Kevin tried to get Jane to accompany them to the backyard but she shook her head and pulled her sweater more securely around her body.
After Emma bounced away, trailing Hawk Valley’s fire chief, Jane craned her neck around.
“Where’s Nash?”
I was about to admit I wasn’t sure he was even coming when the doorbell rang. Nash walked in looking slightly less sodden than he had in the cemetery. I had to admit, he wore the disheveled look well.
“There he is,” Jane said and a slight smile curved her lips.
Nash evaded Nancy’s attempt to towel him off and then stood awkwardly in the parlor doorway, surveying the quiet gathering. His gaze landed on Colin, who was still happily installed on my left shoulder. I wished I had a window into Nash Ryan’s head to see what he was thinking.
“And Steve Brown is here,” Jane noticed and there was surprise in her voice. The lawyer was the kind of guy who kept to the corners of any room and was easy to miss. “I wonder why.”
“Steve and Chris were good friends,” I told her gently, thinking she should be aware of the fact already. “They went to high school together.”
Steve Brown approached Nash. He had the look of an archetypal attorney; slightly balding, slightly overweight and perpetually serious. He’d been practicing on the upper floor of a brick building on Garner Avenue for as long as I could remember and carried the legal secrets of many of Hawk Valley’s longstanding residents in his solemn, bespectacled head.
“Oh,” Jane nodded. “Right. I forgot.”
Through Steve’s mellow murmurs I picked out the words, “Tomorrow,” and “My office.”
Nash seemed irritated. “Let’s just talk now,” he said, a little more loudly than necessary.
Steve obviously didn’t like the idea but he sighed and led Nash out of the room, presumably to someplace more private.
“What’s that about?” Jane wondered.
“I’m not sure,” I said.
Of course that wasn’t true. I knew exactly why Chris’s friend and lawyer would have felt obliged to corner Nash only an hour after his father’s funeral. There wasn’t just the matter of the store, the house and property to deal with. Those things could wait. But a child couldn’t.
Colin gurgled next to my ear and I rubbed his small back, feeling a surge of fierce maternal emotion. He wasn’t my child but I loved him. I would fight to protect him.
In my head I began cataloguing everything I knew about Nash Ryan.
Loner.
Unpredictable.
Detached.
Wickedly hot.
Unforgiving.
It didn’t sound like a good recipe for a parent. There’d always been a tumultuous relationship between Nash and Chris. Still, Chris would have chosen to believe the best about his eldest son. Despite everything I’d ever heard about Nash Ryan, Chris and Heather must have had their reasons for assuming he would be the best guardian.
My opinion was still up in the air. So far Nash hadn’t inspired much confidence where Colin was concerned.
Jane opted to head out to the backyard after all. Colin began fussing after a few minutes so I decided to hunt down a bottle for him. Nancy likely had one ready to go in the fridge.
There was a cozy rocking chair in the kitchen so I took a seat and let Colin eagerly latch onto the bottle. The window in front of me had a nice view of the backyard. Emma looked like she was having the time of her life, running around Nancy’s green grass with the hyper terrier chasing, fluffy tail sweeping back and forth excitedly. Jane was also out there now and Kevin wrapped a protective arm around her while I watched. Emma tossed a small red ball in the air and then squealed with delight when the dog leapt up and caught it. I smiled. It felt good to smile after so many sad days in a row.
A shadow in the doorway made me turn my head and I stopped smiling. Nash stood there, appearing shocked and more than a bit pale. He looked at Colin, who was happily sucking away at his bottle and oblivious to being examined.
“Do you want to hold him?” I asked. I expected Nash to refuse. I was right.
“Not now,” he said.
“Then when?” The question was sharp. I hadn’t meant for it to be. But not once had I seen Nash hold the baby.
He answered the question with one of his own. “Where’s Jane?”
I gestured to the window. “Out back.”
Nash lowered his head and moved toward the back door.
“He told you, didn’t he?” I blurted. “Steve told you about the will.”
Nash looked at me. “You knew?”
“Yes.” I tried to read his expression. “What are you going to do?”
But Nash Ryan had already proven he didn’t answer questions he didn’t feel like answering.
Maybe he didn’t know the answers yet.
He left the kitchen and I watched through the window as he spoke to his aunt. Once he raked a hand through his dark hair and glanced toward the window. Our eyes met and a chill of unease traveled down my spine.
