Page 28 of Sterling Touch
But Amelia lowers her eyes and chews her lip, fighting a smile. When she finally looks up, I wink.
Us girls gotta stick together.
Throughout the night, the kids alternate between playing video games and watching a horror movie, although I don’t think Amelia was thrilled by the selection.
By eight o’clock, the Stanton kids hadn’t heard from their father about when he planned to pick them up or if I should bring them home.
By nine-fifteen, I am agitated by Henry’s lack of response to his kids texting him.
By ten, I am pissed.
By ten-oh-eight, I make a disgruntled suggestion. “Why don’t you guys spend the night here?”
Maybe this had been Henry’s hope all along—date-night, kid-free evening. I’d have been all for it, if Henry had simply asked, instead of relying on, and virtually ignoring, text messages from his children.
“Dad says cool,” Atticus offers within seconds of my asking.
I’m livid. How could Henry respond so quickly while he’s been anywhere from radio silent to delayed reaction every other time his children have reached out to him?
Amelia glances at her brother. “But I don’t have pajamas, or my book, or—” She cuts herself off when her brother narrows his eyes at her.
“You don’t need Blue.” His tone is quiet but condescending, like she’s embarrassing him.
“Who’s Blue?” Hudson asks, glancing from brother to sister.
Atticus continues to glare at his sister, who eventually, sheepishly, says, “No one.”
Mother’s intuition tells me Blue is someone special, or rathersomethingimportant, and I recall sleeping with a well-loved stuffed pony as a kid. Doing so made me feel strangely close to a woman I hadn’t known. My mother.
My heart softens toward the young girl, reminding myself she doesn’t have a mother either and she’s stuck with Henry as a father. For that matter, I muster compassion for Atticus as well.
“Let me see if I can find you something to sleep in and a book. My nieces are always leaving things here. I can put you in one of our extra bedrooms while the boys sleep in Hudson’s room. It’s time for bed, anyway.”
With five bedrooms on the upper level, I occupy my old bedroom while Hudson has his own room. We converted one small room into a den of sorts for Hudson’s gaming system slash study space, leaving other rooms as extra bedrooms.
“It’s not even ten-thirty,” Atticus shrieks, appalled.
“And you boys have practice tomorrow,” I remind him before giving Hudson a hard mom-glare.
“Come on.” Hudson turns for the staircase while Atticus looks after his friend in shock, then glances back at me, before following Hudson.
“Your mom is kind of a ballbuster,” Atticus mutters as he catches up to Hudson before they reach the staircase.
“I know, but she’s all right,” Hudson defends.
Score for me, I guess. I doubt Atticus agrees, but I turn my attention to Amelia.
“Boys.” I shake my head and Amelia rolls her eyes, on board with me.
Within minutes, I settle Amelia into the room we use for my nieces and find her a T-shirt of mine plus a too-small-for-me pair of shorts to wear. I also luck out that among the collection of books I keep on hand for my nieces, there is one Ameliawants to read. As I step toward the door, Hudson appears just outside it in the hallway.
When I give him a puzzling look, he holds up a stuffed bear. “I thought this might help Amelia.”
As sheriff, Stone has a collection of Courage Bears, a bear with a sheriff star on its chest, that the department gives to kids who happen to be in the station for whatever reason.
My heart melts at the thoughtfulness of my son. “That’s sweet, buddy. Want to give it to her yourself?” Even though she’s already climbed into the bed, I’ll wait here while he offers his gift.
“Nah.” His ears turn pink reminding me how Ford’s do the same thing. Thrusting the bear toward me, he says, “You can just give it to her.”
