“I’ve never bought school supplies. Do kids still use pencils?” Panic started a slow gnaw. “What is she going to eat?”
Zoey rolled in her lower lip, but not before he caught the smile forming. “She’s a teenager, Linc, not a goldfish. She’ll eat most anything.” She wrinkled her nose. “Case in point, she ate one of those cookies.”
This was a lot. “Does she need a bedtime?” He rubbed his chin. “Toys?”
“You realize she’s not in diapers, right?”
He scowled. “That part I figured.”
“Pretty sure she’s outgrown Legos and Lite Brites too.”
He stopped rocking. “Whatbrights?”
“Forget it.” Zoey shook her head. “Calm down—I’m sure she’ll listen to music and just watch as much TV as you let her.”
“I’m supposed to be picky about which shows, though, right? Oh, man, I probably need internet filters. What if she’s a gamer?” He frowned. “And isn’t there a whole thing about stranger danger?”
Zoey didn’t even try to hide her smile that time.
“Go ahead, laugh it up.” He rocked again, faster. He felt a headache coming on. “I don’t know kids. They’re all so…sticky, and opinionated.”
“You’ll get to know this one.”
“Assuming she lets me.”
“Ah.” Zoey pointed at him. “There’s the real issue. You’re afraid she won’t let you in.”
Of course he was. He looked back across the yard, into the shadows. At the pile of gravel still piled up from the tires that, mere hours earlier, had brought a surreal situation into his life. “You saw how Amelia talks to me. I abandoned her.”
“You can’t abandon someone without intention.”
“She doesn’t see it that way.”
“She will.” Zoey matched her rocker to his pace. “Give it time.”
“That’s the problem.” Linc glanced back at the house, where his daughter—hisdaughter—slept in a twin-size guest bed, probably listening to Avril Lavigne. He shuddered. “We don’t know how much time we have.”
“I guess not.” Zoey nibbled her lip. “What did Ms. Bridges say when I took Amelia to the kitchen?”
“That this has happened before, but Kirsten always came back before the police got involved.”
“That’s a good sign, right?” Zoey raised her brows. “Except that’s hardly a stable environment for Amelia to grow up in.”
No kidding. But hard to convince a kid of that fact—ask him how he knew. “Ms. Bridges said they had reason to believe this time was different.”
Zoey frowned. “How come? I mean, Kirsten is obviously flighty and impulsive, but I can’t imagine anyone just leaving their kid home alone for?—”
“Because.” He pressed his fingers against his pounding temples. “She didn’t renew her apartment lease.”
“Oh.”Zoey reeled back. Nodded a little. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” Linc released a sigh as he sat upright. “Like I said—we don’t know how much time we have.”
And maybe that fact was both the problem and the relief.
eight
Magnolia Blossom buzzed, and not with the typical pleasant banter of small-town folk waiting for their mid-week breakfast.
