Buch lesen: «Special Agent Nanny»

The race to find a kidnapped baby leads the newly formed secret agency Colorado Confidential to a fire in a hospital records room. Now agent Shawn Jameson will match wits with an arsonist while trying not to fall for a beautiful doctor whose secrets he’s sworn to expose…

“Did I hurt you?” Shawn demanded.

Kelley’s dazed eyes searched her body as if determining that everything was intact. Shawn followed her gaze, feeling warmth ignite inside. She looked damn good to him. “I… No, I’m all right. But… Thank you for following me—for keeping me from being hit. The driver must have seen us. Why didn’t he stop to make sure we’re all right?”

“Yeah, why?” But Shawn knew the answer. “Come on. I’m taking you to my place.”

“No, I’m fine. I can drive. I need to get home.”

“You don’t need to get home. Not now.”

“But—”

“Don’t you get it? Someone just tried to run you over, Dr. Stanton. Intentionally. And since he didn’t succeed, he might just try again.”

Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,

We wind up a great summer with a bang this month! Linda O. Johnston continues the hugely popular COLORADO CONFIDENTIAL series with Special Agent Nanny. Don’t forget to look for the Harlequin special-release anthology next month featuring USA TODAY bestselling author Jasmine Cresswell, our very own Amanda Stevens and Harlequin Historicals author Debra Lee Brown. And not to worry, the series continues with two more Harlequin Intrigue titles in November and December.

Joyce Sullivan concludes her companion series THE COLLINGWOOD HEIRS with Operation Bassinet. Find out how this family solves a fiendish plot and finds happiness in one fell swoop. Rounding out the month are two exciting stories. Rising star Delores Fossen takes a unique perspective on the classic secret-baby plot in Confiscated Conception, and a very sexy Cowboy PI is determined to get to the bottom of one woman’s mystery in an all-Western story by Jean Barrett.

Finally, in case you haven’t heard, next month Harlequin Intrigue is increasing its publishing schedule to include two more fantastic romantic suspense books. That’s six titles per month! More variety, more of your favorite authors and of course, more excitement.

It’s a thrilling time for us, and we want to thank all of our loyal readers for remaining true to Harlequin Intrigue. And if you are just learning about our brand of breathtaking romantic suspense, fasten your seat belts for an edge-of-your-seat reading experience. Welcome aboard!

Sincerely,

Denise O’Sullivan

Senior Editor, Harlequin Intrigue

Special Agent Nanny
Linda O. Johnston

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedication:

To the other Colorado Confidential authors, as well as the authors of all the other Confidential series.

I appreciate being in such good company. And, of course, to Fred.

Acknowledgments:

Thanks to Denise O’Sullivan, Melissa Endlich and Allison Lyons for allowing me to participate in Colorado Confidential. It’s been fun!

Also, thanks to Dr. Donald Zangwill and Dr. Kenneth Zangwill for their medical information.

Any mistakes or misdiagnoses are the result of my poetic license, and not their medical licenses.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Linda O. Johnston’s first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for “Best First Mystery Short Story of the Year.” Now, several published short stories and novels later, Linda is recognized for her outstanding work in the romance genre.

A practicing attorney, Linda juggles her busy schedule between mornings of writing briefs, contracts and other legalese, and afternoons of creating memorable tales of the paranormal, time travel, mystery, contemporary and romantic suspense. Armed with an undergraduate degree in journalism with an advertising emphasis from Pennsylvania State University, Linda began her versatile writing career running a small newspaper, then working in advertising and public relations, later obtaining her J.D. degree from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh.

Linda belongs to Sisters in Crime and is actively involved with Romance Writers of America, participating in the Los Angeles, Orange County and Western Pennsylvania chapters. She lives near Universal Studios, Hollywood, with her husband, two sons and two cavalier King Charles spaniels.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Shawn Jameson—An undercover investigator, he never thought much about kids until he had to play nanny to interrogate a beautiful suspected arsonist.

Dr. Kelley Stanton—The lovely doctor spends a lot of time combating rumors against her…as well as fighting her attraction to the man investigating her.

Jenny Stanton—Were the three-year-old’s tantrums after the fire the result of agitation…or something more sinister?

Dr. Randall Stanton—Is Kelley’s ex-husband the source of the rumors against her…and are his allegations designed to cast suspicion away from himself?

