Executive Protection(39)

“It’s not fun there.” Lucy barely heard her quiet voice.

She took her shopping and then out for dinner. It was getting late when they arrived at the estate.

When Lucy retrieved her bag and walked with Sophie toward the side entrance, Sophie gaped at the huge home.

“You live here?”

“Just for a while. I’m taking care of someone who was injured and just released from the hospital. That’s what I do. I’m a nurse.”

“I want to be a nurse when I grow up.” She skipped along toward the side entrance.

“Do you?” Or was she just saying that because she had a case of hero worship going on with Lucy?

“Yes. My mommy was a nurse. Rosanna told me you were a nurse.”

“Did she?”

“Yes. My mommy had brown hair, too.”

Oh, this poor child. Losing her mother at such a young age.

When they entered the house, Sophie continued to gape as Lucy declined the help of a servant and took her up to the room Kate had prepared for her.

Inside the white-and-pink room, it was fit for a princess.

“Wow!” Sophie yelled, bouncing into the bedroom that had been designed especially for kids, with its pink comforter and pictures and a rug. Lucy wondered if the items had been placed here just for Sophie. There were toys in an open trunk and a dollhouse left open.

Lucy put the duffel down on the bed while Sophie dropped before the Victorian-style, yellow-and-white Princess Anne dollhouse. The interior was fully furnished.

“I asked for some monster girl dolls for my birthday,” Sophie said.

Monster girl dolls was the latest trend in dolls. Times sure had changed since Lucy was a kid. “When’s your birthday?”

“March 15.”

This week? “I’m sure Rosanna will get you them.”

“No.” Her head whipped back and up to see Lucy. “She said I couldn’t have them.”

“Why not?”

“She said she can’t afford them.”

Because Layne had cleaned out her bank accounts. Lucy was uncertain how much she should intervene. Part of her contemplated taking her for herself and part of her warned to be careful. Winning Sophie over too much might harm her. Lucy would have to return her to Rosanna.

“Will you get me those monster girl dolls?” Sophie asked.

Lucy couldn’t respond right away.

“You said Imagene gave us those books. Can she give me those dolls?”

The drawbacks of making up stories...

“I don’t know, Sophie.”

“Will you ask her?”

She hesitated. “I’ll try, okay?”

“Okay.” She was back to being the happy girl again, pretending she had the dolls she wanted, her hands curled as though she held two and moved them through the elaborate miniature house.

“What happened to my mommy?” Sophie asked.

The question took Lucy aback and she had to spend a few seconds to think it through. “Well, she was in a bad car accident.”

Sophie turned with a blank look. Had no one explained this to her? Likely someone had tried but she didn’t understand.

“A man in a big truck ran into her car while she was driving. He didn’t mean to. That’s why it’s called an accident.”

Sophie stopped playing and stared down at her hands. “Where did my mommy go? Why doesn’t she come and get me?”

Why doesn’t she come and get me. Lucy swallowed a wave of sorrow for the girl, her eyes burning with near-tears. She knelt beside Sophie. “Well...she can’t, honey. She died in the accident.”

“Why do mommies have to die?”

Lucy touched her shoulder. “Everybody dies. Usually that isn’t until we’re all very old. It’s when accidents happen that they’re taken from us sooner than they should be.”

Sophie looked down at the lower level of the dollhouse, her young mind trying to process a grave topic.

“You know, every time you think of your mom, she’s here with you. You keep her right here.” Lucy pointed to her own heart. “As long as she’s there, she’ll always be with you. She won’t be able to talk to you, and you won’t be able to see her, but she’ll be here. She’s here right now.”

A glimmer of hope lit in Sophie’s eyes. “She is?” She searched the room.

“Yes, but remember, you can’t see or hear her. You can just feel her.” Lucy pointed to her heart again. “Right here.”

When Lucy withdrew her hand, Sophie pressed hers there.

Lucy had to leave before she started crying in front of Sophie. “Get your pajamas on. I’ll be back to tuck you in, okay?”

“Okay.” Sophie pretended to play with a doll a while longer. At first her motions were mechanical, but as the imaginary doll went up the stairs and into a beautifully furnished master bedroom, she seemed to fall into another world, the tragic loss of her mother receding to a dark corner of her small head.

* * *

Listening to Darcy talk on the phone with his new girlfriend, Thad suffered the glaring evidence that his best friend was falling in love. So fast? It was like a bad movie he couldn’t stop watching. The smile on Darcy’s face stayed after he disconnected the call and stared off into space. Thad imagined a cartoon character with big, round eyes and red hearts floating up over his head. Desks surrounded the one where he sat, phones rang, detectives talked, and Darcy was oblivious to it all. Worse, he seemed to have forgotten Thad stood next to him.