Her Unlikely Family (2 page)

“But Michael sounds so stuffy.”

“Maybe I
am
stuffy. Now, what's on the dessert menu today?”

With a mischievous gleam in her eye, she parked one hip on the edge of his table, leg swinging, and pointed to the far wall. “The dessert menu's on that chalkboard. Same today as yesterday and every day for the past year or so. Pecan pie, apple pie or chocolate cake?”

“Make it apple, with black coffee.”

“I figured you for an apple-pie man. Coming right up.”

Now what was that supposed to mean? “Would you please ask Bud to come take a look at this picture of Lisa when he gets a moment?”

“He's real busy. But I'll try.” She shoved her pencil, not behind her ear this time, but into her bird's nest of a hairdo, then moved to wait on another table where she flirted with two men in dirty work clothes.

In observing her at a distance, he decided that somehow, miraculously, she equaled a whole lot more than the sum of her parts. Extreme jewelry, plus funky hair and rubber-soled shoes equaled…attractive waitress.

How could that possibly be?

When Josie returned with Michael's pie and coffee, she slid into the booth across from him. She blew a pink bubble, then popped it with a loud snap. “So, tell me about you and your niece. Are you helping her parents search for her?”

He lifted Lisa's photograph and stared at the innocent, trusting smile. A smile that used to come so easily before her mother's drinking had gotten out of hand.

“My sister, Patricia, was a single mom. She died in a car accident a year ago.”

“Oh, no. Don't tell me it was a drunk driver.”

“Yes. Her.”
Way to go, Throckmorton. Tell her your life history, why don't you?

His unintentional revelation was greeted with silence. And a pitying look—which he detested.

“Anyway, she specified in her will that I be named guardian,” he added.

“Why'd she pick you?”

He bristled. “Why not me?”

“Well, you appear to be single.” She waggled her left ring finger. “No ring.”

Yes, he was single. Definitely single since Gloria had dumped him. “An unmarried man can be a suitable guardian.”

“I didn't say you were unsuitable. I'm just wondering why she chose you.”

Josie was acting a little too interested. As if she was stalling.

The longer this woman gave him the runaround, the more likely it was he would be stuck in Gatlinburg, missing his appointment with Tom Mason. And Throckmorton's Bank needed Mason's company to take out that construction loan.

He checked his watch. “You know, I really want to find her and get back to Charleston. I have an important meeting tomorrow. Do you have any idea where she could be?”

“So this is all about getting back to your
important
meeting, huh?”

He sighed. This woman was impossible. Since when was it a crime to work hard? “No. It's about making sure my niece is safe. About getting her back to school—and round-the-clock supervision—where she belongs before she makes a stupid mistake.” Like her mother made sixteen years ago.

“What kind of mistake?”

“Some of her friends thought she might have left with an older boy. A troublemaker.”

Josie thought about her one encounter with the troublemaker boyfriend and said a quick prayer of thanks that the creep had ditched Lisa and hit the road—even if he had “borrowed” her car.

She figured another prayer for guidance wouldn't be a bad idea either since Michael Throckmorton didn't seem as awful as Lisa had made him out to be. In fact, he seemed downright concerned. Except for wanting to get back for a meeting. That bothered her.

But maybe she should at least let him know Lisa was safe.

But then Lisa would feel betrayed and might run again.

What a mess.

“You know, Mike, if you'll hang around until I'm off tonight, I might be able to help you.”

His all-business, I'm-in-a-hurry-to-get-out-of-here scowl lit with a hint of hope. “I knew it. You do know where Lisa is.”

“Order's up,” Bud called.

What should she do? Mike obviously cared for his niece. Maybe he just didn't know how to show it. “Okay, I admit I've met her, and I can tell you she's safe. But she doesn't want to see you.”

He winced at the truth. “She's made that fairly clear.”

Bud impatiently clanged the little service bell and nodded toward a customer. “Hamburger's getting cold.”

“Look, I need to get back to work. I'm pulling a double, so I don't get off till ten.”

