“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Claire paused, then said, “It’ll be good to see you.”
“Yeah. Bye.” Meg hung up, then punched in the number for her office and left a message for her secretary. “Get me everything we’ve got on prenuptial agreements. Forms, cases, even the Ortega agreement. I want it all delivered to my house by ten o’clock tomorrow morning.” As an afterthought, she added, “Thanks.”
Then she headed for her computer to do some checking up on Bobby Jack Austin.
This was what she’d do on her idiotic vacation. She’d save Claire from making the biggest mistake of her life.
CHAPTER
TEN
Claire hung up the office phone. In the silence that followed, doubt crept into the room.
She and Bobby were moving awfully fast.…
“Damn you, Meg.”
But even as she cursed her sister, Claire knew the doubt had been there all along, a little seed inside of her, waiting to sprout and grow. She was too old to be swept away by passion.
She had a daughter to think about, after all. Alison had never known her biological father. It had been easy so far, bubble-wrapping Ali’s world so that none of life’s sharp edges could hurt her. Marriage would change everything.
The last thing Claire wanted to do was marry a man who had itchy feet.
She knew about men like that, men who smiled pretty smiles and made big promises and disappeared one night while you were brushing your teeth.
Claire had had four stepfathers before she’d turned nine. That number didn’t include the men she’d been asked to call Uncle, the men who’d passed through Mama’s life like shots of tequila. There and gone, leaving nothing behind but a bitter aftertaste.
Claire had had such high hopes for each new stepfather, too. This one, she’d thought each time. He’ll be the one to take me roller-skating and teach me how to ride a bike. Of course, it had been Meg who’d taught her those things; Meg, who never once called one of Mama’s husbands Daddy and refused to have any hopes for them at all.
No wonder Meghann was suspicious. Their past had given her reason to be.
Claire walked across the main lobby of the registration office. On her way to the window, she picked up a fallen flyer, no doubt dropped by one of the guests, and tossed it into the cold fireplace.
Outside, the sun was just beginning to set. The camp lay bathed in a rose-gold light in which every leaf edge seemed sharper, every green distinct. Sunlight sparkled on the blue water in the swimming pool, empty now as the guests were firing up their camp stoves and barbecues.
As she stood there, feeling vulnerable and uncertain, she saw a shadow fall across the grass.
Dad and Bobby strolled into view. Dad wore his summertime uniform: blue overalls and a black T-shirt. A tattered River’s Edge baseball cap shaded his eyes; beneath it, his brown hair was a mass of fuzzy curls.
And Bobby.
He wore a pair of faded jeans and a blue T-shirt that read: Cowboy Up for Coors. In this fading light, his long hair was the color of eighteen-carat gold, rich and warm. He carried their Weed Eater in one hand and a can of gasoline in the other. In the days he’d been here, Bobby had pitched in with the work. He was good at it, though she knew he wouldn’t be happy at River’s Edge forever. Already, he’d mentioned going on the road for a few weeks this summer. The three of them. “The Austins’ road trip” was how he put it. Claire thought it sounded great, traveling from town to town for a while, listening to her new husband sing. She hadn’t broached the idea with her father, but she knew he’d be all for it. As for what would become of the camp next season, they’d have to cross that bridge together when the time came.
Dad and Bobby stopped in front of cabin number five. Dad pointed up toward the eaves and Bobby nodded. A minute later, they were both laughing. Dad put his hand on Bobby’s shoulder. They moved away, toward the laundry room.
“Hey, Mommy. Whatcha lookin’ at?”
Claire turned around. Ali stood at the bottom of the stairs, clutching her Tickle Me Elmo doll. “Hey, Ali Kat. Come over here a minute, will you?” She sat down in the blue-and-white striped chair-and-a-half by the fireplace, putting her feet up on the matching ottoman.
Alison crawled onto her lap, settling comfortably in place. Heart to heart, the way they always sat.
“I was just watching Grandpa talk to Bobby.”
“Bobby’s gonna teach me to fish. He says I’m old enough to go to the trout farm in Skykomish.” Alison leaned closer and whispered, “There’s a trick to catching the big ones. He’s gonna teach it to me. An’ he says we can float down the river in inner tubes by August. Even me. Did you ever put a worm on a hook? Yeech. But I’m gonna do it. You’ll see. Bobby said he’d help me if it was too wriggly or snotty.”
“I’m glad you like him,” Claire said softly, trying not to smile.