Scared as he was, he was going to tell everybody this was all his idea. He snuck a peek at Matt, who hadn’t said a word to him since Jake woke them up, and he wondered what he would do if Matt never, ever spoke to him again.
“You boys know what kind of trouble you caused around here?”
Chris jumped when the officer riding on the passenger’s side turned around and started talking to them.
“Well?”
“Yes, sir,” he mumbled.
“Want to tell me why you took off and worried your folks like that?” The man was watching him closely. Chris promised himself he would never, ever do anything that would mean having to ride in a police car again.
“I was scared my mom was gonna make me move away.” He was too frightened not to tell the whole truth. “She talked about going on a vacation, and I didn’t want to miss hot dog day.”
The officer looked over at the man driving the car. “Makes perfect sense to me.”
Chris thought he saw the first officer’s mouth twitch, but it wasn’t light enough to tell for sure.
“What about your friend there. How come he went with you?”
Chris looked at Matt again. His friend was wiping his snot on the sleeve of the borrowed parka.
“We’re blood brothers.”
The officer who did all the talking asked the one driving, “Think we need to call in Child Protective Services?”
Chris listened intently, not sure what Child Protective Services was, but he thought maybe it had to do with kids going to military academy. He held his breath.
The taller of the two men turned the wheel and shook his head. “No cause. They aren’t habitual runaways, not yet anyway. Besides being a little dirty, they don’t fit the profile for being abused. Let’s just turn Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn here over to their parents, and maybe we can all go home and get some sleep.”
Chris elbowed Matt who turned sorry eyes in his direction. “They’re takin’ us to our moms,” he whispered.
Matt threw up.
Carly and the others were at the station by the time the cruiser pulled up. Christopher’s head was barely visible above the window. Jake’s SUV was right behind.
He parked, jumped out of the car, and rushed over to where she was standing beside Etta, who was sobbing into the hem of her sequined sweatshirt. Selma and Joe were there, too.
Tracy and Glenn Potter and their friends and neighbors were all gathered on the curb as well, all of them highlighted in the glare from the lights on the mobile television van.
All Carly saw was her boy when the patrolman opened the back door of the car and Chris stepped out.
His face lit up with relief when he spotted her. She could barely see through her tears as he came barreling toward her yelling, “Mom! Mom!”
She fell to her knees on the asphalt, wrapped Christopher in her arms and held him tight, desperately fighting to hold herself together. He felt so small, so vulnerable—and never as precious.
“Mom.” Chris tried to wriggle away. “You’re crush-in’ me.”
She pulled back slowly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Running her hands up and down his arms, she finally took hold of his hands and looked him over.
“Are you all right?” She still couldn’t believe he could be fine. It seemed he’d been gone a lifetime.
“Yeah.” He glanced around suddenly aware of all the others. “Hey! There’s Joe and Selma. Hi, Joe! Hey, Selma. And there’s Mrs. Schwartz, too.” Then he whispered to Carly, “What’s everybody doing here?”
“Everyone’s been so scared. They waited at home with me while the police looked for you.”
He threw his arms around her neck and hugged her again. Her heart nearly broke when she heard him whisper, “It’s okay, Mom. I’m okay now.”
When she could finally let him go, Joe gave him a bear hug and passed him to Selma, then he went to Etta, and finally Geoff, who had just arrived and was still soaked from sea spray and covered in sand from the knees down.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Carly asked when he was at her side again.
Chris fell sober and took her hand. “Yeah. I’m okay. Kinda hungry, though.” He looked around at the reporters and cameramen, the police, and rescue workers gathered around.
“Can we go home?” he whispered.
Glenn and Tracy, with Matt sandwiched between them, walked over to Carly.
“I told you that they’d be just fine.” Tracy was beaming her perpetual smile again, but her mascara had smeared into a distinct racoon mask, and her pageboy cut was a disaster. Beside her, Glenn was whey faced and looked ready to drop.
Glenn reached over to ruffle Chris’ hair and told Carly, “We’ll call you in the morning. Right now, we’re going to get Matt home to bed.” He glanced over his shoulder at the officer standing close by and then told her, “If you need anything, Carly, just call us, all right? I’m sure everything will be fine.”
Before she had time to wonder why everything wouldn’t be fine now, the officer stepped up to her and smiled down at Chris before he said, “We’re going to have to detain you all for a few minutes, Ms. Nolan. Just a routine interview, nothing that will take very long.”
“But . . . he’s worn out. I’d like to take him home and get him cleaned up and fed and into bed.”
She was aware of Jake moving in close beside her. So did the infernal minicam.
“Ms. Nolan? Ms. Nolan! Do you have any comment regarding the petition for guardianship that’s been filed by your son’s grandmother?” Abbigail Klasa stepped up to Jake and made the mistake of trying to elbow her way in next to Carly and Chris.
When Carly looked back, the young woman was on the ground searching for her microphone.
“Sorry,” Jake mumbled. “I must have slipped.”
Carly quickly hugged Selma, Joe, and Geoff and thanked them all before she and Jake hurried Christopher inside the station.
