Page 87 of Threat of Danger
Kaylee was under eighteen.Foster care?
“No way is Kaylee going to strangers,” she hissed. “Not for a single day. I don’t care if I have to kidnap her from the system.”
Derek didn’t argue. Misery tightened the skin around his eyes. His voice was laced with frustration and shock. “Hell of a thing is, Chuck and I talked about making me Kaylee’s guardian if anything happened to him. He brought it up once. I said sure. I mean, of course. She’s a great kid. But then it just never came up again.” His hand on the counter tightened into a fist. “I had a deadline, and I just forgot about it. At Chuck’s age ... It didn’t seem like a likely thing, that it’d ever come up.”
Jess shut off the water as she turned to him. Chuck askedhim? Zelda was Kaylee’s grandmother in every way that counted. But then, as the sound of Zelda’s quiet crying reached her, she got it. Yes, of course, Derek was the logical choice. Zelda was more than a decade older than Chuck. Nobody expected Chuck to pass first. And Derek was decades younger than Zelda.
Jess twisted toward the living room to ask what kind of tea they wanted and caught sight of Kaylee, frozen in the kitchen doorway, eyes wide, face tearstained, her tone on the edge of hysterical as she asked, “Is social services going to take me?”
Oh God, how much had she heard?Jess stepped toward her. “No, honey. No.”
Kaylee ran. She still had her boots and coat on. She ran straight out the door. A few seconds later, through the kitchen window, Jess saw her run into the sugar shack.
She set down the teapot and wiped her hands on her jeans. “I’ll go after her.”
Derek caught her by the elbow. “Give her a minute.” Then he said, “Let me call my attorney. She’s a shark in copyright law. I’m sure she has friends in family law. She’ll know someone who’ll help.”
He was pulling his cell phone from his pocket already.
As he began to talk, Jess went to Zelda who, for the first time, looked her age. She had collapsed into herself, her face crumpled. She was alternately shaking her head and burying her face in her hands.
Jess sat next to her and hugged and hugged her, until Zelda looked at her at last, teary-eyed and weak-voiced. “Where did Kaylee go?”
“The sugar shack.”
“She’s ours.” Zelda’s tone, her eyes, even the tilt of her chin, turned fierce. “Nobody is going to take her from us.”
“Nobody,” Jess promised.
“Oh God, Chuck.” Zelda crumpled again, and buried her face in her hands. A couple of seconds passed before she looked up, her face streaked with tears. She shook her head. “I thought we had time. I was so selfish. I was so stupid. I’m just a stupid old woman, aren’t I? Had the best thing, and I ...” She shook her head. She couldn’t finish.
“You’re a woman who just lost the man she loved. Give yourself a break.”
Zelda’s gaze hung on Jess’s. “You think he knew I loved him?”
“Everybody did. And Chuck was no dummy.”
Zelda almost smiled. “No. He wasn’t. He was the best man I’d ever known. I don’t know how I’m going to live without him.”
Jess gave her another hug. “We’ll figure it out together.”
She stayed with Zelda while Derek kept making phone calls in the kitchen. Half an hour passed before she finally stood. She understood that Kaylee needed time alone. But she also needed to know that shewasn’talone, and never would be. So as Jess stepped away from the couch, she said, “I’ll go sit with Kaylee for a while.”
“See if you can talk her into coming back in. Blood doesn’t make family, love does. We’re family in every way that counts. We need to be together.” Zelda’s tear-filled eyes went to Derek, who was on another call, explaining the situation to someone new on the other end. When Zelda’s gaze swung back to Jess, she said, “Don’t make the same mistake I did.”
Jess nodded, even if she couldn’t think about a relationship with Derek right now. Too much was going on. But she did acknowledge that she would have to think about Derek later.
She filled her lungs with crisp winter air as she stepped outside. The crows were gone from the trees. The smell of snow was in the air once again. The warm spell was over. As she walked toward the sugar shack, the dirt crunched under her boots. The mud of the yard had frozen.
She went in the front, but she couldn’t see Kaylee anywhere. Zak ... somebody worked the vats. She couldn’t remember his last name. Her brain was numb.
“Where’s Kaylee?”
“Ran in the front, ran out the back. Everything OK?”
“Chuck passed away.” The words hurt.
Zak dropped the empty bucket he was holding. “Are you serious?” He sagged against a tower of buckets and knocked them over, caught himself before he fell with them. “When? What happened?”
