His father-in-law had told Michael he was worthy of this house, that he knew Michael would take care of his daughter, Angela. He had felt the burden of that generous gift every day of their marriage. The burden had doubled in weight after the birth of the twins, and tripled in weight upon Angela's death at the age of twenty-six.
He hadn't taken care of Angela as he had promised. But he still had the girls to raise. He still had a chance to give the De Lucas back some of the love and respect they had given him.
The sound of voices brought him back to reality. He looked up as the firemen left his house.
"The fire was limited to the stove and the trash can," one of the men said. "You have damage to the ceiling and walls from the smoke. The floor around the trash can is pretty beat up, but that's about it. Otherwise you're okay." He paused. "I hope you'll have a long talk with your kids about fire safety in the kitchen and elsewhere."
"Oh, don't worry. I intend to have a very long talk with them—about a lot of things."
The fireman grinned. "They sure are cute kids. One of them called 911. Sounded calm as could be. Well, we're off."
"Thanks," Michael said.
"No problem. That's what we're here for."
As the fire engine left, Mrs. Polking returned to the house and Lily and Rose wandered back to Michael, obviously uneasy now that they were alone with him. Lily dug her hands into the pockets of her jeans and tried to look confident. Rose chewed on a piece of her hair, the way she always did when she was nervous. For a few moments Michael let them suffer in silence.
The more he looked at them, the more they reminded him of Angela. They were their mother's daughters with the same dark brown hair, same big brown eyes, same stubborn chin, same impetuous, spoiled nature.
Oh, they were cute all right, and dangerous, especially Lily. The older twin by two minutes, Lily was the leader. She was rambunctious, loud, and often clumsy, but she would defend her little sister to the death.
Rose was his sensitive, emotional child, quiet and introspective. She tried to do what was right more often than Lily, but loyalty to her sister always came before anything else.
Looking at them now, Michael wondered which one of them would crack first—which one would finally break down and talk to him.
Sometimes he thought Lily would be the one, because once in a while she impulsively started to say something, then stopped. Other times he thought Rose might provide the breakthrough, with her guilty, apologetic smiles. Neither one spoke to him now.
"We have to talk about Mrs. Polking." Of course, he'd be talking and they'd be listening, but he couldn't let their behavior go unnoticed. "You know you're not supposed to touch the stove."
No answer. No explanation.
"Maybe if you tell me why you did it, I could understand." Michael tried to be patient.
Lily made some motions with her hand, mimicking eating.
"If you were hungry you should have asked Mrs. Polking to fix you something."
Lily shrugged. Rose smiled apologetically. They were getting nowhere fast.
"What you did was dangerous. This isn't like gluing Mrs. Polking's shoes to the floor, although I'm not happy about that either. You could have been hurt. Mrs. Polking could have been hurt. I know you wouldn't have wanted that."
Rose sniffed as she shook her head.
Lily put her arm around her sister to give her courage.
"Can you tell me why you're giving the baby-sitters such a hard time?"
No answer.
Lily whispered in Rose's ear, loud enough so Michael could hear her. "I have to go to the bathroom. Do you want to come with me?"
"Yes."
"Wait a second; we're not done."
Lily pointed to her pants. Rose too.
"Fine, go to the bathroom, but this isn't over."
With that the girls disappeared into the house.
He knew the bathroom plea was an excuse to get away from him. Maybe it was for the best. He needed time to think. He needed a cold beer. Hell, he needed a new life.
* * *
"I think Daddy's mad," Rose said, opening the bedroom door so she could peer into the hallway. She listened for angry footsteps, but heard only silence.
"Is he coming?" Lily asked.
"No."
"Good." Her sister let out a sigh of relief.
Rose closed the door and sat down on one of the twin beds. She pulled her legs underneath her and rested her chin in her hands. "Maybe we shouldn't have tried to cook the pasta."
"We didn't know it was going to catch on fire."
"And we shouldn't have painted the chair," she added, knowing they'd been really bad.
"We had to, or else Mrs. Polking wouldn't have left."
"He's just going to get someone else to watch us."
"Not if Mama comes back."
"I don't think she is coming back," she said with a sigh. "It's been so long."
"Yes, she is. She promised. Maybe we should look for her."
"We don't know where to look."
"We could go down by the boats, where Mama took us that day. Maybe she's there."
Rose shook her head, feeling her stomach turn over at the thought. She hadn't liked their trip to see the boats. She didn't even want to think about it. "We can't cross the street by ourselves, and we don't even know where the boats are."
"I bet I could find them," Lily said confidently.
"We're not going. Mama said she'd come back. We just have to wait for her."
Lily's eyes sparkled with a new idea. "Maybe Mariah can help us." She took the crystal ball off the dresser and set it on the bed between them. They'd gotten it a week ago for their sixth birthday, a present from their grandmother, Sophia. Inside the glazed blue glass were the head and shoulders of a beautiful lady with long blonde hair, a glittery face, and a bright pink wizard's hat. Their grandmother said she had found the wizard in an antiques shop. She told them it had belonged to a little girl who swore it could make magic—but only for people who believed in it.
Lily rubbed her hand over the top of the ball.
A spark of light surprised her. "What was that?" she asked, her eyes widening with alarm. She felt butterflies in her stomach, the kind that came whenever a new nanny arrived.
"I don't know. It didn't do that when I touched it yesterday," Lily said.
"Well, ask the question."
