The front door opened—she’d left it unlocked for Tyler—then shut, followed by the footsteps of his soft-soled sneakers. An ear-to-ear grin broke across his face when he saw Elisa.

“How was your day at school?” she asked him after he wrapped her in a tight hug. What a June Cleaver thing for her to say. Like she was his mother.

Whoa, what? Who said anything about “mother”? Odd, though, but that’s the routine they’d slipped into. And too easily as well. Tyler coming home to her house. Her, making him something to eat, helping him with his homework. Seeing Brody every day when he came to pick him up. Sort of like…

No, don’t even think it. They were not a family.

And yet… Was this what it would be like if she were to stay in Trouble? Would it feel this nice, this warm? A small part of her was reminded of the days when she had a family. Of when she’d walk through the door and have the house filled with voices of those she loved most. Sometime, when she hadn’t been looking, Brody and Tyler had slipped into those roles. Giving her what she’d missed most in the years following her parents’ death. The feeling scared her almost as much as the idea of leaving them.

“Boring, like always,” Tyler muttered. “I talked to my mom yesterday, and she’s coming home next week.” Glee lit up his eyes when he talked about his mother. Elisa hardly ever saw that same look when he talked about Brody.

“You must be excited about that,” she said, even though the same excitement didn’t fill Elisa. Not because she didn’t like Kelly; she had a great respect for the woman. Not having Tyler come over meant not seeing Brody every day.

“Yeah, I miss her a lot.” Tyler dropped his backpack and walked to the kitchen table. “Is this sandwich for me?”

Elisa smiled at him. “I figured you’d be hungry. After that, I thought we’d go for a walk and take some more pictures.”

“Cool.”

Fifteen minutes later, the two of them strolled down the street of their neighborhood. The cloud cover had grown thicker since earlier that morning, along with the breeze. The wind in Wyoming had a habit of blowing nonstop, and today was no different. The limbs of the heavily leafed trees swayed back and forth in the gusts.

Elisa had her camera strapped around her neck and Tyler by her side. He chattered nonstop, asking her about cameras and the developing process. Then she tried to get him to open up by asking him how he’d spend the weekend with his dad.

“Did the two of you do anything fun?”

“He took me to an arcade on Saturday night. I wanted to go to a friend’s house instead, but he wouldn’t let me.”

Elisa’s heart ached for Brody. It was obvious he wanted to right a few wrongs by spending some one-on-one time with his son. Clearly Tyler had been burned by whatever had gone on in the past, and now the boy was hesitant to get close to his father.

“Seems to me the arcade can be just as much fun as a friend’s house,” Elisa commented, trying to turn the tables in Brody’s favor.

Tyler lifted his shoulder in a narrow shrug. “Yeah, it was. The next morning, Dad made bacon and eggs for me like he used to.”

They reached a small playground at the end of the street, and the two of them settled on a wooden bench. “Your dad used to make breakfast for you?”

Tyler smiled and kicked at a piece of bark with his shoe. “Yeah, every Sunday he’d make us breakfast and serve it to my mom in bed. Sometimes he would even put a flower on the tray because he liked making my mom smile.”

A little stab of jealousy hit her square in the chest, almost knocking the breath out of her. Why she should be jealous, Elisa had no clue. They’d been married, for crying out loud. Things like that between married couples were normal. It’s not like they were still together. Brody and Kelly had been divorced for several years, and Kelly had even remarried. What Elisa didn’t know was if Brody still held some sort of feelings for his ex-wife. Had Kelly initiated the divorce and Brody still harbored feelings for her?

Elisa cleared her throat and refocused her attention on Tyler. The separation of his parents had been rough on him; that much was obvious. “Did your dad do things like that a lot?”

“Yeah. Then he stopped.”

“Because your parents divorced?” Elisa knew she’d had to tread this subject very carefully.

Tyler was silent for a moment. “No, he stopped before that. He started working on weekends, and then he was gone a lot.”

She slid her arm around the boy’s shoulder. “Did that make you sad?”

He nodded. “It made my mom sad too. Then she got mad because he was gone all the time, and he never ate the dinner that my mom cooked.”

This was the most Tyler had told her about his parents’ divorce. All the boy needed was someone to talk to. “You miss your dad, don’t you?”

