CRY UNCLE by Judith Arnold

Author:Judith Arnold
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: romance, marriage of convenience, key west, comedy, suspense
Publisher: Judith Arnold
Published: 2010-11-12T19:39:48.420749+00:00

Chapter Nine

AT SEVEN O’CLOCK the next morning, Pamela emerged from her bedroom, her head pounding and her nerves twitching like the quills of a porcupine sensing danger. She moved quietly down the hall, pausing at the open door to Lizard’s bedroom and surveying the bedlam within. The floor was strewn with toys, clothing, a pillow, peanut shells, and, not surprisingly, an impressive assortment of feathers. Picture books were stacked haphazardly on the bureau, several drawers of which hung open. The bed’s mattress wasn’t lined up with the box springs. The roller shade hung at a drunken angle.

Lizard herself wasn’t there. Not that Pamela blamed her; she wouldn’t want to spend a second longer than necessary in that room, either.

With a shudder of disgust, Pamela continued down the hall to Joe’s room. Halting outside his closed door, she listened for sounds of life within.

She heard nothing.

Wonderful. He was sleeping late, and she couldn’t count on him to assist her with Liz’s court-appointed guardian. The first true test of the contrived Brenner marriage, and Joe wasn’t going to do his part. He was going to sleep the morning away.

A strange mixture of emotions seized Pamela: disappointment, exasperation, sympathy for a man who might lose his niece simply because he worked odd hours—and a sudden, treasonous pang of doubt. Perhaps a man who couldn’t wake up early on what was conceivably the most important day of his niece’s life didn’t deserve that niece.

As soon as the thought took shape in Pamela’s mind, it self-destructed. Joe deserved Lizard because he’d raised the child for three long, difficult years, because he’d rearranged his entire life around her, because he’d sold his houseboat for her. Because he kept her drawings on permanent exhibit in his living room. Because he’d taught a stubborn little girl that before she left the table she had to ask to be excused. Because he loved Lizard as much as any parent had ever loved a child.

Because he was either stupid enough or noble enough to have given his hand, his name and his protection to Pamela, knowing the threat she was living under.

For that noble stupidity—or stupid nobility—Pamela would deal with the social worker. With or without her husband by her side, she would convince the court official that Lizard belonged in Key West with her uncle.

Sighing, Pamela U-turned and stalked back down the hall to the stairway. At the bottom of the stairs she saw that the note she’d left for Joe last night was gone. Evidently he’d read it and didn’t care, or slept through his alarm, or had an unjustifiable degree of faith in her ability to handle the social worker without his assistance.

She herself had no faith in her ability. What did she know about children and custody claims?

She located Lizard in the den, seated on the floor in front of the television, gaping at a cartoon program and shoving fistfuls of dry cereal into her mouth. A feather protruded from the back pocket of her shorts.

“No feathers today,” Pamela announced briskly.

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