Dizziness swam in Dwayne’s vision. He bent forward and braced his hands on his knees to keep from falling over.
Dylan grabbed one of his arms. “Take it easy, bro. She’s always been nothing but hot air.”
Donovan took his other arm. “Come over here,” he urged. “Sit on the garden bench. We’ll hang out here for a while and make sure she doesn’t come back.”
Head in his hands, Dwayne rocked back and forth on his butt. “Shit. What a nightmare. Why is she here now?”
“Daddy?”
At the sound of Amber’s voice, Dwayne’s head flew up. She trotted in his direction. His dad, John, tried to catch up with her. “Come back here, honey. Your dad’s okay.”
“Daddy, who was that lady?”
Dwayne extended his arm and drew her into a hug. “Nobody you need to be concerned about. Everything is fine. Go back to the party with Grampa. I’ll be there in a minute.” He patted her head and urged her into his dad’s arms.
John lifted her. “Time to get dinner. Grampa Brad has a nice picnic table all set up for you kids. Did you see that big birthday cake? No? Well, let’s go have a look at it, sugar.” They disappeared behind the gate. It clanged shut.
Dylan sat beside Dwayne. Donovan paced back and forth in front of them, eyes on the street.
“What did Francine mean when she said, ‘you’re not her father’?” Dylan asked.
“God, I don’t know. She was raving.”
Donovan stopped in front of him. “She was screwing around the whole time you were in Iraq, then when you were in Bethesda. Everybody knew that.”
“Yeah, and it was nice of ‘everybody’ to let me know,” Dwayne sneered. “My thanks to all of you.”
Dylan grabbed his shoulder. “Knock it off. You know why we kept our mouths shut about it. For one thing, it wasn’t our business and for another, you had enough to deal with without that thrown into the mix.”
“You’d have been a lot better off if you’d never got mixed up with that witch,” Donovan added.
Dwayne sat straight as fury burned in his chest. It wasn’t their fault. He knew that. It was his choice to go after Francine and rush into marriage before he deployed. It was no secret that she’d been around the block a few times before she married him.
“That’s one way to look at it, but if I hadn’t married her I wouldn’t have Amber. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
That shut them up for the moment.
Donovan paced. Dylan joined him. After a moment he walked away from them to the street.
“Where are you going, Dyl?” Dwayne called.
“I’m going to drive around and see if she’s still in the neighborhood.”
Dwayne stood. “Wait, I’ll go with you.” He had no idea what he’d do if they spotted her. What could they do?
“No, you stay here and look after your daughter. I won’t be long.”
“Come on. Let’s go back before everybody comes out here to investigate.” Donovan nudged Dwayne.
“Yeah. Okay.” He stood and they re-entered the Danaher’s back yard. “I can’t think. I don’t know what to do.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
Chapter Nine
Marla detected the flurry of anxiety whiffing through the party crowd when the strange woman came through the back gate, and more so when Dwayne quickly escorted her out.
She left the buffet table and joined Charlene. “Who was that?”
Char took her arm and moved away from the children. Alarm still registered on several of the Dempsey adult faces, but most of the kids remained oblivious to the incident. “Dwayne’s ex-wife,” she whispered. “She just showed up out of nowhere. His brothers followed them, probably to help get rid of her.”
“Why in the name of green grass would she come here looking for him? And how could she have known he’d be here? Our parents never had anything to do with her that I know of. She and Dwayne met and married in Wyoming, didn’t they?”
“Lordy, how would I know? I’ve never seen the woman before. The Dempseys seem pretty upset about it though.” Charlene’s eyes scanned the crowd. “It looks as though most of the other guests didn’t take notice.”
“Oh, look. There’s John. He’s got Amber, but the brothers are still out there.”
Marla and Charlene jumped when they heard their mother’s voice behind them. “Come, girls. Let’s gather the children to their table and feed them. It’ll be a good distraction. I don’t want anything to spoil Brad’s party.”
“Mom, that was Dwayne’s wife, right?”
“Ex-wife. I can’t imagine why she turned up here. Johnny said nobody had heard so much as a whisper since she disappeared. That was years before Dwayne moved back to Spring Grove to take over John’s business.” She led them to the buffet. “You girls make up some plates. I’ll get the children seated.”
Marla checked her watch. Several minutes passed before Dwayne and his two brothers returned to the party. They went about checking on the kids, then made their way to the buffet table and loaded up on food as if nothing had happened.
“Marla, I need to talk to you,” Dwayne said quietly when his plate was full. “Would you sit with me for a minute?” His serious gaze lingered on hers for a beat.
“Uh, sure. I’ll get my dinner and be right there.”
“Thanks.” He nodded and carried his plate away.
Char’s eyes swam with curiosity, and she wasted no time stepping close to Marla. “What did he want? Did he tell you anything? About his wife? Where did she come from?”
“For heaven’s sake, Charlene. He said he needed to talk to me. That’s all. Now, move over and hand me a plate. I’ll tell you later.”
“You’d better. Word for word.” She fluffed her hair. “I’ll go sit with Donovan. Maybe he’ll tell me something.” She tottered across the lawn and
