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“I’ll take you both to dinner,” Mason announced.
“You don’t have to,” Bliss protested.
“I want to.”
“I’m not hungry.” Dee Dee fidgeted with the strap of her bag. She glanced at Josh and rolled her eyes. “Besides, Mom said she’d be back by now.”
Mason’s jaw tensed. “I know, but she was supposed to—”
“Wait a second,” Katie, ever vigilant, interrupted. “Why doesn’t Dee Dee come over to our place for a while? Josh and his friend Laddy just finished building a tree house and the neighbors have a litter of eight puppies. I’ll call Terri and square it with her.”
Dee Dee’s eyes lit up. “Puppies? Oh, Dad, could I?”
“I don’t know—”
“Please, Daddy,” Dee Dee begged, and Bliss watched as Mason’s heart melted.
“Don’t you have plans later with your mom?” Mason asked.
“Mom and Bob.” Dee Dee’s nose wrinkled at the thought.
“Don’t worry. As I said, I’ll give Terri a call on my cell,” Katie said, zipping open her purse and scrounging for her phone. “She can either pick her up at my place or I’ll run her home. It’s no big deal.”
Mason, it seemed, couldn’t deny his daughter anything, and in a matter of minutes the change of plans was arranged and Dee Dee remained with Katie and Josh.
Nonetheless, Mason wasn’t pleased as they left
the hospital. “Damn that woman. Why can’t she make a plan and stick to it?” he muttered, then shot Bliss an apologetic glance. “Not your problem.”
“I don’t mind.”
He ran stiff, frustrated fingers through his hair. “Terri’s talking about moving again,” he admitted, once they were walking across the parking lot. Heat shimmered in waves from the hot asphalt and the air was still even though it was late afternoon.
“Where?”
“The San Juan Islands, I think, or Chicago. It depends on Bob.” He slid his aviator glasses onto the bridge of his nose and she couldn’t see his eyes, but his entire demeanor had stiffened.
“Bob is—”
“Her fiancé or live-in or whatever you want to call it. He’s older, has kids my age and… Oh, hell, I don’t like the situation. I moved down here to be close to Dee Dee, have a little more influence in her life, and wouldn’t you know, Terri’s decided to take off again.” He opened the door of the truck and helped Bliss inside. The vinyl seat was hot to the touch even though he’d left the windows cracked, and an angry yellow jacket was buzzing loudly, pounding its striped body against the windshield. Mason slid behind the steering wheel, swatted the bee out the open window, then twisted on the ignition.
Bliss glanced at the clinic and sighed.
Mason slid a glance her way as he eased through the parked vehicles. “Your dad will be okay, you know.”
“How would I?” she asked.
Mason snorted. “John Cawthorne’s too stubborn to give up the ghost that easily.”
“You didn’t see him after the heart attack in Seattle.”
He couldn’t argue. Didn’t.
“It scared me.”
“I didn’t think anything scared you.”
She let out a hard laugh. “If you only knew.”
