Always for You: Jack (Sergeant Joe's Boys #1)

by Alexis Morgan

  The rest of their time flew by. As she packed up her supplies, she smiled at her student. “You did a great job today, Ricky.”

  Marlene appeared in the doorway to the kitchen with a container full of cookies in her hand. “I didn’t want you to think I forgot about the cookies.”

  Caitlyn stared at the size of the package. “Tell me those freeze well, because I can’t eat that many in a short time.”

  The other woman smiled. “They freeze fine. In fact, I used to keep several batches in the freezer all the time in case company dropped by.”

  She glanced at Ricky. “Lately, though, they disappear as fast as I bake them.”

  He shook his head and tried to look sad. “Yeah, it’s no surprise Jack has to spend so much time working out considering how he chows down on her cookies. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to fit through the door. He barely does as it is.”

  The image of Jack with his shirt off and muscles straining as he pumped iron filled Caitlyn’s mind. Whoa, had the room suddenly gotten warm or was it just her?

  Meanwhile, Ricky was still talking. “The only reason there’s any left now is because he’s gone.”

  Marlene crossed the room to hand Caitlyn the container. Then she ruffled Ricky’s shaggy hair with her fingers. “So you’re saying that he not only singlehandedly emptied the freezer but somehow ate half a dozen of the ones I made this morning even though he’s not here?”

  The teenager ducked away from Marlene and then shrugged. “What can I say? The man is sneaky that way. Must be all those Special Forces ninja skills he has.”

  Marlene laughed. “Must be. Now go get yourself a snack.”

  Before he reached the door, she added, “And make it something healthy, Ricky. You’ve had enough cookies for one day.”

  “Okay, fine.”

  When he disappeared, the two women smiled at each other. Caitlyn nodded in the direction of the kitchen. “He didn’t seem to mind having to eat something good for him.”

  Marlene hesitated slightly before finally responding. “He’s actually pretty good about it. If Jack was right about him having been on the streets for some time, then Ricky probably appreciates having a steady food supply of any kind.”

  Caitlyn hurt for the boy. “He’s lucky you took him in.”

  “It wasn’t me. That was all Jack.”

  And that in a nutshell was why Caitlyn had had a hard time maintaining her distance from him. She picked up her things. “Well, I’d better get going. I’ll be back on Wednesday at the same time.”

  Marlene sighed. “I knew there was something I was supposed to tell you. Ricky has a doctor’s appointment that day. Is there another time you could come or should we just skip that session?”

  Caitlyn checked her appointment book. “We can do our regular session on Friday, and then I can come back again on Saturday if that works for the two of you.”

  “Oh, I’d hate for you to mess up your weekend for us.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’ve already got another student scheduled for that morning at nine, so I can be here at ten thirty. Since he’s another Wednesday student, that will give me an afternoon off to take care of a few things I can’t do on the weekend.”

  “Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind, I’ll let Ricky know.”

  “Sounds good, and thanks again for the cookies. And despite the change in schedule, I’ll write up my weekly report ending with Friday as usual. I can leave it with you to give to Jack when I’m here on Saturday.”

  “You might be able to give it to him yourself. He was hoping to be back by then.”

  Ignoring the sudden flutter in her pulse, Caitlyn smiled one last time as she walked out of the house. “That would be great. See you on Friday!”

  As she got into the car, she thought back to the conversation she’d had with her mother. If just the mention of Jack’s name affected her so strongly, maybe it was time she dipped her toe in the dating pool again. It was a scary thought, but only a fool would let one man ruin any future chance for happiness. And if Caitlyn knew anything at all, it was that she was nobody’s fool. Not anymore.

  Chapter 7

  Damn, Jack was tired. That slam-dunk job had turned out to be a little more involved than Gabe had indicated it would be, not that it was his fault. They both knew that it was often the client’s behavior that determined how easy or hard it was to keep him safe. On paper, this one had appeared to be an experienced traveler who would listen to reason.

