Nancy Herkness (11 page)

Jack was thinking exactly the same thing.

They slept, they loaded the car, they drove halfway back to New Jersey, all as if they had never touched each other. Charlie couldn’t stand it any longer.

“You know, I’m all for keeping this ‘partnership’ businesslike, but I’m not sure I can just forget what happened this weekend.”

“Forget it?” He laughed. “I’m not going to forget it for a very long time. I’m just going to put it behind me and get back to the original intent of our arrangement.”

She frowned. He seemed much too confident in his ability to do that.

“Face it, Charlie. Put a man and a woman together out in the woods, and they start to feel like they’re in the Garden of Eden.” He shrugged. “There’s nothing surprising about it, and now we’ve gotten it out of our systems.”

Charlie didn’t particularly care to be cast as Eve. “You’re right,” she said. “It was just the excitement of seeing fire blazing across the sky that got me all hot and bothered. Any man who had been there would have gotten the same reaction. Maybe even a woman.”

He had been looking like a thundercloud, but her last comment cleared the storm and made him smile. “A dose of my own medicine, eh? Be careful what you suggest.”

“I thought we were being strictly business from now on,” she pointed out.

“We sure as hell are,” he agreed, but he sounded as though he was reminding himself.

“This is where you list your assets and liabilities and your income,” Charlie said, passing the forms to Jack. She tried not to touch him as he sat beside her on her couch.

His focus seemed entirely on the paperwork. “I’ll fill this out in New York where my records are.” He gestured toward a pile of papers on the table. “What are those?”

“Proof of citizenship, INS forms, birth certificate, criminal record, fingerprints,
etc.
They don’t require any thought, just filling out, notarizing and sending in. Those are the easy ones,” she laughed.

He didn’t smile.

“Is there a problem?” she asked. Maybe in all his international travels, he had done something to annoy the INS? Or maybe Isabelle was right: he had murdered his first three wives.

“No, no problem. I had no idea there was so much red tape involved in adopting from China.”

“Now you see why I didn’t want to wait any longer for my home study approval. It will be another six months after it’s done before I can bring home my baby.”

“You have a pretty nice life here.” He waved a hand around her living room. “Why are you so eager to have a child who will gum up the works?”

“I have a pretty lonely life,” Charlie said quietly. “I grew up without a permanent family. I don’t want to live that way any longer. And since I can’t have a family in the usual way, I’m going to create one.”

“You’ve already done that with your neighbors. They think very highly of you.”

“The ties aren’t the same. They’ll move. Or die.”

“We’re all going to die, sooner or later.”

She made no response so he gathered up all the documents and tapped them into a neat pile. “I’ll have these done for you by the end of this week.”

“Then I’ll call Rhonda Brown and guilt her into an appointment for the following week.”

He picked up the garment bag with his wedding suit in it. Charlie went with him to the door. “Call me if you have any questions about any of those forms.”

“I will.” Taking her chin in his hand, he looked down at her and said, “Watching the Lyrids will never be the same again.”

Then he straightened and walked out into the dusk.

Ten

“Charlie, this is Rhonda Brown. I’m sorry to call so late and on a Sunday, but I have an emergency situation I need help with. Can I come over and talk with you in person?”

“Of course. I’ll be here.”

What on earth could Rhonda Brown need my help with?

Charlie fixed some coffee and put leftover wedding hors d’oeuvres on a plate before the doorbell rang. Rhonda swept into the room with the same majesty she had displayed on her first visit. Tonight she was dressed in a swirling purple shift that matched the heavy amethyst-and-silver necklace around her neck. When she saw the coffee, she took a mug, and buried her nose in it, saying, “I need this desperately.”

“Bad day?” Charlie said, offering her the plate of food.

“I left Brooklyn to get away from this sort of day,” her guest said, eating a miniature quiche with a sigh of pleasure. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Would you like something more substantial, like a sandwich?”

Rhonda sat back on the couch with the coffee mug cradled in her hands. “No, thanks. I don’t have much time. I just came from the police station in Atlantic City.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“A young woman from Tennessee who came to live here about a year ago was murdered early this morning.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“She has a nine-year-old daughter. We can’t locate a father or any relatives here. And so far we haven’t been able to reach anyone in Tennessee either.” Now Rhonda sat forward and looked straight at Charlie. “I don’t want this little girl to go into the foster care system. I think we can find a family member who will want her, but it may take some time. You know what it’s like to be an orphan, and you’re prepared to adopt a child. Would you take her in until I can find the right person?”

Charlie put her mug down with a thud. “I-I guess so.”

“I could get into a hell of a lot of trouble for not putting her in a certified foster home,” Rhonda said, “but I think you could make a difference for this little girl. She’s as cute as a button, has a southern twang, and says, ‘yes, ma’am’ every other sentence. Her mother raised her right.”

“Do you know why the mother was murdered?” Charlie asked.

