“The last one left at noon.”
Jeff backed the van into the street, headed east, and switched on the wipers at their highest speed against the torrential downpour. “Then they’re probably hitchhiking.”
Icy fear gripped Jodie at the thought of her beautiful but naive daughter climbing into a stranger’s car. And Daniel, bless his sweet boyish heart, even more of an innocent than Brittany, would be as much a target as her daughter.
“Unless Jodie has any friends who might give them a ride?” Jeff added.
Jodie shook her head. “Only old pals at Carsons Corner, and they’d have to steal another car. None of them is old enough to drive.”
“Daniel wouldn’t go for car theft,” Jeff said. “He knows he’d be locked up for certain.”
“But he ran away.”
Jeff shrugged. “Brittany must have convinced him you were going to charge him with theft.” He shot her a piercing gaze before returning his attention to the rain-slicked road. “Were you?”
Jodie shook her head. “I intended to dump the whole problem in Brynn’s lap.”
“Anyone else on your staff you suspect?”
“No one. But I don’t know them all that well. Maria and a couple of the waitresses haven’t worked for me but a few months.”
“So anyone could have used Daniel’s arrival to cover his or her tracks, hoping the blame would fall on the resident delinquent?”
“I suppose.” She peered through the rain. “Where are we going?”
“We’ll take the fastest route to Columbia, via I-26,” Jeff explained. “We’ll check major exits and rest areas along the way.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Now make your calls.”
* * *
JEFF CONCENTRATED on the road and silently cursed the weather. A tropical system had hit the Louisiana coast as a hurricane, weakened into a rainmaker, slowly worked its way inland and stalled, dumping inches of water on ground already too saturated to absorb more. With limited visibility, conditions for a search couldn’t be much worse. The kids could be standing on the shoulder of the highway, thumbing a ride, and he wouldn’t see them through the downpour.
Beside him, Jodie completed calls to her parents and Brynn and returned his cell phone. Jeff had to give her credit. She’d kept her words calm, rational. If he hadn’t noted her pallor, the panic in her hazel eyes, and the tremor in her hands, he wouldn’t have guessed how frantic she was from her tone of voice.
“Mom and Dad are organizing a search in town,” Jodie said, “and Brynn’s issuing an all-points bulletin, omitting the fact that Daniel’s violating parole. She’s hoping the Highway Patrol will spot them. She’s also alerting the Columbia Police Department.”
Her composure broke then, and she swallowed a sob.
Jeff reached for her, squeezed her fingers hard, and released her. He wanted to hang on, but the slick road conditions required both hands on the wheel. “We’ll find them.”
“How can you sound so sure?”
“You know your daughter. If you think she’s headed for the senator, I’m betting that’s exactly where she’ll be.”
“What if I’m wrong? Or worse, what if someone...”
“Stop,” he ordered. “Don’t torture yourself by thinking the worst. We’ll find her.”
“This is all my fault.”
“You can’t blame yourself.”
“But Brittany blames me.”
“For what?”
“Where should I begin?” Irony laced Jodie’s words. “For not giving her a father, for alienating her paternal grandparents, for suspecting Daniel, for falling in love—”
She’d clamped her lips shut, and from the corner of his eye, Jeff noted color flooding back into her face. She’d never admitted loving him, but he’d held on to that hope. He’d also tried making friends with Brittany, hoping to win her approval for his relationship with her mother. Apparently, he’d failed.
“Is Brittany jealous?” he asked.
“Her whole life, it’s always been just the two of us. The thought of anyone intruding into our private world frightens her. She’s a complicated kid. She’s reached the stage where she doesn’t want me telling her what to do, and another grown-up in her life would only compound her problem.” Jodie sighed. “And she’s afraid that if I love someone else, I’ll love her less.”
“Do you love someone else?” Jeff held his breath for the answer. The swish and thump of the windshield wipers and the pummeling rain on the van’s roof filled the silence.
To his regret, Jodie finally shook her head. “What would be the point?”
Jeff hid his disappointment. “Does love need a reason?”
“Maybe not,” Jodie said with an irritated toss of her head, “but it doesn’t mean abandoning common sense, either.”
“Meaning?”
“I have more than enough to juggle as my life is now. Love’s a luxury I can’t afford.”
