A One-of-a-Kind Family. Holly Jacobs

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ container, returned it to the refrigerator and carried the glasses over one at a time.

      He started to pick up cookies from the rack that they were cooling on, and Anna said, “It’s probably more polite to put them on a plate, Colm.”

      “Oh, yeah. Aunt Betty always does that.” He hurried off to the cupboard and grabbed a salad plate, piled it high with a stack of cookies, and with one hand on the top of the pile, and the other holding the plate, made his way to the table. He set the plate down carefully, but when he took his hand off the stack, the cookies tumbled. “Oh, no, I goofed. I can’t—”

      Anna picked up a cookie and put it back on the plate. “Hey, cookies fall. No biggie. If they fall, you pick them up.”

      “Ten-second rule?” he asked Mrs. Taylor.

      “They’re not on the floor but the table, so there’s a lot more than ten seconds when something falls on a table,” the older woman assured him.

      Colm broke into a smile and repiled the cookies. He looked proud as he announced, “There, I did it.”

      “You did,” Anna agreed.

      “I didn’t even spill the milk. I was real careful.”

      “You did great,” she told him. “But even if you’d made a mess, you could have cleaned it up. If you spill milk, you wipe it up.”

      “Yeah. If you knock cookies down you pick them up, and if you make a mess, you clean it.”

      Anna hadn’t realized he was going to take her off-the-cuff comments to heart. She’d have to remember that. “Right, Colm. Everyone has accidents. All that matters is that when you do, you clean them up and try to do better the next time.”

      They all ate their cookies, and Anna caught Mrs. Taylor giving her furtive looks as if she were trying to decide whether Anna would be good for Colm. Anna suspected if Mrs. Taylor decided that she wouldn’t be good for him, she’d be as fierce defending Colm as Liam had been.

      When they finished, Colm said, “Hey, I’ll clean up ’cause I brought it all over. I can do it.”

      “I’m sure you can, Colm,” Anna told him. “Thank you.”

      He looked to Mrs. Taylor and the older woman offered him another dimple-filled smile. “That’s lovely, Colm. I’m going to sit here and let you wait on me.”

      “Yeah, I’ll do that ’cause you’re old and get tired. Aunt Betty’s feet ache sometimes and she moans like this,” he made a loud wailing sound, and continued, “so maybe if I help, her old feet’ll feel better, huh?”

      “I’m sure they will, Colm.” Anna tried desperately not to grin.

      Mrs. Taylor watched as Colm tidied up. “It never occurred to me to let him help. His mother, Maire, was a dear friend, and she waited on him hand and foot, and when I started to help Liam out after she passed…” She paused as if her friend’s passing was still hard for her to talk about “…well, I simply continued on as she’d always done.”

      “That happens. Sometimes it’s hard for a family to step back and see a person’s capability. Well, if Liam will let me work with Colm—that’s why I’m here.”

      “Oh, he’ll let you. I might not be his mother, or even related by blood, but I’m as close as the boys have to a relative, and I have some clout. I’ll use it on your behalf.” Mrs. Taylor’s bravado seemed at odds with her dimpled smiles.

      “Thank you, Mrs. Taylor.”

      Mrs. Taylor reached across the table and patted her hand. “Now, you call me Aunt Betty. Everyone does. And you tell me what you need from Liam, and I’ll see to it that you get it. I can’t tell you how much I’ve worried about Colm. I’m not getting any younger and I don’t know what Liam will do when I’m gone.”

      “Mrs. Taylor—”

      The woman gave her a look and Anna hastily amended, “Aunt Betty. I’m sure you’ll be here for a long time, but I really think there’s a whole world of opportunities for Colm, and I’d like to show them to him, if his brother permits me to.”

      “Like I said, you don’t worry about Liam. I’ll take care of him. When do you want to start?”

      “Tomorrow morning at eight?”

      “That sounds great to me. We’ll see you then.”

      Colm was busily putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

      “Colm, would it be okay if I came over again tomorrow?” Anna asked.

      He turned around and grinned. “Oh, yeah. We can finish our buildin’.”

      “Sure we can. And maybe we could try a few other things, too.”

      “Okay, that’d be good, Anna.” He hugged her goodbye and Anna didn’t mind his wet hands as she hugged him back. “Yeah, I’ll see ya tomorrow, Anna.”

      LIAM OPENED the front door for Anna the next morning.

      “Mr. Franklin,” she said, obviously surprised. “Sorry, I was expecting Mrs. Taylor.”

      “I’m home today. I wanted to be home yesterday, but I had a meeting, otherwise you’d have dealt with me.”

      He loved working for himself, except days like yesterday, when he wished he had an employee to send to meetings.

      Because his work centered around computers and programming, he was able to do a lot of it online from his home office, but sometimes he had to see customers in person. Thankfully, yesterday’s meeting had been with a small firm in town. It had been one of his first clients. Thanks to the Internet, he now did security work for businesses all over the country. Those face-to-faces weren’t just an afternoon out of the office, which is why he’d found himself at The Sunrise Foundation.

      He reminded himself that he made a good living and was able to be at home most days.

      Still, he wished he had been here because he’d have saved himself Aunt Betty’s tongue-lashing. She’d told him that Anna was coming back to work with Colm to be more self-sufficient, and his less-than-enthusiastic response had started the lecture. Every concern he voiced only made it worse.

      “I’m sorry you couldn’t join us.” Anna’s expression didn’t quite match her words. Though her look was quickly replaced by an all-business one that Liam recognized because he’d used it himself with difficult customers.

      “Well, I’m glad you’re here today,” she said with what sounded like forced enthusiasm. “Maybe we can talk for a few minutes?”

      “Come in.” He led her into the living room and gestured to one of the chairs. He took the other one opposite her.

      “You have a beautiful home,” she said conversationally. “And that porch. I really love the porch. It makes the house seem so friendly and approachable.”

      “This is my parents’ house. I grew up here and moved back in after they passed away. I thought the continuity СКАЧАТЬ