Willow Brook Road(39)
After parking on a side street when he couldn’t find a spot along Main or on Shore Road, he headed for the real estate office. As he’d expected, the lights were burning brightly despite the lateness of the hour. He could see Susie at her desk staring at the phone. Taking a deep breath and praying for guidance, he went inside, a smile plastered on his face.
“Here you are,” he said cheerfully, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “I thought you’d be home by now. Friday night’s always been our date night.”
She flushed guiltily. “I forgot all about it being Friday. I got caught up in something here,” she said.
“What?” he inquired mildly.
She frowned at the question. “Why the doubt in your voice? You know I work late sometimes.”
“Of course you do. I was just curious about what had kept you tonight. Is there a big deal pending?”
“Something like that,” she said, not meeting his gaze.
Mack concluded that dancing around the subject wasn’t going to get answers. He sat in the chair beside her desk. “Suze, what’s going on?”
“I told you I’m working.”
“It looked to me as if you might be waiting for the phone to ring.” Suddenly the answer came to him, though he didn’t like it. “Are you waiting for Sam to call about taking a look at that house?”
“He said he would,” she replied defensively. “Getting Bobby settled is important, so why hasn’t he done it?” She regarded him with alarm. “Nothing’s happened to Bobby, has it?”
“Bobby’s just fine as far as I know. They had dinner with Kevin and Shanna and the kids last night. When I spoke to Sam earlier this evening, he mentioned that he’s signing Bobby up for T-ball in the morning, then Nell’s giving him a cooking lesson.”
For the first time since he’d arrived, there was a spark of interest in Susie’s eyes. “How’d that happen?”
“I gather Sam threw himself on Carrie’s mercy and she set it up. She’s taking lessons from Nell, too.”
“Of course she is,” Susie said, a surprising edge to her voice.
Mack knew there’d once been a family rivalry between Susie and Jess, but this was something new. “Hey, why the attitude?”
“He’s single. He has a kid. Of course Carrie would latch on to him, the same way she made herself available to Noah when he first got to town.”
Mack regarded her with shock. In all the years he’d known her and through some very tough times, he’d never heard her be so mean-spirited, except perhaps when he’d stupidly invited an ex-girlfriend to work at the paper. Even then, his wife had struggled hard to hide her distaste for the woman and how much the situation upset her.
“You know perfectly well that Carrie and Abby pitched in to help Noah get settled because Caitlyn was starting her internship at the hospital in Baltimore,” he said quietly. “There was nothing more to it, certainly not anything like what you’re implying.”
“You’re so naive,” Susie said.
Mack found the whole conversation increasingly puzzling. If Susie was going down the path he feared she might be, her jealousy of Carrie was a worrisome sign.
“Since when do you have such a jaded attitude toward Carrie?” he asked, keeping his tone as level as he could. Sparking a fight would get him nowhere.
She winced at the question, but didn’t respond. That left him no choice but to be direct.
“Is it because she’s spending time helping Sam with Bobby and you wanted to be the one to do that? If so, Suze, that’s a problem.”
He tried to hold her gaze, but eventually she sighed and looked away, though not before he saw tears forming in her eyes. She buried her face in her hands.
“I’m turning into such a witch, aren’t I? How can I be jealous of someone who’s just trying to be nice?”
When the tears began to fall in earnest, Mack gathered her close. “You’re the furthest thing from a witch. You’re just hurting right now. I know you, babe. You’d never say things like this if you weren’t.”
“I can’t seem to stop myself. These awful thoughts keep coming to me and I get so angry. Thank goodness it’s you and not someone else in the family. They’d probably want me to go into therapy.”
When Mack didn’t reply right away, she regarded him with dismay. “That’s what you want, too, isn’t it?”
Rather than answering directly, he asked, “Do you think therapy might help? You’ve been through a lot. Not many people could have handled it as well as you have.”
“You have. You were a rock through all of my cancer treatments. You handled every curve that was thrown at us. Even when we found out we weren’t getting the baby, you were so blasted strong. I wanted to be like that, but this adoption fiasco was the final straw. I don’t have any hope or strength left in me.”