A Family Name (18 page)

"That sounds like a great idea."

****

The next morning after much chaos, Will and
Charlotte herded the kids into the back of the truck. The space
seemed tinier with Sierra's booster seat and Shane's car seat, but
it also felt cozy. Charlotte glanced back once more as she clicked
her seatbelt into place. Lexi and Sierra had each insisted on a
window seat, but Shane didn't seem to mind. He was sucking on his
thumb and worrying the edge of his blanket with his free hand. A
pang of worry squeezed her heart. The little boy still didn't talk
much. Her social work training told her to continue to give him
time to come around but the more she spent with him the more she
wanted him to get better.

Will turned on a local radio station that
typically featured classical music. Charlotte settled back into her
seat with a small sigh of pleasure. She hadn't realized how much
she had been listening to kids' tunes, but now this beautiful sound
bathed her ears in welcome auditory reprieve.

"What is this?" Lexi asked from the back
seat.

"Chopin," Will replied, giving Charlotte a
sidelong glance accompanied by a smirk. She smirked back.
Teenagers.

They pulled onto the expressway, and turned
toward Rapid City. This was the first time Charlotte had been away
from the Mountain View area in awhile. She realized that she hadn't
had any desire to leave. She was happy on the ranch, and she found
Mountain View charming. Life on the ranch felt more like home than
she had ever felt before. Maybe that's why she had felt so panicked
when he suggested moving to Rapid City. She knew that her gut
reaction had been irrational. Who knew how much longer the five of
them would be together anyway? It was a thought she didn't let take
hold.

"Can we please change this station?" Lexi
made a knocking motion on the back of Will's seat. Charlotte had to
smile.

Will complied by tuning to a country station.
Lexi seemed mollified for the moment. Sierra pulled out a play
phone from her little purse and started talking on it to Grandma
Karen. Charlotte relaxed, and felt the pull of something she had
not felt in a long time. She gazed out the window as the steeper
cliffs mellowed into rounded, rolling foothills as they drove south
toward Rapid City. Glancing behind her she saw that Shane had
fallen asleep his head resting awkwardly on Lexi's shoulder. The
girl had, in turn, laid her head on top of the little boy's.

"Look," Charlotte said in a soft voice, and
motioned for Will to glance in his rearview mirror. The two of them
shared a smile, and she thought her heart might burst.
This must
be bliss,
Charlotte thought. A feeling so far beyond
contentment that her joy meter rushed off the charts. She could
honestly say she had never before felt that way. The love she had
for those three kids made her lightheaded at times. The ferocity of
it took her breath away, and the fact that she was not their
biological mother mattered zero percent. She wondered if any of her
foster parents had felt that way about her. If they had, they
certainly hadn't shown it in a way that she was aware of.

And what of Will? Charlotte cast a sidelong
glance at the man seated beside her humming along to an upbeat
country tune. He wore his battered brown hat, the brim creased
awkwardly along the left side. Charlotte had noticed that he folded
it up every time he turned in the saddle to look behind him. His
curly brown hair peeped out under the edges. The tan corduroy coat
he wore along with jeans and boots made him look one hundred
percent like the rancher he was. She liked him that way just as
much as she liked him in suits and ties that he wore to teach. A
tingle of awareness spread over her with such heat that she was
sure her cheeks got red.

But the physical attraction she felt for him
paled in comparison to the depth of her emotional attraction. She
admired the way he had stepped into the role of father when it had
been thrust upon him. He opened his home not only to the children
but to her, and he seemed determined to make the best out of a
difficult situation. The commitment he had shown to his job and the
loyalty he had to his friends and family made him all the more
appealing. Though Charlotte had to admit that he could be stubborn
when he wanted his own way, and he did sometimes seem narrow minded
in his focus on certain subjects, those were minor parts of the
whole. Each time she toyed with using the L-word to describe her
feelings for Will, Charlotte shied away. She had a list of reasons
and each was good, but none of them fully convinced her.

