by Gayle Roper
Drew’s eyes followed his daughter. “Did either of you ever think of asking me what I thought about dying a thirteen-year-old’s hair?”
I glanced over at Tori. I longed to say, “Yell at my sister,” but I didn’t. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well…”
“Don’t let it happen again” hung unspoken in the air.
“I think it looks cute,” I said with what I hoped was a charming smile that would defuse the moment.
He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “She was cute before. Cuter.”
“Drew, it’s only hair.” Through my years of mothering I’d learned the value of picking your wars. A bit of dye wasn’t worth a war when real issues like sexual purity and dressing decently and telling the truth needed to be addressed.
“My daughter’s hair.”
“It’ll grow out. And I wasn’t home when she had it done.”
As soon as that lame-sounding excuse left my mouth, I could have kicked myself. It was true, but it sounded as if I was defending myself—which I guess I was.
“And if you’d been there?”
“I think I’d have remembered to call.”
He made that grunting sound again. “‘The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.’”
I paused with my fork halfway to my mouth and stared at him.
He flushed. “Sorry. Ben Franklin. I do that all the time according to Jenna. Quote him, I mean.”
I nodded. I thought the quote absolved me of responsibility for Jenna’s hair though I wasn’t one hundred percent certain. “I’ll mention to Tori about checking with you first if something else comes up.”
“She’s planning to do something else?” He sounded appalled. “What? Pierce Jenna’s navel?”
I thought of Tori’s abdominal ornament. Even as the thought of Chloe with such a piercing made my blood run cold—she was just too young—I couldn’t help grinning at Drew’s expression. “I don’t think Tori has other plans, but a navel ring wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
“No?” He rubbed his eyes. “You must think I’m going overboard here, but I worry about her growing up too fast.”
“Don’t worry. I understand completely. Being solely responsible for a kid, especially a girl kid, must be very scary for a man. It’s sure scary for me.”
He looked at me in surprise. “Jenna told you about her mom?”
“No, she told Chloe, who told me.”
“‘Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.’ B. Franklin, printer.” He sighed. “Not that the advice did me any good.” He turned and walked toward the food table, stopping to speak with Tim and Mark on the way, undoubtedly checking the validity of the fireworks invitation.
As I watched him go, I wondered at the woman who painted her hair red and green and rode off on the back of a motorcycle with some guy. Drew was not a man to be easily left.
I blinked. Now why did I think that? I knew he had a caring if somewhat overreacting heart as far as Jenna was concerned. That made him worthy if slightly stuffy. And he was good-looking and had a keen mind. At least I assumed he had a keen mind. I tried to think of some example where I’d witnessed his mental agility. After all, he was a college professor and a Ben Franklin scholar. All professors and scholars were keen, right?
Tinksie wandered up, and we talked about living on this lane, steeped in Olde Philadelphia and situated in the middle of modern Philadelphia.
“I imagine everyone is as avid a collector of antiques as Aunt Stella was,” I said. “How could you put modern pieces in these homes?”
“Maxi, our star’ of stage and screen, manages.” Her tone was dry, and I laughed. She was right; Maxi and antiques didn’t go together.
Tinksie glanced at Stella’s house. “Stella’s collection is one of the best. She and Andrew loved going antiquing. They traveled up and down the East Coast searching for just the right pieces.”
“Andrew?” Aunt Stella had a boyfriend I’d never heard of?
“Stella’s significant other.” Tinksie got a faraway look in her eyes. “They were together for the better part of forty years.”
“Forty years? And they never married?” I’d bet anything that Mom and Nan didn’t know about Andrew. If they had, I’d have known. It would have been a family tidbit thoroughly chewed over, especially the not-married part. Oh, the spleen that could have been vented.
“They couldn’t marry. Andrew was already married,” Tinksie said with calm acceptance. “Daughter of his law firm’s senior partner. He couldn’t divorce her, and she wouldn’t divorce him.”
