Thanking her for letting me know, I pressed my lips to the top of Eloise’s head and then turned back to Molly. “Hey, have I ever raised my voice to you?”
“Yeah,” she replied, readjusting the hold of her hands around her legs.
Shocked, I asked, “When?”
Molly sprang up in her seat and straightened her back. “In my room, when I can’t find my shoes to put on.”
“Well, yeah,” I said with a laugh. “I’m at the front door, and if I don’t yell, you can’t hear me, silly. But have I ever yelled at you when you’ve done something wrong or you had an accident?”
“No,” she replies with a sigh.
“Right. You don’t ever need to be scared of me, girls,” I assured, looking between my two daughters. A year later and they still had moments like this. It was getting better, but it always left me wondering how bad Sasha’s temper had been and how much she neglected them. “I don’t know what happened when you lived with your mom. I only got to see you when she allowed, but things are different now. I promise.”
“Okay, Daddy,” they said in unison, their sweet, innocent voices sounding like little bells in my ears.
I cut a fresh slice of pizza for Molly as Eloise finished her first one, then grabbed myself another before turning back to Andrew. His eyelids were closed into tiny slits, and his fingers gripped the edge of the table so hard his knuckles turned the same color as the parmesan cheese in the glass shaker at the end of the table.
“What’s the matter?” I asked him, setting down my slice and taking a sip of water.
“That… woman. What the hell did she do to your kids?” he murmured angrily, the vein over his eye pulsing with each word.
“I don’t know. From what I can gather, she and the live-in nanny ran a tight ship. But I don’t have any reason to believe she did anything more than raise her voice at them.” The courts didn’t either, which was why they stayed with her.
“She better hope not.” Andrew mumbled something about hunting her down, but I couldn’t quite make it out over the chatter between my daughters, who were talking about the bed-and-breakfast.
Andrew calmed down and chimed in to the twins’ conversation, explaining that the house had been in his family for centuries and was one of the first homes in the town before it was Ashfield. Molly and Eloise were riveted as he told them how the house was nothing more than decrepit wood and bricks until Colton bought it and renovated it with Autumn.
“Is that why it’s called Craw… Crawford?” Eloise asked as she set down her fork and took a sip of her water.
“Crawford Bed and Breakfast. Yes, it is. My sister made the place incredible. It’s almost like a museum in there.”
In horror, Molly asked, “We can still play, right?”
“Of course, you can,” Andrew responded, but I wasn’t so sure about that. My girls weren’t known for being careful. I had a painting that hung in my previous home that now bore a nasty slash through the middle due to a rogue doll that thought she could fly.
We finished up with lunch, and I asked Andrew a few more questions about our stay. He assured me that, although Autumn wouldn’t be there, his sister Alex would make sure we were taken care of. She was going to stay on the property for the few weeks Autumn and Colton were on their honeymoon.
“You’ll have full access to the kitchen, but she’ll be making your dinners unless you have other plans.”
“Can she cook?” I asked as we stepped out of the restaurant. Unless it was spaghetti or mac and cheese, I was hopeless in the kitchen. A chef delivered our meals for the last year since the girls came to live with me. Before that, I relied on takeout.
“Better than my mom, but don’t tell her I said that,” Andrew joked as he helped Eloise into her car seat as I did the same for Molly. “You sure you’re okay to get there? Sorry I can’t follow. I have a Farmer’s Association meeting in about an hour.”
“On a Saturday?” I asked.
“You’re one to talk,” Andrew jested. He wasn’t wrong. There was no weekend for me, not until recently when I sold my most recent patent.
“Yeah, yeah. Think your dad would be up for a visit tonight or tomorrow?”
“I bet my parents will be at your door long before you get yourself settled.”
Laughing, I said goodbye to my friend and started the SUV.
In the back seat, the girls sat quietly looking out their windows, taking in all the beauty we passed. The fields and mountains off in the distance never ceased to amaze me. The last time I drove through here, I was headed toward the airport with the sun moving over the horizon, ready to start the day. I’d left an unfamiliar apartment without a backward glance or a chance to consider whatever I’d gotten into the night before. Ignoring my cottonmouth, I had my sights set on the first flight back to California to get my girls.
The road began twisting around the hills, and I knew we were getting closer to our destination. Before I knew it, we crested the ninety-degree turn, and the majestic house perched on the hill came into view.
“There it is, girls.”