Lily rubbed her hand over the ball again, drawing another flash of light. "Mariah, we want to find our mother. Do you know where she is? Do you know where we should go to look for her?"
The lady's mouth began to move. Lily looked over at Rose in awe. "Did you see that?" she whispered.
Rose swallowed hard. She felt scared, but she wanted to hear the answer.
Mariah's voice came across, sounding as lovely as a melody. "For children who believe in me, school is just the place to be."
"What?" Lily asked in confusion.
"Go to school?" Rose repeated in doubt. She didn't want to go to school. It was summer, and they'd already done kindergarten.
"I'm going to ask her again. I don't think she heard me right." No matter how many times Lily asked the question, the crystal ball remained dark and Mariah remained silent. "Maybe the batteries are dead," Lily said as she turned the ball upside down.
"Where do the batteries go?" she asked.
"I don't know. I can't find anything."
"Maybe we should ask Daddy."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I don't think so."
"I didn't mean out loud," she said, although it was getting more difficult not to talk to him, especially when he was being nice or when he kissed her goodnight. But they'd promised their mother they could keep a secret, that they wouldn't speak to their dad again until she came home. She couldn't give up now. If she did, Mama might never come back.
"We'll try Mariah later," Lily said. "Maybe she needs to rest."
* * *
Michael stared at his waterlogged, smoke-filled kitchen in di
sgust. The cookbooks on the counter had been doused with water. The edges of the yellow-trimmed curtains that his mother-in-law had hung for them just after they moved into the house were charred around the edges. There were puddles on the floor with ashes floating like little boats in a murky river. What a mess—just like his life.
He wished he had a magic wand that he could wave and everything would be all right again. He didn't know why he kept hoping for a miracle. He'd said enough unanswered prayers to know that magic and miracles did not exist.
He took off his suit coat and tossed it over the chair at the breakfast room table. Loosening the knot in his tie, he rolled up the sleeves to his elbows. Wading through a couple of inches of dirty water, he made his way to the refrigerator and opened the door. The inside was dark. Apparently the firemen had turned off the electricity, but the beers were still cold. Thank God!
He pulled out a can and opened it. One draught went a long way toward easing some of his frustration. As he took another sip he walked into the dining room, eager to get away from the kitchen disaster. That's when he saw the list of summer schools Mrs. Polking had left on the credenza. He reached for the paper, but his foot caught on the carpet and he stumbled, spilling beer all over everything.
"Damn." He shook the beer off the top of the paper, but the ink smeared and only one of the school names remained legible. "Happy Hollow School—summer school programs, kindergarten through second grade," he read aloud. The school was in North Beach, just a mile away. Maybe he could convince the twins' grandmother to take the girls after school until he could find another baby-sitter.
Of course, he didn't have much credit left with the family. The girls had terrorized their aunt, uncle, and grandparents long before they'd started in on the nannies. And he hated to ask Sophia to baby-sit. She usually spent her afternoons at De Luca's, helping her husband, Vincent, and her son, Frank, run the family restaurant.
School was the best answer, at least until he could find another nanny. With any luck the teachers at Happy Hollow would be tough enough to take anything his girls could dish out.
Buy Ask Mariah
Book List
The Callaway Family Series
#1 On A Night Like This
#2 So This Is Love
#3 Falling For A Stranger
#4 Between Now And Forever
** Nobody But You (A Callaway Wedding Novella)
#5 All A Heart Needs
#6 That Summer Night
#7 When Shadows Fall
The Wish Series
#1 A Secret Wish
#2 Just A Wish Away
#3 When Wishes Collide
Standalone Novels
Almost Home
All She Ever Wanted
Ask Mariah
Daniel's Gift
Don't Say A Word
Golden Lies
Just The Way You Are
Love Will Find A Way
One True Love
Ryan's Return
Some Kind of Wonderful
Summer Secrets
The Sweetest Thing
The Sanders Brothers Series
#1 Silent Run
#2 Silent Fall
The Deception Series
#1 Taken
#2 Played
The Angel's Bay Series
#1 Suddenly One Summer
#2 On Shadow Beach
#3 In Shelter Cove
#4 At Hidden Falls
#5 Garden of Secrets
About The Author
Barbara Freethy is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of 40 novels ranging from contemporary romance to romantic suspense and women's fiction. Traditionally published for many years, Barbara turned to Indie publishing in 2011 and has since sold over 4.8 million ebooks! Nineteen of her titles have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Lists.
Known for her emotional and compelling stories of love, family, mystery and romance, Barbara enjoys writing about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary adventures. She is currently writing a connected family series, The Callaways. The first six books in the series are currently available.
Barbara also recently released the WISH SERIES, a series of books connected by the theme of wishes including: A SECRET WISH (#1), JUST A WISH AWAY (#2) and WHEN WISHES COLLIDE (#3).
Other popular standalone titles include: DON'T SAY A WORD, SILENT RUN, SUMMER SECRETS, and RYAN'S RETURN.
Barbara's books have won numerous awards - she is a six-time finalist for the RITA for best contemporary romance from Romance Writers of America and a two-time winner for DANIEL'S GIFT and THE WAY BACK HOME.
Barbara has lived all over the state of California and currently resides in Northern California where she draws much of her inspiration from the beautiful bay area.
For a complete listing of books, as well as excerpts and contests, and to connect with Barbara:
Visit Barbara's Website
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When Shadows Fall (Callaways #7) Page 30