Cheryl Marten—Randall’s latest conquest, who has an agenda of her own.

Louis Paxler—The administrator would do anything to minimize the hospital’s liability.

Juan Cortes—The janitor knows everything that goes on around the hospital…including who set the fire.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

Prologue

Six weeks ago

Dr. Kelley Stanton rounded the corner in the hospital corridor, massaging the ache in one temple with her free hand. At least she was out of her lab coat and in light street clothes appropriate to Denver’s August weather. Too bad she couldn’t shed the paperwork pending as follow-up to the day’s patients as easily. She inhaled deeply as a sigh formed in her chest. Except—

Smoke! She smelled smoke!

“Oh, no,” she whispered, automatically pulling her purse off her shoulder and grabbing for her cell phone. Don’t panic. It might be nothing.

She looked around. The corridor was long. Peach-colored walls. Lots of closed doors and hanging signs to direct patients. It was empty now. She was the only one there.

This wasn’t the hall to the parking lot exit. By habit, she had gone the wrong way, toward the administrative wing of Gilpin Hospital. Toward the area where her three-year-old daughter, Jenny, went to day care.

Thank heavens it was late. Her ex-husband, Randall, also a doctor, would already have picked up Jenny. And the admin wing held offices, not patients.

Still—

She sped forward. Surely someone had simply over-cooked microwave popcorn in a staff lunchroom. Or it was something equally innocuous. There couldn’t be a fire in Gilpin Hospital.

The heels of her low, comfortable pumps clicked briskly on the shiny linoleum floor. The rapidity of her pulse matched her pace.

She turned right, toward the increasing smell. An ominous gray cloud billowed at the end of the short hall.

In the direction of KidClub.

“Fire!” she shouted.

At least no one should be around. It was seven o’clock at night. The child-care center closed at six-thirty. Most admin staff were already gone by then.

Quickly she dialed 9-1-1 and gave the particulars. The operator promised to send firefighters immediately.

“Fire!” she shouted again. “Is anyone here?”

No reply. Good. Maybe everyone else had left.

But she couldn’t be certain.

Kelley glanced up at the walls, looking for a building fire alarm. The whole hospital should be alerted. The evacuation plan might need to be implemented.

She had to get out, too. But first she needed to make sure no one was in danger.

There was a fire alarm outside the child-care facility. She would go down the hall that far and pull the alarm. She had to make sure no one remained inside. No child. Jenny.

KidClub was three quarters of the way down this relatively short hallway. Its door was closed but not locked. The lights were still on.

The smell of the surrounding smoke gagged her.

She ran inside, checked the three large playrooms. The kitchen. The bathroom.

Thankfully, no one was there.

She hustled back to the corridor. A crackling roar filled the air from down the hall. The smoke was thicker. She coughed as she broke the glass and set off the alarm. The cacophonous pulsing blare surrounded her.

Where was the fire? In the large records storage room at the end? No one would be there, but all that paper would provide a huge source of fuel.

She coughed again. Her eyes stung, teared. She had to get out. “Is anyone here?” she called again to be sure.

And heard something.

Was it her imagination? The sound had been so tiny compared with the alarm and the thundering from the end of the hall, punctuated now by an occasional crash.

She had to check.

It wasn’t easy to see with her eyes smarting. A hand on the wall, she inched along. “Who’s there?” she called.

And heard the noise again. Like a child’s whimper.

“Please, God, no,” Kelley murmured, moving faster.

Another short hall veered from the main corridor. Kelley tried to peer down it, then heard a small voice. “Mommy!”

“Jenny? Oh Lord, Jenny?” Kelley shoved at the air, as if to erase the smoke. Below, on the floor, she got a glimpse of bright yellow.

Jenny had worn her bright yellow jumper that morning.

Kelley knelt. Her tiny, blond-haired daughter was crouched on the floor. At least there the smoke was not as thick, but Jenny coughed as Kelley lifted her into her arms and hugged her tight. The tears running down her face now were not entirely due to the fire.

Where the hell was Randall? How could he have left their daughter alone?

No matter now. There would be plenty of time to censure him, once Jenny and she were safe.

Coughing as she reentered the main corridor, her precious cargo snugged safely against her, Kelley glanced right. The only area on fire seemed to be the records room. She’d seen no one flee after she’d cried out and set off the alarm. Hopefully, no one else was here.