She hadn’t asked Jake to stay, but she was thankful that he was there as they were all led into a small private office. He appeared to be cool, calm, and in control.
He had found Christopher. She would never be able to thank him enough.
“Sit down, please, Ms. Nolan. Mr. Montgomery. Christopher, would you come with me for a minute? There’s a lady down the hall who wants to ask you some questions.”
“Is she from the military school?”
The man shot Carly a quizzical glance.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about.” She looked to Jake, who crouched in front of Chris.
“She just wants to make sure you’re all right.”
The young officer held out his hand. Chris looked so small and frightened, yet he put up such a brave front that Carly was seconds from falling completely apart. Once he was out of earshot, she turned to Jake.
“What’s going on?” Panicked, she refused to sit when he gestured to a chair. “Matt got to leave with his parents. Why can’t I take Chris home?”
“It’s probably just routine, like the man said.”
She wished he sounded more reassuring.
“How could that reporter have known about the petition for guardianship? Who would give her that kind of information?”
“I have a feeling I know,” he said softly.
“Anna.”
“Or her lawyer.”
As the world folded in on her, Carly sank into an empty institutional-green vinyl chair and stared at the door Chris had just walked through. In no more than two minutes, the police officer came back in.
“Ms. Nolan, this should just take a couple of minutes. My partner and I were going to turn both boys over directly to you, but we had directives to hold your son until he could be interviewed.”
The sterile office was more like a hospital waiting room. It reminded her of the day her dad died, the day Miss DeCoudres had walked her down the hall to the counselor’s office, and social services had come to take her away.
If the interview didn’t go
well, Chris might fall into Child Protective Services’ hands on the spot, and she wouldn’t be able to see him again without supervision until the guardianship petition was heard.
“Carly?”
“What?” She jumped and turned to Jake, suddenly aware that he’d been talking to her. He was still holding her hand. She looked down at their entwined fingers, aware of what was going on, yet not quite willing to believe this was really happening to her.
Jake’s calm did more to unnerve her than if he’d been ranting and raving. He was angry. Angrier than she’d ever seen him. His fury showed in the ice-blue depths of his eyes.
Suddenly his cell phone went off, the low ring barely audible, shrilly cutting the silence. He pulled it out of his back pocket, glanced at the screen, frowned and powered off.
“Do you need to answer that?”
“I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”
Exactly eight minutes later—Carly knew because she hadn’t taken her eyes off the big black industrial clock on the wall—Chris was escorted back into the room by a female officer. A shiny replica of the official police badge had been pinned to his sweatshirt. He ran across the room and threw himself into Carly’s arms.
The officer thanked Carly and added, “You can go home now, ma’am.”
Carly didn’t let go of Chris until Jake took her gently by the elbow and said, “Come on, you two. I think Beauty is probably at home wondering what happened to everybody.”
Jake pulled his car around to the back door so that they could avoid the relentless television crew. Within minutes Carly and Chris were home again.
“Mom?” Chris tugged on her arm the minute they were out of the car, as if it weren’t three in the morning. As if she hadn’t spent the last twelve hours in hell. “Mom, I’m hungry.”
She started for the kitchen, running on automatic pilot, her mind blissfully numb to everything except Chris. While he hugged Beauty and rolled on the floor with the dog, Carly warmed up a bowl of chili. She knew Chris was starved when he didn’t even complain about the beans.
After pouring Chris a second glass of milk, she finally turned to Jake.
“Thank you.” She shivered. Cold had been seeping through her for hours, the bone-chilling cold of fear.
Chris was home. Everything was still uncertain, but at least he was safe.
Jake was watching her from across the living room where he’d remained by the front door. As always, he looked too big for the small space, too rugged for the small love seat, the worn-out wicker chair.
He didn’t fit here. Not since he’d lost her trust. She shouldn’t have ever let him into their circle of two, and yet her body still ached for him to hold her. She needed his strength, his calm, his smiles and touches.
But as she watched him watch her, she reminded herself that even though Jake was the one who had found Chris tonight, none of this would have happened if he hadn’t come dragging the past to town with him, upsetting their lives, showing Anna Saunders the way.
He finally took a step away from the door.
She started to wrap her arms protectively around herself but then stopped. “Thank you for your help and for finding the boys.” She looked down at her hands, then back up at him. “Thank you for being there when I needed someone earlier.”
“I want to be there for you all the time, Carly. For both of you.”
“I think you should go home now, Jake. I need to get Chris cleaned up and into bed.”
“I don’t mind sleeping on the sofa, just to make sure the reporters don’t bother you again.”
Tempted to give in, she quickly shook her head. It wouldn’t do to have him so close, not while she was still so raw, so vulnerable.
“We’ll be fine.” She glanced over her shoulder at Chris, shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.
“Just the two of you. Just like before.”
“We were fine on our own.”
“Were you, Carly?”
She thought of the years before Jake. She’d been going through the motions, reading homemaking magazines, trying to make life picture perfect without having to feel anything except her love for Christopher. Before Jake had turned their lives upside down, she never knew how much she and Chris had been loved by so many, or how very lucky she was to live in Twilight.
