Michael's Father. Melinda Curtis

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СКАЧАТЬ stood between her mother and her son, seemingly torn as to which needed her the most.

      “Promise?” Blake prompted, returning his full attention to the boy. Blake had forgotten how frail a little kid’s emotions were. The boy was small, yet not as fragile as Sophia was.

      When the kid nodded, his face full of fear, Blake released him. In the blink of an eye, Cori’s son fled the room. Blake stood, his stomach clenching from what he’d done, not blaming the kid one bit for his hasty retreat.

      “That was uncalled for.” Cori’s voice shook, her eyes still focused on the floor where the boy had stood.

      Blake shrugged, not backing down, even when he knew only a parent had the right to punish, even when he loathed his own actions. “You want the kid to behave, start setting some rules.”

      “Rules—” Cori sputtered, eyes narrowing.

      Blake cut her off before she could gather steam. “I have to go. Maria’s downstairs, but I told her you’d stay close to Sophia today. Do you think you can handle that?”

      CHAPTER THREE

      HOW COULD HE NOT SEE that Michael was his son?

      Looking down upon the heads of her son and his father, she’d noted the same swirling pattern of brown hair on each crown. She’d vacillated between anger at Blake for tossing Michael around like a sack of potatoes and disappointment that he couldn’t see the similarities between himself and his son. Yet, should she expect Blake to recognize what she’d tried so hard to hide?

      Crash! Tinkle, tinkle.

      Cori froze as she slid the last hairpin into her mother’s lifeless hair.

      “Michael?” she asked, just as her cell phone rang in her shorts pocket.

      “It wasn’t me!” Michael called from the hallway.

      “It’s probably that crystal vase,” Sophia observed calmly.

      “The one that good-looking actor gave you?” Cori asked, trying to keep her tone light as she reached for her phone.

      “Ronald Reagan was our president,” Sophia replied with mock dignity.

      Ever since Ronald Reagan had given the vase to Sophia, Luke and Cori had teased her about her crush on him. Cori hoped she wouldn’t find that vase in pieces in the hall.

      As Cori answered the telephone, she went in search of her son. His fast-retreating footsteps on the hardwood floor, punctuated with a door slam, signaled his escape to the pink room.

      “Cori, I need some PR angles for Nightshade, pronto,” Sidney Collins, Cori’s boss, trilled in her ear. “They liked what you proposed last week, but they want to hear some other ideas from you, just to be sure the first one is the best.”

      Cori sighed heavily, as much in response to Sidney’s request as at the sight of Ronald Reagan’s vase in pieces scattered across the floor.

      “Not again.” Cori peered into the bedroom at Michael, shaking a finger at him when he looked up from his cartoons.

      “I didn’t do it,” he whispered.

      “Yes, again.” Sidney didn’t sound happy, either. “Just because they’re so forward thinking they can’t recognize brilliance when it’s right in front of them doesn’t mean we don’t jump through the hoop when they snap their fingers.”

      “Tell them we’re out of recommendations. Tell them that was our best idea and the others were so bad we won’t even show them.” Cori stomped down the back stairs in search of a broom.

      “No way. Bell-Diva’s new vice president of marketing was talking to the Parker Agency, just testing the waters, he said, but we’ll lose the account if we don’t shine, and shine brightly, in the next few months.”

      “I did shine. That last press release was picked up for a segment on the Today Show. Let Adam Parker deliver that.” Collins & Co. was taking off, creating great buzz for their clients, who told others of their success. They were so busy that Cori was starting to wonder if she had any fresh ideas left. The pace had become grueling. If Sidney hadn’t taken a chance on Cori right out of college and stuck with her through the pregnancy, Cori would have moved on by now to someplace where she could be in the spotlight less and with her son more.

      “I’m sure Adam Parker will promise them everything. You know him. He’d sell his mother the Brooklyn Bridge if he thought he could make a buck. Seriously, Cori, Bell-Diva is half our billings right now.”

      Cori lowered her voice to a whisper. “And more than half of my headaches. I really don’t have time for this.” She knew that the deal she’d struck with Sidney to work from Sonoma was going to cause a snag or two along the way, but she hadn’t expected a problem to arise so soon. At least she could do her public relations/spokesperson job with a telephone, e-mail and fax—as long as her clients didn’t require a meeting or hold an event where her presence was mandatory.

      “Nobody has time for this, but nobody knows their business better than you do.”

      “And they pay their retainer on time.” Wearily, Cori beat Sidney to the punch, resigned to the fact that she was going to have to work some more today, realizing that keeping her job while helping her mother wasn’t going to be easy. Even as she thought this, several rough ideas started teasing their way through her brain. She would need to go to the store to check on some things first. She ended her call with a promise to get back to her as soon as possible.

      Luke strode into the hallway, cell phone glued to his ear while he listened intently, muttering an occasional “Uh-huh.”

      “Thank God, Luke. Can you stay with Mama for an hour, maybe two? I’ve got to run to the store.”

      “Uh-huh,” Luke mumbled, stepping past Cori into Mama’s bedroom.

      BLAKE STUCK HIS HEAD in Sophia’s open bedroom door, expecting to see Cori sitting with her. But Cori’s mother was alone.

      “Where’s your posse, Sophia?” Blake tried to make light of his concern as he held back a frown.

      “I’m not sure.” Sophia blinked rapidly. Midday sunlight streamed through the windows directly into her eyes. “I called…”

      “She left you alone?” Arthritis kept Maria downstairs most of the time now. A second maid cleaned the upstairs twice a week. Blake wouldn’t have left Sophia for so long if he’d known Cori wasn’t going to be with her. And here he’d hoped Cori’s presence would make it possible for him to handle his full workload again.

      Blake crossed the room and yanked the drapes closed.

      “Cori has a little boy to take care of.” Sophia defended her daughter. Her frail hand moved slowly back and forth over the bedspread and her small feet fidgeted under the covers.

      “Do you need anything? Water? Something to eat?”

      “Maybe some help to the ladies’ room.”

      Blake’s jaw clenched as СКАЧАТЬ