The Family Man. Melinda Curtis

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СКАЧАТЬ had seemed like the logical thing to do. And now?

      “Thea’s our nanny. We’re looking for Uncle Logan.” Hannah’s voice trembled.

      “Oh, not Wes’s wife, eh?” An old man pushed his way past Birdie, flashing Thea a grin beneath his bulbous nose. He extended a plump, gnarled hand. “Smiley Peterson, town barber.”

      After shaking his hand, Thea retreated to Hannah and draped her arm protectively across her shoulders, wishing everyone would just slow down. With a huffing noise, Tess slumped into an empty booth, perhaps realizing that the townspeople seemed more interested in Thea than in helping them find Logan.

      “We’re looking for Logan McCall,” Thea clarified, trying to hold on to her resolve to remain strong for the girls when she only wanted to sink into the booth next to Tess and cry. “He still lives in town, doesn’t he?”

      “Yes, he does.” Birdie smiled, and Thea thought they were getting somewhere until she added, “Are you here long, dear?”

      “I want my uncle Logan,” Hannah wailed, unable to contain herself any longer.

      Everyone in the room seemed to freeze. The third-degree questioning blissfully stopped. Thea led Hannah to the booth Tess had claimed and had her sit down. Hannah cried hysterically, testing Thea’s resolve to hold herself together.

      “Please, give her a little room,” Thea pleaded, pressing a napkin into Hannah’s hand. The locals’ onslaught, combined with Hannah’s tears, put Thea off balance.

      “I’ll get her something to drink,” Mary said.

      “You aren’t saving these chocolate-chip cookies for anyone, are you, Mary?” Birdie asked, even as she plucked several cookies from under a covered dish.

      Smiley patted Hannah on the top of her head. “The boys are up in Sun Valley fighting a fire. Heard on the radio that it jumped out of bounds, but that the Hot Shots contained it.”

      Hannah blew her nose, then accepted a cookie. Tess pushed the cookie Birdie offered to the middle of the table, where Thea was sure it would remain untouched.

      “When is he coming home?” Thea prodded.

      “I’d say another day or so,” Birdie chirped.

      “Oh, my.” Thea felt her heart sink to the tips of her toes. Another day or so. That could be a week. A week!

      “You can probably get a room over at the motel,” Smiley suggested.

      No. They couldn’t. Thea didn’t have to take out her wallet to know they couldn’t spend one more night in a hotel. One night had been enough to drain her funds significantly.

      “Dad’s gone and we don’t have any money,” Tess announced, causing Thea’s cheeks to heat with embarrassment and another ripple of activity among Mary, Birdie and Smiley.

      “I’ll make lunch for everyone,” Mary offered before disappearing.

      “Where’s that father of yours?” Birdie’s expression hardened with disapproval.

      “Ought to be shot, that man,” Smiley grumbled.

      Later, after Hannah polished off a cheeseburger with fries and Tess picked at a similar plate, Mary pulled Thea aside. “I’ve called Lexie, my daughter-in-law. She’s got a key to Logan’s place. She’ll be here after school lets out to take you over. Don’t worry about a thing. Logan will put things right.”

      “THIS IS BEAUTIFUL.” Thea followed Lexie Garrett’s SUV up Uncle Logan’s steep gravel driveway, staring at the dark green pine trees, huge rocks and the occasional patch of snow as if she’d never seen a forest before.

      Tess didn’t say a word. Slumped in the back seat, she had a knot the size of a football in her tummy. At least when Mrs. Garrett and her daughter, Heidi, had shown up at the Pony they were in a hurry to get baby Henry to the doctor, so they hadn’t gotten out of their SUV and tried to talk to them. Tess had been worrying about what she was going to say to Heidi since they’d left Seattle.

      Tess couldn’t pretend she was still Heidi’s friend, just as she couldn’t pretend with Hannah that everything was okay. Every once in a while, Tess would wake up and feel almost normal. And then she’d remember that her mom was dead and there was no one that loved her, least of all Uncle Logan.

      Her eyes filled with tears, which she quickly blinked away.

      Tess wanted her mom back. No one knew her favorite cereal was Cocoa Puffs or that she liked red more than pink. Her mom had always made Tess smile. Now she didn’t have anything to smile about.

      Tess wanted to go back to the way things were before, when she was just another kid. She used to like lots of things, like watching TV, kicking a ball and making friends. She didn’t do any of those things anymore.

      Which made Tess think again about Heidi. They used to laugh together a lot in school and at each other’s houses. Now Tess couldn’t laugh, hadn’t laughed in months. So, what would she say when she saw Heidi?

      They continued up Uncle Logan’s driveway. Whizzer put his front paws on the passenger window and scratched. Hannah put the window down an inch and helped hold him up so he could get air. The little dog breathed in deeply several times, pressing his wet nose to the window and wagging his tail as he dreamed of peeing on all those trees. At least, that’s what Tess imagined he was thinking. The darn dog peed on everything. He’d even tried to go on her right after they washed him in the sink in the gas station bathroom.

      “This is where your uncle lives?” Thea asked as she shut off the engine. She had her head down so that she could see the huge two-story house in front of them through the windshield. “It’s got trees, and a mountain for a backyard…and friends.”

      Tess used to think Uncle Logan’s house was a castle or a mansion. She’d loved pretending that she was a princess or a movie star who lived there with lots of servants. She didn’t have those silly dreams anymore. Bad things didn’t happen to princesses.

      “This is where my mom died.” Tess bit her lip, wanting to stay in Thea’s small back seat forever. She didn’t want to be here.

      Mrs. Garrett and Heidi climbed out of the SUV. Thea, Hannah and Whizzer jumped out of the Volkswagen. Tess couldn’t move.

      “I’ll introduce you to Glen,” Mrs. Garrett said to Thea. “She’s a sweet thing.”

      Tess had almost forgotten Aunt Glen was staying with Uncle Logan. She was old. Really old. Tess had heard Uncle Logan complain to her mom last summer that Aunt Glen didn’t have all her bulbs screwed in. It took Tess a couple of days to figure out that Uncle Logan thought Aunt Glen had gone crazy, which was fine with Tess because that meant Tess didn’t have to pretend nothing was wrong when she was around Aunt Glen.

      “I check in on Glen a couple of times a day when the guys are on assignment. I’ll feel better that someone’s here with her all the time,” Mrs. Garrett was saying. “I’m sorry we can’t stay. Henry’s got a doctor’s appointment down the mountain in less than an hour, but you’ll be fine. We’ll come by tomorrow morning to check up on you.”

      “Hi.” Heidi stepped into the Volkswagen’s open car door. СКАЧАТЬ