Maybe This Time Read Free Page B

house in the family, and one of them would like to see it. Kelly would like to see it.
I’d
like to see it. We won’t talk to the kids.”
    â€œThe children own the house, so it’s not in our immediate family,” North said, picking up his pencil again. “And you’re not going to disrupt their lives because you think you might like to be a Ghostbuster.”
    â€œNo, no, I told you, we won’t bother the kids. My plan is that I take Kelly and Dennis, the expert, down there, we talk to people—not the kids, adults only—I see what’s going on and report back to you, you get to know the kids are safe, Dennis gets more research, Kelly gets her video whatsis . . .” Sullivan shrugged. “We all win. Plus, I get away from Columbus before Mother gets back from Paris. She doesn’t like Kelly. Says she’s all teeth and hair.”
    North looked at his little brother with an exasperation he hadn’t felt in years.
Southie’s permanently thirteen,
Andie had said.
Thirty-four hobbies and a hard-on.
But she’d been laughing when she’d said it . . . “Southie, when are you going to stand up to Mother?”
    â€œSouthie?” Sullivan said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou called me ‘Southie.’ You haven’t called me that in years.”
    â€œWell, grow up and I’ll never call you that again. You’re running down there because you don’t want to face Mother with your latest career plan or girlfriend. It’s not much of a rebellion if you keep running away.”
    â€œI’m not rebelling. I don’t have anything to rebel against. I have a great life. And to keep my life great, I’d like to avoid unpleasantness while learning about something that interests me and makes my girlfriend happy. Plus the last nanny quit last week so the kids are there alone. That’s not—”
    â€œThe children are not alone.”
    â€œYou hired another nanny?” Sullivan shook his head. “She won’t last. Better I should go—”
    â€œThis one will last.” North hesitated and then said, “I sent Andromeda.”
    â€œAndie?”
Sullivan whistled and then grinned. “Ghosts versus Andie. The supernatural is going to get its ass kicked. I didn’t even know she was back in town. When did you talk to her?”
    â€œToday. She’s going down there tomorrow.”
    Sullivan smiled. “Called me ‘Southie,’ did she?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThat’s why you called me ‘Southie.’ Andie did it first.”
    â€œYes,” North said, realizing it was true. Half an hour with Andie and ten years were yesterday. “She sent her regards.”
    â€œShe changed much?”
    â€œHer hair’s . . . different,” North said, remembering her sitting in that chair, bundled up in an awful suit jacket, all those crazy curls yanked back, her face scowling as she argued with him. And then that one lock of hair, sliding down her neck—
    â€œHer
hair’s
different?” Southie said. “You see your ex-wife for the first time in ten years and that’s all you got?”
    â€œShe looked . . .” Serious. Tense. Her old smile gone. “. . . quiet. She looked tired.” He shook that thought out of his head. “She was only here for twenty minutes. I didn’t pay that much attention.”
    â€œTwenty minutes in the old days, and she’d have had you on your knees.”
    â€œSouthie,” North said repressively.
    â€œI remember the first time I saw her,” Southie went on, ignoringhim. “I was supposed to talk you into an annulment, and her old clunker of a car pulled up, and you said, ‘There she is,’ and she got out and came walking toward us, and I knew there wasn’t going to be an annulment. I told you she looked like there was music playing in her head, and you said,