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“Don’t you want another?” she asked.
“Maybe later. Is Soraya done with vacuuming?”
“Why do you keep talking about Soraya?”
His eyebrows lifted. She sounded almost…jealous. That was weird. Something seemed off. He took a step back, and she took one toward him.
Definitely off.
“Did someone say cookies?” yelled Zack from inside the tunnel.
“We’ll have cookies later,” Billy called to him. “You boys stay where you are.” He realized that their little two-step had put her right at the opening of the snow tunnel.
Mallory gave him a funny smile. “You really don’t remember me, do you?”
“Should I?”
He wasn’t scared of her—he was twice her size—but she gave him a sketchy feeling.
“It’s okay. You’ll remember me now.”
He tried to answer, but his mouth wouldn’t move right. It came out as more of a grunt. He felt sluggish, tired. He could go to sleep right now in the snow. But he couldn’t do that.
His thoughts swam. The cookie. She’d put something in the cookie.
“You’d better come with me while you can still walk.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him after her through the snow. Whatever she’d given him had left him with very little motor control, but he had enough to dig in his heels and shake his head.
She raised her voice. “Come on!”
This feeling, this thick, slow, sickening sluggishness…he’d felt it before. And suddenly he did recognize her.
“I…know you.” Except the words didn’t sound right. More of a gurgle than an actual sentence.
At least the boys were inside the tunnel. Stay where you are, he wanted to yell. But speaking wasn’t possible anymore.
A furious young voice interrupted them.
“Stay away from my dad!” The cry came from Bean, who was crawling out of the snow tunnel. “Stop pulling him!”
Bean—his valiant little accident-prone son—coming to his rescue. Being the hero.
Billy made a motion to tell him to get back in the snow fort. Maybe Bean didn’t notice, or maybe his mission was too important. He raced past Billy and pushed Mallory hard enough to make her stumble backwards.
But not hard enough to topple her over. She grabbed him around his waist and hauled him off toward the kitchen. “Better come get your kid,” she taunted Billy. “Before you pass out in the snow.”
Not wasting a minute of consciousness, he staggered after her. One step, another, another, enough to keep him close to Bean. Whatever she had in mind for Billy, he’d handle. The only thing that mattered now was his kid.
Twenty-Eight
Jenna couldn’t stop thinking about that painting, even as she left her father’s house and headed for Sans Souci. It crystallized so much about her childhood, and her anxiety.
“No wonder you’re a mess,” she said out loud as she steered around a stray chunk of ice from a truck’s wheel. “It’s amazing you’re as functional as you are. You’re not a bad mom, overall. You’re a decent artist. You’re a loyal sister. You’re a freaking fantastic ex-wife.”
She should be happy with all of that. And she was. But what if she was cheating herself out of even more happiness? What if she didn’t need to stay in the foxhole of life anymore? What use was all that confidence she’d developed if she didn’t use it to claim her own happiness? If she didn’t claim…Billy?
Billy was the love of her life. Her soul mate. Her heart. Her man. Her love. And last night, she’d poured cold water all over any thought of them being in a relationship. He’d heard her, too. She could tell from the way he’d gone still, then chosen his words very carefully after that.
“I got you, babe. Whatever you need.”
