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“Why don’t you let me drive for a while?” she asked.
“Because I don’t have anything better to do.”
“Except sulk.”
“Sulk!”
“I know it was a bitter blow to you that the car had rowdy teenagers in it instead of a band of armed militia coming to take me hostage, but I’m sure you’ll get over it.” She grinned. “Thanks, Mat. I really do appreciate the gesture.”
“Yeah, right.”
Just then Lucy reappeared from the back of the motor home. She’d been restless ever since they’d left the service station, alternating between entertaining Button and sealing herself in the back. “It’s so weird, ” she said. “We kept talking about Cornelia Case, and now all they’re saying on the radio is how she disappeared.” She was wearing one of the sundresses Nealy had bought her and only half her customary makeup. She looked darling, but she’d shrugged it off when Nealy had told her so.
Now she retrieved the Beanie Baby walrus from the floor and handed it back to Button, who was fussing because Mat wasn’t paying attention to her. “Wouldn’t it be cool if somebody at that lookalike contest thought you were really her in disguise, and we had all these army guys chasing us?”
Mat shuddered.
“Very cool,” Nealy managed.
“What’s that noise?” Mat cocked his head to the side. “It’s coming from the back now.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Lucy said.
A flying Beanie Baby walrus hit Mat in the shoulder. Nealy turned around to see that Button had stopped fussing. She looked smug.
Nealy regarded her suspiciously. “That had to be an accident.”
“You just go on believing it.” He glowered at the baby.
“Gah!” She glowered back, and her expression so perfectly matched his that it was hard to believe he wasn’t her real father.
“How much farther?” Lucy asked.
“The Mississippi’s just ahead. We’re going to cross at Burlington, then go north along the river to Willow Grove. Probably another hour or so.”
“Let me drive. I know how to drive.”
“Forget it.”
She began chewing her thumbnail. Nealy regarded her with concern. “What’s the matter, Luce? You’ve been acting nervous all afternoon.”
“I have not!”
She decided the time had come to pry a little deeper. “You haven’t said much about your grandmother. What’s she like?”
Lucy abandoned her orange juice and sat down in the banquette. “She’s like a grandmother. You know.”
“No, I don’t. There are all kinds of grandmothers. How do the two of you get along?”
Lucy got that familiar belligerent look. “We get along great! She’s the best grandmother in the world. She’s got tons of money, and she’s this real nice college professor, and she loves me and Button so much.”
If she loved them so much, why hadn’t she flown back the moment she learned her daughter had died? And why was Lucy working so hard at matchmaking if they got along so well? “She sounds almost too good to be true.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that Mat and I are going to meet her ourselves very soon, so you might as well be honest about it.”
“This isn’t any of your damn business!”
