idea was crazy, that he was only trying to deny his own loneliness.
Now, sitting here with Kelly Anderson, he didn’t feel alone at all. Despite her pink hair, black clothes, and the weird jewelry covering her ears and wrists, he felt as though he was with someone who truly understood him.
He sensed Kelly’s eyes on him, and looked at her.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked, her voice shy, carrying none of the bravado he’d heard when they first met.
Michael shook his head. “I was just thinking, that’s all.”
Kelly smiled. “You want to meet me tonight?”
Michael hesitated, uncertain exactly what she meant. “I—I don’t know,” he stammered. “I’ll see.”
A few hours later, when he finally dropped her off at the same place he’d met her that morning, he still hadn’t made up his mind.
“Dad?”
Craig Sheffield looked up at his son, his brows arching in an exaggerated expression of surprise. “The Sphinx speaks,” he said. Michael flushed, and Craig immediately regretted his teasing tone. “Well, you haven’t exactly been talkative tonight.”
“Usually he talks too much,” Jenny piped up from her chair opposite Michael’s. “I hardly ever get to talk at all. And all he ever talks about are those dumb animals he finds in the swamp.” She regarded her brother with all the scorn she could muster. “Sometime you’re going to go out there and a big snake’s going to eat you all up!”
“Jenny!” Barbara did her best to glare at her daughter, but wound up laughing instead at the little girl’s obvious delight at her imagined fate for her brother. Jenny, taking the laughter as a victory for herself, stuck out her tongue at Michael, who pointedly ignored her.
“Do you know Mr. Anderson’s granddaughter?”
Before Craig could reply, Jenny piped up again, chanting: “Michael’s got a girlfriend, Michael’s got a girlfriend.”
This time her brother glared at her. “Can’t anyone ask a simple question around here without you making a jackass of yourself?”
Instantly, Jenny’s eyes turned stormy. “You take that back!” she demanded. “Mommy, tell Michael he’s not supposed to call me names!”
Barbara groaned, leaning back in her chair and putting her napkin on the table. “Enough,” she said. “If you tease him, you have to expect him to tease you back.” Jenny opened her mouth, ready to push the argument further, but Barbara held up a warning hand. “I said that’s enough, Jenny. If you want to stay at the table, you can be polite and finish your dinner.” Before Jenny could reply, she turned to Michael. “Now what’s this about Kelly Anderson?”
“She came around today,” he hedged, deciding it wasn’t quite a lie. After all, she’d been walking toward the tour headquarters when she found him by the ditch. If she’d kept walking, and he’d still been at work, he probably would have met her anyway.
“Well, stay away from her,” Michael heard his father say, his voice sharp.
Startled, Michael turned. His father was frowning deeply.
“Stay away from her?” Michael echoed. “How come?”
“Now, Craig, you’re not being fair—” Barbara began, but her husband didn’t let her finish.
“The girl tried to kill herself, Barb. She—”
“Craig, please!” Barbara broke in, glancing pointedly toward Jenny, who was watching her father eagerly.
Craig hesitated, then grinned crookedly at his daughter. “Looks like you’re about done with your dinner. Why don’t you go on in and watch television?”
“I want to hear,” Jenny objected.
“And I don’t want you to,” Barbara said firmly. Jenny glanced from one parent to another, and realized there would be no appeal.
“Well, it’s not fair,” she complained, moving sulkily toward the door. “When I’m a grown-up, I’m going to let kids hear everything!” She slammed the door on the way out, but neither of her parents responded. Craig, in fact, was already facing Michael, his expression serious.
“Kelly Anderson decided she was pregnant a month ago, and tried to kill herself,” he said. “The fact of the matter was that she wasn’t pregnant at all. She simply imagined the whole thing.”
Barbara took a deep breath, hating her husband’s habit of making judgments before he had all the facts. And she hated even more that he only did it with his family, never with his clients. “Craig, that’s not fair. We don’t know exactly what happened—”
Craig held up a warning hand. “I know enough that I’m sure she’s not the kind of girl I want Michael mixed up with. She’s got a lot of problems, and from what Carl Anderson tells me, she always has. There are plenty of perfectly nice girls around here who—”
“Great!” Barbara