LITMIR.BIZ

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is around you.”

      “He’s downright terrified every time I touch him.” Why had Josh let his mother’s need to protect their family’s reputation, her insistence that Melanie was exaggerating as always, shame his sister into silence about her relationship with Daniel’s father? A man their mother had been mortified to learn Melanie had lived with for five years, but had never married. Josh would give anything not to be piecing together the disturbing details now. To have been there for Melanie when she’d needed him most. To understand what her son needed now.

      “Daniel’s nervous around all adults,” he added, “but men especially. He watches every move I make, like he’s expecting me to shout boo or something. Like he can’t turn his back, or I might come after him.”

      “And when he first came here, he was nonresponsive and withdrawn if you confronted him directly.” Barbara’s gaze measured Josh’s frustration.

      “Yeah.”

      Just like Melanie had been.

      “But this time, when you pressed him, he pushed back, at least for a moment.”

      Her words rattled around in Josh’s head, then came together in a startling flash of clarity.

      “Yeah,” he repeated, amazed. “He actually shoved me out of the way.”

      He and Daniel had taken a haphazard step in the right direction, and Josh hadn’t even seen it.

      “Good.” She nodded and gave him a smile. She headed toward the back of the house. “Why don’t we start with Daniel’s room, then. I can usually tell from a child’s personal space how he feels about his surroundings.”

      Josh’s warm feeling of accomplishment fizzled, heartburn rushing to take its place.

      Like a bloodhound, Barbara had sniffed trouble and was heading deeper into his nightmare. He shook his head and followed in her wake.

      He was three steps from the bedroom when the doorbell chimed, then jingled again.

      He bit back a curse as Barbara disappeared into Daniel’s sty of a room. Relieved, actually, that he wouldn’t have to witness her disappointment and shock, Josh turned and retraced his steps to the front of the house.

      What now?

      AMY PUSHED HER REBELLIOUS curls behind her ear as she waited at the Whites’ door. Sweat trickled between her shoulder blades.

      She hadn’t taken the time to change out of her sapphire-colored dress suit. That would have given her one chance too many to talk herself out of this.

      She needed more information about Becky. End of story. And that made apologizing to Josh her first course of business. Asking for his help was the hard-to-swallow second step, but there was no avoiding that, either. She reached to press the bell a third time. Midring, the heavy door jerked open, revealing an all-grown-up Joshua White she should have been expecting but wasn’t.

      She’d been prepared for something along the lines of the boy she’d left behind. But the man before her was so much more than a replay of days gone by. Tall and classically handsome, broader at the shoulders, firmer at the jaw, Josh no longer sported the relaxed ease of the comfortably wealthy. The lines on his face spoke of responsibility and determination. Of a life not quite under his control, but he’d be damned if he was giving up.

      Still blond and too good-looking by anyone’s standards, dressed in rumpled but clearly expensive business attire, he stared at her for a moment before his pale-blue eyes widened with recognition.

      “Amy?”

      Just the sound of her name rolling off his lips with the same hint of Southern inflection as before made her incapable of saying anything in return. To her horror, her pulse gave a hiccuping flutter and her breath caught on some unexplainable obstruction in her throat.

      What was wrong with her?

      She realized a sappy grin was spreading across her face, and forced herself to stifle it.

      “Amy?” he repeated. He checked over his shoulder, then turned back. “What can I do for you?”

      “Oh, um…” She tucked back the hair that refused to stay where it belonged today. Straightened her purse strap on her shoulder. Fidgeted with the tail of her jacket like a schoolgirl. Get a grip! “I was wondering if I could have a few minutes of your time—”

      “Not right now.”

      The coldness of his words washed over her. Where was the caring, it’s-going-to-be-okay Josh from last night?

      “I’m sorry.” He winced and propped the hand not holding the doorknob on his hip. “I don’t mean to be rude. But this isn’t a good time—”

      “Well, Daniel’s room is certainly an odyssey into the mind,” a feminine voice said from behind him. “And I was glancing through one of his homework notebooks. It looks like— Oh! I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

      A middle-aged woman dressed in a nondescript brown suit stopped at Josh’s side. Her gaze cataloged Amy’s appearance, then she turned her attention to the man shifting his weight from one foot to the other between them.

      “I’ll leave you to your guest. But there’s an important matter we need to discuss before I leave.”

      Amy watched the other woman walk into the sitting room off the hall. She and Josh had often done homework in that room, sprawling on the heirloom rug in front of an overstuffed couch and chairs, devouring snacks and trying to master the intellectual acrobatics required to complete assignments in geometry, history and American lit. Josh had tackled each assignment with ease, of course. He’d been brilliant, even in elementary school. A little bookish and preoccupied with making sure everything was perfect, but alarmingly smart. And he’d also been kind and genuinely interested in helping her do well. There’d been a lot of teacher in him even then.

      She shook her head at the folly of looking back, when she’d made such a disaster of everything since.

      She squared her shoulders. Josh clearly had company to get back to. What had the woman said about his nephew? “I’m sorry to barge in like this, but I came to talk about Becky. I’d hoped you could tell me a little more about this SST meeting you’ve scheduled for tomorrow. Maybe give me some idea of what to expect. What to talk with Becky about tonight.”

      Josh chewed on the side of his mouth, glancing into the sitting room, then back at her. With a sigh, he dropped his head and opened the door wider for her to enter.

      “Of course we can talk,” he said. “I’m glad you’ve made it down for the meeting.” The slight smile he gave her softened his features. His eyes, however, had her wishing she knew what was wrong, so maybe she could help. “I’m sorry I was so short on the phone last night. I had no cause to question your commitment to caring for Becky.”

      “Yes, you did.” She tried to lighten the awkward moment with her own smile. His frown confirmed she hadn’t quite pulled it off. “I don’t blame you for jumping to conclusions, Josh. And I wasn’t exactly on my best behavior. It’s been a rough year.”

      He nodded his acceptance of her roundabout apology. A flick of his wrist allowed him to check his watch again. “Just give me a few minutes to finish up with my social worker.”

      “Your social worker?”

      “No… I mean, yes.” He tugged at his partially undone tie. “She’s my nephew’s caseworker from Family Services.”

      As if that explained everything.

      He squinted when she didn’t respond. Then his expression became guarded, as if he was bracing for an invisible blow. “You haven’t heard, have you?”

      “I didn’t even know Melanie had a little boy.” She measured each word carefully as she tried to keep pace with his shifting mood. “After the way we…the way you and I left things… Before my wedding, that is…”

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