Gypsy Magic (The Little Matchmakers) Read Free Page A

and cringe? Why does he have to look at me like that? With great effort, Lance forced himself to relax, but the tension was still in his voice as he spoke.
    “Was there something you wanted?”
    “No, Daddy.” Again, the whisper, the lowered head.
    “Then go and play.” How difficult not to bellow, then get the hell out of my sight!
    Kevin said, “Yes, Daddy.” Sad eyes in a guilt ridden face surveyed Lance for one brief instant before the boy crept, too late quiet, through the trees and underbrush.
    The woods were scary, full of awful silences which made the roaring in his ears so loud Kevin wanted to make noise just to hear something other than nothingness or wind in trees. Even hearing his big, gruff father speak to him was better than silence, though it made him want to cry.
    Lance groaned softly as he put the palms of his hands to his aching head. What the hell was the matter with him? Why had he spoken to the kid like that? And why had Kevin’s attitude been what it was? What a stupid idea this had been! If only he had listened to Lorraine, as always, instead of letting Keith talk him into this farce, this fiasco.
    Keith Summers, an old friend who just happen to be a pediatrician as well had recommended this month—totally isolated, trapped on the island, in an fourteen by twenty-foot cabin with Kevin. It was all Keith’s fault. No, he amended, not entirely his. He, Lance, had not been forced to do it, but desperate, he had decided to forget the fact that Keith disliked Lorraine and would say anything simply to disagree with her.
    Lorraine had said, “Look, Lance, I know both you and Kevin inside out. You can’t get along with him for more than two minutes, and he’s scared stiff of you. If you don’t want to listen to me anymore, let Marsha have him.”
    “Marsha will never get her hands on him again. You know how I feel about that,” he had exploded.
    “Of course I know,” Lorraine cut in smoothly as always, wanting to soothe him, make his path easier. Good, efficient Lorraine…
    “But Lance, he’d be so much better off with someone who truly loves him.”
    “Don’t you?”
    “Frankly, no. And neither do you. He’s too much like— He’s not easy to love. Too prickly, too easily hurt.”
    “But why doesn’t my own son love me? He used to. Lord knows I want to be the kind of father he needs. . And I think he wants me to as well. Trouble is, I can’t seem to break through the barriers, to get to know him. As Keith said, I have to learn about him and the only way to do it is like this.”
    Lorraine’s mouth had thinned, and she remained silently disapproving for such a time that Lance found himself apologizing. “I’m sorry, Lorraine. I know I’ve always followed your lead when it comes to what’s best for Kevin, but this time I have to try it my way.”
    “Keith’s way,” she had snapped, and sailed out, chin at an aloof, disapproving angle.
    ~ * ~
    Kevin wandered across the narrow, south end of the island, staying close to the creek. Here, it was not so dark, so gloomy as under the trees. Dappled sunlight lit the shallow water and the child squatted down on the bank to talk again to his only friends—two silent trout. They reminded him of the goldfish Auntie Lorraine had let him have when he wanted a puppy like the one Mikey and Jennifer got. She said that the puppy was noisy and would bother Daddy and that the goldfish were better. They were quiet and clean. They stayed small, too, because they lived in a little bowl. Kevin had wanted a huge fish tank like at the aquarium, where they even had sharks with big, sharp teeth. Those sharks—even the salmon in other tanks—we big.
    Maybe that was why his fish weren’t growing. Could it be that all the worms he’d been feeding them in the past three days since he and Daddy came here would never help them get big? Maybe they needed more room.
    “I’m going to make your pool bigger, fish,” he told them, “and then you’ll be able