“Well, gee whiz, Heather,” Susie said, “it wouldn’t be very macho for him to sit in your living room and go on and on about his boo-boo.”
“Getting shot is not a boo-boo, Susie,” Heather said, none too quietly.
“Who got shot, Mommy?” Melissa yelled from the play area.
“We’re just talking about a movie, Melissa,” Heather said.
“Oh.” Melissa placed another block on the teetering tower.
“Heather Marshall,” Susie said, laughing. “You just lied to your very own child. Shame on you.”
“I can’t tell the girls that Mack was shot,” Heather said. “It’s too violent, harsh, and they don’t really need to know.”
“Whatever,” Susie said. “But why are you so shook up about Mack Marshall being hurt? He obviously didn’t die. But I betcha when he thought he was going to buy the farm, he realized he didn’t have any family to bury him. It makes sense, don’t you think? He dug up the info on your husband, discovered you and the girls existed even though his half brother is deceased and—ta-da—he’s here in Tucson.”
“Yes, it does make sense,” Heather said, “but it’s rather disconcerting, Susie.”
“Why?”
“Well, I figured he was just bored. He’d gone through his father’s belongings, was curious about the half brother he never knew he had and wasn’t in the mood to lounge on an exotic beach somewhere so he came here to hang around for a few weeks. But…shot? That changes everything.”
“You’ve totally lost me,” Susie said. “Oh, hey, look at this frilly dress. Emma would love this.”
“Thanks,” Heather said, absently placing the dress in the pile of clothes she intended to buy. “Susie, listen to me. If Mack wants to be part of our family because he nearly died and realized he didn’t have anyone to call his own, that puts a tremendous burden on me and the girls. We have to be for Mack what he needs us to be, don’t you see? He’s not just filling idle hours, the man is on a very focused mission.”
“So?” Susie said. “What’s the problem with his wanting to be part of your family?”
“We have nothing in common. Nothing. Mack is rich, he’s famous, he’s a celebrity. Yes, I think he sincerely wants to know he has a family, but I figured once he spent a little time with us, he’d go merrily on his way, satisfied that he’d found his long-lost relatives. But if he’s wanting, needing, to really bond with us because he nearly died, it isn’t going to work.”
“You think he’ll leave and go back to being a jet-setting playboy,” Susie said.
“Oh, yes, he’ll leave, but I’m worried about the girls,” Heather said. “What if…somehow…they get the impression that we didn’t measure up to Mack’s standards? My girls are not dumb. It isn’t going to take many more conversations for them to realize that their uncle Mack is from a world far removed from ours. I will not allow my daughters to feel inferior in any way, shape or form, just because we don’t have a lot of money.”
“Heather,” Susie said, “I don’t think that Mack would do anything to make his newfound family feel inferior, for heaven’s sake. Besides, he’s with you on your turf, in your home, your neighborhood. Did he rave on and on about his house in New York City?”
“Well, no,” Heather said, “he just said he rented an apartment, and Emma told him he needed a dream piggy so he could save his pennies to buy himself a house.”
Susie laughed. “I love it. Oh, Heather, you’re worrying about nothing. Mack is recuperating from a gunshot wound. He’ll get better, then be on his way, knowing he has a family in sunny Tucson, Arizona. You’ll probably get a Christmas card from him in the future, and that will be that. The girls aren’t going to come to any harm by spending some time with the man.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Heather said, frowning. “But I’m definitely going to stay on alert whenever we’re with him. I’ll make certain the conversations don’t get centered somehow on how much money Mack has, the kind of lifestyle he enjoys, anything like that.”
Heather sighed. “Listen to me. Do you hear what I’m doing? I’m scared, Susie, that my daughters will look at me and want to know why we live like we do, when their uncle Mack, who is part of our family now, has so much more than we do. The problem isn’t with Mack Marshall, it’s with me.”
Susie put one arm around Heather’s shoulders. “I think you’re hitting the nail on the head, sweetie. As the teenagers say, ‘Get over it.’ You’re doing a wonderful job raising the girls and you should be very proud of what you’ve accomplished. Don’t be so sensitive about what Mack has and you don’t. Just enjoy his company when you’re together and before you know it, he’ll be gone. When are you supposed to see him again?”
“He’s taking us out for pizza tonight.”
“Oh, wow,” Susie said, “the guy is really throwing his bucks around, the rotten bum. Give Mack Marshall a little credit here, why don’t you? He’s not going to attempt to change your lifestyle, or stand in judgment of it, he just wants to be a part of it for a little while. Hey, send him over to my house. That hunk of stuff can eat crackers in my bed any night of the week.”
“Susie!” Heather said with a burst of laughter.
“Yeah, well, unlike you, my dear, I am not averse to marrying again. This single mother jazz is the pits. Buzzy needs a father and I need a lover. So there. I wish Mack Marshall was a long-lost relative of mine, let me tell you. You’re not biologically related, you know, so you two could—”
“Don’t even think about it,” Heather said, frowning. “I’m not interested in Mack as a man. He’s uncle to my girls and I’m not even comfortable with that for the reasons I’ve stated.
“Yes, yes, I know, I’m the one with the problem about the differences in our tax brackets. But my girls consider the people on our little block their family, and we’re all in the same financial leaky boat. I’ll be glad when Mack leaves town and the girls and I can get back to living our nice, normal lives as we were, putting pennies in our dream piggy.”
“Unfortunately, that will happen all too soon, I’d guess,” Susie said. “Once Mack’s shoulder heals he’ll be long gone.”
“Amen to that.” Heather rolled her eyes heavenward. “I put the flowers he gave me in a pickle jar that still had the label on it, for crying out loud. Nothing like advertising to the oh-so-rich uncle of my daughters that I don’t even own a vase.”
“Forget it,” Susie said, wrinkling her nose. “Men don’t notice things like that. No way. Forget about the pickle jar. Mack never saw it.”
A pickle jar, Mack thought as he wandered through the large, enclosed shopping mall. Heather had put the flowers he’d brought her in a crummy pickle jar, for heaven’s sake. If she’d had a pretty vase, she would have used it. How was it she didn’t even own a vase for flowers?
Mack frowned and shook his head as he continued his trek through the mall. He stopped in front of a toy store and swept his gaze over the display in the window.
He was taking Heather and the twins out for pizza tonight, he mused. Heather had hesitated when he asked if they’d like to go to dinner so he’d quickly tacked on the idea of a casual pizza parlor, which she’d agreed to.
That meant, he was guessing, that Heather felt she and her daughters didn’t own fancy enough clothes to dine at a high-class restaurant.
And there he sat in Heather’s shabby little living room wearing slacks, shoes and a shirt that probably cost more than the sofa he’d been sitting on.
This whole scenario was wrong,