To Protect Her Son

by Stella MacLean

  The officer was shot in the thigh and bone fragments nicked the femoral artery. The emergency response team who rushed to the scene was responsible for saving Officer Perry’s life.

  Gayle would never forget those words screaming across the front page of the Orange County Register, or the naked fear she’d survived for weeks as she’d waited, expecting to be arrested any moment. Her anxiety as she watched the apartment door that day for Harry to return, praying that it hadn’t been him. That he couldn’t have shot an officer of the law. But he had, even bragged about it, and threatened to beat her and kick her out if she told anyone.

  Harry needn’t have worried. What he’d done that day, and what she’d done in the months following, would forever be her secret. “Are you sure about this?” she asked Sherri.

  “Why not? You said yourself that you’re worried about Adam. Let me help you. Nate’s a professional and knows what he’s doing. He’s helped lots of kids over the past six years since he returned from Boston.”

  Boston or Anaheim. It didn’t matter. Gayle would never be able to erase the memories of those months after the shooting, the fear and self-loathing. She hadn’t been honest when the police officers had come in search of information. She’d been too afraid of what Harry would do if he found out she’d been talking to the police.

  All she’d ever wanted from the day she’d escaped her parents’ world of drugs and arguments was a place where she could feel safe. A defiant teenager, she’d run off with Harry Young, a dangerous con man who’d promised to look after her. Now, fourteen years later, she still wanted to be safe. Only now she also wanted to be free from the fear that someday she would have to face her ex-husband.

  Gayle closed her eyes, a second’s respite from the cold reality of her past. “It might work.”

  “Well, while you’re thinking about it, why don’t you come over to the house for a barbecue? The weather’s lovely. Neill has done a fantastic job putting a new deck on the back of the house, and we can talk wedding talk.” She smiled in encouragement. “Remember how much help you were to me when I was going through that awful time with Neill? Let me return the favor. You need to forget your worries for a while. And we need to pick out the flowers for the ceremony. I’ll talk to Nate when I get the chance, and we’ll find a way to make it happen. You can trust me.”

  Gayle wasn’t good at trusting anyone. Not even her best friend. Yet an evening out would help her gain perspective, and allow her to share in Sherri’s happiness. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”

  “Then leave it with me. I’ll talk to Neill and get back to you.”

  * * *

  LATER THAT WEEK, as the sun’s light began to create long silhouettes along the tree line, broken only by the roof of the old barn at the back of Neill’s house, Gayle found herself sitting with Sherri and her fiancé on the new deck.

  She had to agree with Sherri that the deck Neill had built on the back of the old house made a wonderful space for relaxing after a long day at work.

  “Neill and I love this property, and plan to live here for a very long time,” Sherri said. A salt-tinged breeze moved through the pines behind the barn, creating a sighing sound that enhanced the gentle quiet of the evening.

  Gayle looked at her two friends, and couldn’t stop the envy rising through her. All her life she’d wanted to be married to a man who truly loved her, and to live in a lovely old home looking out on the water. But what Gayle wanted had never been anyone’s priority, not even her own. It was a stroke of luck and fate that had given her the charming Victorian house she now owned in downtown Eden Harbor. Simply a case of her being the last remaining relative of someone she’d never even met.

  All of that aside, she was delighted to be having dinner at Dr. Brandon’s home, and even more thrilled that Sherri had chosen her over all her other friends to be her maid of honor. Gayle felt blessed to see what her life had become. The only down note was Adam’s recent change in behavior.

  “Would anyone like more wine?” Neill asked, holding up the bottle of chardonnay.

  Gayle’s head was already feeling light. “No, thank you. Not me,” she said, placing her hand gently over the top of her glass. She wasn’t much of a drinker and had never taken drugs after growing up in the chaos of her mother and stepfather’s house.

  Sherri shook her head. “One glass does it for me. I need to check my blood sugar now that I’ve eaten to be sure it’s okay.”

