“Maybe. We’ll have to find a way to work it out when his schedule loosens up.”
Mary Jane brought their dinners, and conversation stopped while Will consumed his, then finished off the second half of Anna’s.
“Sara’s a really good cook,” he said appreciatively as he contemplated the last bite. “I’ll bet she cooked for the president or somebody.”
Anna had to agree that her chicken and dumplings were delicious. The seasoning was perfect, the biscuits light, the mashed potatoes creamy. An hour on the treadmill tonight, she thought, might save her hips from retribution.
“I can stay up late tonight,” Will boasted as he pushed his plate aside, “’cause I don’t have school tomorrow. Can I have peach cobbler?”
“Sure.”
“A là mode?”
“Is there any other way?”
Anna beckoned to Mary Jane, who brought Will’s favorite dessert without being asked.
“Aunt Beth wondered,” Anna said casually, “if you could help out at the day care tomorrow, since you have the day off.”
Will gave her a direct look that changed subtly to one of disapproval. “Mom, I’m on to you. You think if you make me feel like Aunt Beth needs my help, I won’t get mad about having to spend the day with a bunch of little kids. I thought I was going to spend the day with Uncle R.J.”
She hadn’t been able to skate anything past him since he was four. She didn’t know why she continued to try.
“It helps her a lot when you read to the little ones,” she insisted. “And Uncle R.J. and Aunt Dana have an appointment he’d forgotten when he said you could stay with him.”
He looked disappointed. “Why can’t I just go over to Eddie’s?”
“Because no one’s home at Eddie’s house.”
“Mom, we’re ten years old.” He said it as though they were twenty-one.
“I know that, Will,” she replied patiently, “but I’m more comfortable knowing that you’re nearby, and that someone I trust has an eye on you.”
“But it’s embarrassing to have to stay at a day care!”
“You’re not staying there, you’re assisting.”
“I’ll bet Austin Cahill never had to stay at a day care when he was ten,” he grumbled, then finished his cobbler in silence.
Anna put an arm around him as they walked to the cashier. “We’ll stay up late and scarf brownies while we’re watching Leno, okay?”
That earned her a tentative smile. “Okay. But you owe me big for this, Mom.”
She squeezed him to her and kissed the top of his head. “I owe you big for a lot of things, kiddo.”
WILL LAY on the sofa, covered with a throw, and watched television. Curled up near his feet, Anna checked her source catalogs for the unique requirements the Lamont-Cahill wedding would call for.
She’d made a few notes when there was a knock at her door just after nine. She walked from the family room at the back of her rambling ranch house, through the kitchen, the dining room, then the living room, wondering who would be calling at this hour.
Her brother and his wife stood on the doorstep, their cheeks flushed and their eyes alight with their love for each other.
Anna smiled to herself. That love had come as such a surprise to her brother R.J. As president of Maitland Maternity Clinic, he’d hired Dana as his secretary years ago and had worked closely with the beautiful blonde every day without noticing what had grown between them.
“Hi!” Anna greeted them. “What’s up?”
“My hormone level!” Dana replied without trying to ease into the reason for their visit. Her green eyes were alight with excitement. “We’re going to have a baby!”
R.J. turned to his wife, laughing. “Oh, that was well done. What happened to ‘Let’s be subtle and mysterious?’” R.J.’s hazel eyes could often be difficult to read, but tonight they were as revealing as Dana’s.
“I couldn’t stand it another moment!” Dana cried as she wrapped her arms around Anna. “Oh, Anna. We’re so excited!”
“What?” Will demanded, racing to the door in his Dallas Cowboys knit pajamas, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“You’re going to have a cousin!” Anna exclaimed to Will as she drew his aunt and uncle inside and closed the door. “Well, I’m excited, too! That’s wonderful! Have you told Mom?”
“Not yet,” R.J. replied. “I wanted to tell you first.”
“Will,” Dana said, “I hope our baby is half the sweetheart you are.”
Will blushed furiously. “Sweetheart?” he questioned, glancing at his uncle.
“Dana means she hopes he’s a great guy like you.” R.J. shook his head at Dana. “Guys don’t like to be considered sweethearts, my love. Only women appreciate that.”
Dana hugged Will. “I’m sorry, Will. I mean that in the most complimentary way.”
Anna left Will to entertain them while she excused herself to make a fresh pot of decaf.
Even now that they were adults, Anna worried about R.J.’s sense of disconnection from the family.
She and R.J. had been born to William Maitland’s brother, Robert, then abandoned when their mother died and Robert left, unable to cope. R.J. had been three and Anna just six months old.
William and Megan had adopted them and raised them with the same love and attention they gave their own children, but R.J. had struggled with the knowledge that he wasn’t really their child and that his father had abandoned him.
Though he’d always been protective of Anna, he’d also thought of her as William and Megan’s daughter, because he remembered their natural parents and she didn’t.
It was a defense mechanism, she knew. He’d been afraid that genes would win out and someday, despite all his efforts to the contrary, he’d find in himself the same irresponsible qualities their father had shown.
Even after he’d become president of Maitland Maternity, he’d held himself a little apart from everyone—except her—for fear he would fall short of what was required of him.
While Anna loved and counted on their closeness, she worried about the subtle distance he kept between himself and their family.
Now, though, as she heard R.J. and Dana laughing together in the other room, she felt sure that Dana’s love would go a long way toward bridging that distance.
And he had once vowed never to have children, afraid he’d be the kind of father their natural
