McCormick looked at the woman at the front desk of the library Hardcastle had insisted on going to.
"Stop looking," the former judge ordered. "She's the kid of a friend of mine."
"I wasn't looking," Mark said, trying to sound like ha wasn't lying.
"I know you're lying to me."
"Is it a crime to look at an attractive woman?"
"It is when the woman is like a daughter to me."
"The woman walked over. "Be nice, Uncle Milt," she said. "He's a man. He's going to stare."
"Annette-"
"If you call me Annette again, I'll hit you. I've told you a dozen times that I go by Annie."
"I like Annie better," Mark said.
"Stop trying to impress her," Hardcastle said.
"I'm not afraid to send you outside Uncle Milt.," she said. "I can do it. I have a huge dictionary I can smack you with too."
"That's a good one," McCormick said, grinning.
"Don't you have something better to do?" Hardcastle asked.
"Oh, I think I'm fine as long as Annie doesn't hit me with her dictionary."
"Hit him, Annie."
"Sorry, Uncle Milt, I have work I have to do," Annie said. As she walked away, Mark watched her.
Hardcastle hit him on the arm.
"Ow…" Mark said. "Annie, he's hitting me!"
"I still have that dictionary!" Annie called over.
Hardcastle waved a hand dismissively. "She'd never do it. That girl couldn't hurt a fly."
"I don't know about that, Milt," Mark said, still watching her. "I just saw her squash a spider."
"Well, that's the exception. Didn't you get a letter from New Jersey this morning?"
Mark straightened. "Uh, yeah, I did."
"What's it about?"
"An old girlfriend died."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"She had skin cancer. Marcia left some kids behind."
"I'm sure her family will take care of them."
"One of them is mine, judge. Marcia's family won't take her. They don't consider her to be related."
"Why not?"
"Marcia was a teenager when Addison was born. We didn't get married. What would have been the point in us getting married? We probably would have gotten divorced before we'd even been married for one year. Addison only has me left, judge."
"You want to take custody of her?"
"You don't want me to?"
"I don't need a kid running around the estate, McCormick."
"She's thirteen, not five. She has good grades. Mostly A's and B's. I don't know how she does it, but somehow she does."
"No, McCormick."
"They'll put her in a foster home, judge. I'll be damned if she's put in a home. Those places are no good."
"No."
"Fine." Mark turned around. "Hey, Annie, what do you think ought to happen when a kid's mom dies?"
"The child should go to live with the father," Annie said.
"And what if the father lives with a cranky old judge who thinks a thirteen year old girl will cramp his style?"
Annie put her hands on her hips. "Uncle Milt…"
"Alright, alright, she can come to live at the estate."
"Thanks, Annie," Mark said.
"You'll owe me dinner for this," Annie warned him.
"It's a date."
"And a movie. A good movie, not a piece of garbage like some of the stuff they're putting out now."
"I can't believe this," Hardcastle said. "You use her to get me to let you take your daughter, then you get a date with her."
"No, Uncle Milt, I got him," Annie said.