Harvest Moon (Virgin River #15)(76)

“Just go get your girl. I never did like Stu Lord. He’s an ass.”

Lief turned in his rental car and headed straight to LAX, determined to eat and sleep in the airport until he could find a flight. He had to wait several hours and couldn’t get a nonstop into Maui, but he was headed in the right direction and was grateful he could find anything at all this close to Christmas—the airport was mobbed.

Courtney had done three days of babysitting, counting their travel day, and was exhausted, even though Alison and Michael were good children and their parents were usually close by. Stu said he’d talked to Lief, and Lief had said to tell her to try to have a good time, that he wished he was at the beach. “Didn’t he ask to talk to me?” she had asked.

“Courtney, I asked him not to interfere and I promised him you were fine,” Stu said. “He warned me that I’d better be telling the truth and agreed to leave it alone. After all, I am your father.”

“I don’t believe you!”

“We have a deal,” he reminded her.

“I’m sick of babysitting!”

“Well, you decide what you want, Courtney. Life in L.A. or the mountains. It’s up to you.”

So she held out, and after just a couple of days she was feeling tired and bored. She wasn’t going to last through another week of this—chasing little ones, eating with them, reading to them, playing with them, falling asleep on the couch in Ann and Dick’s condo, right next door to Stu and Sherry’s condo, until Ann and Dick came back late at night after dinner, a little drunk. And Ann would cheerfully say, “Courtney, our last au pair would at least pick up the house before we got home.”

“But I’m not an au pair and I never wanted to be one!” she said.

“But you’re doing so well. The children love you!”

This was almost a practical joke.

At least she didn’t have to watch the older boys very much; Stu and Sherry let them run wild and kept tabs on them during the day. They hired a hotel service at night since Courtney babysat in Ann and Dick’s condo next door. Thankfully they didn’t want to hang out with a three-and four-year-old.

She kept trying to figure out how she was going to get out of this situation without the penalty being a life sentence with Stu and Sherry. Every last idea went through her head, even just running away and living on the streets. She thought about ditching right now—she had that credit card. She wouldn’t mind sitting at the airport until she could get a flight, even if it took days. But she’d have to at least tell Ann and Dick; she couldn’t leave Alison and Michael unattended—they were completely innocent. If something happened to them, she’d probably get life in prison. And if she alerted the Pagets, that would alert Stu. And while Ann and Dick seemed polite enough, always remembering to say please and thank you and smiling while they gave orders, they were not at all interested in watching their own kids. They were obviously quite accustomed to having full-time help.

She just wanted off this island so bad.

She was at the hotel restaurant for breakfast with Alison and Michael, as usual. They sat at a table on the other side of the room from Stu and Sherry and Dick and Ann; the adults didn’t want to be bothered or summoned unless it was absolutely necessary. The older boys were done eating and had taken off for the beach. While she and the Paget children were finishing up, an older couple she’d seen for the last few days sat down at the table next to them.

“You sure have your hands full, young lady,” the gentleman said.

“What a nice big sister,” the silver-haired woman said.

“I’m not related to them,” she said.

“Oh? Pretty nice babysitting job, I guess,” the man said.

And that fast, she knew she was done. Lief would have to find a way to get them out of this custody mess. She was not living with Stu.

“Excuse me, do you by chance have a cell phone?”

“Sure thing,” the gentleman said. He plucked it out of his shirt and handed it to her. “It’s not an international call, is it?” he teased.

“’Course not,” she said. She punched in the numbers and waited. “Oh! Dang! Your voice mail! Dad, Dad, it’s me! I’m in Maui at Kapalua Beach. I know we’re not supposed to even be here! Stu told me if I called you, he’d find a way to never let me see you again. He said he’d make sure I’d regret it! I want to go home.” Then her voice grew a little panicked because she’d done it—called him! Nixed the deal. “Please, come and get me! He took my phone away and told me I’d better not call you or else! Don’t call me back on this phone—I just borrowed it. Just come! Come and get me! Please, Dad. Please!” She swallowed back tears. “Please,” she said one last time.

She clicked off and handed the phone back to the man. Both of them, the man and his wife, were looking at her in open-mouthed horror. Shocked.

“Thanks,” she said meekly.

“Sweetheart, do you need help?” the woman asked.

“I need my dad,” she said. “When he gets the message, he’ll come.”

“Are you in trouble? In danger?” she asked.

She shook her head. “I’ll be fine until my dad comes.” Then she wiped the kids’ faces and said, “Come on, you two. Let’s go to the swings.”