you should have put it in my hand, and not on top of my mail, so that it wouldn’t have blown off!” he said darkly. “I alerted everyone that I was expecting a call back from the Barrow estate and that it was important.”
“That would have required my being in your presence,” she snapped back, “and that’s usually a regrettable experience!”
“Whoa!” Sawyer caught her arm as she would have stormed off. “I happen to know that Kezia put that message on your computer keyboard,” he said to Campbell, “because she knew how important it was to you. But you never close your door against Versace.”
Versace was Cordie’s cat, left in their care while she and Killian were second-honeymooning. He was fat and gray, his long coat making him look the size of a spaniel. He was also mean-tempered, and spent long hours on the porch swing since Cordie had been gone. “I’ve seen him sleeping on your desk more than once. He might have knocked it off. Check under and around the desk.”
“Thank you,” Campbell said grudgingly.
“Sure.”
To China, Campbell said with what seemed to require superhuman effort, considering the way he squared his shoulders and drew a breath, “I’m sorry.”
“Oh, you are not,” she disputed. “I have tried to be polite, but you resent me, and now I’m not wild about the thought that we could be related, either. Let’s just agree to dislike each other. I’m comfortable with that.”
Campbell shook his head at Sawyer. “This can’t be the little sister we’ve missed all these years.”
Sawyer had to smile at that. “You don’t really know what it’s like to have a younger sibling because we didn’t have her very long. But however you’ve idealized that relationship, what you two are experiencing now is much closer to reality. Younger siblings are always making your life difficult.”
Campbell turned to China with an aggrieved expression. “Heaven help me.”
She muttered a scornful sound. “I think you’re looking for help in the wrong direction. Good night, Sawyer.” She stalked off toward the stairs.
Campbell groaned as though he’d taken all he could take. “It would be so satisfying to hit her on the head with a Tonka truck.”
Sawyer thought it interesting that he’d said that because he and baby Abigail had fought over just that the day she’d disappeared. He knew Campbell remembered because he’d mentioned it once or twice. Abby had crawled into his room, and while he was usually patient with her, he’d been in a mood that day and had yanked his truck away from her when she’d tried to play with it. Chloe had removed her, scolding Campbell for not being more understanding.
Abby had returned later that afternoon and he’d put her bodily in the hallway and closed the door in her face.
“While you could have gotten away with that at five and a half,” Sawyer warned, “you’d be in a lot of trouble these days if you behaved that way. And I wouldn’t want to make her really mad. Your mother’s ancestors sailed with Lafitte, remember?”
“I have the same blood,” Campbell reminded him. “I’m a match for her. God, she’s all attitude.”
“I suppose it’s hard to be agreeable with someone when you know he hates you.”
“I don’t hate her,” Campbell was quick to deny. “I just don’t like her—a lot.”
Sawyer couldn’t help but ask. “Why is that, anyway?”
“I don’t trust her,” Campbell replied without even having to think about it. “She’s not Abby.”
“How do you know?”
Campbell looked upstairs and said in a pained and puzzled tone, “Because Abby wouldn’t hate me.”
Sawyer didn’t know how to respond. That reply was indicative of the complex workings of Campbell’s mind and the deep mysteries it held. Did he really expect the behavior of a twenty-six-year-old woman to reflect the affections of a child he hadn’t seen in twenty-five years? Somehow, he did.
“I think I should take the DNA test,” he said, “and be done with it.”
They’d all agreed that wasn’t wise when she’d first arrived. “Come on, Cam. We don’t want to do that to Mom.”
“If she isn’t Abby,” Campbell argued, “we get rid of her before Mom even has to know she was here.”
“And if she is Abby,” Sawyer countered, “Mom missed the discovery of her daughter’s return. And would China stay if she knew the test would prove she wasn’t our sister?”
“Why not? Everyone’s been treating her like royalty. She’d want to keep it up as long as she could. Then, when the test proves she isn’t Abby, she can just claim she didn’t know.”
“How do you explain all the Abbott Mills things she found in her box?”
Campbell sighed. “I don’t. I try hard to remember the night she disappeared, but all that comes to me is the nanny screaming, Mom crying, Dad not talking to anybody for days. And I remember you and me climbing into Killian’s bed and talking about running away to find her. But Killian said we shouldn’t ’cause Mom and Dad were already too upset.”
Campbell drew back from the memories suddenly and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “I’m going to see if I can find that message.”
“Do you think you got the job?” Sawyer asked. Campbell was always applying for jobs on other estates, convinced he’d never truly discover himself until he was out from under the influence of Killian and Sawyer.
“No idea.” Campbell stretched both arms and yawned. “At interviews, I think I make a good impression, but when the question comes down to why I’d want to leave Shepherd’s Knoll for another position, it’s a tough one to explain without getting into a lot of personal stuff, and I think they all begin to believe there has to be something wrong with me.”
“There is,” Sawyer confirmed. “You’re nuts.”
Campbell accepted that assessment with a nod. “Thanks, bro. Just the vote of confidence I needed.” He started to walk away, then turned back again as though he’d just remembered something. “How was your dinner with Brian?”
“Good,” Sawyer said. “You should have come.”
“I had to go over China’s work on the house budget before I pay bills tomorrow.”
“How’d she do?”
“Very well,” Campbell admitted in mild surprise. “She seems to have a good grasp of what it takes to keep the place going, though I’ll have to explain Mom to her.”
When Killian suggested that China work with Campbell until Chloe came home, Campbell had given her the job he hated most—the household accounts. Chloe was a little bit of a spendthrift and cheerfully defied any and all efforts to make her account for her purchases, insisting that their father never had. It made organizing the books difficult.
For
