Grinning, the twins raised their skinny arms, doing muscle poses, showing off nonexistent biceps.
“Well, I didn’t think it was a good idea,” Mark said. “But I’m glad if it works out. Your own secret hideout.” He glanced at the wall clock. “Come on, guys. Get your backpacks. I’m driving today because Mrs. Maloney wants to meet the twins. Tomorrow you go back to the school bus.”
Ira groaned. “I
“Get over it,” Elena said helpfully. She bumped him from behind. They bumped each other up the stairs to get their backpacks.
Roz stretched and smiled. “It’s going to be so quiet here in just a few seconds.” That was Axl’s cue to start crying. “What are you doing today?” she asked Mark.
“Autumn and I are going over some foreign contracts and some mail. Then I have a meeting. A guy from the Blakeman Institute is coming here at four.”
“Weird. He’s coming all the way out to Sag Harbor? Is he bringing you a fat check?”
Mark laughed. “You and my wife are a lot alike. She asked the same question.”
“Well?”
“I hope so. I’m counting on this grant. I won’t get any book royalties for another five months.”
“YAAAAAY.” The twins came bursting into the kitchen with their brand-new blue canvas backpacks bouncing on their backs.
“Let’s go, guys!” Mark said. “The principal wants to meet you two.”
“Rule the school!” Daniel cried, pumping a fist above his head. “We’re going to rule the school!”
“Rule the school! Rule the school!”
Mrs. Maloney was a solid woman, with short salt-and-pepper hair over a square, no-nonsense face. She wore no makeup. Her green-gray eyes were the most colorful parts of her face. They radiated humor and intelligence and were enough to make people find her attractive.
Her silky tan blouse pulled tightly over her bulge of a stomach, and even from the other side of her cluttered desk, Mark could see that she was straining her stretch-type brown pants. A tube of Pringles and a can of Pepsi on the edge of the desk revealed that she didn’t care much about her weight.
She greeted the twins warmly as Mark ushered them into her small office. Daniel took the chair beside the desk. Samuel sat across from the desk. Mark watched from the doorway.
The principal showed them she already knew how to tell one from the other (thanks to a previous visit from Lea). And she gave them school maps and copies of last year’s yearbook, which the twins seemed quite pleased with.
Mark knew quite a lot about Mrs. Maloney. She had first been principal at the Sag Harbor elementary school next door before moving to the middle school last year.
Sag Harbor had a large Irish community. They were the carpenters and landscapers and housekeepers, waitresses and pub owners.
Some said they came here because the weather so near the ocean was close to the weather in Ireland. But more likely, they came because they had relatives here. Mrs. Maloney and her husband had emigrated nearly twenty years ago from a town named Wicklow when they couldn’t find teaching jobs in the local schools.
She still had her Irish accent, which made her sound as if she were singing instead of talking, and added to her warmth. She joked with the twins, and they seemed delighted with her.
“There’s less than two months left of school, lads,” she told them, turning serious. “But it should be enough time for you to learn your way around and make some new friends.”
“We want to rule the school!” Daniel cried suddenly. That startled her into a laugh.
“Rule the school!” Samuel repeated, as if it was a chant.
“I like that,” Mrs. Maloney said, gray eyes flashing. “Miss Montgomery will like that, too.” Then she added, “She’s your teacher. Normally, I would split you two up. But since it’s so late in the school year. .”
She raised her eyes to Mark, who was still leaning in the doorway. “I know we don’t have any school records for these boys. Is there any chance of locating them?”
Mark frowned. “We’re trying. But we haven’t been able to find
Mrs. Maloney tsk-tsked, shaking her head.
“The records were all blown away or underwater,” Mark continued. “But we have someone looking for us. A woman Lea met down there named Martha Swann is trying to find whatever she can find.”
She nodded, then glanced at the wall clock above Mark’s head. “I guess that does it. Welcome to Sag Harbor, boys. We’re very happy to have you. Mark, will you help them find room 204? It’s the second door upstairs.”
“No problem,” Mark said.
Mrs. Maloney was fumbling her hand over her desktop. She raised her eyes to him. “Did you see my watch? I’m pretty sure I had it right here on the desk.”
Mark shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t see it.”
She peered under the desk. Pulled open the middle drawer and gazed inside. Then moved a stack of papers. “That’s odd. Did you boys see a silver watch here on the desk?”
“No, mum,” Daniel answered, eyes lowered to the desktop. “I didn’t see it.”
“I didn’t see it, either, mum. Can we go to class now?” Samuel said.
26
Autumn came to work after her classes. Mark was glad to see her. After his book tour, there was a lot of work to catch up on. But at three o’clock she was suddenly sitting in his lap and his life went out of control.
She showed up a little after one, breezed into his office down the hall from the living room, and dropped a brown paper bag on his desk. “Cheese Danish? I stopped at the Golden Pear.”
Mark turned from his keyboard and swung the black leather desk chair around to face her. He made a grab for the bag. “You’re the best.”
She smiled. Her eyes glowed. “I try to be,” she said in a sultry whisper that surprised him. She tugged off her red hoodie and tossed it on his office couch.
Autumn wore a yellow scoop-neck T-shirt over a short, brown pleated skirt. He couldn’t help but stare at her bare legs, lowering his eyes to the yellow sandals on her feet.
Her white-blond hair fell loosely over her shoulders. He didn’t remember her wearing lip gloss to work before. And that citrus-like scent was new, too.
She grinned at him as if she had a secret she was keeping. He suddenly had the idea she was posing, standing in place so he could admire her.
She glanced back to the door. “No one home?”
He opened the brown bag and tugged off a piece of the Danish. “No. Lea’s in the city. I took the boys to school for the first time. And Roz and Axl are doing the grocery shopping.”
She leaned toward him. The lemony scent intensified. The low-cut T-shirt revealed more perfect, creamy cleavage. “And what are we doing today?”
“Mostly mail. And I have a number of requests to answer. Appearances. Some radio things.”
She sent a strand of hair off her forehead with a toss of her head.
Mark took another bite of the cheese Danish. “I shouldn’t eat this. Wish I had more willpower.”
Her eyes flashed. “You? No willpower? Really?” She tossed her hair back again. “Are you going to travel more?”
“No. The book tour is over. I’ve done everything I can. Now it’s up to the publisher.” He swallowed another chunk. Tried not to stare at her boobs, which were at eye level. She stood so close. “Besides, I should stay around home for a while. You know. Because of the twins.”
She turned suddenly and walked to the window. She pushed back the dark drapes and peered out. A gloomy day, storm clouds filling the sky. The mostly bare trees shaking. April rains.
