McCormick's Creek Sweet Romance

by Jen Peters

  He glared at her. “None of your teenie-bopper business, Robin.”

  “Hey, in case you haven’t noticed, my teenie-bopper years are long gone. Just because I’m not sure what to do with my degree doesn’t mean I’m an adolescent airhead.”

  Justin looked at her. She was right, she wasn’t a teenager wrapped up in herself. She had grown up over the last few years. She didn’t date much, but she seemed to have gotten over the bullying episode of her senior year of high school. She was a hard worker and a huge help to their mom. “Sorry. It’s just … there are other things I need to think about besides women. I can’t afford to get side-tracked right now. I just have to get this job done.”

  “What’s so important about this job? I mean, other than it’s good work?”

  “Nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Huh. Well, if you’re not going to talk, I’d better get back to work. I talked Mom into giving me overtime so I’d better—”

  “No!” Justin jerked half-way out of his seat, then settled back and moderated his tone. “No, you can’t do that. The restaurant can’t afford … ” His voice trailed off.

  Robin furrowed her brow. “The restaurant can’t afford what? What do you mean?”

  He shook his head, wishing he had kept his big mouth closed.

  “The restaurant’s doing fine. It’s busy all the time. Except this instant, I mean.” Robin paused expectantly. “Justin Cooper, you tell me what you mean.”

  He clamped his lips shut.

  “Fine,” Robin said, shooting up from the bench. “I’ll just ask Mom.”

  Justin grabbed her arm. “No, don’t! Mom thinks everything’s fine.”

  She glared at him. “But you know better? How?”

  Justin sank into his seat and buried his head in his hands. First Cat, now his sister.

  “Don’t move,” Robin said. She went to offer coffee refills to the two tables with customers, then sat back down with him. “What in the world is going on?”

  He sighed. “You know Hazel, Mom’s bookkeeper who left last year? Remember how I took over the accounts?”

  Robin nodded.

  “Hazel didn’t leave to help her sister like her note said. She embezzled a whole lot of money from the restaurant and took off. A lot of bills didn’t get paid, and Mom doesn’t know.”

  “What?”

  “You know how close she and Hazel were. It would break her heart to know her best friend had betrayed her so badly. I’ve managed to keep the suppliers paid, and this job will catch up the loan for the new equipment and put the restaurant back where it should be.”

  Robin just stared at him, her brown eyes clouded.

  “You don’t need to worry about it either,” he assured her. “You don’t need this on your shoulders.”

  She reached across the table and punched his shoulder—hard. “How could you? How could you keep this from Mom? Don’t you think she has a right to the truth?”

  “What? I just—”

  “You just got over-protective, as usual.” Robin stood and leaned into his face. “You need to get it through your thick skull that you don’t need to solve everyone’s problems. You have to talk to Mom.”

  Justin huffed. No teenie-bopper—strike that, no recent college grad of a little sister was going to tell him what his responsibilities were. “I’ve got this, Robin,” he said through clenched teeth. “Mom’s got enough to worry about, just running the restaurant.”

  “Justin Cooper, it is Mom’s restaurant, not yours. It’s Mom’s money, not yours. And it’s Mom’s friend, not yours. She has a right to know.

  “Now look.” She finally sat back down. “I’ll help—I only wanted money for a better car, and I can put that money toward the bank loan. We’re a family, and we pull together instead of taking on the world individually.”

  He shook his head. When did the rugrat become so grown up? He gave her a weak smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think you’ll need to. The initial payment for the contractor work covered most of the bills, and I’m pretty sure my next draw will cover the loan.” If he could get it soon enough, but that wasn’t Robin’s problem. “I’ll just feel a whole lot better when it’s over, and I can move on.”

  Robin’s face changed to a knowing grin. “Move on? Or move up to a certain someone?”

  He glared at his sister again. “None of your beeswax.”

  Unfortunately, it looked like there would never be anything for Robin to stick her nose into, not if Cat couldn’t understand the basic concept of justice. Not if she wouldn’t even try to understand him.

