Erin's Way (18 page)

“You should tell them,” Tabby said quietly.

Erin dropped the spoon back into the grits with a plop. “How do you do that?”

Tabby shrugged. “Sorry, but your expression’s been a dead giveaway ever since Jenny mentioned the recipe. Besides that, you were mumbling to yourself too.”

Erin spun on Tabby with her fists braced on her hips. “Just how much have I managed to share with you while I’ve been talking to myself?”

Tabby glanced toward the door and back at Erin before she began quietly. “You can’t read well enough to decipher a recipe… That’s okay. I’ll walk you through it, and you’re a wizard with money. Who’s Captain Rick? You mentioned him while you were mumbling.”

“
Shit!
You know you are really annoying, Tabby. If I had to have a little sister, couldn’t it have been someone who didn’t have ears like a bat and look as perfect as a cover model? And to make it even worse, you’re nice. Just swear you won’t tell them.”

“Tell them what?” Stoner stood in the doorway watching them.

If Erin’s face looked half as guilty as Tabby’s, they were cooked. She stared at her younger sister and Tabby stared right back, her golden eyes narrowing.

Erin blew out her breath on a heavy sigh. “Oh damn it, all right. It’s just now is not the time. I-I’ll tell everyone after breakfast.”

Stoner walked farther into the room. He stopped by the cream and sugar, and turned back to Erin, his expression a mixture of curiosity and concern.

Erin felt his uncertainty.

“Are you all right, honey?” he ventured.

Erin grimaced at the cautious way he asked the question, as if he expected her to bite his head off. And she guessed in the past that would have been exactly her reaction. “Yes, Daddy.”

“If it’s Sam…” he began, his tone growing thunderous.

“If it’s Sam, what?” the man in question drawled challengingly from the doorway.

Tabby and Erin both watched, jaws agape as Stoner and Sam glared at one another like male lions getting ready to challenge for dominance.

“Just how long does it take to get…” Evan paused in mid-sentence, “cream and sugar.” He stared at the other two men with narrowed, gray eyes. “What’s going on?”

Erin was completely exasperated. She rolled her eyes and stared at Tabby. “You might as well call everyone in here. There will be no peace until this is out in the open.” She spun around to work on the cream sauce and realized she’d sent out the person who was supposed to read the recipe to her. With her patience at an end, she turned and glared at Sam.

“Come over here and read this recipe to me while I add everything in.” It never occurred to her to question the fact that he did so without any comment or remark. A couple of minutes passed as she added the ingredients and adjusted the heat according to his instructions. By the time they were done, everyone was in the kitchen either seated or standing.

As Erin started to turn, Sam muttered under his breath. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to tell them.”

Her eyes widened as she stared at him. “You know?”

He swallowed and nodded.

So many questions popped into her head, but in the end all she finally managed to whisper was, “How long?”

He flushed. “Since a couple of days after you moved in.”

“How?”

“Your computer set up.”

He’d snooped in her room? Before Erin could demand to know what he’d been doing, Sam hastened to explain. “You’d left it on that night you pulled the calves. I went in to shut everything down. That’s how I figured it out. I didn’t say anything. I guess I hoped you would tell me.”

Erin studied his expression. She didn’t see pity or any of the other things she always feared she would see. Sam looked at her in just the same way he always had. Her throat tightened with emotion. She had always been so afraid of others finding out. When she turned around to face everyone else, Erin reached behind her and found his strong, callused hand. He squeezed hers reassuringly.

“Erin?” Stoner prompted. “What is it Tabby and Sam seem to know that the rest of us don’t?”

She swallowed but felt Sam’s hands settle reassuringly on her shoulders, giving her confidence to admit what she’d always dreaded putting into words. “I can’t read… And I can barely write.”

Catherine reached for Stoner’s hand and he grasped it. “Is this a joke, honey?” her mother asked faintly. “You attended college. How could you not be able to read or write?”

“I—I found ways to cope.” She spread her hands and grinned uneasily. “I’m good in math, so I would trade favors with other kids. You know, do their math work if they would write papers for me.” Her chin rose defensively. “I am also an accomplished cheat, and even paid some students to take exams for me.”

