Temporary Father. Anna Adams

      “Are you all talking about that guy in the cottage?”

      Beth and Van turned.

      “Did you meet him, too, Eli?” Van asked.

      “I’ve seen him going in and out.” Eli crossed the kitchen and plucked a grape tomato off the cutting board. “I can see the cottage from my window.”

      Beth passed him another tomato. “We’re supposed to leave him alone. Uncle Van says he’s here because he’s been sick and he needs quiet to get better.”

      “I think you should date him, Mom.”

      “Huh?” Beth turned, and the salmon she’d been in the process of flipping, splatted onto the floor.

      “You should date him.”

      “No, she shouldn’t,” Van said. “What are you talking about, Eli?”

      “I heard you. Mom wants to talk to him. It’s time you started dating again, and if he knows you, Uncle Van, he must have the bucks.”

      “Eli.” Beth bent to clean up the salmon. It slipped out of her hands. “Date him? Where’s that coming from?” Two tries later, she scooped up the fish and dropped it into the sink.

      “I told ya. You need money. He has it. We’d be okay if you went out with someone like that guy.”

      “We have all the bucks we need, and that’s no reason to date anyone. I don’t understand you. For the past three years, any time a guy’s looked twice at me, you’ve been upset. When those men who stayed at the lodge left a big tip behind, you thought they were trying to come on to me.”

      “That was before we found out they tore the mantel off the fireplace in their room.” A shrug made him look a decade older. “You need a life, Mom. I feel like a bug under your microscope, and I’m old enough to know you should be interested in guys. I don’t expect you and Dad to get back together anymore.”

      “I’m the one who’s supposed to matchmake for you, Eli. You’re creeping me out.”

      “Most divorced moms date. My friends’ moms do.”

      “When the guy is right. And the time. I have to get us back into our own house.”

      “You worry all the time.” He grabbed the plates and silver she’d stacked on the counter. “I’ll set the table.”

      Stunned silence thickened in the kitchen as he rushed to the dining room. Beth turned to Van, still clutching the oily spatula. “That was too many firsts. I should date, I need a life and he’s setting the table without being asked.”

      “He’s hiding something. He thinks by going after you, he can keep hiding it.” Van popped a tomato into his mouth and turned toward the dining room door. “Sucks to be Eli.”

      “Wait.” She almost lost another piece of salmon. “What are you going to do?”

      “Drill for the truth.”

      “He’s been fragile since the fire.”

      “Which is why I want to know why he’s trying to find you a man.” Van paused, his hand on the door. “He’s been sullen and aloof and he avoids us. None of that is like Eli.”

      So she wasn’t the victim of single-parenting paranoia. “Okay, try, but don’t upset him.”

      “He’s my nephew.”

      She set down the spatula and urged him through the door. These days she couldn’t tell if Eli didn’t want to talk to her or just didn’t want to talk. They were both lucky Van would step in for Campbell, who grew less paternal as each day passed.

      Her brother spoke first. Her son answered. She couldn’t tell what they were saying. She leaned on the counter, a knife in one hand, a tomato in the other, trying to hear.

      If Van discovered anything earthshaking, he’d tell her. She finished the salmon, mixed greens, tomatoes, feta, almonds and vinaigrette into a salad and hurried into the dining room.

      She stopped at the sight of Van and Eli, reading sections of the newspaper. No tantrum from Eli protesting his uncle’s nosiness. Nothing but normal.

      Normal seemed off.

      “Here we go.” Crossing behind her son, she lifted both eyebrows at Van, but he shook his head. She set the salad beside Eli and the salmon in the middle of the table. “It’s not much for lunch. I should have made rice or something.”

      “This looks great,” Van said.

      Eli grunted, which was more like him. Beth scooped up the newspaper and carried it to the kitchen when she went back for drinks. She poured a glass of milk for Eli and tea for Van and her.

      Eli followed his usual method—eat, eat and eat some more, until even the salad vanished into distant memory. Then he ran for the front door. He spent every moment of each free day outside with Lucy.

      “I forgot to tell him we have to work on the lodge today.”

      “Leave him here.”

      “He ought to help. It’s his house, too.”

      “I know.” Van stretched to see through the elaborately draped windows. “But Lucy might do him more good than work. I couldn’t get anything out of him except what he told us both, but something’s wrong. I was sure he wanted you and Campbell back together.”

      “Me, too.” She shuddered. “Don’t most children dream of reuniting their parents?”

      “That bastard should have gone to jail. He still doesn’t pay child support half the time.”

      “Shh.” She glanced toward the door, half expecting Eli to return.

      “Beth, listen.” Van turned her away from the window.

      “Yeah?”

      “I have to leave for Chicago tonight. I hate to go during Eli’s spring break, especially when he’s acting strange.”

      She wondered if his trip had something to do with his business troubles. “Van, can I just say one thing?”

      He nodded, but his eyes didn’t fool her. He was worried. “You don’t have to protect us. I appreciate your help, but this isn’t like with Cassie.” Guilt had ruined his marriage, although they’d truly loved each other. “I’m going to be okay, and so is Eli.”

      “You don’t have to assume everything that bothers me leads straight back to Cassie,” he said. “You and Eli are my family now.”

      “It’d be more strange if he weren’t acting different. It hasn’t been that long since the divorce in child years, and then there was the fire and now he has to get along with standoffish kids at his new school. But please try not to worry. If you don’t stop taking care of us, you’ll never have time for a family of your own.”

      “Maybe Eli’s right. You do need to date someone. Just don’t ask Aidan for help on the lodge.”

      She wasn’t likely to forget seeing Aidan at the doctor’s office, enraged because he had to continue taking life easy. “You don’t have to worry about that.” He’d been wearing jeans and a black sweater that only made him seem longer and leaner. “Not that he makes a convincing invalid.”

      The doorbell rang. Van glanced that way. “But look in on him once in a while, just in case. I’ll be away for a week.”

      “A fine job for the angel of death,” she said, teasing. The bell rang again.

      Van kept on stacking plates and silverware, cracking only a small smile at her jab. “I’ll do these since you cooked. You can answer the door.”

      Not one who fought for a chance to wash up, Beth headed for the hall. She opened the front door to find Eli and Lucy facing Aidan Nikolas. Aidan had