“Well, this is awkward,” Adam said with a smile right before he busted out laughing.
Maggie had been licking frosting off her finger when she looked up and saw him. Her eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in disbelief.
“Well, shit,” Mitch said. “Thisisawkward!” Clearly, he had to apologize. There was no way around that now. But as he opened his mouth to do so, Jenny jumped on him.
“Mitch, how could you?” she started. “You see a womanlaid out on the sidewalk in distress, and youciteher? Did Jimmy teach you nothing? God, wait until your mother hears about this.”
Immediately on the defense, his temper flared. How dare she bring Jimmy into this? Just as he was about to go off half-cocked, Adam stepped in.
He moved in next to Maggie and patted her on the back. “Margaret. I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Adam.”
“Good to see you again. Please, call me Maggie. This is my aunt, Jenny.” Adam looked up to shake Jenny’s hand but then just stood there like an idiot, staring at her.
After an uncomfortable silence, Adam shook his head, recovered his senses and continued, “Jenny. Thanks for letting me crash your party. You have a lovely home. Mitch was telling me how great your boys are and how excited he was to see them.” The statement hung in the air and was an obvious hint that maybe he should head outside.
Mitch didn’t like being handled and thought about not leaving and just having it out here and now. Who did Adam think he was? How dare he butt in like that? In the end, after a brief mental battle, he took the out. Muttering something about going to say hi to the boys, he headed to the backyard.
***
The sounds of boyish screams and a barking dog grew louder as Mitch opened the door and then diminished as it shut behind him.
Jenny rounded on Adam. “Another new partner.” She looked him square in the eyes. Concern had replaced the anger. “Tell me now. How bad is it?”
Though he’d only just met her, it was instantly apparent that she cared deeply for Mitch and was beside herself with worry. Reluctantly, he swore them to secrecy and told them what little he knew. Mitch would kill him, but Jenny onlyseemed to have his best interests at heart, and she needed to know.
She was close to tears by the time he got to the part about Mitch being forced to see a psychologist. “Oh, God. I’d heard a few things through the police grapevine about him having issues at work, but I never imagined it was this bad.” She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “He tries to act normal around the boys and me, but I know he’s still having trouble coping. That he’s not really healing. I just haven’t known what to do.”
“It’s hard to help sometimes,” Adam said.
“Mags, he would die of embarrassment if he found out we knew this stuff. We have to act totally normal when he comes back. You can’t use any of this against him. Please, promise me that,” Jenny begged.
“She’s right,” Adam added. “He would be mortified. He’ll see it as an egregious violation of trust if he finds out I told you. Actually, he’d be right about that.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Normally, I would never spill a partner’s secrets like this, but I think he needs all the help he can get right now.”
“Of course,” Maggie said. “I’m mad about the way he treated me, but I can see it wasn’t about me. I won’t say a word, I promise.”
The door burst open, and Jack hollered, “Aunt Maggie, come play with us. We need an even number, and Coco’s not doing a very good job being Uncle Mitch’s partner. He keeps running away with the ball.”
“Coco?” Adam asked.
“Our puppy. I’m not surprised he’s not a very good partner.” Jenny smiled, and he nodded.
Unable to say no to her nephew, Maggie got up and headed to the backyard.
“You can do this, Mags. I have faith! Be careful,” Jenny yelled after her and then turned and whispered, “She’s a horrible liar. I hope she doesn’t blow this.” They looked outthe window just in time to see her stumble down the last step. “She’s also terribly uncoordinated. We’ll be lucky if this doesn’t end in a trip to the ER.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Playing with the boys seemed to have quelled Mitch’s anger. He was now in full uncle mode and had worked up a little sweat running around with the boys. They had set up a makeshift baseball field using random items from the yard as bases.
“Okay, whose team am I on?” Maggie kicked off her flip-flops and headed toward the “field.”
The boys looked at each other and said in unison, “Uncle Mitch’s.”
“I see my athletic prowess is once again going unappreciated.”
Maggie was surprised when Mitch laughed out loud. God, his smile was amazing. It left her momentarily speechless. She’d had a major paradigm shift after learning more about him and the struggles he was having dealing with Jimmy’s death. She was a sucker for a cause but couldn’t let on she felt sorry for him. He still thought she was mad.
“That wouldn’t be fair to have two adults on one team.” She glared at Mitch. “Come on, Toby, we’ll take them on.”
