Page 39 of Whatever Will Be

“Yes, we will,” she says and takes Caitlin upstairs to help change her into clean clothes.

Seconds later, Mara skips out of the bathroom, having recovered nicely from her mishap with the ‘bad tea’.

“I washed my hands.” She holds them up as evidence.

“Good job,” I tell her. “You feeling better?”

“I want a fruit bar.”

“All right, let’s go find you one.”

She holds my hand on the short walk to the kitchen. But we have no chance to look for Mara’s fruit bar because Danny bursts through the back door looking like a wild man.

“Fuck, thank god,” he breathes when he sees Mara. He drops to his knees in front of her. “Where’s your sister?”

“Upstairs with Aunt Gretch.”

He grabs her up in a hug.

She squeals. “Swing me around, Uncle Danny.”

“Later.” He’s clearly shaken.

“Where the hell were you?” I ask him, my voice tight with anger.

He hangs his head. “I left my wallet at the gym this morning. I just ran down to get it. They were happily playing in their tent so I thought it would be all right.”

“You left them alone. Jesus, Danny.”

He fucked up and he knows it. “I’m sorry.” He hugs Mara again. “Uncle Danny is so sorry.”

“Don’t be sad,” she says sweetly. “I threw up from the bad tea but we went to Trentcassini’s house.”

Danny closes his eyes for a second. “They walked to your house, Trent?”

“They sure did.”

He stands up and he’s clearly distraught but I don’t have much pity for him right now.

A shadow falls in the doorway and Gretchen stands there, green-eyed and livid. She stares at her brother like she’s wondering which of his limbs she ought to remove first. Her long hair is swept up in a clip, exposing the graceful lines of her neck and even with the all the tension in the room I take the opportunity to admire the way her body looks in her tight black jeans.

“Gretch.” Danny’s voice comes out in a croak.

She cuts him off. “Not now.”

“Can I have my fruit bar?” Mara asks.

Gretchen moves smoothly to the pantry, extracts two shrink-wrapped objects and hands one to the little girl. “Come on,” she says. “Caitlin is already watching Frozen in the den.”

The two of them disappear.

Danny is miserable. He looks like he’s aged ten years today.

He swallows. “This is my fault.”

“Yeah,” I agree.

“I should have just taken them with me.”

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