Once a Father by Kathleen Eagle Read Free Book Online Page B

expecting you.” Tutan called his daughter’s name as though he had her warming the far end of the bench, and then he stepped onto the porch, hand on the door handle, shoulder propping it open. He could easily suck back into his lair if Logan triedanything funny, right? Like handing him a religious tract or a catalog for cleaning products. “That’s the big line now, isn’t it?” Tutan said with a smile. “ I’m here for you. I hear they love that.” He did another one-eighty toward the deep shadows. “Mary! Your new boyfriend’s here.”
    â€œHer ride,” Logan amended, keeping a firm grip on his cool.
    â€œShe’s busy upstairs with her mother, but if you want, you can wait in the kitchen. There’s coffee. Hope you don’t mind, but I’ve got work to do.”
    â€œI’ll wait out here.”
    â€œHell, no. That ice cream mess is still drawing flies out here.”
    Logan stepped into the foyer, but that was as far as he was going. No parlor, thank you very much.
    â€œMary!” Tutan tucked his thumbs under his drooping paunch and into his belt. “She comes home and says I’m here for you, Mother. Next thing you know it’s Can I borrow the pickup? And the answer is Hell, no, you can’t take the pickup. Some things never change, and that conversation seems to be one of them.” Over the shoulder and into the pine panel-lined darkness. “Mary!”
    Mary appeared with a loaded laundry basket, peered past her father and greeted Logan with a smile.
    â€œMorning,” he said heartily, and she responded in kind.
    â€œWhat’s going on back there?” Tutan demanded. “Is she sick again?”
    â€œShe’s cleaning again. I caught her taking curtains down in the bedrooms.”
    Audrey emerged from the same darkness. “Nobody’s been using the children’s rooms much, and everything’s just so dusty.”
    â€œI’ll be right with you,” Mary called out, and then lowered her voice. “I’ll take this stuff down to the laundry room, and you can wash to your heart’s content, Mother, but please wait for me to put the curtains back up.”
    â€œYou’ll be back, then.”
    â€œI’ll be back.”
    â€œNo hurry,” Audrey said as Mary disappeared through another door. “I’m just glad you’ll be here awhile longer.” She took two tentative steps toward Logan. “I think it’s exciting, you two working as a team.”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” Logan quipped with a wink for the older woman. Her blue eyes brightened, and her powder-pale face colored up some. Logan wished he’d brought her something more. Something sweet that she didn’t have to make herself. Awkward as hell, her husband standing there like he might pounce if Logan overstepped some invisible boundary.
    â€œMary says you wrote a horse training book,” Audrey said. “I’m trying to get her to write about training dogs. You should see what her dogs can—”
    â€œI’ll be back at noon,” Tutan told his wife. “I’ll have some of that German potato salad you were talking about. And make some bratwurst with it.” He spared Mary some kind of a warning glance as she made another entrance. “If it’s not too much for you to handle.”
    â€œIt’s in the refrigerator. All she has to do is heat it up,” Mary said. “Remember what I said, Mother. If you need me, call Sally. She knows where to find me.”
    Man, it was a relief to get out of that house. Logan gunned his pickup engine and headed for the Tutan gate like a barn-sour horse. Mary was quiet, probably just as relieved as he was. He smiled to himself as he thought about the council meeting and his motion to lease land to the Drexlers instead of Dan Tutan. Good move, Track Man.
    She was staring out the window. He couldn’t see much of her face,