want to hug him again.
“Your mother sends you her love and she promises to be home just as soon as she can.”
“Does she have a boo-boo?” Scamp asked solemnly.
Amy nodded, blinking quickly to hold back the tears that threatened to come again. “She has a bunch of boo-boos. And so does your daddy. The doctor is going to fix them right up, though. So don’t you worry.”
Scamp thought about that for a moment. “I got a boo-boo on my arm,” he offered at last, showing her the scab. “Is that like Daddy’s?”
Amy hesitated, then smiled at him. “Sort of,” she allowed. “Just a little worse.”
Scamp nodded wisely, showing he understood. “Are you gonna take care of us, Aun’ Amy?” he asked her, his blue eyes hopeful.
“Of course,” she told them, smiling warmly. “I’ll stay with you until your mother comes home. I promise.”
Deedee sighed happily and cuddled in close, while Scamp pulled back, seeming to suddenly remember that he had his young male pride to consider.
“I’m really glad you’re going to be able to do this,” Paul told her, smiling down at the picture she made with the little dark-haired girl in her arms. “I’ve got a sales trip to Omaha tomorrow and I won’t be back for three or four days. Otherwise, I would have been glad to take over for Tim and Meg.”
“Oh, no,” Amy said quickly. “They’re my family. I’ll take care of them.” She hugged Deedee closer, then put her on her little feet. “Run get your things, kids. I’m going to take you home.”
She rose, waiting for the children to leave the room before saying quietly to Paul, “I really haven’t heard all the details yet. Where were they when the accident happened? And where were Meg and Tim going? Do you know?”
Paul nodded. He was a pleasant-looking man with slightly thinning blond hair and a nice smile. “They were going to lunch to celebrate Tim’s promotion. Did you know his law firm just made him a partner?”
“No,” she said softly, feeling again a sense of having been woefully inattentive to what was going on in her sister’s life. “How great for him.” She swallowed. “So the kids were at home?”
“Yes. Cheryl Park, an older lady from down the street, was sitting with them. But she had to get home, so I took over and brought them over here.”
“Thank you so much,” she said earnestly, holding out a hand to shake his. “I—we all appreciate it. You’ve been a big help.”
“Any time,” he said, holding her hand a little too long and beaming at her significantly. “As soon as I get back from Omaha, I’ll be able to help a lot more.”
Her smile wavered as she witnessed the intensity of his and she pulled her hand away.
“Yes,” she said quickly. “Well…” She turned, looking toward where the baby slept in a travel chair. “I guess I’d better get them home. It must be way past their bedtime by now.”
“Yes, of course.” He looked pleased with something and she wasn’t sure why.
Deedee and Scamp came running up, ready to go home. Amy helped Deedee into her sweater.
“’Bye, Pooky,” Scamp called back at the huge orange-colored cat sitting on a pillow in the far corner of the room. “See ya tomorrow.”
“’Bye, ’bye,” Deedee said, copying her brother and waving at the animal.
The cat blinked its golden eyes and lashed its tiger-striped tail and didn’t say a thing.
“I’ll come with you,” Paul offered. “I’ll help you carry the baby, help you get the other two to bed.” He gave Amy a comforting smile. “You’ll need help, all right. They are a handful.”
“Are they?” Suddenly her confidence began to show some wear around the edges. Was she going to be up to this job? She’d never taken care of children before, never even baby-sat as a teenager. She was always too busy entering competitions and running for class office to have time for things like that.
And she hadn’t visited with Meg and her crew often enough to get a feel for it. Whenever she was over, Meg was a whirlwind of activity, usually ordering Amy just to sit and talk to her, tell her everything about what it was like to live in the fast-paced business world.
“Oh, sure,” Paul said happily as he headed out on the porch, baby in tow. “They’re not bad kids, mind you, but they are very, very active. But don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it right away.”
“Will I?” she had whispered to herself as she followed with the older children. “And what happens if I don’t?”
Snapping out of her reverie, Amy willed herself to drift off to sleep. She knew she’d need all her energy to face another day.
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