“That explains it.She got lemon-snatched.”
Emily brightened at this explanation.Vanessa rose from the picnic table and walked toward a nearby tree.She plucked a bedraggled doll from its branches.
The little girl clasped her hands together in delight.“Penelope!”
Paul reassessed the incident from the previous afternoon.Vanessa hadn’t panicked about the snake sighting for good reason.Emily had a vivid imagination, and her stories about Penelope couldn’t be trusted.
“It’s time to go,” Vanessa said to Emily.
“Where are you going?”Paul asked.
“Last Chance,” Vanessa said, sounding weary.“Why?”
“You haven’t heard from Wilson,” Paul said.
“No.”
Paul chose his words carefully.He’d opened up to her about his injury last night, and apologized for his rude behavior.She’d remained unmoved.It was awkward to stand before her and eat crow again.“I just talked to him.He extends his regrets about the reservation mix-up.Number8 is all yours.”
She gaped at him in disbelief for several seconds before understanding dawned.“My father called him.”
“Yes.”
Her brow furrowed with distress.He’d expected her to be elated.Instead, she looked close to tears again.He realized that she’d cried more than once this afternoon.Her eyes were red-rimmed, her nose pink.
Emily tugged on her mother’s dress.“Are we staying here, Mommy?”
Vanessa took a deep breath and didn’t answer.
Paul was puzzled by her reticence.“What’s wrong?You don’t want the cabin?”
“I want it, but I resent my father’s interference.”
“Are we staying?”Emily asked again.
“Go play with Penelope,” Vanessa said.“Adults are talking.”
Emily complied by running around in a wide loop with Penelope in one hand.The doll’s leaf-strewn braids flew high in the air.
Paul hazarded another glance at Vanessa.He wasn’t thrilled about being ousted from the cabin, but he liked being near her.He liked looking at her, even if he couldn’t touch.He liked listening to her husky voice.
“Where will you go?”Vanessa asked.
He shrugged.“Next door.”
“I thought it was uninhabitable.”
“I’ll manage.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Are you?”
“I’m not sorry to get the cabin I paid for, but I’m sorry to put you out.You need a comfortable place to stay while you recover from your injury.”
Paul shrugged again.“It is what it is,” he said, borrowing one of Kyle’s most annoying phrases.
“How does your shoulder feel today?”
