Victoria Pade – A Camden's Baby Secret (страница 3)
“She’s only nine.”
“And does she have a GiGi?” Livi asked. It was her grandmother who had been the salvation of her and her siblings and cousins when their parents and grandfather had all died in that plane crash. If anyone had to suffer through what they all had, the best thing that could happen to them was to have a grandmother like they had.
“She only has the Tellers—the grandparents on the husband’s side. But Seth said that Maeve Teller has health issues of some kind and apparently neither Maeve or her husband, John, are in a position to raise the little girl. There’s some situation with a family friend who was granted guardianship of her in the parents’ will. A single man—”
“They left a little girl with a single man? How is he handling that? Does Seth know him?”
“Seth wasn’t able to get a name, though he heard that there’s something about him that doesn’t sit well with folks around there for some reason. But the parents must have trusted whoever this man is or they wouldn’t have left him their child.”
Livi hoped that was true.
“At any rate,” GiGi went on, “I don’t know what the financial situation is. The Tellers only have a small farm and Seth says it isn’t doing well, so he doubts there’s much money there, especially if Maeve has medical bills. And regardless, the little girl can’t be inheriting anything like what she would have if we’d treated her grandfather fairly.”
“That’s the ugly truth,” Livi agreed.
“So what I want you to do is go to Northbridge and make sure this child has the care she needs now and anything she might need in the future. Let’s make sure that whoever this family friend is wants her...”
“Hopefully, finding himself guardian of a nine-year-old girl didn’t come as an unpleasant surprise,” Livi muttered.
“Hopefully,” GiGi agreed. “But let’s make sure that he’s capable of taking care of her, that he’ll give her a good home. And maybe we can set up a trust fund for her, money for her college, whatever it takes to make sure she has the kind of life she would have had if...” GiGi’s voice trailed off as if she was too disgusted, too disappointed, too ashamed of what her own husband and sons had done to repeat it.
“So I’ll sort of be her GiGi,” Livi said affectionately, not wanting her grandmother to go on feeling bad.
She was pleased when GiGi smiled in response. “Not necessarily a GiGi, but maybe the little girl could use a sort of big sister or a mentor—a woman in her life, too, even if everything is going well with the guardian. Or maybe she won’t need anything but to be provided for financially. However, we won’t know that until you check things out.”
Livi nodded.
“Are you well enough?” the gray-haired woman asked.
“I’m fine. I feel better when I have a lot to do and don’t think about...things. Like I said, I need a distraction.”
“If you get tempted to put the rings back on, maybe consider wearing them on your right hand. I still do that sometimes.”
“I know,” Livi said, fighting another surge of guilt at what she’d allowed her family to believe.
Once more wanting to skirt around it, she went back to what they’d been talking about. “I have some things I have to take care of this week that can’t be put off. How about I go to Northbridge next Saturday and look up Greta and her grandparents and this guardian on Sunday?”
“The sooner the better, but I suppose another week won’t make any difference,” GiGi said. Then she stood. “Now let’s go get you some dry toast for that stomach of yours.”
Livi dreaded going back into the house and the smells that brought on the queasiness, so she said, “I’ll be right there. I just want to sit here a minute.”
And think about how nice it would be if her stomach stayed as settled as it was right then.
If her fingers returned to their normal size.
And if her period would start this month even though it never had last month.
Because if only it would, then she really could forget all about Hawaii.
And the man who had—for just one night—made her forget too many other things...
“We knew there was some bad blood between Mandy’s father and your family from a long time ago, but she never talked about it and, well...”
“Considering the way her father went out we never brought up anything about him, so all we know is that there was bad blood.”
What sweet Maeve Teller had tried to say diplomatically, her blunt husband, John Sr., finished.
Livi had arrived in Montana on Saturday evening, to discover Seth had taken his wife and new baby to visit Lacey’s father in Texas. He’d left the keys to his cars and trucks for Livi to use—as well as the directions to the Teller farm—and promised to be back Sunday night. Tonight.