  In practice, he’d been anything but sensible. After completing each day’s business, he’d insisted on hitting the nightclub scene until the wee hours of the morning. Jack had been hired to keep the man safe from possible kidnappers. As it turned out, he’d spent most of the time protecting the fool from his own poor judgment.

  Still, the point had been to make sure the idiot got back home in one piece. By that definition, the trip had been a success. The client, his employer, and Gabe were all happy, which meant Jack’s bank balance now looked decidedly healthier.

  It was all good, even if he felt like hell right now.

  His red-eye flight from the East Coast had been canceled due to stormy weather, and he’d ended up sitting on his ass in the airport for an extra seven hours before they could get him on another flight. Even then, the only available spot on the longest leg of the route was a center seat in a row all the way in the back right by the engines. He’d felt like an oversized sardine crammed into an undersized tin can. At least he was finally on the home stretch. As soon as he reached the house, he’d check in with his mom and Ricky, take a badly needed shower, and then crawl into bed for a few hours.

  As he turned the last corner, he spotted a familiar car parked in front of the house. Even as tired as he was, Jack was reasonably sure that it was Saturday here in the Pacific Northwest. Just to make sure, he checked both his watch and his cellphone. Okay, he had that much right. So what was Caitlyn Curtis doing at his house today?

  Had something happened to Ricky? Jack gunned the engine and turned into the driveway with the tires squealing as he hit the brakes hard. After snagging his duffel out of the back, Jack charged up the sidewalk and into the house.

  As soon as he stepped through the door, he bellowed, “Mom, is everything okay?”

  Three people came running, all of them reaching an abrupt halt in the foyer to stare at Jack with varying degrees of confusion and curiosity. His mom was the first to respond. “Everything is fine, Jack. Did something happen to make you think it wasn’t?”

  Obviously he’d overreacted for no reason. “Sorry, I couldn’t figure out why Caitlyn would be here on a Saturday.”

  The person in question spoke up. “Ricky had a doctor’s appointment at our normal time on Wednesday, so we rescheduled for today. I didn’t want him to miss a lesson. I hope that was okay.”

  “Sure, that’s fine. I should have known it was something like that.” He dropped his duffel on the floor. “Blame my craziness on crossing a few too many time zones in a short period of time coupled with a serious lack of sleep.”

  Ricky finally joined the conversation. “Man, I hate to say it, but you look like hell and smell worse. Didn’t they have showers or razors wherever you were?”

  Jack ran his hand over the three days of whiskers on his face as he fought back the urge to flip the kid off. His mother wouldn’t approve, not to mention it would set a poor example in front of their guest. Truthfully, though, he was too tired to care. “For that remark, kid, you can carry my bag out to the annex as soon as you’re done with your lesson.”

  As he opened the duffel to pull out a plastic shopping bag, Caitlyn stared at him, her lips twitching a bit as if fighting to hold back a grin. “He can take it now. We were just finishing up.”

  Ricky groaned as he picked up the bag with his good hand and held it out at arm’s length as he walked away. “Fine, but if I get some kind of cooties from this filthy thing, I’m not going to be happy.”

  Still complaining, he hea
ded for the back of the house. Jack waited until he was out of sight to speak. “How did he do while I was gone? Any problems?”

  His mother answered first. “None that I noticed. In fact, he stuck pretty close to home the entire time, which I suspect was some of your doing. He kept checking on me even when I was upstairs sewing. I finally banished him from that room until further notice.”

  Personally, Jack thought it was a good sign that the boy had taken Jack’s request to heart that he should keep an eye on her. “I’m glad to hear that he wasn’t any trouble for you.”

  He finally turned his attention to the other woman in the room. “How has he been for you?”

  Caitlyn looked pleased. “He’s been working hard on all of his assignments. I left his progress report on the table for you, but the short answer is that he’s doing great.”

  “Good.”

