Page 80 of Second Start: Family
“Not yet,” Hall called back.
But she stood, out of his hold. “One minute,” she called to Eric. She went to kitchen sink and sank her face into water pooled in her hands, then dried off.
Hall met her at the door. “You don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do.”
She opened the door and went down the steps, because she knew Hall would follow.
Eric was right there, Vicky a couple yards farther back, and Dan shifting from foot to foot by Vicky’s trailer.
At the bottom of the steps, Hall said to Eric, “I’m not leaving.”
She turned, a palm on his chest. “Hall, your kids need you. All your kids. Go home and be with them. I’ll see you tomorrow for … I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Kenzie—”
She’d already turned back toward the trailer.
“Go home, Hall,” Vicky said. “She’s right. Your kids need you. I’ll be with her. I won’t leave her alone and we’ll see you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Vicky Otter didn’t leave her alone — not any more alone than she’d been since the nightmare started.
Not any less alone, either.
During the hours-long session with Eric, she didn’t cry again. She answered question after question after question, in addition to giving him the orderly file she’d retrieved from a box in the darkest storage corner the trailer offered.
He left after 2 a.m.
Vicky came in and fixed her a cup of herbal tea, not asking a thing.
Kenzie sat, staring at nothing. At some point Vicky fell asleep, curled on the couch.
Kenzie went to her bedroom for a pillow and blanket to make her friend more comfortable. Then she returned to her seat and stared into nothing.
*
Buck Felton carried Bobby, sound asleep, to the truck.
Then he cuffed Hall on the shoulder wordlessly. Lori led the yawning girls out, then waited as he secured them in the back seat.
“Did the judge decide? Is Dan leaving us?”
From the front passenger seat, Dan’s head jerked at Molly’s question.
“Not yet,” Hall said grimly.
When he straightened, Lori patted his arm and refused to hear his thanks.
“We have to go back to the court day after tomorrow. If you could—”
“No problem. Drop the kids off here on your way to the courthouse. Vicky Otter started the phone tree that there’ll be no school the next two days.”
He stumbled out more thanks, mentally including Vicky in them for thinking ahead.
The back seat occupants slept through the trip home. He thought even Dan nodded off.
