The Color of Love (The Color of Heaven Series) (22 page)

I opened my locker and placed the shopping bag inside. “Thanks, Audrey,” I replied.

What a relief it was to hear someone else make the suggestion, because I was beginning to think I was losing it, feeling strangely interested in a man I’d known for only two days, and in very strange circumstances. I couldn’t explain it, but there was no getting him out of my head.

An hour later, after cancelling my dinner with Josh, I was on my way home from work early with a totally legitimate sinus infection.

I had to be careful driving through intersections, because I kept replaying in my mind all the conversations we’d had, and I didn’t want to barrel through another red light.

I even started to fantasize about conversations I
wished
we’d had. All the things I wanted to talk to him about. I just wanted to hear the sound of his voice—that riveting, velvety voice.

As I dug my key out of my purse and walked into the apartment, I felt a great weight lift from my shoulders, and a thrilling ripple of anticipation moved up my spine at the thought of calling Aaron.

I wondered what he looked like now after three months. He’d probably gained some weight.

My excitement was curtailed suddenly, however, when I heard panicked whispers coming from Kaleigh’s room. Sensing immediately that something wasn’t right, I went straight to her door and opened it.

Imagine my shock to find a boy in her bedroom—a boy I’d never seen before.

But wait… This was no
boy
. He had to be at least seventeen, and there he stood in all his glory with a black leather jacket and faded jeans, eye makeup and body piercings.

Kaleigh hastily leaped off her bed. She wore skinny jeans, my brown leather boots with heels, and a long cashmere sweater that was also mine.

And makeup.

“Mom. What are you doing here?” she asked in a panic. “You’re supposed to be at work.” She turned white as a sheet.

Chapter Fifty-eight

“Who’s this?” I asked with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“This is Malcolm,” Kaleigh replied, gesturing toward him with a hand. “Malcolm Watson. We met in guitar class.”

I looked him over from head to toe. My eyes settled for a moment on his heavy black combat boots, which he’d not bothered to remove when he came in.

Under normal circumstances I would smile and welcome a friend Kaleigh brought over, but this was not one of those times. What I really wanted to do was tell this kid to get the hell out of my apartment.
Right now. This second
.
Before I wrung his neck.

I glared at him intensely. “How old are you?”

“Seventeen,” he replied in a low, husky drawl.

I folded my arms across my chest. “Do you understand that my daughter is only thirteen? There are laws you know.”

“
Mom!
” Kaleigh shouted.

Her charming gentleman caller frowned at me. “
What
?”

My blood pressure was about to hit the roof, and I could feel a hot blaze searing my cheeks. “She’s thirteen! And by the look of you, I think this would qualify as statutory rape.”

He blinked a few times in shock, then spoke defensively. “We didn’t do anything. Honest. We were just talking.”

“Oh sure,” I replied. “Tell that to the judge.”

“Mom!”
Kaleigh screamed again, “Stop! We weren’t doing anything! He’s just a friend!”

Then the boy—Malcolm was it?—turned to Kaleigh. “You told me you were sixteen.”

Oh, God
. I cupped my forehead in a hand and closed my eyes.

To my surprise, Kaleigh didn’t try to explain anything to me. She was more concerned about what Malcolm thought as he stormed past me to leave.

She followed him out. “I’m sorry, Malcolm!” she cried. “I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to spend time with you, that’s all.”

“You lied,” he said flatly without turning around as he reached the door and pulled it open.

“Please don’t go!” she said. “Can’t we talk about it?”

He left the apartment without responding, but she followed him to the elevator.

“Kaleigh!” I shouted, grabbing hold of her sleeve to try and stop her.

“Wait!” she cried to him.

I’d never heard her sound so desperate before.

I hurried into the hall. Malcolm was pressing the elevator button over and over while Kaleigh cried and begged him not to leave.

Ping!
The elevator doors slid open and he couldn’t step on fast enough. Kaleigh remained in the carpeted corridor crying her eyes out. “Please Malcolm, I’m sorry! I was going to tell you! I wanted to!”

The doors closed and she buried her face in her hands and wept.

I was in complete shock by this point and had no idea how to handle this. Part of me wanted to march down the hall, drag my daughter by the ear, send her to room and ground her for life.

Another part of me wanted to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be okay. He wasn’t worth it. There would be other boys.

But I knew nothing about this kid.

Who the hell was he, and how long had this been going on?

Chapter Fifty-nine

Kaleigh’s last words to me that night were, “You don’t understand
anything
!”

This was followed by the slamming of her door in my face, and my own internal struggle between red-hot fury and compassion, because I remembered what it felt like to be thirteen. Everything seemed so monumental, so catastrophic when things didn’t go the way you wanted them to. It felt like the entire future of the universe hinged on one moment when nothing else mattered or existed.

The first thing I did was call Audrey. “I don’t know what to do,” I said. “She’s so angry and upset, but she broke every rule in the book inviting that boy up here when I wasn’t home.”

“Do you think anything happened?” Audrey asked.

“I’m not sure. No. At least it didn’t look that way when I walked in. They were frazzled, but they had their clothes on. She said they were just talking.”

“Well, that’s good at least. What do you know about him?”

“Nothing, except that he takes guitar lessons and bears a frightening resemblance to Sid Vicious.”

“Wonderful,” she replied. “Have you called Josh yet? Maybe he can look him up and tell you if he has a record or anything.”

“I haven’t called him yet, but surely he wouldn’t be able to tell me anything. The kid’s a minor.”

“You should call him anyway. Are you going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure if I can handle the teen years by myself. I’m feeling a bit intimidated.”