  There was something he meant to be doing, but his brain was so fried he couldn’t figure out what that might be. Luckily, his mother stepped up to bat.

  “Although I might have been more tactful about it, I think Ricky was right, son. You look like a stiff breeze would blow you over right now. Why don’t the two of you go have a seat in the dining room while I make us all some sandwiches?”

  When Caitlyn looked as if she was going to protest, Jack stopped her. “I’d like to hear more about how Ricky is doing, and it would be rude of me to eat in front of you. If you don’t believe me, just ask my mom.”

  It was clear she was still hesitant. “Come on, Caitlyn. You have to each lunch someplace. It might as well be here.”

  “Well, if you’re sure I’m not imposing.”

  He sealed the deal by taking her hand in his as he led her back into the dining room. “Mom wouldn’t have offered if she minded.”

  In the dining room, she tugged her hand free and took a seat on the far side of the table. Rather than crowd her, he dropped into the chair directly opposite of hers. At least that way he had a perfect excuse to look at her while they ate.

  “How was your trip?”

  What could he say to that? It wasn’t that he had to keep it a secret that he worked for Gabe occasionally. It was the nature of that work that he didn’t feel comfortable discussing. He’d found over the years that while civilians knew on a theoretical level what a soldier’s work entailed, they didn’t much like to know the details when it came to someone they actually knew. He’d seen a lot of combat during his tenure in the Special Forces and wouldn’t have hesitated to use deadly force to protect Gabe’s client if it had been called for.

  He settled for saying, “It was fine. I was helping out a friend. I would’ve been home sooner except my original flight, which was nonstop, got canceled. The replacement flight had two stopovers and wasn’t the most direct route home.”

  “Sounds like you had a rough time of it.”

  “I’ve had worse.”

  Although now that he thought about it, Ricky hadn’t been wrong. Jack was in bad need of that shower and a shave, not to mention some clothes he hadn’t been living in for the past two days. “I do apologize for my appearance, though.”

  The color of her eyes heated up to the hue of molten silver as she stared at him. “No need for that. A little scruff looks real good on you.”

  Okay, then, maybe the attraction wasn’t all one-sided. Just as quickly as the small surge of heat between them came, it disappeared and Caitlyn was all business again. She smiled and reached for a paper next to Ricky’s textbooks on the far end of the table and held it out to him. “Here’s my weekly report on Ricky’s progress.”

  He quickly scanned the report and then went back over it a second time more slowly. “So he’s doing all right?”

  “He’s doing fine. I introduced two new subjects this week—language arts and geometry. So far, he’s keeping up with the assignments and working hard.”

  Then she lowered her voice. “To be honest, he’s just about been my best summer student ever. I’m amazed that he hasn’t complained even once about the workload.”

  “That’s good to hear.” Jack leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I can’t promise that will always be the case, but I figure we should be grateful for his good behavior for as long as it lasts.”

  Caitlyn immediately nodded. “Amen to that. I work with a lot of at-risk kids and know that it can be a bit of a roller-coaster ride.”

  “That’s true enough. A rough home life combined with surging hormones is a volatile mix.” It certainly had been that way for him.

  She tilted her head to the side as if to study him. “Are you talking about Ricky or from your own experience?”

  What had his mother been telling Caitlyn? No matter. As always, he reminded himself how far he’d come from those days. “A little of both. He and I have a lot in common.”

  He hated the pity in her gray eyes. “Don’t feel sorry for me, Caitlyn. Thanks to Marlene and Joe, my brothers and I are among the lucky ones.”

  His mother walked into the room carrying a tray heaped high with sandwich makings. “Don’t sell yourself short, Jack. I won’t deny that your father and I offered the three of you a helping hand, but never forget that all of you were smart enough to make the most of it.”

  Jack hurried to take the tray from her, stopping long enough to kiss his mother on the cheek. “I’ll take this.”

  She protested. “Don’t be silly. You’re the one who’s exhausted. Go sit down before you fall down.”