The siren still shrieking, Kelley hurried away from the smoke to the outside where people gathered in excitement and concern.

Her daughter and she would be fine, though they’d both have to be checked for smoke inhalation.

But thank heavens the only damage appeared to be to paperwork. Things. Hospital records.

The fire was certainly unfortunate.

But at least there should be no major consequences.

Chapter One

The Present

“You want me to what?” Shawn Jameson shoved his chair back from the table, stood and stared at Colleen Wellesley. “You can’t be serious.”

His boss crossed her arms without rising. About forty-five years old, with irritation narrowing her blue-green eyes, she appeared very serious. And that did not make Shawn happy at all. “You’ve got your orders,” she said quietly. “Your cover will be as a caregiver in the child-care center at Gilpin Hospital.” She was dressed like a rancher in a plaid flannel shirt and jeans. But that did not keep her from looking authoritative.

Shawn heard muffled laughter. He turned to glare at Fiona Clark, another Colorado Confidential operative, who had joined Colleen and him in the secret, basement meeting room of the Royal Flush Ranch. By the time he was able to turn a fierce gaze on her, the blond former FBI agent had pasted a sympathetic expression on her face. But there was mirth in her brown eyes.

Fiona, like Shawn, was dressed similarly to Colleen for hard work on the ranch—but that was not all they were here for. In keeping with his cover, Shawn wore a leather vest over a comfortable blue work shirt that was tucked into well-worn, faded jeans. He’d bought his boots in Texas when, while in training, he’d visited the Smoking Barrel Ranch, the cover for the original Confidential agency.

Shawn turned back toward Colleen. What could he do? These were his first orders directly from her, though she’d been his employer for a while. He had joined the staff of Investigations, Confidential and Undercover, a private investigation agency known as ICU, a couple of years ago. At first, he’d been aware that there was a secretive boss, known only as C. Wellesley, in the background calling the shots. He had only recently learned she was a woman, and even more recently met her. Here. On the ranch. When she had recruited him into Colorado Confidential, a very new, very special covert arm of the Colorado Department of Public Safety. He’d undergone training here for the past few months. It was definitely time to go to work.

But this…?

“What the hell—er, heck—do I know about tending a bunch of kids?” He ran his fingers through his short, dark blond hair in frustration. “You hear that? I don’t even know how the hell to watch my language.”

“You’ll learn,” Colleen said mildly. “Either that, or the kids’ll bring home some interesting new vocabulary.”

“Damn.” This wasn’t getting Shawn anywhere. He thought fast, taking his seat at the table once more. “Look, Colleen,” he said in a cool and logical tone. “You have someone here who can undoubtedly do a better job with this than me—Fifi.”

A growl issued from behind him. Fiona hated that nickname, but she had earned his use of it now by laughing at him.

“The fact that Fiona is female doesn’t mean she’d do better with this cover than you, Shawn,” Colleen said mildly. “And this assignment requires someone with your particular expertise—arson investigation. You do know something about that, don’t you?”

She knew full well he did. He had devoted his life to fighting fires—and to bringing down the people who set them. With good reason. Damned good reason.

“Yeah,” he agreed softly. “I know something about that.”

“There’s more to the situation than the fire that destroyed the records department of Gilpin Hospital six weeks ago,” Colleen continued. “Wiley Longbottom thinks that the fire could be connected to the flu epidemic that ran through Silver Rapids a few months back.” Longbottom was the director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety. Colleen reported to him. “He believes there’s a chance the flu was caused by the same type of microbe found in the blood samples Michael took from the sheep at the Half Spur Ranch.”

Michael Wellesley, Colleen’s brother, had just returned from an undercover assignment at that sheep ranch, which was partially owned by powerful Colorado senator Franklin Gettys. Not a man you wanted to accuse of anything without indisputable proof. He’d also brought back an unanticipated reward, his new love, Nicola Carson. She’d been the target of an assassin, and was staying at the Royal Flush under Michael’s personal protection.

Colleen continued in a deceptively mild voice, “And if so, we definitely need more information. When we got the test results from the Center for Disease Control, the blood samples showed antibodies for Q fever.”

“That’s a disease carried by livestock anyway, isn’t it?” Fiona asked.

