Everyday Hero

by Jo Leigh

  “Five brothers. I don’t recommend it.”

  Peter, sitting in his usual seat next to Molly, grunted but didn’t bother to look up. He just went on with his crossword puzzle.

  “Five-letter word for a guy who grunts but doesn’t speak,” Molly said. “Begins with an M, ends with an N. ”

  Peter grunted again. Kate noticed, however, that the fingers around his pen shifted so to that one stuck out prominently. “I love that you two kids get along so well,” she said. “It gives me goose bumps.”

  “So does your shower.”

  Kate turned to see T.J. standing at the doorway. His hair was wet, his cheeks smooth from his shave. The T-shirt he wore said L.A.P.D. on the breast pocket. It was the same blue as his shorts.

  “That’s what happens when you get up late. The water’s only hot for the first two customers. After that it’s all downhill.”

  “Thanks for telling me.” He walked over to the coffeepot.

  Kate saw his stiff-legged movement and smiled. “So, you ready to run again today?”

  T.J.’s cup slipped, he played a little volleyball with it, then lost it to the counter. It didn’t break. “I think I’ll pass.”

  “How come?” She shouldn’t goad him. It wasn’t nice. “Sore, are we?”

  “We are not sore. We just have better things to do than run to the beach every day.”

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  “Like talk to Bobby. Find out what he was doing yesterday on his field trip.”

  “Speaking of Bobby,” Kate said. “Someone go make sure he’s up, okay?”

  Molly looked at Peter. Peter looked back at her, then turned once again to his puzzle.

  “Sheesh,” she said. “What a maroon.”

  “You’re the one he’s in love with,” Peter said.

  She stood up, walked behind Peter and bent low so her mouth was close to his ear. “Don’t be jealous, Peter darling. He’s too young for you anyway.”

  “Get out of here, you little twit.”

  Molly scooted away from him, laughing.

  “Is it always like this?” T.J. asked as he sat down at the table.

  Kate nodded. “Mostly. Did you sleep all right?”

  He shrugged his shoulders and flinched at the movement. “Sure.”

  “I’ve got some deep-heating rub if you want.”

  He gave her a look that told her what she could do with the rub.

  “Suit yourself.”

  He drank his coffee, keeping his gaze down. She looked down, too, at her white shorts and her impossible legs. Molly always said she wished she were tall, like her, but Kate figured that was just foolishness. Being a giant was great on the basketball court, or on the track, but anywhere else it was uncomfortable. Her gaze moved back to T.J. Did he think about her height? Did it bother him?

  “He’s up,” Molly said, walking back to her chair. “But he’s not happy.”

  “Is he going to join us?” Kate asked.

  “Yep. As soon as he gets dressed. He sleeps in the nude, you know.”

  Kate laughed and T.J. turned a surprised eye toward her.

  “I’m not even going to ask how you know that,” Kate said. “I just hope you didn’t embarrass the boy to death.”

  She shrugged, then ran her hand through her crew cut. The movement lifted her tank top, revealing her brown, flat stomach and her belly button ring.

  Kate quickly looked at T.J. to see if he’d noticed. He had. “What is that about?” he asked, pointing to her pierced navel. “I mean, what’s it good for?”

  “It’s decorative. Like pierced ears.”

  “It’s barbaric,” he said.

  Molly shook her head. “Poor old Captain Marvel. It might do you some good to get yourself a navel ring. Or a tattoo.”

  “How do you know I don’t have one?”

  “You? Tattooed? Don’t make me laugh.”

  He stood up, gingerly, and pulled his T-shirt off. He turned to the side and there, on his shoulder blade, was a dagger, the same dagger Kate had seen at the beach. It was faded, but the image was still discernible.

  “A dagger,” he said. “As deadly as it is silent.”

  Molly rose. “Oh yeah?” She pulled down the right side of her tank fop, exposing the top of her breast. She was decent, but only just.

  “Black widow spider,” she said. “She mates, then she kills.”

  T.J. checked out the spider and the web. He nodded, then turned again so his other shoulder came into view. There was a small rose, with three thorns on the stem and a teardrop of blood on one petal. Below that was the name, in script, Rosie. “My first girlfriend. She left me for a sailor named Troy.”