  Using a stage whisper, he said, “Nothing like making me look weak in front of Caitlyn, Mom.”

  His mother rolled her eyes and immediately surrendered the tray. “Fine. You carry it the remaining four feet.”

  When he sat it down on the table, Caitlyn grinned at him and fanned herself with her hand. “Whew, that was an amazing display of manliness!”

  His mother laughed. “Wasn’t it, though?”

  It was nice seeing Marlene enjoying herself. Time to call in the reinforcements. “Hey, Ricky! Get in here. These women have got me outnumbered, and I’m too tired to defend myself.”

  “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

  The kid appeared in the doorway to the kitchen with a second tray balanced on his one good arm. This one contained glasses filled with ice and several cans of soft drinks. It looked like a disaster waiting to happen, but Jack hesitated before offering the kid a helping hand. He held his breath until the teenager got within reach and then took the tray from him.

  While Ricky set about handing out the drinks, Jack said, “Caitlyn says you’re doing great with your schoolwork.”

  The kid flushed a little red. “I like math.”

  “Nothing wrong with being good at math. You’d be surprised how often it comes in handy.”

  When Ricky looked a bit skeptical, Jack said, “Seriously. The army uses math in a lot of ways. It takes math to read latitude and longitude on a map. Army engineers need it to build stuff like bridges or to blow them up, for that matter. Hell, snipers use geometry and other calculations to determine the right angle for taking a long-distance shot.”

  The boy’s eyes lit up with interest, but Jack couldn’t help but notice the two women at the table didn’t look anywhere near as happy as Ricky did. Oops, maybe they thought he should be using different examples.

  “Remember the roof I was working on those days you helped me? Well, I used simple geometry to figure out the number of shingles it would take to cover the area that needed to be repaired. That’s just one way we use math in the construction trade. I’m hoping that once your arm is out of the cast, you’ll come out on jobs with me again. If you do, you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

  When he glanced in Caitlyn’s direction, she gave him a small nod and smiled. Okay, then. At least that part met with her approval. To change subjects, he reached for the bag he’d set on the table.

  “I didn’t get much chance to shop while I was gone, but I did bring back a few things.” He pulled a T-shirt out of the ba
g and tossed it at Ricky. The kid held it up and groaned at the corny statement on the front that declared that all he got was a stupid T-shirt. Even so, he looked pleased.

  “Mom, the airport’s gift shop was pretty limited, but I thought you might like this.”

  He held out a small cookbook on the cuisine of the country-not-to-be-named where he’d been playing babysitter.

  She gave him a pleased smile. “Thank you. I’d say you shouldn’t have, but you know how I love new cookbooks.”

  As she flipped through the pages, he took out the last item in the sack. The other two purchases had been spur-of-the-moment buys, things he’d snatched off the rack and paid for without a lot of thought. This one had taken him far longer to pick out.

  He leaned across the table to set the small box in front of Caitlyn. “I saw these and thought you might need a new addition to your menagerie.”

  She stared first at the small box and then up at him as if unsure how to react. “Go ahead and open it, Caitlyn. I promise it won’t bite.”

  He realized they had an audience in Ricky and his mother. This could get awkward if Caitlyn got in her head that it was inappropriate for her to accept a gift from him. Maybe he should have waited until another time, one that was more private, to give Caitlyn her present. Finally, she picked up the box and lifted the lid.

  The slow smile that spread across her face was all the thanks he would ever need. She met his gaze for a second time, but this time there was nothing but happiness in her expression. “Thank you, Jack. They’re perfect.”

  “You don’t have any like them?”

  She lifted the earrings from the box and held them up so everyone could see them. “I can honestly say that these are my very first gargoyle earrings. I and my menagerie thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Ricky clearly didn’t know what to think about the small silver beasts, while Marlene’s expression was a great deal more calculating, never a good thing. Time to change the subject. He reached for the plate full of cold cuts. “So, where is all this food I’ve heard so much about?”