Family Matters (12 page)

“Damn it, Kerry.” He laughed and shook his head. “You and this danged clipboard.”

She looked down, surprised to find she still held it cradled against her.

He took the board from her nerveless fingers and dropped it to the wooden planks beneath their feet. “Let's try that again.”

This time, he held her loosely in the circle of his arms.

He tilted his head down, she lifted hers, and they met somewhere in the middle.

This was wrong. Oh, not the kiss, but the entire situation. Them. Here. Together.

There was no future in a relationship with Matt.

Because of that, she would need these memories of him to look back on when he was gone.

She closed her eyes, letting the rest of her senses take over.

He tasted like the peppermint candy she'd given him after dinner. Smelled like a mixture of musk and spices. And felt—when she got up the nerve to spread her now empty hands against his chest—rock-solid. Reliable. As sturdy and as safe as the pier beneath their feet.

Her pulse raced, her heart sang, and the sound of bells chimed in her ears. Just like she'd seen in the movies.

So she was doubly startled when Matt suddenly lifted his head, breaking their kiss, and pushed her aside gently.

“Wh-what is it?” she murmured.

“I heard something fall, then footsteps. Someone's out here.”

She frowned. “Who would be roaming around on the pier at this hour?”

“That's what I'm about to find out.”

He moved quickly past her. She turned to follow but had forgotten about the clipboard. It caught beneath her foot, sliding out from under her. She went with it, landing hard on one knee and bracing her hand against the pier to stop her fall.

Stunned for a second, she froze in place.

Then she heard a thump followed by a deep-voiced yell, and in the space of a heartbeat she was on her feet again and running in the direction of the uproar.

“No!” Kerry yelled, shocked at the sight near the park's ticket booth. A bewildered-looking Matt faced another man who stood with his shoulders hunched and his fists high.
“J.J.!”

It was almost completely dark, but the bright moonlight and the fact that they'd been out here in the gloom for a while had allowed her eyes to adjust to the night. Still, she could barely believe what she was seeing.

Even from behind, one look at the tall, lanky frame and backward baseball cap told her it was J. J. Grogan. His protective stance made her heart go out to him.

When he whirled to face her, the sight of the puffy, discolored bruise swelling his left eye almost shut sent her heart to her throat.

“Ms. MacBride!”

She gasped, looked at Matt, then back at J.J. “What happened to you?”

He straightened to full height again and shrugged. “It's nothing, Ms. MacBride.”

“It's
not
nothing, J.J. Who did that to you?”

He didn't say a word.

“It was Hector, wasn't it?” she pressed.

“Let it go, okay?” He shoved his hands in his back pockets. “Nothin' you can do about it, and things would only get worse, anyway. I didn't come here for that.”

Reluctantly, she let the subject drop. For now. Maybe he didn't want to discuss it in front of Matt, who stood looking from one to the other of them in barely disguised surprise.

“How did you get here?” she asked.

“Hitched.”

“J.J, that's so dangerous—”

“More to the point,” Matt broke in, “
what
are you doing here?”

J.J eyed him for a second.

“I'm wondering, too,” she told him.

He looked at her, then stared out over the lake and sighed. “Mom and Hector were fighting—”

“He hit you?” Matt demanded. “Did he hit your mother, too?”

“No.” J.J. shrugged. “He doesn't hit, he only yells. He was throwing a beer bottle, and I got in the way.”

“And what brought you here?”

Kerry rested her hand on Matt's arm. “How did you find me, J.J.?”

“I remembered your granny lived in Lakeside.” He started to grin, then winced, probably from the pain of his swollen eye. “When I saw the Ferris wheel from the highway, I figured, can't be more than one amusement park in town. So this had to be it.”

“That still doesn't tell us why you're here,” Matt put in.

J.J. flicked his gaze toward him, but addressed his response to her. “I want to help with the park, Ms. MacBride. I want to work here for the summer.”

“But…” There were so many reasons he shouldn't stay. She grabbed at the most relevant one. “J.J., I can't pay you.”

“Don't matter. I've got some money. And I'll get a job, part-time, if I have to. Bagging groceries or something.”

“Where are you going to sleep?” Matt asked.

J.J. shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe I can find a place
out here.” He gestured around the pier. “Be like a night watchman.”

“You can't just—”

“I don't think we need security,” Kerry broke in. “We're not expecting any intruders. We didn't even expect you, did we, Matt?” She smiled, trying to ease the hostility between them.