  Molly pulled down the waistband of her running shorts and pointed to a curled snake on her rump. “Cobra. He was a biker. He left me when he realized he would never truly satisfy me.”

  “What the hell?”

  Kate and the others turned toward the door. Bobby, still tousled from sleep, stared at Molly’s exposed flesh. “You all perverts, or what?”

  Kate burst out laughing and so did Peter and T.J. Molly simply raised her eyebrows as she raised her waistband. “See what you miss when you sleep late?” she said. “Tomorrow, get up when you’re supposed to.”

  Bobby shook his head in wonderment, his gaze locked on Molly. He swallowed, the movement lifting his Adam’s apple up and down and Kate realized her assistant hadn’t been kidding last night when she’d said Bobby had it bad for her.

  Kate’s gaze moved back to T.J. He still had his T-shirt off and while she meant to give him a head’s-up about Bobby, she got sidetracked there. How come she hadn’t realized he looked like that? His broad shoulders and his arms were perfectly developed, with clear definition. But they didn’t hold a candle to the chest. He was like someone out of a magazine. Just the right amount of hair over smooth, rippling waves of muscle. Her mouth went dry as she looked at his stomach.

  “Hey, Kate,” Molly said. “Put your eyeballs back in.”

  Heat filled her cheeks and she got up quickly. Grabbing her empty coffee cup, she walked to the counter, making sure she made eye contact with no one. “We’ve got half an hour till the troops arrive. Bobby, you work with Molly again today, got it?”

  “I ain’t goin’ back there,” he said bitterly.

  She didn’t bother to look his way. “You say. that as if there’s a choice involved.”

  “Don’t sweat it, Sarducci,” Molly said, her words muffled through her mouthful of bagel. “You did pretty good yesterday, until you bailed.”

  “I don’t want to be no nursemaid. Put me somewhere else.”

  Kate turned back with her full cup just as T.J. said, “You heard the lady. Your job is in the nursery and that’s final.”

  Bobby turned angry eyes to T.J. “You want to bring everyone by to watch me change diapers? Is that it?”

  Bobby hadn’t moved from the door. Kate pulled out the chair next to Peter’s then went to her own. “There’s a cup in the cupboard. Get yourself some coffee and sit down. We’ll discuss this thing calmly.”

  Bobby stared at her hard. She could see that he wanted to bolt again, that a discussion was the last thing he had in mind. But something else was going on there, too. He eyed the “family” scene in front of him, lingering over Molly, of course, but also the spread newspaper, the bagels, Peter’s Pop-Tarts, her bowl of cereal. It was as if he were standing outside a big window, wanting to come in from the cold to a warmth he couldn’t quite feel. She smiled at him and nodded again at the chair.

  He turned the seat so his back would be toward T.J. and sat down. However, he didn’t really join the group. He kept himself apart. His body language was tense and mistrustful and she found herself regretting that she hadn’t warned T.J., before Bobby had gotten up, to keep his cool.

  “Tell me what bothers you about working in the nursery?” she asked, hoping her voice sounded kind to him.

  “It’s a girl’s job,” he said. “I ain’t no gi
rl.”

  Kate could feel Molly tense beside her and she sent silent kudos when her assistant kept her mouth shut. “Taking care of infants isn’t just for women, Bobby. Lots of men do it.”

  “Yeah? Name one.”

  “Well, the most famous baby doctor of them all was a man named Spock.”

  Bobby’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t give me that. He’s on that ”Star Trek.” I’ve seen it.”

  “That’s Mr. Spock. I’m talking about Dr. Spock. Another person altogether. He’s been the leading expert in infant care for over forty years. I’ve got some of his books, if you’d like to read them.”

  “So?”

  “So I’d like you to continue to work with Molly. I think it’s the right place for you.”

  “What about what I think?”

  “You’re going to have to trust me on this. But I’ll tell you what. You work the whole day in the nursery and you don’t give Molly any trouble and tonight, you can join her at the movies.”

  Molly looked up then, but to Kate’s everlasting gratitude, she still kept her cool.

