Page 32 of Second Start: Family
“Kenzie—”
“Momma! Momma!”
The child’s voice was so faint she couldn’t tell if it was a boy’s or a girl’s, but she understood the repeated word. And the heartbreak behind it.
Hall started toward the sound, then turned back to say, “Sorry, I’ll be right back.”
She heard him on the stairs, a door creaking, then quiet voices, followed by silence.
This room felt very different without him in it.
Being in another woman’s kitchen shouldn’t have unsettled her. She had been before. But those women were either on hand, running the show with her as minor help, or their influence was so well coated over that it was barely discernible.
Here, the bones of the kitchen had been set by Annie Quick, and only a thin coating of dust in the form of items used every day had sifted over the skeleton.
She grimaced at herself.
Nice image, Kenzie.
She turned to the sink.
She’d washed and dried the pans and had the makings for the frosting lined up when he came down the stairs.
“Sorry. It took Lizzie a while to go back to sleep.”
“Probably wound up about her birthday tomorrow.”
“Today,” he corrected with grim amusement. He spotted the clean sink.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“It’s no bother. Good use of time while waiting for the layers to cool.” And for him to return, but she didn’t say that. “Everything all right?”
“No. I’m not her mommy.”
She rested her palm along his upper arm. A fleeting touch.
He nodded, so maybe it expressed what she’d wanted — empathy and encouragement that this would pass — and none of the flicker of heat she hadn’t wanted.
She moved quickly to pick up the cardboard packet of birthday cake candles. “I hope you don’t mind, I looked around and found these.”
He looked blank for an instant.
Then he produced a rueful smile.
“Something else I forgot. Who knew birthdays got so complicated? It takes less planning to move a hundred head across three creeks and four pastures.”
“This was the easy part. Now comes the frosting.”
*
Kenzie didn’t leave until the cake — frosting and all — was complete.
Hall had wanted to drive her in his truck, but he’d lost that battle back before they left her trailer, when she insisted on driving herself.
At least he’d persuaded her to leave the final cleanup to him and to message him when she got inside her trailer.
Washing dishes left way too much time to think without her company.