“You can't live here,” Matt said flatly. “In fact, if you don't want to be reported as a runaway, you'd better get on the next bus to Chicago.”

“I'm not going back.” His chin went up and he glared at Matt. “I'm eighteen. I can make my own decisions. And I want to stay.”

His voice had risen a few notches. Not growing louder, but climbing to a higher, tighter pitch that told Kerry he was stressed to the breaking point and possibly frightened. Of the situation here or the one he had left, she didn't know. But maybe there was more to his story. Something he wouldn't discuss in front of a stranger.

She could see the panic in his face. She could also feel the tension radiating from Matt, standing stiffly beside her.

One of them would explode any minute.

“J.J., why don't you take a walk out by the parking lot? Give us a few minutes, okay?”

After a second, he nodded and moved away, stopping only to pick up a small duffel bag she hadn't noticed before. Then he trudged away from them.

They watched him move along the pier until he was swallowed up by the lengthening shadows.

She could see Matt's features dimly—and she had no problem at all picking up on the tension that still flowed from him as if in tangible waves.

“He's a good kid, Matt.” And Matt was a good man. She knew it.

He stared off in the direction J.J. had gone. “This is the student you were talking about the other day, the one whose house we stopped by? The artist?”

“Yes.”

“And I take it that was Hector, the mother's boyfriend, we ran into out there.”

“Yes. He lives with them.”

Finally, he looked at her. His eyes glinted in the moonlight. “The kid's got trouble.”

“I know.” She sighed. “I'd like to keep him away from it, at least long enough for me to find out exactly what's going on and how to handle it.”

“You're letting him stay here?” he asked evenly.

“Well, not
here,
here. Not at the park. I told you, he's a good kid. A hard worker. I've known him through his four years of high school. He was once in a gang, but not anymore. He's starting college this fall, on a full, four-year scholarship. I'm so proud of him—and I trust him. Sleeping on the pier is no place for him. We'll work something out for tonight.” She bit her lip, considering. They really couldn't fit another person in at Gran's.

J.J.'s reasons for coming here had to be substantial—and serious. She couldn't bear to just send him home again. But, no matter how much she vouched for him, what were the chances of anyone at Lakeside Village taking in an unknown teenager?

Unless…

“Matt.” She cleared her throat. “You've already got a motel room for the night.”

“Yes, I do. Are you propositioning me, Kerry Anne?”

Her cheeks flamed at the same time a nervous laugh escaped her. “Yes,” she said positively.

His eyes widened, and his mouth stretched in a grin. But even as his deep chuckle rippled through her, threatening
to send her thoughts in a different direction, she felt sure he knew what she intended.

He crossed his arms and gave her a straight-faced look. “This will take some serious argument,” he said, confirming her suspicion.

“Fine.” She took a deep breath. “Well, as I said, you've already got a motel room.”

“Point taken.”

“And it's already paid for.”

“Yes.”

“And I'm sure it's got two beds.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, it does.” He leaned forward and murmured, “Maybe I had other ideas in mind than loaning one of them out to a teenage boy.” He touched the loose curls at her shoulder.

“Maybe you did,” she said, her voice cracking. She struggled to get control of it again. “But duty calls. You'll have to put those plans on hold.”

“You'll have to make it worth my while,” he countered.

She smiled slowly and reached up to run her hand through his hair, soft and thick beneath her fingertips. He leaned forward, and she gently pushed him away. “For that, Counselor, we'll need to meet in chambers.”

“Yours or mine?” he asked.

She laughed. “At the moment, neither one's an option.” She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “You'd be willing, Matt?”

“Hell, I'm always willing.”

“Come on, seriously. You'd be willing to put J.J. up?” Doubt crept into her voice. He couldn't want an unknown teenager around, either. But who else could she ask?

“No,” Matt said flatly.

Her heart sank.

“But I'm not willing to tangle with your Irish temper,
either,” he added. “And the motel's close enough, he can walk back and forth—if you really are going to let him work here.”

She smiled. “As you said to me this afternoon, the clock's ticking, and I need all the help I can get.”

“That's true enough.”

“It's late now. But I
will
talk to him first thing tomorrow and see what the story is before I commit to anything but one night's stay.”

“That's advisable. Then let's do it.”

Before he could move away, she touched his arm. “Thank you, Matt. I really appreciate this.”

“I wouldn't give out any thanks yet. As
you
said about
me
this afternoon, it's better to keep an eye on him than wonder what he's getting up to.”