  Gayle remembered the day Sherri had ended up in Emergency after going into diabetic shock, and how afraid everyone had been. In the end it had proved to be what Sherri and Neill needed to get their priorities straight and realize how much they loved each other. It was the first time Gayle had ever seen the powerful impact love could have someone’s life. She was sure that other people understood that power, but she didn’t.

  “Why don’t I carry some things into the house for you?” Gayle asked.

  Neill pushed back his chair. “That sounds great. While you ladies do your thing in the kitchen, I’ll put the barbecue away. Later, we can all sit here and enjoy the evening light...and talk.”

  Gayle followed Sherri into the kitchen, placing the dishes on the counter while Sherri loaded the dishwasher. When Sherri reached for her meter to check her blood sugar, Gayle glanced around the huge kitchen. She had only been inside the house once before when she had come to pick Sherri up to go to a movie. She was completely in awe of the kitchen’s beautiful wood cabinets, and panoramic view of the back gardens.

  “Did you get a new table and chairs?” she asked, realizing she hadn’t seen the wooden table surrounded by four wooden chairs with navy-blue-and-white cushions before.

  “It’s new. The set Neill brought from Boston when he moved back home was all glass and wrought iron, not really a good match for the interior of this house. But he’d wanted his daughter, Morgan, to have as many things from her old life as possible, even though he’d disliked the modern set virtually from the day his ex bought it.”

  “Did you and Neill choose this together?”

  “We did. Our first purchase for our home.” Sherri smiled, her eyes alight with enthusiasm. “I have never been so excited in my life. After everything we’ve been through, all those years of misunderstanding and being apart from each other, marrying the wrong people, will finally be behind us in less than two months.”

  Gayle hugged her friend. “You will be so gorgeous in that antique lace wedding dress. Being with you when you picked it out was a really special moment for me.” She wanted to tell her friend that she’d never been a part of anybody’s wedding before, but divulging any details of her past would lead to questions she couldn’t risk answering.

  “And you and Morgan in your green dresses... Morgan is so pleased to be part of the wedding party. She’s talked about it for hours on end. Her favorite thing is that she got to pick out the color. And I’m so glad Neill’s best friend from medical school, Mark Leighton, can be a groomsman along with Nate.”

  “Are we going to go over the flower choices tonight? And what about the reception? Have you chosen flowers for the tables yet?” Gayle pointed to the florist’s three-ring binder on the counter next to the phone.

  Sherri sighed, her gaze turning anxious. “Let’s sit down. I need to talk to you about something first.”

  Gayle tried to block her anxiety. Had Sherri been pressured into making someone else her maid of honor, someone who had a longer history of friendship with her than Gayle? “Sure. Go ahead,” she said, forcing her tone to be upbeat.

  “Please don’t feel I’m prying into your life, but I need to ask you if anything has changed where Adam is concerned since he came into the clinic the other morning.”

  Gayle forced her shoulders into a shrug and smiled gamely. “He’s been home the past two nights well before his curfew. We came to an agreement over the game he
wants to buy. I loaned him the money, and he’ll pay me back when he mows lawns this weekend.”

  “How’s he doing in school?”

  Gayle had spent hours convincing Adam to do his homework this week. She’d made two trips back to the school to get materials he needed to complete his assignments, two of which she’d discovered were overdue. “Adam isn’t much of a student at the best of times.”

  “What else is going on with him? Does he tell you where he’s been when he’s late?”

  Gayle didn’t want to talk about Adam and spoil her only social outing in weeks. “Adam seems to be doing a little better.”

  Sherri sighed. “I’m glad to hear that. What about the next time he stays out too late, or makes a scene at your work?”

  Obviously her friend wasn’t going to let this go. “I know you think he needs help, but I need a little time to convince Adam to go along with seeing a counselor,” she said. That wasn’t the complete truth. She hadn’t broached the subject with her son yet. How she wished she could tell Sherri about her sordid past, about Harry, about her lies. But she was afraid of what her friend would think.

