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And though hoer than ician ever

spoke, or spirit ever answered to,

in the strongest conjuration

- CHARLES DICKENS

TWENTY-ONE

How are you feeling?" Wilson asked when she sat on the sofa with Ford, with the dog between theh, lucky"

"Have you been checked out by a doctor?"

"No, it’s bumps and bruises"

"It would be helpful to have a doctor’s report, and photographs of your injuries"

"I don’t have a local doctor yet And I’ot one," Ford interrupted "I’ll make a call"

"We interviewed Hennessy," Urick told the your truck or forcing you off the road He clai his wife"

"I went to see her this ot," she said to Ford "It wasn’t top of my mind after all this I went to see him, actually, but she said he wasn’t home We had a conversation, out on her porch Then I left I didn’t harass her, or anyone And if he thinks having a conversation with his wife justifies running me into a ditch, he really is crazy"

"What time did you speak with Mrs Hennessy?"

"I don’t know Around nine I left and did a nuuess, between Front Royal and Morrow Village I saw his van co toward it He sawup fast He rammed me I don’t kno many times now Three or four, at least I knoas all over the road I went into a skid, thought I was going to flip I went into the ditch I guess the seat belt and air bag kept it froot out of the truck," Wilson proht Supre at hiain, and knocked ate of the truck He said, ’I see you in there’ And he raised his fist That’s when I kicked him"

"What do you think he randrandet to her, that’s what he’d do He attacked my friend, vandalized my property, and now he’s attacked me"

"He hasn’t copped to any of the incidents before this afternoon," Wilson told her "He denies the rest"

"Do you believe him?"

"No, but it’s hard to understand why a erment, assault with intent refuses to admit to trespass and vandalishteous about what happened today Not remorseful or afraid of the consequences If his wife hadn’t gotten a lawyer in there when she did, we nth of time in the community, I’d expect his lawyer to request he be released on his own recognizance And given the nature of the offense, his proximity to you, I expect the DA will ask for him to be held without bail I can’t say which way it’ll go, or if it’ll land somewhere between"

"His wife swears he didn’t leave the house last night" Urick picked up the notebook in his lap "That they left the park right after they saw you, and he stayed in all night We did, however, pull out of her that he often spends time in their son’s room, locks himself in, sleeps in there So he could’ve left the house without her knowing about it We’ll push there, I promise you"

Cilla had barely settled herself down after the police left when her father arrived, with Patty and Angie Even as the anger and eht be the unbearable, Ford’s e Tupperware container and a bouquet of flowers

"Don’t you get up, you poor thing I brought you sohtful!" Patty sprang up to take the flowers "I never thought of food, or flowers I never thought-"

"Of course you didn’t How could you, with soto heat you up a bowl right now My chicken soup’s good for anything Colds, flu, bumps, bruises, lovers’ spats and rainy days Ford, find Patty a vase for the flowers Nothing cheers you up like a bunch of sunflowers"

Clutching them, Patty burst into tears

"Oh no" Penny cradled the Tupperware in one arm, Patty in the other "Come on with me, sweetie You come on with me We’ll make ourselves useful, and you’ll feel better"

"Did you see her poor face?" Patty sobbed as Penny led her away

"She’s just so upset" Angie sat beside Cilla, took her hand

"I know It’s okay"

"It’s not" Gavin turned fro out the front s "None of it is I should have confronted Hennessy years ago, had this out with him Instead, I just stayed out of his way I looked away from it because it was uncomfortable It was unpleasant And because he left Patty and Angie alone He didn’t leave you alone, and still, I stayed out of his way"

"Confronting hi"

"It would make me feel like less of a failure as your father"

"You’re not-"

"Angie," Gavin said, interrupting Cilla, "would you go help your ht"

"Ford? Would you ie

Cilla sat, her sto with a new kind of tension "I know you’re upset We’re all upset," she began

"I let her have you I let Dilly have you, and I walked away"

Cilla looked into his face and asked the single question she’d never dared ask him "Why?"

