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“Yes, plus, my sister, her husband, and son.” Silas took his eyes off the road to give her a brief smiling glance. “Have you started regretting your decision to take the job?”
“No, I’ve never been afraid of hard work. I’m just amazed you’re all still living together on the same property. Normally, I would think at least one would have moved away.”
They hadn’t discussed the ages of his brothers during the short interview. Skittish of saying the wrong thing and have Silas deciding against hiring her, she hadn’t asked many questions. She was regretting it now. At least she would have been better prepared for what was waiting for her.
“None of us consider ourselves normal. The boys and I prefer keeping to our mountain. We leave the globe-trotting to our sister, or at least she used to. Ginny’s pretty much settled down with her husband in their new home since they had little Freddy. Every now and then, they go on a short trip for Ginny’s work. Not so much since she found herself expecting again. That’s why I decided to hire someone. Ginny’s been doing the job I’m givingyou, but the boys and I don’t want her to keep overtaxing herself. She’ll still help out,” he added, giving her a searching look, as if he was scaring her off. “Ginny won’t be able to stop herself. I’m just trying to give her a break from the heavier chores she shouldn’t be doing anyway.”
“That’s nice of you.” Alanna wondered which heavy chores Silas and his brothers didn’t want their sister to do anymore. “Just let me know which chores you don’t want her doing, and I’ll make sure I take care of them before she can.”
“I don’t expect you to take over the heavier chores. All I want you to do is text me when you see her lifting over five pounds or climbing anything that is over three inches off the floor.”
“I don’t have a cell phone,” she told him, embarrassed. Not wanting to share the details of how she had lost her phone, Alanna gave him a grateful glance when he just shrugged.
“We have short range radios. I also have a spare cell phone you can use.”
With every word he spoke, Alanna liked him more and more. She cautioned herself. Mr. Coleman couldn’t be as nice as he seemed, yet something about him was able to bypass the normal wariness which hindered her from making friends.
She slammed an imaginary foot down on mental brakes to put a stop to becoming friendly with him. He was her employer; letting a friendship develop between him or with any of his family could be detrimental to their health.
“Thank you. You can take the price of the phone and the cost of cell service out of my pay.”
“That won’t be necessary. It’s just been sitting in a drawer.”
“I insist.” Keeping interactions on a business level from the start would save them from possible heartbreak down the road. Kate and Owen would be looking for opportunities to keep her in their control.
As Silas drove, Alanna took the opportunity to stare out at the scenery. Movement from Silas had her turning her head to the side.
“Do you mind not rolling the window down?” she asked, seeing what he was doing.
Rolling the window back up, Silas gave her a surprised look.
“Sorry, allergies,” Alanna brusquely explained, averting her gaze back to the side window without further explanation.
“Might need to get some medication for them. I’m afraid you’re not going to avoid being outside to get to my brothers’ homes.”
When she had been told she would be cleaning his brothers’ homes, she had nearly refused the job. She hated being outside with a passion.
“It’s not a big deal unless the wind is blowing.”
“That’s unfortunate. I prefer being outside than being inside, but then I don’t have any allergies.”
“I’ll be fine once my medication kicks in,” she said absently with her mind on them passing the spot where she had been arrested. The house sitting on a hill above the parking lot was where she had jerked the steering wheel out of the trucker’s hand, who had forced her to accompany him to the tiny town she had never heard of before; where she had found herself landed in their jail. It was a stark reminder of how she had failed to find Elizabeth before it escalated to her being accused of the crime that Kate had devised. Alanna was sure Kate was behind the plan to extort Arin, Elizabeth’s boss. Owen couldn’t tie his own shoes without Kate’s help.
Preoccupied by her thoughts, she reached into her jacket pocket to reaffirm the medication Mrs. Bates had filled for her was still safely inside. Once she was back on her medication, the wind talking to her would be muted, and she wouldn’t have to be worried she would slip up and talk to someone who wasn’tthere. She had been on the medication when she confided to Sam that she could talk to the wind, and he talked back. He had told his mother, who had grown concerned enough to take her to a psychiatrist.
Her psychiatrist had prescribed her pills to block out of the voice. She learned quickly that while taking the pills made her feel as if she was living on Mars, it was better than having Mrs. Fields reconsidering being her foster mom. Alanna had seen the worry in her eyes whenever Sam was in the room with her. Terrified of being sent back to the group home, she had taken them.
Once she had moved into her apartment, she had weaned herself off until a coworker overheard her talking to someone without seeing anyone nearby. The wind had stopped talking to her years before, yet she inevitably found herself asking for advice when she was stressed over something even though she knew the wind wouldn’t answer. Two valuable lessons had been learned the hard way. People were terrified of anyone being different, especially if involved with someone hearing voices and talking out loud to themselves. They assumed you were a psycho who took orders from your pets. The other lesson was, keeping her medication in her system placed a buffer on the emotional turmoil which made her want to talk to make-believe beings every time she felt a breeze.
Silas’ turning into a driveway that couldn’t be seen from the road brought a knot to her stomach. In her job as a realtor, she had to appear friendly and outgoing. Inside, she was a bundle of nerves, monitoring their movements and reactions if they came too close to her. During the pandemic, she had been able to keep a space between her and clients without drawing any notice. She would move away if they inadvertently came within a few inches of her.
She wasn’t looking forward to meeting such a large group of people. Memories of being overwhelmed when she had been a child and taken to the group home came back to taunt her.
Unexpectantly, the house Silas pulled up to eased the knot in her stomach. She could tell the home was old, but well cared for. Alanna could imagine the two-story house being used in a calendar or book for Southern Living with the surrounding trees giving it a picturesque setting. Visions of a big dinner table, with a mother cooking and children playing happily inside, brought a lump to her throat.
A happy family had been lost to her with her parents’ deaths. Instead, she had grown up with children who had been taken out of her life without any notice. Some years, she went to school without knowing who she would be sharing a bedroom with that night, or worse, have an empty bed where before it had been filled with another girl she had slept next to for months.
Because of Kate, she had learned never to get attached to any of her possessions, but being a ward of the state had taught her it was just as risky to develop any affection to anyone she came into contact with. Even with the Fields family, she had never truly given them a place in her heart, too afraid of them being ripped out of her life without any warning.
