Читать книгу Wanted: One Son - Laurie Paige - Страница 9

Ten minutes later, Stephanie stood at the barred window and watched as Nick stepped down from the cruiser and crossed the parking lot. He walked with the easy assurance of a man who knew his world and was secure in it.

Gone was the young man she’d once known. He hadn’t been that person in years, but it wasn’t until last Christmas, under a sprig of mistletoe, that she’d fully realized it.

That kiss had shaken her. It had stirred passion and longing and memories of the past that she hadn’t allowed herself to consider in years. With it had come the startling realization that she was still a woman and she still had a heart full of dreams. She blinked as unexpected tears stung her eyes.

Nick entered without knocking and got right to the point. “What’s wrong?”

For the wildest second, she thought of being enfolded in his comforting embrace. She forced her mind back to the real world. “It’s Doogie. He and I…we quarreled …about the video.” She couldn’t bring herself to call the problem by its name. “He ran off—”

“What time was that?”

“Noon. I haven’t seen him since. I thought he would come back to the shop when he calmed down.” She pressed her lips together as worry ate at her.

Nick shrugged, his expression calm. “He’s probably too ashamed to face you.”

She blurted out the rest of it. “I slapped him. I never have before. I…it just happened. Oh, Nick, if you’d seen his face. He was so upset.”

“Easy, Steph,” he said in a quiet tone.

Once she’d loved his voice with its deep cadence that could be soothing or exciting, according to the circumstances. Once just the sound of it over the phone had made her heart pound.

His gaze caught and held hers. Instead of their opaque darkness, she sensed emotions in him that she hadn’t been aware of in a long time. She also saw the wariness.

“Did you call the ranch and see if he maybe hitched a ride home? That would be my bet on where he is,” he said with a businesslike brevity.

“I’ve called every half hour. This isn’t like him. He’s always been—” A sob caught in her throat.

“Easy,” he said again in his patient-cop mode. “Stay put. I’ll cruise around and see if I can find him.”

“I can help. I’ll look….” She tried to think where a twelve-year-old would go. “He wouldn’t go to Clyde’s, would he?” She looked at Nick for his opinion.

“He might. Have you tried there?”

She shook her head, already reaching for the phone. The call revealed that Clyde was spending the night with a friend and his mother hadn’t seen Doogie in a week.

“Not there,” she said in a croak, hanging up. The sky seemed darker when she gazed out the window, hoping to see the lanky figure of her son coming back. “The sun is setting.”

A hand closed on her shoulder. She resisted the urge to lay her cheek against it and soak up the warmth. He’d been like this after her father’s death—kind, considerate, concerned about her well-being.

“It won’t be dark for hours yet. Walk over to the school. He might be hanging around there. I’ll check with you in, say, half an hour?”

“All right.” After he left, she grabbed her purse and locked up. She walked as fast as she could to the school. There wasn’t a soul around. Even the janitor had gone for the day.

Tears balled in her throat. If he was hurt…if something happened…It would be her fault. She should have remained calm. That was a mother’s job, to be calm and guide her child on the right path.

She rushed along the nearly deserted Main Street, her thoughts going in every direction. One of them shocked her. If she and Nick had married, if Doogie was their son, she wondered how things might have been different.

Dear heavens…

Nick’s cruiser was in the parking lot when she arrived. She pressed a hand to her heart. Doogie was with him.

Too overcome to speak, she nodded, unlocked the office door and went inside. Doogie followed. He looked scared and defiant, but his eyes were worried and his mouth was pinched in at the corners.

Unexpected tears rolled down her face. She folded her arms on the cluttered desk surface and wept in silent misery.

After a minute, arms glided around her middle. She raised up and clasped Doogie to her breast. His tears fell with hers.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry. Please, please don’t…”

She cupped his face in her hands. “You must promise me never, never to do anything like that again. Promise.”

“I won’t. Never. Honest.”

She hugged him to her, fear eating holes in her stomach. She must be raising him wrong for this to happen, but she didn’t know how she could do better. She needed advice, someone who understood boys and could talk to Doogie.

A picture of Nick, his keen gaze peering all the way to her soul, came to her. Her breath caught in her throat. Not him.