Was I, the unwed mother of a thirteen-year-old, the only person who thought such a situation was ridiculous? “Aunt Stella didn’t mind?”
“Uh-uh. I think she liked it that way. She had her freedom, her job, and she had Andrew several nights a week. He showered her with most of the lovely things you see in her place. In fact, he bought her the house.”
I blinked. Yowzah!
“He loved buying her things. It was so sweet.”
“I wonder what his wife thought of the situation.” I always identified with the injured party. After all, I had a history as such a person.
“Who knows?” Tinksie said as if it didn’t matter. “Stella was happy, and she was my friend, and that’s what counted to James and me.”
Not right vs. wrong but happy vs. unhappy.
“We were so sad for Andrew when she died.” Tinksie sighed. “Poor man. He was here day and night at the end. James invited him tonight, but he couldn’t face coming without Stella.” She sniffed as she looked up and down the street. “He was right. It isn’t the same without her.”
With a sad little wave, she wandered off to talk to someone else, and I pondered the new information about my aunt and wondered what Andrew’s last name was.
I noticed Tim and Mark stand and fold their chairs. They gave a wave, and people began to follow them down the narrow opening between their house and Tinksie’s. Chloe and Jenna danced up.
“Come on, Mom.” Chloe grabbed my hand and began pulling me. I glanced at my watch. Nine o’clock. Dusk was falling, and soon it would be full dark. I let her lead me down the alley, lit by a lamppost at the far end. We stepped out in the men’s backyard, a lovely garden fragrant with roses.
“They’re Mark’s hobby,” Tim said as he saw me bend to sniff one. “He has a green thumb, but I’m not allowed to touch even one little bud. I am the kiss of death to anything flowering. When Stella and Andrew had us to dinner, I wasn’t allowed to even breathe on her plants.” He grinned, obviously not distressed at all. “I’m a computer geek. As I always tell Mark, I’m useful.”
I was laughing as we climbed the steps to the men’s flat roof. I was surprised to discover a lawn up there with a patio and multiple container gardens. The girls were enchanted.
“But what if we all fall through?” Chloe whispered. “This is an awful lot of weight up here.”
Tinksie leaned in. “They’ve had special supports put in to bear the weight. Not very consistent with the era of the house, but it sure is lovely on a summer evening when the heat hangs in the close confines of our yards.”
“Hey, Dad!” Jenna waved violently. “Over here.”
Drew made his way to us, excusing himself from Maxi, who watched him go with hungry eyes. Maxi was no dummy.
“You’ve got an admirer.” I couldn’t help teasing him.
He rolled his eyes.
“You don’t want to get mixed up with her, Dad. She’s not suitable stepmother material.”
“Jenna, I don’t think one conversation of five minutes’ duration is reason enough to become worried. Besides, she’s not my type.”
“Yeah,” Jenna said. “She’s too old. Besides, she’s the type that would send me away to boarding school.”
“You’ve been watching The Sound of Music again,” Drew said.
“Nope. The Parent Trap. Lindsay Lohan when she was little and cute
.”
“Love that movie,” I said. “Only it’s Dennis Quaid I like. Great smile.”
“Huh,” Drew said.
“Hey, there’s Aunt Tori.” Chloe waved at Tori, who had just stepped onto the roof. “She’s got some guy with her.”
I took one look at the man at her side and felt all the blood leave my face.
10
DREW LOOKED AT LIBBY with astonishment as she spun, turning her back to her sister and the man with her. He studied the man, because certainly Tori wasn’t the one Libby was giving the old cut direct. The question was, why did she want to ignore—avoid?—him.
“Do you think that’s her boyfriend?” Chloe watched her aunt and the man with her walk toward them.
Jenna frowned. “Nah. She’s too pretty for somebody like him.”
That was true, Drew thought. Tori was a knockout, if you liked the over-the-top type. The man was average in height and stature and had lots of black, carefully moussed ringlets around his head, one falling strategically over his left eye. The better for some woman to brush it back for him, no doubt.