Stoner looked thunderous; Catherine looked appalled. As Erin looked at Evan, she realized Jenny must have dropped some hints, because he looked the least shocked.

“How… How could this happen?” Stoner finally asked.

Erin closed her eyes for a minute. “Oh believe me, a lot easier than you might think. It wasn’t any one thing. Your political career bounced me around to a lot of different schools, and I managed to stay in trouble enough that I got bounced around from teacher to teacher and nanny to nanny. You were both busy between campaigns and other social engagements. By the time it started to become a major issue, Evan was all wrapped up in being a teenager, and I was so ashamed I didn’t get the whole reading thing that I got better and better at hiding it.”

“There are literacy programs…” her mother began, but Erin cut her off.

“It’s not that simple. It was never just a matter that I didn’t learn, or that I was lazy.” She paused and frowned as she remembered how many times she’d heard that. It was so much easier to blame it on her than take the time to properly assess and identify her problem. “I’m profoundly dyslexic. Sam’s seen it. I-I can barely even read the Sunday comics, for God’s sake.”

“But you send us e-mail and read ours,” Catherine continued, still puzzled.

Erin bit her lip. “My roommate in college helped me. In return, I helped her ace her statistics course. Then, if you’ll recall, I didn’t contact you much until just a few months ago, when I began working on the
Sprite
. Rick figured out what was going on. He helped me get a voice recognition program that reads everything to me, and I can talk to it, so it will write for me as well.”

“Rick?” Evan questioned. “The guy…”

Erin flushed. “Yes.”

Catherine was still shaking her head as if she couldn’t take it all in, but Stoner stood. Haltingly, he approached her. His gaze slithered from Sam’s glowering expression, to Erin’s shuttered one. “Forgive us, Erin. Forgive
me
for being too busy, for not noticing.” He stretched his hand out. “I remember how happy you were as a little girl. You were so excited when you started school, but then as the years passed that changed. I guess it was just easier to think it was the normal disenchantment most kids develop for school, but it wasn’t, and we didn’t see.”

Erin ducked her head. “I should have told you.”

Stoner shook his head and sliced his hand through the air. “No. You were a child, for God’s sake. One of us, any of us who were around you—Catherine and me, your nannies, your teachers—someone should have noticed, should have done something.”

His hand trembled as he touched her cheek with his fingers. “I’m so sorry, honey.”

Erin leaned into his gentle touch for just a moment, but then grasped his hand and held it away from her face. “Don’t, Daddy. Don’t pity me. I’ve found ways to get along. I do okay.”

Stoner frowned. “As a cook? As farm help for Sam?”

Erin’s gaze shifted. She didn’t want to talk about the rest of it. It was a lot easier for them to continue thinking of her as a screw up than it was to go into the explanation of how and how much of a success she had managed to become. Her biggest fear, if she ever shared it, was seeing the looks of disbelief they would no doubt have on their faces. Cooking was much safer. “Yeah. Speaking of which, my cream sauce needs stirring. If everyone will set the table, we’re almost ready to eat.”

“Erin…” Stoner frowned.

“Later,” Sam said.

The two stared at each other for a moment; then Stoner nodded. Erin turned her attention back to the sauce. After turning off the burner, she transferred it to a serving bowl. Sam and Stoner still hovered, so she glared at them.

“Shoo! Get out of my way and let me finish.” She was back in her element. “Tabby, if you’ll take the dishes out of the upper oven, I’ll get the biscuits and the casserole.”

Even as she tossed out orders, Erin was scraping the grits into another large serving bowl and putting the pot in the sink to soak. Jenny placed the bowls with the shrimp and grits on the table, which Evan and Joe were setting while Catherine took drink orders from everyone.

Erin smiled as she bent to retrieve the casserole and the biscuits. The noises of home. For this moment at least, she felt she belonged here. In this, at least, she could make a valuable contribution.

“Here, I’ll take that for you,” Sam said quietly from her side. Erin looked at him and smiled.

“Thanks, Sammy.”

He looked uncomfortable. “It’s just a casserole dish,” he muttered, deliberately misunderstanding her.

Erin punched him in the arm. “Don’t be dense. You know I mean more than that.”

Sam glanced over his shoulder before he gently rubbed the back of his hand over her cheek. “I know.”

