The Secret Life of Ceecee Wilkes Part 23

"No, don't shoot her!" Eve said. "You'll scare her."

"I had no intention of shooting her," Jack said. He pointed the gun at Eve and pulled the trigger. Eve screamed, then laughed as the cold stream of water caught her on the neck. She aimed her gun at Jack and shot him squarely in the face.

"How do you do it?" Cory was still studying her gun.

Jack walked over and helped her aim the gun. She was not a good shot, but she loved the game anyhow, and within minutes all three of them were soaked and cold and laughing.

"Somebody needs to change her clothes and have her nap." Eve ran a hand over Cory's damp red hair once they were back inside.

"No," Cory said.

"Yes." Eve took her hand. "Let's go. I'll be back in a minute, Jack."

Cory wouldn't budge. "What's the other thing?" she asked.

"What other thing?" Eve was puzzled.

"The other thing in the Cory-Dory bag," Cory said, her focus on the canvas bag on the sofa.

"You have a good memory, Cory," Jack said. "The P-thing. We'll save it for another day, okay?"

Cory looked reluctantly at the bag. "Okay," she said.

Eve took her upstairs and into the nursery, where they'd replaced the crib with a twin bed. "Do you like Jack?" she asked her as she helped Cory out of her jersey.

"Yes," Cory said. "He's silly."

"I guess he is." She tucked Cory under the covers and pulled the shade.

"Leave the door open," Cory said, although Eve had never once closed it.

"She's beautiful," Jack said, when Eve came downstairs again.

"You were amazing with her." She sat on the other end of the sofa from him, curling her feet under her. "She's usually so shy with men."

"Her father must be a redhead, huh?"

She nodded without hesitation, used to the deceit. In her mind, Cory's father looked exactly like Tim with red hair.

"Is he very involved with her?" he asked.

She shook her head. "He was killed in a motorcycle accident when Cory was a baby." This was the lie she'd told Lorraine and the women at the park and anyone else who inquired. It was the lie she would one day tell Cory. She'd decided it was best to get Cory's mythical father completely out of the picture.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jack said.

"I didn't even put his name on the birth certificate because I didn't want him to be involved with her. He wasn't the sort of guy I thought he was." She ran her hand over the floral fabric on the sofa. "He turned out to be a criminal."

"Drugs?" he asked.

"Among other things," she offered vaguely.

"It's hard for me to imagine you with a guy like that," Jack said.

She thought of Tim and how he'd used her. "It's hard for me to imagine it, too," she said.

For the next week, they met twice on the grounds for a bite to eat and they spoke every night on the phone. On Sat.u.r.day, Jack arrived with a twelve-inch, red, Radio Flyer bicycle with training wheels. He called Eve outside to see it before showing it to Cory.

"I wanted to make sure you're okay with this before I give it to her," he said.

"Oh, my G.o.d, Jack!" Eve said when she spotted the bike. She was both astonished and a little unsettled by his generosity. "This is too much." She meant it. Generous gifts came with obligations.

"I know," Jack admitted. "And I promise not to be Santa Claus every time I see her. But indulge me right now, okay? I'm having fun." His kidlike grin was hard to resist.

"Okay," she said.

They called Cory outside and watched her eyes light up at the sight of the bicycle.

"Wowie!" she said, running over to it. She looked at the bike from front to rear, then up at Jack. "You got the same color as my hair!" she said.

Jack laughed. "You're right, Cory-Dory. And I had to look high and low for it, too. Why don't you hop on?"

Eve helped Cory onto the bike, but she stayed on only three seconds before getting off again. "It's scary," she said.

"Scary?" Jack looked surprised. "I asked the guy in the bicycle store to sell me the unscary one."

Cory looked at him, and Eve knew she didn't quite follow what he was saying.

"Maybe in a few days you'll feel brave enough to get on it," Eve said.

"I think she's brave enough now, aren't you, Cory?"

Cory put her skinny leg over the bike again, and Eve had an image of her riding down the slightly sloped driveway and into the path of a car. "The first thing we'll teach you is how to brake," she said.

Cory sat down on the bicycle seat and gripped the handlebars.

"Great job!" Jack said.

