The Family Plan (The McClouds of Mississippi 1)

“I’m trusting that she’ll come around eventually. She needs time, too. I understand that.”

“Just—do your best to keep from hurting her any more, will you?”

Remembering the look on his mother’s face when she had spotted them at the deli, Nathan winced. “I’ll try,” he said, but short of actually moving away he didn’t know how to guarantee that they wouldn’t end up in the same place again. Honesty just wasn’t that big a town.

“Are you doing okay, Deb? Are you happy?”

Her reply was so dispirited that it made his chest ache. “Who, me? I’m fine. No problems here.”

“Is there anything I can—”

She cut in with a flat, unamused laugh. “Don’t you ever get tired of being the big brother all the time, Nathan? Take care of your other little sister—this one can take care of herself.”

She didn’t give him a chance to quiz her any further. Muttering some excuse about having things to do, she brought the call to an abrupt end.

Nathan’s head was hurting when he hung up the phone. Maybe calling his siblings hadn’t been such a good idea, after all. He didn’t seem to have accomplished anything.

“Sorry, Dad,” he murmured. “I tried.”

Dragging her stuffed owl behind her, Isabelle padded into the kitchen, bare pink toes flashing beneath the hem of her long pink nightgown. Her blond hair was tousled, her eyes still heavy-lidded when she smiled up at him. “My tummy woke me up. It’s hungry.”

He had to smile at that, of course. Lifting her into his arms, he gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Good morning. How do pancakes sound for breakfast?”

“Pancakes sound yummy.”

Chuckling, he set her in her booster seat and moved to pour milk and orange juice into glasses. He just wished it was this easy to make his other siblings happy.

Chapter Ten

Lindsey Newman lowered the two-page letter she had been reading and studied Caitlin over the top of it. “Wow,” she said.

Sprawled on her sofa, Caitlin nodded. “I know. Wow.”

“If this opportunity comes through, it could be very big for you.”

“I know. Los Angeles. Well, I never expected an opening like this to crop up so soon.”

Lindsey tapped the letter. “This must be some good friend to recommend you for something like this.”

“Tom and I were good friends in law school,” Caitlin admitted. “He graduated a year ahead of me and pulled some strings to get into his uncle’s firm in Los Angeles.”

Lindsey’s eyebrows lifted. “How good a friend was he?”

“We dated a few times. And, okay, maybe he was a little more involved than I was. He wanted to get serious, but I convinced him I wanted to establish my career before I became too deeply involved with anyone.”

“It’s obvious he hasn’t completely given up on the idea. I bet he figures that if he can get you on the partnership track in his uncle’s firm, there would be no reason why the two of you couldn’t get together.”

No reason, Caitlin mused, except that she wasn’t interested in Tom that way. Never had been and couldn’t foresee that she ever would be. She was, however, intrigued by the implication that he could get her an interview in his long-established and very successful law firm. After all, this was exactly the kind of break she had been hoping for—wasn’t it?

“Are you going to let him arrange an interview for you?”

“I thought I would try to set something up with him after the first of the year.”

“Why so long?”

“I have too much going on here to possibly get away before then. The malpractice case alone is taking hours of my time, and I’ve barely gotten started on that one.”

“Mm. It wouldn’t have anything to do with you being perfectly content right here, would it? Maybe you really like being a partner in a smaller firm. And maybe you aren’t interested in this Tom guy because you have a more interesting fella here.”