* * *
Jack came downstairs early the next morning just as Keely was closing the front door, shutting it with a push of her hip because her hands were full of flowers. “What’s up? Who sent those?”
“I don’t know,” Keely answered, carefully lowering the inexpensive glass vase onto the foyer table. “Let me see the card. Oh! Well, isn’t that sweet. They’re from Curtis.”
“Who?” Jack asked, pulling the card from her hand. “ ‘Hope to hear from you again soon, Curtis.’ ” He looked at the vase jammed with pink roses, then at Keely. “Exactly how much money did we spend at that furniture store? And shouldn’t he have sent those flowers to me?”
“You want Curtis to send you flowers?” Keely asked, touching one delicate bloom.
“Hell, no,” Jack said, then turned and walked down the hallway toward the kitchen. “Just ditch that card before Joey sees it. He’ll think you’re cheating on me.”
Keely followed after him, into the kitchen, then stopped, pointed at the luggage stacked near the back door. “What’s this? I could swear I saw Sweetness carry six bags upstairs last night. Surely there can’t be more.”
Jack leaned back against the countertop. “Those are mine. I’ve got a flight out of here this afternoon, right after my appointment with Jimmy. I’m heading to Arizona to film a commercial and kill my agent. I should be back in two days. Can you handle everything while I’m gone?”
“Me?” Keely asked, pressing a hand against her chest. “You’re leaving me here to handle everything?” She dramatically threw up her hands, rolled her eyes heavenward. “If that isn’t just like a man. I’ve got a baby, a psychedelic child genius sitter, the poster child for send-this-boy-to-a-shrink, and a mountain who ate a dozen pancakes this morning before he came up for air, burped, and asked for a dozen more. I’ve got furniture to buy, colors to select, three more bedrooms to furnish just in case anybody else shows up, and your aunt wants me to re-do her living room, in pink, to match some flamingo wallpaper she found looking through one of my sample books. And you’re leaving? Oh, no. Oh, no-no-no. Not unless it’s over my dead body!”
“Ah, isn’t that sweet,” Petra said, walking into the kitchen, Candy on her hip. “The lovers are having their first fight. Close your ears, Candy, you don’t want to hear this.”
“Shut up,” Keely and Jack ordered in unison.
Petra gave a slight toss of her long hair—blond today, with black tips—and said, “Okay, I can take a hint. If you don’t want my help, I won’t help. Even if I do have a solution for you.”
She turned to leave the kitchen, but Jack’s “Wait!” stopped her, so that she turned around, grinned at both of them... at which point Keely figured out that she’d been wrong, the Cheshire Cat was in residence here in Wonderland.
“Okay,” Petra said, handing Candy to Keely, for the child was leaning out of her arms, reaching toward Keely, “here’s the deal. You take Mamasan here along to Arizona, and Sweetness and I take care of Candy. We rent the box set of the Godfather movies for Joey, which will keep him happy, and you two can both catch a break. And don’t say you don’t need a break, because if I ever saw two people who needed to go somewhere and get their heads screwed on straight, it’s you two. Oh, and I’ll keep handing Candy to Joey whenever she’s unhappy, until he figures out he wants nothing to do with her. That’s aversion therapy... at least kind of.”
Keely had already started shaking her head before Petra was half done with her brilliant plan. “No. It’s impossible. I will not leave Candy here with a man who might try to take her away, take her to Bayonne.”
“Sweetness won’t let him,” Petra said rather smugly. “Sweetness won’t do anything I don’t ask him to do. We’ve established a rapport. That means—”
“I know what that means, and no,” Keely persisted. “Besides, what would I want in Arizona?” Please, Petra, she prayed silently, don’t try to answer that one.
“We could take Candy with us,” Jack suggested, then frowned. “Maybe I’d better clear that one with Jimmy, though. He told me yesterday that he was trying to get an emergency court order keeping Candy here in Pennsylvania until the custody thing is settled.”
“So? That’s perfect,” Petra said, looking at Keely. “We tell old Two Eyes that there’s a court order saying he can’t take Candy out of this house, and you two don’t have anything to do in Arizona except relax, unwind, maybe even—and, gee, here’s a concept—talk to each other.”
She took Candy back from Keely, headed toward the back door. “I honest to God don’t know how shrinks keep from beating their patients’ heads together,” she mumbled. “I may have to rethink this psych business...”
The silence in the kitchen was so tense that Keely immediately filled it with the sound of her own voice. What she said was, “She’s a child. She doesn’t understand the implications. Not that we’d be doing anything except what she said, getting away for a couple of days, giving ourselves some time away from Candy, time to think.”
“Yeah,” Jack agreed, not looking at her. “It’s not a good idea. Not that she and Sweetness couldn’t take care of Candy for two days. We already know Candy likes Petra, and Sweetness told me last night that he’s the oldest of twelve brothers and sisters and has been taking care of babies all his life. But no. It wouldn’t work. We’d probably kill each other while we were still flying over Ohio.”
“Probably,” Keely agreed, busying herself unloading the dishwasher, stacking the plates on the counter. “I’ve never been to Arizona. I’ll bet it’s hot there this time of year. Being June and all.”
“Yeah, real hot. And we’re filming near some state park, like out in the desert, I guess.”
“Hot,” Keely repeated, sorting silverware into the drawer. “And you’d be working. We probably wouldn’t even see each other except at night, for dinner or whatever.”
“Or whatever.”
“It would all be rather pointless, really.”
“Right,” Jack agreed. “Dumb idea.”
“So we’re agreed,” Keely said. “It’s not possible.”
“Absolutely.”
“It’s a stupid idea.”
“Definitely. Stupid idea. Okay, I have to go now or I’ll be late for my meeting with Jimmy.”
Jack pushed himself away from the counter, headed for the back door. He stopped, his hand on the doorknob. “They’re sending a private jet, so we’re a little flexible, but I really would like to get out of here around noon. Can you be packed and ready to leave by the time the car gets here for us at eleven-thirty?”
Keely kept her back turned to him. “Yeah, I can do that.”