She hopped up and went to pick up the order, but when she turned to take it to the table, she glimpsed the back of Mike's broad back as he disappeared through the swinging door into the kitchen.

By the time she caught up to him, he stood alone in the middle of the spick-and-span room. Lisa was nowhere in sight.

“She's not here.” He sounded deflated.

“No. But like I said, she's safe.”

He zeroed in on the exit leading to the alley. “If I don't find her, I'll meet you outside at ten. But I expect some answers.” In four strides of his long legs, he was out the door, his head snapping left and right to search the darkening alley.

Bud stuck his head into the kitchen, saw the intruder was gone and said, “She left with Brian after he delivered the bread.”

“Do you have any idea where they went?”

“No.”

A flutter of panic beat against Josie's chest. “What if she ran again?”

A worried look deepened his wrinkles, but he shrugged. “The girl's your mission project. Not mine.” The door flapped closed as he went back to the dining room and his grill.

Josie wondered if protecting Lisa had been the right thing to do. Instinct had told her the girl needed some time away from peer pressure family pressure, and the burden wealth could put on a person—just as Josie had needed at that age. Lisa needed time to figure out who she was and what she wanted out of life.

But Josie had thought she was dealing with an unwanted eighteen-year-old. Now she had to find a way to prevent the girl from running away again while being responsible to the hunky uncle. Maybe she could hold him off until she talked to Lisa—providing Lisa showed up at home that night.

Lord, I thought You sent Lisa to me like You sent the other runaways. I thought You wanted me to help her. But I don't have any business keeping her from an uncle who seems to care about her.

God had sent Lisa to her for a reason. She simply had to figure out what that reason could be.

 

Michael hunkered down in his car. The late March temperature had dropped and couldn't be over forty. Not exactly what he'd dressed for earlier in the day, back before he'd known he would have to hang around to deal with a frustrating waitress as the only link to his niece.

He had a view of the front of the diner and of the alley leading from the back. So far, he'd only seen customers come and go. No sign of Lisa.

He pushed the button to light his watch. Eight past ten and still no sign of Josie, either.

The woman certainly worked hard. Unless, of course, she'd spent her time warning Lisa not to come back to the diner. The fact that Josie had misled him earlier didn't bode well for how truthful she would be tonight.

The fact that Lisa had told Josie she didn't want to see him didn't bode well either.

A sigh escaped from some weary place deep inside. How was he supposed to deal with a teenager who was so rebellious she broke every school rule twice? Surely the school, with female role models like her teachers, was better than his bachelor home. Once again, he would have to find a way to get Lisa reinstated.

He steeled himself for her objections. He would find her and take her back where she belonged. Maybe someday she would thank him for it.

The door of the diner opened, and Josie, without any wasted movement, walked toward his car. Before he knew it, she had climbed in and shut the door.

“Hi, Mike. Nice night.”

“Would you care to join me?”

“I thought you'd never ask.” Light from a streetlamp spilled into the car, illuminating her sassy smirk.

He stopped himself from telling her she had a nice smile, even though she did have a very nice smile. Instead, he sat in silence, turning to the quiet neighborhood outside, remembering the more touristy area a few blocks away where shops sold handmade candles, homemade fudge and funnel cakes. Why would a teenager head to this town?

When he recalled the many wedding chapels in the area, his gut clenched. “I'm not too late to keep her from trying to marry the punk, am I?”

“No. The guy dumped her. But—”

“So you do know about him.” Anger pushed away the chill in the air. “What else have you kept from me?”

“It's not like I—”

His cell phone rang. He unclipped it from his belt. Caller ID showed it was the investigator. “Throckmorton.”

“They traced your niece's car to a town in North Georgia,” the man said. “A young couple was seen getting out. We're not sure if it's Lisa. The female's hair is black.”

“Did you call the police?”

“A patrol car is on its way now.”

“Georgia, huh? What about credit-card activity?”

“None since the day she disappeared.”

Michael drummed his thumb on the steering wheel. “Okay. Thanks.”

“I'll call as soon as we find her.”

