Still on the phone, Lucas turned toward Katie and flashed a thumbs-up and a smile, then reached out and draped an arm around her shoulder as she nearly sagged in relief. Lucas drew her closer, kissing the top of her head as he continued to talk. He could feel the warmth of her soft curves as she all but sagged against him in relief, and he kissed her head again.
“Yes, Patience, she is? Good. No. Can you keep her there for me? Just tell her I’ll be right there. And yes, I’ll explain it’s my fault you have a dog in the diner.” He hung up the phone and grinned at Katie. “She’s there and she’s definitely fighting with Patience, but Patience is going to keep her there until I get there.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Katie said, feeling a rush of relief. It was very hard to fight whatever was drawing her toward Lucas simply because he was so kind and she’d always been a sucker for kindness in a man.
Especially a gorgeous man.
Katie sighed, inhaling Lucas’s male scent as she allowed herself to lean against him for a moment. It had been so long since she’d had anyone to lean on, especially when she was frightened or faced a crisis, that she’d forgotten how wonderful it was, knowing she wasn’t alone, knowing there was someone right next to her, supporting and sharing her burden. Even if it was only for a few moments of a day, she was heartily grateful, especially since she didn’t really need another crisis to handle today.
“See, sweetheart, I told you.” Gracie turned toward them with a smile.
“Miss Gracie, have you had lunch yet?” Lucas asked with a mischievous twinkle in his eye that had Gracie all but blushing.
“Lunch?” Coyly, Gracie patted her curls. “Well, dear, now that you mentioned it, I’m afraid I haven’t.”
“Well, I’d be honored if you’d join us for lunch.”
“But…but what about Louella?”
Lucas grinned and held out his free arm for Gracie. “I’m sure she won’t mind, after all it’s not every day a man gets to escort two beautiful ladies to lunch.” He glanced down at Katie, whom he still had his other arm around. “Unless you’d like to make it three beautiful women?”
Laughing at the compliment, Katie shook her head. “Thanks, Lucas, I appreciate it. But now that I know where my mother is and that she’s safe, I’ve got to get back to work. I’m really pressed for time.”
“All right.” He hesitated. “And don’t worry, I promise I’ll keep an eye on your mother,” he whispered so her aunt couldn’t hear him.
“Thanks,” she said in gratitude. “And I don’t think you or Rusty need to worry about me getting home too early and spoiling his surprise. At this rate, if I’m home before eight it will be a miracle.”
“Don’t discount miracles,” Gracie said, getting up and linking her arm through Lucas. “I’ve seen quite a few in my day.” She patted the pearls around her neck. “Even caused a few, I might add.”
Lucas looked at Katie, who shook her head. “Don’t even think about asking,” she warned him. “Lucas…” Katie hesitated. “Thank you.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, making her aunt’s eyes widen in delight. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done today.”
“No problem,” he said with a grin. “I’ll see you and Rusty tonight, then?”
“Definitely.” She leaned over and kissed her aunt’s cheek. “Thanks, Aunt Gracie.”
“You’re very welcome, dear. I’ll tell your mother you were looking for her.”
“Thanks. Have a great lunch,” Katie said as she dashed toward the door. Lucas and Gracie followed more slowly.
“Now, Lucas,” Gracie began as they started down Main Street. “There’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
“Yes ma’am?”
“They’ve forgiven you, you know,” she said quietly, turning to meet his startled gaze. His heart began to thud hard and heavy in his chest and he almost stumbled over his own two feet.
“Who?”
“Your family,” Gracie said quietly, giving his arm a reassuring pat with her free hand as his face drained of color. “Your wife, Brenda, and your son, Todd. They forgave you a very long time ago, Lucas. Now don’t you think it’s time you forgave yourself, dear?”
Lucas turned to her, all but stopping in the middle of the sidewalk again. “Miss Gracie…how on earth did you know…” He let his voice trail off, not certain he really wanted to know.
Smiling serenely, she merely nudged him along. “You know, dear, guilt intensifies our grief, allowing it to move through us like a syrup, spreading all through our system, covering our feelings and emotions and basically paralyzing them.”
