“How come girls have to take boys’ names?”
Jane offered her daughter a shaky smile.“It’s a tradition.”
“So if you get married, you get a different last name?”
“Yes.”
She thought for a moment.“What if I don’t like his last name?What if it’s dumb?”
“Then you can keep your own.”
Adam shot her a questioning glance.
“She can if she wants to.”
He raised his hands up as if to show he wasn’t armed.“Hey, this is your discussion.I’m not going to say a word.Far be it from me, a mere man, to interfere.”
Billie shifted on the seat and looked at her mother.“Why don’t you use your married name?Was my dad’s last name dumb?”
“No.It was—” She cleared her throat.Not here.Not in thebank during business hours, with half the town of Orchard watching.“I didn’t want to—” It was hard to lie to her daughter.Harder, perhaps, to lie to Adam.“We’ll discuss this at home.”
“But I don’t understand,” she whined.
Rescue came from an unexpected source.“I’ve been wondering what’s different about you today,” Adam said to Billie.“You don’t have your softball with you.Did you forget it?”
Billie shot Jane a glare.“I was a reptile.”
“A what?”Adam asked.
“Reptile.Reptile behavior.I broke a glass.”
Jane sighed in relief.The reprieve gave her time to think.She leaned forward.“I think she means disreputable behavior.Billie isn’t supposed to throw her ball in the house.She broke a glass.Part of the punishment is that I keep the softball for the rest of the day.”
“Bummer, huh,” Billie said with a heavy sigh.
“That’s what you get,” he said, then made a fist and lightly tapped her chin.“You’ll get it back tomorrow, in time for the game.”
“You coming?I’m going to pitch.”
Adam’s gaze found Jane’s, as if asking what she thought.Yes, please do, she answered silently to him, then turned to Billie.“Adam might be busy, honey.”
“Youalwayssay that about people.But everybody likes me.Theywantto watch me pitch.Don’t you?”
Adam grinned.“Of course.”
“See.”Billie placed her hands on her hips.“I told you.”
“Where do you get this nerve from?”Jane asked.Then she could have slapped herself.Talk about putting her foot in it.But neither Billie nor Adam followed up on her comment.
He passed the form to her to sign, then handed her a stack of temporary checks.Their fingers came close to touching but didn’t.She wanted to reach out and stroke the white cuff of his shirt.She wanted to keep him smiling at her.Instead she took the checks he offered.
“That should keep you going until the real ones come from the printer,” he said.“Are there other accounts?What about your savings?”
“I don’t have one.”
He tried not to react, but she read the surprise on his face.
“I’ve been going to school to get my teaching credential,” she said, her voice a little sharper than she’d intended.“And I’ve been working, as well.There wasn’t very much left over each month.There are expenses with a child and—”