"I told myself you were better off I even believed it I toldwith your mother, allowed you to do what es I wasn’t happy there, and whatever turned between your ht out the very worst in both of us e dealt with each other When we dealt with each other about you I felt free when I came back here"

"I was only about a year old when you moved out, and not even three when you went away"

"We couldn’t speak two sentences to each other without it devolving It was better, a little better, e had a few thousand miles between us I came out every month or two to see you for the first few then less You were already a working actor It was easy to tell ree that it wasn’t in your best interest to co appearances"

"And you were building a life here"

"Yes, starting over, falling in love with Patty" He looked down at his hands, then dropped them to his sides "You were barely real to irl I’d visit a few times a year I could tell myself I did my duty-never failed to send the support check, or call on your birthday, Christifts Even if I knew it for a lie, I could tell ht here, every step She needed me, and you didn’t"

"But I did" Cilla’s eyes swam "I did"

"I know And I’ll never be able to make it up to you, or to myself"

His voice went thick "I wanted a quiet life, Cilla And I sacrificed you to get it By the tirown"

"Did you ever love ers to his eyes as if they burned, then, dropping his hands, walked over to sit beside her "I was in the delivery room when you were born They put you in my arms, and I loved you But it was almost a kind of awe Amazement and terror and thrill I reht you ho The nurse had fed you, but you were fussy I took you, and sat with you in the rocking chair You spit up all over ht into o"

She took a breath as so opened in her chest "You helpedroom And you’re here now"

He put an arainst hi on a veranda you’d built with your own hands And I loved you"

For the first time in her memory, for perhaps the first time in her life, she turned her face into his chest, and wept

LATER, SHE ATE CHICKEN SOUP It surprised her just how ht yellow sunflowers didn’t hurt, either Cilla decided she looked a great deal better when Ford didn’t argue with the idea of her walking over to check on ork had been done that day

"Walking around soine"

"It’s cooled off so"

"Aren’t you turning into the country girl"

S, she lifted her face to the sky "That, and like any contractor, I checked the weather channel thisthunderstor of weather, you weathered the emotional storm earlier very well"

"Barely, if you want to know the truth My oing, and that getsin the kitchen while they’re heating up soup and arranging flowers" Looking pained, he dragged a hand through his mass of disordered hair "I nearly bolted Spock slunk out through his dog door like a coward I thought about doing the same"

"Sterner stuff is Ford o when I looked in the living roo at your eyes"

"Thanks for sticking it out"

"It’s e men in love do" He unlocked the door, pushed it open

She paused in the doorway, as Spock ht in "Were you ever, before?"

"Ever what?"

"In love?"

"I was in love with Ivy Lattiht, but she treated me with derision and mockery I was in love with Stephanie Provost at thirteen, who returnedpool"

She pressed her finger into his chest "I’m serious"

"Those were very serious love affairs to me, at the time There were others, too But if you mean has it ever been real, have I ever looked at a woman and known and felt and wanted and needed all at the same time? No You’re the first"

He lifted her hand, brushed his lips lightly over her knuckles and esture with Patty "Looks the sauys do all day?"

She wandered into the living room "Because you don’t knohere to look Switch plates and outlet covers I special-ordered-hammered antique bronze-installed That was a nice, unnecessary thing to do Matt left the trim in here because he knows I have an e it myself"

She moved off, let out a happy sound at the doorway to the powder room "Tile’s laid" She crouched, studied "Nice, very nice, the warm pallet in this mosaic ties in ith the color of the entrance foyer, the living area I wonder if they got to the bathroom on the third floor, or finished the drywall?"

And she’s up and running, Ford thought, following her through the house

By the ti to her satisfaction, the first rumble of thunder sounded Spock let out a pip of distress and clung to Ford’s side like a burr

She set the alar to kick I love that I really love when it waits to rain until night, and doesn’t screw up time on the job Brian’s crew is scheduled for to to work on the pond Plus, we’re Oh daot I put an offer in on the house this h, it said do it now I should hear if they’re going to counter too through the other house I figured if that didn’t work for you, I’d just reschedule And I forgot about it"

"Gee, wonder why? What tiot a full slate, so five worked out"

"It’s fine We’ll go right after your doctor’s appointment That’s at four"

"But-"

"Four," he said in that tone she heard rarely Which, she iht"

"Nohat do you say we sit outside with some wine, and watch this storm roll in"

"I say that sounds like a nice way to end a seriously crappy day"

CILLA THOUGHT SHE was pulling it together pretty well She’d gotten a decent night’s sleep-lasses of wine, two Motrin and another bowl of Penny’s faed to creak her way out of bed at seven without waking Ford Another spin in the whirlpool, soa stretches followed byalmost normal

Over a quiet cup of coffee she wondered why she needed a doctor’s appointment It didn’t require a doctor to tell her she’d been banged around and would be a little stiff and sore, a little achy for a couple of days

But she doubted Ford would see it that way

And wasn’t that nice, when you got right down to it? There was soet pushy and bossy about her welfare It didn’t hurt to be flexible, to bend enough to accommodate