Tori waved to the girls and started toward them, the man following right along as they wove their way through the crowd awaiting the fireworks.
“Are they coming?” Libby asked, her voice strangely constricted. “Did he see me?”
“Given the girls’ waving like semaphores, I don’t think he could possibly miss you.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. Eddie Mancini. Here.”
Drew stared down at her. Her shoulders were hunched, and she was gazing at the bottom of the placket on his polo. “Are you okay?”
“No.” She put a hand to her forehead. “No.”
“An old boyfriend?” Drew looked at Eddie again. He definitely had his eyes fixed on Libby. So did Tori.
“Worse.”
Suddenly the sky was alight with spectacular bursts of color. Red chrysanthemums blossomed, blue novas exploded, and white starbursts erupted into a shower of iridescent sparks that rained down to burn themselves out in the night.
Chloe and Jenna forgot all about Tori and Eddie. They stared at the sky with rapt delight, the rainbow colors washing across their faces.
Drew ignored the fireworks. “Worse?” Then it clicked. “Chloe’s father?”
“Shh!” Libby gave a quick, panicky look at Chloe, saw her gazing skyward, and went back to staring at his placket. “He’s the last person in the world I want to see, and Tori knows it. I can’t believe she’d do this to me!”
Neither could Drew. “‘Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have brains enough to be honest.’”
Libby gulped what sounded like a strangled laugh. “Don’t let Tori hear you call her a fool even in a Ben quote.”
“I am not that foolish.” He watched Tori and Eddie thread their way ever closer. He wished he knew some way to protect Libby from—what? a devious sister? an unwanted visitor? unhappy memories? “I take it you don’t see him often?”
“I haven’t seen him for years. More to the point, Chloe’s never seen him.”
Yikes! “You’ve never told her about him.” It was a statement.
She shook her head. “I know. Colossal error. Madge always tells me that. ‘She needs to know, Libby, and from you.’”
Drew didn’t know who Madge was, but her advice sounded right to him.
“But I was trying to protect her.” Libby glanced up at him with eyes that pleaded for him to understand. “He’s a total sleaze! Who wants to know her father is that kind of a jerk?”
“Hey, Libby, look who I found,” Tori called, all surprised astonishment as she and Eddie drew near, only to get waylaid by Tinksie and James. James probably wanted proof of food brought before he let Eddie stay.
“He works at the SeaSide Casino like Tori.” Libby shoved at her shiny curls with shaking fingers. “She sees him frequently.”
“So if he works and presumably lives in Atlantic City, what’s he doing on our lane in Philadelphia?”
She didn’t answer, just looked at Drew, her face shadowed in the poor light. A great white incandescence lit the sky, which clearly illuminated the pain and fear in her eyes. It smote him in the heart. He took her hand in his. It was cold and trembling. “You can do this, Libby. If you can face a dead man, you can face this guy.”
She gave a wry half smile. “The dead man didn’t threaten my baby.”
Drew smiled back. “Mama bear on duty.”
She growled, a very unscary bear, and he laughed, then sobered. “You’re going to have to turn around, you know.”
“I know.” She sighed and glanced over her shoulder at the advancing pair. “I can’t believe I used to think he was my hero. How could I have been so dumb?”
“You were what? Sixteen? Don’t be so hard on yourself.” I was twenty-two, he thought, and I still made a royal mess of things.
Drew studied the approaching man in the blue and green wash of light. Though he was slim, he had a slight paunch and a swagger that told quite clearly what he thought of himself. “‘A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.’”
Libby slapped her hand over her mouth. “You are terrible.”
Maybe, but he’d made her relax a bit. Her shoulders weren’t hunched as much, and the panic had receded. “Not me. Ben.”
“How does Jenna stand it?”
“Not well. You’re sure Tori knows who he is?” He wanted to be certain about the purposefulness of the woman’s actions.
“Oh yes. She knows.”