"You look like a big girl," Eve added.

Cory bit her lower lip. "Will I tip over?" she asked.

"Impossible," Jack said. "You have these cool training wheels in the back to keep you from tipping over."

Cory peered around her shoulder to look at the training wheels.

"So, how do I make it go?" she asked.

They gave her a lesson in the driveway, and soon she was riding on her own, but as if she could read Eve's mind, she back-pedaled to brake every few feet.

"Excellent!" Jack said once she'd managed the length of the driveway without braking. "You're ready for the sidewalk." He helped her turn onto the sidewalk, and Eve walked next to her as she rode.

"There's a big b.u.mp!" Cory cried. The sidewalk up ahead was cracked over a tree root.

"It's not that big," Eve said. "You can go over it."

Cory shut her eyes and let out a yelp as she rode over the b.u.mp.

"All right, Cory!" Jack called from behind them. "Cory-Dory rose to the challenge, boys and girls. She went over the b.u.mp like a pro."

Cory didn't seem to hear him, her forehead furrowed in concentration. She brought the bike to a standstill and put her feet on the ground.

"I want to get off now," she announced.

"Let's just ride it back to where Jack is," Eve said quietly as she turned the bike around. "And you didn't thank him. This is an extremely nice gift."

"I don't want to go over that b.u.mp again," Cory said.

"You're not going to tip over."

Cory eyed the b.u.mp as if it were the Grand Canyon, but she climbed aboard.

"You hold on, Mommy," she said.

"I'm holding on." Eve put her hand lightly on the back of the seat and they negotiated the sidewalk with relative ease.

"Well, we all survived," Jack said, rolling his eyes at Eve with a smile.

"What do you say to Jack?"

"Thank you for the bike," Cory said. "Did you bring the Cory-Dory bag?"

Jack laughed. "Greedy little Gus, aren't you?"

"What does that mean?" Cory asked.

"It means you want everything handed to you on a silver platter," Eve said.

"What's a silver platter?"

"It just means you're a normal three-year-old girl," Jack said. "And Marian's going to stay with you this afternoon while I steal your mom away for a while."

Cory looked truly alarmed. "You're going to steal her?"

"She's in her literal phase," Eve said to Jack.

"Your Mom and I are going to a bookstore for a while. Okay?"

"Can I come, too?"

"No, honey," Eve said. "You'll stay here with Marian. But I'll buy you a book, okay?"

"Okay." Cory ran into the house. "Marian! I'm staying with you for a while!" she yelled.

Eve turned to smile at Jack. "This was really wonderful of you," she said, her hand on the seat of the bike. "She's going to love it."

The used bookstore was near the university. She'd not been in it before and the ceiling-high stacks crammed with old books took her breath away. She found an ancient book on psychology, some of the theories and approaches in opposition to those she was learning, and she found a copy of Charlotte's Web Charlotte's Web to read to Cory, but then remembered about Charlotte dying at the end and decided against it. to read to Cory, but then remembered about Charlotte dying at the end and decided against it.

"I have to be so careful with Cory," she said to Jack. "She's afraid of so much. I don't want to make it worse."

"Maybe you're too careful," Jack suggested gently.

"I don't think I can be," she said. "What makes you say that?"

He pulled a dusty book from the stacks and studied the cover. "I shouldn't have said anything," he said. "What do I know about raising kids?"

"Come on," she said. "What made you say I'm too careful?"

"I've only seen you with her for a few hours, so I really have no right to-"

"Jack! Tell me."

"Maybe you coddle her a little too much," he said. "When she's afraid, like on the bike or when she was shy about meeting me, you sort of...I don't know, comforted her. I think she liked that comfort."

Eve was quiet. Marian had said similar things to her and the criticism worried her. She was so afraid of failing her daughter.

"I'm sorry," Jack said. "It really isn't my place to-"

"No, I..." Eve let out a sigh. "You might be right. I'm not sure how else to be. I worry about her so much."

"What are you afraid of?" he asked.

Where to start? "Of losing her somehow," she said. "Of having her get hurt. Of having her suffer in any way."

"Part of life, Evie," he said. "Although I understand that you've had more than your share of the bad stuff."

"I know."