Delia held her breath, hoping it had worked. Within a moment, Anna returned inside and disappeared into the parlor. When she came back, the dirty pinafore was gone.
Delia looked at Max—a silent warning not to say a word—and proceeded to dish Anna a bowl of soup.
Later that evening, after Anna had fallen asleep early, Delia found Max enjoying the night air on the rear steps of the house.
“May I join you?” she asked. She’d come out here on a mission. It was still early, but it wouldn’t hurt to begin putting her plan to find him someone to fall in love with into motion.
He looked up at her in pleasant surprise. “Of course.”
She sat beside him. The steps were narrow, and the side of her leg pressed against his. Why that made her heart beat faster, Delia didn’t know. She could admit he was attractive, but it wasn’t as if she were in love with him. Or that she hoped he might be in love with her.
That was impossible, considering why she was here.
“How did you do that with Anna?” he asked. “Make her listen to you?”
“Oh,” Delia said in surprise. Her mind was so fixated on asking him about Miss Sullivan, the hotel cook she was able to meet when she brought his lunch earlier in the day, that she hadn’t thought he might bring up something else to converse about. “I didn’t make her do anything. I simply stated what was expected and what would happen if those expectations weren’t met, in a kind but stern manner. That’s all.”
Max laughed. “You make it sound so easy.”
“It isn’t,” Delia said, tilting her head as she thought about it. “I suppose I figured it out with my siblings. Children try to test you to see what they can get away with doing. But if you stand firm while remaining kind, they’ll come around.”
Max was quiet for a moment. “I suppose I give in to her too much.”
After watching his lack of reaction to some of Anna’s antics, Delia was inclined to agree. “Being stern with her won’t make her love you less. In fact, I suspect she’ll love you more.”
“Do you think she does at all? Love me, I mean?” His question was so earnest that it made Delia’s heart ache for him.
“I think she does. Or she will,” she said softly. “Even if she doesn’t realize it yet.”
Max clasped his hands together and rested his arms on his knees, his elbow bumping into Delia’s leg. “Sometimes I think she blames me for the loss of her mother.”
Delia worried her lip between her teeth, trying to determine how to respond to that. Children weren’t always rational in how they thought. “It’s difficult to say. But maybe it’s because she simply doesn’t know you that well yet?”
He nodded. “Maybe. I also don’t know what to say to her about her mother. What if one day she asks me why I wasn’t there? Why she didn’t know me until now?” He paused. “I’m sorry. I’m asking you questions that you can’t answer.”
She gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s all right. Sometimes it helps simply to speak the words out loud.”
“I’ve also realized that since you’ve been here, I’ve talked an awful lot about my life but haven’t asked you much about yours. I imagine you must miss your family?”
“I do,” Delia said in a low voice. She hadn’t expected the sudden change in conversation, or the emotions his simple question evoked. Most of the time, she tried not to think about Mother or her brothers and sisters. It was easier than missing them.
“Tell me about them,” he said. “Which sibling is your favorite?”
Delia laughed through the lump in her throat. “That isn’t a fair question. I imagine it’s akin to asking a father who his favorite child is.”
“That’s easy enough. I only have one child.” He grinned at her as he shifted his body to see her better.
Delia felt her face go warm at the movement of his leg against hers. She swallowed and forced her mind back to her family. “I couldn’t choose between them. They’re all so very different.” She went on to tell him about the silly jokes that her little brother Michael was so fond of telling, how long it took Tessie to learn to walk, how Mother was an endless fount of fascinating stories, and on and on.
“I’m sorry,” she said after several minutes had passed. “I’ve missed them all quite a lot.”
“I’ve enjoyed listening. I have no siblings, so I find stories of them entertaining.” His face grew serious for a moment. “I hope you don’t regret leaving them to come here.”
“No,” Delia said immediately. “Not at all. You’ve been so kind.”
He smiled again and, before Delia realized what had happened, he’d taken her hand in his. “I’m glad to hear that. I like having you here.”
Her eyes strayed from their hands to his face. He was still smiling, and as his fingers laced through hers, she found herself smiling back at him.