The truck bounced into a large pothole on the
exit ramp, and jarred Charlotte from her thoughts. Shane let out a
wail of protest at being awakened from his nap, but settled back
down as the ride smoothed out.

"I need to run by the Institute on our way
home, if that's okay," Will said as he navigated the busy morning
traffic of downtown.

Charlotte nodded, still feeling distracted by
her self-examination on the trip down.

Will must have noticed that she was quiet,
because he asked, "Hey, you okay?"

Charlotte looked at him blankly for a moment,
feeling unsure of what he had just said. Then she shook her head,
smiled, and replied, "I'm fine. Just got lost in my thoughts, you
know?"

Will made an affirmative noise but still
looked concerned as he headed west toward Keystone and Mount
Rushmore. The way his eyebrows were drawn together and his mouth
gathered in a disapproving bow, made Charlotte giggle. She had to
look out the window to keep from laughing outright. Her emotions
seemed to be all out of whack and running just below the surface.
There was no way she could explain it all to him without giving
away just how far in she was, and at this point she still wasn't
ready to do that.

As the hills turned into mountains Charlotte
felt the flush of excitement she always got on the way into the
heart of the Black Hills. The granite outcroppings covered in pine
and quartz made her feel at home.

"Are we there yet?" Sierra's voice broke
through Charlotte's reverie.

"Almost," Will said, chuckling at the
whininess of the little girl's tone. "See that bridge up ahead? We
have to go under that, then through a town called Keystone, and
then we're there."

"Well… okay," Sierra said.

"Looks like we have a teenager in training,"
Charlotte said in a low voice, trying her best not to laugh.

"Just what we need." Will's smile was wry but
the warmth behind it told Charlotte how much he enjoyed the
thought.

As they rolled into Keystone, Charlotte
glanced back at the kids. Shane slept soundly against his car seat
now, and Sierra had pulled a doll from her purse. Lexi, though,
practically had her nose pressed against the window. Charlotte felt
a pang of sadness as she realized that Lexi had probably never been
to this part of the Hills. Sure, Charlotte could ask, but she held
back because she knew the feeling of not wanting to relive foster
placements. Even the nice ones didn't make her want to wax lyrical
about the experience.

"This place is amazing." Lexi gazed longingly
at the faux frontier storefronts.

Charlotte caught the same look of regret
cross Will's face as he glanced back at his daughter in the rear
view mirror. "Maybe we can stop here for ice cream on the way
home."

Sierra looked up at Will's suggestion, and
she and Lexi made the same squealing noise that Charlotte found
pained her ears.

"I want you girls to watch out Sierra's
window," Will said. "Watch for the faces."

A moment later as the truck climbed the steep
grade of the mountain, they came around a curve, and there on
granite outcropping stood the four faces of Mount Rushmore.
Charlotte felt her breath hitch. Such a stunning sight.

Will pulled the truck into the parking lot,
paid their parking fee, and found a spot. He unloaded an umbrella
stroller from the back while Charlotte made sure that Sierra's coat
was zipped and her gloves firmly in place. Lexi took the little
girl's hand so Charlotte could get the still sleepy Shane from his
car seat. The little boy wrapped his arms around her neck but
willingly went to the stroller.

As they walked up to the monument, Charlotte
felt the appropriate amount of awe that she felt each time she came
here or went to Crazy Horse. The feat of sculpting something out of
the side of a mountain… it simply amazed her. Lexi seemed to be
feeling something similar because she couldn't stop staring.
Sierra, though, seemed quite unimpressed.

"There's snow." The hushed excitement in
Sierra's voice caught Charlotte's attention, and she stopped to see
where the little girl pointed. Sure enough small mounds of snow
lined the walkways, even though it was early May and the snow
around the ranch had melted weeks ago.

Before Charlotte or Will could comment,
Sierra ran to Lexi and pulled her toward the inviting winter
leftovers. Will and Charlotte followed with Shane in the stroller.
The distraction from the monument gave Charlotte a chance to look
around. Tourist season hadn't started yet, but there were a fair
amount of people there. In a few weeks school groups would start
coming for end-of-year field trips. Mount Rushmore became a hub of
activity after Memorial Day, as did most of the State and National
Parks in the state. Like most locals, Charlotte tended to avoid the
major attractions, and she had a feeling Will was much the same.
Now that they had the kids, though, she felt like she should try to
take them places over the summer. If they were all still together
this summer.