“Yes, but Wiley thinks the Silver Rapids flu epidemic might not have been flu after all. It may have been an outbreak of Q fever. And while Q fever is often found in livestock, a human epidemic of that proportion is…suspicious. And the whole mess could have some bearing on the Langworthy kidnapping.”

“How?” Shawn demanded, stunned by Colleen’s implication that the flu could have a human source. If so, no doubt someone had a vested interest in covering it up.

“The missing baby’s mother, Holly Langworthy, was one of the people infected. At the time, she was still pregnant with little Schyler. We have to look into the fire and the flu, in case the baby’s disappearance is somehow related.”

Ah, Shawn thought. That was the crux of it. Colorado Confidential’s first major case wasn’t just high priority. It was the priority. Schyler, the infant grandson of one of Colorado’s most influential citizens, Samuel Langworthy, had been kidnapped. So far, regular law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction, even the FBI, were stymied. The Department of Public Safety had turned to the newly constituted covert agency, the country’s fourth Confidential organization, for help.

It was a case they couldn’t afford to blow. A baby’s life was at stake. More lives might hang in the balance.

“There’s a doctor on staff at the hospital, Dr. Kelley Stanton,” Colleen continued. She slowly drummed one finger on the table as if using the rhythm to remind her of the facts. Her hands were blunt nailed and work roughened. She owned this ranch, which, Shawn knew, had been in her family for generations.

“Dr. Stanton is a suspect in the arson,” Colleen went on. “She was involved with treating the flu patients, including two elderly people who died. You’ll have access to her by working at the child-care center, since she has a three-year-old daughter who goes there. Rumors around the hospital suggest she set the fire to hide her negligence in treating those patients.”

“A pretty nasty allegation,” Shawn noted.

“That would be ugly enough,” Colleen agreed. “But if Wiley’s right and there’s some relation to the kidnapping, this Dr. Stanton could be more than a quack who wants to hide some mistakes. She could be helping to cover up an act of bioterrorism as well as the kidnapping. And Wiley isn’t wrong very often. So…?” She looked directly into Shawn’s eyes and paused.

Colleen was waiting for his assent. “Yeah,” he said. He knew he would regret it. He also knew he had no choice.

“Good.” Colleen rose. “I’ll get things set up. You’ll start in three days.”

A SHORT WHILE LATER, Shawn left the others behind and stealthily oozed his way from behind the huge, movable wine rack that hid the door to the secret basement room. He had to think about this new assignment. Prepare himself for it mentally.

He headed upstairs, into the plush room that had once been the bar. One of Colleen’s ancestors had once run the Royal Flush as a saloon and bordello. The room maintained the flamboyant ambiance, complete with sexy red velvet curtains. It still housed the original long bar of dark pine, which had obviously been well polished over the many intervening years. The faint, pungent-sweet scent of fine wood preservative hung in the air. The ranch’s caretakers, Raven and Melody Castillo, took great care of the place.

Too bad the room wasn’t still used as a bar. Shawn could have used a drink. A good, stiff one.

Behind the bar was a portrait of a woman, who seemed out of place in the sumptuous and suggestive room— Eudora Wellesley, he’d been told. Colleen’s ancestress. There was nothing flamboyant or even particularly attractive in her appearance. In fact, she was dressed primly, in dark clothes, and there was a set to her mouth as if the lady was shocked by the things that had gone on in this room. And yet, the artist had painted a sparkle into her alert gray eyes.

Grumbling to himself, Shawn headed outside. He wasn’t the imaginative sort. This new twist to his career as an arson investigator turned covert agent was giving him fits.

As he stepped through the front door onto the porch, he nearly ran into Dexter Jones, the foreman. His other boss, for his cover at the Royal Flush as ranch hand.

“You seen Ms. Wellesley?” Dex asked. The foreman was in his early fifties. He kept his hair, obviously once dark but now sprinkled with silver, no-nonsense short. He seemed a no-nonsense guy, dedicated to making sure the ranch ran smoothly.

As smart and wily as tough-acting Dex seemed, the foreman supposedly had no idea of what went on in the basement. But Shawn sensed the man’s strong suspicion that more went on at the Royal Flush than just ranching.

As part of his Colorado Confidential cover, Shawn had to act as if he’d no clue what Dex was talking about when the older man blew off steam by guessing what his lady boss was really up to.

