Part-Time Wife. Сьюзен Мэллери

arm was shaking, but not as badly as Ben’s. They knelt there, with their arms perpendicular to the table.

      “You gonna beat ‘im, Jill?” Danny asked, earning a glare from his oldest brother.

      “I’m trying,” she said through gritted teeth. She moved slightly to the left, forcing his wrist down.

      C.J. laughed. “Come on, Ben. She’s just a girl.”

      “Then you try it,” Ben complained. “She’s stronger than she looks.”

      “Lesson number one,” Jill said. “Never underestimate the power of a woman.”

      With that she pressed the back of his hand down onto the wood. Both C.J. and Danny cheered. Ben released her fingers and rubbed his wrist as if it hurt.

      “I thought I’d win for sure,” he said, then smiled sheepishly. In that moment, he looked exactly like his father. He was going to be a heartbreaker when he grew up, she thought. He leaned over, grabbed the remote control, turned off the television, then handed the clicker to her.

      “Haynes men keep their word,” he said simply.

      He sounded so serious. The words were those of a mature man, not a twelve-year-old boy. But the way he said them, she believed him.

      “You’re being very gracious,” she said. She was surprised. She’d thought he would be a sore loser. One point for him, she thought, deciding that if he really cooperated with her today, she would let him watch a little TV tonight. She’d learned early on it paid to compromise.

      “Okay, why don’t the three of you give me the nickel tour.”

      Danny frowned. “We get a nickel if we give you a tour?”

      “No, stupid. It’s just an expression.”

      Apparently Ben’s magnanimous attitude didn’t extend to his brothers. “No name-calling, please.” She stood up and placed her hand on Danny’s shoulder. “But Ben is right. ‘Nickel tour’ is just an expression. It means to give someone a quick tour. Not a lot of details.”

      “Oh, okay.”

      C.J. looked at her and grinned. “Are you sure you want to see the rest of the house?”

      She glanced at the piles of laundry by the door to the garage, then at the dishes in the kitchen. “Sure. How bad can it be?”

      The three boys laughed together.

      Fifteen minutes later, Jill didn’t feel like laughing. She wanted to turn tail and run. She didn’t understand how people could live under these conditions. It didn’t make sense. Didn’t anyone notice that virtually every possession was out of the cupboards, closets and drawers and on the floor?

      She stood in the center of the upstairs hall, staring at C.J.’s room. “Doesn’t your dad make you pick up your stuff?” she asked.

      “Oh, sure,” he told her. “All the time. He gets real mad if we don’t.”

      “Then explain this.” She motioned to the toys, books, clothes and cassette tapes littering the room.

      “He’s been gone.” C.J. gave her a charming smile. All three brothers were going to cut a swath through the female population when they got older. But for now they were just messy little boys.

      There were four bedrooms upstairs. To the left was Craig’s. Not wanting to pry, she’d only peeked inside. She’d had a brief impression of large pieces of furniture and a bed that looked big enough to sleep six. Of course, she wasn’t even five foot two. To Craig the bed was probably just big enough. His room was relatively tidy, with only a few pieces of clothing tossed on the sofa facing the corner fireplace.

      Next to his bedroom was a small alcove. There was a large desk with a computer and printer. Disks had been piled around the keyboard. On the wall was a bulletin board covered with computer-generated graphics.

      Each boy had his own bedroom. First Danny’s, then C.J.’s, then Ben’s. The bathroom they shared was right next to the stairs. Jill glanced in each of the rooms and saw far more than she wanted to. Danny had toys piled everywhere, C.J. had tons of clothes scattered and Ben seemed to be storing half the plates and glasses on his floor. Aside from that, the three rooms were all identical, each with a twin bed, a dresser, a desk and a set of bookshelves attached to the wall.

      “You’re all slobs,” she said, pausing outside their bathroom door. It was closed. She thought about opening it and looking inside, but then decided that some things were best left for professionals.

      “We work hard at it,” C.J. said.

      Danny moved next to her and touched her hand. “I’ll help you clean up.”

      “Thanks, honey.”

      Ben snorted. “The little shrimp’s already sucking up.”

      “Am not!”

      “Are too!”

      “Excuse me,” Jill said loudly. “You’re all going to help me clean up. We’re going to do the laundry, pick up everything that doesn’t belong on the floor and do the dishes.”

      There was a collective groan.

      “I’m sorry,” Jill said. “But it’s your fault. If you’d chosen to live like civilized people instead of baboons—”

      She knew the word was a mistake as soon as she said it. Instantly all three boys hunched over and started making monkey noises.

      “Herds of the Serengeti, return to the family room,” she said over the din of their hooting.

      They began the awkward shuffle down the stairs. Halfway there, the game changed and became a race. The in-line skates resting on the foyer floor created a hazard, but everyone avoided them.

      “Where does the sports equipment go?” she asked.

      “There’s a closet under the stairs,” C.J. told her.

      She found the door and opened it. The storage space had a slanted ceiling, but the floor space of a small room. It was empty. “Ah, I see you like to keep it clean in here and not in the rest of the house. It makes perfect sense now. Why didn’t someone tell me?”

      C.J. grinned, Danny giggled, even Ben forgot to scowl. Together, the four of them walked into the family room. Jill saw her suitcase sitting there. “Where do I sleep?” she asked, realizing she hadn’t seen a guest room.

      “Here,” Danny said, pointing to a door at the far end of the family room.

      She walked around him and stuck her head inside the cheerful bedroom. Big windows looked out onto the backyard. The white wicker furniture looked new. There was a bright yellow bedspread on the double bed, and she could see the entrance to her own private bath.

      This was by far the cleanest part of the house.

      “Dad says we’re not allowed in here,” Danny said. “Mrs. Miller lived here before she had to go away. Now you live here.”

      Jill thought about pointing out the fact that her stay was temporary but figured the boys had been through enough today. Instead, she carried her suitcase into her room, then tried to figure out what should be done first.

      “Danny and C.J., you two start sorting laundry.”

      The boys stared at her blankly, identically confused expressions drawing their mouths into straight lines.

      “Clothes,” she said, pointing to the piles around the laundry room and flowing into the hallway. “Sort them. By color. One pile for whites. One pile for darks, one for lights and another for jeans.”

      A lock of medium brown hair fell across Danny’s forehead. He was the only one of the Haynes males she’d seen who didn’t have dark hair and eyes. “Those piles are going to be huge. They’re going to reach the ceiling.”

      She