Willow Brook Road(47)

“Of course I would, but you’d hate yourself for running away.”

“Surprisingly, not that much,” she replied, but she did stay where she was. “Not a word, remember? You promised.”

“He won’t hear this from me,” Luke agreed. “But don’t wait too long to fill him in, Carrie. It’ll only annoy him when he does find out.”

No question about it, she thought to herself, then managed a bright and hopefully innocent smile as her grandparents came through the door. She stood up and gave them both hugs.

“Sorry to bolt, but I have things to do,” she said, thinking of the reading she needed to do for her online classes. She’d ordered the books from the university bookstore and they’d been on her doorstep earlier. She could hardly wait to check them out and do her first assignment. Her enthusiasm was a far cry from the days when she’d hated wasting time on studying in college.

Her grandfather regarded her with suspicion. “You’ve barely touched your wine.”

“No time,” she said. “Love you.”

“Enjoy your evening,” her grandmother called after her. “I hope it’s a hot date that has you rushing off.”

“Hot date?” Grandpa Mick echoed indignantly. “What’s wrong with you, woman? You don’t say something like that to our granddaughter.”

“You don’t,” she corrected. “I’m the realist. If we want her to be truly happy, she needs someone in her life.”

Carrie didn’t linger to hear what her grandfather had to say to that, but she had a hunch her grandmother was about to get an earful. Better Grandma Megan than her!



Sam looked down into Bobby’s tearstained face and felt the urge to shed a few tears of his own. They’d just finished dinner at Sally’s—another burger and fries for Bobby—when Sam had tried to explain that he needed to get Bobby enrolled in school first thing in the morning and then he had to go back to work.

“I don’t want to go to school here,” Bobby had shouted, drawing stares from the other customers. “I want to go at home with my friends.”

“You have friends here,” Sam reminded him, unable to keep a note of desperation out of his voice.

“They’re not my real friends. I miss my old friends. I miss Mommy and Daddy. I want to go home.”

Sam knew that deep down Bobby understood that simply wasn’t possible. He even knew that Bobby had started to like Chesapeake Shores. He’d just bumped up against the reality of the huge change in his life. Sam seemed to do the same thing about a million times a day. The shock of it still hadn’t worn off, and he hadn’t come close to dealing with his own feelings about the loss of his sister.

Focused on Bobby now, Sam urged him out of their booth and headed outside, hoping to finish this delicate negotiation with some degree of privacy. He took Bobby’s hand and crossed the street to the playground on the town green. He chose a secluded bench under a majestic old oak tree and sat down, then patted the seat beside him.

For a minute, it looked as if Bobby might stubbornly resist, his little jaw set and more of those heartbreaking tears rolling down his cheeks, but eventually he heaved a sigh and climbed onto the bench. He did, however, keep some distance between himself and Sam.

Flying by the seat of his pants, Sam said quietly, “You know you live here now with me. I know how confusing it’s been and what a huge change it is, but we’re in this together.”

“But you’re going to work,” Bobby said, looking lost and scared. “What will I do?”

“In another couple of weeks, you’ll start school, you’ll meet lots and lots of new friends, and you’ll be so busy you won’t even have time to think about me.”

“What about tomorrow?”

Sam made an impulsive decision, one he prayed that Mack wouldn’t object to. “You can come to the newspaper office with me tomorrow, if you want to. You can bring your books and your games.”

Bobby’s silence suggested he was considering the idea. “I guess that would be okay,” he said eventually, though he didn’t sound very happy about it.

“Would you rather spend the day with Davey and Johnny?” Sam asked. “I can check with Shanna and Kevin to see who’s taking care of them and maybe work that out.”

Bobby fell silent, then heaved a sigh. “That might be okay.”

But when Sam called Shanna and learned that Henry was caring for his younger siblings, he couldn’t bring himself to ask that Bobby be added to the mix. While Davey might not be a problem, Johnny and the baby would be enough of a handful for the teenager.