Every Time We Say Goodbye by Liz Flaherty

Author:Liz Flaherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“I’M STARVED AND I was noble today, so I get the first helping.” Arlie snatched the lasagna pan from Holly’s hands.

Holly looked down her perky nose at her sister. “I was passing it to Jack. He’s company.”

“No, he’s not. He’s Jack.” Gianna passed the bread sticks. “You girls behave yourselves.”

“Tell us about it,” Holly said when they’d said grace and Arlie’s mouth was full. “What was it like?”

Jack saw the concern in Gianna’s expression. He winked at Holly. “She was brave. Hardly cried at all.”

Holly nodded solemn assent. “That’s good. Usually she throws such a fit.”

Arlie swallowed visibly. “I do not.” The look she gave Jack should have seared off his eyebrows. “It was all right. I was drowsy most of the time.”

She told them what she remembered. Jack filled in what she didn’t, and Holly ad-libbed just to keep things entertaining.

“There was a great nurse there, named Leo.” Arlie helped herself to more lasagna. “If I ever went back to midwifery, I’d like to work with her.”

Something in her voice, an eagerness that was more than likely unconscious, slipped under Jack’s skin. He looked at Gianna and Holly and realized he wasn’t the only one who’d heard it.

“You want to do that, don’t you?” Holly skipped a second helping of lasagna but took two bread sticks—one of them straight from her sister’s plate.

“No.” But it was still there. That itch in her voice that made Jack think of the look in her eyes when she told him about A Woman’s Place. She said it again, her voice firmer. “No.” She took back her bread stick.

He wondered who she was trying to convince. Unless it was herself, he didn’t think it was working.

“Glennis came in after the procedure.” Arlie wiped her lips and met her stepmother’s eyes across the table.

Gianna laid down her fork. “She did?”

“You never told me she was drunk the night of the accident.”

Gianna hesitated, then nodded. “I know.”

“It was bad enough she couldn’t come because she was too upset and too far away. But drunk?” There was an underlying tremor in her voice now.

“I never thought she’d tell you, and I didn’t think you needed anything to make matters worse.” Gianna took her time speaking, rubbing the tines of her fork over and over with her napkin. “I didn’t think you knowing she was drunk that night would help you in any way. It doesn’t make it right that I didn’t tell you, but in my mind you’d been my child for ten years. I didn’t care at all what happened to her. Except for the fact that she gave birth to you, I probably still don’t.”

“But she’s an alcoholic.” Arlie lifted despairing hands. “One more wonderful branch on the family tree.”

“That occurred to me,” Gianna admitted. “Later on, anyway. I’ve been critical of her for not telling you about the breast cancer in her family, but I should have made you aware that drinking might be a problem, too. Not that you ever drink much, Arlie, but I suppose the tendency might be there.

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