boxes, in which she’d planted yellow and purple pansies. The sight of them always cheered her.
She took a deep breath and faced Sawyer, prepared to thank him, then dismiss him.
But he was already out of the car, helping the children out of the back, looking over the house and the overgrown lawn. Eddie and Emma pranced along on either side of him, talking nonstop.
“Who’s that?”
Gracie stood near the car door as Sophie let herself out. Beside her was Kayla Spoonby, her best friend. Kayla’s father was the hospital administrator, and her mother, a schoolteacher.
Sophie recounted the story of the afternoon’s adventures for Gracie and Kayla.
Gracie watched Sawyer Abbott with suspicion and hostility. “They’re such dweebs. We don’t need a dad.”
“It’s nice to have a dad,” Kayla disputed. She was a short, plump redhead with a sparkling personality. Gracie was tall and slender, with her father’s blond good looks but Sophie’s shyness. “And Sawyer’s really cool. He’s a friend of my dad’s. Hi, Sawyer!” she called, running around the car to greet him.
He opened his right arm for her, Eddie permanently attached to his left. Emma, obviously feeling left out, began to do cartwheels for attention.
Gracie stayed well out of the way, though Kayla called her over to introduce her. She gave Sawyer a half wave but took a step back when he started toward her.
He stopped, returned the wave, then braced himself as Emma cartwheeled right into him. She and Eddie tried to pull him toward the house. He resisted.
“Thank you so much,” Sophie said hurriedly, peeling her children off him. “It was very kind of you not to be angry at them for ruining your evening. What do you say, Eddie?”
“That he’s The One!” Eddie replied.
She should have known better than to be nonspecific. “What do you say to Mr. Abbott?”
“You’re the—” he began.
“Eddie!”
Eddie held out his narrow hand. “Thank you,” he said dutifully.
“And…” she prompted.
“And…I’m sorry?” He turned to her questioningly.
She nodded approval.
“I think,” Eddie went on, “that it’d be really nice if we asked him to stay for dinner.”
“Well, if we had something nice to feed him,” she replied, relieved to have an excuse not to, “we’d do that, but our groceries are still at the store.”
“Maybe he isn’t fussy,” Emma said, still holding his hand. She squinted up at him. “We have egg sandwiches when we don’t have other stuff. Do you like that?”
Sophie would have countered with another excuse for why he couldn’t stay, but Sawyer mercifully handled that for her. He got down on one knee, still holding each child’s hand. “I really appreciate the invitation,” he said with apparent sincerity, “but I promised to meet my brother for dinner and I’m already a little late. I’d really like it, though, if you invited me again sometime.”
“How ’bout tomorrow?” Eddie offered quickly.
Sawyer smiled up at Sophie. “Maybe we should let your mom pick the time. She can call me when it would be convenient. Okay?”
“She won’t do it,” Emma said with a condemning glance at Sophie. “She’ll say ‘someday,’ but she’ll forget.”
Sawyer grinned at that stain on her character, then said, “Well, I’ll just count on you two to remind her, okay?”
“Okay.” Eddie shook his hand and Emma strangled him with a hug.
“Now, make sure you don’t scare your mom anymore by disappearing on her,” he said, looking at each of them solemnly. “And don’t fib about her kidnapping you, even if you think you have a good reason. Lies are never good, okay?”
They nodded in unison.
Sawyer straightened, waved at Gracie again, wished Sophie good luck and went to his car.
Sophie felt a surge of relief as he drove away, then, when he was out of sight, a strange disappointment. He was the kind of man who could make her long for one in her life again. But she had too much against her now to know how to be happy with one. Bill had finally managed to convince her that it couldn’t be done.
Gracie came to stand beside her as she stared at the empty road. It, too, could be a metaphor for her life.
“You don’t like him, do you?” Gracie asked.
Sophie didn’t even want to focus on that question sufficiently to answer it.
“He was very kind to us,” she replied. “Most people would have been angry, but he brought us home, instead.”
“He runs his family’s foundation,” Kayla said knowledgeably. “So, he kinda works for charities. He’s nice all the time.”
“Nobody’s nice all the time,” Gracie argued, turning toward the house.
Kayla patted Sophie’s arm in a very sisterly way. Sophie often wondered how much of their personal history Gracie had shared with her best friend. “Once she knows how nice he really is,” she said authoritatively, “she’ll see that even though he’s a man, he’s not the way her dad was, and she’ll get to like him, also.” Then she grinned winningly at Sophie. “So you can fall in love if you want to. It’s going to be okay.”
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