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Valerie’s head was in the clouds, pondering a foundation issue at Shora, when she nearly jumped out of her skin at the startling intrusion of a white paper bag dancing in front of her face.
“Jesus Christ.” She clamped her notebook under her arm, clutched her chest with the hand that held her pen, and turned to find that the hand holding out that bag belonged to Kevin Dowd.
He winced. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. Frank ordered a bunch of barbecue dinners because we finished that house a week ahead of schedule and he said to bring you that one.”
“Oh.” Self-chastened for her minor outburst, she tucked the pen into her hair and accepted the bag. “Well, thank you.”
He nodded and started away, only to stop when he’d gotten a few feet.
He always did that—acted like he forgot he had something to say.
She didn’t know why the guy didn’t justtalkif he wanted to tell her something. It wasn’t like she was going to make him cry. She couldn’t even makeLeahcry anymore. She’d lost her big sister mojo.
“Do you…need hot sauce or anything?” he asked. “There are packets.”
“Yeah, but I can get them.”
“They’re in the back of his truck. They’re tailgating, or whatever.”
“Okay. I’m coming.”
He nodded and got moving again.
She followed him, watching him curiously as he stuffed his earbuds into his ears and kept his eyes on the ground as he moved.
She found his unconfident posture to be surprising given that his father’s gait was so self-assured, but then again, she really didn’t know much about him. Further, she tried hard not to think about Tim and Tim-related things at all, which was difficult enough to manage when she kept hearing Frank shout “Dowd!” throughout the day.
Of course she wondered what Tim was doing and missed how he always seemed to anticipate her needs. He was justtherewhen she needed something. And while she’d tried her damnedest to not rely on anyone except herself, doing so was emotionally exhausting. She felt disconnected and cold, and that hadn’t been what she’d expected when she’d decided all those years ago thatthiswas what she was going to do with her life.
Maybe I was wrong.
Something felt wrong, anyway.
Carine tottered over her strappy, high-heeled sandals and pushed her sunglasses up her nose. She held Valerie back until Kevin was out of earshot, and then said, “I’m not even going to ask if you’re going tonight.”
“I appreciate you not doing so.”
“Would you be so terribly upset if I didn’t play constant companion to Leah? I know she needssomesupervision, but I need a little wiggle room. Clay made a play date for me.”
Stunned, Valerie pushed up an eyebrow. “Yeah? Do you know with who?”
“Nope. I’m going in totally blind. I won’t get to see who it is, and I’m just going to have to try to guess based on clues like how he smells or how heavy his touch is.”
“Are you sure about this?”
Carine shrugged. “I trust Clay.”
“All right. And I guess Leah can fend for herself. She insists that she can, so I’m going to give her a chance to do it. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
“Come on, Clay’s not going to let anything happen to her there.”
“You mean anything illegal or deadly.Somethingis definitely going to happen to her.”
Carine snorted and gave her hand a dismissive flick. “Just try not to think about it, and you’ll have a lot less angst in your life”
Valerie rolled her eyes. If only there were a switch in her brain that would let her stop thinking about certain things.
She set her notebook and food bag atop Frank’s tailgate and pulled forth the greasy bag containing napkins and hot sauce packets. “Thanks for the dinner, Frank,” she called out.
