Hidden Hills Read Free

“It’s been empty for a while. Want to try again?”
    One swift move and she flew off the stool, catching his face with her greasy hands and twisting his head around as far as it would go. “Over there. See?”
    The row of overgrown hedges separating the yards blocked most of his view, but he could see enough to know someone was walking around in the adjoining property.
    â€œYour family’s buying the house?”
    Her head bobbed. “Uh-huh.”
    He could see the top of the realtor’s head, and her hands pointing to the features of the house. “Is your mom with Mrs. Wilson?”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œWhere’s your dad?”
    â€œIn heaven. Mama said God needed a lawyer, so he took my daddy.”
    He was dumbfounded for a moment. Since when had heaven started having legal problems? “Has he been there long?”
    â€œFor ever and ever,” she sighed. “I sure do miss my daddy. I wish God hadda took Grandfather instead. Mama wouldn’t cry so much if he was gone.”
    Judging from her size, Jake figured Maggie to be maybe a year older than Andy. The right words were hard to come by in a situation like this. He wasn’t usually soft- hearted, but the girl’s pain was similar to his boys. “Maybe God needed a special kind of lawyer.”
    The girl leaned in closer, her warm breath tickling his ear. “Mama said it’s ’cause Grandfather’s going to hell! Where’s that, Mr. Jake?”
    â€œYour mom said it?”
    â€œUh-huh.” She nodded, her clear green eyes searching his, willing him to believe. “Mama told Grandfather to go there. I heard her.”
    His first instinct was to condemn the unknown mother. How could she say such a thing in front of the girl? But then her trusting face reminded him of things he’d said that his boys shouldn’t have heard. At a loss for words, he used the same lame excuse he’d used with the boys countless times. “Maybe your mama was just mad.”
    Wiggling closer to his side, the girl pulled a wrench from under her leg. The greasy smear left on her shorts grew larger when she tried to wipe it away. “Mama cries when me and Becky are bad, so we’re good, but sometimes Becky makes me mad, and then I’m not so good.”
    â€œYou don’t say?”
    â€œUh-huh. Do you think my daddy misses me even when I’m not so good sometimes?”
    A lump the size of an ostrich egg made it hard to answer. He wanted to take her in his arms and hug the hurt away, but he knew it wasn’t possible. Only God can mend a broken heart. “I’m sure your daddy misses you, no matter how bad you are sometimes.”
    Maggie’s grin let him know he’d made a friend. The girl’s inquisitive eyes watched while he reversed the socket wrench and braced his leg in an attempt to free a stuck bolt. He needed more leverage. “Hand me the board.”
    She handed him the wood and without warning, grabbed his hand. “You’re dirty. Mama says I’m not to get dirty ’cause ladies don’t get dirty like boys, and I’m a lady.”
    â€œIs that a fact?”
    â€œUh-huh. Do you like boys, Mr. Jake?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I like Cucumber, and he’s a boy, but it don’t count ‘cause he’s a cat, and anyway, he got lost, and now I don’t got a cat. Uncle Mark says I can have another cat if Cucumber’s squashed on the road with his guts smashed out, but Mama says ladies don’t say ‘guts’, so I don’t say ‘guts,’ ‘cause I’m a lady.”
    â€œYou don’t say?”
    â€œUh-huh.” She scrambled on her knees for a closer look under the mower. “Not everybody’s a lady ‘cause they don’t got red curls. Do you like red curls? Santa does, and I’ve got lots of them. Only Becky don’t. I’m glad Santa likes red