Without a word, Jake stepped around her and headed for the table. He stood behind Christopher, put his hand on her son’s head for a second, just until Chris looked up at him.
“Hey, pal. I gotta take off. You be good, all right? Listen to your Mom, and don’t even think of pulling a stunt like that again, all right?”
Chris ducked his head again and stared down into the empty chili bowl. “Okay, I won’t.”
When Jake started to walk away, Chris reached for his arm.
“Are you comin’ over tomorrow?”
Jake looked at Carly for the answer, but she forced herself to turn away from the question in his eyes.
“I don’t know,” Jake said. “I’ve still got a lot of work to do up at the house.”
“Oh.” Chris sounded as forlorn as Carly felt.
“But I’ll give you a call tomorrow,” Jake promised him, “no matter what.”
“Okay. Night, Jake.”
“Night, buddy.”
Carly heard Jake’s steps as he crossed the room, felt him when he moved up behind her. She didn’t dare face him, not while she was fighting so hard to hang on to every shred of self-respect.
“Good night, Carly.” He was so close that she could feel the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck.
She took a deep breath.
“Good-bye, Jake.”
He stepped around her and let himself out.
Christopher struggled to keep his eyes open while he waited for Mom to tuck him in. It wasn’t long before she walked back into his room and tossed his dirty clothes into the hamper in his closet and then sat down beside him.
She looked sad and tired and he knew that was because of what he’d done.
“Mom? I’m really sorry.” He slipped his arms out from under the comforter and reached for her hand.
“I know you are.”
When she looked down at him her eyes were all sparkly like she was going to cry again, and his stomach started to hurt.
“I won’t run away ever again.”
“I know. Were you scared?” She pushed his hair back off his forehead and kissed him.
“Not in the daytime. But when it got dark and Matt kept cryin’ for his mom, I got kinda scared, too, but I couldn’t tell him.”
“Tomorrow you’ll have to call and tell Matt you’re sorry.”
Chris sighed. It was going to be hard to say he was sorry out loud, but he couldn’t imagine life without his best friend, either.
“You know why I ran away, Mom?”
“I think so, but why don’t you tell me?”
“I heard you and Jake arguing. I heard you tell him that we were moving, and I didn’t want to go.”
“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do, Christopher, no matter how much it hurts . . .”
“But this is my house. This is where I’ve always lived. And Matt is my friend. He’s my blood brother, Mom. I don’t want to move away from him.”
He watched a tear fall off the end of Mom’s lashes. She tried to wipe it away real quick, but he saw it just the same.
“We’re not moving, honey. Don’t worry about it. This is our home.”
“Then why were you so mad at Jake? What are you scared of?”
“I’m not scared,” she said. But she didn’t look at him when she said it. She pulled his covers up to his chin and kissed him one more time. “You need to get some sleep. We’ve both had a pretty rough day. Even poor Beauty is already sound asleep.” She glanced down at the dog sleeping next to the bed and then reached for the bedside lamp on a table she had painted the color of a fire engine for him.
“Mom? Will you leave the light on?”
Carly slipped out of Chris’ bed, stepped over Beauty, who was asleep in her dog bed, and left the door to the room open as she wandered down the hallway to the kitchen. The small living room seemed immense tonight, the shadows outside the uncovered studio windows had taken on a dark, ominous quality. Wide awake, too keyed up to sleep, she almost admitted to herself that she wished she’d taken Jake up on his offer to sleep on the couch.
She poured herself a glass of milk, physically tired enough to sleep for a week but mentally keyed up. Recalling what Jake had said about reporters, she turned off the kitchen light and all but one small light in the living room. Then she walked over to the front window and slightly pulled aside the curtain.
Jake’s car was still in the parking space in front of the house.
She leaned toward the window, squinted against the glare of Etta’s porch light and saw Jake, sound asleep, in the passenger’s seat. With a shake of her head, Carly cracked the front door open half expecting a reporter to leap out of the bushes, but everything was quiet out front, so she walked up to the window on Jake’s car. Before she could tap and awaken him, he sat bolt upright, recognized her, and slowly smiled.
He rubbed his eyes and yawned as he opened the door.
She whispered, “Jake, what are you doing out here?”
“Watching the house.”
“With your eyes closed? Are you crazy?”
“I’m beginning to think so.”
“Go home.”
“I’ve slept in the car lots of times.”
“I didn’t think private investigators were supposed to fall asleep when they were on surveillance.” Despite everything that had happened, she found a smile slowly spreading across her face and a warmth replacing the lingering chill of fear she thought she’d never lose.
“Nope. Not leaving. Go on in and go to bed. Lock up and just forget about me out here in the cold car. Don’t give me a second thought.” It appeared he meant what he said. He wasn’t going anywhere.
She let go a long, drawn-out sigh, mostly for his benefit.
“Okay, you can sleep on the couch. But don’t make me regret this.”
Lover's Lane Page 30
