The Second Family. Janice Carter

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СКАЧАТЬ leaving behind two children who were her half siblings—Carrie had jumped to the ending. “So instead of going on a cruise next week, you’re heading for Denver?”

      “Something like that, assuming my vacation leave is still valid.”

      “It is unless you canceled it when you canceled the cruise.”

      She hadn’t. Was that an intentional oversight on her part? An unconscious desire to get away, if not with Doug Reed, then by herself?

      After Tess relayed the rest of her requests, Carrie asked, “Will you be in Colorado the whole two weeks of your vacation?”

      “Heavens, no. I hope to finish what I have to do in less than a week.”

      There was a slight pause before Carrie asked, “And will you be bringing the kids back here to Chicago?”

      Tess closed her eyes. She hadn’t come up with an official story for this part. “I really don’t know how it’s going to play out at this stage,” she said.

      “Yeah?” Carrie’s voice was full of disbelief. “But obviously you’re their next of kin so…”

      “It’s not that simple, Carrie,” Tess snapped back. “Look, I’ve got to go now. You can get hold of me on my cell phone if you need to.”

      “Sure, Tess. Say hi to the kids for me and have a good trip.”

      Tess hung up, drained from the questions that she knew were merely a beginning. She decided not to phone Mavis until her answers were more practiced. Mavis would be a tougher interrogator. Instead, she finished other calls, leaving messages to cancel a dental appointment and reschedule a massage, which she figured she’d need once she returned from Colorado. Then she tidied up and did a load of laundry. When the buzzer rang she was finally on the phone with Mavis, who had just returned from her visit to Sophie.

      “Hold on, Mavis. They’re back—I’ll just buzz them in.” Tess muttered on her way to the intercom. She’d hoped to have the call with Mavis finished. When she returned to the phone, she said, “Look, can I call you when I get there? I’ll know more by then what’s going on.”

      “But, Tess love, what’s going to happen to the wee ones?”

      A vision of Nick came to mind. “They’re not so wee, Mavis. At least, Nick isn’t. He’s just turned thirteen and looks as though he’ll be tall.”

      “Like your father.”

      “Yes, I suppose. At any rate, I’ll see if they can be fostered out to the same family. This Alec Malone said—”

      “Tess! What’s this talk about fostering? You’re the next of kin. I don’t understand why you’re blathering on about settling them in and so on. You should be going there to pack them all up and bring them back to Chicago.”

      “To stay where?”

      A slight hesitation. “If not with you, then—”

      “Mavis, please. Be realistic. There’s no way you could manage. Not that I don’t appreciate your offer but—”

      “Well, I was going to say you could all move in with me. Sell off that pricey condo and live mortgage free. You’ll be inheriting my house, anyway.”

      Tess closed her eyes. God, this was getting complicated. “Mavis, I don’t want a commute every day. You know my hours. That’s why I decided to live close to downtown in the first place. And this place isn’t appropriate for children.”

      There was a heavy sigh from the other end. “Sounds to me like you’re trying to convince yourself you’re doing the right thing here, Tess.”

      “I am doing the right thing.”

      Another sigh. “Not by a long shot, my girl. But hopefully you’ll work that out once you get to Colorado.”

      Tess recognized an impasse when she saw one. There was no way that Mavis would see her side of it. She was too old-fashioned and had never understood the importance of a career to Tess. “As I said, I’ll call you when I get there—let you know where I’m staying.”

      “You do that, love. And Tess?”

      “Yes?”

      “Don’t be so quick to write those kiddies out of your life. They may be just what you’ve been looking for.”

      “What I’ve been looking for? Two children? Hardly.”

      “Not just two children. Your brother and sister.” She paused. “A family.”

      Tess set the receiver down as the others walked through the door. Mavis’s parting words were still screaming in her head. Perhaps she had wanted a family years ago, when she could have still benefited from one. But not anymore.

      Alec must have sensed something when he saw her because the first thing he said was, “Everything all right?”

      “Of course,” Tess replied and got up to take her laundry out of the dryer. Molly watched her open the door to the compact cupboard that contained her apartment-size combination washer and dryer.

      “Cool,” she said. “I was wondering what was in that closet.”

      Alec laughed. “Didn’t you think to look?”

      “Oh, no,” Molly said. “It would have been rude.”

      Tess smiled, her gaze meeting Alec’s for a few seconds longer than she’d expected. It was Nick’s snicker at Molly that brought her back to task.

      “All right then,” she said, quickly changing the topic before Nick set off Molly. “Alec, why don’t you get some cold cuts and bread out for a lunch while I finish packing?”

      She saw at once from his expression that he was pleased at the way she’d diverted a potential quarrel and gave herself a mental pat on the back. She’d had lots of experience at steering clear of hot topics and deflecting hostile attitudes in business dealings. How much more difficult could it be managing children?

      TESS WAS FORCED to rethink that question once they were settling into seats on the plane. Both children wanted a window seat, which might have worked if all four were sitting together. But Tess was seated way at the back in the center while the others were in a row of three seats on the side. Fortunately, that left Alec to settle the seating dispute. She contentedly leafed through a magazine until a flight attendant came by after the plane had finished climbing to its cruise altitude and asked if she’d like to join her family.

      Tess shot her a blank look before noticing that Alec was craning his head to the back of the plane.

      “Your husband said you might like to join them and we’ve got a no-show in the row behind. I think with some rearranging we can seat two of you in one row and two behind. Would that be all right?”

      “Uh, sure.” Tess followed the hostess to the front of the plane. As she took the seat next to Alec, Tess flushed when the hostess said, “We can’t have a family separated like that.”

      Molly СКАЧАТЬ