LITMIR.BIZ

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were about to start first grade.”

      “How...awful.”

      “That’s safe to say.”

      He stayed quiet, letting her process what he guessed was a real hit: her first true understanding of what losing her had done to them, the couple she didn’t want to say were her parents.

      “And Eve? Do you know what she does?” She tilted her head. “Of course you do, since you had a relationship.”

      “Calling what we had a relationship is a stretch.” He tried to sound mild. Easier because he and Eve had never made it to bed. Thank God they hadn’t. He’d known she was willing and, at first, he’d fully intended to take her up on it. And why not?

      He had a sharp, unsettling realization. I saw Hope’s face, the woman she would be if she had lived to grow up. That’s why not. God. Eve had had good reason to resent his sudden, obsessive interest in the sister who must have haunted that house. Today, he’d had trouble making himself meet her eyes. He hoped she hadn’t noticed the way he was looking at Bailey.

      He grimaced. Yeah, what were the odds of that? Of course she’d noticed.

      “What’s that face you’re making?” Bailey looked wary. “You don’t want to tell me what she does for a living. Why?”

      “No, I don’t mind telling you. I had a passing thought, that’s all.” An epiphany. “She’s a social worker with DSHS. Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. She oversees kids who are dependents of the court.”

      “Foster children,” Bailey said slowly.

      “Some of them. Some she supervises in their own homes, making sure the families are showing up for counseling, keeping their kids clean, not abusing them.”

      She gave a funny laugh. “I suppose she majored in psychology.”

      “I don’t know. She has a master’s degree in social work from UW.”

      “And me, I still have another year just to get my BA.”

      “Bailey.” He waited until she was looking at him. “She’s a year younger than you, but she had advantages you didn’t. She had parents who put her through college. She didn’t have to earn her own way. She had support.”

      After a moment, she nodded.

      “You do have something in common. She lived in foster homes for several years before your parents took her in. All I know is that her mother died, but I don’t get the feeling her life was any picnic before that, either.”

      “So on that watershed day, the seesaw flipped.” And she sounded flippant when he knew she felt anything but.

      “You know it isn’t that simple.”

      “Kinda seems that way.”

      “It was three more years before your parents took in Eve.”

      She scowled. “I wish you’d quit calling them that.”

      “Your parents? Why? They are.”

      “Were.”

      “Ah.”

      The scowl morphed into a glower. “What’s that mean?”

      He gave into impulse and took her hand again. “It means I get it.”

      “Does it mean you’ll quit calling them that?” She tugged to get her hand free, but half-heartedly.

      “I’ll try,” he said. “No guarantee.”

      “Great,” she muttered.

      He smiled, squeezed her hand and let it go. “Hey, you want dessert?”

      “Are their pies as good as they look?”

      “Why do you think I come here?”

      He hadn’t seen many of her smiles yet, but he especially liked this one.

      “Of course I want dessert.” She pushed away her plate, only a few fries uneaten. “I don’t suppose you’d like to have breakfast with us tomorrow.”

      Despite the tone that said, Of course I’m not serious, he felt a glow of warmth beneath his breastbone. She might deny it, but she wanted him at her side in the morning.

      “I wasn’t invited,” he pointed out.

      “I noticed.” She sighed. “And I know I have to do this. It’s just...” After a moment she shrugged. “Will you think I’m even more of a coward if I confess I hope your Eve isn’t there?”

      “Not my Eve,” he said curtly, then frowned at his own vehemence. Damn, he had to call Eve. “And no, I don’t blame you. I doubt she will be. She’ll understand they want time with you. To get to know you, and...” He hesitated.

      “Stare at me?”

      His mouth quirked. “Probably. I was going to say, to rejoice.”

      “Fine,” she finally said. But then she looked at him, dead serious. “Will you be masterminding the press conference?”

      “Yes.”

      “Can we, um, talk about it?”

      “Yeah.” He waited until they’d both ordered pie and the waitress was walking away before he took her hand again. “Here’s the plan.”

      She held on tight.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      “I OWE YOU an apology for yesterday. I mean, for bolting the way I did,” Bailey said first thing the next morning, after arriving at the Lawsons’ house.

      Kirk looked at her kindly. “We understood.”

      He had a good face, craggy and lined, and his eyes... I have his eyes, she thought in shock.

      “Of course we did,” Karen hastened to add, but less believably. More than Kirk, she made Bailey uneasy. Maybe mother and daughter had been closer than father and daughter. It did make sense. But also, before coming to Washington for this reunion, Bailey had searched online for the original newspaper articles about her disappearance. She knew that she’d been at a swimming lesson at the high school pool, open all summer for community use. That particular day, Karen had decided to run some errands during the time rather than watch. She’d been held up at train tracks while a very long freight train passed, making her a few minutes late. When she arrived at the high school, most of the kids who had taken lessons at the same time were gone with their parents. Others had arrived for the next set of lessons, but nobody had seen Hope. Not struggling with a man, not waiting, not so much as leaving the dressing room although she had apparently changed, because the locker she’d used was empty and her swim bag had disappeared, too. And Karen Lawson had to have struggled for twenty-three years with the knowledge that, if only she’d stayed to watch the lesson, her child wouldn’t have been abducted. If only she’d started back to the high school two minutes sooner, she’d have crossed the tracks before the train came by, and would have been there to meet her daughter in the dressing room.

      If only.

      Bailey hadn’t had any reason to feel guilt; she didn’t get close enough to people to let them down. But she understood the concept, and if only had to be the most damning of phrases.

      “Please, come in and sit down,” Karen said. “Breakfast is ready.”

      “Is Eve here this morning?”

      “She let me know last night that she couldn’t make it,” Karen said over her shoulder. “Work, I’m sure.”

      Relieved though she was, Bailey had to wonder if Eve had really felt welcome. Or did she feel as if she was extraneous

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