So she instinctively turned to the one person who’d been her saving grace over the years and punched in Mavis’s phone number. After the tenth unanswered ring, Tess remembered that Mavis would be with her sister all weekend. She hung up, propped her elbows on the desk and lowered her head onto her hands. She didn’t have the faintest idea what to do—which was, for her, an almost frightening state of mind.
“Tess?”
She raised her head enough to glare at the intercom, wanting desperately to simply tell everyone to go away and leave her alone. “Yes?”
There was a slight hesitation before Carrie continued by, saying, “The kids have had a bite to eat and gone to the washroom, but they’re tired. Do you know when you’ll be taking them home?”
Taking them home? Tess checked the time. Four o’clock. Leaving early two days in a row would raise more than a few eyebrows.
“Did you hear me?”
Tess swallowed. Taking them home. To a one-bedroom condo? “Uh, Carrie, can you come in here for a sec?”
The intercom fell silent and Carrie popped her head around the door an instant later. “Don’t ask,” Carrie forewarned.
“Ask?” Tess ran her tongue along her lips, trying to kick some life into the smile she was squeezing out.
“It’s all over your face so let me spare you the humiliation of a no. I’ve got big plans this weekend.” Carrie closed the door behind her.
“This is what comes of having a too familiar relationship with your staff,” Tess muttered to herself. She groaned and gently massaged her temples.
“I guess we’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”
Tess jerked her head up. She hadn’t heard anyone come in. The boy—Nick—stood in the open doorway. His face was pale, drawn with worry. Something in his expression tugged at her.
“Not a lot,” she began. “But—well, there are other issues here.”
He nodded. “Something to do with my father.”
He was quick, she thought. “Something like that.” It wasn’t the time or place to get into a lecture on parental responsibility. Besides, what Richard Wheaton had done was hardly his fault.
Nick’s sigh echoed in the silence of Tess’s office. “I thought there might be a problem. Otherwise Dad would have…well, we’d have known about you.”
She waited to see if his trail of logic would lead him where she hoped he’d go.
“At first it was weird thinking someone as old as you could be our sister. Then I started thinking maybe it was kinda good luck. But I knew when Molly and me decided to come here, it might turn out that…you know…you wouldn’t be able to take us.”
Tess forced her thoughts away from the old reference, focusing instead on how he’d said able instead of want. A face-saving gesture for them, she wondered, or giving her an out? Either way, she figured he’d gotten the message.
“I live in a one-bedroom condo….” she began, her voice falling off as she realized how lame that sounded. “Mr. Malone said he could be here tomorrow to…well, take you back to Boulder.” As soon as she uttered the words, Tess had a surge of guilt. She’d promised the social worker to be vague about their return to Boulder.
Nick’s face twisted in a grimace. “Yeah,” he said huskily, turning his back on Tess to head for the door.
“Where are you going?”
He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “To break the news to Molly. I don’t want her to freak out.” He pulled on the door and walked out of the office.
Tess was quick on his heels, anxious to hear exactly how he was going to tell his little sister. The last thing she needed was a hysterical child. She watched as Nick crouched down to whisper in Molly’s ear. The little girl stared at Tess the whole while, her eyes wide and unblinking in her pale face. When Nick finished and stood protectively behind his sister, he said, “Will it be all right if we stayed with you tonight? I’ve spent all our money.”
Carrie shot Tess a look that would have shriveled anyone else.
“Of course,” Tess quickly said, casting a so there glance at her secretary. “It’ll be like camping,” she added, catching the incredulous expression on Carrie’s face. “We’ll get videos and order in pizza,” she said, trying for a note of enthusiasm.
“Whoopee!” Carrie muttered as she brushed past Tess to get to her desk.
“Well then,” Tess said, “I guess I’ll be leaving for the day.” She saw Carrie raise an eyebrow, as if silently echoing the I guess. For the first time, Tess noticed a backpack and plastic shopping bag on the floor next to Carrie’s desk.
“I’ll get my coat,” she murmured and went back into her office, moving as if in a trance, trying to avoid the question she knew she’d be asking herself the instant they left the office. What now?
She grabbed her briefcase, stuffing inside it the files she knew she ought to be working on that very moment, and returned to the small reception area. “Let’s go,” she announced to no one in particular, thinking she might convince Carrie this unexpected turn of events was no big deal.
“Have fun,” Carrie said, adding to the children, “maybe you can persuade your sister to treat you to something more exciting than videos and pizza.”
Your sister? For a second Tess wondered who Carrie was talking about. Then it hit her all over again. She felt the air whoosh out of her, but covered up by asking, “What’s wrong with videos and pizza?”
Carrie shrugged, winking at the other two. “If you weren’t such a workaholic, you’d know. Anyway, I’ll take your messages. See you on Monday—maybe,” she said, giving the postscript a significant tone.
No one spoke all the way down to the ground floor. When they reached it, Molly said, “Carrie showed us the water fountain under the ground.”
Tess had to think for a second. “Oh? When she took you to get something to eat?” She led them through the lobby onto the sidewalk.
Catching up, Molly said breathlessly, “I had french fries, too.”
“Uh-huh,” Tess murmured, scanning the street for a taxi.
“With ketchup.”
“Molly, no one cares what you ate, okay?” Nick said.
“I’m just telling her,” she protested. There was a hint of a whine in her voice.
Tess glanced sharply at Nick. “What’s going on?” she asked, just clueing in to the tone of their voices.
He scowled. “We’re just arguing, that’s all. Don’t you know anything about kids?”
“No, frankly, I don’t. Anyway, what does arguing solve?”
“Jeez,” he muttered.
Tess frowned. He looked tired, too, she thought. Maybe that’s what the arguing was about. “Look, I know you two have been through a lot so we’ll just hop in a taxi and get to my place as soon as possible. Then you can shower and have a nap or something.”
“I’m six now. I don’t have naps,” Molly piped up.