The Prodigal Daughter by Mette Ivie Harrison

Author:Mette Ivie Harrison [Harrison, Mette Ivie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2021-03-18T19:35:06+00:00

Chapter 15

Kurt was in the kitchen when we stepped inside, holding his cell phone to his ear. He put it down as soon as he saw me.

“Oh, here you are,” I said lamely, even though I’d seen his truck in the garage. I hadn’t had enough time to make up a script for this. His expression told me he knew about my earlier lie.

“What’s going on?” he demanded. “Where have you been all night? I called Joseph, and he said you were never scheduled to babysit Carla last night.”

I didn’t bother with another lie. Nodding at Sabrina, I said, “I was out finding this young woman. Her name is Sabrina Jensen, and she’s from Joseph and Willow’s ward. She needs our help.”

Sabrina was still pretty shaken up, and she didn’t hold out a hand to Kurt. He barely glanced at her, which was disappointing. I’d hoped he would care more about helping someone in need than he did about me lying to him about last night.

“What kind of help?” he asked.

“Sabrina ran away from home last week, and Joseph asked me to help find her. She was on the streets downtown, but I convinced her to come here.” I didn’t even bother explaining why I hadn’t mentioned this before now. Kurt knew we had problems as well as I did.

Kurt looked Sabrina more closely now and seemed to melt at the sight of her state. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

I smiled slightly. That was my husband. Straight to the practicalities.

But Sabrina still said nothing.

Kurt gently put a hand on her shoulder—she flinched but only slightly—and led her to one of the stools at the bar, then pushed a plate of scrambled eggs toward her. “I just cooked these. I bet you’ll like them. They have lots of cheese.”

That was when I thought to check my phone and saw that Kurt had called me no less than eleven times through the night. The first call had been a little after midnight, so apparently the ruse about babysitting Carla hadn’t lasted very long.

Sabrina stared at the eggs, then poked at them with the fork Kurt handed her.

“Do you prefer them sunny side up?” he asked. “I can make some that way if you like.”

“They’re fine,” she said, but she didn’t eat them. She just moved the pieces around her plate for a while.

How long since she’d been in a kitchen like this? Only a few days, right? Why did she seem so disoriented?

After a few minutes of silence, Kurt glanced up at me. “I have to get into work early this weekend, and there’s church stuff this afternoon,” he said. “We’ll talk about this tonight, all right?”

“Sure,” I said, not looking forward to that at all. “I’m going to get Sabrina settled in Zachary’s old room, all right?” I wasn’t quite ready to have anyone touch Samuel’s room yet. He might come back to live with us for a while after his mission was over.

“Fine,” Kurt said. He hesitated a long moment, as if trying to decide whether to come over and kiss me.

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