Pulling Home by Mary Campisi

what landed you in here with pneumonia.” Pastor Richot’s daughter
    smiled. “Please, just try and take a deep breath.”
    Doris relaxed her grip on Leslie’s hand and let her eyes drift shut. “Is your father coming soon?”
    “He’s on his way.”
    “Good.” August Richot was one of the only inhabitants of Holly Springs who had
    never passed judgment on her. Not when she ran off to the convent at seventeen after her father forced jail on the boy who stole her virginity—though stealing was an incorrect term—willfully accepted was more appropriate. August hadn’t shunned her when she returned sixteen years later with a swollen belly and tales of an excommunicated priest.
    Not even when she turned to street drugs and men to pay for them after her baby girl drowned in five inches of water. Pastor Richot visited her in Syracuse State Mental institution every Monday for five years, listening to her delusional rantings, until her most recent discharge, three months ago.
    Now here she was, trapped in room 329, with oxygen, valium, and no cigarettes.
    Not a good situation, especially for someone who believed nicotine kept her alive. “I have to tell him.” Her eyes flew open and she grabbed at Leslie. “I must tell him about the girl. She looks just like her mother.”
    “What girl?”
    Doris pointed at the ceiling and smiled. “Eyes like a cat, tilted at the corners. Full lips, same arch to the brow. There they are. Can’t you see them?”

    ***
When Kara was three, Peter Andellieu bought a car seat and installed it in the
    back of his silver Jaguar. He had no qualms about carrying diaper bags or picking up apple juice from the grocery store. The sight of such a handsome, well-dressed man carrying a child and not wearing a wedding band, made him irresistible– not that a man who could have been Warren Beatty’s much younger brother, needed any help, but the appeal quadrupled. Peter merely laughed, saying the women were looking at the blueness of Kara’s eyes.
    He might shrug off the overt attention, but Audra knew women were entranced by
    him, had been even before he became a television celebrity. Hadn’t eight women stopped him for autographs in baggage claim? And wasn’t another approaching him like a
    racehorse in stilettos?
    “Dr. Andellieu? May I have a moment?” A slender redhead with stunning blue
    eyes blocked his path. “I just want to tell you that what you’re doing is amazing. Truly amazing,” she gushed. “I watch your show every week and I just burst into tears.”
    Peter cleared his throat and smiled at her. Audra knew it was his ‘on screen’ smile because it stretched over his gums a bit too fiercely to be natural. “Thank you. I’m glad you enjoy the show,” he said in that soft, sexy drawl that made women weak-kneed.
    “It’s amazing,” she repeated, words bubbling from her like a science project gone wrong. “I mean, the way you transform people. It must give you tremendous satisfaction to know how much you’ve touched their lives.”
    “Mom, I’m hungry. Can we get an In and Out burger?”
    The woman swiped an assessing gaze over Kara and Audra. “Oh. Is this your
    child?” She swept her stunning clear-water eyes over Audra again. “Your bio said you were divorced.” Her lips tightened with obvious disappointment.
    “Actually—”
    “Uncle Peter, I’m hungry and my head hurts.” Kara tugged at his hand and rubbed
    her temple.
    “Okay, sweetheart, we’ll get your burger.”
    “Ahh. Your sister.” The lips morphed into a wide smile that spoke of sexual
    promise. Taking a step closer, she thrust a card into his hand and leaned up on stiletto tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “Call me. Anytime.”
    Peter didn’t smile this time as he stuffed her card in his trousers’ pocket without looking at it. “We’ve really got to go. Starving children don’t like to wait.”
    The redhead tittered and waved. “Bye.” She wet her lips and slid her blue gaze to his