  If she told anyone about her past, her present life would be over. Her son didn’t know the truth about his father, and couldn’t be told under any circumstances. And now that Gayle had all the things she needed so desperately in her life, she had to keep her past to herself.

  Moving to Eden Harbor on the coast of Maine, a continent away, had provided her with enough distance to restart her life. After her divorce, she’d changed back to her maiden name, and she’d left her past behind. She would not let anything stop her now.

  One thing she was certain of—telling Sherri about her past would end their friendship. Sherri had shared so much with Gayle. She’d told her the full story of her past with Neill, and all the heartache she’d survived because of him, her miscarriage, her ill-fated marriage to another man, her return to Eden Harbor, all of it. Close friends shared their lives with one another. Should Sherri learn that Gayle’s fictional life back in California wasn’t true, she would be hurt, and the trust between them destroyed.

  “Why don’t you give Nate a chance to help Adam? He is so good with teenagers. He’d be perfect.”

  “How can you be so sure? Besides, he must have a full case load already.”

  Sherri gave her a smug grin. “Doesn’t matter. Nate won’t say no to me. So what do you say?”

  “Tell me more about him,” Gayle asked, realizing too late that she didn’t want to hear about the shooting of another police officer. She didn’t want to learn firsthand how a family as nice as Sherri’s had lived through Nate’s injuries. It would only serve to remind her of another family that had been devastated by the shots fired from Harry’s weapon.

  Sherri grinned with pride. “Nate is the white knight in the family, always riding to the rescue whenever any of his cousins are in trouble. He’s been a rock that we’ve all leaned on at one time or another. Right now he’s helping out his sister, Anna Barker. She’s a single mom with two boys.”

  Gayle knew Anna from the single-parents group she’d joined when she first moved to Eden Harbor. She really liked her, looked forward to the meetings. She considered Anna her closest friend after Sherri. “Anna’s a member of my single-parents group. We always try to sit together at the meetings. I had no idea...”

  “Yeah, she’s Nate’s current project, now that he doesn’t have to look out for me. Anna told me the other day he’s beginning to hover. She was only teasing, of course. We’re all so lucky to have him.” Sherri chuckled. “I don’t know what Anna would do without him. I’m surprised she never mentioned him to you.”

  “We mostly talk about our kids at the meeting. The couple of times we’ve gone out to coffee it’s been to discuss work and that sort of thing.”

  “Well, ask her the next time you see her, and she’ll tell you what it’s like when Nate takes an interest in your welfare.” Sherri led the way to the kitchen table, cups of coffee in hand, and they slid into chairs opposite each other. “So what about it?”

  “About what?” Gayle asked, stalling for time. She didn’t want to turn down her friend’s offer of support. She didn’t want anything to jeopardize her relationship with Sherri. She was looking forward to the wedding, to being part of her friend’s happiness. She’d never been to a wedding in her entire life, let alone a member of the wedding party. She loved the green dress with the tight bodice and scooped neckline, the full-length skirt that hugged her body past her knees before flaring out at the bottom. She felt so sexy in it.

  Uncertainty filled her heart and mind. How was she going to turn down Sherri’s offer to have her cousin help Adam without Sherri feeling hurt? On one hand, she was well aware that Adam could benefit from the help of a professional. On the other, she didn’t want that help coming from someone so closely linked to Sherri and Anna. “I’m... Are you sure Nate would be willing to help? Have you asked him already?”

  “No, of course not. I wanted to talk to you first.” Sherri glanced at her anxiously. “Gayle, are you all right?”

  “I’m...fine.” She rubbed her sweaty palms together, and glanced at her watch. “But I really should get home. I promised Adam we’d watch a movie together tonight, part of my plan to get to the bottom of what’s going on with him.”