All along I’d wondered, and feared, what Nash’s reaction would be when he learned he’d been named as the sole guardian of his baby brother.
From the look on his face, it seemed he wasn’t handling the news well at all.
“Me?” I’d croaked in disbelief. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding.”
Steve Brown, my father’s longtime friend and attorney, raised an eyebrow but tactfully confirmed that no, he was not in the habit of kidding around about child custody arrangements. My dad and Heather had actually named me as the sole guardian of my four month old brother.
“You are also the executor of the estate,” Steve explained. “The largest assets are the house and the store, half of which are bound up in a trust for Colin but you will be empowered to make all financial decisions and-Nash?”
I’d left him behind to babble about trusts and other bullshit on his own and sought out one of my few remaining relatives to explain a few things.
“You seem unhappy,” Jane said in the backyard of Nancy Reston’s house after I gave her a rundown of the conversation with Steve Brown.
Kevin Reston kept his arm around my aunt and shot me a wary look. I couldn’t blame the guy. He remembered me as the asshole teenager I’d been back when he volunteered to help coach the football team at Hawk Valley High.
“Just caught off guard,” I said, noticing that we weren’t the only ones in the backyard. A dog and a little girl were trampling Nancy’s flowers. I’d seen the girl around enough in the last few days to recognize her as Kathleen’s kid.
I tried to sort out my thoughts. “This is a lot to take in.”
That had to be the understatement of the millennium. The relationship between my father and me was messy. I’d always assumed he didn’t hold me in high regard. He’d told me so enough times. So why in the hell would he name me as Colin’s guardian? There had to be other options.
Not my grandparents. They’d been dead for years. Heather’s mother was gone. Cancer or something. Her deadbeat father was still alive but I’d heard he was living in Idaho and muttered ‘stupid bitch’ when called with the news that his only daughter was dead. He didn’t even come to the funeral.
And not Jane. She would have been the logical choice. If only she was stable. My aunt was a nice lady but when I was in high school she streaked naked through the Chicken Delight restaurant in nearby Boland while shrieking, “Stop the carnage! Save the chickens!” Jane wasn’t a caregiver. Jane was someone people took care of.
After Emma bounced away, trailing Hawk Valley’s fire chief, Jane craned her neck around.
“Where’s Nash?”
I was about to admit I wasn’t sure he was even coming when the doorbell rang. Nash walked in looking slightly less sodden than he had in the cemetery. I had to admit, he wore the disheveled look well.
“There he is,” Jane said and a slight smile curved her lips.
Nash evaded Nancy’s attempt to towel him off and then stood awkwardly in the parlor doorway, surveying the quiet gathering. His gaze landed on Colin, who was still happily installed on my left shoulder. I wished I had a window into Nash Ryan’s head to see what he was thinking.
“And Steve Brown is here,” Jane noticed and there was surprise in her voice. The lawyer was the kind of guy who kept to the corners of any room and was easy to miss. “I wonder why.”
“Steve and Chris were good friends,” I told her gently, thinking she should be aware of the fact already. “They went to high school together.”
Steve Brown approached Nash. He had the look of an archetypal attorney; slightly balding, slightly overweight and perpetually serious. He’d been practicing on the upper floor of a brick building on Garner Avenue for as long as I could remember and carried the legal secrets of many of Hawk Valley’s longstanding residents in his solemn, bespectacled head.
“Oh,” Jane nodded. “Right. I forgot.”
Through Steve’s mellow murmurs I picked out the words, “Tomorrow,” and “My office.”
Nash seemed irritated. “Let’s just talk now,” he said, a little more loudly than necessary.
Steve obviously didn’t like the idea but he sighed and led Nash out of the room, presumably to someplace more private.
“What’s that about?” Jane wondered.
“I’m not sure,” I said.
Of course that wasn’t true. I knew exactly why Chris’s friend and lawyer would have felt obliged to corner Nash only an hour after his father’s funeral. There wasn’t just the matter of the store, the house and property to deal with. Those things could wait. But a child couldn’t.
Colin gurgled next to my ear and I rubbed his small back, feeling a surge of fierce maternal emotion. He wasn’t my child but I loved him. I would fight to protect him.
In my head I began cataloguing everything I knew about Nash Ryan.
Loner.
