Page 20 of Silent Menace
Without warning, Jenna flung her hand out and toppled the tower. Blocks skipped across the hardwood floor, and Jenna bounced with glee.
Hailey gave him a rueful look. “I know all babies seem to enjoy knocking over towers, but I suspect she especially does because of the vibrations when they hit the floor. She’s not nearly as excited when we try rubber blocks instead of these wooden ones—even though they’re more brightly colored.”
“Makes sense to me.” He used his arm to sweep the fallen blocks into a pile they could easily reach.
Jenna grabbed one and thrust it into Peter’s hand, again making the sign forbuild, coupled with another Hailey hadn’t seen her make in months. The sign fordaddy.
Her heart dropped, and her cheeks heated with mortification. She glanced at Peter. Judging by his stunned expression, he hadn’t missed the word.
She had to correct this fast. Tapping Jenna’s shoulder to get her attention, she shook her head, then pointed to Peter and signed his name. Her daughter seemed unaffected by the correction. Instead, she leaned over, tapped the block in his hand, and pointed to the floor.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said aloud.
“No worries.” Peter obediently placed the block where Jenna had indicated he should. But after a few moments of rebuilding, he glanced at her. “Has losing her father been hard on her?”
Pain sliced through Hailey’s heart at the gently spoken question, but she tried not to show it. Jenna pressed another block,a red square this time, into her hand. Hailey turned it slowly in her fingers as she deliberated how to answer.
He placed a blue rectangle on the tower, distracting Jenna from Hailey’s dawdling. “You don’t have to talk about it if you’d rather not.”
“No, it’s all right.” She pulled in a ragged breath. “She seems to have adjusted well. The first few weeks were the hardest for her. Jenna adored her daddy. But she was so little when he was killed—much too young for me to even try to explain the concept of death. Eventually, she stopped asking for him.”
She’d thought her daughter had forgotten what she’d lost. Realizing she still held to some remnant of his memory but had no context for processing the situation broke Hailey’s heart all over again.
“And you?” Peter kept his eyes on the emerging block tower as if trying to signal that he didn’t want to pressure her. That she could take her time or choose not to answer at all.
Somehow, that gave her courage to open up, if only a little. “It’s been a hard year. Wesley had plenty of faults, as I discovered much too late, and he sometimes spent too much time working, but we both loved him, and there was no doubt he loved us. Finding out he’d been involved in something illegal and then losing him so unexpectedly ... it crushed me.”
Peter met her gaze, tenderness in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how hard it’s been for you.”
She nodded, unable to come up with a response to his compassion. She couldn’t pretend she was past the hurt. But she had no choice but to move on with life. She finally added the red block to the growing tower. It swayed. Tottered. Then all at once, it collapsed, sending the array of wooden blocks clattering across the floor again.
Jenna clapped her hands, clearly not minding that someone else had demolished the tower this time. Peter chuckled, but Hailey could see that his mind was still on their conversation.
She was surprised by his lack of reaction to the revelation of Wesley’s criminal activity. Either he was a great actor or this wasn’t the first time he’d heard about what happened. And why would she assume he hadn’t? Everyone else in town knew. Though he hadn’t seemed to know she was a widow until she’d told him yesterday, he could have simply failed to make the connection between her and Wesley until after the fact.
Before he could ask any more questions, her phone buzzed. She pulled it from her pocket, glad for the interruption. After reading the message, she popped to her feet. “I’m going to start pulling everything out. They just texted that they’re leaving church now.”
11
Petercontinuedto entertain Jenna while Hailey retreated to the kitchen. He hoped he hadn’t been too forward with his queries. Hailey didn’t seem upset that he’d asked, but neither did she appear inclined to talk about the details surrounding her late husband’s death. And from what he’d discovered online, he could understand why.
As the blocks went flying yet again, he lifted his hand to his mouth and widened his eyes. Jenna grinned at his exaggerated expression. Before they had time to begin again, a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in,” Hailey called.
Immediately, the door flung open, and a little boy around six years old burst inside, hand still on the doorknob. “We’re here!” he announced proudly.
Hailey laughed. “I see that. Come on in, Lucky. Jenna’s playing in the living room if you want to join her.”
Leaving the door half-open, the boy rushed around the corner of the couch. Jenna clapped when she saw him, but as soon as the boy caught sight of Peter, he stopped short, eyes wide.
“Hello, there.” He offered Lucky a grin, hoping to set him at ease.
Apparently, that was the wrong move. The boy did an about-face and darted back toward the entrance, taking cover behind a lanky teenager who had his hands full with gallon jugs of what appeared to be tea and lemonade.
“Who’s that?” The loud whisper carried across the open room.
The older boy glanced his way and shrugged. “Dunno. How about you ask him?” He continued toward the kitchen, the younger boy sticking to him like gum. “Hi, Hailey. Where you want these?”
