“When I was three, they stole me and kept me in the woods.”
“Charlene,” Adam said, his voice heavy with warning.
“Hush.I’m bonding with the child.That’s what people do these days.”She smiled.“You understand, don’t you, Billie?”
“Sure.”
Charlene kissed her cheek.“We are going to be great friends.”
“Okay.Do you play baseball?”
“No, but I love the young men in their uniforms, and I bet heavily on our local team.”
He fought the beginnings of a headache.“Charlene, don’t start anything here.Remember what happened the last time Danibrought her kids?You taught her six-year-old to play poker.Dani was unamused and I suspect Jane will feel the same way.”
“He’s a sweet boy,” Charlene said to Billie as she sat on Adam’s vacant stool.“But a worrier.It comes from raising his younger siblings.”
“What are siblings?”
“Brothers and sisters.Adam went to Harvard.”
“I’ve been to Texas.”
“There are Standings in Dallas, I believe.They run cattle or oil.I can’t keep them straight.”She slipped off several of her bracelets and spread them on the island.“Do you like any of these, Billie?They’re pretty, don’t you think?”
“I guess.”
Billie cast him a worried glance.He knew she wouldn’t want to offend her new friend, but was less enthused about the jewelry than she wanted to let on.Now if Charlene had opened a box of baseball trading cards he was sure that would have been another story.
“Adam, I got through to the moving company.They won’t be able—” Jane walked into the kitchen.Her gaze moved past him to the gaudily dressed woman next to her daughter.“Charlene?”
“Jane!”
His aunt stood up and held open her arms.Jane flew into her embrace.“Charlene, I’ve missed you so much.”
“It’s your own fault for leaving, child.”The tears in her eyes and the catch in her voice took away the sting of the words.
Adam stood awkwardly on the fringe of the reunion.Charlene and Jane had always been close; of course they’d be happy to see each other.It didn’t matter tohim.He didn’t feel anything, not even regret.
“Have you met Billie?”Jane brushed her cheeks.
“I have met your daughter.There’s a lot of her father in her, isn’t there?”
Jane stiffened slightly.“Some,” she said cautiously.
Adam wondered if that meant she didn’t like her ex-husband.Stupid question, he told himself.If she still liked the guy, they’d be together.Unless he’d left her.He wanted to ask what hadhappened, why she was alone.But he couldn’t.Questions like that might make her think he was interested.
“Charlene told me she was raised by wolves,” Billie announced.
Jane stared at her friend.“You didn’t.”
“It’s the truth.As God is my witness.”
Jane looked over her shoulder at Adam and rolled her eyes.“I can’t believe she’s still using that old line.You’d think after all this time she could be more creative.”
Adam was tempted to smile back at her, to share the memory.His control instinct wouldn’t let him.They had nothing left to share.Her grin quivered, then faded altogether.She turned back, hunching her shoulders against an invisible weight.
“What did the furniture company have to say?”he asked.