  “That sounds good. We can talk about the wedding flowers another time.”

  “Oh! Sorry! I forgot we were doing that this evening. I’ll call Adam and let him know I won’t be home for a while.”

  Sherri’s smile was reassuring. “No. Don’t do that. The flowers will be really easy to decide. I’ve pretty well made up my mind about what kind I want. All I need you to do is help me pick out the actual arrangements from the florist’s book.”

  Gayle said her goodbyes and headed to her car. She had to stop worrying about something that would never happen. She’d spent too much time worrying about the past. Getting help for Adam was all that mattered.

  CHAPTER TWO

  A WEEK LATER, Gayle was putting the last load of clothes in the washer and looking forward to watching The Comedy Network on television. She’d been ironing all evening, a tedious chore but one she insisted upon doing every week. Ironing her sheets, pressing the edges of her towels, ironing her jeans, gave her a sense of order. She’d always done the ironing, even as a child living in the midst of her parents’ disorganized existence. Tonight it was helping her remain calm.

  Adam had gone out with a friend four hours earlier with the firm promise that he would keep his curfew of ten o’clock. It was nearly eleven, and he still hadn’t returned. She only knew the name of one of the other boys—Derrick Little. She’d called his mother to be told that Derrick had been home for over an hour, and she didn’t know where Adam could be.

  She had just unplugged the iron, leaving it on the board to cool, when the doorbell rang. Relief mingled with anxiety, making her bump her wrist against the hot surface of the iron. “Ouch!” she muttered as she headed to the front door, holding her stinging wrist across her chest.

  When she peeked through the sidelights of the wide wooden door she saw the clear outline of a police officer standing next to her son. Her heart sagged. Her mind stilled at the fear of what this could mean. Sucking in her breath, she lowered her injured wrist and opened the door.

  “Gayle Sawyer?”

  She nodded, her gaze fixed on Adam. His face was bruised, his eyes angry. There was a small cut on his forehead. “What happened?” She reached for her son, who immediately stepped back, out of her grasp.

  She clutched the door frame for support. “Adam, are you all right?”

  “I’m Officer Edwards. May I come in? Your son’s been in a fight with a group of teens. We need to talk to you.”

  “A fight. My son doesn’t do that. We’ve talked about it many times. About how f
ighting is not the way to solve disagreements and how important it is to respect others...”

  She forced herself to stop talking. If she didn’t she’d cry. She would not cry in front of a police officer. She would remain calm.

  “Please come in. Can I get you a cup of coffee?” she asked, not knowing what to do once the tall young officer was standing in her living room. She couldn’t look at Adam, and let him see the worry in her eyes. As much as he was being difficult at the moment, he was a good kid. She would not prejudge him, certainly not with a police officer as a witness.

  “Thank you, but no. May we sit here?” the officer asked, nodding toward the sofa and chair in front of the angel stone fireplace.

  “Certainly.” Still unable to look at Adam, she led the way into the room and sat on the armchair next to the fireplace, leaving Adam and the officer to sit together on the sofa.

  Adam slouched in one corner, his eyes fixed on the fireplace mantel. Was he not going to look at her, or volunteer even one word of explanation? “What’s this all about?” she asked the officer, but her gaze remained fixed on her son.

  “There was a fight among a group of boys down along the waterfront this evening. Several of those involved were taken to the police station. I thought it more appropriate to bring your son home while we talked a bit.”

  “What did Adam do?” Gayle’s heart crushed against her ribs as memories of another evening flashed across her mind. The police had shown up at the apartment where she and Harry lived, looking to talk to Harry. When they’d realized she was alone, they’d left. Before they did they told her that Harry was wanted in the shooting of a police officer. If she was withholding any information she could face serious charges. While she’d been waiting to tell Harry that he would be a father in a few months, over a nice dinner she’d made for the two of them, he’d been out shooting a cop.

  “Is Adam charged with anything?”