  It was going to be a long, stilted night at the mansion.

  Chapter 15

  Justin roamed from one room to another, drilling holes here, crimping wires there, just to be in the vicinity of where Todd was working. The kid was polite on the surface, but there were a lot of small tools that could be pawned. Justin needed to make sure he didn’t get a case of sticky fingers just because no one was watching.

  The only thing was, Justin got grumpier and grumpier every time Todd did what he was told. The boy swept and fetched nails and cleaned tools and hauled lumber for the workers, and smiled while he did it.

  Cat looked over at him. “You got a problem, Cooper?”

  “Just getting the work done. You?”

  “Only one problem in my life,” she muttered.

  What was with her, anyway? She ought to be all happiness and light, maybe even with angels singing, since she now had her rescued thief as her personal helper. It would come back to bite her, though.

  As Justin jerked a wire through a dining room stud, he snatched glances at the kid. Todd’s hair hung in his eyes as he swept, his face scrunched in concentration as he tried to get every speck of sawdust from a corner.

  Why would a kid who could work so hard at something so simple resort to stealing? His mother was furious with him, obviously had tried hard to teach him basic responsibility. So where did a kid like that go wrong?

  And where were the other kids’ parents? Maybe they didn’t know what their children were up to.

  On the other hand, those junior thugs were long past helping. They probably got high on stealing and the risk of getting caught. Probably high on something else, too. If he could get his hands on them …

  He shook his head and deliberately changed his line of thinking. Planning retribution just sent him on a downward spiral— thinking about Hazel and what she’d done to his mom had shown him that. He needed to let the law take its course.

  He glanced over at Todd again, now holding a staircase piece in place for Marty. Todd’s mother obviously cared. From the shame in his manner that first afternoon, Todd knew better too. She’d taught him, he just hadn’t listened.

  Sometimes it didn’t matter what a parent did, how hard they worked or what they said, the kid was going to go wrong anyway.

  He still didn’t understand why had Cat let him off the hook—giving him a job wasn’t any sort of punishment. He’d just do it again when his mom wasn’t looking, for whatever reason he thought was worth it, and eventually he’d find himself in juvie.

  Todd passed him again, fetching a string of brads for the nail gun. Justin glared at him, letting him know he couldn’t get away with anything here. Todd didn’t meet his eye.

  By lunchtime, Justin was exhausted trying to do his work and keep an eye on Todd at the same time. He took his sandwiches out to the back to avoid listening to Cat and Todd chatter like old friends.

  The questions the kid asked! Why did she use 2x4s in some places and 2x6s in others? Why did Marty change saw blades? How were they going to fix the broken door jambs?

  When Cat sent Todd to help Justin half-way through the afternoon, Justin kept his conversation to short instructions. Hand me that. Pull here. Pick up over there. But the kid was unfazed, and his curiosity continued.

  Todd watched intently as Justin threaded wire into the box and pulled it out a foot before cutting it.

  “
Why’d you cut it off?” Todd asked. “And why don’t you use the wire along the bottom?”

  Justin’s jaw tightened. “Because the electricity going to the ceiling light needs to be separate from the outlets. Now hold this for a minute.”

  “Why do the metal boxes have four holes?”

  Would the kid ever shut up? “Why do you think?”

  “Um, so you can do it from different sides?”

  Justin set his pliers down. “Look, you’re a smart kid, Todd. You could learn to do any of this, probably be anything you wanted to. How’d you do something as stupid as stealing that lumber? Just because Cat’s got a soft heart doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences.”

  Todd reddened and hung his head. “I said I was sorry.”

  “Sorry doesn’t cut it,” Justin said shortly, snipping the wire with more pressure than he needed. “You should have thought of that before you became a thief.”

  Todd raised his head and met Justin’s eyes. “I may not have a dad, and my mom may never be around ‘cause she works so much, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make something of myself.”

