The mention of his favorite food—to say nothing of his favorite grown-up playmate—was enough to distract him. She went into the living room where Flo Bartle was waiting. Flo lived next door and, since the accident, had taken over baby-sitting duty when Dani’s staff left for the day.
“Flo, I can’t thank you enough for looking out for Billy for me.”
“No problem. He’s an angel. You do whatever you need to do to help out Sharon Lynn. There are plenty of us who can pitch in and help with Billy. All I’d be doing at home is watching my husband snooze through the national news. Believe me, I’d rather be here.”
“Justin’s bringing a pizza by. Would you like to stay?”
“No, indeed. I’d have heartburn the rest of the night.” She winked. “Besides, I doubt Justin’s coming by so he can look at an old lady across the table.”
“It would be fine,” Patsy insisted. “Justin and I are just friends.”
“If you say so, dear. Just remember there are friends and then there are friends.”
“Hey, Mrs. B.,” Justin called out as he came up the walk carrying a huge pizza box. “You get more beautiful every time I see you.”
“Then your eyesight’s going, boy, or else you’re as full of blarney as every other male in your family.”
He dropped a kiss on her cheek. “I’m a deputy sheriff, Mrs. B. I’m sworn to uphold the law and to tell the truth, so help me God.”
The teasing comment put a sparkle in her neighbor’s eyes, but it sent a shiver down Patsy’s spine. Once again she’d been reminded of the position she’d been putting Justin in since the day they’d met. It had to stop.
Tomorrow, she vowed to herself as she had to Billy earlier. Tomorrow, when she called Will, she would test the waters and see if there was any way to put an end to all the lies and deception or whether she was doomed to a life in limbo.
Chapter Ten
It was the first time since the night of the accident that Justin had let himself relax. He was stretched out on the floor in Patsy’s living room, his back braced against the sofa, the empty pizza box off to one side, as he watched Billy struggle to build a tower with a new set of blocks.
One block, two, then eventually six, stacked in a way that virtually assured disaster. With awkward fingers Billy tried to put the seventh block on top, only to set the whole stack to teetering dangerously. Justin reached over and steadied it, but balance was elusive. It toppled over, sending Billy into fits of giggles.
“Again,” he insisted, putting the first block into place.
“Maybe it needs a bigger base,” Justin suggested idly.
“What’s a base?” Billy demanded.
“More blocks on the bottom.” He reached over and set four of the colorful plastic blocks into a square, then stacked two on top of that. “See, like this.”
“Won’t fall down?” Billy asked skeptically.
“Nope.”
“’Kay,” Billy agreed, and added another block to the pile, then another.
When it all teetered and fell again, he stared at it with a look of such betrayal in his eyes that Justin felt like a heel. This time tears, rather than giggles, accompanied the architectural disaster.
“Maybe I’m not as good an engineer as I thought,” he apologized.
“Or maybe your work crew isn’t past the apprentice stage yet,” Patsy suggested, grinning at them. “It’s Billy’s bedtime, anyway.”
“No,” Billy said at once, even though his eyelids had been drooping for the past half hour.
“I’ll put you to bed and tell you a story,” Justin offered.
Billy’s eyes widened. “You will?”
“Indeed, I will. I’ll tell you the story about a girl named Little Red Riding Hood and this big, bad wolf.”
“No. Want rabbit story.”
Justin shrugged. “Then the rabbit story it will be, but I gotta tell you, kid, the big, bad wolf is much more of a guy thing.”
“He might be a little young for guy things,” Patsy said, her expression amused. “And you won’t be the one left to deal with the nightmares.”
“Okay, Mom. I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject,” he said, scooping Billy up and tickling him until he giggled. The sound was pure delight, so he kept it up. It reminded him of things like innocence and simple pleasures. It reminded him of all the things he wanted and that were out of reach.
“You realize, of course, that if you do that much more he’ll never get to sleep,” Patsy observed.