Livi had actually been glad to have the Northbridge house to herself for a while. Along with the continuing bouts of nausea and the swollen fingers, she was so easily tired out these days that she’d been happy to go straight to bed.
Unsure what kind of reception she might receive, and not wanting to risk an outright refusal to be seen, she’d arrived at the Tellers’ farm without warning at two o’clock. The door had been opened by a woman who looked to be her own age—Maeve’s nurse. She hadn’t even asked who Livi was. She’d merely said hi, and when Livi told her that she was there to see the Tellers, the woman had invited her in without any questions.
Small-town warmth and friendliness—it had made it easy for Livi to get to the living room, where an elderly couple was playing a board game with a little girl.
Livi had introduced herself and offered the condolences of the entire Camden family for the loss of Mandy and John Teller Jr. The Tellers had asked how her grandmother was—GiGi was a well-known native of Northbridge—and after briefly updating them about her, Livi had explained that Randall had grown up as the best friend of Livi’s father and uncle, and that GiGi had thought of Randall as her third son. That having just heard about the accident that had cost Randall’s daughter her life and orphaned his granddaughter, GiGi had requested that Livi make this visit on her behalf.
Though the Tellers admitted that they knew there was more to the story—that there had been, eventually, a very bitter parting of the ways between Randall and the Camdens—Livi’s sympathies had been accepted with grace. What followed was an hour with the Tellers and Greta. And also with the home health care nurse, Kinsey Madison, who was looking after Maeve, who had broken her arm, shoulder and leg in a fall, leaving her in plaster casts and a wheelchair.
Livi learned that Maeve and John Sr. were both eighty years old. And while John Sr. didn’t have any disabilities that Livi could discern, she’d seen enough to know that he moved slowly and very stiffly, barely lifting his feet. So even he was nowhere near as agile as seventy-five-year-old GiGi or her seventy-six-year-old new groom, Jonah. In fact, the attentive nurse seemed to be subtly caring for John Sr. almost as much as she was caring for Maeve, so Livi understood why Greta’s parents had not left her guardianship to the elderly couple.
Livi didn’t have any difficulty establishing rapport with the Tellers or with Greta, all of whom she liked instantly. And the more they all visited, the more Livi saw how much the Tellers doted on the little girl. They obviously loved her dearly.
For her part, Greta—an outgoing nine-year-old with long blond hair and big brown eyes—had quickly warmed to Livi and was clearly dazzled by her fashionable clothes and hairstyle. She was so enthralled that Livi had removed the scarf she’d used as a headband today and gifted it to Greta, who was now sitting on the floor at her feet so Livi could tie it around the girl’s wavy locks the way she’d been wearing it herself.
Even while she was pampering Greta, Livi went on chatting with Maeve and Kinsey. John Sr. wasn’t particularly talkative, but threw in a few comments from time to time.
All in all, Livi thought it was going smoothly, that she’d lucked out, that this particular restitution would be easily accomplished.
“You look beautiful, Greta,” Kinsey declared when Livi was finished and the nine-year-old looked to the nurse for approval.
“I wanna see,” Greta announced, running from the room and bounding up the stairs to the second level of the old farmhouse, presumably to a mirror.
With the child out of earshot, it seemed like an opportunity for Livi to say, “I’m not sure what Greta’s needs are, but we want to do whatever we can for her now and from here on.”
“And you would be?” a deep male voice interrupted, coming from behind Livi.
Maeve and John Sr. were sitting across from Livi and they both looked beyond her to the man who had just come in.
Livi noted that John Sr. instantly scowled, while Maeve smiled and said, “This is Ms. Camden—”
“Oh, no, I’m just Livi.”
“Camden,” the man behind her repeated scornfully at the same time.
Undeterred, Maeve smiled at her and said, “Livi,” to confirm that she would use her first name. Then she added, “Callan is an old friend of Mandy and John Jr.’s. He’s Greta’s godfather and now her guardian.”