at his answer until she realized that technically it wasn’t a school anymore. “Is Dr. Waters here?” she tried again.
“I’m the only one here.”
Just her luck. She’d come all this way and he wasn’t even home. “Do you expect him back soon?”
It wasn’t a difficult question, but it appeared to give him trouble. Just when she was sure he wasn’t going to respond, he answered, “He’s not coming back.”
“Ever?”
He shrugged. “I suppose if he left he would have to come back sometime.”
“I see.” That was as clear as mud. “Maybe I could come back later. I want to talk to him about—”
“Talking’s not going to do you any good. Go away!”
This wasn’t just ill-mannered. This was rude. No wonder this man was working out here all alone, in the middle of nowhere. “I’m only asking for a minute of his time. Don’t you think he could give me that much?”
“Time can’t be given away.”
Abby paused. It was strange but his comment sounded like something Robbie would say. “That’s true, I suppose,” she responded finally. “Maybe I could borrow some.”
His frown deepened. “Are you making fun of me?”
Her mouth dropped. She’d be the last person to criticize. “Of course not. I’m just trying to explain…”
Once again, he interrupted her. “Were you invited?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Then that’s not my problem.” He turned away as if their conversation had come to an end.
Abby resisted the urge to stamp her foot. “Look, I’ve come a very long way—”
“Five hundred and sixty-three miles to be exact,” Robbie clarified, approaching from around the house. “At an average forty-seven point six miles per hour, it took us seven hours and thirty-eight minutes, including rest stops. It would have been only three hundred and seventy-two miles if we could have flown with the crows.”
Her son, Abby thought, as she turned to look at him crossing the yard, saw the world a little differently than most five-year-olds. She felt the swell of pride as well as the ever-present shock that she’d managed to produce such a remarkable child. Physically she knew he resembled her, his blond hair curling around his head like a bobbing halo, his eyes bright with curiosity and intelligence that no jewel could hold. For her, those looks had been what made her special, but for Robbie they were barely a consideration. She often wondered what hiccup in her gene pool had made him her son.
She stepped closer, automatically drawing him to her side and placing a hand on his shoulder. She wasn’t even aware of the protective action until she saw the way the man observed her, coldly eyeing them both as if they were the ones who posed a threat.
“Honey, I told you to stay in the car,” she admonished gently. She didn’t want to expose Robbie to yet another disappointment and she’d already come to the conclusion that this man had no intention of helping them.
“I was bored.”
She couldn’t claim to be surprised. He’d flown through the collections of puzzles and brainteasers she’d painstakingly gathered for the trip in the first hour. Despite having the mind of a brilliant adult, he was still a little boy.
“Hello,” Robbie greeted the man with a maturity that would have made her doubt his youth if she hadn’t actually been a participant in his birth.
“Hello.”
Thankfully Abby noted the hostility was missing from the man’s voice. Without it, the deep, husky rumble sounded a touch more accessible—and somehow vastly more dangerous.
“My name is Robbie Melrose. We’ve come to see Dr. Jeremy Waters.”
“What do you want him for?” the man asked.
Robbie thought about the question for a moment, while meeting the man’s gaze. “I’m not completely certain. My mother has chosen to keep her reasoning undisclosed from me.”
So much for secrets, Abby thought. She should have known she shouldn’t try to outsmart her son.
“I’m sure, whatever her reasons, she’s doing the right thing. My mother always knows what’s best.”
Abby’s eyes widened at the compliment. But then again, she was his mom. He had no idea how overwhelmed she was. And she intended to keep it that way. She would never allow her son to think he was a burden. She was all he had—heaven help him—and she wouldn’t let him down.
“However, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve chosen this area of the Berkshires for our vacation,” Robbie continued. “Although it’s certainly a beautiful place, I have a feeling that the appeal has more to do with the intelligence quotient of Dr. Waters. He’s got an IQ over two hundred, the highest ever recorded. Mine is only in the one-eighty range.”
The man looked at him blankly.
Abby felt the need to defend the claims. “I’ve got test scores and evaluations. He really is an extraordinary child.”
He frowned, appearing almost angry. “Those numbers mean nothing to me.”
Robbie nodded. “They’re subjective, it’s true. But at least they give the testers something to do.”
She could have sworn she saw the man’s lips twitch into something resembling a smile before his face settled back into a vacant stare. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you. But I wish you the best of luck finding whatever you’re looking for.”
“Thank you,” Robbie answered, missing the obvious brush-off.
Abby didn’t miss it, but she chose to consider her decision to retreat a tactical maneuver rather than a defeat. She wasn’t finished yet.
She didn’t bother with goodbyes as she took her son’s hand and turned back toward the car. Once she had settled Robbie in the back seat, she began the next leg of her trip into the town that would be their home for the summer, struggling now to manage the fatigue that seemed to have finally caught up with her. It was almost as if the stranger had had some dangerous power after all, with the ability to somehow sap her of the rest of her energy.
“Are we going back to Pittsburgh, Mom?” Robbie asked tentatively.
Abby took a moment to make sure her voice would be calm when she answered. “I’m not going to give up on our summer plans so easily.” Or her own. “There will be another chance to talk to the famous doctor sometime in the future.”
Robbie paused, digesting her answer before following with another. “Dr. Waters didn’t seem too willing to help us this time.”
Abby nodded in agreement. She wasn’t surprised that her son had also figured out who they’d been talking to. He often saw things that other people missed.
“Well,