Snapping the phone closed, he watched Josie. She had her legs crossed, foot jiggling. She spun her bracelets around her wrist. Either the woman couldn't sit still or she was nervous.

None of this made sense. Was Josie lying? He had thought for sure he was on Lisa's trail. He prayed he was right.

“So that call was about Lisa?” Josie asked.

“It was the P.I. I hired to locate her.”

“What did you find out?”

“He says Lisa may be in Georgia with a guy. Her car's there, anyway.”

Josie sat up at attention, then frowned. “The creep took her car. So I assume he's with someone else.”

“Took her car? Why didn't she report the theft?”

“Lisa wanted to wait. She thinks he'll bring it back.”

“Could he have come back for Lisa today?”

“Well, she was here at dinnertime. But she lit out once she saw you.”

He breathed in through his nose, trying to control the urge to yell. “You mean to tell me she was at the diner, and while you chatted and stalled, she snuck away again?”

“No, I—Do you think she could have gotten to that town in Georgia in the three hours since you got here?”

“I have no idea.”

She clicked her fingernails on the leather interior, then opened her door. “Let me run and get a phone directory, then make some calls.”

He reached over her to close the door. “Wait just a moment.”

Josie, who'd been jerking him around all evening, was trying to make an awfully sudden exit. And now she acted as if she feared Lisa had run away again? Well, he would bet the last dollar in Throckmorton's Bank that Lisa wasn't in Georgia with her car.

“I want you to tell me the truth, and tell me right now,” he said.

“I have told you the truth. She's most likely still here. Then again, I'm not positive.” She reached for the door handle. “Let me try to find her and talk her into meeting with you.”

“No. You've had your chance. Tell me where to look.”

“Come on, Mike, I promised her. You're putting me in a tough position.”

“If you think you're in a tough position now, wait until I have you arrested for kidnapping.”

T
hink, Josie, think.

Mike looked so imposing in the dimly lit car. All angles and shadows. If she hadn't heard from his niece that he was a law-abiding citizen, she would be pulling out her pepper spray right about now.

She forced a carefree laugh. “Kidnapping? Now you're being ridiculous.”

“I'm dead serious. You're keeping a minor away from her legal guardian.”

“Okay, I admit I was uncooperative at first. But she'd told me she was eighteen. And, for the record, I didn't have anything to do with her sneaking out of the diner this evening.”

With his dark brows drawn together, he glared at her. “You could have told me as soon as you noticed her missing.”

“She's not necessarily missing. She said something about having plans tonight. I imagine she'll show up later either here or at my house.”

“She knows where you live? Let's go check there.”

Josie tentatively touched his forearm, surprised at the warmth against her cold fingers. “I can't betray her. I promised I'd protect her from you.”

“Protect?” He jerked his arm away. “What on earth did she tell you? That I beat her?”

Josie hesitated.

“Come on. I would never do a thing to hurt Lisa. I just want her safely at school.”

“Mike, she'll come around eventually. But right now you need to do what's best for Lisa.”

“I know what's best for my own niece.”

“I'm not so sure about that.” Before he could argue, she said, “I need time to talk her into meeting with you. Promise me you won't ambush her, or she may truly run again.”

He gripped the steering wheel so tightly it was a wonder it didn't bend. He shook his head and exhaled. “Why are you doing this for a runaway teenager—a stranger?”

“Because I was in her shoes once.”

“You ran away?” he said as if surprised.

“Yep. Twice.”

“Did your parents find you?”

“They did the first time. The second time, I had just graduated from high school, so they didn't do anything about it.”

As he digested her story, she relaxed against the seat and said, “I guess I should head home and wait. Lisa has about two hours before her midnight curfew.”

“Curfew? Is she living with you?”

Forget relaxing. She had almost let that piece of information slip. If she told him yes, he would be sitting on her doorstep around the clock. “She's been staying somewhere safe. I keep tabs on her. That's all I'm saying for now.”

He tried the bending-the-steering-wheel trick one more time. The man oozed tension.

