AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nealy hid her amusement as Mat struggled to sound enthusiastic. “Sure they can stay. It’ll be great having them around.”
Lucy’s smile spread. Then she reached for a muffin.
“Stop right there, young lady, and go wash those hands.”
Lucy grinned at Bertis and shot into the house. Button, who was trying to waddle across the Oriental rug without holding on to anything, fell on her bottom and scowled.
Charlie chuckled. Bertis gazed after Lucy with a smile. “She’s really something, isn’t she? You can just tell by looking at her that she’s special.”
A flash of pride shot through Nealy. “Yes, we think she’s pretty special, too.” We. As if Lucy were hers and Mat’s.
Charlie carried his coffee mug to the couch. “I guess Bertis and I are worried about her. Worried about both the girls.”
“They’re fine.” Mat sounded more than a little defensive.
“For now.” Bertis brushed a speck of muffin from her bright pink shorts. “But what about after the three of you get that paternity test Lucy seems so sure she can prevent? I don’t like speaking ill of the dead, but your ex-wife was a very irresponsible woman.”
“You’re right about that.” He carried his mug to the door that led to the back step and leaned against the frame, subtly distancing himself from them.
“Mat thinks we’re nibby,” Bertis confided to Nealy as if Mat weren’t standing right there. “We’re naturally curious, but we don’t pry. People just tell us things.”
“It’s mainly Bertis,” Charlie said. “People know they can trust her.”
“Now, don’t you sell yourself short, Charlie. Remember that truck driver yesterday at the rest stop.”
Nealy smiled. Bertis and Charlie had the girls’ best interests at heart, and she couldn’t see any reason to keep them in the dark. Maybe they could come up with a solution.
She reached down and brushed a hand over Button’s dandelion fluff. “Mat’s taking the girls to Davenport today for blood tests. Then they’ll be going back to Pennsylvania.” She didn’t mention foster care, but Bertis’s next words told her she didn’t have to.
“Those girls will be split up as sure as anything. Somebody’ll adopt Button, but Lucy’s too old.” She toyed with the chain on her glasses as if it were a string of worry beads.
“I can’t keep them,” Mat said, and Nealy could feel the guilt trickling from him.
Bertis turned to Nealy. “What about you, Nell? You already act like they’re your own. Maybe you could take them.”
That tantalizing thought had been tugging at Nealy since yesterday, but every time it appeared, she rejected it. Bringing them into her world would set off a media feeding frenzy that would ruin their lives.
She knew what it was like to grow up without any privacy—having every part of your life reported by the press. Her father had pounded the doctrine of obedience into her at an early age, so she’d managed to cope, but Lucy wasn’t like that. The intense pubic scrutiny she’d receive wouldn’t give her any room to make mistakes. Although her quick mind and stubborn spirit were her strengths, they would also inevitably get her into trouble. She needed to be able to finish growing up without the world watching.
Nealy shook her head. “I’d love to keep her, but I can’t. My life is . . . it’s complicated right now.”
Mat must have sensed her inability to lie to them because he sat down and began unwinding the story of her imaginary ex-husband and nefarious in-laws. Lucy came back out onto the sunporch while he was talking and attacked the muffin.
Bertis and Charlie listened carefully until Mat was finished, then Charlie regarded Nealy sympathetically. “You know you can count on us.”
She felt so guilty for deceiving them that she could barely manage a nod.
* * *
Despite his grumbling, Mat seemed to enjoy having another man around, and he and Charlie were engaged in a discussion of Chicago sports as they went off to get the Explorer Mat had rented the day before. As soon as they returned, Mat took Nealy aside and told her he’d finished arranging the paperwork for the blood test, and he wanted to leave for Davenport as soon as possible. He seemed to take it for granted that Nealy would come with him, but she refused to have anything to do with it. He ended up threatening her with the wrath of God—meaning his own—if she stuck her head out of the house while he was gone. She knew how concerned he was, so she gave him her word.
Lucy was a different matter, and Mat locked horns with her in the backyard. Nealy couldn’t hear what either of them said, but he must have come up with something because Lucy finally made her way to the Explorer, her feet dragging. Button needed no convincing. She was more than willing to go off with her favorite man.
After he’d loaded her into the car seat he’d moved to the Explorer, he turned to Bertis. “Promise me you’ll keep her inside. Her ex-husband’s as crazy as a loon.”
“We’ll watch out for her, Mat. Now you go on.”
He looked at Nealy. “Bertis and Charlie said they’d keep the girls company tonight so we could go out to dinner without you worrying about them. How about it?”