His words were harsh, but she caught the hint of humor in his tone. When he put his hand around hers and squeezed her fingers, she squeezed back. And when he turned, still holding on to her as he ambled toward the entrance of the amusement park and J.J., she twined her fingers through his and walked beside him.

She felt as happy and lighthearted as any of the love-struck teenagers at school.

The sound of their footsteps on the pier echoed over the lake. And words she didn't want to think about seemed to echo inside her mind.

Teenage romances usually come to heartbreaking endings.

 

O
UTSIDE
B
ILL'S RESTAURANT
early the next morning, Matt cranked up the Jeep and headed in the direction of Lakeside Village.

In the seat beside him, J.J. leaned back and grinned. “Man, that was one good breakfast.”

“Not bad, if you don't think about your cholesterol.”

“Never happens,” J.J. said airily. Matt laughed.

Last night, they hadn't talked much, had just gone to the motel, washed up, turned in.

This morning, Matt deliberately took his time over his meal, trying to draw the boy out. Anybody who meant that much to Kerry had to be a good person. But anyone who could hurt Kerry also had to be checked out.

He and J.J.
did
have a good breakfast, in more ways than one. Matt had left the restaurant feeling he knew a lot about the boy.

“I see your eye's looking better this morning.”

“Yeah.” J.J. touched it with barely a wince. “Mr. Lawrence, y'know, when somebody shows up with a shiner, the joke is ‘you oughta see the other guy,' right?”

“Right.”

“Well, I want you to know I didn't touch him.”

“That's a good thing, J.J. Retaliation doesn't get you anywhere.” He drove for a couple of minutes in silence, then added in a neutral tone, “Hector hit you deliberately, didn't he?”

“He don't do anything deliberately,” J.J. muttered. “He just sets up little ‘accidents' that I walk into.”

Of course. He wouldn't use his fists. Fists left marks.

Matt had learned that his first week in law school.

J.J.'s situation mirrored Matt's own as a kid in many ways.

His father hadn't used physical violence, either. And he hadn't been verbally abusive. Instead, he'd worked in just the opposite way—with words that drew people in. Manipulating his targets into giving him whatever he wanted. And, in the worst-case scenarios, making them feel it was what
they
had wanted all along.

“Ms. MacBride's the best,” J.J. said suddenly, probably wanting to change the subject.

Matt jumped at the chance to get away from bad memories.

“In what way?” he asked, willing to go with the new topic, wanting to know more about the boy and genuinely curious as to why an eighteen-year-old would feel so strongly about a teacher.

“She just is.” J.J. considered for a minute or two, then said, “First off, she's really into art.”

“That makes her a good teacher?”

“Oh, yeah. If you don't get what she's saying, she can
show
you, which is the best, because art's visual, you know? You have to be able to see it.”

“Mmm.” Matt deliberately gave the low-key answer, hoping to lead J.J. on to more. The strategy worked.

“She helped turn lots of people around,” J.J. added.

“How do you mean?”

“Just helping them. Get through school. Get off drugs.”

“And staying away from gangs?” He glanced across the space in time to see J.J.'s shoulders go rigid.

“She told you about me?”

“Some,” Matt said.

“Why?”

He looked the boy straight in the eye. “I was about to let you room with me. There were things she thought I should know.”

Slowly, J.J. nodded agreement. “Those days are over, Mr. Lawrence.”

Matt drove another minute in silence through Lakeside's small-town version of early-morning rush hour—two cars and a newspaper delivery van.

Could he trust J.J.'s truthfulness about his past?

So far, he hadn't seen any evidence to the contrary. In fact,
he'd seen proof of Kerry's belief in the boy's honesty in the way she had taken him under her wing.

He glanced at J.J.

“I'm not involved with them anymore,” the boy insisted, blinking but holding Matt's gaze.

Matt broke away first to return his attention to the road.

Blinking was good. It was the wide-eyed, don't-move-a-muscle stare you needed to watch out for. “So I hear. I also hear you were awarded a scholarship. I guess you're all geared up to go at the end of the summer.”

“I…I don't know.”

Matt pushed a button on the radio, changing the station, allowing the boy some psychological distance. He would talk more freely if he didn't think Matt was hanging on every word.

They'd arrived at his mother's apartment building. Matt turned into the visitor's parking area and pulled into a space.

J.J.'s silence stretched on. Matt turned off the Jeep and sat quietly, waiting.

Finally, J.J. blurted, “I need money, Mr. Lawrence. Lots of money.”