At Christmas, he’d been cynical and hard when he’d taunted her about being the grieving widow. This after he’d kissed her nearly mindless. She’d been furious…and excited and totally confused.

Her son stirred in her arms. She released him and grabbed a tissue for each of them. He wiped his eyes and blew his nose, then moved away from her.

She didn’t try to hold him. There was something older and infinitely sadder in the depths of her son’s eyes, as if a part of his childhood had been ripped away from him in the hours he’d been gone. It hurt her.

“Where did you go?”

“Nowhere, just walked around.” His voice cracked. “Then I tried to thumb a ride home.”

Just as Nick had thought he would.

“I have to thank Deputy Dorelli,” she said, recalling they’d left him in the parking lot.

When she went out, the cruiser was gone. He’d brought her son back, then thoughtfully left them alone. She stood in the last warm rays of sunlight, not sure what she felt.

Since Christmas, something had changed between her and Nick. He made her uneasy with his unrelenting gaze, as if he’d weighed her worth and she came up a full pound short.

She drew a shaky breath and turned to her son. “Let’s go home, shall we?”

“Yeah, we’ve got to check the stock.”

“Right. ’On a ranch, the chores are never done—’”

“’Just caught up for the moment,’” Doogie finished the often-quoted lecture from his father.

Later, thinking over the long day, Stephanie decided she’d overreacted. She inhaled the sage-scented air. Her son was in bed, she had a successful business, all was right with her world.

So why did she feel so miserable?

Stephanie dropped the day’s receipts into the after-hours depository at the bank with a weary sigh. The Summer Madness sale was over, thank heavens. For six days, from Monday until one o’clock today, they’d been swamped by customers. She and Pat and Amy had put in long hours this week.

Not that she was complaining. They’d moved a lot of merchandise. The new line of jewelry they’d decided to try had done very well. She’d already ordered more of it.

Stopping by her car, she viewed the Saturday traffic, which was light. She had to go to the grocery, but first she’d have lunch before going home to her recalcitrant son.

The week had been a terrible one. They’d hardly spoken to each other. He’d resented going to the sitter’s house, and she had missed having him at the shop. They could certainly have used his help. However, she had to stick to her guns.

To have rescinded his punishment would have meant she could be maneuvered into changing her mind or that she didn’t think shoplifting a serious offense. He might have gotten the idea he could do as he darned well pleased.

But it had been a hard week. He didn’t speak unless spoken to, and then, as briefly as possible. She’d left him at the ranch doing chores that morning.

A truck, one of those sports utility vehicles that the sheriff’s department used, turned the corner. She recognized the dark hair and wide shoulders even from a distance. She quickly climbed into her car and drove off.

She didn’t want Nick to see her standing on the sidewalk, unable to make up her mind about what to do on a Saturday afternoon and dreading the weekend. He would probably go to the Bear Tooth Saloon that evening. It was the local hangout for singles. She drove down the block, trying to decide what she wanted to eat.

She quietly sighed. She really was beat. She’d get her groceries and head home. She pulled into the parking lot at the only shopping mall located in the town and stopped. Her gaze fell on the new deli that had recently opened.

A sign in the window proclaimed the special of the day was a soup and salad combo. That sounded good.

The air-conditioning hit her with a pleasantly chilling blast when she went inside. It was unusually hot for June. She called a greeting to the waitress, who’d been two years behind her in school. “Hi, Peg. How’s it going?”

“Hi. We’re busy today. You alone?”

“Yes.”

The first person she spotted when Peg led her to a table was her nemesis. Nick was seated at a booth with an adorable blonde who leaned against his shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek while Stephanie watched, her eyes going wide.

He smiled and playfully tugged at a golden curl that brushed his chin. When he looked up, his eyes met hers.

She didn’t look away fast enough. He nodded a greeting, then glanced around at the restaurant. The place was full and a line was forming for tables. He gestured to the banquette opposite him and his dinner partner.

The waitress, who knew both of them, noticed the invitation. “Do you want to sit with Nick?” she asked. “That way you won’t be alone, and it’ll free up a table for someone else.”

