Well, this one keeps meandering along.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Alex sat nervously in the passenger seat and looked out at the picture postcard farmland. There were still a few patches of snow in the shadows where the sun rarely reached, but there were also bright spots of green. Bobby was right about the area where his cousins lived. The country was beautiful, and it was a world Alex had only seen in movies and on TV.

"Don't worry," Bobby said. "They'll love you. Especially Molly. They can't wait to meet you." He scanned the road. "The turn is just up here."

Alex looked to her right. The field was dotted with large black and white cows. "All of these belong to your cousins?"

"Yea." Bobby nodded. "This is the spring and summer pasture. They must've just moved them." He signaled and turned right on a heavily graveled road that split the field filled with the cows.

"All of these are dairy cows?" Alex asked in amazement. "I gotta admit, Bobby. I didn't know that there were this many cows in the world."

Bobby grinned. "That was my reaction when I first saw them. We New Yorkers think we know so much. We don't even know where our food comes from."

They reached a point in the drive where large, graceful trees stood as sentinels on either side of the road. Buds were starting to appear on the trees.

"This is wonderful," Alex said. "Is that a lake?"

"Yea. There're a couple on the place. This is the one they use for fun. Fishing, swimming…"

"Swimming? In this weather?"

Bobby smiled. "No. They're tough out here, but not that tough."

"Is that the house?" Alex sat up as a large, two story, white house with a huge porch circling around it appeared. "It's beautiful."

Bobby smiled. He didn't know his Minnesota relatives well, but it was surprisingly important to him that Alex like them. The idea that they might not like Alex never entered his mind. He loved Alex, and so would everyone else in his life.

As they neared the house, a dark haired figure sprang from the front porch.

"Molly?" Alex asked.

"Yea," Bobby said. "She's gotten taller, and prettier, if that's possible."

"Be sure to let her know that," Alex said.

Bobby carefully parked the Mustang next to a big red pickup. As he stepped from the car, Molly ran up to him.

"Uncle Bobby!"

"Hey, Molly. Wow. You've gotten taller. And beautiful. More beautiful."

They hugged. When they separated, Bobby turned to Alex. "Molly, this is Alex. Alex, this is Molly."

"Hi, Molly." Alex stepped closer to the girl, but left a comfortable space between them. She remembered how much she hated being pushed to like new people when she was Molly's age. She wasn't going to push too hard, even though she really wanted Molly to like her.

"Hi," Molly said. She wanted to like Alex. Uncle Bobby liked her, and that weighed heavily in Alex's favor with Molly. The girl liked that this pretty blonde woman wasn't trying too hard to be her friend all at once. Molly liked the way she looked at Uncle Bobby and the way Uncle Bobby looked at her.

"I'm not sure," Molly said politely. "What I should call you."

"Well, Ms. Eames is way too formal." Alex said. "And while I like being called Aunt Alex, I don't know if that would work. Alex is more than ok, if it's ok with you."

Molly considered Alex's words, and Alex saw something of Bobby in the girl's grave expression. "Alex sounds good," she said.

"Great," Alex said.

Bobby looked tremendously relieved and happy.

"You're just in time for dinner," Molly said. "And Great Aunt Luisa is here."

"Your Mom's aunt, right?" Alex asked Bobby. "The one who married the Norwegian and moved out here?"

"That's her," Bobby said. "How's she doing, Molly?"

"She had bronchitis last winter, but she got better," Molly said. "She's great. She listens to some of my brothers and my music and even likes some of it. Her nursing home got some computers last year for the residents, and she loves them. She's on Facebook."

"Great." Bobby smiled. "If she can adjust to change, I guess I can."

Alex knew about big families, so the size of Bobby's extended family didn't intimidate her. Several cousins had joined the family for this diner. They were eager to welcome Bobby and Alex, but their numbers unsettled Bobby. Alex remembered that Bobby was used to having dinner with only one other person if he wasn't alone. Bobby sat between Molly and his Great Aunt, with Alex on the other side of the elderly woman. Luisa was a funny and sharp-witted woman, and Alex had a wonderful time. Molly's mother Anna apologized for the canned vegetables.