“Having a daughter and a business doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to a life of your own,” he argued, recognizing that he’d voiced similar concerns about his own life to Gofer not long ago. Archer Farm was his mission, Brittany was Jodie’s. And Jeff had yet to find the compromises Gofer insisted were there.
“Obviously, I can’t do it all,” Jodie said, reinforcing Jeff’s thoughts. “If I were a better mom, Brittany wouldn’t have run away.”
Jeff wished for the right words to convince Jodie to quit beating up on herself. “I’ve learned a lot from Gofer. Teenagers are complex. Relationships are complex. Life is complex.”
Jodie issued a snort that sounded like disdain. “You don’t have to be a psychologist to know that, just alive and breathing.”
“But that’s not all Gofer’s taught me,” Jeff said. “I’ve learned that for every chance to screw things up, there’s an opportunity to make things right. I wouldn’t have started Archer Farm if I didn’t believe that. And Brittany has far more going for her than any of my teens.”
He could feel Jodie staring at him but kept his eyes on the road.
“She has a mom who loves her,” Jeff continued, “a wonderful extended family, a stable home environment, a caring community—”
“Then why is she running away?” Jodie wailed.
“When we find her, you can ask her.”
But finding Brittany was easier said than done. In the relentless pelting rain, they checked convenience stores at exits and rest rooms at rest stops, but found no sign of the teens or anyone who’d seen them.
By the time Jeff and Jodie reached the outskirts of Columbia, darkness had fallen. Their clothes were damp, Jodie’s face was pinched with exhaustion, and Jeff’s back ached between his shoulder blades from too many tense hours behind the wheel.
He pulled off at the next exit and headed toward the bright lights of a restaurant. “You need to eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” Jodie said. “Let’s keep looking.”
“You have an address for the senator?”
She shook her head.
“Then we can grab a bite while we check the phone book.”
* * *
AT THE RESTAURANT, Jodie had shoved her untouched plate aside. How could she eat when she had no idea where her daughter was? Brittany could be huddled anywhere, soaked, hungry and frightened but too stubborn to call home.
The restaurant telephone directory had yielded only the address of the senator’s downtown office, closed until nine o’clock the next morning, according to the recorded message on his voice mail. His home phone was unlisted, and, despite Jodie’s pleas, the Information operator had refused to divulge it or the home address.
“It’s probably no consolation,” Jeff said once they’d climbed back into the van, “but if we can’t find the senator, Brit and Daniel can’t, either. They’ll probably wait until morning and try his office.”
“She’s only fourteen. She shouldn’t be out there alone, especially not this late and in this weather.”
Jodie’s
panic amplified by the minute. She no longer felt certain that Brittany had headed for Columbia. What if she and Daniel had concocted some crazy scheme to run away to California. Or Alaska? Or God-knew-where?
Jodie took a deep breath, released it and forced herself to think. The note had stated the teens would find someone who cared, a tip-off to Brit’s fantasy about her paternal grandparents. With her grandfather Mercer a powerful senator, Brit probably believed he could fix anything. Even theft charges against Daniel. Jodie had to continue this avenue of searching.
“Let’s check the bus stations,” she suggested. “The YMCA. Buildings around the senator’s office. Maybe the kids will choose a spot like those to keep dry until morning.”
For an instant Jeff looked ready to protest, but instead put the van in drive and pulled onto the highway and headed for the core of the city.
Hours later Jodie still had found no trace of Brittany. She lay back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She was living a parent’s worst nightmare and couldn’t wake up.
“You need sleep,” Jeff said before starting the engine after their last stop. “There was a Hampton Inn at the last exit.”
“I can’t sleep, not knowing where Brit is.”
Jeff’s phone rang in the darkness. Jodie glanced at the clock on the dashboard, and her heart stopped. A call at 2:00 a.m. was seldom good news. Jeff answered the phone, then passed it to Jodie. “It’s your mom.”
“Mama?” Her heart pounded in her chest like a tennis shoe banging in a clothes dryer, and she braced herself for bad news.
“They’re safe,” Sophie said instantly, ending Jodie’s agony. “Brittany and Daniel are here with us.”
Jodie sat up upright. Relief cascaded through her like a cool drink on a hot day. “They never left home?”
“They left all right,” Sophie said. “They’ve been to Columbia and back.”