  “What movie?” he asked, his voice just a bit less hostile.

  “Whatever,” Molly said. “I’m not picky.”

  Bobby continued to look at Kate, waiting for the kicker. She sipped her coffee and struggled to keep her eyes on Bobby, not his brother.

  “Why?”

  “Why not? Molly says you’re good with the kids. She needs someone to help her. You’re elected.”

  “No. Why should you let me go out? I ran off, remember?”

  “That was yesterday”

  The silence grew then and in the quiet she could feel T.J.’s gaze pull at her. There would be time for him in a minute. She put her cup down and waited. Then it happened. Bobby’s shoulders relaxed and he moved forward in his chair. He’d given up the warrior stance—for now.

  Molly, bless her little tattooed heart, caught the signal. She stood. “So come on. If you’re going to get coffee, do it now. You can take it with you. We have to get ready.”

  Bobby stood slowly. His gaze moved from Kate to T.J. and his shoulders stiffened, but not too much. He walked, or maybe slunk was a better word for that god-awful gang strut of his, over to the counter. Getting his coffee was a production, with a lot of banging drawers, complaints about the sugar, the milk and finally the coffee itself. Then it was done and he followed Molly out of the room.

  Peter looked up, caught the silent signal that she and T.J. needed to be alone and then he, too, was gone.

  “You want to tell me why you did that?” T.J. asked, his voice low and angry.

  “Did what?”

  “The bribe.”

  “That wasn’t a bribe.”

  “What do you call it?”

  “A beginning.”

  He got up and walked over to her, forcing her to look up at him. It didn’t work. She wasn’t intimidated. Not about Bobby at least. However, there was something about being that close to T.J., to his bare legs and that incredible, unfortunately covered, chest.

  “That sounds poetic,” he said, with a tinge of sarcasm. “What the hell does it mean?”

  She couldn’t keep looking up at him. She didn’t like what he was trying to do and when she stood, she made sure she rose to her full height. Things weren’t so one-sided now. They were eye-to-eye and she could stare with the best of them. “If you want to talk about my techniques, Detective, I’ll be happy to. What I won’t do is justify myself in my center. Are we clear about that?”

  He didn’t say anything. His eyes narrowed in the exact same way his little brother’s had just a moment ago. But where she knew Bobby had wanted to bolt, T.J. wanted to pounce. He came closer to her and suddenly she wasn’t at all sure that this was about psychology. No, this was basic chemistry.

  His lips parted and she could see a hint of his even, white teeth. His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, and she knew he was inhaling her scent. He scanned her face with rapid movements, his gaze darting from the top of her head to her mouth, where he stopped and stared for a long time.

  “Are you planning on following him around the rest of his life,” he said, never moving his gaze. “Giving him little rewards whenever he does the right thing?”

  She shook her head slowly, still mesmerized by the closeness of him. “This isn’t about rewards, it’s about consequences. Good consequences.”

  “Semantics. That”s—”

  “No, it’s not semantics. It’s about believing in your own worth. Knowing that doing the right thing means something.”

  He shifted his weight, moving a quarter of an inch closer to her. She noticed a scar, a tiny one, above his right eyebrow and wondered where he got it.

  “All his life,” she continued, “Bobby has only known disappointment. In school, at home. With you.” She said that last softly, but said it nonetheless. T.J.’s only reaction was to close his mouth and press his lips together.

  “What we need to do now is replace those negative reinforcements with something positive. Give him a reason to succeed.”

  “Not going to jail seems like a damn good reason to me.”

  She shook her head. “Try it my way, okay? What do you have to lose?”

  His eyes captured hers again and the urge to step back was nearly unbearable.

  “I stand to lose everything,” he said, his voice low and dangerous.

  “Bobby—”

  “I’m not talking about Bobby.”

  He moved closer and she knew what was coming. For a second, she felt the urge to flee. Then it was too late. His lips came down on hers, hard, hard and oh, soft, too.

  Her eyes fluttered closed and she acquiesced as the ground beneath her seemed to slip away. His scent was masculine and indefinable. His taste, hot coffee and sin. When his arm came around her back and pressed her to him, she felt the hard parts of him. His chest, his naked thighs. And more than that, she felt his sex. Rigid, thick, pressing her at the juncture of her thighs.

