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her job. She hadn’t realized how much she missed him. “How’re you doing?”
    A knock on her door had Kelsey turning her head to see Patrick poking his head in. Kelsey waved him in and he sat in the chair across from her.
    “I’m good,” Zach said. “I miss you.”
    “Oh, sweetie, I miss you too,” she replied with a wobbly smile as her own twang slipped back into her voice. “Do you like school?”
    “Yes,” he answered quietly.
    “Do you have a girlfriend yet?”
    “Kelsey!” Janelle reprimanded.
    “No,” Zach said with a giggle.
    Kelsey stifled a laugh of her own and turned to Patrick. His eyes danced with amusement. “No?” she asked. “Why not?”
    “Because.” Zach giggled again. “You’re silly.”
    “Silly? Why is that silly?”
    “I’m only five.” He had a tone of exasperation.
    “Oh, okay,” she said with a resigned sigh.
    “We made jack o’ lanterns with Grandpa,” he said.
    “Aw, how fun.” Kelsey wistfully remembered how she’d always loved watching her father carve pumpkins before Halloween. “Are they scary?”
    “No, Zoe didn’t want scary,” he stated.
    Kelsey nodded. She could understand how her two-and-a-half-year-old niece wouldn’t like a frightening jack o’ lantern.
    “Are you gonna come home to see them?” Zack asked, his small voice full of hope.
    “No, honey, I can’t do that,” Kelsey said regretfully. “I have to work. Take lots of pictures and have your momma send ’em to me.”
    “Okay.”
    His sad tone made Kelsey’s heart ache. “But I will come home before Thanksgiving.” Zach squealed with delight. “And I won’t leave again until January. How does that sound?”
    Patrick’s brows came together and he looked at his lap. Kelsey wondered about that for only a moment.
    “Good,” Zach answered and she could hear the excitement in his voice.
    Kelsey’s grin returned. “What’s Zoe doing? Does she want to talk to me?”
    “She’s eating crayons,” Zach replied.
    “Zoe!” Janelle yelled in the background.
    Patrick chuckled and Kelsey smirked at him.
    “Mommy got the crayons away from Zoe,” Zach said, giggling.
    Kelsey’s amusement dissipated. “I’ll talk to you next time then, buddy. I love you.”
    “Love you too.”
    Kelsey heard the phone change hands. “If you fed her more often, she wouldn’t have to eat crayons,” she teased her sister when she was sure Janelle had the phone.
    “Ha ha, very funny.”
    Kelsey laughed and glanced at Patrick. He was sitting with an ankle on his knee, his elbow propped on the arm of the chair. His chin rested on his knuckles and his eyes caught hers and penetrated deeply into her, almost making her forget the phone call.
    “Kelsey?” Janelle’s voice brought her back to the present.
    “What?”
    “I asked you how it was going.”
    “Not too bad,” Kelsey replied then her stomach knotted before she asked, “How are things there?”
    There were so many things that could be wrong.
    Six months ago, Janelle and her husband, Richard, had an argument that left bruises on Janelle’s face. Kelsey immediately opened her home to her sister and the children. Zoe had just turned two and Zach was four and a half. Since Kelsey split her time between her apartment in Los Angeles and her home in Virginia, it was a comforting and cozy feeling, having them to come home to.
    Richard drank heavily and gambled constantly, and his behavior had become increasingly unpredictable. Every other weekend he had visitation with the kids, but he showed up later and later, then dropped them off earlier and earlier. If he was sober, which was rare, he would beg Janelle to come home and promise her things would be better. More often than not though, he’d been drinking and would fight with Janelle. During Kelsey’s trip home over the summer, he’d come by Kelsey’s house several times, threatened Kelsey with violence, and refused to leave when asked. Kelsey had nearly called the police on more than one