“She was working as a prostitute and a john got violent,” Rhonda said, looking grim. “I hate those damned casinos. They don’t do anyone any good.” She shook her head. “Evidently, she rented an apartment in Bellefont because the schools were good, and she didn’t want her daughter anywhere near what she did for a living.”

“Of course I’ll take the child,” Charlie said, with a conviction she was genuinely beginning to feel. “What’s her name?”

“Sallyanne McGraw.”

“Where is she now?”

“With a neighbor. I’ll go pick her up and bring her here.”

“Shouldn’t I go with you?” Charlie said, rising too.

“No. You get her room ready, and think about what you want to say to her. I’ll tell her a little bit about you.”

“Any suggestions?”

“I think you’ll figure it out.” Rhonda had reached the door, and paused as she opened it. “You’re a smart lady, and you have good instincts. I’ll be back in under an hour.”

“Right.” Charlie closed the door after her, and turned around to lean against it.

She needed to get the guest room ready. She wanted to bake some chocolate chip cookies. She had to make a nine-year-old girl whose mother had just died a violent death feel welcome in a strange house. How exactly did one do that?

Major came over and pushed his nose into her hand. She stroked him a couple of times and said, “You’re great with cats. How are you with children?” She pushed off from the door and headed upstairs to make the guest room look inviting.

Flowered sheets and a patchwork comforter brightened the bed. A friend had given her two Beanie Babies as a joke; they went on top of the quilt. She hung yellow and white striped towels in the bathroom and unwrapped a lilac-scented cake of soap someone had given her as a houseguest present. Somewhere in her attic was a set of the Chronicles of Narnia but she didn’t have time to dig them out.

That would have to wait for tomorrow.

Checking her watch, she dashed downstairs to the kitchen and started whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. They wouldn’t be ready to eat but the smell should make a child feel more at home. She had just pulled the first tray out of the oven to cool when the doorbell rang again.

She took a deep breath and opened the door.

Standing beside Rhonda was a small girl with blond pigtails and blue eyes. A pink plastic purse hung from her shoulder, and Rhonda held a small suitcase in her hand. Charlie got down on one knee and offered her hand to the child. “Hi, I’m Charlie. It’s nice to meet you, Sallyanne.”

“Hello, Miz Charlie,” the child said, shaking hands gravely.

Charlie reached up and lightly stroked the little girl’s pigtail. “Just ‘Charlie’ is fine. Come in.”

Rhonda stepped forward but Sallyanne stood still. “Charlie is a boy’s name.”

“My real name is Charlotte, but everyone calls me ‘Charlie’. I have some chocolate chip cookies cooling. I baked them especially for you.”

“Mama and I bake cookies together,” Sallyanne said. “We make the best cookies of anyone.”

Charlie could see the exact moment Sallyanne remembered she and her mama wouldn’t be baking cookies together anymore. She swept the little girl into her arms and hugged her close. “Well, maybe you can show me how you did it.” The little body was stiff in her arms, but Charlie held on until Sallyanne relaxed and put her head on Charlie’s shoulder just for a second. It was enough. When she pulled away, Charlie let her go.

They eyed each other, and then Sallyanne stepped past Charlie into the house.

And screamed.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Charlie asked, racing after her.

Sallyanne stood frozen two feet from Major.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry. That’s just my dog Major. He’s as gentle as a lamb.”

“I’m allergic to dogs,” the little girl announced in a trembling voice.

“Oh dear. Well, then Major will have to go live somewhere else for a while. In the meantime, I’ll shut him up in my office,” Charlie said, grabbing the dog’s collar and leading him up the stairs.

“Are you allergic to cats too?” she asked when she returned to the living room. Twinkle had bolted as soon as she heard voices, but Charlie wanted to avert any more drama from Sallyanne’s day.

“No, ma’am. They’re little and soft, and they don’t bite.”

“Ah, I see,” Charlie said. “Would you like to come with me to the kitchen, and we’ll take the cookies off the cookie sheet and put some more in to bake?”

Rhonda nodded her approval and sat down on the couch. “I’ll just sit here a little while and read the paper.”

“Thanks,” Charlie mouthed and took Sallyanne into the kitchen.

Sallyanne wasn’t boasting when she said she knew how to bake cookies. Even though the first batch had cooled so much they stuck to the pan, the girl expertly wedged the spatula under a cookie and carefully separated it from the metal.

“Wow, you’re really good at that,” Charlie said with honest admiration. “I would have broken that into at least three pieces.”

Sallyanne smiled a tiny, tentative smile.

“Thank you, ma’ am,” she said before returning to her task.

When the cookies, all intact, had been arranged on the Noah’s Ark plate, Charlie handed Sallyanne the cookie dough and a clean cookie sheet. The young chef carefully spooned the proper-sized mounds of dough onto the pan and handed it back.

“We may have to go into competition with Mrs. Field’s,” Charlie said as she put the second batch in the oven. “Why don’t you invite Rhonda in to eat some?”