"You don't have to say you're sorry," Alex said. "All of this tastes like it just came out of the garden."

"Anna is a great cook," Luisa beamed. "She cans everything and it tastes wonderful."

"Except for the corn," one of Molly's brothers said. "Even Mom can't figure out a way to can corn so it tastes like it does on the cob."

Everyone except Luisa helped clean up, and there was plenty of time to sit and talk in the huge living room with the equally large fireplace. Bobby briefly stepped out of the room to speak with Molly's dad Tony. When it was time for Luisa to return to the nursing home, Bobby volunteered to drive her. Luisa agreed, but only if she got to sit in the Mustang's front seat and Alex came with them.

"She's wonderful," Alex said after they dropped Luisa off and met her friends. "And it's obvious everyone loves her. And that she loves you."

"Yea."

"You ok?" She placed her hand on the back of his neck.

"It's just." Bobby stared at the road. "I…I wish I could've known her and all of these people before. When I was a kid. It's another thing my Mom's illness kept away."

Alex didn't know what to say. She gently rubbed the back of his neck.

"Thank you," Bobby said after a few miles passed. "Thank you for being here."

"Thank you for letting me be here."

"There's a couple of things we need to talk about," Bobby said after a few more miles passed.

"Yea?"

"Tony and Anna. They don't want to be prudes or anything, but while we stay with them, they'd like us to sleep in different rooms."

"Because of the kids? I can understand that. My brothers and sisters would ask the same thing. And it's their house," Alex said.

"I thought you'd feel that way. They do like you. They think you're good for me."

"I'm glad they like me," Alex said. "I like them. Of course…" Her fingers threaded through Bobby's curls. "We'll have to find somewhere to sneak away every once in a while. I can't keep my hands off you all the time."

Bobby slowed and stopped the car. He unbuckled his seat belt, reached over, embraced and kissed Alex.

"I have that problem with you." He fingered the buttons on Alex's shirt.

"Bobby." Alex recovered her voice. "We're in the middle of the road."

"It's a country road. No one is going to be on it at this time of night."

"But if…"

A car's lights appeared in the distance.

"Damn," they said in unison.

They reluctantly separated and continued on their way.

"What was the other thing?" Alex asked.

Bobby's fingers tapped on the steering wheel for a moment. "Tony told me there's been a lot of news about a scandal in the NYPD. It's even big news out here."

Alex sat up straighter in her seat.

"My friend from the LEDGER. He started a series about Frank Adair. He found a link between Adair and Moran and some others in the Brass. Another reporter found out what happened to Deakins."

Alex sighed. "You're the one who didn't want to read or watch the news. And I haven't called anyone for a few days."

Bobby turned on the lane leading to his cousins' house. "We can do that tomorrow." He stopped the car. "Look at the sky."

Alex rolled down her window and looked up. "Wow."

"Don't get that in a big city. Too much light pollution." Bobby gripped the steering wheel. "One reason—a very big one—why I didn't want to pay attention to the news was because it was like we had this world of our own. I didn't want to leave it. I didn't want to let anyone or anything into it."

"I understand that," Alex said. "I even agree with it. Feel like that. But it looks like we might have to let something in. Do you think those cars following us—that report—has something to do with what's going on back there?'

"I'd be surprised if it didn't. But I don't know why we'd be so important."

Alex stared down the road where the farmhouse's lights glowed warmly. "You don't think this has followed us here?"

"We haven't seen any sign of it," Bobby said. "I've stopped seeing every police car as a threat. But I don't know."

Alex rolled up her window. "Maybe we should check and see if the Minnesota State Police needs a couple of experienced investigators."

Bobby started the car. "Long way away from Nate."

"True," Alex smiled.

He parked next to the red pickup.

"C'mere," Alex said before he could leave the car. She kissed him deeply, and they held each other for several minutes.

They finally separated. "We're going to have to find some place to sneak off to," Bobby said. "Or spend a lot of time in the backseat of this car."

END CHAPTER ELEVEN