The anxiety in his brother’s voice told him this was no time to blank out. He vaguely remembered her telling him something… “Uh…um…I think…”

“Robert Allen, I haven’t busted your lip since I was six and you were five, but so help me—”

“She went shopping.” The reminder of pain was an incentive he could not ignore. “Now I remember. She asked me if I wanted anything from the mall. I told her—”

“She went to the mall…alone?”

Both men were in shock. They looked at each other and turned as one, intent on retrieving their Little Red before anything else happened to her…when she walked into the house. The blurred image of a cab driving away passed between her and the open door just before she slammed it shut.

“Hi, guys,” she said as she staggered into the room with her arms full of sacks. “I hope you don’t mind, but we’re having chicken tonight, compliments of the Colonel.”

She dropped two sacks into Morgan’s arms and handed one to Buddy, unaware of the panic she’d caused.

“Wait till you see what I bought for the baby!” She handed another sack to Cole.

“Baby?” Cole was the first to speak, and he felt as if he’d just walked into the twilight zone. She’d told him she was protected.

“Yes, baby.” She was beginning to realize that something was wrong here. They were behaving as if they’d all had an overdose of bug spray from an orange grove. “You remember him, I’m sure. Your sister, Lily…remember? She had a baby. Your nephew…Morgan’s grandson?”

“Oh! That baby,” Cole dropped backwards into the nearest chair and held onto the sack she’d handed him as if it were a lifejacket that would keep him from sinking.

Debbie rolled her eyes and stepped back, taking a good look at the trio before her.

“What’s going on,” she asked.

“You went to the mall.” Morgan’s voice was slightly accusatory.

“You went to play golf,” she retorted.

He blushed and dropped into a seat beside his son.

“Did you get my Pop Tarts?” Buddy asked, and then handed her his sack and bolted for his room when his father and brother glared at his question. He’d suddenly lost his appetite.

“What in the world is the matter with you?” Debbie asked. “Did you expect me to hide in this house for the rest of my stay, just because I got a busted lip? Besides, the man’s been arrested. You called and told me that much, remember?”

The rest of her stay? Cole’s stomach turned. That meant she’d be leaving.

Morgan decided that an exit at this point was wise and headed to the kitchen with the chicken and fixings.