“But—”
“I know, dear, and it’s only natural after what you’ve been through, but you aren’t really living if you don’t allow yourself to feel now, are you?”
He had to think about that for a moment, and realized perhaps for the first time he really wasn’t living—just existing, going through the motions of life every day just wanting to get the day over with so he could be alone to savor and nurture his grief.
“I guess you’re right,” he admitted quietly.
“It’s understandable, dear,” she said with a smile. “But they’ve forgiven you, don’t you think it’s time for you to forgive yourself? It wasn’t your fault, Lucas. Not at all. No one could have stopped or prevented what happened. Not even you, unless of course you’ve been granted divine powers?” she asked, her face ever hopeful as she looked up at him.
“Uh…no,” he said firmly, shaking his head. “No divine power, no power at all as far as I can tell.”
“A pity, really,” she said with a sigh. “But no matter. There’s no point in blaming yourself for something you couldn’t stop or change, now is there?” She smiled. “You know, Lucas, they’d want you to be happy.”
“I am happy,” he insisted.
“You’re not, dear. Not yet,” she disagreed with a slow, charming smile. “But you will be, dear.” She gave his arm another reassuring pat. “Soon. Very soon. I promise.
“Hey, Lucas?” Rusty said as he came bounding out the back door, letting it slam shut behind him. Dressed in ragged cutoffs, a faded T-shirt, sneakers and a Chicago Bears baseball cap that Lucas had given him earlier, he bolted down the back stairs two at a time.
“That was Ma on the phone.” Rusty rolled his eyes as he jumped down the last two steps. “Again. Jeez, doesn’t she know you can watch a kid like me without getting into trouble?” he asked with a frown.
Normally his grandma came and stayed with him after school. But today, she’d gone home when Lucas got here, and they’d spent all this time doing guy stuff—well, once they got all the boxes inside the house unpacked for his ma.
And his ma had called about a gazillion times checking on them—both of them. He shook his head. Jeez, he didn’t know why his ma worried so much.
Lucas was really cool, and he’d kinda been wondering what it would be like to have someone cool like that for a dad. Since he never had a dad around all the time, at least not since he’d started school, it was hard to imagine having a father around all the time. Like Sean and all the other guys. Just thinking about it gave him a funny feeling in his stomach. He really liked Lucas, and Lucas had really neat ideas. Like about the clubhouse and stuff.
But Lucas had also talked to him about being a bit more responsible now that his ma was working so many hours trying to get settled in her new job. He’d never thought about the things he could do to make his ma’s life easier. It wasn’t something a guy thought of, but Lucas had.
He’d have never thought to unpack the boxes in the house since he didn’t know what to do with the stuff when he got it unpacked. But Lucas had a cool system. They worked as a team and it went pretty fast. Lucas would unpack a box, and as he took out each item, Rusty would tell him which room the item went in. They’d just made big piles on the living room floor, and when the piles got big enough, they each took a pile, hauled everything to the right room and put it away. It wasn’t so
hard to figure out where to put the stuff when they did it that way.
“What did your mom say?” Lucas asked, glancing up from the swing he’d just finished hanging on the back porch. It was a housewarming present from Louella and Gracie. He’d taken them over to the hardware store this afternoon to pick it up, promising he’d hang it before Katie got home tonight.
“She’s on her way home. Hey, that looks really cool,” Rusty said with a grin, bounding over and giving the swing an experimental push. “My ma’s gonna love it. That’s all she ever talked about when we were in Madison, about how once we finally came home, we were going to buy a house, and she was going to buy a big old porch swing and just sit and swing and watch the world go by.” He shrugged. “Don’t know why anyone would wanna just sit,” he said, scratching the side of his head. “Sounds boring to me, but hey, maybe when I get old like ma, maybe I’ll just want to sit around and stare at nothing, too.”
“You think so?” Lucas asked, trying to keep a straight face, and Rusty nodded.
