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“Yeah?”
“I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You just did, Willow. Good luck this afternoon.”
After the phone call, Noah kicked it into high gear. He moved his clothes and toiletries into the loft apartment and went to work upstairs. He soon had the nursery set up and bedrooms ready for Emma and Drew.
Ready, but too generic. Glancing around the room that would be Drew’s, he thought,Too sterile.Too impersonal.It needed some stuff. A little paint wouldn’t hurt, either.
Frowning, he took a mental inventory of the attic. When Mom and Dad sold his childhood home and shipped all the Christmas decorations here to their mountain getaway, hadn’t they included a box of his and Daniel’s things? He thought he remembered seeing them in the attic.
By noon, he’d done a lot, but he still had a few final touches he wished to make in Emma’s room. They required a bit of work in the shop. So Noah placed the starshipEnterprisemade from a LEGO set on the shelf he’d hung on a wall in Drew’s room, then headed downstairs and out to his workshop.
As Willow grilled cheese sandwiches and heated tomato soup for lunch, she debated how to explain the sudden appearance of AJ Randall in their lives. She didn’t lie to Drew and Emma. However, she also didn’t think she needed to get into nitty-gritty details about their father’s misdeeds.
News like this traveled through the Prentices like a stomach bug during a family road trip. So far this morning, she’d fielded phone calls from her mother, her aunt, her sister-in-law, and her brother Jake. They’d offered advice, counseling, support, and management oversight in turn. Her brother Lucas’s call had been two full minutes of cussing out the memory of her husband without pausing to take a breath. Her sister, currently in France, had sent a sympathetic e-mail and promised a phone call once their time zones allowed for better communication.
Checking the bread, she judged the sandwiches ready and murmured, “Okay, game on.” Then, in a louder voice, she called, “Drew, is the table set?”
“Yes, Mom.”
Emma called, “I put the napkins on.”
“Thank you, baby. Drew, come get the sandwiches, please.” She carried the saucepan to the table and filled the bowls with tomato soup. A favorite of her children, that much was true, but comfort food for herself, too.
She waited until both children had polished off half their sandwich before saying, “So, kiddos, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that Grampy is sick, and it’s pretty serious. He’s had something called a stroke.”
“Is he gonna die?” Drew asked.
“Mimi says the doctors tell her they don’t think he will die from this stroke, but he’s going to be sick for a while and will need lots of care and help to get back to feeling like his old self.”
Drew took a bite of his sandwich, his brow furrowed in a scowl. “Oh no. It’s another bad thing, Mom. That’s two.”
“What?” What was he talking about?
Before Willow could figure it out or question him, Emma tugged on Willow’s sleeve and asked, “What’s the good thing, Mama?”
“The good thing is that Mimi and Grampy have been taking care of a little boy, and now he’s going to come to stay with us until Grampy gets better. He’s almost two years old, so Emma, you’ll get to be a big sister. Drew, you’re such a great big brother already.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a big sister,” Emma said, her eyes brightening with happiness.
Drew shrugged. “He’s not even two? That’s just a baby.”
Obviously, her son wasn’t interested in a baby brother. Good. Willow continued. “The even better good thing is that our friend Mr. Tannehill has offered to let us stay in his big house until we can find our perfect forever home in Lake in the Clouds. That means that both of you and the little boy—his name is AJ—can have your own rooms.”
Now Drew’s eyes went as round as his Harry Potter costume glasses. “Mr. Tannehill? We’re going to live at the Hideaway?”
“For a little while.”
“With Mr. Tannehill?”
“Well, not with Mr. Tannehill. His workshop has an apartment, and he’ll live there. You are not to pester him all the time, Drew. He and I will speak tonight and establish ground rules about what you’re allowed to do and not do when you’re there.”
“Probably like not touching his tools in his workshop.”
“I expect that will be one of them. Also, not going into his workshop at all without permission,” Willow emphasized.She held her breath, waiting for questions about AJ. If they got too uncomfortable, she had the nuclear distraction bomb to drop—puppies.
“Will we still go to Ducklings school if we have a new brother and new house?” Emma asked.