“I saw Ms. Wellesley a while ago,” Shawn told him. “I came in to ask whether she was going to ride Dora today, and if so when she wanted me to have her saddled.” Dora was Colleen’s horse, a mare she’d named after the illustrious lady whose picture hung over the bar. The bay and white paint was a lot prettier, in Shawn’s estimation, than her namesake.

“And she said—?”

“She’d let me know. I think she’s back in her room on the phone. Or maybe she’s getting changed. In any event, she said she didn’t want to be disturbed for the next hour.”

“Right,” Dex muttered, and turned on his heel without entering the house.

If Shawn wasn’t mistaken, the gruff foreman had a thing for his employer. That wasn’t any of Shawn’s business.

But his new assignment certainly was.

Shawn walked down the porch steps and to the side of the main house. He inhaled crisp, clean air tinged with the scent of the nearby horse enclosure. To his left was the winding road to the ranch, and beyond it the meandering South Platte River. To his right were rolling green acres of ranchland, surrounded by the massive, tree-covered slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Some of the ranch’s red Hereford cattle grazed in the distance.

Heaven.

But he wouldn’t be here much longer. In three days, he’d be back in Denver. Investigating Dr. Kelley Stanton. The main focus of his assignment.

Colleen would provide further details first, the results of the initial investigation into the woman and her background as well as information about the hospital fire.

A fire in a hospital, damn it. He felt his teeth grind.

Sure, the fire had been confined to a records room, but who knew what damage it could have done? People could have been killed.

What would drive a woman with a young child to set a fire? Shawn would sure as hell find out.

“OKAY, SWEETHEART. We’re here.” Not that Kelley had any doubt that Jenny knew full well that they’d arrived at the Gilpin Hospital KidClub day-care center. As soon as they went through the door into the main playroom, the blond three-year-old, clad today in a flowered T-shirt and matching red slacks, stopped prancing at her mother’s side and stood still, thumb in her mouth. With her other hand, she clutched Kelley’s midcalf-length black skirt. Tears filled her brown eyes.

Before the fire, Jenny had been eager to come here to play. She had always dashed into the midst of the kids who started their day in this charming room adorned with bright rainbows on the walls. Mostly, the little ones congregated at one of the child-size tables, coloring until it was time for the caregivers to begin planned activities.

But since the fire, her daughter had demonstrated every symptom of separation anxiety—tears, protests and tantrums.

It broke Kelley’s heart every morning. She’d spent days at home with Jenny after the fire, and had taken her to a kind counselor. But Kelley couldn’t stay off work indefinitely. When Jenny had started to recover emotionally, Kelley had returned to her demanding medical practice. Luckily her office was in the adjoining building, and she spent a lot of time seeing patients in the hospital itself. She dropped by often to look in on Jenny, staying far in the background so that her daughter, busy playing, wouldn’t notice her.

Once Jenny got used to being there each day, she seemed to thrive once more, with all the other children to play with and the excellent staff who watched over the kids while teaching them things commensurate with their ages and abilities.

But those first minutes when she dropped Jenny off…

“Good morning.” At the gruff, masculine voice, Kelley raised her gaze from her daughter—until she stared into eyes as blue as a cloudless winter sky. They looked about as cold, too. But the man behind them was one of the most gorgeous hunks Kelley had ever seen.

She felt her face flush at the direction her thoughts had veered. But that didn’t deter her mind from noting the breadth of shoulders beneath an off-white shirt and leather vest, the slim cut of faded brown jeans, the sturdiness of a set jawline and the short hair that was a cross between dirty gold and golden brown. And the cowboy boots.

“Good morning,” she returned, knowing her tone was quizzical. Was he the father of one of the half dozen kids settled at places along the tables? Kelley forced herself not to look at his hands to see if he wore a wedding ring. That wasn’t her business. Besides, a man who looked like him had to be taken. Either that or he had a bevy of beautiful women at his beck and call.

Not that Kelley cared. She wasn’t interested in any man, great-looking or not. In her experience, not one was worth a fraction of the aggravation he caused.

“And who is this?” The man looked down at Jenny, who clutched at Kelley’s clothes all the tighter. The smile on the man’s face looked sour, as if he had sucked on a lime.

“This is Jenny Stanton,” Kelley said, her tone cheerful for her daughter’s benefit. “Are you the daddy of one of the kids?”

