Diane seemed perfectly capable of making the transfer without his help, though she was pale, her mouth pinched, by the time she settled into the hospital bed.
“Thank you,” Doug said.
Ryan hadn’t really done anything but it was nice to feel useful. “No problem. Anything else?”
“We should be good. Think about what I suggested, taking a few flights for Caldwell Aviation while you’re here.”
“I will,” he said, not seeing the point in telling his father that while he would think about it, he had no intention of doing it.
As he and Audrey walked outside and headed for his truck, Ryan accepted the unpleasant reality that he was going to be in the same county with his father at least until Christmas. They were going to have to interact, whether he wanted to or not.
He could do his best to avoid the man, but that wouldn’t be fair to Audrey, who clearly loved her grandfather and step-grandmother.
Ryan would simply have to figure out a way to be polite to the colonel. Fortunately, he had plenty of practice from those years after his mother died, when he had been expected to pretend everything was fine.
Chapter Three
“I DON’T LIKE MATH. IT’S TOO HARD.”
Holly smiled down at her daughter, who was scowling at the worksheet on their kitchen table.
While she wanted to sayyou and me both, kiddo, she didn’t want to skew Lydia’s perception of mathematics or give her the message that she couldn’t handle any task set before her.
“Math can be hard. But it can also be fun. It’s like solving little puzzles. You love puzzles, right?”
Lydia nodded. “Puzzles are hard, too.”
“But don’t you feel good when you put the last piece in? That’s how math is. And it’s useful, too. We need math to show us how to build things, how to count cookies and how to go shopping. I use math every day when I’m cooking or driving somewhere or even figuring out how many flowers I need to order for the store.”
Lydia didn’t look convinced. “Why is it hard?”
“That is an excellent question. I guess the best things in life are always hard.”
Definitely true. Being a mom was the hardest job she could imagine but it was also the most important thing in her life.
While Lydia finished her worksheet, Holly set the table and made final preparations for their dinner while her stomach rumbled. In the end, she hadn’t eaten much of the sandwich her sister brought her, as the last hour of business at the store had been slammed. She was more than ready for dinner.
She was finishing the tossed salad when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Lydia jumped up from the table, apparently eager for any distraction from her homework.
“I need to see who’s here first,” Holly reminded her, following to make sure Lydia didn’t open the door to a serial killer.
She couldn’t open the door to anyone, serial killer or not, since Lydia had yet to figure out how to work the childproof lock, much to Holly’s relief.
Home security only made common sense. She was a single woman living alone with a vulnerable child. Shelter Springs had a relatively low crime rate but it wasn’t wholly idyllic.
Beyond the usual reasons, she locked the door for Lydia’s safety. Holly had heard from others in her online support group for parents of children with Down syndrome about harrowing circumstances where their children had wandered outside. Sometimes it was harder for children with developmental disabilities to understand the potential dangers that awaited them out in the world.
She peered through the door and caught her breath.
Not a serial killer, then. At least she didn’t think so. Only an extremely attractive man and his thirteen-year-old niece.
Lydia peered through the window next to the door. “It’s Audrey! My friend. Hi, Audrey!”
“She can’t hear you, Lydi-bug. Not until we open the door.”
She worked the deadbolt and the childproof lock before pulling open the door.
