If Ricky wanted them to know where he was, he would’ve said so by now. His refusal to mention anything about his past set off all kinds of alarms. Ricky obviously knew whoever had put him in the hospital with a broken arm and multiple contusions. If it had been a random attack by a stranger, there would’ve been no reason for him not to cooperate with the police. Instead, Ricky had stonewalled everybody.
So, yeah, Jack wasn’t all that anxious for Ricky’s family to learn his whereabouts. They would have to be dealt with one way or another at some point. He just wished Ricky would let him in on what was happening on that front. At least that way they could formulate a viable plan of action. For now, all Jack could do was keep an eye on the kid and hope that eventually he’d trust either Jack or Marlene enough to do more than keep a roof over his head and feed his skinny ass.
Speak of the devil, Ricky reappeared in the front door. “Hey, where’s my burger? I’d rather eat it while it’s still warm!”
“I’m coming. I’m coming.”
Having delivered his message, Ricky retreated back into the house. Jack managed to hide his smile until the teenager wouldn’t see it. Maybe he was grasping at straws, but he suspected that it was a good sign that the kid felt comfortable enough around Jack to give him some good-natured grief. Either way, he preferred that to having the kid either cower in his room or, worse yet, lash out whenever either Jack or his mother spoke to him.
Feeling a little better about the situation, he headed for the dining room to hand out the burgers and shakes. But later, he’d still be having that talk with Caitlyn Curtis.
—
“One more stop, and I can go home for the day.”
It was never a good sign to be talking to herself, but Caitlyn’s head was pounding, and she needed the verbal reminder that the end was almost in sight. The day had been a tough one so far. Unfortunately, most of the teenagers she worked with would rather be hanging out with friends instead of inside doing schoolwork with Caitlyn. Keeping the younger kids focused and moving ahead wasn’t any easier. Regardless of their ages, she didn’t hesitate to stand firm when she knew it was for their own good.
At least her last student of the day was willing to do the work she assigned him. So far, anyway. She suspected that she and Ricky were currently in the honeymoon stage of their relationship. He obviously liked math, and it came easy to him. That’s why she’d chosen it for the first subject to tackle.
In contrast, he hadn’t scored quite as high in language arts, and his reading scores were slightly lower than she thought they should be. They’d be adding those two components to their agenda at the beginning of the week. It would sure be nice to know more about the boy’s background. She suspected his problems in some of the subject areas might be due to poor attendance, but he hadn’t been very forthcoming about his past experience with school.
She pulled up in front of the Lukash family home and turned off the engine. As she gathered up the materials she needed for Ricky’s lesson, she tried to ignore the small part of her that was pleased to see that both Jack McShane’s SUV and the ragtag pickup he used on his construction jobs were parked side by side in the driveway.
She had no business noticing anything about the man, even if he was the one paying her salary. It was the boy she was there to see, and he deserved her undivided attention. Still, there was something about Jack’s piercing green eyes and friendly smile that really appealed to her. She also admired his determination to help Ricky. From the few things the teenager had let slip, the two had met when Ricky had offered to do some grunt work for Jack when he was out on a job.
So far, neither of them had explained how that had led to Ricky living with Jack and his mother. Granted, it was Marlene Lukash who was licensed for foster care and had legal custody of Ricky. Both of them had made it clear that was only temporary until Jack got his own credentials. Even now, Marlene was definitely taking the backseat when it came to making decisions regarding the teenager’s care.
The front door opened before she had a chance to knock. Once again, it was Jack standing there, filling the doorway with his broad shoulders and holding her captive with his direct gaze.
After a second, he opened the screen door and held it open for her. “Ms. Curtis, come on in. Ricky’s waiting in the dining room.”
He stood back, giving her enough room to enter the house—barely. Even though they never came into actual contact, she could still feel the warmth radiating off his big body as she passed by. Or maybe the heat she felt came from her acute awareness of him as a man, which was nothing short of stupid, not to mention unprofessional.
At least she had enough control over her reactions to maintain a steady pace on her way to meet with her student. She’d only gone a few steps when Jack stopped her forward progress by touching her arm, which startled her into dropping her papers all over the floor. He immediately removed his hand and knelt down to start picking them up. As soon as her heart slowed to a more normal pace, she joined him in gathering up her things.
As he handed her the last few pages, Jack offered her a rueful smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I called your name to get your attention, but I don’t think you heard me.”
She forced a smile that probably stopped just shy of sincere. “You didn’t scare me. My mind was on…something else. You surprised me. That’s all.”
“Right,” he said, although he clearly didn’t believe a word of what she’d just said.
Over the years, she’d gotten good at lying about her overly sensitive startle reflex, which had been honed to a sharp edge by years of living with her ex-husband. They’d been divorced for nearly five years now, and her reactions usually weren’t quite so over the top anymore. Maybe she should share a bit more of the truth.
“I’m sorry, Mr. McShane. I’ve got a vicious headache, so I’m not quite myself today.”
