Page 102
“But I want her. I don’t like the thunder and lightning,” she whispered. “It’s scary.”
“Honey,” Amy crouched down on the other side of Leslie. “Mrs. Ericson is going to take you home, remember? She planned to do that after you had pizza. But if you want us to call your mom before that, we can.”
Mateo watched as the little girl’s brow crinkled as she considered her dilemma. “Will there be the pineapple kind of pizza?”
“I’m sure there will be,” Amy nodded.
“Then I’ll stay,” Leslie smiled shyly.
Mateo looked at the other girl, who was now trying to hide behind Amy. She was a little taller and looked just as pale and scared.
“Are you scared too?” Mateo asked her.
She nodded and put her arm around Amy’s leg. Now that was the reaction he was used to.
“Where I come from in Argentina, we had thunder and lightning storms all the time. When I was a little boy, my mama would have me and my little brother sing so that we could tease the sun to come out and play again. Do you want to try that?”
Leslie nodded her head and gave him a sweet smile, whereas the other girl looked skeptical. “What do you think, Amy? Does that sound good to you?” Mateo asked.
“Absolutely. Maybe we could go into the TV room now that it’s quieter. By the way, this beautiful girl is Laura. Her daddy is supposed to be here pretty soon to come and get her.”
“But not if the roads are slippery. Can we call him, Miss Amy?”
“How about if we get Mrs. Ericson to call him? She has his number on her phone. Would that be okay?”
Laura nodded.
Amy turned to Mateo. “Laura and I are going to find Mrs. Ericson. In the meantime, why don’t you and Leslie go teach everybody the sun song?” Amy smiled at Mateo as she took the little girl’s hand and left the kitchen.
“Lachlan said you’re Mexican. Are you going to sing the song in Spanish?”
“I’m Argentinian,” Mateo explained. “Argentina is in South America. I’ll teach you all the song in English and then in Spanish. How about that?”
“That’s so cool.” She was missing two front teeth, the same as Lachlan. As they started down the hall to the TV room, he heard the faint sound of a dog barking over the sound of Taylor Swift singing and the washer and dryer running.
“Leslie, why don’t you go sit down and keep watching the Taylor movie with everybody? I’ll teach you the song in a few minutes. I have to go check on something.”
“Okay. She plopped down on the other side of Lachlan.
He was a popular boy.
Gideon’s dog Lucy hardly ever barked. The big black Russian terrier was too well trained. This was not good. Mateo felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He hurried to the back of the house to see if someone had put her outside, which didn’t seem possible. Not if there was thunder and lightning. He stepped out into the great room that encompassed the dining room and also allowed him to see into the kitchen and gave him great views over James Lake, Gideon’s pool, the back lawn, the patio and as far back to the neighbor’s metal fence. Amber hadn’t been kidding. They could play a softball game out back.
Lucy had to be in the mudroom. That’s where Gideon would sometimes pen her up. He strode past the back window of the great room, then noticed that Gideon’s leather couch had claw marks on the back. Shit, the prickle now felt like cactus spines.
What the fuck?
“Hey Mateo, that’s a great idea on the song,” Bonnie said as she passed him with a big bowl of potato chips.
“Is Lucy in the mud room? Why is she barking?” he asked Bonnie instead of replying to her question.
“Lucy was barking up a storm when we got here. She was scratching at the sliding glass door, so I let her out to do her thing, but nothing. When I finally got her back in, she kept barking and she was scaring the kids. It took some doing, but I was finally able to wrangle her into the mudroom. It was so out of character for her, but luckily I’m used to big dogs,” Bonnie said.
“Did you call Gideon?”
“I didn’t want to ruin their good time. I figured he’d be home soon enough. She probably saw a squirrel or something.”
And there was the reason for the prickle. Mateo had his phone out of his back pocket in an instant as he double-timed past the laundry room to the mudroom.
