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“That’s the most pathetic excuse for a dog I’ve ever seen.”
“On the positive side, I made Lucy take him outside and give him a bath, so at least he doesn’t smell anymore. And he certainly has a healthy appetite.”
“Three different neighbors came over to introduce themselves while I was moving the motor home into the driveway. It’s a good thing you’re keeping that damn padding on.”
“People are naturally friendly in the Midwest.”
“Too friendly.” He picked up the rag Lucy’d used to scrub t
he tub and began swabbing the water Button had splashed on the floor. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had more than enough of driving around in that motor home, so I reserved a rental car. We can pick it up tomorrow morning.”
She wanted to ask him what he was going to do about the girls, but Button had lost interest in her bath, and she wanted to get her settled first. “I’ll finish up here.”
While Mat got Button’s bottle ready, Nealy dried her off and dressed her in a clean pair of cotton pajamas. Then she carried both Button and the bottle out to the motor home to turn over to Lucy.
When she returned, she found Mat sitting on the back step with a cup of coffee and Squid curled at his feet. She eased down next to him and gazed at the quiet backyard. Fireflies flickered above the peony bushes, and the sweet scent of honeysuckle drifted in the air. Through the back window of a neighbor’s house, she caught the glow of a television set. She wanted to drink it all in so she’d never forget this perfect summer night in the heartland.
Mat took a sip of coffee. “I called Sandy’s lawyer earlier. I told him where the girls were and what had happened. As you might expect, Pennsylvania Child Services isn’t too happy with me.”
“You’re going to take the girls back.” She’d meant to ask a question, but it came out as a statement.
“Of course. As soon as the bloodwork’s taken care of.”
“You’re having the paternity tests done here?”
“There’s a lab in Davenport. I don’t want to deal with all the red tape waiting for me in Pennsylvania.”
“So you’ll have the tests done, and then you’ll be able to wash your hands of them,” she snapped.
“That’s not fair.”
She sighed. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t what I want! I put in my time as a family man before I was twenty-one, and I hated it.” He gazed around at the quiet yard. “I’ve worked my whole life to get away from all this.”
It hurt knowing something that meant everything to her was repugnant to him. “Was your childhood so terrible?”
He set his coffee mug on the step. “Not terrible, but you can’t imagine what it was like growing up without any privacy and being responsible for so many females.”
“What about your mother?”
“She’d work fifty, sixty hours a week as a bookkeeper. She had eight kids, and she couldn’t afford to turn down overtime. The girls ran rings around my grandmother, so most of the time it was just me. I couldn’t even leave after I graduated from high school. My grandmother was getting frail, and my mother still needed me, so I lived at home while I went to college.”
“Surely some of your sisters were old enough by that time to take charge of things.”
“They were old enough, but that didn’t mean they were reliable.”
Why should they have been, she thought, when their older brother had such a strong sense of responsibility?
The dog shifted closer to Mat’s feet. Mat rested his arms on his splayed thighs and let his hands drop between them. The dog nuzzled his fingers, but Mat didn’t seem to notice. “Look at me. In less than a week, I’ve acquired two kids, a pregnant woman I’m telling everyone is my wife, and a damned dog. If that isn’t bad enough, now I’m living in a house in Iowa.”
She smiled. “All you need is a station wagon and a mother-in-law.”
He moaned and sagged forward. “When I was on the phone earlier . . . I rented a Ford Explorer. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Explorer?”
“An SUV, today’s station wagon.”
