“Sounds like somebody else I know,” she murmured.
“Okay, it’s a family trait. I’ll accept that. I still want you to steer clear of him.”
“You don’t sound as if you like him very much.”
Kevin shot her a rueful look. “Does it sound that way? The truth is, I like him fine. I just wish he’d get a grip on his life and stop trying to take the easy way out. Biggest mistake he ever made was the first divorce.”
“First?”
“There’s been another one since. I’m hoping for a third. I don’t much care for wife number three.”
“What does he do?”
“As little as possible.”
Given the disparaging nature of the accusation and his own apparent lack of regular employment, Gracie was surprised. “And you think that’s a bad thing?”
“Of course it is.”
“Maybe he’s following someone else’s example,” she suggested.
“Whose?”
“Yours, for instance.”
He chuckled at that. “There you go, making those assumptions again. Shame on you.”
“I know what I see.”
“Okay,” he said agreeably. “Want to know what I see when I look at you? I see a woman who’s hanging around the house all day long with nothing to do except scien
tific experiments that come damned close to destroying a kitchen that doesn’t even belong to her. If I were the kind of man who jumped to conclusions, I’d say she has no practical skills whatsoever, no goals, no ambitions and, judging from those bandaged hands, a dangerous lack of common sense.”
Gracie bristled. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? Not if I judge by appearances.”
“But you know better.”
“Because I did a little checking. Maybe you should consider doing a little investigating of your own before you reach any more hasty conclusions.”
“Okay, okay, you’ve made your point.” She regarded him curiously. “Why’d you come by anyway?”
“I was going to take you to lunch, but you’d already gotten a head start on me.”
“I wasn’t fixing lunch exactly.”
“Then what was this all about?”
“I was practicing.”
“For what?”
Before she could answer, comprehension obviously dawned. He stared at her incredulously.
“For the bed-and-breakfast?”
She nodded.
“Oh, my,” he murmured, and started to chuckle.
“Stop it. Stop it right this minute.”
“Can’t help it,” he said between laughs. “I was just envisioning the expression on the faces of your first guests when they come down and find a sight like this in the kitchen. Or were you hoping to serve them in the dining room and save them the trauma?”
“I’ll be better before I open.”
“Of course you will. In the meantime, though, maybe
you ought to start thanking your lucky stars that I’m holding out.”
“Why?”
“Because it seems to me you need another couple of years to practice your cooking skills.”
Gracie considered whether it was possible to murder a man by whacking him upside the head with a cast-iron skillet. Fortunately for him, Kevin caught the direction of her gaze and her thoughts and made a hasty exit before she could find out.
8
K
evin had intended to stay the hell away from Bobby Ray for as long as humanly possible—or at least until he got over the absurd notion of backing his wife’s lover in the jewelry business. Unfortunately, his cousin’s little meeting with Gracie required a response. Kevin wasn’t exactly itching for a fight when he turned into the winding road that would take him to Bobby Rae’s house on Monroe Bay, but he was in no mood to run from one, either.
There was a hodgepodge of homes tucked away on this side of the bay that fed into the Potomac. Some were doublewide trailers, some were small cottages that had been upgraded over the years with vinyl siding and fancy new decks. A few, like Bobby Ray’s, were huge new homes with lots of glass facing the water and wide porches, lined with rockers or Adirondack chairs. To Kevin’s regret, the garage at Bobby Ray’s was wide open and there were no cars around, either inside the garage or in the driveway. Wherever he and Sara Lynn were, they apparently weren’t together.
However, Kevin’s favorite kid, a pigtailed, blond imp, was sitting on the porch with a book in her hands. She was so clearly absorbed in the story that he was almost
beside her before Abby glanced up at him from behind the thick lenses of her glasses and grinned.
“Hey, Uncle Kevin!” she called out, using the honorary title that had been easier for her to grasp than the concept of being second cousins.
“Hey, squirt. What’re you reading?”
“It’s about this girl who went all the way across the country in a covered wagon. Can you imagine getting over the Rockies way back then? It must have been awesome.”
“Scary, more likely.”
“That, too,” she agreed, nodding solemnly. “How come you’re here. Are you looking for Daddy?”
“Yep. Any idea where he is?”