  Justin glared back. “You haven’t done much to prove that, now, have you? You’ve started down a road that demands justice, and it’s not easy to get off it.”

  Todd flung the hair out of his eyes. “Shows what you know. I’ll prove it to you, just wait. At least Miss Billings thinks I can do it.”

  Justin huffed. That was the whole problem—if Cat knew what he knew about the rotten side of people and what happened when they let it out…

  He looked across two rooms of framework to see her watching them with her jaw thrust out and every muscle in her body tight with tension.

  Fine. It didn’t really matter if they clashed on this. Going easy on Todd wouldn’t keep him out of jail in the long run, and Cat would be leaving in a few months anyway. He’d get along like he always had.

  So why did his heart catch in his chest when he thought about not being with her?

  * * *

  Cat rolled over on her air mattress, grateful she wasn’t on the hard floor anymore, but still not able to sleep well. She settled in again, listening to Bella snort and whuff in her dreams. Underneath, a soft snore came from Justin across the room, and she sent a glare his way. He hadn’t shown up for their security sleep-over until midnight and then hardly said a word.

  A tap sounded softly at the back of the house and her body tensed. Was that what woke her, not her sleeping position? She focused her hearing, and a tap and rattle came again. She sat up just as the dogs let off their alarm.

  Bella barked and growled, scrambling to her feet and leaping for the kitchen. Pip followed, yipping and skittering behind. Justin was on his feet almost as fast.

  They shone flashlights around the door, the windows, the miscellaneous tools on the worktable. Nothing. But when Justin opened the back door to the sound of rain, there were footprints on the muddy path.

  “Look at this,” Cat added. Scratches on the new doorknob showed where someone had tried to pick the lock.

  Justin clamped his lips. “The deadbolt still would have stopped them.”

  “Until they decided to bust through the window,” Cat said. “I think they were just trying to be quiet. They know Javier is on the lookout for them. Good thing we had the dogs here.”

  Justin locked the door and headed for the foyer without saying a word.

  Cat let out an exasperated sigh. Things might be awkward between them, but he could at least talk to her.

  She didn’t understand him. He’d watched Todd like a warden all day long. So what if she gave the kid a second chance? He was so hung up on justice that he couldn’t see the people behind it. He didn’t know how somebody’s record could hide who they really were, who they could become.

  Justin came back into the kitchen, dragging his sleeping bag while he spoke into his phone. “You know those thieves we called Javi out about? They came back.” He plunked his sleeping bag down and pushed it into position with his foot. Pip quickly curled up on it. “No, they didn’t get in—Cat and I are sleeping here until the job is done.” He paused, listening. “Shut up, Bro. You know that’s not it. I just thought you might find them out and about somewhere, maybe pick them up or something.” He listened longer, then hung up, muttering under his breath.

  “What?” Cat asked.

  “They’ll be out to dust for prints. Have to have some evidence before they can pull anyone in.”

  “So why’d you tell him to shut up?”

  “Nothing. Just guy stuff.”

  She felt like punching him. Secrets and more secrets. Like she wasn’t standing right there for his whole conversation. “You never say anything you don’t have to, do you? No sharing between friends. It’s a wonder you have any friends.”

  He glared. He straightened the sleeping bag and flopped down, barely missing his white fuzzball. “Go get some sleep.”

  Cat glared back at him, then stomped away. Bella padded behind, nudging into her hand. Cat settled herself on her own makeshift bed and pulled her close for a rub.

  Cat tiptoed around the mansion in the early morning, not knowing if she wanted to cry or smash something. If Justin weren’t so all-fired secretive. And stubborn.

  But he was, or he would have told her what he was so concerned about. He kept clamming up instead, starting to talk and pulling back. If he couldn’t trust her with his problems, this was the end of anything that might have begun.

  She thought she had finally found a guy who would let her be herself, who wouldn’t force her into a mold, who treated her as an equal. But these last few days…he kept clamming up instead of letting her in. And if he was so determined to have justice that he couldn’t see when someone just needed a hand up, well, that wasn’t a guy she wanted to be with either.

