Page 53 of Second Start: Family
The door behind him creaked open, and Annie’s three other children came out.
“Lizzie,” she said with a smile to the red-haired girl.
“I’m Molly. That’s Lizzie.” She pointed to the blonder girl beside her. “And that’s Bobby.”
“Of course! I got confused for a second. I’m your Aunt Naomi. Your mommy’s sister. You might not remember me from, uh, last spring, but I knowallabout you.”
“How?” Molly asked.
“Why, from talking with your Mommy, and pictures she sent … But, oh, it’s so sad to see this place without your mother to keep it up…”
“We keep it up,” Molly said. “We wipe up the table and sweep the floor and … and everything.”
“Oh, of course you do. I’m sure you all work very hard. But I was talking about outside. The landscaping — I mean the gardens.” They all looked at her blankly. “Flowers and lawn that make the yard look nice.”
“We’ve never had flowers and lawn, precisely,” Lizzie said.
“Sure we do,” Molly objected. “Flowers, anyway. Along the ditch. Those blue flowers. And some yellow ones. We picked ’em for Mom’s birthday, remember?”
Flowers picked from a ditch, for Annie…
“Shall we go inside? It’s quite chilly out here.”
Annie had made no progress at all in the place. Or maybe she had, but without her here— No, that was the same wallpaper. The very same wallpaper Annie said was going to be the first thing she replaced with Hall’s mother moving to Arizona, leaving the house solely to Hall and Annie.
“I have packages for each of you younger children while Dan and I speak for a moment.”
*
The hard, uncompromising sound of boot heels on the porch gave little warning. Hall Quick strode in, pulling the door open wide.
“Who’s car—?” He stopped dead, his gaze going from her to the opened items on the table and back to her.
“Naomi.” He made it flat.
“Hello, Hall. I came to see the children.” She smiled around at them. The three younger children looked back at her. Danny had looked from his father’s face to out the window, his brows tucked together. “And I brought them a few things.”
“I see that.”
A frilly dress — one pink, one light purple — sat untouched in front of each of the girls. Bobby methodically dismantled the box that clearly had held a baby’s quilted ball, forgotten on the floor.
“Let’s go somewhere for a private word,” she suggested smoothly. “Your office or—”
“You’re looking at it. We can go on the porch.”
He stepped back to open the door for her. He didn’t miss the look she sent toward Dan.
Hall had known as soon as he saw her, but he’d hoped … That look ended hopes.
Naomi was here because Dan asked her to come.
*
“Is this about the scholarship?” he demanded of her as soon as the door closed behind them.
“Why shouldn’t Dan want to come to Cheyenne, get a good education, get away from here?”
“Don’t interfere in my raising my kids, Naomi.”
