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Cal frowned. "What's wrong?"
"I—Oh, dear…" She whipped a tissue from a box on the counter and dabbed her eyes. "I forgot all about it till now. We got the strangest note in the mail yesterday afternoon. I was going to ask you what it meant, but then I started thinking about Bose-Einstein condensates. BEC atoms," she added, as if that explained it all, "and you brought Chip home with you, and it slipped my mind until now."
Cal regarded her with the patience of a man long accustomed to living with a woman obsessed with things like Bose-Einstein condensates. "What slipped your mind?"
Jane chuckled, then walked over to to a small pile of mail lying on the counter space next to the pantry. "This note. It's from Lisa Scudder. You remember. She's the mother of the little girl Emily who has leukemia. We made a contribution to her medical fund last fall, but she acknowledged that months ago, so I was confused." Jane started laughing again, and all three Bonner brothers frowned. They clearly saw nothing funny about a child with leukemia.
Rachel, however, was very much afraid she understood the reason for Jane's sudden burst of merriment. Why hadn't Lisa waited as she'd asked?
She grabbed Rosie and hopped up from the floor. "I think it's time I got Edward home." She thrust the baby toward Ethan. "Gabe, would you mind driving—"
"Sit!" Jane commanded, pointing toward the floor.
Rachel accepted the inevitable and sat.
Rosie let out a squeal and reached for her. Ethan put her back down, and the baby promptly returned to Rachel's lap where she busied herself playing with the buttons on the front of Rachel's dress. In the meantime, Jane started laughing all over again, and Ethan couldn't stand it any longer.
"Really, Jane. If you saw how sick that little girl is, I don't think you'd be laughing."
Jane immediately sobered. "Oh, it's not that…" Another giggle slipped out, followed by more laughter. "It's just that Rachel… Oh, Rachel." She gasped for air. "We got a thank-you note from Lisa Scudder. Rachel gave Cal's blood money to Emily's Fund!"
All three men stared at her. Cal glared. "What are you talking about?"
"Your twenty-five thousand pieces of silver! Rachel didn't keep it. She gave it all away!"
Gabe looked down at Rachel. He seemed confused, like someone who'd just heard the earth was round instead of square. "You didn't keep any
of it?"
"Cal really made me mad," Rachel explained.
"I see."
She retrieved her hair from Rosie's mouth. "I asked Lisa to wait until I left town before she sent the note. I guess she forgot." She gazed at Cal, who still had his head bent over the note. "The check's postdated. She can't deposit it until tomorrow."
Quiet fell over the group. One by one, they all looked at Cal.
He finally raised his head and shrugged. Then he turned to Gabe. "I don't know how you're going to do it, bro, but you'd better come up with a foolproof way to keep her off that Greyhound tomorrow." He jerked his head toward Rachel's bare feet. "That was a good start."
"I'm glad you approve," Gabe said dryly.
Cal turned toward the family room. "Hey, Chip! Could you come in here for a minute?"
Rachel jumped up with Rosie in her arms. "Cal Bonner, I swear, if you say anything to my son about…"
Edward appeared. "Yes?"
Rosie chose that moment to give Rachel a wet kiss on her chin. Rachel glowered at Cal and patted Rosie's diapered bottom. "Thank you, sweetheart."
Cal ruffled Edward's hair "Chip, your mom and Gabe have some stuff they need to talk about. It's good stuff, not bad, so you don't have to worry. But the thing is, they need to be alone to do it, so do you think you could hang around here for a while longer? What do you say? The two of us can throw the football, and I'll bet Aunt Jane would love to boot up that computer of hers and show you a few more planets."
Aunt Jane? Rachel's eyebrows shot up. "I really don't think—"
"Great idea!" Ethan exclaimed. "What do you think, Chip?"
"Is it okay, Mommy?"
Only Rachel heard Gabe's soft whisper. "If you say no, my big brother's gonna beat you up."
