Unexpectedly, Milo - Matthew Dicks [140]
“You make a good argument, Edith. I’m afraid that Milo and I are probably just going to be friends, but I’ll pass on the good word to Cassidy.”
“You wait until he’s settled things with his wife. No need confusing things with another woman. Okay, Milo?”
“Yes, Edith. I know.”
“I told you so,” Emma said once they were back in the car and on the way to Cassidy’s house.
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“Hey, thanks for not telling Edith about Christine’s call. I’ll tell her that we’re getting divorced, but I’ll do it on a day when I have more time to sit around and listen to her scold me.”
“No problem. How long before we get to Cassidy’s? My Connecticut geography is a little rusty. Cassidy may live here now, but remember, I never did.”
“Less than thirty minutes. Why?”
“I have to think about what I’ll say to her. What I’ll say first, I mean.”
“Just introduce yourself,” Milo said. “She’ll probably do the rest.”
“Yeah, like kick me in the shin or slug me.”
“You’ll be fine.”
It was four thirty when Milo and Emma knocked on Cassidy’s front door. He couldn’t believe it. After all this time, he was about to reunite these two women and finally put a part of Cassidy’s mind at ease. All the hours of watching tapes and researching backgrounds and driving to and from North Carolina had led him to this moment. He would finally meet Cassidy Glenn, a.k.a. Freckles, the girl that had propelled him on his journey. And because he was standing beside Emma, soon to be introduced as Tess, he felt more relaxed than he ever could have imagined.
No one answered on the first knock, so Milo knocked a second time and then rang the doorbell when that proved fruitless. They waited another minute, unwilling to accept that after they had come all this way, she might not be home.
Finally, they had no choice but to accept defeat.
“So we wait?” Emma asked.
“No. I think I may know where she is. But I want to swing by my apartment first.”
The sun was low in the sky as Milo and Emma crossed the wide expanse of grass at Mill Pond Park in the direction of the crowd gathered along the north end of the field. Practice was under way on the baseball diamond to their left. Round, hairy coaches shouted commands to small, pale boys wearing gloves twice the size of their hands. The wide path around the pond was peppered with people in spring jackets and sneakers, pushing strollers, holding hands, and jogging in circles. Above the crowd to the north, kites fluttered in the late-afternoon breeze, rising and diving at the command of their owners. Small children were running beneath them, their arms waving, their laughter carried on the wind to where Milo and Emma were now standing.
“There she is,” Milo said, pointing to Cassidy, who was talking to a short, thin Indian man while examining a yellow and red striped kite in his hands. She was wearing a green polka-dotted shirt and jeans, and her hair was tucked into a pink baseball cap.
“Look at her,” Emma said in a hush. “She’s all grown up.”
“You are too,” Milo said.
They stood, staring for a moment longer in silence, watching as Cassidy continued her conversation with the man.
Finally, Emma took a deep breath and sighed. “So I guess this is it, huh? We should go?”
“No,” Milo said. “You should go. I’m going to leave.”
“What?”
“I’m going to leave you two and go. But please, give this to her for me.” He held out the nylon camera bag that he had found three weeks ago under a park bench beneath a dying elm. “The camera and all the tapes are inside.”
“Milo, don’t be stupid. You’re coming.