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Mrs. Aiken had taken on an immense task just to have her son at home.
“I know this must be very, very hard for Dan and your family,” Jolie said slowly. “It doesn’t change anything, but I want you to know that my entire family regrets beyond measure that accident last Halloween.”
“Do you?” Mrs. Aiken said bitterly. “Do you?It’s bad enough that your family’s lawyers kept your brother out of jail. He nearlykilledmy son, and the charges were reduced to a slap on thewrist. Now they’re going to fight us tooth and nail to make sure Dan has as little support as possible.”
And if I could change that, I would.“The insurance companies will handle most of that.”
“For a lifetime of support? Therapy? It could never be enough.”
Jolie gave Mrs. Aiken a sympathetic smile. “I promise to give Dan the best possible care.”
“Daniel has had two bouts of pneumonia since the accident. If I had car trouble way out in the middle of nowhere, with him already ill...” Mrs. Aiken’s voice caught. She swallowed hard. “We need a local doctor. Otherwise we’d never, ever come to a Maxwell.”
“I’ll do everything I can for him, Mrs. Aiken.”
The woman stepped away from Dan’s wheelchair. Lowered her voice. “That’s fine and dandy. But now I’m just praying that all the rumors about you aren’t true.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“DO NOT HARASSthe sheep. Do not get on the llama, trespass in Jolie’s barn or wander through her house. Is that clear?” Matt propped his hands on his hips and gave Charlie a stern look. “We’ll be here for just a few minutes.”
Charlie gave him a guileless grin in return, slid down the porch banister, then raced toward the edge of the clearing where Lost Coyote Creek tumbled through a maze of boulders.
Annie, who’d plopped into a wooden Adirondack chair at the far end of the deck, looked up from her book and scowled. “I don’t want to go on any hikes. Saturdays are supposed to be fun, not work. And I don’t think I should have to watch that beast of a brother again this century.”
“Annie.” Matt’s voice was low, laden with warning.
“Sor-or-ry.” She dragged the apology out into three long syllables. “Butyoutry to keep track of him. Did he tell you what happened in the hardware store after school yesterday? Or about what he did in your shop just before we came up here today?”
Matt sighed. “Tell me.”
“I promised not to.”
“Annie.”
Her mouth curved into a mutinous pout.
“Is the shop likely to go up in flames?” His expression darkened. “Do we owe the hardware store any breakage fees? Is there any other destruction I need to know about?”
“No...” She slumped farther down in her chair, then capitulated after a moment’s thought. “He knocked over a whole revolving rack of garden seeds in the store, but I think we got everything in order again.” She shuddered. “There must have been five hundred of those stupid little packets. Do you knowhow muchalikethe green-vegetable packets are? That tall, skinny clerk watched us like a hawk and complained the whole time.”
Matt growled words that Jolie didn’t catch.
“Oh, and in your shop? Charlie just tipped over a few buckets of nails. He shoveled them up—most of ’em, anyway.”
“There were differentkindsof nails in each of those buckets. Sorted.”
She buried her head in her book. “Not anymore.”
Matt shifted his gaze to the creek, where Charlie’s whoops and hollers were punctuated with splashing. His shoulders sagged.
“The kid needs acage,” Annie muttered under her breath. “But does anyone listen?”
“Well,” Jolie said brightly as she stepped out onto the porch. “Should we go on that hike?”
“Not me.”
Matt shifted his gaze to his daughter. “You can stay here and read, if it’s okay with Jolie.”