  The sound of laughter came from somewhere far away. She tried not to hear it, to keep her concentration on now, this instant.

  Then the choice was gone as he stepped away and all contact was lost between them.

  “I’d better go get ready,” he said. She barely recognized his voice.

  “The kids...”

  He nodded.

  “1-”

  He didn’t give her a chance to speak. He turned quickly and headed for the door. Just as he was about to go down the hall, he stopped and looked back at her. “It’s too risky,” he said. “I don’t belong here.”

  Then he was gone.

  Chapter 8

  T.J. didn’t go running. Not because of his aching muscles, although that was a hell of a good reason, but because he needed to keep his distance from Kate.

  He stood in the back of the big room, watching the swarm of kids buzz around the pool tables and each other. The noise was almost loud enough to drown out his thoughts, but not quite.

  He hadn’t meant to kiss her. It had been the last thing on his mind. Until she’d gotten close. Damn it, she’d shanghaied him, that’s what it was. He wasn’t sure how, something to do with female magic or voodoo. He’d looked into those green eyes, smelled that Kate smell and then “Mr. Happy” had taken over.

  What was he supposed to do now? He’d been here only a couple of days and he was ready to do the horizontal bop with the Amazon queen. Was it just last week he’d thought her mildly attractive? Not his type? Yeah, right.

  Well, it couldn’t happen. In four and a half weeks, he would be out of here, back in Hollywood, back in the real world. Bobby would be in school or in a gang—either way, T.J.’s conscience would be assuaged and this little vacation would be nothing but a sidebar.

  In the meantime he needed to keep both his mouth and his jeans zipped. Concentrate on convincing Bobby that he had a chance at life. Let Kate try her Dr. Spock methods and her fancy Gestalt therapy. No one would ever be able to say he hadn’t give
n this experiment a chance. But he didn’t want to be around for the inevitable failure.

  Kate would be devastated and as sure as his name was Russo, she would end up blaming him. That would make it unanimous. Well, not for this cop. He had enough of that from his mother. Not to mention good ol’ Gus.

  All T.J. had to do was remember who he was and the problem with Kate would disappear. Sure, he would have a few laughs, shoot a few hoops, keep Danny at a distance. Why not? Hell, at the very least, he could use the time to get himself back in shape. There were worse things.

  “Hey, Mr. Russo. Aren’t you even going to say hi?”

  T.J. looked to his right. Alice Dee stood there, wearing itty-bitty shorts, a tube top and a practiced pout. Her hands were on her hips and a flash of a lady he’d once known for a couple of blurred nights back in San Francisco crossed his mind. “How you doin’,” he said, keeping his voice firmly in neutral.

  “Not so good. Everyone’s gone out running, except for you, of course.”

  His gaze swept over the sixty or so kids milling about. “Everyone, huh?”

  She nodded. “Everyone who matters.”

  “So why didn’t you go, too?”

  “I get my exercise in other ways.”

  “Uh-huh. Well, nice talking to you, Alice.” He made a quick getaway, backing up until his legs hit a study table, then he did a cross-court dash to Kate’s office.

  Fifteen more minutes and Kate would be back. Then basketball. He went behind her desk and sat down, keeping an eye out for Alice. At least it was quiet in here.

  He pulled open Kate’s bottom desk drawer with his foot and got himself comfortable. With his feet up and his hands behind his head, he could lean back just enough to see most of the crowd through the windows. He found the twins, what were their names? One was busy with some sort of arts and crafts, the other was dressed in a cheerleading outfit, leading a group of girls in some energetic routines.

  He felt calm for the first time this morning. Maybe kissing Kate hadn’t been such a bad idea. It helped him get clear, focused. He was back in control, which was just how he liked things. No complications, no involvements. Just because Kate made him laugh and had legs that could stop traffic, was no reason to discard the lessons life had taught him. He was a big boy and he didn’t have to let his libido lead him around. There were plenty of fish in the sea, right? Hell, maybe if he worked on it, he could come up with a few more clichés.