His green eyes went from doubtful to concerned. “Have you taken anything for it?”
“Not yet. I didn’t have anything with me, but this is my last stop for the day.”
“How about you go on in with Ricky. I’ll fix you a cup of the soothing tea my mother swears by and bring you a couple of ibuprofen.”
This time her smile came more easily. “Thank you. That sounds lovely.”
He nodded and started to walk away. Then he turned back. “Before I forget, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Jack glanced past her, obviously checking to see where Ricky was, before continuing. “When you’re ready to leave, I’ll walk with you out to your car.”
Probably so the boy wouldn’t overhear the conversation. Did he have news about Ricky’s background? She hoped so.
“I’ll let you know when I’m ready to go.”
Jack nodded. “Meanwhile, I’ll go see about that tea.”
—
“Great job, Ricky! You’re sailing through the algebra. Once you finish the rest of the refresher lessons, I’ll set you up with the district’s online class so you can get credit for the course. It shouldn’t take you much time at all to finish it, which means you can get placed in geometry at the beginning of the school year.”
She began packing up her stuff. “Just so you know, we’ll be starting on the language arts lessons on Monday.”
Ricky’s shoulders immediately drooped. “Do we have to?”
“Sorry, kiddo, but we do. If you put the same hard work into those lessons that you have into the math, you’ll do fine.” She mentally crossed her fingers and hoped that was true.
“Any questions for me before I go?”
“No.”
She stopped shuffling papers to really look at her student. “Ricky, is something wrong?”
“No,” he said for the second time.
Caitlyn risked putting her hand on his broken arm. “Are you sure?”
When he flinched at her touch even though he couldn’t have actually felt it through the thickness of the cast, her stomach twisted in sympathy.
Obviously, she wasn’t the only one who found it hard to accept a simple gesture. It was a characteristic shared by a fair number of her students over the years, especially the ones whose lives had been turned upside down like Ricky’s had. It took time and patience to get past their understandable mistrust. She prided herself on her perseverance in coaxing them into letting her do what she could to make at least one area of their lives go more smoothly. Considering what she suspected about how he got that broken arm, it really didn’t surprise her that he was a bit skittish. “You know you can tell me anything.”
He shook off her hand. “I’m fine.”
No, he clearly wasn’t, but she was reluctant to push any harder. They hadn’t worked together all that long, and she certainly didn’t want to damage their still-fragile relationship. Could this have anything to do with why Jack wanted to speak with her privately?
“Okay, Ricky. But as I said, if you need to talk, I’ll listen.”
That’s all she could do for him right now. Well, maybe there was one more thing. She pulled out one of her business cards. “Here’s my email address and cellphone number. You know, in case you have any questions about your assignment or anything at all. I’m going to be in and out this weekend, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.”
He took the card, stuck it in his hip pocket, and jerked his head in a quick nod to acknowledge her real offer. “See you next week.”
She wasn’t at all surprised when he immediately took off, abandoning all of his papers and books on the table, or that Jack joined her as soon as Ricky disappeared. He stared in the direction that his young friend had gone for several long seconds before turning his attention to her.
“Was there a problem?”
Caitlyn shrugged. “Not exactly. He was doing fine as long as we were working on his math. When I mentioned that we’d be moving on to language arts and reading next week, he pretty much shut down. If you remember, I told you that language arts and writing were the areas where he tested below grade level.”
“Does he have a learning disability of some kind?”
Jack’s expression was hard to decipher, leaving her wondering exactly what he was thinking. “No, I don’t think so, at least not anything significant. We’d have to do more intensive testing to know for sure. However, he doesn’t seem to have any problem following directions or reading the explanations in his math book, so that’s encouraging.”
But maybe it was time to take this conversation outside. She tipped her head toward the kitchen where she suspected Ricky was helping himself to a snack. “I need to get going.”
Jack took the hint. “If you don’t mind, I’ll walk out with you. I was on my way to pick up the mail.”
When he held out his hand to take her laptop case, she hesitated before handing it over. No doubt helping her carry some of her things was another piece in his attempt to disguise the real reason he was walking her out to her car. He opened the front door and allowed her to go out first, another example that someone had taught Jack good manners. She bet that someone had been Mr. Lukash.
When they were both outside with the door closed and separating them from Ricky, Jack cleared his throat as if whatever he wanted to say wasn’t easy for him. Maybe she could help with that.
“You’re worried about Ricky and want to know if he’s said anything to me about his past.”
Jack stopped and stared down at her, his eyebrows riding low over his eyes. “Yeah. Exactly.”
“The short answer would be no, he hasn’t. I did tell him if he needed to talk…you know, about anything at all…he could reach out to me. He has my email address and my cell number.”
“If he does get in touch with you, you will share the information with me.”
It was time to lay down some ground rules. “I can’t make an unqualified promise like that, Mr. McShane. If it relates purely to his academic progress, then of course I’ll share. But if he shares something personal and asks me to keep it to myself, I will.”
