Key to Love Read Online Free PDF

Elise decided, with his cherub-like face and fine, flyaway blonde hair cut in a tattered bowl style.
    “It’s not a toy, sport,” Lucas said.
    “I just want to see it. It’s flat.” His tiny lower lip ballooned outward. “It’s not like Mrs. Johnson’s Jitterbug and it isn’t like the phone you washed, Uncle Lucas.”
    “Washed?” Elise raised a quizzical eyebrow at Lucas and smirked. “Here, Todd, come and take a look.” She motioned to him, and he scrambled up into her lap. She resettled his needle-like elbow lodged against her ribcage and cupped his soft hands around the rectangular cell. The delicate scent of baby shampoo from his hair, still damp from a bath, reached her nostrils.
    “How does it work?” he asked.
    “It’s called a smartphone. I’ll show you. Do you know your numbers?”
    When he nodded, she took his finger and positioned it over the on-screen number pad. “What’s the phone number here?” she asked Mrs. Johnson, memorizing them as the elderly woman spoke.
    Elise repeated them slowly to the child, helping him locate the correct ones. He giggled each time a number chirped beneath his touch.
    In the kitchen, the Johnson’s phone rang.
    She glanced up to find Lucas intently watching them.
    The phone sounded again.
    “Okay, Lucas, snap out of it,” she admonished, nodding toward the wall phone. “You’re supposed to be the guy on the other end. We need a second party here.”
    “What?” Lucas looked at her with baffled eyes.
    “The phone. Pick up the Johnsons’ wall phone.”
    “Oh, yeah, right.” He strode to the kitchen and plucked the receiver from the phone beside the refrigerator.
    “Now say hello,” she whispered to Todd.
    Warily, the boy put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
    “Hello, is this Todd?” she heard Lucas ask from the kitchen.
    “Uncle Lucas!” he said, beaming. He turned to her, his eyes bright. “It’s Uncle Lucas!”
    “Well, talk to him,” she coaxed. Uncle ? The boy had said uncle three times since they arrived. So this must be Mike Fisher’s son.
    “What should I say?”
    She smiled and snuggled the child closer. “Tell him, he has a nice car and a cute nephew.”
    “Eee-lise says you have a nice car and a cute nephew.”
    “Am I the cute nephew?” Todd asked in a whisper, swiveling and peering up into her face. A soft, tiny hand came up to brush her cheek.
    “Yes, absolutely,” she whispered and saw him beam.
    “Well, tell her thank you and say good-bye,” she heard Lucas say seconds later. From the kitchen, he stared at her through the archway. His eyes, a penetrating black from a distance, seemed to probe her very soul. She felt a tug at her heart as if the phone had strings.
    “We have to hang up now, Todd. It’s way past your bedtime,” Lucas said.
    “Bye. Oh, wait, did you find Ranger yet?” the little boy asked.
    “No. Sorry, Todd, I’m still looking for him. There are a lot of boxes left at the cottage.”
    “Okay.” Todd reluctantly relinquished the phone. “Can you come back? Tomorrow? With your phone?”
    Lucas’s tall frame filled the archway. “Elise will be very busy the next few days, Todd.”
    “For just a few minutes?” he pleaded. Disappointed, he pouted, hung his head, and stared at his bare toes.
    “Sure. I’ll try,” Elise said. “Now, do what your Uncle Lucas says.”
    “Okay.” Happy now, he slid off her lap, picked up his box of animal crackers and his book and padded to the bottom of the steps with Lucas behind him. Strong arms reached down and swung him up into them.
    “Good night, Todd.” Elise waved at him.
    “Night, Elise.” He waved back, twisting his little body in pretzel fashion to get a better view. The two disappeared from view, but not before she heard their puzzling exchange.
    “Is Ee-lise a possum’s ability, Uncle Lucas?”
    “No, sport, she lives too far away.”
    ****
    The farm hadn’t changed much, from what Elise could see in the soft moonlit night when she