. Matt felt like cheering, and he really didn’t blame his nephew for being suspicious. His conscience pricked him. He should’ve stayed in touch with Mariah. He should’ve known about Noah. Allie left him to get her car while he buckled Noah in the passenger side of his convertible then hurried around to the driver’s side.

“Wait!” Allie flagged him down before he got out of the parking lot. “You didn’t put him in the backseat!”

Matt lowered his window. “What?”

“It’s dangerous for a child Noah’s size to ride in the front seat.”

Mentally he kicked himself. He didn’t know anything about raising cats or kids. A quick glance over his shoulder told him what he already knew. No way would the kid fit in the back with all his stuff. “We’re just going a few blocks.”

“Matthew! It only takes one accident.” She looked past him to the backseat. “Oh, I see your problem. Why don’t I drop him off then go get the burgers? Cedar Grove isn’t that big and it won’t take ten minutes longer.”

After transferring Noah and the kitten, Matt led the way, passing by the housing projects on Beaker Street. Allie had said Noah and his sister lived somewhere around here. The boy would need clothes no matter where he stayed, and maybe they could stop by their house and pick up something for him to wear. A mile later, dread leached its way into his stomach. Maybe staying in his mom’s old house wasn’t the best idea. He pulled into the drive and shut off the ignition, waiting for Allie to pull in behind him.

A light shone from the front stoop, illuminating the tiny gray slab that served as a porch. The four-room white-frame house would fit into his top-floor apartment with room to spare. Matt had come full circle, and he didn’t know if he could do it. Maybe they could stay in a hotel. Lights flashed behind him, blocking his car in.

With a sigh, he grabbed the kitten supplies and climbed out of the car, almost bumping into Noah, who had the kitten still clutched in his arms. “Is she still hungry?” Matt asked. The boy nodded. “Then let’s get her inside and fed.” He half turned as Allie backed out of the drive. He almost wished... He summoned his courage. He didn’t need a nursemaid to walk through that door again.

“I think this is where Mom and I came one day,” Noah said.

Mariah had brought Noah here? That surprised him. She’d hated this house even more than Matt. Beaker Street wasn’t where the popular kids lived. “Why did you and your mom move to Cedar Grove?”

He shifted the kitten to the other arm. “I dunno.”

Matt unlocked the door and shoved it open, letting Noah walk in first. The smell of old wood and years of renters met Matt as he crossed the threshold. Then he shook his head and blinked. How did the property managers get all this furniture in the house today? Or did the last renters move and leave it?

“Wow.” Noah walked around the tiny living room. “This is nice.”

Matt stared at Noah. What kind of places had the poor kid lived in? He tried to look at the room from Noah’s perspective. A tired plaid sofa rested along one wall, a wooden rocker and another chair that matched the sofa sat in the corners. Several different scenes of old barns hung on the wall. Not a lot different than when he lived here.

“Glad you like it,” he said. “Come on back to the kitchen, and we’ll feed Kiddo.”

“We’ll feed Patches,” Noah said as he followed.

“So, it’s going to be Patches, is it?” Matt pushed through the swinging wooden door to the kitchen, and time flipped back twenty years.

Mom, I’m home.

Shut the door, son. This isn’t a barn.
How she always knew he left it open mystified him. He tried to shrug off the memories, but they bombarded him. Coming into the kitchen to the aroma of cookies baking in the oven, or spaghetti simmering on the stove...his mom, deep creases lining her face. Most days she beat him home from school after working eight hours at the Elliotts’ house. While Matt had been embarrassed that she worked as a housekeeper, his mom had worn the title with pride.
The job title doesn’t matter, Matthew. You bring dignity to the job, not the other way around.
Too bad his dad hadn’t felt the same way.

Noah tugged at his arm. “Do you have a bowl?”

“Well, let’s see.” Matt rummaged through the cabinet until he found a saucer. “How about this?”

Noah scooped in a small amount of kitten food and set the saucer on the floor. “She likes it.”

They’d barely gotten the kitty fed when Allie returned with burgers. “Where’d you get the furniture?”

“No idea,” he replied. He opened the bag of paper plates the property manager had left and placed three around the table. “Guess the last renters went off and left it.”

