Page 95 of The Woman Left Behind

A doggie fracas ensued as they did, leashes were unclipped, dogs got excited, pets and ear rubs were extended, Harry got them under control, and then finally they settled down enough to put noses to the ground and suss out their new space.

“Right.” Harry slid his arm around my shoulders. “Rus, Maddie, this is Lillian. Lillian, this is my friend Rus and his stepdaughter, Madden.”

“We don’t call me that, Harry,” Maddie informed him. “Rus is my second dad, and I’m his second daughter.” She looked to me. “On account he has another one older than me. But she and me are just sisters even though we’ve got different mothers…” A pause then, “And fathers.”

“I like that way of looking at it,” I told her.

I liked more the consummately satisfied and doting expression Rus had on his face when his “second daughter” said all of this.

“Sabrina, my sister, is graduating college next year and she’s gonna move to Misted Pines,” Maddie went on to share. “She says she likes the fresh air and all the wildflowers we get. But mostly she likes Jason Bohannan.”

“Well, those are all good reasons, on top of having her dad close, and her sister.”

I clamped my mouth shut after I said that. The feel of the room changed, Harry’s arm tightened, and I watched Maddie’s face turn sad.

And being a kid, she just went for it.

“Rus told me about your mom and dad. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks, honey,” I mumbled.

“I had another sister once,” she announced. “She didn’t have the same mom and dad as me either. Her name was Brittanie.”

I stiffened at learning she thought of that poor murdered woman as her sister and just how a little kid might process that kind of loss. I was a big kid, and I was struggling.

Maddie again didn’t hesitate to put it out there.

“We put her ashes in the river, and she floated away. I’d so rather have Brittanie around so I could do her hair like she used to let me do, but it felt good, watching her float away like that. I don’t know why, and Mom says I shouldn’t question it, just let it feel good. And until I watched her float away, knowing she was gone, I didn’t feel good at all. So I decided to do that. Just let it feel good, I mean.”

“It works that way, I guess,” I replied.

“Well, I hope you feel better when you, uh…do whatever you’re gonna do with your mom and dad.”

“I hope so too.”

Harry butted in. “Maddie, can you help Lillian get the dogs sorted while I talk to Rus outside for a bit?”

Maddie looked up at him. “Sure, Harry.”

Harry’s arm gave me a squeeze, so I looked up at him too, but I got a kiss on my nose and a whispered, “Be right back, baby.”

I loved it when he said that.

It wasn’t hard to figure out why. It was because I knew he’d actually be back, and two people I cared about left and never returned.

But I didn’t have it in me to analyze this too much. Not then.

I just rested in the knowledge I knew he’d be back.

Though, what Maddie said was food for thought, because it felt good, and truthfully, there was no reason to question it.

The men went out, leaving me with Maddie.

“I don’t think the dogs need much sorting,” Maddie remarked.

I gazed around.

Smokey was drinking out of the dish on Lucy’s mat. Lucy was lying on one of the new dog beds. Linus was up on the sectional, exploring.

---