Finding Zach Read Online Free PDF Page B

he’d dropped on the ground and went through the small gate, giving it a push to set it back on a close trajectory. Then it was just a quarter-mile hike up the asphalt road to his destination, the two-story stone gatehouse.
    Before he went in, though, he paused and looked out over the panorama, a sight that had been as familiar to him as his own face once upon a time. It had been more than three years since he’d set foot on the land where he’d grown up—he might have only been the housekeeper’s son, but the Tyler family was part of his own, and this the only home he’d known. Now he wasn’t really sure what it was, except for the place where his mother lived and worked. It looked the same, though. A half mile to the south sprawled the low buildings of Tyler Technologies, with their wood and adobe walls and tile roofs showing red through the surrounding aspens; a half mile north and west of there was the main house, a hacienda-style mansion with extensive gardens, a swimming pool, tennis courts and stables, all the amenities of the fabulously wealthy, amenities David had always been welcome to share. Before. Further north and west were the woods and in the distance, the mountains where he and Zach, and sometimes Richard and Jane, had hiked and explored and skied in the winters. He had to admit it had been pretty damn idyllic.
    He hadn’t done any of that after Zach had disappeared. If he hiked or skied, he did it somewhere else. Every inch of Tyler land echoed with Zach’s laughter, every bit of shade sheltered his ghost. It was too damn lonely here without Zach. He’d lived here and worked for Richard until he’d scraped up enough money to go off to college, and then only came back occasionally, when he felt tough enough to last a few days. Every moment he was here he felt like there was something missing, something vital. And there was.
    He’d had relationships in college, and since, but none of them ever lasted, not even this last one, the one he’d thought was It. His partners, to a man, accused him of being “emotionally unavailable,” whatever the hell that meant. But none of them had ever been able to fill the hole that Zach had left. Zach, with whom he’d shared exactly one kiss, instigated by the inexperienced fifteen-year-old boy. Who’d vanished a week later, right out of a crowded airport.
    David turned his back on the grandeur that was the Tyler compound and the Rocky Mountains, and went up the steps to the porch of the gatehouse and let himself in. He dropped his duffel and set his laptop case down more carefully on the polished wood floor of the entry, and called, “Hello? Mom? You home?”
    Silence greeted him. Not unexpected—it was the middle of the afternoon and she was probably at work. He went into the kitchen, got himself a drink of water, and called her cell phone from the kitchen extension.
    She picked up on the second ring, her voice puzzled. “Hello?”
    “Hey, lady,” David said.
    “Davey!” she cried in delight. “Are you at home? I was wondering who’d be calling from there.”
    “Yeah, just got here.”
    “You should have told me you were coming to visit! I’d have taken the day off.”
    “It’s not really a visit, Mom. I—well, I sort of got a job here. At the community college. Teaching art.”
    There was a moment of confused silence, then Annie said, “But I thought you loved New York. You were so into the art scene there, and that internship at the Museum of Modern Art—I thought you were going to stay there…. Not that I’m not happy you’re home, oh, Davey, that’s wonderful, you’ll be home….”
    “Actually, I’m just looking to stay here a couple of days, just ’til I can find an apartment in town—either Wesley or the Springs. I think it’s better that way.”
    “But….”
    “Mom. Really, it’s better. I’ll be closer to work and everything. Maggie’s selling me her old car, so I’ll have wheels, and I can come up and visit anytime,