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His brows lifted. “You’re either very observant or very wrong.”
Anita didn’t mind being called out. She could be wrong, but they’d never know until Wyatt followed this trail his grandpa wanted to take.
“All right,” he said suddenly. “I’ll find Susan for my grandpa. Do you think you could help? I mean...at least be my sounding board if you don’t have time to do any sleuthing.”
He sounded so frazzled that Anita didn’t know whether to comfort him or laugh. She set a hand on his arm. “I can help.”
His shoulders visibly relaxed, and his gaze moved to where she touched him. “Okay, thank you,” he said quietly. “That means a lot.”
Anita dropped her hand. “No problem. I think Carly and I are pretty invested now.”
The edge of his mouth lifted, and she loved seeing the worry lines ease. From her outsider’s point of view, this all sounded like an interesting quest. But from Wyatt’s point of view, she could see how it would tangle up his emotions.
“He’s probably talking Carly’s ear off right now,” Wyatt said. “Let’s go back in and give him the news.”
“Sounds good.” She turned toward the hallway leading to the dining room, and his hand touched the small of her back. For only an instant. Then his touch was gone. She shouldn’t be feeling the warmth spread through her, but she was.
Back inside the dining room, Carly and Mr. Davis were playing a game of Uno. A change of pace from their usual Scrabble, but no less competitive. He set down his cards the moment he spotted them. “Well? Conference over? What did you decide?”
Wyatt sat on the other side of his grandpa, and Anita took her usual place by Carly.
“We’re going to track down Susan,” Wyatt said. “All of us.”
“Me too?” Carly asked, her eyes bright.
“You too,” Anita said with a smile.
Mr. Davis sat back in his chair, a triumphant grin on his face. “Excellent. When do we start?”
Wyatt chuckled. “I can start making calls tomorrow. But first, we need to know as many names and dates as you can remember. There might be more than one Susan Martin out there.”
“Should we start with Medford?” Carly asked.
Mr. Davis smiled. “You remembered the postmark.”
She nodded. “Maybe we should just fly to Medford and start knocking on doors that belong to all the Susan Martins.”
He chuckled. “There’s a few problems with that. First, I don’t fly, and second, I don’t know what her married name is.”
Everyone at the table went silent. “I didn’t think of that,” Wyatt finally said, rubbing his forehead. “That should have been our first consideration.”
“It’s only a minor bump,” Mr. Davis said. “We’ll just have to find out when she married so we can find out who she married.”
Anita didn’t know what was going through Wyatt’s mind, but everything just got a lot more complicated. Instead of this project maybe taking a few nights of phone calls, this could stretch into weeks of phone calls, writing letters, and requesting records they may or may not be given access to.
“Got something to write on?” Mr. Davis asked his grandson. “I’ll give you the names of her family members. Although her mother died about a year after they moved.”
Wyatt was empty-handed, so Anita pulled out a small notebook from her purse that she used to jot down her grocery list. “I’ve got something.”
Mr. Davis rattled off the names of Susan’s parents and siblings, as well as the name of the uncle they went to live with when they first moved.
Then he picked up his Uno cards. “I’ll let the two of you percolate over the details while I beat Carly in Uno.”
“Hey,” Carly said. “You’re putting your cart before the horse.”
Anita chuckled. “I haven’t heard that saying in years, probably decades.”
Carly shrugged, and Mr. Davis only smiled. In moments, they were enmeshed in their game. Wyatt rose and moved to sit next to Anita. “Well? Any idea of where to start?”