“Yeah, maybe,” he said with a frown, not sounding too sure. It had grown dark several hours ago, and they’d lit candles and a couple of tiki torches they’d found squirreled away in the garage, giving the yard a nice, amber glow. “Anyway, she’s gonna freak when she sees it.”
“And that’s good?” Lucas asked with a lift of his brow.
“Awesome,” Rusty assured him with a lightning flash grin.
“Awesome, huh?” Lucas repeated with a nod, pleased. He slung an arm companionably around Rusty’s shoulder. He’d been both surprised and pleased at how easy it was to be around Rusty. He was a terrific kid, and just being with Rusty had, as he’d hoped, filled a small piece of that hole in his heart that he’d had ever since his own son’s death. He’d forgotten how much fun being around a kid could be. “I’m very proud of you, Rusty.”
“Me?” Stunned, Rusty’s eyes widened and he shrugged, trying not to look too pleased. “How come?”
“Well, let’s see, you helped unpack the entire house for your mother. You helped me hang the swing, you helped me put the grill together and you had that great idea about the picnic table.” Lucas’s gaze shifted to the backyard. “The table looks pretty awesome, too.”
Rusty surveyed the makeshift picnic table that he and Lucas had put together from two sawhorses and an old door they’d found in the garage.
They’d set the table, put a bunch of candles down the middle for light, and then he’d run over to his grandmother’s to borrow some flowers from her garden and stuck them in an empty olive oil bottle and set it on the table.
“Yeah, it does look pretty good,” Rusty admitted, flushing with pride. “My ma’s gonna be so surprised. She still thinks she’s cooking when she gets home,” he added with a grin.
Lucas glanced at his watch. “It’s almost nine o’clock,” he said with a slight frown. “It’s a little late for her to be cooking after working all day, don’t you think?”
Rusty shrugged. “Guess so.” He’d never really thought about how many hours his ma worked. It was a lot, he suddenly realized, and then she worked when she got home, too. Jeez, didn’t she ever get tired of working?
Lucas moved to the grill to check the coals he’d started almost half an hour ago. “I’m glad we decided to just bake some potatoes and grill a steak.” Lucas tested the coals to see if they were hot enough to put the steak on. “You sure you don’t want to eat?” Lucas asked, turning to Rusty, then adding with a grin, “Again?”
After unpacking the house, they’d walked into town and gotten a pizza for Rusty, since the kid swore he was starving, and he must have been since he all but inhaled the entire pizza. Lucas had forgotten how much boys this age could eat.
“Nah,” Rusty said, rubbing his stomach. “I’m still stuffed from the pizza. I was kinda hoping to go in and start working on the sketches for the clubhouse.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Lucas said with a smile. “Once you show me what you’ve got in mind, I think we can get started on it right away.”
“Really?” Excitement had Rusty nearly dancing in place.
“Yeah, really,” Lucas confirmed with a smile. “You said you had some ideas for some drawings, if you want to spend an hour or so before bed drawing something up, tomorrow after school and practice—”
“And chores and homework,” Rusty added with a scowl.
“Yeah, and chores and homework. We can take a look at what your ideas are, see what kinds of material we’ll need, and then talk to Jack at the lumberyard about the cost of the supplies.”
“Costs?” Rusty said in a panic, his face falling. “I don’t know how much this stuff costs.” He mentally calculated his allowance this week with what was in his piggy bank. Although it wasn’t a piggy, it was just a big old glass jar he used to save up for things. “I think I’ve got about eight dollars, including my allowance this week.”
“Well, Rusty,” Lucas said thoughtfully, “that reminds me of something I wanted to ask you. How would you and Sean and maybe a couple of your other friends like a temporary part-time job? Nothing to interfere with your schoolwork, nothing that would take too much time. It’s sort of a community service job, for the town council,” he specified vaguely. “It pays four dollars an hour for four hours on Saturdays for the next two Saturdays, after basketball practice of course.”
“Four dollars a piece an hour for each of us?” Disbelief and delight streaked across Rusty’s features.
“Yep.”
Rusty mentally calculated how much money it would be and his eyes lit up. “Wow, that’s almost a fortune.”
“So you think you’re interested?”
