Roz Fox - Married in Haste

“Abby requested a two-month leave. I assumed you knew. Aren’t you managing Sam’s medical case?”

“Sam? Oh, uh…wrong Dr. Galloway. My father’s the surgeon. So, you’re saying Abby’s at home caring for Sam?”

“I suppose Sam is home by now. Last time we talked she was only caring for the doubles. Er, that’s the twins.”

“I had no idea. The boy must be in worse shape than I thought. I’ll grab the girls and run by Abby’s. I should’ve done that sooner.”

“She’d like that. I get the feeling she’s floundering. Or thinks she is. Good seeing you, Ben. Tell Abby hello for me.”

“I will.” He turned away and bumped into Stacy Thorpe, who blocked his path.

Raina Miller had returned to her line of students. She turned and called across the hall. “Ben, I don’t know if you’re aware that Abby’s not at her town house. She’s moved in with the boys.”

Boy, did that scenario sound familiar to Ben. “Do you have an address? Or are you allowed to give it out?”

Raina grinned. “I think she’d say it’s okay to make an exception for you. I have to walk my class to the busses. You’re meeting the girls? How about if I stop at the office in ten minutes? I’ll look up the address on the register and jot it down for you.”

“Hey, thanks. I’ll owe you one. Shoot, I already owe you for watching Erin and Mollie. So, I’ll owe you two.”

As Ben excused himself and skirted the teacher who’d taken over for Abby, he had an odd feeling Stacy Thorpe had slipped across the hall to question Raina Miller about him. Ben resisted turning around. He left dating women half his age to his dad. Ben and Marlo had found his preference for trophy girlfriends embarrassing. While it was evident Kirk would never change, Ben made a point of dating women who were smart, articulate and most of all, mature.

His youngest niece, Mollie, saw him first. “Unca Ben! Unca Ben. Erin, Unca Ben’s here.” The girl ran up to him, her eyes aglow. “Erin didn’t think you’d really pick us up.”

“Well, here I am.” He knelt and gave each girl a hug.

Erin, always more reserved than her sister, pulled away to adjust her wire-rimmed glasses. “Is Mrs. Clark sick? Do we have to find a new sitter?” The child’s somber eyes reflected her concern.

“Mrs. Clark’s fine, honey. Everything’s fine. And didn’t I used to come and get you now and then?”

“Only when you wanted to see Abby, er—I mean, Ms. Drummond.”

Ben tweaked the lopsided bow he’d laboriously tied in Erin’s long dark hair that morning. “I think you can call her Abby. You never told me she was on leave. I thought we might run by and visit her. Would that be agreeable?”

“What’s agree…ble?” Mollie screwed up her face.

Ben swung the sturdy girl aloft and tickled her to make her laugh. “It means, squirt, that I’m asking if visiting Abby is okay with you and your sister.”

Giggling, Mollie bumped her forehead against his. “Sure, Unca Ben. I miss Abby. Maybe if we ask her nice, she’ll come back and be my teacher next year.”

“Erin, you’re awfully quiet.” Ben glanced down at his elder niece. She wore an all too serious expression.

“Nothing’s the same. Miss Abby’s not ever going to come back. Just like Mommy’s never coming back. I don’t like how you and Mollie laugh. That’s wrong! Nothing’s funny anymore. Laughing makes everything worse!”

“Hey, button eyes!” Ben set Mollie down quickly, and bent to look at Erin. He gathered her tense little body against his own. “Baby, sometimes people need to laugh to keep from crying.”

But his words didn’t penetrate Erin McBride’s unhappiness. Her face crumpled and tears tracked down her cheeks. Holding her as tight as he dared, Ben worried that she’d lost weight since he’d done her last checkup.

“Goodness. Erin, did you fall and hurt yourself?” Raina Miller rounded the corner and stopped in front of the trio.

Rising, Ben gave a warning shake of his head. And Raina assumed an I see expression. No doubt she did understand. Surely those who worked with quake survivors weren’t unused to mopping up tears.

Raina passed Ben a paper on which she’d written Abby’s address. “Normally I’d tell you to give Abby a hard time about leaving the rest of us to deal with the fallout. Except I suspect she has her hands full with her own fallout. So don’t say a word. Just give her a big hug from me. I’ll phone her over the weekend. I have a few bits of scuttlebutt she’ll want to hear.”

Touching the paper to his brow in salute, Ben steered his nieces out of the building and toward his car. He settled both girls into the back, buckling Mollie into her booster seat. Afterward, he made a cursory check of Erin’s buckle. The first day he’d driven the girls, Erin had thrown a fit because he’d yanked on her belt. Now Ben played it cool. She’d insisted she was eight and not a baby who needed help buckling herself in. But Ben had seen some nasty injuries to kids who weren’t properly fastened in their seats. So he continued to discreetly check her buckle.

Placing Abby’s new address on the dash, Ben realized he’d wrongly assumed Elliot’s home would be adjacent to his church. This address was a mile or two beyond that. Beach property, unless he was way off base.

As the house numbers counted upward, he knew he was right. When at last he reached the address, he stopped and stared. The place was a rambling two-story structure built on a knoll. The backyard probably sloped to the beach. Ben imagined the view of Alki Point would be spectacular from an upper deck he could see, it extended all the way around the house. Gray shake siding, typical of homes built in the 1900s, was warped and weather-faded, but to Ben, it added to the overall charm.

“Why are we stopping here, Unca Ben?” Mollie kicked restlessly at the back of his seat.

“This is where Mrs. Miller said Abby’s staying. Did you know she’s caring for the Drummond boys? I think you girls know the twins.”

“Noah and Michael pull my braids,” Erin announced. “Why is Ms. Drummond staying with them at this old house? I like where she lived before. She had an awards party for her students there. It’s nicer.”

Ben was at a loss. How should he answer Erin? According to a newsletter the school had sent home to parents and guardians after the quake, Mr. Conrad had spoken to all classes about the personal losses many of their classmates had suffered. Ben himself had attended quite a few funerals. Too many. Wanting to spare the girls needless anguish, he’d gone alone to pay his respects. Now Ben wondered if he shouldn’t have at least discussed Abby’s situation with the girls.

“Erin, will you unbuckle Mollie?”

“They’ve got bicycles,” Mollie said loudly. She pointed to a cluster of bikes and trikes in a detached garage whose door opened onto the street near where her uncle had parked. “Maybe the twins will let us ride, huh, Erin?”

Erin scowled. “They’re boys’ bikes, Mollie. We’re wearing dresses.”

“So?” Mollie skipped ahead toward concrete steps leading up to the house. “I’m wearing tights. So what if somebody sees my slip? It’s the new one Mommy bought me before school started. That’d be okay, wouldn’t it, Unca Ben?”

Ben glanced quickly around the area and determined that the sidewalk was fairly flat in spite of the hilly terrain. The neighborhood looked peacefully rural. “Sure, Mollie girl. You’ll have to ask Abby first, of course.”

Erin gripped her sister’s shoulder, making the younger child flinch. “Mommy always said we had to change out of our school clothes before we play outside.” The girl faced Ben. “We have books to read until we go home. Here, Mollie, this is your library book.” Erin shoved a thin volume into her sister’s hands.