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She ignored him. He expected it despite his reminiscing. He'd give them a few
more minutes before he let Harvey know his dinner was ready.
Tully filled the water bowl and cleaned up the counter. The kitchen was huge.
The house, the backyard, the property was huge, especially compared to Tully's
two-bedroom bungalow in Reston. He understood Maggie had bought the place in
this prestigious neighborhood with some sort of trust her father had left her.
She kept the house nice and simple but classy with a few scattered pieces that
made it feel like a home. The place seemed sparse, again, perhaps only
compared to his messy, overflowing bungalow.
Still, he knew the house and décor had little to do with why Maggie had bought
this property. The purchase had more to with the natural barrier of the river
that ran behind the house and the privacy fence surrounding it along with the
state-of-the-art security system.
Tully looked around the well-stocked kitchen and wondered if Maggie ever
cooked. Her best friend, Gwen Patterson, was a gourmet cook, just one of her
many talents that Tully appreciated. They'd sort of been seeing each other
officially for several months. Though he wasn't quite sure if she'd agree
their relationship was "official." They hadn't really declared it as such and
he had no idea what criteria had to be met to make it official. Maybe it was
just in his own mind. He hadn't been with another woman since his divorce from
Caroline. Gwen thought he was doing her a favor by letting them take things
slow. Tully let her believe the favor was one-sided. It seemed like the
gentlemanly thing to do. Fact was, anything more serious scared the hell out
of him.
"He's hungry." Emma came racing in with Harvey wagging behind her. She didn't
wait for Tully. She grabbed the bowl off the counter and presented the food to
Harvey, making him go to his designated eating place, telling him to sit and
then setting the bowl down.
Yes, she sure did remind him of when she was little, bright eyes and lopsided
grin, sitting on the floor next to the dog with knees up, one pink scar
showing through the threadbare denim. She looked& happy. Amazing that a dog
could do what a father couldn't.
"Is Maggie okay?" she asked.
The question surprised Tully. For one thing it was a grown-up question and he
was reminiscing about his little girl. Also Emma rarely asked about anyone
unless it somehow concerned her. She wasn't rude, she was just a teenager.
That stage where everything and everyone in the world either didn't exist or
existed only to revolve around them.
"She'll be okay," he said. And he knew that was true, despite her panic.
Actually Maggie had been good at hiding her panic. No one else probably saw
it. He almost wished he hadn't. It didn't seem natural to see Maggie
vulnerable.
"So what's up with the special delivery?"
Emma pointed to the bouquet of flowers they had found wrapped neatly in tissue
and left at Maggie's front door. It looked to Tully that the local florist
knew exactly where to tuck them on the portico, safe from the wind and
drive-by viewers, as if the florist was used to delivering to this address.
Tully knew Maggie had been getting flowers at Quantico, too. And although she
didn't explain or comment, he gathered that she wasn't too happy about the
deliveries, but at the same time she didn't seem distressed.
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Women. Sometimes Tully thought he'd never figure them out.
"A secret admirer," Tully told Emma.
"Oh, so she's not, like, sick and dying or something?"
"No. God no," Tully said before he caught himself. Then he smiled, trying to
defuse any indication in his voice that might have said otherwise. He hoped
that wasn't the case, that she was seriously sick. Of course that wasn't the
case.
"You said she'd be gone overnight?" Emma wanted to know.
"Yeah, she'll be back tomorrow." He hoped that was true.
"We're not going to leave Harvey here by himself all night, are we?"
"He'll be okay, sweet pea. He's stayed here by himself before." But she didn't
look convinced. She was petting him as he licked up the last remnants, orange
bits of carrot stuck to the black part of his nose.
"If we take him with us it'll save us a trip in the morning to feed him."
She gave him that look, that "pretty-please" look.
"And tomorrow's Saturday," she said."I'll stay home and watch him."
"What if your friends call?" He knew she hadn't thought this out. Emma? Home
all day on a Saturday? Tully was sure it'd take more than a dog, even a dog
she adored, to keep her from hanging out at the mall or going to a movie on a
precious Saturday.
"I'll just tell them I can't. That we're doing a favor for a friend. They'll
understand. That's what you do for friends, right?" She gave Harvey's neck a
hug and the dog's tail thumped against the wall. "And Harvey and I are buds,
right, Harvey? Besides, I don't have school on Monday either. Fall break,
remember?"
He liked the idea of having Emma home, though he'd have to see her actually
stay home for three days in order to believe it. Next weekend was the wedding
and she'd be distracted and gone. But she was right. If they needed to come
back it was a forty-minute drive from here to their home in Reston. Tully was
pretty sure Maggie would not be released tomorrow, probably not all weekend.
He only hoped she didn't realize that.
"That's kinda cool," Emma said and Tully had no idea what she was talking [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]