Of course, she would, too, in the same situation.

“You know, I hate to sit and wait,” he said. “If you're wrong about her whereabouts, she could be getting farther away by the minute.”

“There's a possibility she's at the nearby craft school. I'll drive up there and make sure.”

He slowly turned his head and stared at Josie with his night-darkened blue eyes. “Why couldn't you have said that as soon as you came out here?”

His intensity sent little sparks of awareness along her nerve endings. Which was absolutely crazy. His type usually made her want to shudder. “I had to make sure I could trust you,” she sputtered.

“Trust, Josie? I assure you,
you
can trust
me
.”

His inflection said exactly what he thought of her. He would understand her wariness, though, if only he knew how a rich, domineering man had let her down before.

Her conscience pricked her for being judgmental.
Lord, help me not to compare Mike with my dad, not to judge him. But most of all, protect Lisa. And please, please, let her be at the craft school.

 

Josie continued to plead with God as she directed Mike to park at the entrance to the campus. He'd insisted on coming along. As she'd discovered, when Mike insisted, a person didn't have much choice.

“Wait here. I'll walk up and look in the gallery,” she said.

“It's after ten. I would think it would be closed.”

“If I don't find her in the gallery, I'll see if I can find Brian's truck.”

Mike thunked his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. “Brian?”

“The bread delivery guy. Bud said she left with him.”

With a not-at-all-happy laugh, he shook his head. “I'll give you ten minutes. Then I'm driving up to take a look around.”

“Come on, Mike. If you chase her down now, nothing will have changed. She'll just run again—if not tonight, then another day. Don't blow it with impatience.”

He leaned closer, right in her face, and boy, did he smell good.

“You haven't begun to see my impatience, Josie. Ten minutes. Not one minute longer.”

She moved closer until her nose almost touched his. “I'm not some peon crawling to you, begging for a loan.”

Without moving an inch away from her challenge, he said, “Ready, set…” Then, somehow, his watch beeped. “…Go.”

As much as she would love to argue with the maddening man, she resisted and slung the door open. She jumped out and started running up the drive.
Forget your pride, Josie. Think of Lisa.

Huffing and puffing, she stopped at the main building, but it was dark. A trip around the building revealed music playing up the hill at one of the visiting artists' cottages.

She followed the sound and about collapsed in relief when she heard Lisa's voice. Now she had to somehow send Lisa home without giving away the fact that Mike was only two hundred yards away.

A brisk walk to the porch of one of the houses found Lisa, Brian and a group of students talking over the strains of jazz.

“Hi,” Josie said.

“Josie! What are you doing here?” Lisa's gaze darted around, no doubt looking for Mike.

“I came to tell you to get on back to the house.”

“What about my uncle?”

“We'll talk about him when you get there.”

“Curfew isn't until twelve.”

“I just changed it to ten-thirty.”

“But it's that time now.”

“Then I suggest you get going.”

“But, Josie—”

“As long as you're under my roof, I expect you to play by my rules.”
Please don't let this backfire!

Lisa looked at her new friends and shrugged. “I guess I'll see ya later. Thanks for telling me about the gallery opening. It was awesome.”

“Hey, anytime,” a young woman said. “I hope you'll consider taking some classes.”

“Sure.” Lisa glanced at Josie guiltily. “When I'm old enough.” She took the hand of the tall, lanky kid next to her. “Come on, Brian.”

“Brian, I expect you to take her directly home,” Josie said.

“Yes, ma'am.”

As dignified as she could, Josie traipsed down the hill, then started into a full run as soon as she was out of sight. She met Mike's headlights halfway up the drive and stepped in the middle of the road, putting up her hand to tell him to halt.

Once he stopped, she hurried to the passenger's side and climbed in. “She's here. Back up and go out the way we came in before she sees you, or she's liable to tell Brian to head to the state line.”

Michael looked ahead up the road and thought for a moment about staying put, blocking the drive.

“If we're lucky, they'll take another minute or two to get to Brian's truck.” Josie breathed heavily, her hair a wild curly mess falling out of confinement.

