Eve - Iris Johansen [42]
Sandra was silent a moment. “It’s going to be so hard, Eve.”
Eve nodded. “I’ll need help. I have to work and go to school. I was going to ask Rosa to move in with me, but I’d rather have you.” She paused. “But I can’t have anyone on drugs around Bonnie. You were great while I was pregnant. You only took off three times during those months. But you have to be completely clean now. One time, and I’ll have to keep her away from you.”
“For heaven’s sake, Eve, a few little sniffs don’t do anyone—” She broke off as she met Eve’s gaze. “I know I’m lying to myself. I always knew. I wouldn’t hurt her, Eve.”
“I can’t take the chance.”
Sandra hesitated. “You’d really trust me to take care of her?”
Eve nodded. “I’ll be scared to death until you prove yourself to me. I’ll be calling every fifteen minutes.”
“Mr. Kimble wouldn’t like that.” Sandra smiled. “So I guess I’d better put your mind at rest. She’ll be safe with me. After all, I took care of you, didn’t I?”
“Yes,” Eve said. “And you were younger than I am. You were a very brave girl, Sandra.”
Sandra blinked. “You think so? I never thought about it. I just did what I had to do. You can’t be brave if you’re scared all the time.”
“Sure you can.” She paused. “But I don’t want to saddle you with my child, Sandra. That’s not fair. Unless it’s what you want, too. Do you?”
Sandra didn’t answer for a moment. “I’m lonely sometimes, you know. You’re so strong, Eve. For a long time you haven’t needed me. I kind of liked helping you out lately. It made me feel important.”
“You are important.” She looked down at Bonnie. “And you could be very important to her. She’s going to need all the help we can give her. We’ll keep all the ugliness away from her. She’s got to have a good life, Sandra. If we work together, we can give it to her.”
“You truly need my help?”
“Of course, I do.”
Sandra came closer and looked down at the sleeping Bonnie. “Look at her.” She touched Bonnie’s red-brown curls. “She’s got hair like mine. She’s going to be real pretty. You’re right, you do need my help. You never did take any pains to look nice. I’ll have to show her all the little tricks. I think her hair is going to be curly.” She added absently, “I don’t remember John Gallo having curly hair.”
The comment came as a little shock to Eve. Bonnie had seemed to be so completely Eve’s own that she had not thought of John Gallo having any part of her. Or perhaps she had blocked out any connection. That was more likely. “He didn’t. It was thick and a little wavy, but not curly.” Her gaze ran over Bonnie’s features. Her skin was a little more olive than Eve’s, dark eyes, but they might fade to Eve’s hazel. She didn’t have that faint indentation in the chin that John had. No, she was definitely more Eve’s child than John Gallo’s. Except for the beauty that everyone had instantly noticed. No one could deny that John had stunning good looks and, in spite of his telling Eve that she was beautiful, she knew it wasn’t true.
But Eve would not think of her daughter as an extension of either one of them. She was an entity in her own right. She was Bonnie.
“Then are you going to help me with my little girl?”
“I think I have to do it, don’t you?” Sandra smiled gently down at Bonnie. “You all are claiming she’s magic, and naturally she wouldn’t have it any other way. I knew that first minute that she took a liking to me.”
* * *
“WHAT A SWEET LITTLE GIRL. She looks like a ray of sunshine in that yellow dress.”
Eve turned around to see Ted Danner coming down the street toward her, his gaze on Bonnie sitting up in her stroller. “Let’s see, she must be five months?”
“Six.” Eve bent down and adjusted Bonnie’s visor. “But she’s small for her age.