“You know you can always count on David and me for anything,” Audrey said. “Just say the word and we’ll be there.”

“Thanks. I think I’ll call Josh now. I’ll let you know if there’s anything to report.”

o0o

I called in sick the next morning and got Kaleigh off to school without too much drama, though she barely said more than two words to me. She ate her cereal in silence, and I worried that she might walk out the door and never come back.

Maybe she’d skip school and run off to live on the streets with Malcolm What’s-His-Name. I could just hear her now as she ran to meet him under a bridge somewhere. “All we need is love.”

Maybe I’d become a cynic, but I truly believed that love wasn’t nearly enough.

o0o

Josh knocked on my door around 10:00 when I was sitting on the sofa in my bathrobe, drinking my second cup of herbal tea.

I rose to greet him and apologized for my appearance.

“Don’t be silly,” he said, setting a plastic bag on the kitchen counter and pulling me into his arms. I noticed he held a manila envelope in his hand. “You know I don’t care about that. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve felt better,” I replied. “The stuffy nose is nothing compared to what’s going on in here.” I laid a hand over my heart.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m here to take care of you. I looked up the kid and I have some news. I also brought you some popsicles and chicken soup.”

I felt my shoulders relax. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Now let’s go sit down and have a talk.”

We moved into the living room but I had to sweep a pile of dirty tissues off the coffee table into a waste basket before I sat down. “I don’t want to breathe on you,” I said.

“I have a killer immune system,” he replied. Then he sat down and rested his elbows on his knees, stared at me for a long moment.

“What did you find out?” I asked.

He pulled some papers out of the envelope. “This is confidential, and I’m trusting you to keep this to yourself, but you need to know. I have a picture here. Is this the guy?”

I looked at it and nodded.

“I figured this was him. It’s not great news, but it’s not terrible either. He doesn’t have a record. He’s never been arrested for anything, but he’s had a hard life. His mother’s an addict and Malcolm’s been in and out of foster homes since he was three years old.”

“That’s horrible,” I replied, reaching for the picture of Malcolm which looked like it had come out of a middle school yearbook.

“But he’s seventeen,” Josh said, “and he has no business being around Kaleigh.”

“She told him she was sixteen,” I explained, setting the picture down on the coffee table. “He seemed pretty angry about that when he found out, so I can’t exactly put all the blame on him.”

“Still…” Josh said, sliding the documents back into the envelope. “He’s not someone you want her spending time with. He lives in a rough neighborhood and his new stepdad was charged for domestic assault against his previous wife. It’s not a good situation.”

I exhaled heavily and slouched back on the sofa. “I can’t believe any of this is happening. Six months ago she was still my little girl, wanting to be tucked in.”

He reached forward and touched my knee. “Let’s just hope this is the end of it. Maybe you scared him off.”

“I hope so,” I replied. “Though I do feel sorry for him. I feel badly about how I spoke to him when it’s obvious, he didn’t know how young she was.”

“You did what you had to do,” Josh said. “Now you have to deal with Kaleigh. You might want to think about setting some tighter boundaries and stricter rules and consequences. She’s at a vulnerable age. Any chance you can move her out of that music school?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “She loves her teacher.”

“Just think about it,” Josh said, then he rose to his feet. “I’m sorry but I have to get going. Are we still on for dinner Saturday night?”

I stood up as well and said, “I think so,” as I escorted him to the door.

He stopped and turned. “You
think
so? Don’t jump up and down with excitement or anything.”

I reached into my pocket for a tissue and wiped my nose. “I’m sorry, Josh. I’m just not feeling the best.”

He stared at me for a moment. “Is there something wrong? You’ve seemed distracted lately.”

“Have I?”

I felt as if he was scrutinizing my expression and was contemplating the logistics of dragging me downtown for a lie detector test.

“Yeah,” he said. “Ever since you came back from Canada. You’re different.”

Again, he focused steadily on my eyes, and I had to look away. “Everything’s fine,” I told him. “It’s just been a difficult time. First we thought Seth was dead; then he wasn’t; then he was…”

There was much more to it than that, of course, but I didn’t want to say anything because I still didn’t have my feelings sorted out.

Josh nodded, but I suspected he didn’t really believe me.

He kissed me on the cheek and pointed at the bag he’d set on the kitchen counter. “Have some soup. I’ll call you later.”

As soon as I shut the door and locked it behind him, my cell phone beeped to let me know a text had come in. I moved to the coffee table and picked it up. It was from Kaleigh.

Mom, he was nice. I’m really sad.

My heart split in two, straight down the middle.

I know, honey. We’ll talk when you get home.

Chapter Sixty

“I knew it was wrong,” Kaleigh told me, lying on her side in bed, curled up in a ball and squeezing her pillow under her cheek, “but I knew he wouldn’t see me if he knew how old I was. Now he won’t even answer my texts.”

I was at least impressed that the kid had the good sense not to.

“I know it’s hard,” I said, “but it’s better that he found out now, before things went too far.”

“What do you mean by things?” she angrily asked. “You mean before we had
sex
?”

I took in a deep breath and let it out. “Yes, I suppose that’s what I mean.”

“We weren’t doing
that
,” she insisted. “All we ever did was walk around the neighborhood and talk about all kinds of cool things like books and movies. I told him about the books I read that Aaron recommended—you know, about near-death experiences. A few days ago we played guitar in the park after school. Mom, really, he was the nicest person I ever met, and he’s had a rough life. He doesn’t have a dad either. Except now he has a stepdad who gets drunk all the time, and Malcolm hates that kind of stuff. He’s really smart.”