Temporary Father (Welcome To Honesty 1) by Anna Adams Page A

been hanging around at the cottage?”
    “Why?”
    “He sang Aidan’s praises. I thought he must know him better than a doggie handshake and an emergency trip to the vet.”
    She sat back. “He didn’t say anything to me. I don’t want him getting attached to Aidan.”
    “I don’t want either of you hurt.”
    She smiled. “Cut it out, big brother. I know he’s only here for a temporary retreat.”
    “Good.” Van finished off his water. “Not going to the lodge after all?”
    “No.” She set aside a spreadsheet and rested her chin on one hand. “Eli is so upset I don’t want to leave.”
    “I can look after him.” His eyes veered toward the big, old-fashioned clock hanging above the fridge. “I have a few hours before I need to leave.”
    “Thanks, but I’m staying.” She continued, unseeing, to the next spreadsheet. “He won’t talk and I wish I could ground him until he comes clean. Maybe I’m hypersensitive because of Lucy.” She shuffled her papers in disgust. “It’s not as if this stuff’s going to change.”
    “Keep at it, Beth. You’ll make things happen.”
    She stacked her papers, comforted by his faith. Only for a second did she fear it might be misplaced.
    “I’m going to shower, and then I have some work, too.” He ran up the stairs.
    The rest of the day slipped by. Beth tried to pick up the house, but kept straying back to her paperwork. No brilliant idea came to save her or change the bottom line.
    Eventually, she set a bowl of water and another couple of biscuits beside Lucy’s makeshift bed in Eli’s room to help him convince Lucy to sleep with him. The dog usually kept a prone vigil at the front door—where intruders would fall over her.
    Beth considered running down to the grocery store for the makings of a cobbler for tomorrow night’s dinner—and chicken tenders. Eli loved them.
    In the yard, the orange of afternoon seeped into the sky. She searched for her son. “Eli?”
    His head popped out of the tall grass where the manicured part of Van’s lawn drifted back to nature.
    “I’m going to the store. Want to come?”
    “No.” He dropped again.
    “Okay, but go in soon if the grass gets wet.”
    Beth breathed deep of the fresh air. Such a hard day, but they were all okay now.
     
    H AVING WRESTLED with the new laptop to no avail, Aidan paced through the woods again as afternoon fell to evening. He made no effort to be quiet, bending the branches out of his way, kicking through the pea gravel on the path. Still, Eli’s voice stopped him unexpectedly.
    At first he didn’t understand what he was hearing.
    “I wouldn’t want to live if something happened to you, Lucy. You’re the only one who knows.”
    Aidan eased closer, making no sound. Eli and his dog lay with their heads touching on the mossy ground beneath the green canopy of trees. Lucy shook her head and her ears flopped, a reassuring doggy sound. Eli must have thought so, too. He rolled over, and pine needles clung to his back. He patted the dog’s neck.
    “When it’s too hard to live, a lot of people decide they don’t have to. I’m tired and I’m no good. I almost let you die.”
    Aidan splayed his hand across his stomach,almost sick on the spot. Madeline’s last, scrawled words screamed at him. I want to die. You don’t want me, and I need you so much I can’t breathe.
    Shaking like the half a man he’d been for her, he backed away from Eli Tully. He had to find Beth.
    What he’d heard meant getting involved, and that kind of pain was too familiar. He should have been nosy and intrusive and demanded Madeline get the kind of help that would have saved her life.
    A man didn’t make that mistake twice.
     
    B ETH HAD FOUND all of Eli’s favorites. Chicken strips, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes to make the soufflé he loved and all the ingredients for his favorite apple cobbler. Not exactly a gourmet combination, but perfect in her son’s eyes.
    If she’d known how to whistle, she would