Erin’s breath caught at the look on his face. Was she reading too much into what she saw there? Because to her it looked like a whole lot more than a you’re-so-hot look.

“I think we’re ready,” Jenny said, interrupting her thoughts. “Ev, have Melodie bring Peter in, and Joseph can say the blessing.”

The meal was filled with chatter. Sam and Stoner began discussing the calving season, while Evan and Joseph talked basketball. To Erin’s right, Catherine helped Melodie with her plate and kept one eye on Peter who sat in his high chair gurgling and playing with toys that he inevitably carried straight to his mouth. Tabby and Jenny discussed how Holly was doing carrying her twins.

“You should talk to Rachel Hastings,” Catherine said to Erin out of the blue. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.”

Erin tilted her head. Where had she heard that name before? Hastings. “The kid at the computer store mentioned her when I bought the reading software.”

Catherine brightened. “So you’re working on it?”

Erin nodded. “I—I have a voice recognition program embedded in the computer, but I practice with the reading program.”

“Is it helping?”

Erin shrugged. “Sometimes I think so. Then there are some days the words just seem to jumble in front of me.”

“You
should
talk to Rachel,” Tabby said. “I met her last fall before I quit teaching. She teaches Freshman English and a reading intervention class. She’s a certified reading specialist, and I know she did her dissertation on dyslexia intervention strategies. Besides that, you’d like her.” Tabby’s grin turned mischievous. “She’s tiny, just like you and Jenny.”

“So speaks the Amazon woman.” Jenny laughed.

“Are you talking about Rachel Crawley?” Sam asked from the other end of the table.

Catherine nodded. “Yes, I believe that was her maiden name. Do you know her?”

Sam chuckled. “Not that well. She was a freshman in high school when I was a senior. A real nerd—two years ahead of herself and complete with coke bottle glasses. It always seemed like Luke—Jake’s older brother—had to run interference for her.”

Erin gaped at them all. “You want me, the class idiot, to hook up with a freaking genius? Oh yeah, that will make me comfortable.”

Tabby frowned. “Rachel’s not at all like that. And she could help you, Erin.”

“I wish I’d known,” Joseph commented. “She was in church this morning.”

“Oh I hate I missed her,” Tabby remarked. “That would have been perfect.”

“That was always part of the problem, as I recall,” Sam said. “Rachel was easy to overlook, except for those eyes of hers. Purple as pansies. Luke Allred sure noticed ‘em.”

“Not enough to stick around,” Evan commented.

Sam shrugged. “Things change. Jake says Luke’s veterinary practice is very successful. We were really close up until he got married. Then we kind of lost touch. You know how it is. You get busy. Life happens.”

As the conversation drifted back again to finances, Erin absently munched on her food and listened. The conversation turned toward a prominent pharmaceutical company, and her interest perked up.

“I wouldn’t invest in that company right now,” Erin interjected after a few minutes. Four pairs of male eyes turned to stare at her. Erin grinned. “Their flagship drug is about to go generic, so you can expect them to take a big hit in the market in the next couple of weeks. Of course, you could wait for their stock price to bottom out, then buy. They’re expected to make an announcement within two months of a breakthrough on a new drug to substantially reduce the length and severity of common cold symptoms. At that point, I would expect their stock to double and split at the very least. So if you’ll be patient enough to wait for the price to tank, you could see an enormous ROI down the road.”

Her father stared at her as if she had suddenly grown a second head. “How do you know all this?”

Erin set her silverware down and looked at her father. Sucking in a deep breath, she realized she might as well get it all out. “It’s what I do when I’m not cooking, pulling calves, or shoveling sh…” Her glance landed on Melodie’s interested expression. “…poop.”

Sam coughed. “Actually, you listen to the financial news on the radio while you cook and clean stalls like most people listen to music.”

Erin grinned. “You’re right. Habit, I guess. Look, Daddy. I might not be able to read, but I can listen. So I do, and now that I have the voice software on my laptop, I read that way. Captain Rick urged me to get the computer set up after I gave him a couple of tips, then turned his portfolio over to me to manage along with mine.”

“You have a portfolio?” her father inquired in a stunned tone.