anything about it, since he was Jewish and Mom wasn’t. We tell ourselves lies to survive when we know the truth will kill us.”
“It didn’t kill you.”
“Not yet,” he said.
It was then Levi noticed that Tamara had put her hand on his knee. She seemed to notice it at the same time he did. She squeezed it like they were old friends and it was old times. He looked down at her hand on his knee and she quickly pulled it away.
“It’s okay. I’ve had more time to get used to this news than you have,” Tamara said. “Now we have to decide what to do.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do, is there? Raise a big public stink? What good’ll that do us? Do you think the courts would really give me Red Thread based on that letter you found? Half the judges in this state probably have kids with their secretaries or housekeepers. They aren’t about to set a precedent like that.”
“We don’t need the courts. We have a judge on our side.”
“Oh, yeah, Judge Daddy. Does he know you’re his daughter?”
“If he does, he never told me. But it doesn’t matter. He’ll help us.”
“Us? When did ‘we’ become an ‘us’?”
“Aren’t we in this together?”
“I don’t know what ‘this’ is. And I don’t know why I’d be in it with you.”
“You’re the only living child of George Maddox. You deserve to inherit his money, his house, his company. All that.”
“Why? He fucks my mother and I get to be a millionaire? Not sure that’s how it works.”
“Come on, Levi. You know we have to do something to make this right. You lost your job because of me. I want to make it up to you.”
“Tamara, as much as I’d love to blame you for me getting into trouble and as much as I did blame you, the simple fact of the matter is I am twelve years older than you are. I knew better than to kiss you and I did it, anyway.”
“Because you wanted to kiss me.”
“Because I wanted to shut you up.”
“By kissing me.”
“By any means necessary.”
“You know you liked it. And you liked me. You still like me or you wouldn’t be here.”
He gave her a long flat look. A steamroller look. She remained upright.
“I’m leaving, Rotten. Very nice to talk to you. Some of us have to work tomorrow.”
He rolled up off the steps and walked past her. Tamara grabbed his hand and he turned around.
“Don’t,” he said. But he didn’t pull away.
“I can help you. Let me help you.”
“How can you help me?”
“Tell me your wish,” she said, looking into his eyes. She had blue eyes, too, but he liked hers a lot more than he liked his.
“My wish?”
“Your wish. Your dream. If I was a genie and I could grant you one wish, what would you wish for?”
“A horse farm of my own. Nothing fancy. Fifty acres. A hundred maybe, if we’re dreaming big. A few horses. A nice farmhouse.” It came out so fast he couldn’t stop himself.
“A wife? Kids?”
“I don’t need a genie for any of that.”
“What if I told you I could give you all you wish for? Horses. Land. House.”
“You don’t look like any genie I’ve ever seen before. What’s the catch?”
“No catch.”
“There’s always a catch. How are you, who won’t inherit anything until you’re twenty-one, going to give me a house and a hundred acres of land?”
“Easy,” she said. “I’m going to marry you.”
12
Tamara was proud of Levi. He didn’t laugh in her face. She expected that he would.
Now, he did laugh near her face, but not quite in it.
“Laugh all you want,” Tamara said. “I am going to marry you.”
“I’m flattered, Rotten. I really am. I had expected a lot of nonsense tonight from you, but a marriage proposal? Now, that’s special. You still watching The Young and the Restless?”
He sat back on the steps, leaned on his elbows again, crossed his legs at the ankles. She watched his every movement, surprised and pleased to discover she wanted him as much as she ever had. Nice try, Granddaddy. He’d only bruised her. He hadn’t broken her.
Levi waved his hand.
“Go on,” he said. “I’m all ears. This is a good show—the Tamara Makes a Fool of Herself show. Very entertaining. You should be on Carson with this routine.”
“I’m seventeen,” she said, undaunted. The show must go on. “That’s a problem, but not a big problem. A girl can get married at seventeen if she has a