LITMIR.BIZ

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as if you didn’t have anyone who cared enough about you to teach you right from wrong.”

      “Now, that’s a Tar Heel thing. It’s called ‘not being raised.’ Don’t ever act like you haven’t been raised, Baron. People would talk. It would reflect badly on your father’s family forever, and, believe me, you don’t want that.”

      Arley paused. “Will, thank you,” she said suddenly.

      “For…?”

      She glanced over to where her sisters were standing, then looked at him.

      “For not asking me about…what happened earlier. With Scott. And for not letting him start anything. He wanted to make a scene, and I—couldn’t—”

      “It’s okay.”

      She sighed. “People think he wants us to get back together, but he doesn’t.”

      “I’m…sorry,” Will said, for lack of anything better to say.

      She shrugged. “Mostly, he just wants somebody to blame for what happened. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t the one with somebody on the side. Several ‘somebodies,’ actually. Well. Anyway. I really appreciate your help. He could have caused all kinds of trouble tonight, and Kate deserves better than that from me and what used to be mine.”

      Actually, Will thought that Arley had defused the situation—by walking away. She stood for a moment, seeming on the verge of saying something more, then decided against it.

      “He’s not still around someplace, is he?” Will asked, thinking she might be worried about running into him again.

      “No. Gwen and Grace saw him leave.” She glanced toward the sisters again. They looked no happier now than when Will had noticed them earlier.

      A sudden cheer went up from the crowd as the car carrying the bride and groom moved a few inches.

      “Arley! Arley, come here!”

      The treelike sister had found her voice.

      “Do you have any idea what it’s like to have four mothers?” Arley asked him.

      “Actually, I do,” he said.

      She turned to go, then didn’t. “You aren’t going to go off and do something…dangerous anytime soon, are you?”

      “It’s not in my plans.”

      “Are you afraid?” she asked bluntly. “Of being sent someplace…bad?”

      “Sometimes.”

      They looked at each other—until she suddenly smiled again.

      “Maybe we’ll run into each other sometime—you can tell me about your mothers.”

      He didn’t say anything, despite another opening she’d given him. But she didn’t let his silence make her uncomfortable. She gave him a little wave and walked away. He watched her go, trying not to think about robots.

      Chapter Two

      “Just who is that?” Grace asked, lowering her voice for once because of the crowd of people milling around them.

      Arley looked steadily at both her sisters. Only Gwen seemed uncomfortable. Neither of them had the right to ask—especially Grace, whose own marriage had ended more abruptly than Arley’s had. None of the sisters knew the reason for its sudden demise, and Grace apparently had no intention of enlightening any of them. She had an entirely different view of the right to privacy when hers was at stake. All Arley knew for certain was that Grace’s husband had left, and Grace hardly seemed to notice.

      At the moment, however, Arley had no desire to trade barbs about their assorted personal failures. For once, she opted to let the sisterly meddling slide.

      Almost.

      “You know, Grace, I’m getting a little tired of that question tonight,” she said. “Did Scott put you up to it?”

      “You don’t even know that guy, Arley.”

      “Grace, I was only talking to him. I’m not taking him home with me. And I do know him. His name is Will Baron. He works with Kate. I ran into him once last summer. He was nice to Scottie, okay?”

      “You’re not that innocent,” Grace said, and Arley laughed.

      “You sound like a pop song lyric.”

      “You know how you are, Arley—and if you don’t, we do. You’re not trying to make Scott jealous with that soldier, are you?”

      “Grace, please! I told you—we were just talking. He’s an interesting person. He’s from Arizona. He’s half Navajo.” She looked over her shoulder to where Will had been standing. He was no longer there.

      “Well, Scott obviously didn’t like it.”

      “What Scott likes or doesn’t like is not my problem. Yours, either. He had no business being here in the first place.”

      “I said not to invite him,” Gwen offered in spite of the look Grace gave her. “Nobody listened.”

      “He was invited?” Arley said incredulously, and several people turned to look in their direction.

      “I invited him,” Grace said. “To the reception. I was trying to head off trouble. It was purely a token gesture—a courtesy to our Scottie’s father.”

      “Grace! Why didn’t you tell me!”

      “It was just a test, Arley! I didn’t think he’d have the nerve to actually show up. But he did, and now we know once and for all that he’s—”

      “This is none of your business, Grace!” Arley interrupted, as if that had ever deterred her oldest sister. Grace’s determination was legendary in the family. It had probably cost her a husband, and it was about to cost her a sister, as well.

      “It is if you don’t have enough sense to realize he might use anything you do to try to get Scottie away from you.”

      “What?” Arley said, startled.

      “You heard me. You know how Scott is, how his family is—or you should by now. I wouldn’t put it past him or them. And he’s not above doing something just to get back at you.”

      “How many times do I have to tell you? I didn’t do anything wrong!”

      “It doesn’t matter if you did or didn’t, Arley! That was then. I’m talking about right now. He’s the kind of man who needs to save face. One of these days he’s going to want to follow his grandfather and father into politics. He’s going to need to trump that unfortunate adultery indiscretion. What better way than to try to prove you’re an unfit mother and always were?”

      Arley gave a sharp sigh. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

      “You don’t have to talk. Just listen for once. You never should have married Scott McGowan in the first place—but we got Scottie out of it, and I want us to keep him. Or would you rather his father had custody—in which case Scottie would probably grow up just like him.”

      “Grace, stop!” Gwen said, putting her hand on Grace’s arm. “You’re scaring her.”

      “I want to scare her.”

      Arley looked at both of them and shook her head.

      “I’m not talking about this anymore,” she said and walked away. She was too tired to battle Grace. Her head hurt. Her feet hurt. She just wanted to get her little boy and go back to Fayetteville.

      “’Bye, Arley,” Gwen called after her.

      Arley waved her hand in the air to show she heard, not wanting to hurt Gwen’s feelings just because she was upset with Grace. Grace could be annoying in the best of circumstances, more so when she was right. Scott McGowan wasn’t

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