Stephanie remembered a time when she’d been alone and had longed for his company. She’d faithfully waited for him, for all the good that had done her. Ah, well, she could stand his company for one meal, she decided grimly. “Okay.”

She followed the younger woman across the room and slipped into the seat opposite Nick and the cute blonde. “I don’t think I’ve met your date,” she said, her smile real this time.

“Nikki, meet Stephanie. Stephanie, this is my favorite niece, Nikki Carradine.”

The four-year-old dimpled into a charming smile. “I think you’re pretty,” she said to Stephanie. “I’ve got a boyfriend,” she confided. “His name is Zach. Do you have one?”

Stephanie felt a blush warm her ears. “Not at the present.”

“Uncle Nick doesn’t have a girlfriend,” she continued. “I was going to marry him, but Momma said I have to marry somebody my age. How old are you?”

“Nikki, it isn’t polite to ask a lady her age,” Nick chided with a gentle smile that did things to Stephanie’s heart.

“Why not?”

His brows drew together. “I’m not sure, but I think Nonna said it wasn’t done, and I always believed her.”

“I’m the same age as your uncle,” Stephanie told the pretty youngster, ignoring her escort.

“Do you have a little girl?”

“No. I have a twelve-year-old son.”

“Is he nice?”

“Most of the time.”

Nikki looked at her uncle with a question in her beautiful blue eyes. Stephanie remembered that her father, an attorney in Denver, had blond hair and blue eyes.

“A little old for you. Better stick with Zach. He’s in her Sunday School class,” Nick explained to Steph.

“But I’m not going to marry him,” Nikki declared.

Talk of marriage made Stephanie uncomfortable. She tried to avoid looking at Nick, all but impossible since he sat directly across the table from her. She was acutely aware of his dark chocolate eyes flashing from one person to another as he followed the conversation. He wore a slightly skewed, definitely sardonic, grin.

The waitress came for their order. When she left, there was an awkward lull in the conversation.

“How was the Summer Madness sale?” Nick asked.

“Fine. Busy.” She took a sip of water.

His foot brushed hers under the table. “Sorry.”

Tingles floated up her leg. “That’s okay.”

“Uncle Nick, I need to go potty,” Nikki announced.

“Sure thing, sport.” He stood and held out his hand to help his niece jump down from the banquette.

He wore a neatly pressed, long-sleeved white shirt, the cuffs rolled up a couple of turns, jeans with a sharp crease and dress boots. Since he lived in bachelor quarters in town, and she felt certain he didn’t iron his own things, she assumed he sent his clothes to the laundry.

“Would you like me to take her?” Stephanie asked.

“Would you mind? I always stand outside the door, feeling like some kind of weirdo while I wait.” He grinned in that lopsided manner that had once seared right into her heart.

Nikki placed her hand trustfully in Stephanie’s. She chattered about her favorite things to eat while they wound their way to the back of the restaurant.

When Stephanie spoke to people she knew, they smiled at her and invariably glanced toward the booth where Nick sat. Heat seeped into her cheeks. In a small town, memories were long. The townsfolk would recall that she and Nick had once been inseparable. She’d thought they would one day be a family….

When she and Nikki returned to the table, she found Nick talking to a friend in the next booth about the soccer season and how it was going. He finished and stood to let his niece back into her seat.

“We can use another player on the team,” he mentioned. “Doogie might be interested. We practice three afternoons a week and play on Saturday afternoon over at the high school.”

“He can’t. Doogie is on restriction the rest of the month.” She spoke calmly in the face of Nick’s frowning perusal. “That’s another ten days.”

“Maybe later,” Nick put in easily.

“Is Doogie being punished?” Nikki wanted to know.

“Yes. He did something he wasn’t supposed to, and now he’s grounded.” She avoided Nick’s eyes.

Their order arrived, the house specialty burgers for Nick and his niece, a salad with a grilled chicken sandwich for her.

“Hmm, maybe we’d better put something over that pretty dress,” Nick mused. “We wouldn’t want to get mustard on it. How about my handkerchief?”

“Okay,” Nikki said agreeably. She let him tuck a white hankie under her chin. “This was my Easter dress.”

“It’s very nice,” Stephanie said.

