Page 123 of My Heart Will Find You

“Attracted, ha!” Etta said. “I have to go. Zack or Ben might be trying to call.”

“Who are these people?” Alicia demanded. “Dad and I should meet them.”

Etta grimaced. “And you’ve put yourself back into the role of caretaker for poor, sad Etta. Call me when you’re ready to talk to me as a sister and not like I’m one of your crazy patients.”

“They aren’t all—”

Etta clicked off and immediately started shoving things into her suitcase. “I have nowhere to go,” she mumbled, “and no way to get there, but I’m going. I’m the new Etta. The symbol of freedom.”

She knew that if she let go of her anger, she would fall down in a heap of misery. Poor Etta. On her way to being a spinster. Like Martha of old. No family, no home, no job. No—

Her ringing phone broke into her self-pity. She picked it up, expecting it to be Alicia or her father. Would they apologize? Or dump more loving-and-caring pity on old and plain Etta?

The screen had a number and below it was, Denver, Colorado.

Maybe it’s Henry, she thought and gave a malicious little smile. She would enjoy telling him what she thought of him.

“Hello? Is this Etta?” said a male voice.

It was Bert. No, she reminded herself. In this life, it was Ben.

“Yes, I’m Etta.”

“Would you mind doing FaceTime?”

“Not at all.” She pushed the tabs and Ben came into view. She didn’t know him, but she did. There were dark circles under his eyes. His baby, his wife, his father, all of them had recently been in jeopardy. He’d been through a lot in the last days.

“Dad told me to call you. He’s worried about you.”

He should be, she thought, but said, “How is he?”

“It’s good. We finally got him to agree to surgery. They’re putting in a couple of stents. We’ve been trying to get him to do it for the last year. But he wouldn’t. And he refused to come to Denver with us. He kept saying that he had something he had to do so he couldn’t leave Kansas City.”

Sit on his porch and lure me to him with cookies and lemonade?she thought, but said nothing.

“Max is here. He flew in from Africa. By the way, Caro and I were surprised that his name was used in your book.”

She knew he was asking her opinion about that. “Yeah.” She wasn’t going to take the blame for what Henry had done. “Henry did that. And he gave my name to the woman. I wanted to name her something like Rowena, but Henry took over. May I talk to him? I’d like to tell him that I greatly appreciate the secret he kept. In fact, I can’t wait to tell him exactly how I feel about everything.”

“What secret?”

She couldn’t tell Ben what was between her and Henry. She thought quickly. “About the carving on the back of the desk. The desk you and Henry bought at auction.”

Ben smiled. “That wasn’t me. That was Max. I was home with Mom with the chicken pox. Max and Dad went to an auction, and they came back with a truckload of things. Mom wanted to skin him. Dad had to get rid of furniture to make room for that monster desk.”

When Ben paused, she could see that he had something else to say. “Etta, I don’t know you so this will seem strange, but Dad made me promise to tell you how he met Max. I don’t understand why he never told you as he says it’s his favorite story. Do you have a few minutes?”

“I have all the time in the world, and I would love to hear the story.”

“I’m not a good storyteller like Dad is, but I’ll try. Mom was a great doctor, but her personality was... How do I describe her?”

“Not a woman who gushed with sentiment?”

Ben gave a half smile like she’d seen Bert do. “Yeah. I think Dad gave the fictional Martha Mom’s character. Anyway, she was widowed and left with a young son, Max, to take care of. She put him in the day care run by the hospital. But one day, Max escaped and they had to call Mom. Maybe I shouldn’t tell this, but they were fearful of her temper.”

Etta was putting together what Henry had told her about his life. He hadn’t lied, just skipped big chunks. “Henry has always been a storyteller.”

“Yes!” Ben’s face lit in happy memory. “That’s what he was doing. Dad was in the pediatric ward, surrounded by kids, and Max was glued to his side. When Mom told Max to leave, he refused, which was unusual for him. Max said, ‘He found me.’ To my big brother, that meant it was a done deal. He was going to keep Henry forever.”

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