The thought cast a momentary pall over the
day. Charlotte shook off the doldrums as she watched Sierra engage
Lexi in an impromptu snowball fight. Even Shane giggled as he
watched the girls squeal and scramble behind Will and Charlotte.
Several people stopped a short distance away to watch the
antics.

"What a beautiful family." Charlotte and Will
turned at the same time to see an older woman smiling at them.

Charlotte felt her tongue tangle in her
mouth. How could she explain their situation while still sounding
appreciative and gracious for such a sweet compliment?

Will covered it, though. He reached out and
wrapped an arm around Charlotte. "Thank you. We're blessed."

The older woman smiled even more broadly, if
that was even possible. As she tottered off the meet up with a
group of other older women, Charlotte felt confused but relieved.
There was, of course, no reason for them to explain to strangers
the particulars of their lives, but Charlotte felt deceitful
claiming the beautiful children as her own. As her sluggish brain
turned the predicament over in her mind she glanced down at the
stroller, and gasped.

"Where's Shane?" She pulled out of Will's
arms and swung in a frantic circle. Will turned the opposite
way.

Sierra and Lexi were still playing with the
snow, although the older girl looked as if her tolerance for the
activity had waned. But Shane was nowhere to be seen. Panic rose in
Charlotte's throat, choking her and making her gasp for air. When
Will met her gaze his eyes reflected her fear, but instead of
falling apart like she wanted to he took control.

"I'll take Lexi and notify security. You take
Sierra and check the gift shop. If you don't find him we'll meet
back here and check the café together." Will strode over to his
daughter, spoke briefly, and charged off in the other direction
within a matter of seconds.

Charlotte felt like she was moving in slow
motion as she took Sierra's hand and headed the dozen or so yards
to the gift shop. Inside, Charlotte looked around, still feeling
frantic. She didn't see Shane, but a shop employee was stocking
knickknacks on a nearby shelf.

"Excuse me, did you see a little blond-haired
boy come in here by himself?" Charlotte asked, gripping Sierra a
little tighter. "He's three. He was probably sucking his thumb and
dragging a blanket."

The woman paused to give Charlotte her full
attention. Maybe she heard the desperation and fear in Charlotte's
voice, but for whatever reason, she put down her stock and stood
up. "I didn't but tell me a little more about him and we can go ask
Sue at the front kiosk. She may have seen something. We aren't too
busy today."

Charlotte drew a shuddery breath, trying to
stop the race of thoughts pouring through her mind. How could she
single out the one thing that would help define Shane and help find
him?

"His blanket is green with yellow dinosaurs
on it." Charlotte looked down at Sierra. The little girl's face set
so seriously it made Charlotte's heart squeeze.

"He looks a lot like his sister here. We were
just outside, and the girls were playing in the snow and suddenly
he was just gone. We thought he might have come in here." Charlotte
knew she was babbling, and that every second she kept going was a
wasted moment.

The woman nodded and led them to the woman
she called Sue. After a brief explanation, Sue said, "You know, I
did see a little tyke with a blanket like you were describing. It
didn't even occur to me that he might be in here alone. I figured
he was just wandering off from his mom. Last I saw him, he was
headed toward the back."

"I'll help you look," the first woman
said.

"Thanks," Charlotte said, racing in the
direction Sue had pointed, tugging Sierra along with her.

Rows of shelves blurred by, but there was no
sign of Shane. Charlotte felt like she was suffocating under the
mounting dread. Her breath came in short gasps, and her vision
tunneled to only a small peephole. She had to find Shane. The only
thing keeping her grounded was the feel of Sierra's tiny hand
fitted tightly into her palm.

"There he is," Sierra cried, breaking free
from Charlotte and charging down an aisle filled with souvenir shot
glasses.