He didn’t need the frown she shot him. Yeah, he ought to know, just like he should’ve known about Mariah and the trouble she was in. But he’d done a good job of separating his life in Memphis from anything to do with his family or Cedar Grove. Maybe too good.

“Good thing you didn’t sell the house.” Allie set a burger on each plate then pulled out a chair for Noah.

“Yeah.”

Allie fixed Noah’s plate then concentrated on her sandwich as his nephew took the top bun off his burger and removed the pickles.

“You don’t like pickles?” Matt asked.

His nephew shook his head, and Matt forked the dill slices from his nephew’s plate.

“Can we keep Patches?”

Keep the cat? Matt hadn’t planned on it.

Allie set her sandwich on the plate and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “How did you come to have a kitten in the first place?”

“I thought I had hit it with my tire when I parked at Starbucks this morning. Then he—I mean she—looked so pitiful, I couldn’t leave her there all by herself.”

“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.”

He jerked his gaze from the kitten. “I haven’t heard that phrase since...” He gulped as their eyes met, and he quickly averted his gaze.

“Yeah.”

“Uncle Matt, can we keep her?”

Uncle Matt.
He turned to his nephew. Noah had finished his sandwich and cuddled Patches against his small chest. The yearning in the boy’s face melted the
no
on Matt’s lips. How much trouble could a kitten be, anyway? “I suppose.”

“Thank you! Thank you!” Noah danced around the room.

Allie’s eyes followed the boy around the kitchen. “I wish your mom had lived to meet him,” she murmured to Matt.

“Me, too.” It was all he could get out. He wrapped his half-eaten burger in the foil wrapper.

“I love this house, this kitchen. Do you remember the cookies your mom baked?” She laughed. “Of course you do. Your mom was a great cook. She could take almost nothing and make a meal out of it.”

He stared at Allie, having trouble getting past the house part. While he’d hated, not just the house, but the neighborhood, Allie had turned a blind eye to his circumstances. Allie Carson, whose dad owned the largest horse farm in the county, had always been his champion, even when he’d hated anyone knowing where he lived. “My mom never seemed to belong here. When I was a kid, I wondered if she was someone else.”

“What do you mean?”

“You knew her. Did it ever strike you as odd that she seemed so cultured? And her word choices—no one else in this neighborhood spoke the way she did. And you saw the set of rings that came from her mother.” Matt gulped, wishing he could take back the last words. He glanced at Allie, and the red crawling up her neck pinched his heart.

Allie leaned away from him. “I do remember them, and you’re right. Neither your mother nor the rings belonged in this neighborhood.” She glanced around the kitchen. “We need to clean up your kitchen and get back to the hospital.”

“Wait, what I said was insensitive. I’m sorry.”

She brushed him off with a shrug. “Nothing to be sorry about. Things didn’t work out between us. We’ve both moved on.”

Moved on, indeed. Allie to Peter, and him to Jessica.
Jessica.
He’d forgotten to call her. He dug out his cell. “I need to make a call.”

* * *

B
REATHE
. A
S
M
ATT
used his phone, Allie released the tension that’d been building in her since she’d made the Charlie Brown remark. What had she been thinking? But for a few minutes, he’d been the old Matt. Why couldn’t he just keep on being the Matt on a fast track to success and wealth with a girlfriend who would help him get it? The Matt who’d shattered her heart.

Allie needed to remember she was here because she cared about her student and what was best for him. She knew the system—both from experience in her school counseling job and watching her parents take in children from the foster care program for the past ten years. Children in Noah’s predicament were usually placed with family if possible. However, she wasn’t certain Noah would be better off with his uncle, not until she knew the reason Matt went from hands-off to suddenly caring. And she couldn’t very well ask him in front of the boy.

She tried not to listen to his conversation, a hard thing to do since he didn’t leave the room.

“Sorry I didn’t call earlier. Mariah is still unconscious.” Matt was silent for a minute. “Yeah, the kitten made it fine. Turns out he’s a she, and yes, I plan to check out the animal shelter here in Cedar Grove on Tuesday.”

Noah’s head jerked up. Panic pinched his small face. “Miss Allie—”

“We’ll talk to him about it,” she whispered.