beauty sleep.”
They were headed for the door when Butch called after Joanna. “You haven’t seen Dave Thompson around today, have you? I would have thought he’d be in for dinner by now.”
Carol and Joanna exchanged looks. “We’d better tell him,” Carol said, turning back.
And so they did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
In the backseat of the Blazer the next morning, Jenny was babbling to Ceci Grijalva. “And so this man comes to see us. It turns out he’s my uncle. Grandma Lathrop wants me to call him Uncle Bob, but I’d rather call him Colonel Brundage. Uncles should be someone you know, don’t you think?”
“I guess,” Ceci mumbled.
Joanna and Jenny had picked Ceci up from her grandparents’ no-frills trailer park in Wittmann at ten o’clock on the dot. They were now in the process of driving her back to the Hohokam, where Bob Brundage and Eleanor Lathrop were suppose to join them for an early lunch in the coffee shop before Bob caught a plane back to Washington D.C.
With Bob running interference, Joanna had almost managed to work her way back into her mother’s good graces. Still, she wasn’t looking forward to the ordeal of a mandatory lunch. Requiring Joanna’s attendance was Eleanor’s method of exacting restitution from her daughter for being AWOL from the previous evening’s Thanksgiving festivities.
Joanna found it ironic that, with the notable exception of Eleanor, no one else seemed to have missed her at all. Adam York had come to the Hohokam, stayed for dinner, and left again without Joanna ever laying eyes on him, although she had talked to him late that night after they both had returned to their respective hotels. It sounded as though Adam had made the best of the situation. He had spent most of the dinner chatting with Bob Brundage. The two of them had hit it off so well that they had agreed to try to get together for lunch the next time Adam traveled to D.C.
“The company gets to choose what we do,” Jenny was earnestly explaining to Cecelia. “Do you want to watch movies or swim?”
“What movies?” Ceci responded. “I can’t go swimming because I don’t have a suit.”
“Yes, you do,” Jenny told her. “Grandma Brady brought one along for you. I think it’ll fit. And when we get to the hotel, we can choose the movies. What do you like?”
“I don’t care,” Ceci said. “Anything will be all right.”
Driving along, Joanna only half listened to the chattering girls. More than what was being said, she focused on Ceci Grijalva’s tone of voice. The lethargic hopelessness of it was heartbreaking. It seemed as though the little girl’s childhood had been stretched to the breaking point. At nine years of age, all the playfulness had been ripped out of her.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Jenny continued. “Did you know you were on TV?”
“Me?” Ceci asked. “Really?” For the first time, there was a hint of interest in her voice.
“Yeah, really. You were on the news. Mom has a tape of it. I saw it last night after dinner. We can watch that, too, if you want.”
“I’ve never been on the news before.”
“I have a couple of times,” Jenny said. “It’s kinda neat. At first it is, anyway.”
Cecelia Grijalva’s eyes were wide as they walked into the lobby. “I’ve seen this place, but I’ve never been inside it before.”
“Come on,” Jenny said. “I’ll show you the pool first, and
