16
Carrie was taking Jackson for a walk in his stroller Monday afternoon when she spotted Mack and Susie pulling into Sam’s driveway. She was about to make a U-turn and go back home, when Bobby spotted her and came running across the lawn, shouting her name. Susie’s head snapped around, Mack winced and Carrie wished the ground would open up and swallow her.
“Stop it!” she muttered under her breath. After all, this was her neighborhood. She had a perfect right to take a walk on this street. Plastering a smile on her face, she called out a greeting to Bobby.
“There’s a surprise for me at the house,” Bobby told her excitedly when he reached her. “Sam won’t tell, but I’m gonna find out in a minute. You wanna see? Maybe Jackson would like it, too.”
She glanced in Sam’s direction for guidance and he nodded. “Absolutely,” she told Bobby. “Let’s see what this amazing surprise might be.”
On her way to the house, she managed a civilized greeting for her cousin and Mack, but she could tell by the look in Susie’s eyes that she was unhappy with the addition to the celebration, whatever it was. On any other day, maybe Carrie would have been more sensitive and made herself scarce, but after overhearing Susie’s accusations yesterday, she wasn’t about to do that. O’Briens didn’t hide. Of course, what they eventually did was speak their minds, and she wasn’t quite ready to do that, either, especially not in front of an audience.
At the front door, Carrie paused in amazement. “You have furniture!” The living room had been transformed from an empty shell practically overnight into a charming, cozy room with the addition of a sofa, chair and tables she’d last seen in Susie’s apartment before she and Mack had built their home on Beach Lane.
“Yes, but that’s not the surprise,” Bobby told her. “Sam says it’s something else, something just for me.”
Carrie glanced at her cousin. “I heard you were gathering up things for Sam’s house. You did a great job. This looks wonderful.”
“Thanks,” Susie said tightly.
“She also picked up a few things she thought Bobby might like,” Sam said. He pointed toward a closet. “Check in there, pal.”
Bobby raced across the living room and threw open the door. His eyes widened even as he gave a whoop of delight. “For me? All of it?”
“That’s what I hear,” Sam said. “This is all Susie’s doing, so be sure you thank her.”
As Bobby started bringing out bags and investigating the contents, there were more whoops and gasps. Even Carrie was a little in awe of the magnitude of Susie’s generosity.
Bobby paused midway through checking out his unexpected haul and threw his arms around Susie. “Thank you, thank you!”
“You really did go above and beyond, yet again,” Sam said, clearly taken aback.
Susie’s face flushed. “I just wanted him to feel at home here. I was pretty sure you’d left a lot of things behind in storage and I thought new might be nice, anyway. Sort of a fresh start.”
“That was really thoughtful,” Mack told her, giving her hand a squeeze.
“It was,” Carrie agreed, though she suspected she and Mack both understood there was a lot more behind the magnanimous gesture. Susie, with all the best intentions in the world, was trying to buy Bobby’s affections and fill the void in her heart.
Carrie could understand all that. She could sympathize, knowing how Susie had been counting on the adoption that had fallen through at the very last minute. What she was having a hard time with was Susie trying to cast her as the bad guy because she was forming a bond with Bobby and Sam, too.
“How about something to drink?” Sam suggested, getting to his feet. “I have sodas, beer, water.”
“I should probably go,” Carrie said. “I need to get Jackson over to Noah’s.”
She saw the undisguised relief in Susie’s eyes as she spoke. Sam didn’t argue, but he did walk her to the door. Outside he studied her, his expression puzzled.
“What happened just now?”
She looked into his eyes. “No idea what you mean.”
“The tension in there was so thick I could have cut it with a knife. Are you and Susie fighting about something?”
“No,” she said. And that much was true. They hadn’t exchanged a single harsh word with each other. But those blasted battle lines had been drawn just the same. She wondered if things between her and her cousin would ever be the same. The irony was that they both knew Susie was madly in love with her husband, so it wasn’t as if they were fighting over the same man. No, the battle was for the heart of a little boy, who needed all the love he could get from both of them and anyone else in this new world to which he was adapting.