His Wife. Muriel Jensen

it,” she said, taking each child by the hand and drawing them back from him. “We’ll probably have to go to the police station, but Mr. Abbott didn’t do anything wrong, so Officer Draper will just let him go home. I’m sure he’s eager to get on his—”

      “You have to come with me,” Draper announced, tucking away his radio. “Sorry, Mr. Abbott, but the chief wants to see you, too.”

      “But all he did—” Sophie began to protest.

      Draper cut her off with a nod. “I know, I know, but we need a full report,” he said with a significant glance at the children, intending to help them realize the gravity of what they’d done. “And in order to do that, we have to have Mr. Abbott’s input.”

      “I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh. She’d had a long day at the hospital, and the quick dinner she had planned, followed by a long period with her feet up, didn’t look as though it was going to materialize.

      Abbott smiled. He had to be the most even-tempered man. “Not a problem. I’ll meet you at the station,” he said to Draper, who nodded, then took each of her children by the hand and led them toward a roped-off checkout line. The young officer went ahead of him to unhook it, then closed it after him when he followed her and the children through.

      People were watching them with frowns, wondering, she was sure, what crime they’d committed. She’d be horrified if she wasn’t accustomed to policemen being called, usually on her behalf, and the shocked expressions of neighbors. This wasn’t what she wanted for her children. She and the kids would have to have a serious talk about this father-finding stuff when this was over.

      She could only hope that being marched out by a police officer was having the desired effect on the children.

      That hope was dashed when Eddie looked at her over his shoulder and said with a big grin, “Isn’t he great, Mom? He didn’t even get mad!”

      Chapter Two

      “You’re going where?” Brian asked, as Sawyer called him on his cell phone.

      “The police station,” Sawyer repeated a second time. “It’s kind of a long story.”

      “What did you do?”

      “Nothing. These kids told me they’d been kidnapped and I called the police on the woman they were with. Turns out she really is their mother.”

      There was silence on the other end of the line.

      “Brian?” Sawyer prompted.

      “I’m here,” he replied. “I just don’t know what to say to that. Are you in trouble, or is she?”

      “I think the officer’s just making a point, bringing us all in to make an impression on the kids so they don’t do it again.”

      “Why’d they do it in the first place?”

      “They’re looking for a father.”

      Sawyer heard stifled laughter. “And they picked you?” Brian asked.

      “Yes, they did, thank you very much. Seems they read about me in the paper.”

      “I didn’t know kids read the paper.”

      “Yeah, well, there’s apparently a lot you don’t know. So, I’ll be over later than I’d planned, okay?”

      “Sure. Call me if you need bail.”

      “Ha, ha.”

      Sawyer pulled into the parking lot of the small police station, with its turn-of-the-century, ball-shaped lights in front of the building. He was right behind Sophie Foster as she climbed the few steps into the building, following the police officers and her children. Sawyer caught up to take her elbow. She had to be feeling terrible.

      He was surprised when she recoiled, yanking her arm out of his reach. “Don’t!” she said, fear visible in her eyes and the sharp line of her mouth.

      He dropped his hand immediately. He’d never frightened anyone that he could recall, except maybe those who’d misused Abbott Mills Foundation funds.

      “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

      The fear left her expression as she exhaled. “That’s all right,” she replied, apology in her tone. “I’m just not very…physical.”

      He nodded. “I was trying to do the gentlemanly thing by helping you up the stairs. My stepmother is European and raised my brothers and me to open doors for women, walk on the street side of the sidewalk, offer a steadying arm on stairs and across streets.”

      She smiled pensively, probably thinking that he was odd. But he got that a lot, so he was used to it.

      “And that’s charming,” she said. “But I’m quite agile.”

      “I’ll remember that.” He walked up the stairs beside her.

      “I’m sorry this is wasting time you should be spending with your family,” she said.

      He shook his head. “I called and explained. We’ll connect later. I’m surprised our paths have never crossed before. I’m at the hospital all the time. Are you new to Losthampton?”

      “Ah…a couple of months.” She gave him that look again. “I’ve been filling in on odd shifts. Fortunately, my neighbor will baby-sit any time I need her. You’re there all the time as a patient, or for some other reason?”

      “Sometimes as a patient,” he admitted with a little laugh. “I’m sort of the Evel Knievel of Long Island. Or Abominable Abbott, as my brothers like to say.”

      She smiled. Her teeth were square and very white, the left front one overlapping the right just a little at the bottom. She seemed warm and kind, but he had the feeling she probably didn’t smile very much.

      “Abominable Abbott,” she repeated. “That’s a terrible way to go down in history.”

      “I don’t think I’ll make the history books.”

      Draper held the door open for her and ushered her through a small, crowded office to an even smaller office on the other side. The walls were green and all the furnishings gray. He frowned at Sawyer. “Apologize for holding you up,” he said under his breath. “But we need to make a point here.”

      Sawyer nodded. “I agree.”

      “You making time with my little perps’ mother?” Draper asked with a grin.

      “Why?” Sawyer returned the grin. “Is it against the law?”

      “The way you risk your life, it is. This pretty lady’s got enough troubles with her imaginative children.”

      Draper moved ahead to take Sophie and the children to a waiting area with wooden chairs. As they sat down, Sophie in the middle and the children crowding close to her, Sawyer saw them in a new light.

      Up until now, they’d been a surprising, somewhat fun diversion on an ordinary afternoon—if you didn’t consider how Sophie had been frightened and how he’d been made to look like a completely gullible idiot. He loved children, and he liked women in his life—at least, on a temporary basis. Commitment to one would require a basic change in his life he wasn’t ready to make.

      Right now, his time and energy were focused on the Abbott Mills Foundation and the best dispersal of its funds. It was a heavy responsibility, and he took it to heart.

      Added to that, life at Shepherd’s Knoll had been very distracting lately. In the past month alone Killian had brought his bride back to Shepherd’s Knoll after a three-month separation, Sawyer had been practicing a ski jump for the Children with Cancer fund-raiser and broken several ribs, Brian had saved his life and taken his place in the family as their half brother and China Grant had appeared on their doorstep the very