She laughed, shaking her finger at me. “Itdoesn’t take a genius to see the lie there.”
It might not take a genius, but since sheworked for an interesting alphabet soup agency in DC that had one of thevaguest websites I’d ever seen, I was pretty sure it did take some kind ofgovernment agent.
“Is it the mysterious friend you stayedwith last Friday?” Since we both knew she’d probably already searchedeverything she could find about my personal life, I nodded.
“Yes, and thank you again for watchingBecca on Friday. I appreciate that.” I was sincere, but she rolled her eyes.
“Stop thanking me. It’s the least I can doand we both know it.” Looking up at the ceiling like she could see through thehouse to where Becca was sleeping, she smiled. “Besides, she’s so cute. I’ll bea terrible aunt and ditch you two when she gets to the obnoxious age.”
Laughing, I groaned. “Don’t say that.You’ll make it happen just by talking about it.”
Giving me an evil grin, she shrugged. “Notmy problem. I’m only here for a few more months.”
Her job, and the travel schedule that camewith it, was one of the main reasons Paul and Anna had listed me as theguardian for Becca instead of Lynn. The fact that she’d flat out said shewouldn’t be the right person to raise Becca if something happened to them hadjust supported their decision.
We’d just never thought either of us wouldbe called on to raise their little princess. But one drunk driver had been allit’d taken to change the course of all of our lives and now I was a father withthe title of uncle.
Rolling my eyes teasingly, I wagged my fingerat her. “You’re just going to keep skipping in and out, only getting the goodparts of her childhood.”
But the reminder that she would leave againat some point had me biting back the urge to tell her that she needed to makesure I could reach her this time. She’d been out of the country on some kind ofhush-hushtrade dealwhere everyone kept saying she couldn’t be reachedwhen the accident had happened.
I’d given up trying to figure out what shedid for the government, but it’d caused major problems when after the accidentI’d realized that while I had custody of Becca, their lawyer had said theirmoney needed to be handled by someone else…and that someone else had been Lynn.
So I’d been left with a traumatized child anda house I couldn’t afford and almost no money. It wouldn’t have been so bad ifthe blasted will hadn’t said it would take both of us to sell the house.Keeping everything afloat had taken all I had, but thankfully, Lynn was backnow.
I knew she felt terrible and was stillgrieving in her own way, but it was going to take a long time for me to getover the stress and fear I’d lived with for months. Paul had always been more take-chargebetween us, even when we were kids.
I’d learned to deal with a lot in a shortperiod, and sometimes I wasn’t sure if Lynn really understood how scared I’dbeen. While I loved my job, I hadn’t been prepared to pay for daycare andbabysitters and everything else that came with having a child. If it hadn’tbeen for a lot of generous people, I didn’t know what would’ve happened.
She laughed. “Quite possibly.”
Yeah, that’s what I’d thought she’d say.
Then, looking more contrite, she sighed. IfI hadn’t seen how convincingly she could lie firsthand, I’d have believed it.“But I will do my best to make up for my absences when I come back. Haven’t Islaved away in the kitchen?”
I snorted. “You order takeout and changeout the boxes. You’re not ever going to convince me you figured out how to makeChicken McNuggets.”
I wasn’t quite that gullible, but she’d hadme fooled until I’d found the Chinese cartons in the big outside trash can.Anna should’ve warned me more about her sister. Just meeting her at a fewfamily get-togethers hadn’t prepared me nearly enough.
“I’ll prove how sweet and helpful I’m goingto be when I come visit.” Now the innocent act fell away, and she looked justas devious as she had before. “How about you tell your mysterious new man thatyou have the night free? I’ll watch the munchkin until you get back in themorning.”
“Are you sure? It’s not Friday, and thatwas our deal.” I hadn’t wanted to take advantage of her or give anyone theimpression that I wasn’t up to taking care of Becca.
Lynn scoffed. “Please. You’re letting mestay here so I don’t have to find another short-term rental, and it’s giving memore time with Becca. Besides, even if you’re gone when she wakes up, we’llwatch cartoons and eat toaster waffles. It’ll be fine.”
Hopefully.
I still wasn’t sureStar Warscartoons were appropriate for a three-year-old, but they ran around the livingroom pretending to have lightsaber battles and Becca thought it was hilarious,so I was trying not to turn into my mother.
When I got to Heaven, she was going to giveme hell for telling her she was overprotective, and my dad was just going tolaugh about the whole thing. He’d never been any help in life, so I wasn’tcounting on him taking control after dying. As a kid it’d driven me nuts, butas an adult, I was starting to see where I got my submissive tendencies from.
“What time do you have to leave heretomorrow?” Before she’d even had a chance to answer, I’d picked up my phoneagain.
She laughed. “Just be here in time to takeher to daycare. That woman at the front desk hates me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Because she knows Iwasn’t the one who taught Becca to say ‘fuck it all.’”
That hadn’t gone over very well.