Unpredictable.
Detached.
Wickedly hot.
Unforgiving.
It didn’t sound like a good recipe for a parent. There’d always been a tumultuous relationship between Nash and Chris. Still, Chris would have chosen to believe the best about his eldest son. Despite everything I’d ever heard about Nash Ryan, Chris and Heather must have had their reasons for assuming he would be the best guardian.
My opinion was still up in the air. So far Nash hadn’t inspired much confidence where Colin was concerned.
Jane opted to head out to the backyard after all. Colin began fussing after a few minutes so I decided to hunt down a bottle for him. Nancy likely had one ready to go in the fridge.
There was a cozy rocking chair in the kitchen so I took a seat and let Colin eagerly latch onto the bottle. The window in front of me had a nice view of the backyard. Emma looked like she was having the time of her life, running around Nancy’s green grass with the hyper terrier chasing, fluffy tail sweeping back and forth excitedly. Jane was also out there now and Kevin wrapped a protective arm around her while I watched. Emma tossed a small red ball in the air and then squealed with delight when the dog leapt up and caught it. I smiled. It felt good to smile after so many sad days in a row.
A shadow in the doorway made me turn my head and I stopped smiling. Nash stood there, appearing shocked and more than a bit pale. He looked at Colin, who was happily sucking away at his bottle and oblivious to being examined.
“Do you want to hold him?” I asked. I expected Nash to refuse. I was right.
“Not now,” he said.
“Then when?” The question was sharp. I hadn’t meant for it to be. But not once had I seen Nash hold the baby.
He answered the question with one of his own. “Where’s Jane?”
I gestured to the window. “Out back.”
Nash lowered his head and moved toward the back door.
“He told you, didn’t he?” I blurted. “Steve told you about the will.”
Nash looked at me. “You knew?”
“Yes.” I tried to read his expression. “What are you going to do?”
But Nash Ryan had already proven he didn’t answer questions he didn’t feel like answering.
Maybe he didn’t know the answers yet.
He left the kitchen and I watched through the window as he spoke to his aunt. Once he raked a hand through his dark hair and glanced toward the window. Our eyes met and a chill of unease traveled down my spine.
All along I’d wondered, and feared, what Nash’s reaction would be when he learned he’d been named as the sole guardian of his baby brother.
From the look on his face, it seemed he wasn’t handling the news well at all.
“Me?” I’d croaked in disbelief. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding.”
Steve Brown, my father’s longtime friend and attorney, raised an eyebrow but tactfully confirmed that no, he was not in the habit of kidding around about child custody arrangements. My dad and Heather had actually named me as the sole guardian of my four month old brother.
“You are also the executor of the estate,” Steve explained. “The largest assets are the house and the store, half of which are bound up in a trust for Colin but you will be empowered to make all financial decisions and-Nash?”
I’d left him behind to babble about trusts and other bullshit on his own and sought out one of my few remaining relatives to explain a few things.
“You seem unhappy,” Jane said in the backyard of Nancy Reston’s house after I gave her a rundown of the conversation with Steve Brown.
Kevin Reston kept his arm around my aunt and shot me a wary look. I couldn’t blame the guy. He remembered me as the asshole teenager I’d been back when he volunteered to help coach the football team at Hawk Valley High.
“Just caught off guard,” I said, noticing that we weren’t the only ones in the backyard. A dog and a little girl were trampling Nancy’s flowers. I’d seen the girl around enough in the last few days to recognize her as Kathleen’s kid.
I tried to sort out my thoughts. “This is a lot to take in.”
That had to be the understatement of the millennium. The relationship between my father and me was messy. I’d always assumed he didn’t hold me in high regard. He’d told me so enough times. So why in the hell would he name me as Colin’s guardian? There had to be other options.
Not my grandparents. They’d been dead for years. Heather’s mother was gone. Cancer or something. Her deadbeat father was still alive but I’d heard he was living in Idaho and muttered ‘stupid bitch’ when called with the news that his only daughter was dead. He didn’t even come to the funeral.
And not Jane. She would have been the logical choice. If only she was stable. My aunt was a nice lady but when I was in high school she streaked naked through the Chicken Delight restaurant in nearby Boland while shrieking, “Stop the carnage! Save the chickens!” Jane wasn’t a caregiver. Jane was someone people took care of.