“Probably sneaking around behind Sara Lynn,” she said, sounding way wiser than any ten-year-old ought to be. “I figure they’ll be together another month, tops.”
“I see,” he said carefully, trying not to let his disgust show. Abby shouldn’t be this aware of her stepmother’s sordid behavior.
She regarded him worriedly. “Uncle Kevin, can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“How come Daddy can’t stay married?”
“You ask the big ones, don’t you, squirt?” He settled into the rocker beside her and gave the question some thought. Finally he shook his head. Answers that didn’t involve labeling her father an irresponsible oaf eluded him. “I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know. Sometimes things between grown-ups just don’t work out.”
“That’s what Mom said, too. What I want to know is
why
they don’t work out. Is it because Daddy changes jobs so much and never has any money? Mom told Aunt Emma he hasn’t paid child support for me in the last six months.”
Kevin bit back an angry retort. This was the first he’d heard that Bobby Ray wasn’t making his payments. For a time he’d made them for his cousin, but Bobby Ray had claimed that was demeaning, that it showed a total lack of faith.
“Might as well cut off my balls and be done with it,” he’d shouted during one of their more heated exchanges.
Kevin had actually seen his point. He’d relented and started sending all of the money directly to Bobby Ray. Obviously that had been a mistake.
Abby peered at him. “You’re not mad at him, are you? Mom said not to tell you, that you had enough on your mind with all the rest of them without her bugging you, too. Besides, we do okay. Since she got that promotion, she’s making real good money now at the bank.”
Kevin forced a smile. “I know she is, but that’s not the point. Your dad has a responsibility to pay his share. I’ll talk to him.”
Her lower lip quivered. “You won’t yell, will you? Please, Uncle Kevin. I hate it when you and Daddy yell.”
“Now, squirt, you know perfectly well that yelling is just something your dad and I do. Anything short of shouting doesn’t register. It’s the way we communicate.” He glanced at his watch. It wasn’t even three o’clock.
“What are you doing here all by yourself at this time of day anyway?”
“It was a short day at school, so I always come here ’cause Mom’s still at work. Daddy was supposed to be here, but I guess he forgot. And Sara Lynn’s never here in the afternoon. That’s when she sneaks around with her friends.”
Kevin saw red. He was going to kill Bobby Ray. He really was. And maybe Sara Lynn, while he was at it.
Abby was safe enough here alone, but being forgotten by her father was lousy. He tried to keep his fury out of his voice. He even managed to force another smile. “How about coming home with me till your mom gets off? Aunt Delia’d love to see you. We’ll call your mom and let her know where you are.”
Abby hesitated. “What if Daddy gets back and I’m not here? He’ll worry.”
Kevin doubted that, but he wasn’t about to say it. “We’ll leave him a note.”
“Okay,” she said eagerly. “I’ll get my schoolbooks. They’re in the kitchen.” She regarded him slyly. “Can we put the top down on your car?”
“You bet.”
“All right! And turn the radio on real loud?”
“Is there any other way?”
Suddenly Abby threw her arms around his waist and buried her face against his chest. “You’re the best, Uncle Kevin,” she said, her voice muffled.
“No, you are,” he retorted, lifting her into the air as he had from the time she was a baby. And why that damn fool of a cousin of his couldn’t see what a treasure the child was, was beyond him. He put her back on her feet. “Now, scoot, and get your things.”
Aunt Delia welcomed Abby with delight, even as she shot a questioning look at Kevin. He touched a finger to his lips and mouthed, “Later.”
For a brief instant, her eyes glittered dangerously as she added up two and two and came to the obvious conclusion that once again Bobby Ray had let his little girl down. But the smile she managed for Abby was warm, and she led her off to the kitchen, already whispering conspiratorially to her. Kevin watched them go and
sighed. He figured Molly would spoil both their dinners with sugar cookies, but Abby needed attention more than she needed a balanced diet at the moment.
Satisfied that his niece was in the best possible hands, he went into his office and called Bobby Ray’s ex-wife. “Hey, Marianne, it’s Kevin.”
“Uh-oh, what’s Bobby Ray done now?”
Her response was automatic, based on too many years of experience with her ex-husband’s behavior. “You tell me,” Kevin suggested.
