“That’s where all the money came from?”
She nodded. “You have to doyourpart.Youhave to take care of her too.”
“I don’t know a thing about raising kids. Yours, mine, or the neighbors’.” He laughed, trying to lighten the moment. He felt bad for her, as she was clearly feeling overwhelmed, but he wasn’t good at these kinds of situations.
“It’s not funny.”
“I’m not making light of it. Look, let’s slow down. I’m sure we can figure it all out.”
She snatched her purse up, hugging it to her chest like a child. “Don’t patronize me. Just do what a man is supposed to do. Take care of your family. Why is that too much to ask?”
“I…” But before he could respond, even really think of what to say in a situation like this, she was out the door. He stood there a moment too long, because by the time he got to the front door, she was in the seat of her pickup and barreling out of his driveway.
“Carly!” He raced onto his porch and down the stairs. “Carly!” There was nothing but dust. “What the heck?”
He turned around and stomped back up. When he stepped inside, Zan stood there staring up at him. “Where’d Mommy go?”
Wouldn’t that be nice to know?
“I’m not really sure.”
Zan continued staring up at him. She wanted answers. So did he. He hated making empty promises, so what could he say?
He stood in the entry to the living room. “I’m sorry I made her cry.”
“She cries a lot.” She brushed her hair back from her face.
Does she run away a lot too?
Zan asked, “Can I go on the front porch?”
“Um, yeah. Sure.” She was just a little kid. What did he know about taking care of a kid?
“Shorty too?”
“Okay, we’ll all go.” He let Zan lead the way. She was a confident little thing. He’d expected her to be frightened with the way her mother had just up and run off.
She opened the door and hopped over the threshold as if it were some sort of superstition, landing on two feet with all the heft of something twice her size.
Adam let Shorty out behind her and walked over to the railing. Where the heck was Carly?
Zan raced off to the left side of the front door. She plopped down on the deck and began rummaging through a pink Roper bag.
Oh no. Why did Carly bring that bag up to the house? And when?
Zan lifted a small stuffed horse from the bag and bounced it in her lap. Shorty walked over and rested his chin on her knee. “Is Mommy coming back?”
“Of course she is.” The words had tumbled out without athought, but then the idea of the child asking made him wonder.Why wouldn’t she? That was silly. A mother doesn’t just leave her child behind.“We’ll make the best of it until she does, okay?”
“Okay.” Zan bounced the horse in a circle around Shorty, who didn’t seem to mind either.
16
Carly never did come backthat night, and Adam was thankful that Zan didn’t seem bothered by getting tucked in on the couch with Shorty for the night. She was a sweet little girl, so well-behaved that it was difficult to believe parenting was half as hard as people made it sound.
But then it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours yet, and so far he’d only had to feed her, which he was pretty good at. She’d slept in one of his T-shirts, which dragged on the ground when she walked, a sight he wouldn’t soon forget.
She ate four silver-dollar pancakes for breakfast, and he’d have thought the bacon was candy the way she gobbled it up.
