Free Life After Wife by Carolyn Brown Page B

sight—she calls up Theron and says to meet her in Decatur to get the child, or she’ll leave her in the airport bathroom.”
    “Holy crap, Sophie! A rock does have more maternal instincts than that for sure,” Elijah muttered.
    Sophie slathered two sides of wheat bread with mayonnaise and stacked three pieces of ham on one side, cheese and lettuce and tomatoes on the other. She slapped it together and put it on a paper plate with some chips and got a cold Pepsi from the fridge.
    “So he went and got her?” Elijah asked.
    “He and Fancy were past the point where they wanted to murder each other by that time in their relationship. You’ll have to ask him all about that part later. Anyway he calledFancy and asked her to go with him,” Sophie said and then took a big bite of the sandwich.
    Elijah wondered if he was losing his ability to read people. Why would Theron need someone to go with him? His first impression of the man was that, although he was short, he was a stand-up kind of guy and didn’t need a woman to hide behind.
    Sophie swallowed and took a long drink from the can. “I bet you are wondering why he asked Fancy to go with him when they could barely tolerate each other, aren’t you?”
    “It’s your story. I’m just listenin’,” Elijah said in a flat tone.
    Sophie took another bite. He could wait for the rest. His face, set like flint or stone or some other organism that did not breathe or move, said he could care less what she was prattling about. But his eyes told a different story. He must have gotten those from his Uncle Jesse’s side of the family, because they were definitely interested and wanted to know everything.
    She chewed slowly and had a potato chip before she continued. “Well, Fancy had been helping him in the Sunday school class that he taught for preschoolers, and he knew she’d be good with a little girl who might be terrified that her mother had abandoned her.”
    Elijah didn’t say a word, but he didn’t shut his eyes and snore or turn his vision back to the television, either.
    “That’s why he asked her to go with him, and it’s a good thing he did because a few months later Maria showed up and tried to take Tina back with her. It was all a power play for money. She wanted him to pay her to sign over the rights to his daughter, and he refused. But Fancy had been there when it all went down, so Theron had a witness.”
    “That Maria really is a rotten apple,” Elijah said.
    “Yep. The lawyers had all this documentation that said Tina’s DNA proved she was Theron’s. And Fancy had signed a statement saying that Maria had actually left the child alone before they even arrived to get her, which constituted abandonment. So Maria didn’t have a leg to stand on,” Sophie finished the story.
    “They ever see her again?” Elijah asked.
    “Not so far. Hopefully she’s out there in California and will stay there and not make trouble. I live in fear she’ll kidnap Tina just for money.”
    Elijah stretched and stood up, shaking the legs of his cotton pajama bottoms down when he did. Without a word, he went to the kitchen and heated up some gumbo soup straight out of the can.
    Sophie finished her sandwich, threw away the paper plate, and washed her hands at the kitchen sink. When she turned around, Elijah was just inches behind her on his way to the silverware drawer to get a spoon. For a moment their gazes locked, gray eyes doing battle with clear blue ones, and for a single breathless second she thought he might lean forward and kiss her. But it passed with a heavy awkwardness that sent her to her room with a weak excuse that she thought she heard her cell phone, and him back to check the soup on the stove.
    She slung herself on the bed, head at the wrong end, feet on the pillow shams, and stared at the ceiling. A fly crawled across it, and she tried to concentrate on it rather than the emotional upheaval in her chest. She’d actually wanted Elijah to kiss her. It was