“The list goes on and on,” she said with an air of resignation. “That’s nothing new.”
“I hear he’s behind with child support again.”
“How’d you hear that? Not from Bobby Ray, I’ll bet.”
“No, I ran into Abby earlier. She was out at Bobby Ray’s all by herself.”
“By herself?” she said, clearly horrified. “Dammit, he knows her school schedule. Where was he?”
“No idea, but I brought her on home with me,” he told her. “That’s why I called, to let you know I’ll bring her on home after dinner if that’s okay with you. I’ll bring the back support payments, too.”
“You’ve already given that money to Bobby Ray,” she protested.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get it back from him,” he said grimly. “I’m not letting him off the hook.”
“We’re getting along okay without it.”
“Okay isn’t good enough. He owes you, Marianne. He owes both of you. Put it into Abby’s college fund, if you don’t need it now. Something tells me she’s going to want to go to Harvard or someplace else that’ll cost an arm and a leg to get into.”
“She’ll probably end up at UVA, like her uncle Kevin. She worships you, you know.”
“It works both ways.”
“Thanks, Kevin.”
“No problem. I’ll have her home right after supper.”
“I wish…”
“Never mind. I know.”
“You don’t know. I still can’t figure out how two people could share so much family history and turn out so differently. He wasn’t always like this. Sometimes I wonder if it’s not my fault.”
“How the hell could you think a thing like that?”
“You know, because of us.”
“You chose Bobby Ray, Marianne. He should have started counting his lucky stars that day and never stopped.” He hesitated, not sure how much his opinion was worth. Finally he asked, “Word of advice?”
“Sure.”
“Don’t let your bitterness over Bobby Ray ruin you for other men.”
“I’m not. I just wish they’d clone a few more of you.”
“I’m no prize, either,” he told her. “See you soon.”
He heard her sigh as he hung up. It was true, there had been a time when he and Marianne might have had a shot at something, but that was long ago. She’d chosen his flashier cousin, fallen head over heels for him, in fact. They’d been divorced within a year, just weeks after Abby’s birth.
If it had been left up to Bobby Ray, he and Abby probably would have had no relationship at all, but Marianne and Kevin had seen to it that they did. There were actually rare occasions when Bobby Ray showed a
spark of interest in parenting his precocious daughter. Today hadn’t been one of those days.
Kevin went in search of his aunt and Abby. Not that finding them was difficult. They were giggling like a couple of schoolgirls, which only one of them was. He found them glued to the TV and another one of those preposterous talk shows. He stole the remote right out from under his aunt’s hand and flipped off the set.
“Aunt Delia, you should be ashamed of yourself. That’s nothing Abby ought to be watching.”
“She picked it,” his aunt grumbled.
“I doubt that.”
“I did,” Abby insisted. “It pays to be informed.”
To Kevin’s deep regret, she sounded exactly like Aunt Delia. “You don’t need to be informed about things like that for a very long time,” he insisted.
“Sure I do. That way I can stay out of trouble.”
“Just listen to your mom and your uncle Kevin. We’ll keep you out of trouble.”
Abby shook her head. “I don’t know about you, Uncle Kevin, but I don’t think Mom knows about stuff like this.”
“One of her highest recommendations, as far as I’m concerned,” Kevin declared. “Why don’t we play Old Maid or something?”
“Old Maid?” Abby hooted. “That’s a kid’s game.”
“You are a kid.”
“I’m not a baby.”
He grinned at her insulted air. “What would you like to play, then?”
“Poker,” she said at once.
“Wonderful,” Aunt Delia chimed in, always ready to do a little betting, no matter the stakes. “I’ll get the chips. A penny apiece.”
“Why not just use pennies?” Kevin asked. “Afraid we’ll get raided and you’ll be hauled away for contributing to the delinquency of a minor?”
“Just get the cards,” his aunt ordered. “Unless you’re too chicken to play with us.”
He scowled at the pair of them, but he retrieved the cards, then pulled a chair up to the card table and sat. “I’ll play,” he said grimly. “Just to be sure you don’t steal the child’s lunch money.”
As it turned out, the two females took every bit of change he had in his pockets along with another five dollars. If Bobby Ray ever discovered Abby’s skill, he’d probably have her on the next flight to Vegas.