Second Child Read Free Page B

childish.
    Melissa smiled as she remembered the conversation she’d overheard last Sunday, before her father had gone back to New York for the three days before her birthday.
    “She’s going to be thirteen this year, Charles,” her mother had said. “She’s not a baby anymore, and it certainly isn’t going to hurt her if you don’t get back till Friday night.”
    Melissa had held her breath, waiting for her father’s reply, and hadn’t let it out until she heard the words. “It’s her birthday, and it doesn’t matter which one it is. I’ll be here for her. She counts on it.”
    The conversation had gone on, but Melissa hadn’t paid further attention, for she knew that once her father committed himself to something, even her mother couldn’t change his mind. Which meant that today was all hers, and Daddy would do whatever she wanted, even if it were no more than flopping on the beach and making up stories about what the clouds looked like. That was just what they’d done last year, in fact, and her mother had stared at her at dinner that night as if she were crazy. Indeed, even after a whole year, she could still hear her mother’s angry voice: “Well, you certainly managed to waste your father’s valuable time today, didn’t you? It was very inconsiderate of you to make him come all the way out here just to do the same
nothing
you do every day.”
    Melissa, stung, had felt tears well up in her eyes, but then Daddy had come to her defense. “I thought having nothing to do was the whole point of coming here,” he’d said. “And if Melissa had as good a time as I did, I’d say the day was pretty damned close to perfect.”
    Out of the corner of her eye Melissa had watched her mother’s lips tighten, but she’d said nothing. Still, the next day, after her father had gone back to the city …
    She resolutely put the memory out of her mind. This year it was going to be different.
    She found her father in the kitchen with Cora, and he grinned at her as she came in. “Ready for one of my special chocolate-blueberry waffles?”
    Cora frowned her disapproval. “I swear to God, I don’t know where you got the idea for those things. I certainly never fed them to you when you were a boy—”
    “Want one?” Charles interrupted, cocking an eye at the elderly housekeeper, who pursed her lips, surveyed the counter full of dirty dishes her employer had created, then sighed in resigned defeat.
    “Well, I suppose just one wouldn’t hurt.”
    “Go get Tag,” Charles told Melissa, winking. “Tell him he’s not allowed to do anything on your birthday except goof off.”
    Melissa started toward the back door, but the phone jangled loudly and she paused as Cora picked it up. A moment later, her face pale and her hand trembling, Cora handed the receiver to Charles.
    “It’s Polly,” Cora said, her voice quavering as her eyes filled with sudden tears. “She’s—She and her husband … There was a fire …” She sank down onto a stool next to the sink as Charles snatched the phone from her hand.
    Melissa stood next to the back door, trying to sort out the fragments of sentences she heard her father speak. When he finally hung up, his face was as pale as Cora’s. “I’m afraid something’s happened, baby,” he said, his voice gentle, but choked with emotion. “I’m going to have to fly to Los Angeles this morning.”
    Melissa stared at him, her eyes wide.
    “Polly and Tom MacIver have died,” he went on. “There was a fire in their house this morning.”
    “Teri,” Cora breathed, her eyes fixing on Charles. “What about Teri?”
    Charles’s own eyes closed for a second, and his right hand went to his forehead as if he’d been seized by a sudden headache. Then he managed a nod. “She’s all right,” he said. “She got out. From what they said, Tom didn’t know she’d escaped. He was trying to rescue her. Polly tried to go out a window, but fell.”
    “Dear God,” Cora