Heat Wave Read Free Page B

taken her through the house. We’ve talked about fixing it up—Carley has wonderful ideas. She can do much of the work herself. She can paint. She can hang wallpaper.”
    At those words, Annabel went white. “The
house
.” She put her elegant hand to her chest, as if her heart hurt. “Gus, that is my family’s house. It’s historic. It should be restored by someone with knowledge and the proper skills.”
    “Come on, Mom, it’s a wonderful old house, but it’s not Monticello. You and Dad promised it to me when I got married. I’m getting married. Carley and I will raise our children there.”
    Annabel turned to her husband, her expression a silent cry for help.
    Russell cleared his throat. “Perhaps there is some other way to resolve this. Perhaps a sum of money—”
    Gus’s voice growled out low and threatening. “Don’t you dare.”
    Both Russell and Annabel drew up, clearly startled at their son’s tone.
    “This is your grandchild we’re talking about,” Gus remindedthem. “This dinner is meant to be an announcement and a celebration.”
    Annabel tried to smooth the troubled waters. “If you are happy, Gus, then so are we. It’s just that it’s all happened so fast.”
    “I am happy, Mom,” Gus assured her. “Happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”
    Carley and Gus married quietly and settled into the Greenwood house like a pair of nesting birds settling into an enormous drafty box. Carley and Gus hung wallpaper and Gus painted while Carley sewed up curtains for the baby’s room. They went to movies and parties with friends. They bought furniture, they bought pots and pans, and Gus’s belt tightened from eating Carley’s delicious food.
    Then Carley went into a long, difficult, agonizing labor and gave birth to their first daughter, Cisco. Carley was no longer the unmotivated drifting airhead of her family. She had her
own
family. She was the wife of a lawyer, the mother of a baby girl, the chatelaine of a historic house, a member of the Winsted clan, and a resident of an island thirty miles out at sea.
    When Cisco was born, Annabel and Russell took one look at her tiny face and melted with love. In the hospital, holding the infant, they both wept tears of joy. Later, Annabel brought over a variety of gourmet casseroles for Carley and Gus and joyfully did endless loads of baby laundry while Russell went to the pharmacy and the grocery store.
    One morning while Carley was tucked up on the sofa with the infant sleeping in her arms, Annabel curled up in the chair opposite and gazed upon mother and child, her face radiant with adoration.
    “You
are
a clever girl,” Annabel praised Carley. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful child in my life. Carley, please forgive me for being so damnably mean when we first heard you were pregnant. I had no idea how much I would adore this little child, and you brought her to us.”
    “Thanks, Annabel.” Carley shifted on the sofa, trying to get comfortable. “I had no idea how much I’d love her, either.”
    “She’s just so completely bewitching.” Annabel leaned forward, love-struck.
    Carley chuckled. “I don’t suppose your opinion has anything to do with the fact that Cisco has the black hair and eyes and pale skin of the Winsted clan, does it?”
    Annabel pressed her hand to her chest in mock surprise. “How could you suggest such a thing?” she teased lightly, then admitted, “Of course it does. I’m wild about Russell’s coloring, and thrilled that Gus has it, and over the moon that my granddaughter has it.” She cocked her head and offered brightly, “I do think Cisco has your nose.”
    After that, Carley and Annabel became comrades, devoted to the baby, satellites revolving around the sun that was Cisco. When Carley was pregnant again, she and Gus learned from the ultrasound the baby was female. When they told Russell and Annabel, Carley sensed the very slightest moment of disappointment that the baby was not a boy. At once,