Welcome to Temptation/Bet Me Read online

  “He needed help,” Wes said.

  “Or Amy did,” Phin said. “My bet is Amy. She’s the one they always rescue.”

  “Amy wouldn’t kill anybody,” Wes said. “I don’t think. So, we talk to Davy Dempsey again.”

  “If you think you’re going to break Davy, forget it. Especially if he’s protecting Amy.”

  “Or Sophie,” Wes said.

  “Let’s go bust the Coreys,” Phin said.

  Half an hour earlier, Sophie had been facing down Dillie through the screen door. “Dillie, your daddy really doesn’t want you to be here.”

  “But don’t you want me to be here?” Dillie said, looking rejected and heartbroken.

  “Oh, honey, of course—” Sophie began, and then she frowned. “Nice try, kid. You almost had me.”

  Dillie looked exasperated. “Well, I know you want me here. You’re just being difficult. Let me in.”

  “How come you’re so sure I want you?”

  “Because I’m delightful,” Dillie said.

  Sophie sighed and let her in. “You’re father tells you this, I assume?”

  “No, my dad tells me I’m spoiled rotten and not to pull that stuff on him.” Dillie didn’t look too abused by this. “My grandma Liz says it. She says, ‘Dillie Tucker, you are the most delightful child in the world.’ She thinks I’m smart, too. I’m a real Tucker.”

  “Lucky you. Dill—”

  “I have a reason for being here,” Dillie said hastily. “An important reason.” She sat down at the table and fished a torn piece of notebook paper out of her back pocket. “Jamie Barclay and I made up a mother test.”

  “How cute of you,” Sophie said. “No.”

  “It’s just four questions,” Dillie said, her cupid’s-bow mouth drooping with disappointment. “Four little questions. Please.”

  Sophie sighed. Maybe if she flunked Dill’s test . . . “Shoot.”

  Dillie straightened in her chair. “Okay. These are multiple choice to make it easy.”

  “Thank you. We potential mothers appreciate all the help we can get.”

  “One. Should a nine-year-old’s bedtime be (A) eight-thirty; (B) nine-thirty; (C) ten-thirty; or (D) whenever she gets tired?”

  Sophie said, “(A). Or even earlier. Six, maybe.”

  Dillie nodded and made a mark on the paper. “Two. A child should watch TV (A) only when there are educational specials on; (B) only on weekends; (C) whenever she wants.”

  “What happened to (D)? Shouldn’t there be a ‘never’ on there?”

  “Sophie,” Dillie said, and Sophie said, “(A).”

  Dillie made a mark on the paper. “Three. A girl is old enough to get her ears pierced when she’s (A) ten; (B) twelve; (C) sixteen; or (D) twenty-one.”

  “(D). Or when she gets her driver’s license, whichever comes last.”

  Dillie shot Sophie a look from under her lashes and then made another mark on the paper. “Four. When a girl grows up she should be (A) a ballerina, or (B) a mayor.”

  Sophie straightened, not amused anymore. “(C). Whatever she wants.”

  Dillie sat back. “Perfect score.”

  “What?”

  Dillie nodded. “My dad picked the exact same answers. Even the different answer on number four.”

  “You gave your father a mother test?”

  “No, I gave him a father test,” Dillie said. “Jamie Barclay said I have to find a good match for him so he won’t get divorced. She’s had three dads so she knows. And since my dad likes you, I figured I’d start here.” She looked at the paper. “We need to talk about some of this stuff, though.”

  Sophie stood up. “We’re walking back to your grandmother’s now.”

  “Without ice cream?” Dillie sounded truly distraught, so Sophie got two Dove Bars and several wet paper towels and took her down to the dock, Lassie on their heels. The river rushed past them, high and fast from the rain. “As soon as this is gone, you’re gone,” she told Dillie, who began to eat her Dove Bar slowly, chattering the entire time.

  “My dad says that I’m his favorite woman in the whole world,” Dillie said when she was finally licking the stick. “But I bet you’re second.” She thought for a minute. “Or maybe third. There’s my grandma Liz.”

  “I’m just honored to be on the short list,” Sophie said. “You have to go back now, Dill.”

  “But I just got here,” Dillie said, imploring. “And it was a long way. My feet hurt. I’m just a child, you know.”

  “I have my suspicions about that,” Sophie said.

  “I shouldn’t have come,” Dillie said sadly. “It’s because I don’t have enough supervision. I need a mother. Really bad.”

  Sophie stood up. “Come on, Meryl Streep. We have to get you back before anybody notices.”

  Dillie ignored her to stare up the hill.

  “Dillie?”

  “Too late,” she said in a small voice, looking genuinely pitiful this time.

  Sophie turned and saw Phin coming toward them, looking like thunder. Dillie moved closer to Sophie and Sophie put her arm around her.

  “I could have sworn,” he said to Dillie when he reached them, “that I’d told you not to come here. You want to explain this to me?”

  “You were unreasonable,” Dillie said, sticking out her chin from the circle of Sophie’s arm. “Sophie is my friend.” She put her hand on Lassie’s head. “And you won’t let me have a dog, and she has one and I can play with him.” She went into orphan-child mode. “This is probably the only dog I’ll ever get to play with in my whole life. Ever.”

  “Where does she get this from?” Sophie said. “I can’t believe she learned it from you or your mother.”

  “Her mother was one hell of an actress,” Phin said grimly.

  Dillie looked up, and Sophie said, “Well, she’s damn good at it, and it’s a useful skill, once she learns to stop overselling it. Since you’re here, can she stay a couple minutes and play with Lassie?”

  “You want me to reward her for disobeying me?” Phin said.

  Sophie leaned closer to keep Dillie from hearing, and whispered, “I want you to stop being such a tightass and let the kid play with the dog.”

  “Yeah,” Dillie said.

  “Don’t push your luck, young lady,” Phin said. “I told you not to come over here and you came anyway.”

  “Grandma told you not to come out here and you did anyway,” Dillie said.

  Sophie looked out across the river and pressed her lips together.

  “Go play with the damn dog,” Phin said, and Dillie went. “If you’re laughing, I’m going to shove you in.”

  “Well,” Sophie said, and then she laughed out loud. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But she had you on that one.”

  “She has me on all of them. Spoiled rotten kid.”

  Sophie watched Dillie run up the hill with Lassie. “You know, it’d be worth it to stay in Temptation just to watch you when she starts to date.”

  “She’s never going to date.”

  “Not even when she gets her driver’s license?” Sophie sat down on the dock and put her feet back in the rushing water. “She’s a good kid.”

  Phin sat down behind her. “I know she’s a good kid.”

  Sophie leaned back until she touched his shoulder. “I should warn you, she gave me a mother test which I tried to flunk. I passed.”

  “You pass all my tests, too,” Phin said, and she turned her head just as he dropped a kiss in the curve of her neck.

  “Hey,” she said, alarmed. “Dillie.”

  “She just went around the house,” Phin said in her ear. “Look at me.”

  She turned to him and he kissed her thoroughly. “I’ll be back tonight,” he said against her mouth. “Bed check. And you’d better be here.”

  “I thought your mother told you not to come here anymore.”

  “She’s being unreasonable,” Phin said. “You’re probably the only Dempsey I’ll ever get to play with in my whol