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Liane picked at the strap of her backpack. “I was mad at you for going away. But now I’m not. You couldn’t help it. Janelle’s mother couldn’t help it, either. And that’s what happened to us. Hadley took that money and didn’t tell us.”
Stormy felt as if some unbearable burden was slipping away.
“Thank you,” she said, softly joyful. She reached over and hugged Liane until the child squirmed. “We’re a team again, sweetheart. Nobody is going to beat us in life ever again. What do you say we go pig out on bologna sandwiches?”
Liane rolled her eyes. “I despise bologna.”
Stormy laughed. “Me, too. But I’ll fry it and slather it with mustard.”
“You look happy,”Nina said by way of greeting to Stormy. She was shrugging into a sweater. David and Tommy, jackets on, hair slicked down and wearing hangdog expressions, were hovering near their mother. “You got the job.”
Stormy vacillated. She could see no reason to open herself up to more of Nina’s ill-disposed remarks. She fudged the truth. “They’ll call me. Are you going out?”
“I’m taking the boys to the dentist. You don’t mind if I use the car?”
“I was hoping we’d have time for a talk.”
“Later, okay? I’m running behind as it is.” Nina turned to go. “Oh, Tully and I are invited over to some friends tonight to play cards. I said we’d go. You’ll watch the boys, won’t you?”
“I will tonight, but in the future, I wish you’d ask me first. I might’ve had to start work or had other plans.”
Nina’s expression whipped into a grimace of incensed umbrage. “You have the gall to have that attitude after I’ve taken care of Liane day and night for a solid year? Plus, weeks of those appointments with your attorney? The trial?”
It was on the tip of Stormy’s tongue to ask how costly Liane’s care had been, to disclose the conversation she’d had with Benjamin Flaherty, but she bit back the outburst. A shouting match in front of the children would be terrible form. “I only meant I’d hate for you to have to change your plans if I happened not to be available.” She handed Nina the car keys. “You’ll have to put in some gas.”
“I figured that,” Nina snapped. She ushered the boys out ahead of her, then stalked away, trailing virtuous indignation like confetti.
Trembling, Stormy sat down on the foyer bench, thinking back to when times were different. When she and Nina had shared closets and clothes and secrets. But that was all gone now. She had to force herself to remember the good times. She was not going to get those times back. Mom and Dad, Nina’s love. All gone. An awful gloom descended into her mind.
Liane came and perched beside her and threw an arm around her. “Sometimes, I’d like to smack Aunt Nina on the butt.”
“Hey! Watch your language.”
“Can I say two billy goats butted heads?”
“I know that’s a trick question, but, yes, you can say that. It’s how you meant—”
“Is it okay if I make a wish?”
“Am I going to be in sheep dip up to my knees if I say yes?”
Liane gave her a brilliant smile. “Then I wish Aunt Nina would get stuck between two billy goats buttin’ heads.”
“No comment,” Stormy said, managing to suppress her smile, but only just.
Undaunted, Liane grabbed her backpack and skipped up the stairs. At the landing, she stopped briefly to say, “When I told Miss Evans I was in sheep dip up to my knees in homework, she made me write ten times on the blackboard that I wouldn’t say bad words. I misspelled so many words, I got extra homework.”
Stormy leaned her head back on the wall and closed her eyes. Some role model she was turning out to be.
After she andLiane ate bologna sandwiches, Stormy cut and trimmed vegetables to start a simmering pot of soup. It struck her how wonderful it was to have the freedom to choose what she wanted to eat, to prepare the meal, to pad back and forth from pantry to sink to fridge. There was no count time, no guards, no clamor. Never in a million years could she explain to anyone how good such ordinary tasks felt. Or perhaps Mrs. Byers would understand. She’d have to call her soon.
Liane sat in the alcove, doing her homework. The afternoon sun poured in, tinting her light brown hair with gold. Stormy smiled at the child’s concentration on gripping the pencil just so to form each letter.No matter what, Stormy thought,Liane needs me.Periods for sale—heavens.
She pulled up a stool and sat opposite her daughter. “The tide is going out. Want to walk on the beach and watch the sun go down?”
“Nah. May I call Janelle? We hardly ever get to talk on the phone.”
“Sure. If you like, you can invite her to spend the weekend with you.”
