Key to Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

couple standing in the lighted entranceway.
    A little boy, barefoot and wearing too-large, green pajamas that puddled around his tiny ankles, peered down at them. He held a battered storybook protectively against his chest, partially obscuring a picture of a dog she recognized as Copper from The Fox and the Hound.
    Taking the stairs two steps at a time, Lucas reached the boy and stopped. “Slight problem, Todd. Mr. Springer was hurt, and I had to take him to the hospital.”
    “Is he going to die?” The child’s eyes grew large and wary.
    “No, no, of course not. He’s fine,” Lucas assured him. He handed him the bag. “Here’s the animal crackers I promised you, but you must promise me you won’t eat them until tomorrow.” He scooped up the child and, with a little arm locked around his neck, returned to the entryway. “I’d like you to meet an old friend of mine.”
    “Come, sit down,” said the elderly woman, whose last name Elise remembered was Johnson. “Can I get you something to drink? Miss—?”
    “Elise. Elise Springer. No, I’m fine, thank you.” Elise smiled.
    The small living room they entered was tidy and clean and reminded Elise of the Fifties. Square, dark tweed chairs and a sofa with walnut end tables lined the room’s perimeter and were strategically situated to face the television atop a metal stand in a corner. Through an opposite archway, she could see a well-kept kitchen with a red and white Formica table and vinyl-padded chrome chairs.
    “He’s been peppering us all day with questions, ever since I told him you might not be coming today,” Mrs. Johnson said to Lucas, and turned to her white-haired husband standing beside her. “Hasn’t he, Hank?” She motioned for Elise to take a seat.
    Elise chose a chair beside the sofa, its back draped with a colorful ripple afghan. Lucas, carrying Todd, buckled down onto the sofa beside Mrs. Johnson.
    “I’m sorry,” Lucas said, settling the boy on his lap. “I hope he wasn’t too much of a bother.”
    “No need to be sorry,” the elderly woman replied. “Accidents happen. Lord knows we’ve had our share of them over the years. Right, Hank?”
    Her husband nodded and peered at Elise through wire-rimmed glasses. “So you’re Anton’s daughter? The architect?” When she nodded, he asked, “How’s your father doing?”
    “Fine. Much better than I expected.”
    “Good. Good to hear,” Mr. Johnson said, sounding genuinely concerned.
    The uncomfortable silence that might have followed was punctuated, as if on cue, by the muffled sound of a phone.
    “Her purse rings!” With a powerful leap for someone so little, Todd flew off Lucas’s lap, sending the box of animal crackers and his book skidding across the floor. He rushed over to stand a wary foot away from Elise’s knees.
    “My cell phone,” she explained, feeling foolish under the stares of everyone present. She reached for her purse and withdrew the phone. “Elise Springer.” Relieved, she heard her youngest brother’s voice.
    “I thought you shut it off?” Lucas interrupted.
    She turned from the phone. “No, Lucas, you assumed I did.” She spoke into the phone and then turned back again to Lucas. “Fritz wants to know where we are.”
    “Mulberry Road,” Mrs. Johnson supplied with a smile. “Just tell him the Johnsons’ place. He’s our insurance agent, so he’ll know. Such a nice young man.”
    Elise relayed the information and then glanced at Lucas again. Beneath his visible air of calmness, she sensed irritation. “Fritz and Thomas are at the farm. They have the pizzas and want to know how long we’ll be.”
    “Fifteen minutes.” The answer came out with a tired sigh. “Tell them to start without us.”
    Elise repeated Lucas’s reply and disconnected, glancing up in time to see Todd curiously regarding her with huge gray eyes, the same color as Lucas’s.
    “Can I see it?” Todd asked shyly. He inched his way toward her. He was a little charmer,