“Yeah, sure,” Rusty said, trying not to show his excitement as he mentally counted up the cash again. “I could use the money for the clubhouse, and I’m sure Sean and some of the guys could use some extra money, too.”
“Good. Good.”
Rusty frowned. “So…uh…what do you—we have to do?”
“Well, how about if I tell you all about it once you ask Sean and some of your other friends. That way I can tell you all together. I figure we’ll need about five boys in total.”
“Okay,” Rusty said with another shrug.
Lucas smiled. “Great.” Lucas frowned as the coals shifted and sent up a spray of sparks from the grill. “If your mom’s on her way home she should be here any minute. You want to run inside and get the steaks out of the fridge?”
“Yeah, sure.” Rusty hesitated. “And I’ll talk to Sean and a couple of the guys at school tomorrow about the job.”
“Okay, do that. Thanks.”
“Sure, and uh…Lucas?” Nervous now, Rusty was shifting from foot to foot, looking down at his tennis shoes.
Lucas turned back to Rusty and found himself smiling. “Yes, son.”
Rusty dared a glance at him. “Uh…Lucas, thanks. For…uh…everything today.”
“You’re welcome, Rusty. You’re very welcome,” Lucas said.
“So I’m…uh…gonna see you…tomorrow?” Rusty asked.
“Definitely. We’re going to practice some hoops, right? Work on your passing and blocking? And go over the clubhouse plans.”
Relieved, Rusty grinned. “Cool. If you don’t mind, after I get the steaks for you, I’m gonna go work on the clubhouse drawings.”
“Oh, and Rusty,” Lucas said, stopping the boy in his tracks as he turned on his heel to bolt toward the house. Rusty looked at Lucas over his shoulder.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you,” Lucas said softly and Rusty flashed him a big, crooked grin.
“No sweat.” Rusty bolted toward the house, leaving Lucas with a surprisingly warm feeling wrapped around his heart.
By the time Katie pulled into her driveway it was almost 9:00 p.m. and she was utterly exhausted and famished. But she’d gotten the blue lines done and sent to the printer, stopped at Mr. Hensen’s to pick up her meat, and gone to the market to get some bare necessities like potatoes, n
apkins and ketchup for dinner, before finally heading home.
After gathering her groceries and the pile of edits she’d brought home with her, she slid out of the car and locked it. She’d almost forgotten about Rusty’s surprise until she saw the soft flickering of lights in the backyard.
In spite of her fatigue, she smiled to herself. It was so strange to be coming home, knowing someone was waiting for her. It was a luxury she’d never had before and awakened something deep inside of her.
As she rounded the yard, her heart tumbled as she took everything in—the makeshift picnic table, the candles flickering on the set table, and Lucas, dressed casually in jeans and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, standing over the grill. It was such a homey scene, one that was probably played out across thousands of households every evening, but never in her household.
Until now.
“Lucas?” She had a hard time talking around the lump in her throat. Seeing him here, in this homey atmosphere, her home specifically, did something to that yearning deep in her heart, the one that had been aching a little bit harder ever since she’d laid eyes on Lucas. She was just tired, she assured herself, trying to ignore the emotions clogging her throat.
“Hi, you finally made it,” he said, turning to her with a smile. “You look beat,” he added with concern, seeing the smudge lines of fatigue under her eyes and the weary slump of her shoulders.
She sniffed the air and almost swooned. “Is that food I smell?” Her empty stomach groaned. Grilled meat mixed with the crisp scent of fall had her mouth watering.
He grinned. “It is. Hope you don’t mind—”
“Mind?” She shook her head, pressed a hand to her ravenous stomach and quelled the urge to throw her arms around him in gratitude. “I haven’t eaten a morsel all day and I’m starving.” Guilt quickly set in and she moved closer. “Lucas, I’m sorry, I was supposed to make you dinner, remember?”
In spite of the guilt, she had to admit it was a relief to know she didn’t have to cook dinner right now. She was dead-tired and the idea of just being able to sit down and eat something someone else had cooked seemed like an incredibly indulgent luxury.
About the Boy Page 11
