For the Girls' Sake - By Janice Kay Johnson Page 0,42

gonna bring lots of presents." Rose sounded satisfied if not excited.

"My grandma, too!"

From the kitchen, Adam’s voice rose in an angry rumble. "What are you saying? Are you threatening me?"

To cover it, Lynn said brightly, "I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we take the books up and read some more stories in Rose’s bed?"

"Okeydoke," Shelly said, hopping up with alacrity.

"But maybe Daddy wanted to listen," Rose said more doubtfully.

Lynn wrinkled her nose. "It sounds like your daddy is talking to someone else now. He’s kind of mad, huh? Does business make him that way? He can come upstairs when he’s done."

He did appear eventually, after ten or twelve more books. Both girls were getting sleepy, and when Lynn saw him in the doorway she set down the book. "Bedtime."

"Read another one!" Shelly protested, but the words slurred.

"Dream a story," Lynn murmured. "About an ugly princess and..."

"No, a beautiful one," Shelly interrupted. "’Cuz I’m beautiful, aren’t I?"

Rose took her thumb from her mouth. "Me, too."

"You’re both beautiful." She kissed them and stood up, passing Adam mid-room.

She went downstairs without pausing, leaving Adam to tuck their daughters in. Turnabout, she thought, even as she missed the quiet ritual of switching on the night-light, smoothing the sheet over the blankets, breathing in the sleepy essence of two small girls as she touched her lips to smooth foreheads. She’d had all evening. From the rage she’d heard in his voice and the tension in the set of his shoulders, he needed any comfort they could give him.

They’d had dinner earlier with Rose and Shelly, but she poured two cups of coffee and helped herself to a second, sinful slice of lemon meringue pie from the bakery. When Adam came into the kitchen, she waved the knife at the pie. "Would you like a piece, too?"

"What? Oh. No."

She put the pie in the refrigerator. He was leaning against the island, frowning into space.

"Is something wrong?" Lynn asked.

His glower turned her way. "Wrong?"

"You were...um, yelling."

His eyes seemed to clear as if he were noticing her for the first time. "Oh, no. Could you hear everything?"

"Just something about a threat. I don’t think the girls did."

His head bowed suddenly and he pinched the bridge of his nose. "That was my mother-in-law. As you probably gathered. They figured out that Shelly must be visiting, and they wanted to come over. If not tonight, tomorrow."

"You said no."

Adam swore. "They’d swarm over her like yellow jackets on jam. I can’t make them understand why we should move slowly. They only know one thing—they want their granddaughter. Jenny is gone, and Shelly is all they have left, Angela keeps saying. She’s like a broken record." He breathed out heavily.

Pie and coffee forgotten, apprehension rising, Lynn asked, "What did you mean about her threatening?"

His gaze met hers, and she read in it both apology and anger. "She says they’re considering filing for a court order giving them visitation rights if not custody."

"Custody?" Lynn sagged back a step.

"They wouldn’t get it." His face looked haggard, but his voice was strong. "We’re the parents. I’m behind you. Their lawyer will tell them to forget it."

"But they might get visitation."

"I don’t know." He hammered his fist on the tile countertop. "I can’t believe them!"

Perhaps the time was coming, Lynn thought, when they would have to tell Rose and Shelly the truth. Would it really be so hurtful now? If they were assured that nothing would change? "I understand how they must feel. It’s not so different than what we’ve both gone through."

"They’re a complication we don’t need."

"No." Lynn managed a smile of sorts. "I poured you some coffee."

She took her own to the table in the nook, and after a moment Adam followed her. This was only the third night she’d spent in this house, and yet these few minutes after the girls had gone to bed already felt familiar. They couldn’t talk in front of Rose and Shelly. This was their time.

They sat in silence for a moment, Lynn making a production of stirring sugar into her coffee. Then unexpectedly, Adam said, "I wish you weren’t going tomorrow, too."

She quashed a momentary thrill. He didn’t mean her, he meant Shelly. "These visits have been nice, haven’t they?"

"You’re good with them."

She sneaked a look. The lines still between his brows, he was staring down into his coffee as if waiting for pictures of the future to form.

"Thank you."

"You ever considered opening a bookstore in Portland?"

"And competing with Powell’s?" The famous bookstore filled a whole city