Right Before His Eyes by Wendy Etherington Page B

grin, and Bart Branch receded in importance. “Sheila!” She adored Sheila and had from the first day.
    Sheila came to Mellie’s rescue, swinging Lily to the ground and dancing her around as Lily giggled.
    Thank you , Mellie mouthed to her friend and employer who’d become much like a big sister. She and Lily had no family, no one but each other, and unless she found Hal Walker, that wouldn’t change.
    If only she could figure out exactly where to look.
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    â€œB E CAREFUL, L ILY,” M ELLIE said as the toddler squatted in front of baby Brianna’s carrier a while later, as they sat on the cabin’s front porch. She wasn’t positive Lily understood that Brianna wasn’t a doll to play with, so she couldn’t let herself settle back into the hickory rocker.
    â€œShe’ll be all right,” Daisy assured her.
    â€œI don’t know why you’re so calm about this.”
    â€œWere you a nervous new mother?” Daisy asked.
    Lordy, she was tired of lying to good people. “I don’t know, maybe.” She glanced up. “But I do know Lily. She wouldn’t mean to do anything wrong, but she’s never been around a baby before.” Mellie chewed at her lower lip.
    â€œCome inside, everything’s ready,” Sheila called from the screen door.
    â€œOkay!” Lily leaped up, baby forgotten.
    Mellie picked up the baby carrier and took Brianna inside. Daisy was still recovering.
    â€œLooks yummy. Thank you, Sheila.”
    It did indeed—salads and fresh bread and fluffy key lime tartlets, perfect for a hot, humid late-summer afternoon.
    Once they were settled, Sheila turned to Daisy. “There’s a NASCAR retrospective on TV that I’d like to see. Do you suppose Quinn will mind if I turn on that gigantic flat screen?”
    Daisy shook her head, though Mellie would have preferred to sit and visit. Sheila turned on the TV, butMellie focused on fixing Lily a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. None of them watched very closely, as Mellie teased Sheila about doing her homework on NASCAR for the benefit of one Gil Sizemore, the owner of Double S Racing, who spent a whole lot of time at Maudie’s—and not for the meat-loaf sandwiches he claimed to crave.
    It was fun watching Sheila get all flustered. Her boss was just about to zing Mellie back when she glanced up. “Hey, look at the TV. There’s Bart and his brother, Will, back when they were both driving in the Camping World Truck Series. Get a look at those haircuts. I swear Will’s sporting a mullet!”
    â€œNo way.” Mellie giggled. “Millionaire playboys? Is that what the headline under the picture says? Is that true?”
    â€œIt’s true or used to be, anyway,” Sheila said. “Their father was enormously rich, but he embezzled a lot of money from his stockholders a couple of years ago, and the family lost just about everything, including Bart’s and Will’s car sponsorships. It was a really big deal. Especially when their dad up and disappeared like he did. Took the police, gosh, over a year to track him down. I can’t believe you don’t know this.”
    Amelia, Lily and their mother, Rose, had lived in a remote area of Idaho, and they’d never followed NASCAR, but she didn’t talk about her real life or where she’d come from, not to anyone. “So what happened to him?” she asked to get Sheila off the topic of her past.
    Daisy glanced up at the screen. “That’s him, their dad, Hilton Branch. He’s in prison in Texas and probably will be for the rest of his life.”
    â€œIf there’s any justice,” Sheila added. “Bart hates talking about his dad—both twins do. So here Bart is,on cloud nine being in the championship hunt, and what do those reporters do but dredge up the old stories?”
    Mellie barely heard a word either said, however. Eyes locked on the television