Listen to Your Heart - Fern Michaels [65]
“Tell me about the niece, Josie.”
“She’s young, and her little boy is adorable, but he has a hearing problem. He knows how to sign. His mother taught him. It’s sad, but I know Paul will do everything in his power to make it right for the child. They’re staying at his house until he decides how he wants to handle it. At first he wanted to wait till Mother’s Day, but I more or less talked him out of that. He wants what we all want from our parents—approval. He told me he played so many scenarios over and over in his mind about how he was going to walk into his mother’s house with his niece and his great-nephew until he got dizzy. I hope he can come away happy. I hope Marie can convince him that she truly does love him. Why is it, Kitty, that people are so stubborn sometimes?”
Kitty grinned. “If I knew that, I’d write a book.”
“What I don’t want to see happen is what I think will happen. Paul’s going to take Nancy and Pete to his mother, explain the situation, and turn around and leave. It’s going to be one of those see, I did this for you even though you did all those terrible things to me. He doesn’t understand what it is to grieve for the death of a child. He’s afraid to open up where his mother is concerned. He won’t run the risk of being hurt again. He’s got that hurt all packaged neatly in the back of his mind and heart, and he isn’t about to open it up.”
Kitty propped her chin on her elbow and stared across the table at her sister. Her free hand traced the strawberry on the coffee cup. “Maybe you need to help things along a little.”
“You mean interfere? I can’t do that, Kitty.”
“Then how about if I do it? I could go and talk to Marie and explain it all.”
“This is none of our business. It’s something Paul has to do on his own. He has to do what is right for him, what he can live with.”
“A nudge then. Just a little one. We could go to Marie’s together. I could bake a cream praline pie and we can take it with us. Let’s do it, Josie. This is Sunday. Tomorrow or Tuesday he’ll decide to take his niece and nephew over there. She’s an old lady. Maybe the shock will do something to her.”
“No. We aren’t going to interfere. Paul has to find his own way.”
“Then I guess there’s nothing left to say. I have to get to work. Did you get that mint tea I asked you to pick up for the high tea we’re serving this afternoon?”
“Two big boxes. They’re on the kitchen counter.”
Kitty waltzed over to the counter as she sang, off-key, the words to her newest favorite song . . . “Now let me ask you quite honestly, do you know me or just like what you see? Wearin’ dresses just above the knee, it might be pleasin’ but it’s killing me!”
Josie chimed in, her arm around her sister’s shoulders.
“I’m getting rid of all my pantyhose, and all those high heels with the pointy toes. I’m gonna find myself some comfortable clothes, and I’m getting rid of all my pantyhose.”
“You better not quit your day job either.” Kitty laughed. “I acted it all out for Harry. The song I mean. I combed my hair like Corinda Carford and really put on a show for him. By the way, what happened to the mangos?”
“I threw them out because they turned black and squishy,” Josie said.
“A likely story.”
“I didn’t . . . I wouldn’t . . . they were rotten! Kittyyyyy!”
Kitty was halfway down the path to the test kitchen when she called over her shoulder, “If you say so.”
“I do say so,” Josie muttered.
Paul sat in the waiting room, his niece’s hand in his. He smiled reassuringly.
“What’s taking so long? He’s been in there for hours.”
“I guess it’s a delicate operation. Dr. Tumin is a fine pediatric surgeon. I’m sure Pete will come out of this just the way he said he would. He’s going to be fine. Two days in the hospital, and he goes home. They’ve agreed to let you stay with him around the clock. I hired a private-duty nurse. We’ve got it