“Mom and I saw the Easter Bunny at the store.” She clapped a hand over her mouth and giggled. “You know something? It wasn’t him. It was a man pretending to be the Easter Bunny.” With an indignant huff, she confided, “He had glasses. Everybody knows rabbits don’t need glasses. They eat lots of carrots.”

Nick and Stephanie laughed at the end of this charming tale, told with great earnestness and a precise knowledge of the Easter Bunny and his ways.

Stephanie’s laughter died when she found Nick’s narrowed gaze on her. Hungry eyes. Her breath strangled in her throat. She couldn’t breathe or think or tear her gaze away.

“Pass the ketchup, please,” Nikki said, breaking into the turbulent moment.

Nick glanced away from her and passed the bottle over. When he looked at Stephanie again, she went hazy with relief. She’d been mistaken in what he was thinking. He was utterly calm, as cool as shaved ice, the way he normally was…except for that one incident in Amy’s kitchen.

“It’s going to be a hot summer, it seems,” she said. “The news said the high temperatures last week set a new record.” A blush crawled up her neck. Brilliant conversation.

“Yeah, I heard the same on TV this morning. I hope it isn’t true. We don’t need that problem this summer.”

“Are you expecting others?”

“The highway will be resurfaced down to Denver next month. It’ll slow traffic. The tourists will get grouchy. There’ll be some fender benders because of it and probably some fist fights.” He gave a snort of laughter. “Business as usual.”

“Do we still have more crime in the summer than in the winter?” she asked. She missed knowing the details of life around her, she realized. Being a cop’s wife, she used to know everything that happened in the county.

“Yes, mostly vandalism. Some petty stealing. In cow country, you get rustling, but we haven’t had anything major in a couple of years. No murders or grand larceny.”

“Have there been any bank robberies?” Nikki asked.

“Not lately,” he said with a grin at her avid interest. “The last big thing was the break-in at the summer house where that diamond necklace was taken. That was a couple of years ago.” Nick saw Steph’s eyes darken and could have kicked himself. Clay had been killed during a robbery at a quick market right after that. “The county is pretty quiet.”

She ducked her head over her plate and ate busily. Nick sighed internally. He knew Steph had been horrified and embarrassed at her son’s brush with the law. There was no need to embarrass her further with talk of crime.

He cut Nikki’s hamburger into quarters, saw that she had ketchup for her fries, then added some to his own plate. Across from him, Stephanie ate without enthusiasm. If it had been left to her, he thought, she’d have chosen not to sit with him.

They’d managed to avoid each other for most of the years since he’d returned from college, as much as one could in a place that size. Until last Christmas, they’d managed to be polite, cordial even.

When they’d split up, he remembered, she’d acted as if she’d been the hurt party and he the guilty culprit. She’d never forgiven him for distrusting her, but with the rumors of her infidelity confirmed, what did she expect? He’d waited for her to explain, to make him see how she could let another man hold her, but she hadn’t.

The memory rekindled his anger. He tamped it down. Their time together had been a lifetime ago.

A kid two tables over banged a spoon on the high chair tray. He wanted to go over and arrest the parents for letting him disturb the peace. “Did you sell out of everything in the store this week?” he asked.

“Nearly.”

“Amy said it was one of the best weeks you’d ever had.”

“It was. I was nervous about some new jewelry we’d ordered, but it went over very well.”

“Those earrings you’re wearing are real pretty. Were they part of the new stuff?”

The earrings looked like tiny sunbursts hanging from her ears. When she reached up and touched one, he remembered what it had been like to be able to kiss her right below the filigree of gold. He shut that thought off pronto.

“Yes. We ordered from a company in Reno. Their designer, a Native American named Jackson Firebird, did them. He’s getting quite a reputation.”

Nick couldn’t keep his eyes off her mouth and the tiny mole near it. Each word hit him like a caress, reminding him of things he’d forced himself to forget. When she talked about her ideas for expanding the shop, she actually became animated, something that hadn’t happened in his presence for years.

Stephanie, he realized, was very much like his sister, Dina, a CPA with her own business in Denver. Dina had just had a new daughter, which was why he’d gone down and picked up Nikki for the weekend. He’d figured Nikki needed some extra attention and Dina needed all the rest she could get. Besides, he liked kids, had always figured on having a passel of ’em.