  She paced back and forth, glancing at Justin’s sleeping face occasionally. Bella huddled in a corner and watched her with worried eyes. Finally, Cat couldn’t take it anymore. She needed something to do, something to take her mind off her dashed hopes. She grabbed Bella’s leash, and before she could even whistle, Bella was at her side, sitting eagerly for the clip to her collar. The dog danced around her while she put sneakers on.

  Bella dashed out the door, and Cat followed quickly. She picked up a light run to keep up, and guided Bella around the grocery store and up the trail. One-two, one-two, she counted in a sort of meditation. It morphed into the old nursery rhyme, one, two, buckle my shoe, but that was better than thinking about Justin.

  Except that as soon as she thought that, Justin was the only thing in her head, crowding out any nursery rhyme or anything else that flitted through. Justin, and the way he gazed into her eyes. Justin, and the curl that teased her into touching it. Justin, and the future she had actually let herself envision with him - marriage, kids, the works.

  Oh, you’re a fine one, Cat, she thought as she pounded up the trail behind Bella. Head in the clouds, letting your guard down, letting a guy into your heart. What do you expect? You’ll spend your life on your own, just like you planned. What’s the big deal?

  She ran on, curving around big Doug firs, hopping over fallen branches and rocks, not even realizing that her thoughts were accompanied by rivulets of tears down her cheeks. When her breath came in gasps and her side ached, she finally slowed.

  Bella nosed her as she sat on a moss-covered log. She reached out to pet the dog’s soft fur, then slid to the ground, buried her face in Bella’s neck, and sobbed.

  Chapter 16

  Justin had given up trying to be wherever Todd was. He couldn’t watch the kid 24/7, and if he stole something else, well then, Cat would just have to admit she was wrong.

  They held an uneasy truce. Todd wouldn’t meet Justin’s eyes, but the kid was definitely on alert whenever Justin came near him. He seemed to be working hard, with or without Justin’s eagle eye.

  Cat was over at Marty’s discussing something about the staircase wood, and since the plumbing
crew didn’t work Saturdays, Justin had a shot at finishing the second floor wiring without getting in their way. He lay on his side, his drill maneuvered between studs. The drill powered through, he blew the sawdust off his face, and shifted to the next stud. If he could keep the flow going, he’d make up some time. The drill whirred and as the plug dropped out, he heard masculine voices downstairs.

  Belligerent voices.

  He pushed to his feet and went to the railing overlooking the foyer. Todd was hand-sanding some of the intricate woodwork, head down and body stiff. Next to him, in-your-face close actually, was a growling teen Justin had never seen before.

  The stranger leaned into Todd’s shoulder, head pushed forward and hands clenched. “You’ll do it if we say so.”

  Todd shook his head and kept sanding.

  “You listen when I’m talking, dude.” The stranger shouldered him, and Todd dropped the sandpaper as he knocked into the wall. “Rocky says tonight after they stop work. You make sure they’re gone.”

  Todd looked up finally. He stared the guy in the eyes, then shoved him back. “I said no, Chance. I got a break here, and I ain’t messing it up.”

  Chance recovered his footing and drew his fist back. Justin raced down the stairs, but not quickly enough to save Todd from a whale of a punch. Todd reeled and reached a hand back for support. He bunched his muscles for a charge. Chance readied for another swing.

  And Justin was in the middle.

  Body-slammed on one side, punched in the neck on the other, Justin roared with rage. He held both teens at arm’s length, his own muscles quivering to keep them apart.

  “You!” he shouted at Todd. “Upstairs, now!”

  Todd deflated and slunk upstairs while Justin wrapped his hand tighter in Chance’s shirt. “And you, I could have you arrested for assault.” The teen—no, better make that young adult—struggled, and Justin was glad his own arms were a bit longer and stronger. He finally got the guy’s arm pinned behind his back.