Read One True Love for Free Online Page B

point.”
    “I know that. I do,” she added.
    Before Lisa could say anything else, the doorbell interrupted their conversation.
    “Who could that be?” Maggie muttered.
    Lisa’s stomach twisted into a knot. Please, God, don’t let it be Nick.
    Slowly, she followed Maggie downstairs.
    Maggie opened the front door and gasped. “What on earth?”
    Lisa peered over Maggie’s shoulder. On the porch stood a short, stocky older man with a square face and the blackest, bushiest eyebrows she’d ever seen. His right hand was clasped around the neck of Maggie’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Roxanne, and his left hand was around the neck of a pimply-faced adolescent boy.
    “I was checking the perimeter of the property, Mrs. Scott, as I do every evening, and I caught these two trespassers at 1900 hours in the back alley,” the man said, stating his report as if he were in the military. “I’m sorry to report there was mouth-to-mouth contact.”
    “Mouth-to-mouth?” Maggie repeated in a daze, looking at her daughter’s guilty face. “You’re supposed to be in your room, not in the back alley.”
    “I was giving Marc the homework assignment,” Roxanne muttered.
    “Since when are you studying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?”
    “Mom, you’re embarrassing me.” Roxy slid a sideward glance at the boy, who was staring at the shoelaces on his high-top tennis shoes.
    “I can’t begin to tell you what you’re doing to me,” Maggie declared.
    “Thank you, Mr. Bickmore. I’ll handle this now.”
    “As you wish, Mrs. Scott.” Mr. Bickmore saluted her, turned on one
    sharp heel and walked down the path to the sidewalk. “You can go home now, Marc,” Maggie said, drawing Roxanne into the house.
    Marc ran off as if he’d been released from a cannon.
    Once the front door closed, mother and daughter stared at each other in bewilderment, neither one understanding the other.
    Finally, Maggie threw up her hands. “I’m leaving,” she said.
    Roxanne’s mouth dropped open. “You’re going away?”
    “Yes, for the weekend. Aunt Lisa will stay with you.”
    Aunt Lisa. Lisa shivered at the words. She hadn’t thought of herself as Aunt Lisa in a very long time.
    Roxanne sent Lisa a skeptical look that reinforced her doubts about her ability to care for three children, especially one intent on kissing boys in the back alley.
    “Why can’t Uncle Nick stay with us?” Roxy asked her mother.
    Nick. Lisa couldn’t stop the automatic, stomach-twisting knot that came with the mention of his name.
    “Because I don’t know where Uncle Nick is. I left him two messages, and he didn’t call me back.” Maggie took a few steps toward the kitchen and cupped her mouth. “Dylan, Mary Bea. Come here.”
    Dylan ran in from the kitchen, Mary Bea wandered down the hall, holding her blanket in one hand, her other thumb planted firmly in her mouth.
    “I’m going away for a couple of days,” Maggie said. “Your aunt Lisa will watch you.”
    “Where are you going?” Dylan asked.
    “I’m not sure. I’ll call you tomorrow and tell you where I am.” She turned to Lisa. “You met Mr. Bickmore. Harry is his first name. He’s a retired marine sergeant and guards this neighborhood as if it were Fort Knox. No one comes on to this property without Harry knowing about it. In fact, he almost shot the gardener once.”
    “That’s comforting.”
    “I’ve written everything down on a piece of paper.” Maggie looked
    around. “Where did I put that paper? Oh, I know.I left it upstairs on my dresser. I wrote down the name of the kids’ pediatrician, our insurance plan, my permission in case you need to take them to the doctor. I’m not sure where I’ll be, but I’ll call and leave you a number. Let’s see what else?” Maggie ran a hand through her hair. “I also wrote down the kids’ schedule. It’s on the refrigerator. Oh, this is so complicated. How can I go?”
    “Just go. We’ll be fine.”
    “Why are you leaving, Mommy?”