With this woman.

He set his jaw and focused on the conversation. The anger faded somewhat as he listened. Steph had sound business sense. A modern woman with a mind of her own.

Clay, he suddenly remembered, hadn’t liked his wife working. He’d resented the success of the shop. Nick had counseled him to accept and encourage Stephanie’s interest in the store, knowing from talking to Dina that women sometimes needed more than a husband and a family to keep them occupied.

“If you need an accountant or an attorney,” he told her, “I’ve got an ’in’ with some good ones.”

“Amy and I were talking about that this morning and decided to let someone else do the taxes in the future. It’s too much for us. We’ve decided to use the new guy in town, but thanks, anyway,” she said politely, making it clear she needed no helpful suggestions from him.

“I ate half my dinner, Uncle Nick. Is that enough?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s fine.”

“What do we get for dessert?”

“The sky’s the limit, kiddo. Name it.”

“We could share a banana split,” she said hopefully.

“You got it.” He glanced across the table. “How about you? Can you hold a banana split?”

“Well…”

Nick willed her to agree. Stephanie was too serious. She needed to relax and enjoy some of the simple pleasures of life.

Whoa, boy, back off, he warned himself.

“That sounds wonderful. Fattening, but wonderful,” she finally acquiesced with a little trill of laughter.

It went right to his head. And other places.

When their treat was served, they dug in. He let Nikki eat her fill, then he finished it off. Stephanie ate half of hers. He finished it off, too. Nick was aware of her eyes on him.

“What?” he demanded. “Do I have ice cream on my chin or something?”

“I was wondering if you ever got filled up.”

“Nope. I have a hollow leg, right, Nikki?”

“Momma said I have one, too,” Nikki piped up. “She said I was just like you, Uncle Nick.”

Stephanie’s laughter pealed out again. He grinned ruefully. “Well, there are worse things you could be,” he said with great self-righteousness.

Nick cruised the two-lane section of the highway until the traffic flow was a smooth sixty-five. As soon as he exited, he knew it would speed back up except for a few pokies who would bunch up and irritate drivers who were trapped behind them and wanted to zip ahead. He took the last Off ramp into town.

His regular duties didn’t include highway patrol, but he filled in for vacationing deputies during the summer. He headed for the station. His shift was over, but he wanted to check out a misdemeanor reported earlier.

No one was in except the dispatcher. “The sheriff’s gone to talk to the mayor. He won’t be back unless it’s an emergency,” the old man, a semiretired deputy, told him.

“Who was on the misdemeanor reported this afternoon?”

“Thurman.”

“Who’d he pick up?”

“Nobody. Two boys were trying to grab some tires outside a garage. They scattered when Thurman showed up.”

“They were on foot?”

“Yeah. Thurman figured they needed a set of tires to get back in action. Said they looked about sixteen or seventeen.”

Nick didn’t acknowledge the sense of relief that made him feel ten pounds lighter. Steph would have grounded her son for life if he’d been involved. “I’m heading out. See you in the morning.”

The old deputy waved to him while he answered a call. Nick lingered to see if he would be needed. The dispatcher shook his head to tell him it wasn’t an emergency.

In the cruiser once more, Nick drove slowly along the main street of the town. Most of the shops were closed. Thursday evening wasn’t a big night on the town for the local folks.

There was one shop whose window displayed a Closed sign, but a light burned in the back. Stephanie’s compact sedan was in the parking lot next door. She was working late. He drove past and turned down a side street.

At a turn-of-the-century Victorian, Nick saw Doogie sitting on the steps, his chin in his hands, his elbows on his knees, waiting for his mom. Two much younger children chased each other in the yard. Mrs. Withers sat on the porch swing and watched them.

A car stopped at the curb. The two kids rushed to greet their father, who scooped them both up into a hug. He talked to the baby-sitter for a minute before leaving to pick up his wife at the county courthouse where she worked.

Nick headed back for Main Street and the heart of town, hoping to catch Stephanie before she left the office. He had a thing or two to say to her and, by damn, he was going to say them.