He sniffed and shifted on the bench. “Yeah,” he whispered. “My dad always told me I was his best buddy, and we did everything together. After he moved out, we stopped doing stuff.”

Her heart practically cracked in two at the loss of the relationship between father and son. Both had been terribly hurt and didn’t know how to heal past wounds. Tyler was confused, scared, and lonely. Brody was probably just as lonely and didn’t have a clue how to repair the damage. She knew he was trying, but Tyler had been through a lot and most likely lost some trust in his father.

Tyler’s story tugged at her heartstrings like nothing else had.

Elisa hugged him to her. “Tyler, I know your parents splitting up was hard on you. But I know for a fact that your dad misses the heck out of you. And he would love nothing more than to spend every single second with you.” When he didn’t respond, she pressed on. “Sometimes two married people can’t stay married anymore, but that doesn’t mean either one of them loves you any less.”

“I know. My mom has told me that a lot.”

Elisa giggled at his perceptiveness. “Well, it’s true.”

He glanced at her and offered a small smile. “I just wish they were still married.”

“That’s natural for you to feel that way.” Did that mean Tyler wouldn’t accept any woman in Brody’s life? How had the boy handled Brody’s previous relationships?

Figuring it was time for a subject change, Elisa held her camera out to Tyler. “You want to take some pictures?”

The boy’s eyes grew to the size of saucers, and he took the piece of equipment out of her hands. He stood from the bench and took a few steps forward. Just as he raised the camera to his face, a shaggy mutt with a noticeable limp on his back leg came ambling toward them. The dog was all different shades of brown with black spots on his face and legs. His tail was long with thick matted fur that swung side to side. He ambled over to Tyler and touched his nose to the boy’s leg.

“Elisa, look at this dog. I don’t think he has an owner.” Tyler ran his fingers over the dog’s ears.

“I think he’s hurt,” she said as she stood from her spot and approached the animal. He aimed his doggy brown eyes up at her as if to say “Pet me, love me, I’m lonely.” Animals had always been a particular weakness of hers. This dog looked like it had been abandoned and then engaged in a few fights, perhaps in search of food or defending itself from bigger dogs. A small chunk was missing from his ear, like another animal had taken a bite out of him. As he stood in front of Tyler, the mutt held up his back leg. There was no collar or identification.

Elisa dropped to her knees and scratched both the dog’s ears. He gazed at her with a sadness that tore her guts up inside.

“Maybe he’s hungry,” Tyler said. “He looks really skinny.”

No doubt about that. The animal’s skin was pulled tight over ribs Elisa could easily count. This poor dog had been left to fend for itself. Whoever had done this ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Elisa directed her gaze to Tyler. “We should take him to get him something to eat. What do you think?”

“Like at your house?”

“Yeah, I think he needs some taking care of.”

Since there wasn’t a leash, or even a collar, Tyler and Elisa had to coax the dog all the way back to her house. Tyler kept snapping his fingers and whistling to keep the animal’s attention, which wavered several times by squirrels and foreign scents. They finally got the mutt into her house and in front of a bowl of water.

“Wow, he’s really thirsty,” Tyler said as the dog lapped water for several minutes, sending splashes all over the floor.

Elisa dug around in her fridge for something to feed the dog. “It’s probably been a long time since he’s had any fluids. The poor thing has been starved.” What in the world could she feed this animal? She didn’t have any dog food.

She pulled out a piece of wheat bread, tore it into small sections, and dropped them on the floor. They disappeared within seconds.

“Are you gonna keep him?” Tyler asked after he settled himself on the floor beside the mutt and ran his hand over the dog’s back.

Elisa squatted next to the two of them. “I don’t know. He’s in pretty bad shape and I don’t have any dog food here.” It would probably take several hundred dollars in vet bills to get this animal in better shape. Her parents never had pets, so she didn’t know the first thing about taking care of one. Hell, she didn’t even know what sort of dog food to buy.

“But he needs somebody to take care of him,” Tyler said.

She refrained from making promises to the boy, for fear of having to break them. All she’d wanted to do was give the animal some nourishment. Maybe she could keep the dog overnight and call the local shelter in the morning.