Concealed Attractions (Cedar Island Tales) (53 page)

“Hi,
Jason
. Is
Julie
there?” He
waited for his brother-in-law to turn the phone over to his sister
.

“Hey, little broth
er. What gives?”

He brought
his sister
up-to-date on what had happened
since
his last call
after the baby’s
death
.
Jul
ianne
listened in silence.
“I’m so sorry
about all this
.
How are you doing?”

“Not so good. This was worse even than
when
Gram
died
.”

After a long beat,
Julie
asked, “
How is
Dannilynn
?”

“Better than she has been, but
she’s not sleeping
either
.” He paused. “T
hat’s not why I
called.
I may lose my
extern
ship. I
’m
see
ing
Joe
l
later this evening
, but
I wanted to talk to you first.”

“Tell me what happened.” 

When he
finally
stopped talking
,
she said,
“You had
a right to
defend
yourself, I mean
,
when
he
was
hitting you
.
”

“That may be, but I promised
Joel I’d protect my hands
. When
Danni
’s dad tried to disrupt the baptism, I didn’t hit him,
even
though I was tempted
. Seriously. 
After that, I figured I had it licked
—
losing my cool
, I mean
.
Now,
I’m not so sure.”

He was silent,
thinking about what was at stake
. “If I lose this
extern
ship, I may get kicked out of the program.
At the very least, it
may
set me back a year.
That means I
may not be able to
help the twins
when they’re ready to go to college
.” He
pac
ed
as he talked, too agitated to sit still.
“I’m
really
sorry about all this
.”

Julie
paused
before beginning again.
“I’
m not going to say anything to M
om
or the girls
until you call me back and tell me what
Joe
l
says.
Maybe he won’t
send
you back
early
when he learns
why
you messed up your hands. You were just protecting Danni
.
I’m sure Joel will understand.
”

“
Maybe.” He
tried to wiggle
a finger and flinched
at the pain
. “
I’ll let you know what
he says
. And, I’ll give
Danni
—
” h
is voice
broke
again
—
“your sym
pat
hies.”

“
Tell her she’s in our thoughts and prayers.
They’re for you, too, Ben.  I
know
that baby meant a great deal to you.”

“Right.” He couldn’t say anymore
with
out
losing his fragile hold on his emotions
, and hung up. 
He sat there for several minutes, holding back tears
, his heart heavy
for Jimmy
and
Danni
,
and regret
now
that
his externship
might be
in jeopardy
and what
that
might mean for his future.
He rose and
took
the trail to the beach.

Dannilynn
was sitting on a log near the water’s edge, her shoes propped next to her. She was tossin
g bread crumbs to the gulls
clustered around her.

“My sister said she was sorry to hear about the baby
.
I had to talk to her about my meeting with
Joe
l
. It
could affect my helping
my sisters
go to college
.”

Danni
nodded, and
pat
ted the log next to her.

When he sat down, she reached for
his
less injured
hand.
“Ben,
I’ve
been
thinking about
all
this
.
I
want
to talk to
Joe
l
, too
. When you beat up that guy
when I was on campus,
it was because
you saw him hurting that girl, and what you thought he might do to me
.
You told me that. Let me finish
,” she said, when he started to correct her.

“
And, this time, when you beat up Steve, it was because he
broke
in to get back at me
, to find out about Jimmy
.
” She took a deep breath, her chin quivering.
“
It’s my fault you wrecked y
our hands. If it was
n’t for me
…” H
er eyes
were
shiny with unshed tears
as she looked at him. “Y
ou
wouldn’t be in this position. Please let me
talk to Joel
.”

He
shook
his head. “I
wrecked my hands
. That wasn’t something you did
.”

She
sighed and
leaned her head against his should
er
while t
hey watched the tide roll in
.  W
hen
the waves were so consistently
high that
their
splash
es
against
a nearby
log threatened to drench them,
Danni and Ben
stood and walked
up the beach
,
her
arm around
his waist
. As the sun set behind the far mountains, they returned to the little cottage.

After she
heated
some soup
for her
self
,
she cleaned up the rest of the mess made by Steve
, and
began a list of
what had been
broke
n
. 
Ben
sucked on an ice cube. She packed up some of the cake left over from the gathering at her mother’s house earlier that day
—how long ago
it
now
seemed
—
and she drove Ben to meet
Joe
l
.

“Give him the cak
e. Maybe it’ll sweeten his mood.
”
She
stood on her tiptoes
. Ben
bent down and
offered her the
cheek that was not swollen
and throbbing
.
She kissed it tenderly.

Chapter 1
4

“
Permission to
come aboard?”
Ben called out
, trying his best not to groan as
he
step
ped
onto the boat
.

“Come on,”
Joe
l
shouted
from
the
open cabin
porthole
of the
Pride’n Joy
. “I’ll be out in a minute. There’s an extra beer in the cooler
if you want
one
. How’s
Danni
doing,
after the service today?”

The grief
Ben had
felt at the service earlier that morning washed over him again in a flood that threatened to bring on
more
tears. Taking a
dee
p breath and trying to sound calm, he said,
“
We brought
some cake for
you.
Danni
wanted you to have it.
She’s
waiting
in the car.
T
here’s enough to share
with Angela
if you
want
.
”

“That’s nice of you.”
Joel
backed out of the cabin
, turned and stared at Ben
.

“Holy shit! What happened to you?” H
is gaze scanned
Ben’s face,
his
tap
ed finger
s
,
the bandaged palm
and the
slightly tipped
way he was standing, as if his back
and
ribs were hurting
. “Not again.”
Joel
dropp
ed
into one of the deck chairs
and grabbed
the
beer for himself.
“Okay, s
pill it.”

Ben gave him the short version. “I know you said I
c
ouldn’t
mess up my hands
aga
in, and I didn’t intend to, but
it happened.
I know
I can’t do anything tomorrow, not what we had on
the
schedule, anyway.”

Ben
slowly
pulled the envelope out of his pocket
and placed it on the
top of the cooler
in front of Joel
. “Do you even
want me to show up tomorrow?”

Joel stared
again
at his damaged extern and
took
another
long
pull on
his
beer
. He looked like he was trying to hold back his anger, the way his eyes seemed to snap.

Go ahead and yell.
I know you want to
. I know I screwed up
.

But, his voice almost nonchalant, all Joel said was,
“You’re n
ot
talk
ing
very
well. What’s the
matt
er with
your mouth?”

“Angela says I bit my tongue
and cheek
when
he
hit me
on the side of
the
face
,
or maybe
it was
from one of the other punches
. She
pat
ched me up. S
he didn’t
mention it
to you
?
”

“Uh, no. She’s pretty
obsessive
about
pat
ient privacy
.
I
don’t think
I would have believed her
anyway
. You
look
like you lost the fight. What
about the other guy
?”
Joel pulled of his glasses and wiped them with the tail of his shirt
.

“
Don’t know
. The cops
hauled
him
off
.”

“T
hat’s beside the point
anyway
.
”
Joel
was silent
as he
continued to stare
at Ben.
“You
place
me in a difficult position.
If you can’t do th
e work, you shouldn’t be here.
And you clearly can’t do the work for at least a few days. Give me your hand.”