“No, I’m the new caregiver.”

What? Kelley stared. He certainly didn’t look like the other child-care providers, who were mostly college-age men and women who studied teaching and needed to earn money in their spare time. A few were career preschool teachers. But this man…?

He knelt in front of Jenny. “My name is Shawn,” he told her. Then he rose. “Shawn Jameson. And you’re Mrs. Stanton?”

No. Kelley nearly shuddered. She definitely wasn’t Mrs. Stanton. That implied she was Randall Stanton’s wife.

She hadn’t been his wife for two years now. And that was fine with her.

It was her turn to force a smile onto her lips. “I’m Dr. Kelley Stanton,” she told the man. “I’m one of the doctors on staff here.”

Was it her imagination, or did Shawn Jameson’s straight, thick brows dip just a little before he resumed his uncomfortable smile? “Very nice to meet you, Dr. Stanton.” He stressed the word “doctor,” but it did not sound like an apology. She hadn’t expected one, but neither had she expected to be subtly insulted.

Didn’t he like doctors? If so, he shouldn’t be working in a hospital, even with children. Especially with these children, since many were doctors’ kids. But maybe she’d imagined his inflection.

“Good to meet you, too,” she clipped out, then knelt, gently extracting her skirt from Jenny’s hand. “Okay, sweetheart. Time for me to go, but I’ll be back for you soon.”

“No, Mommy,” Jenny said in her sweet little girl’s voice. “I don’t want you to go.”

Kelley inhaled, knowing the scene that was to come. Hating it, for she always felt as if she were hurting Jenny. “I have to, honey, but—”

“But we’re going to have a great time here today, Jenny.”

Kelley looked up in gratitude as Shawn Jameson took Jenny’s hand and tried to gently lead her away.

Jenny began to cry.

Shawn’s blue eyes widened. Surely that wasn’t fear Kelley saw in them? He glanced at her as if for help, but she mouthed, “Thanks,” and backed away.

Jenny began to cry even louder.

“Would you like a piece of doughnut?” Shawn asked, gesturing toward a box on the tall reception desk. “Or some fruit?” As usual, the treats had been left there that morning.

Kelley swallowed her objection to his bribing her child with sweets. It didn’t help anyway. Jenny did not calm down.

“Then let’s go color with your friends.” Shawn tugged on Jenny’s hand. The child was no match for the brawny man and followed him, but her sobs didn’t stop. He led her to an empty seat at the closest table and urged her into a chair. “Here are some nice crayons and a pad of paper,” Shawn said. “Would you like to draw something?”

“No,” Jenny wailed, pushing her chair back from the table.

“Well…would you like a cup of juice, Jenny?”

Kelley continued to watch from the doorway, wondering if she should go rescue her child. Or the man. He seemed to be growing panicked. None of the other caregivers were in the room. They were probably with kids in the facility’s other rooms. Or maybe in the kitchen, working on the day’s snacks.

In any event, this did not look good.

“I don’t want juice,” Jenny screamed. “I want my mommy!”

She looked at Kelley. So did Shawn. Kelley took a deep, uneven breath but did not move. If things didn’t improve in a minute, though, she would have to step in.

If she did, if she had to complain about this man, he could lose his job. That might be a good thing, but on his first day? Didn’t he deserve a chance?

Besides, Kelley had enough enemies these days. She didn’t need another if she could avoid it.

But why didn’t he seem to know what to do with the child? Worse, why did he appear so rattled? Surely he had worked with kids before. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been hired.

“Mommy!” Jenny shrieked again, rising from her chair. She looked as if she was about to run toward Kelley, who wondered if she should just leave. Maybe things would calm down when she was gone.

Maybe they wouldn’t.

The other children watched the exchange, eyes huge. The lower lips of a couple began to quiver, as if they might cry in sympathy for Jenny. Or for their own absent parents.

Obviously Shawn noticed, for he looked around nervously.

“Hey,” he said, grabbing a pad of paper and some crayons from the table. He looked desperate. What was he going to do? “Do you have any pets at home, Jenny?”

No, Kelley wanted to tell him. Don’t remind her. Jenny wanted a puppy or a kitten. Having a pet was even a recommended therapy to help Jenny recover from the trauma of the fire. But the timing wasn’t right.