Military Heroes Bundle: A Soldier's Homecoming / A Soldier's Redemption / Danger in the Desert / Strangers When We Meet / Grayson's Surrender / Taking Cover. Merline Lovelace
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you knew that was coming.” Julia wheeled over to the stove and poured herself a cup of coffee. Ethan rose and started to leave the kitchen, but Julia waved him back. “Stay, Ethan,” she said. “You’re practically part of this family now, and I suppose you were here when Sophie asked.”
He nodded and resumed his chair. Julia’s knowing eyes moved between them, as if she sensed the change in their relationship. But she said nothing.
“So how did she take it?”
“I don’t know,” Connie answered frankly. “She seemed to accept what I said, but then she went straight upstairs to bed. She was up all night, but—”
“Shh,” Julia said, interrupting her. “Don’t make this bigger than it needs to be. The child was probably just exhausted.”
“I’m still worried,” Connie told her. “How can I not be worried? And another thing, I’m wondering why this came up now. She said it was because she and the other girls played games last night with Jody’s mom and dad, but that’s nothing new.”
Julia put her mug on the table and rearranged her chair so she was sitting comfortably facing them. “Maybe it has to do with this stranger.”
Connie, thinking of last night’s phone call, a call she didn’t want to mention to her mother, felt a sickening jolt. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe,” Julia said, “she’s feeling a need for protection.”
“She won’t get it from that quarter,” Connie said bitterly.
“She probably realizes that now,” Julia agreed. “Assuming you told her something about why you had to leave him.”
“I made it as sketchy as I could, but yes.”
“Poor thing.” Julia sighed. “For everything this mess has put us through this week, in her own way she’s been through just as much. Maybe we haven’t given enough thought to how scared she’s been. Oh, I know she’s acting as if it’s all okay, but maybe she’s trying to be strong for you, Connie. I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“Great.” Connie closed her eyes briefly. “Here I’ve been assuming that she was okay, that as long as we surrounded her with protection and she knew it was there, she’d feel safe. God, I feel like a dunce.”
“Well, she’s not exactly acting as if she’s scared of her own shadow. If she doesn’t want you to know, how are you supposed to?”
“Because I’m supposed to be her mother and read between the lines. She’s only seven.”
“And a lot of seven-year-olds would have put that stranger behind them by now. They don’t dwell on things unnecessarily, the way we adults do.”
“Usually.” Connie rose. “I’m going to look in on her.”
She climbed the stairs with leaden feet, full of old fears and now new ones. She had honestly believed that Sophie was getting back to normal after her scare. Apparently not.
Why else all the questions about her father?
She opened the door quietly and looked in. Sophie lay in a tangle of blankets, wrapped around her favorite stuffed dog. Maybe, when this was over, she should let her mother get Sophie that dog. On the other hand, dogs, as wonderful as they were, meant more bills, bills that might strain an already tight budget.
She started to back out, but stopped when she heard Sophie’s sleepy voice. “Mom?”
“Yes, honey?” At once she went to sit on the edge of Sophie’s bed and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s going to be okay, right?”
“Of course it is. Are you still scared of that man?”
“Not really.” Sophie rolled onto her back and looked at her. “I heard Grandma come home.”
“Yes, she’s in the kitchen with Ethan, having coffee.”
“I like Ethan.”
“So do I.”
“I wish I had a dad like him, instead of the other kind.”
Connie didn’t need to ask what kind her daughter meant. “I’m sorry. I made a big mistake when I married your father.”
Sophie surprised her with an impish smile. “But if you didn’t marry him, you wouldn’t have me.”
Connie managed a little laugh. “I don’t know about that. I think God always meant for me to have you. The angels saved you specially.”
Sophie laughed. “I’m not that good.”
“Oh, yes, you are.”
Sophie’s smile faded. “The man’s still there.”
A fist punched Connie in the chest. “Have you seen him?”
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
“After school yesterday. That’s why I went a different way home.”
Connie didn’t know what to say. For several long seconds she hung in the balance between terror and anguish. Calm, when it came, had a price. But for Sophie’s sake, she had to remain calm. Finally she cleared her throat. “You would have been safer staying with your friends.”
Sophie shrugged. “I was safe. I’m here.”
Connie didn’t know how to argue with that. She didn’t want to scare the child more. Yet Sophie needed to be cautious. “Honey...”
“I know. Don’t trust strangers and stay with my friends.” Sophie rolled over on her side again and took her mother’s hand. “I’ll be okay, Mommy. Don’t worry.”
“Just stay close, honey. Just stay close.” Leaning over, Connie wrapped her daughter in a tight hug and felt those warm little arms wrap around her in return. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, Mommy.”
“Now sleep a little longer. You were up all night, Enid said.”
Sophie smiled brilliantly. “It was fun.”
“I bet it was. Later we’ll play some games or something, okay? But get a little more sleep first.”
Sophie’s eyelids, still puffy with sleepiness, were already sagging to half-mast. “I really like Ethan,” she said again. Then she fell sound asleep.
Connie envied her daughter’s ability to drop off so quickly. These days, finding sleep herself could be a struggle. And after Sophie’s little bomb, she wondered if she would ever sleep again. As if in response to an emotional overload, a kind of numbness settled over her.
She sat with Sophie for a while longer, until the little girl’s breathing deepened; then, after dropping a kiss on her daughter’s forehead, Connie tiptoed from the room.
Downstairs, still wearing her numbness like a cloak, she found Julia and Ethan shuffling cards. “What’s going on?”
Julia grinned. “Ethan’s going to teach me how to play Texas hold ’em. Don’t we have chips somewhere?”
“Maybe. I seem to remember getting them for some project.”
“Well, go find them, girl,” Julia said. “This man wants a chance to clean me out.”
Ethan’s chuckle followed Connie as she went to look in the living-room credenza.
The box was still there, after all this time. She carried the chips back to the kitchen, but her mind wasn’t on poker. While Ethan started divvying up the plastic chips, she said, “Sophie saw him again.”
Ethan’s hands froze. Julia’s smile faded.
“After school yesterday.