Angel Falls (Angel Falls Series, #1)

to hand over his burden. “I didn’t get her down for a nap early enough, I guess.”
“That’s okay.” I held my arms out. Ben transferred Amy to me. She snuggled her face into my shoulder. I hugged her close, watching an elusive stream of emotions wash across Ben’s face. He rubbed a hand down Amy’s back, and we stood silent for a minute, connected like beads on a string.
He broke the connection by kneeling down to ruffle Lizzie’s fur.
“How are y’all doing?” I asked.
He scratched Lizzie under her chin. “Better.” He looked up at me with his shy smile, chin tilted in the endearing, boyish way that had once tugged at my heartstrings. In a way that still made me feel swollen inside. “We’d like it if you’d come over and cook dinner for us again. Macaroni and cheese is wearing a bit thin.”
Thanks to Ian, I had moved beyond thinking of the accident as my fault. Maybe I was meant to be with Melody on that fateful day, so she wouldn’t have to die alone. Maybe I was meant to help Ben put his family back together again, just not in the way Melody had expected. “I guess I’ll have to give you a recipe file for Christmas.”
“Don’t bother unless the recipes are simple.” He stood, hands in pockets, and bumped his shoulder against mine the way he’d done a thousand times before. “No more than three ingredients. That’s about all I can handle.”
Something in me loosened, the tension defused by his familiar gesture. “You idiot.”
“Oh... I almost forgot.” He brought a hand out of his jeans pocket and opened his palm to reveal a bunch of hairpins and a rubber band—the thick purple kind that come on bunches of broccoli at the grocery store. “Here’s the stuff for Amy’s hair. So you can fix it. That’s why I brought her early.”
I grabbed a covered hair dooley off the stereo cabinet, carried Amy toward Lizzie’s tuffet and motioned for Ben to sit. “Come here.”
Ben sat, and Lizzie jumped up and curled herself around him. Ignoring Amy’s sleepy protest, I lowered her feet to the floor, stood her in front of Ben, and handed him my hairbrush. “It’s about time you learned to make a ponytail.”
*
That night, I started reading Sacred Contracts, a book Melody had given me years ago but I’d set aside without reading past page twenty-five. At the time, I’d thought she was absolving herself, sending me the message that stealing Ben from me was part of some spiritual contract between the three of us. Now, reading further, I wasn’t so sure.
The phone rang. Distracted by my thoughts, I picked it up, but only said, “hmmmm?”
“I need you.” Ian’s words sent a shivery little thrill through me. I set the book aside, along with the philosophical conundrums it presented.
“You do?” Huddled in my big reading chair, I picked polish off my toenails and held the phone against my shoulder. I pretended indifference, though my insides were swirling with anticipation. “Would it be foolish to ask what you need me for?”
He chuckled, a low, devilishly attractive sound. “Among other things, I’d like you to be my date for an awards banquet on Friday, in Birmingham. I’ll book a hotel room for the weekend. If we leave early, we’ll have time to change clothes,” his voice lowered suggestively, “or something... before the banquet. Then we’ll spend the rest of the weekend doing whatever we want in the big city.”
“Oh, Ian.” Fuck the indifferent tone. I couldn’t wait to spend the weekend with him. “That sounds wonderful.”
“It’s not. At least not the banquet. But the rest of the time, I’ll make it up to you.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Now...” His voice got all sexy and deep, and I pictured him leaning back in his office chair, the lights turned down low. “Since I’m stuck here at work until Wilson finishes the print run, why don’t you make me miserable. Tell me what you’re wearing.”
I looked down at my oversized mustard yellow T-shirt, holey and paint-smeared but soft and clean—one I wore to sleep in now that I’d ruined it for anything else. “Well, I have this red satin nightie with black spaghetti straps...”
*
On Friday, I was packed and ready by two. Angela had agreed to look out for Lizzie and Chester, and to let them come inside her apartment to visit if they seemed lonely. I’d brushed my hair, twice. I’d put on lipstick, again. My nails were done. My fanciest dress hung in a garment bag across the back of the couch. I was rummaging in the refrigerator in search of anxiety food when the phone rang.
“Casey.”
Expecting Ian, I got Ben. My pattering heart tripped and fell. “What?”
“Thank God you’re home. I’m stuck in a meeting with new clients in Gulf Shores. The meeting’s almost over, but even if I left now, I couldn’t get home to pick up the kids on time. I need you to get Jake and Maryann from school, and Amy from Marina’s. You know Marina’s mom—”
“Yes, I know Marina’s mom. But I can’t—”
“I need you to take them all home and hang out until I get there.”
“Ben.” I spat out his name like a bad piece of meat. “I’m going—”
“Casey,” Ben begged, “I’m all out of options. Lois and Herb are out of town. I’d have called my parents in Birmingham, but by the time I realized I was in a bind, it was too late. You’ve got to. I promise, I—”
“Dammit, Ben.” Exasperated to the bone, I pounded my fist on the back of the couch. “You can’t do this to me.”
“I wouldn’t ask if there was any other way. I’ve got nobody else to call.”
“What about Cole and Meredith? Couldn’t they—”
“I asked. Meredith is on her way to a real estate seminar in New Orleans, and Cole’s driving to Meridian to pick up some rich guy’s horse.”
“He’s what? I thought Cole worked construction.”
“He does, but he also trains horses on the side. Anyway, their