A Mother's Homecoming(68)

Jake pitched forward with enough force that the little girl toppled from his shoulders and fell with a heartrending cry to the pavement below.



Chapter Fifteen


Considering all the people jammed onto the walkway, Pam reached the Stein family pretty quickly. Jake’s wife was trying to assess the shrieking girl’s injuries while also juggling her shrieking younger sister, who was unharmed but startled. Jake wasn’t even attempting to help. Instead he was sitting on the grass nearby, shaking his head and muttering to himself.

When Pam got close enough, she saw that he’d started to cry. She wanted to shake him—his wife had enough to deal with in two crying babies. Mrs. Stein shouldn’t have to cope with her sobbing husband, who, unless Pam was wrong, had caused this accident in the first place.

“Oh, God.” Pam was startled by the amount of blood. It hadn’t been immediately obvious in the dark, but the wailing girl had turned her head in Pam’s direction and one of the overhead lights caught her face. Her cherubic features, lit oddly bluish, were smeared with dark blood. Pam felt faint for a minute but pushed forward.

“Here,” she offered to Mrs. Stein. “Would you like me to hold the little one?”

The girls’ mother, clearly trying not to cry herself, nodded gratefully as she passed over the youngest of the two, freeing her up to examine the thrashing child more carefully. In an attempt to find the silver lining, Pam told herself that, given the rapid motion of the little girl’s limbs, obviously she hadn’t broken an arm or leg.

Pam patted the girl she held on the back, making shushing noises. She was distantly aware of the crowd parting around her as uniformed guards carrying first-aid kits reached the scene. The injured girl’s shrill cries had subsided to a sort of hysterical snuffling, and Pam caught snatches of explanation from the guard. She’d knocked a tooth out on the concrete and apparently all face and head wounds bled terribly. They were advising Mrs. Stein to take her to the E.R. to check for a concussion and possibly for stitches.

During this conversation, Pam glanced over at where Jake sat. He had stopped talking to himself and was guzzling from a water bottle she hadn’t seen before, probably retrieved from inside his jacket. The dark liquid he was belting back wasn’t water.

You bastard. Not that it was uncommon for an alcoholic to relapse. She’d only seen Jake at a couple of meetings, so it wasn’t as if she knew him well. There was no good reason for her to be taking this so personally.

“Hey!” Nick appeared at her side, blocking her view of the other man. “You okay?”

“’Course.” Not remotely. “Just trying to help out.”

“Mamamamama,” the little bundle in her arms chanted. Pam wasn’t sure if it was random phonetic babbling or a specific request. Mrs. Stein had mostly calmed down her other daughter and was helping her to her feet.

The beleaguered mother tried to smile at Pam. “Thank you so much. I’ve got it from here.”

“You sure?”

She nodded.

After she’d passed the child back and wished Mrs. Stein well, Pam went straight to Jake Stein, without stopping for any kind of explanation to Nick. She ripped the bottle out of his hands with enough force that some of the contents sloshed across her sleeves and torpedoed it into a nearby garbage can.

Then, with tears stinging her eyes, she raced for the ladies’ room, hoping she could get there before she made an even bigger scene than the wailing toddlers.

NICK TEXTED HIS SISTER that something had come up and could she please keep an eye on Faith for the rest of the game. Minor medical emerg. in crowd, trying to assist. He just hoped Leigh didn’t come to the ladies’ room or he was going to be stuck trying to explain why he was pacing outside it, refusing to leave until Pam came back and he could make sure she was all right.

What the hell happened?

They’d been going for a couple of colas, she’d been bumped and the next thing he’d known, she was sprinting down the sidewalk toward the family that had just passed and there were tears and blood and she was throwing some guy’s drink.

She’d only been gone a few minutes, but he felt clueless, which was irritating and made the time pass slower. He was reversing direction for another lap when she emerged, red-eyed and sheepish.

“You want to tell me what that was about?” he asked gently. She didn’t look like she needed an impatient interrogation.

“That guy who dropped his daughter? He was drinking. And he shouldn’t have been,” she said.