They all sat down to milk and cookies at Charlie’s kitchen table, the scent of baking enveloping them. And Charlie was happy. She berated herself for the sudden flood of joy that flowed through her because it sprang from a little girl’s terrible misfortune. But having a child sitting at her kitchen table felt so good she had to hide a smile behind her milk glass.

In the last few hours, Rhonda had become family too.

She had come to Charlie when she needed someone to take care of a child. She had even broken the rules to do it. Charlie wanted to reach over and take her hand but restrained herself. “Oh my gosh,” she exclaimed suddenly. “Rhonda, I completely forgot to tell you. I got married on Friday.”

“Wasn’t that rather sudden?” Rhonda asked as she arched a skeptical eyebrow. “And where’s the lucky man?”

“He had to go to New York on business. He’s Jack Lanett, the meteorite hunter who found the Mars rock.”

“I’ve read about him.”

“It wasn’t really sudden. We’ve been … involved for several years, but we both traveled so much we never made the relationship more formal.”

“What changed your minds?”

“He’s retiring after he auctions off the Mars rock. And I’m staying home for…” she glanced at Sallyanne, then said vaguely, “reasons you already know. We had always planned to get married when our circumstances were more settled, and we decided to go ahead with the wedding now so we could be together for the Chinese, um, situation.”

Rhonda looked dubious.

“We had the most marvelous honeymoon in the Poconos.”

“Don’t overdo your story. I can’t see you in a heart-shaped tub.”

“Not that sort of place,” Charlie said, laughing. “We went to a cabin out in the woods and spent two nights under the stars, watching the Lyrid meteor shower.” Turning to Sallyanne, she said, “We even saw a fireball,” and explained the phenomenon to her guests. They both had questions, and Charlie spent a half an hour fascinating them by describing the shower of stars she and Jack had witnessed.

Finally, Rhonda glanced at the kitchen clock and stood up. “I have to go. And you, young lady, need to get to bed. Do you want to go to school tomorrow or would you rather stay home for a day?”

“I’d like to go to school, ma’am. My mama says school is very important.”

“Your mama is absolutely right, but you can take one day off if you’d like to.”

Sallyanne shook her head.

“All right. Do you mind sitting in here while I tell Charlie all she needs to know about your school?”

“No, ma’am.”

Rhonda and Charlie went into the living room and held a low-voiced consultation about Sallyanne’s life for the next week. When they had worked it out to both their satisfaction, Rhonda said, “That was a good idea, baking the cookies.”

“I felt horrible when it reminded her that her mother is dead.”

“No, it was a good thing. She needs to grieve, but she can’t do that until she accepts her mother is truly gone.”

“She doesn’t have to do it so soon, does she?”

“Everyone is different,” Rhonda shrugged. “Some folks, even children, need to deal with harsh realities immediately. It’s healthier than denying them indefinitely.”

“I suppose.”

“You’re doing just fine,” Rhonda assured her as she walked to the door. “By the way, best wishes on your marriage. I’ll need the adoption paperwork from your husband.”

“I know. We’re working on it already.”

“I don’t think you’d be crazy enough to get married just to adopt a baby, or if you were that crazy, that you could find a man who was equally insane. But I want to meet Jack Lanett as soon as possible.”

Charlie got Sallyanne into her pajamas, supervised tooth-brushing and face-washing, knelt awkwardly beside her when the little girl reminded her about bedtime prayers and swallowed hard when Sallyanne asked God to be nice to her mama in Heaven. The girl’s face lit up when Charlie told her the Beanie Babies were hers to keep, and she carefully arranged them so their heads rested on the pillow beside her. Charlie left the closet light on as a nightlight because she remembered waking up in strange houses in the middle of the night and not knowing where she was in the dark. Then she kissed Sallyanne on the forehead and wished her sweet dreams.

She went down the hall to let Major out of her office. He licked cookie crumbs off the floor while Charlie cleaned up the kitchen. “You’re going to have to go live with Isabelle until Sallyanne gets over her ‘allergy,’” Charlie said, taking Major’s muzzle in her hand and looking him in the eye. “If anyone can help someone get over their fear of dogs, it’s you. I’m going to bring Sallyanne over to visit as soon as I think she’s ready.”

Twinkle strolled into the kitchen, having emerged from whatever hiding place she had been sleeping in.

“You!” she said, opening a can of cat food. “What kind of a therapy cat are you? You vanish just when I need someone soft and cuddly the most.”

She sat down at the table. The cat jumped in her lap and Major laid his head on her knee. She stroked them both absently as she stared out the window toward the channel. “My new hubby is going to find the works all gummed up, isn’t he? This is going to be interesting.”

Her alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning. Charlie hit the snooze button, then sat bolt upright as she remembered she had a child to get ready for school. She threw on slacks and a T-shirt, fed Major and Twinkle, shut the dog up in her bedroom and went upstairs to waken Sallyanne.