There was a story to be told here, and he wanted to hear it, though this wasn’t the moment. “Can you trust her to keep quiet? About Chloe, I mean.”
“I don’t know. She’s got something up her sleeve, or she wouldn’t have brought him this evening.”
“He’s he—”
“Libby!”
Before Drew got the warning out, Eddie snaked his arms around Libby’s waist and lifted her off her feet. Her back to his chest, he swung her in a circle. Drew frowned as he saw Libby’s horrified face and Tori’s satisfied smile.
“Put me down, Eddie.” Libby’s voice was low but firm. “Now. Before you make a bigger fool of yourself.”
Instead he leaned around and kissed her cheek. Libby flinched.
All Drew’s protective instincts sprang into action. He liked Libby, and he didn’t like Eddie. He reached out and rubbed the wetness of the kiss away with the back of his hand. Libby looked at him with such gratitude that he felt his chest size expand about four sizes. Then he reached for her and gently pulled her out of Eddie’s arms.
He turned her so she faced Eddie and Tori, and though he dropped his hands to his sides, he stood very close to her, offering her whatever of his strength she needed. For a brief moment she actually allowed herself to lean on him, but she straightened quickly. It was just enough to let him know she knew what he was doing and, he thought, appreciated it.
He stuck out his hand. “Drew Canfield.” After he shook Eddie’s hand, he turned to Libby’s twin. “Tori.” The nod he gave her may have looked polite, but the chill in his voice made Tori blink. Good. No one had the right to upset another as she had her very own twin.
There was a brief moment of quiet in the sky, and Chloe turned to Libby. “Wow, Mom, aren’t these great?” She grabbed Libby around the neck and squeezed. “Thanks for coming to Philadelphia!”
Libby hugged her daughter—Eddie’s daughter—and nodded. “They are absolutely spectacular and you’re welcome.” Then, arm around Chloe, she turned all her attention to the sky and the brilliant, beautiful pyrotechnics, ignoring Eddie completely.
Drew had to admire her stiff spine. He moved and stood behind her, again offering his support if she felt the need of it. He turned his eyes skyward, but all his attention was on Tori and Eddie just off to his left.
“I thought you said she’d be glad to see me,” a disgruntled Eddie said in a whisper that wa
s as audible as a shout. Why did people think whispers didn’t carry?
Tori was staring at her sister’s back, her expression stony. “I’ve never known her to be so rude. You know her. She’s everybody’s patsy.”
“Who’s her watchdog?” Eddie shot Drew a hard look.
“Just some guy who lives on the block. That’s his kid hanging out with Chloe.”
Just some guy? Drew liked that. He continued to strain his ears and eyes as he listened and watched Eddie watch Libby and Chloe.
“The kid’s cute,” Eddie said.
“She is,” Tori agreed.
“Sort of looks like me, don’ cha think?”
Drew rolled his eyes. The black-haired minihood thought that blond pixie looked like him? It was the worst case of wishful thinking he’d ever encountered, and he knew all about wishful thinking from personal experience.
“Maybe I should introduce myself.” Eddie took a step forward. Drew braced himself, ready to step between Eddie and Chloe if need be.
Tori grabbed Eddie’s arm. “What? Say, ‘Hi, kid, I’m your dad’?” She looked at him like he was crazy.
“Why not? I am.”
“I didn’t bring you here to scare Chloe but to see Lib.”
Eddie gave her a sardonic glance. “Upset Lib, you mean. I don’t know why, but I know you, Tori. I know how you think, and you never do anything without it benefiting yourself.” Then he turned back to watching Chloe. “And you really think I’d scare the kid? I’m her old man.”
“You’re a stranger, you idiot.”
“Yeah, well, maybe it’s time to change that.”
“It was time to do something like that thirteen years ago.”
“Right. Like I’da done that. I was a punk back then.”
“Your loss.”
Eddie stared at Tori speculatively. A look of amazement washed across his face. “You’re trying to win the kid away from Lib.”