“How do I know you really saw her at all?”

She growled her irritation. “If my running all the way up there was for nothing, then I may just…” She growled again.

Josie might have a point. He didn't want to risk scaring Lisa away. He'd have to believe the crazy woman beside him.

He backed the car up, then squealed out of the parking lot.

“Hey. Watch it,” she said. “You might get your Beemer dusty or something.”

He let off the gas. “I'm sorry. I don't usually drive so carelessly.”

“I suspected as much.”

“It's just so frustrating to get this close and not see her.”

“She'll meet you tomorrow. I won't take no for an answer.”

Josie didn't seem to be jesting. “You'll do that for me?”

“I'll do it for
Lisa
. Whether she realizes it or not, she needs you.”

“Exactly. She needs my influence to get her reinstated in school where she has stability, where she has female role models.”

“I said she needs you—your love—not the substitute you're trying to provide.”

Love. He almost laughed out loud. Hadn't Gloria, as she'd returned his great grandmother's engagement ring, told him he wasn't even capable of loving? And what about his own sister? Patricia had certainly made her opinion of his love perfectly clear on the night she'd died.

Love? A stab of guilt knocked him deeper into his seat. What could he possibly offer Lisa besides a prestigious private school, a fine college education and a position at the bank?

“I'll take you home,” he said. “I'm holding you to your word about tomorrow.”

“My car's at the diner.”

“You know, I'm struggling with leaving this all in your hands. Do you promise you won't help her escape tonight?”

“Of course I won't. Trust me.”

In his world, trust was only secured once there was a solid, no-loopholes contract signed. Somehow, he didn't see her signing anything at the moment. He arched one brow at her, but she merely smiled. Which didn't reassure him at all.

“Mike, you never mentioned Lisa's father. Why isn't he the guardian?”

“Lisa's father has never been in the picture. He and my sister never married.”

“Then it must have been really hard for Lisa when her mother died.”

Difficult for Lisa, yes. But at least she didn't have to live with the guilt of being at fault. He was the one who'd said horrid things that had upset Patricia that night. “I don't think she's fully dealt with Patricia's death. Other than with excessive rebellion.”

“I imagine it's been tough trying to love a troublemaking teenager.”

He clenched his teeth to keep from griping about how tough. “We've had our rough spots.”

“Why did she run away? Honestly.”

He hesitated. Of course, Josie probably knew the whole story. Lisa tended to tell things like they were. “She doesn't like boarding school. She wants to live with me, but I can't take care of her. I'm at the bank twelve hours a day, and I travel.”

“It's not like she's a toddler. She could be home a couple of hours a day by herself. You could even send her to her grandparents or hire someone to help.”

“She's landed in too much trouble to be left to her own devices. And my parents can't take on that responsibility.” He stopped at a red light. “As far as hiring someone to function as a sort of nanny, well, I didn't like any of the candidates I interviewed.”

“Maybe you should make some adjustments to your schedule for the welfare of your niece.”

As he turned up the street to the diner, he fought the temptation to defend himself. Ultimately, his schedule was none of her business. “I make decisions as I see fit, and I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your advice to yourself from now on.” He motioned to a lone parked car. “Is that your vehicle?”

“Yes, that's my heap of junk. And I'll try to keep my opinions to myself.”

Try
was the operative word.

“How am I going to be sure Lisa is secure for the night?” he asked.

“Give me your cell-phone number, and I'll call if she doesn't show up at my house.”

“Ah, I see. So she is staying at your house.”

A smile spread across her face. “Man, Mike, you're good.”

“What can I say?”

She pulled a scrap of paper out of her pocket. “Do you have a pen? I need your number.”

There was no way he would go to bed tonight without catching a glimpse of Lisa. “How about I follow you home? I won't let Lisa see me.”

“That won't be necessary, Mike.”

“Michael.”

“That won't be necessary, Mike.” She smiled so sweetly it made it difficult to stand firm.

Difficult, but not impossible. “Oh, yes it will.”