The Second Family. Janice Carter

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ “Look, someone—most likely it’ll be me—will be there as soon as possible but it may not happen until tomorrow. You think you can handle those two youngsters till then?”

      Tess grit her teeth. Nothing ambiguous about the sarcasm in his voice. “I don’t think it’s fair to get short with me, Mr. Malone. It’s hardly my fault the children ran away.”

      “Short? Would that be like short as in snotty? If so, then I apologize but I gotta admit, those kids took a helluva gamble to make that trip to Chicago on their own looking for a sister they just discovered they had. Kids who’ve never been outside Boulder, Colorado. I don’t have all the details yet, but I do know they got the whole thing together without any adult help and actually made it there in one piece. So if I sound a bit short as you put it, well yes, dammit all, that’s precisely what I am feeling.”

      It wasn’t often that Tess found herself speechless. A hundred questions swarmed her mind about how the children learned her identity and why they came looking for her. Tess sensed that firing off a slew of defensive inquiries would fuel an already heated conversation with the presumptuous social worker. Her business experience had taught her that obvious anger only made your argument weaker.

      “Still there?” he ventured after a pause.

      “Unfortunately,” she said.

      “Sorry if I seem a bit tetchy but I’m real worried about these kids. You haven’t had a chance to get to know them yet—”

      “No,” she put in as icily as she could. “And I’m not likely to, either. Richard Wheaton—my father—walked out on my mother and me when I was eight years old, Mr. Malone, and I haven’t heard a word from him or about him since yesterday. So if I appear a tad cool to the notion of family and siblings, please forgive me. I’m not a callous person. If these children need a place to stay until tomorrow, I will provide them with one.” She hesitated, alarmed at the promise she’d just made. Too late now, she thought. But there’s always Mavis. Beyond her office door, she heard muted voices. They were back. “I’ll give you my home address and phone number. When might I expect you?”

      There was a resigned exhalation from the other end. “I don’t imagine you’ve dealt much with government bureaucracies, Miss Wheaton—or maybe you have—” he quickly added “—but nothing in this office moves faster than a slug on a cabbage leaf. And when it comes to applying for air travel, I should’ve requested this trip months ago. So…”

      Tess was beginning to think he didn’t move very fast either. “So?” she repeated, wanting him to get to the point. If he ever could.

      “There’s a flight arriving in Chicago after noon.”

      “Nothing sooner?”

      “That’s the best I can do.”

      Tess closed her eyes. “All right, Mr. Malone, I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

      “There’s one more thing,” he said. “The kids are real upset about being split up. The accident has pretty much traumatized them, as you can imagine. I’d appreciate it if you avoided making any statements to them about their future.”

      “How could I do that when I’ve no idea what future plans exist for them?”

      His sigh suggested he was trying to be as patient as possible. “That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. If they bring up the subject about what’s going to happen to them, be as vague or evasive as possible. Please.”

      “Of course I will, but why belabor your point, Mr. Malone? Obviously I don’t have any idea what the future holds for them.”

      “You’re not getting it yet, are you Miss Wheaton? The kids headed to Chicago because you’re the only family they’ve got.”

      Family. She’d never felt she had one. There was Mavis, who tried her best over the years to compensate for the real family Tess lacked. Tess tried to come up with a response but words failed her.

      “Miss Wheaton? Sorry if all of this is overwhelming but that’s the situation. I’ll call you as soon as I get into town.” And he hung up before she had a chance to say anything more.

      Tess replaced the receiver and sat, oblivious to the hushed chatter outside her office. Her office. How odd that at that very moment, nothing in the room was familiar. It suddenly seemed to belong to someone else. She peered down at her tailored, olive-green skirt with its matching, long-sleeved silk blouse. The delicate gold chain around her neck was a graduation present from Mavis and the titanium and gold watch, a gift to herself on her promotion. But the whole outfit might as well be trappings owned by a complete stranger. Tess sighed. The double whammy she’d just received—father dead and two half siblings on her doorstep—had instantly diminished all the rewards of her success.

      So she instinctively turned to the one person who’d been her saving grace over the years and punched in Mavis’s phone number. After the tenth unanswered ring, Tess remembered that Mavis would be with her sister all weekend. She hung up, propped her elbows on the desk and lowered her head onto her hands. She didn’t have the faintest idea what to do—which was, for her, an almost frightening state of mind.

      “Tess?”

      She raised her head enough to glare at the intercom, wanting desperately to simply tell everyone to go away and leave her alone. “Yes?”

      There was a slight hesitation before Carrie continued by, saying, “The kids have had a bite to eat and gone to the washroom, but they’re tired. Do you know when you’ll be taking them home?”

      Taking them home? Tess checked the time. Four o’clock. Leaving early two days in a row would raise more than a few eyebrows.

      “Did you hear me?”

      Tess swallowed. Taking them home. To a one-bedroom condo? “Uh, Carrie, can you come in here for a sec?”

      The intercom fell silent and Carrie popped her head around the door an instant later. “Don’t ask,” Carrie forewarned.

      “Ask?” Tess ran her tongue along her lips, trying to kick some life into the smile she was squeezing out.

      “It’s all over your face so let me spare you the humiliation of a no. I’ve got big plans this weekend.” Carrie closed the door behind her.

      “This is what comes of having a too familiar relationship with your staff,” Tess muttered to herself. She groaned and gently massaged her temples.

      “I guess we’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”

      Tess jerked her head up. She hadn’t heard anyone come in. The boy—Nick—stood in the open doorway. His face was pale, drawn with worry. Something in his expression tugged at her.

      “Not a lot,” she began. “But—well, there are other issues here.”

      He nodded. “Something to do with my father.”

      He was quick, she thought. “Something like that.” It wasn’t the time or place to get into a lecture on parental responsibility. Besides, what Richard Wheaton had done was hardly his fault.

      Nick’s sigh echoed in the silence of Tess’s office. “I thought there might be a problem. Otherwise СКАЧАТЬ