“Whoa, hey,” Steve said as he came up behind her. She waited to feel his hands on her arms, but he didn’t touch her. “It’s going to be okay. Cole is going to be okay.”
Barbara turned around and pressed her face against his chest so she wouldn’t start screaming at him. Because everything seemed like his fault suddenly. She stayed there for a long time, until Steve finally patted her shoulders.
“You should get back to work,” she said, when he still hadn’t hugged her. Because that was what he wanted, wasn’t it? To get back to the job that Barbara was beginning to wonder if he might not love more than her. Anyway, if he stayed, she couldn’t be sure what she’d say. “I’ll be fine, really. I’ll be even better when I see you on the news announcing that you’ve arrested the person responsible for what happened to that poor baby.”
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t hold your breath.” Steve shook his head, then scrubbed his hands over his face.
Barbara took a breath: Make nice, ask about it. Steve hated it when she was cold, absolutely hated it. He didn’t ever say that, of course. Steve was never one to criticize, but he’d draw right back into that shell of his. And once he was tucked in there, it was impossible to pry him out.
“What about that girl in the hospital?” she asked.
He shook his head. “There’s something not right with that situation, given the way she took off,” he said. “But her baby isn’t that baby. Midwife swears she gave birth three weeks ago to an eight-pound baby. The ME isn’t ready to make an official announcement yet, but he’s sure the baby wasn’t that old.”
“But she ran away.”
“Who knows? Maybe your friend Stella put her up to that.” He was joking, that was clear. “Apparently, Stella really likes drama.”
“Drama? Who told you that?” Serious or not, he’d gotten the idea from somewhere.
“Oh, her friend Molly—Ella’s mom. The reporter for the Ridgedale Reader.”
“Did she mention Will or Cole? What did she mean, ‘drama’?”
“No, no, no.” Steve waved a finger back and forth. “I shouldn’t have even mentioned Stella. There’s no reason to think that she has anything to do with what’s going on with Cole.”
“But he heard or saw something somewhere, Steve. And it wasn’t here.”
“First of all, you’re deciding that’s true. That’s not what Dr. Kellerman said.”
“I know it’s true, Steve. Something happened to Cole when he was with Will. At his house.”
“Barbara, you can’t know that. Even Dr. Kellerman said it could be some kind of preexisting—”
“Steve, stop it!” Barbara shouted. “Stop making excuses so I won’t get angry at some woman you have no proof is innocent and who you don’t even know!”
His jaw set. He was losing patience with her. But that was it. That was as mad as he’d get. Soon he’d disappear, retreat. Off to work, into his precious shell. Sometimes Barbara would have done anything for him to start screaming at her.
“I’m not trying to protect her,” he said, the picture of reason. “But focusing on her instead of Cole isn’t going to help anything.”
He picked up his keys. Because he was going to go anyway, of course, whether or not Barbara needed him to stay.
“Promise me you’ll leave it,” he said. “That you’ll drop it with Stella.”
“Sure,” she said. And if he believed that—the way she’d said it—he was even more distracted than she’d thought.
“Did they help Cole?” Hannah asked the second she got home from school, looking around downstairs like she was trying to find him.
“Cole’s fine, honey,” Barbara said, specifically not answering Hannah’s question. “He’s tired and a little stressed, that’s all. How was the AP calculus practice test?”
Hannah shrugged. “Okay, I guess. It was kind of hard to concentrate.”
“‘Okay, I guess.’” Barbara mimicked Hannah’s shrug and her tone of voice. There were better ways to handle Hannah’s worry about Cole’s worry than mocking her. But Barbara wasn’t perfect. She’d never pretended to be. “Cornell may have accepted you early, but they won’t be very impressed if you don’t pass those APs you’ve promised them.”
“Sorry, I didn’t . . .” Hannah looked wounded. “I think I probably did okay enough. Thanks for asking.”
“Wait, it’s Wednesday, isn’t it? Do you have tutoring today?” Barbara hoped not. She’d been counting the minutes until Hannah got home so she could leave.
“She couldn’t make it,” Hannah said, blinking up at Barbara guiltily. She probably felt responsible for that girl’s bad choices, too.
Barbara shook her head and exhaled. “It’ll hardly be your fault when that girl doesn’t get her GED.”
“Mom, that’s mean.” She recoiled when Barbara’s eyes shot over to her. “I just— Sandy tries really hard.”
“Trust me, Hannah.” Barbara laughed, trying not to let her annoyance get the best of her. But mean? Really, how dare she? “Girls like that never know what’s good for them.”
“But you’ve never even met her,” Hannah said. And there she went, defending some girl she barely knew. Just like her father. God help her. The heartbreak that lay ahead for that bleeding heart of hers.
“Oh, honey, someday you’ll understand. I don’t need to have met her to know what kind of girl she is.” Barbara smiled angrily as she grabbed her keys off the counter. “Cole is napping, and I need to run out for a little. Don’t wake him—he was just so exhausted—but if he does get up, have him watch TV. I need him to stay calm.”