Carrying the child, Natasha walked over to receive a kiss from Ward.
“Sorry about the interruption,” Ward said, “but Palmer's strong as a bull. He broke loose and I couldn't catch him.”
“Like you tried,” Natasha said, laughing.
Gene Duncan smiled at them, and put an arm around his wife, Lucy, who was seven months pregnant. “You did good, Dr. McCarty,” Gene said, simultaneously hugging her and the child.
“Ward should have given the address,” she told them.
“Nobody would have heard me over the sound of my knees knocking together. All I did was write checks. Natasha did the work.”
Alice Palmer stood beside the Duncans, smiling, showing an even row of straight teeth. Her long blond hair was tucked behind her ears, and she wore a cashmere coat open to show off her dress, accented by a pearl necklace with matching earrings.
Natasha handed her son to his father, kissed the boy on his forehead, and said, “You are your father's son, Palmer McCarty.”
“That he is,” Gene agreed, smiling at the child, who stuck out his tongue and made a loud, particularly wet raspberry sound.
“Be nice, Palmer,” Ward told the boy.
“Come to Aunt Alice.” Alice reached out to take Palmer, but he slapped at her playfully, shook his head, and buried his face in his father's chest.
“Palmer McCarty!” Alice chided. “You know you want to come to me. Natasha,” she said, “that was a beautiful speech. Jeez, I almost always cry at this happy shit.”
And with that, Natasha hooked her arm in her husband's. They melted into the wide line of people filing into the new building past the life-size bronze statue of a nine- year- old boy who, while holding a model car in his delicate hands, greeted the passersby with an angel's smile.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN RAMSEY MILLER's career has included stints as a visual artist, advertising copywriter, and journalist. He is the author of the nationally bestselling The Last Family; Too Far Gone; and four Winter Massey thrillers: Inside Out, Upside Down, Side by Side, and Smoke & Mirrors, and is at work on his next book.
A native son of Mississippi, he now lives in North Carolina with his wife, and writes full- time.
THE LAST DAY
A Bantam Book / January 2009
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2008 by John Ramsey Miller
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN 978-0-553-90617-2
www.bantamdell.com
v3.0
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