Jack set her computer on the hood of her car with exaggerated care when he obviously would rather have thrown it down or maybe kicked it down the street. When he turned to face her, he stepped close enough that she knew he was deliberately crowding her.
“That boy’s welfare is my responsibility, Ms. Curtis, not yours. I can’t help him if he won’t tell me what or who he’s running scared from. If he does tell you something and you don’t share the information with me or at least the police, you could be putting him in even more danger.”
Her own temper heated up. She’d learned the hard way how important it was to hold her ground when confronting an aggressive male. She glared right back at him even though she had to tip her head back to an uncomfortable angle to make solid eye contact. “I am quite aware of that, Mr. McShane. You can rest assured I will keep that fact in mind if and when he does tell me something about his past. If I can’t tell you, I will contact either his caseworker or the police. Now, back off.”
He blinked and then his mouth slowly curved up in a small grin as he retreated half a step back. “Message received and acknowledged, Caitlyn.”
As apologies went, that one sucked. “You know, all things considered, I think it would be better if you call me Ms. Curtis. And now I need to be going.”
“What things would that be?” Then his smile disappeared far faster than it had come. “You’re not married, are you?”
Her headache was making a return appearance. “I was, Mr. McShane. I’m divorced, even though that’s not really any of your business.”
“For Pete’s sake, call me Jack. Mr. McShane makes it sound as if I’m older than dirt.”
“Fine, Jack. Since your mother and Ricky both already call me Caitlyn, there’s no reason you shouldn’t as well.”
That was a lie. She really should cling to the small amount of distance that their more formal names gave her. While she always got attached on some level with her students, even the most difficult ones, she preferred to maintain a professional relationship with their parents or guardians. Experience had taught her that it was easier to advocate on the child’s behalf if the parents saw her the same as they did their son’s or daughter’s regular schoolteacher. She’d found they took her recommendations more seriously when they viewed her as an outsider rather than as a friend.
When it came to Jack and his mother, though, it was apparently already too late to draw that particular line, although she really ought to try. “If you don’t have any more questions, Mr. McShane, I really do need to leave.”
“Jack.” That devastating grin was back. “Come on. It’s not hard to say.”
She fought the urge to roll her eyes as she punched the button on her key to unlock the car. “Fine, Jack. I’ll be back on Monday.”
Her nemesis got to the car door first and opened it for her. “I do appreciate everything you’re doing for Ricky. Beginning at a new school is hard enough for a kid his age without the added problem of starting off behind in everything.”
That comment reminded her of something she could share. “I don’t have any concrete proof of what I’m about to say, only my experience of working with at-risk kids. My gut feeling is that Ricky is behind academically primarily because of poor attendance. As I said, he reads and understands written directions with no problem. With some help, I’m betting if he catches up on what he’s missed, he could do really well in his classes. Unfortunately, if foster kids get bounced around from one placement to another, it really interferes with their chances to succeed in school.”
Jack stared past her toward the house. “Believe me, I’m well aware of that fact. I’m going to do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Oddly enough, she believed him. “Ricky is blessed to have you and your mother on his side. He’s a teenage boy and might not always remember to act grateful. Even so, I’m guessing he does know how lucky he is.”
“I don’t want his gratitude. I just want him safe.”
Then Jack tu
rned back to look directly at her, and she felt the impact all the way down to her toes. What was it about him that made her want to toss her usual reticence around big men to the wind? It was obvious that somehow he’d slipped past her guard, most likely because of their common goal of helping Ricky. For whatever the reason, when the boy had badly needed someone, Jack had been the one to step up to bat, and her heart told her that he would protect that boy with everything he had. She wanted Ricky to succeed academically, but all things considered, his safety came first.
When Jack’s gaze dropped just enough to stare at her mouth, her face flushed hot. Was he thinking about kissing her? She should hope not, but temptation was definitely dancing along her skin. Then he shook his head and retreated to a safer distance. Caitlyn told herself it was relief and not disappointment she was feeling as she got into her car and started the engine. Jack patted the fender and then walked away toward the mailbox at the end of the driveway, presumably to make good on his excuse for having come outside with her.
He moved with the same grace as one of the big cats at the zoo. His slight limp did nothing to detract from the confidence and strength that showed in each step he took, like there was nothing the world could throw at him that he couldn’t handle. She shivered slightly, but for once her reaction was based not on fear but on something else equally primitive—a feminine appreciation for a dominant male in his prime. Oh boy, she really needed to get moving.
As she drove past him, he stopped long enough to wave one last time. She responded in kind and started counting off the hours until Monday when she would see Ricky again.
And, with any luck, Jack.
Chapter 5
Jack punched the heavy bag, hitting it six times in rapid fire, shifted his stance, and then attacked again with his other hand. He’d already worked up a good sweat from jumping rope and doing calisthenics. After another few minutes on the heavy bag, he’d finish up by lifting weights. He’d been slacking off lately on his normal workout, but his conversation with Caitlyn had left him restless—not to mention horny.
Always for You: Jack (Sergeant Joe's Boys #1) Page 5