Anger tainted the satisfaction of Jodie’s relief. “We’ve been scouring the city for them.”
“Brittany says she found the senator’s home address last week in some of my old papers,” her mother explained. “I’m sorry, Jodie. I forgot I even had that information or I’d have given it to you. Anyway, Brit and Daniel caught a ride with a trucker and went straight to the Senator’s when they left the café.”
“Then how did they end up back in Pleasant Valley so fast?”
“The—” Sophie uttered a scathing term, a word Jodie had never heard cross her mother’s lips “—wouldn’t even let those poor children in out of the rain. He called the Columbia police, who picked them up and contacted our department. Chief Sawyer pulled a few strings, and a highway patrol trooper brought them home.”
“And Brittany’s okay?” Jodie asked.
“Disillusioned about the senator,” Sophie explained, “but otherwise she’s just worn-out. I made her take a hot shower, gave her a pair of my pajamas and put her to bed in the guest room. She’s sound asleep now.”
“And Daniel?”
“The man called Gofer from Archer Farm picked him up. The boy seems no worse for wear, either.”
“Thank God.” Jodie fell back against the seat.
“You sound exhausted, dear. You should get some sleep before heading home. I don’t want to worry about you and Jeff having an accident, sleepy and driving in the dark in this wretched weather.”
“Tell Brittany I’ll talk to her tomorrow. And thanks, Mama.”
Jodie ended the call and filled Jeff in on her mother’s side of the conversation.
“Poor Brittany,” Jeff said. “The senator’s a piece of work, calling the police on his own grandchild.” He uttered a few choice curses that made Sophie’s description of the politician bland by comparison.
“I tried to make Brittany understand,” Jodie said. “Randy had come to Pleasant Valley that summer to try to get to know his father better. But the senator spent the entire time on the phone with calls from lobbyists and constituents. Randy could never get the senator’s attention, either. That’s probably why the boy drank so heavily. His old man always cared more about his political career than his own family. But Brittany wouldn’t believe me. I need to go to her,” Jodie said.
“Your mother was right.” Jeff spoke with a gentleness braced with steel. “We’re both exhausted and the weather’s growing worse by the minute. Flood warnings are up all over the state. We’ll check into the Hampton for a few hours’ sleep. Driving home will be safer in daylight, even if the rain hasn’t stopped.”
Although her body ached with fatigue, the euphoria of having Brittany safe after so much worry hit Jodie’s system like amphetamines. “I don’t think I can relax.”
“I have a few remedies for that.”
She did, too, and the one at the top of the list made her knees weak. She tried to think of a good reason to keep driving, but her wits failed her. Brittany was safe and asleep, the weather was horrible, and she and Jeff were too tired to continue.
She struggled to mumble, “Separate rooms,” when Jeff left the car to check in.
It was almost three o’clock, and her only hope was that the motel was full for the night. Or worse, she thought with alarm, as happened in all the romantic books and movies in her experience, the Hampton would have only one room left, which she and Jeff would have to share. No way was she trusting herself to spend the night in the same room with a man who made her heart flutter, her knees wobble, and her body ache for his touch. She’d learned her lesson well from Randy Mercer. Sex without commitment was as bad a combination as gasoline and matches. A recipe for destruction.
The automatic doors of the motel entrance slid open and Jeff appeared. As he walked toward her, Jodie noted the proud carriage of his posture, the sureness of his stride, the firm determination in the set of his jaw. The man was amazing. He’d knocked himself out for almost twelve hours in the search for Daniel and Brittany, neither of whom was his own child, with never a word of complaint or loss of hope. Jodie would have collapsed under the strain without his steady support. She’d have surely wrecked the car if she’d tried the hunt alone in her frantic state of mind.
A good man.
That’s what Grant had called Jeff. And that’s exactly what he was. A man who, despite his own tortured childhood, had devoted himself to children society had let slip through the cracks. A man who had risked his life to serve his country with honor. A man who had stood by Jodie when she needed him most.
And Jeff was no Randy Mercer, no gangly adolescent boy struggling to prove his manhood. Jeff was the epitome of all things masculine, from his physical strength and mouthwatering good looks to his protective instincts toward women and children to his status as the ultimate warrior, a United States Marine.
How could she not love him? She didn’t have a chance.
He slid into the van, moved it to a nearby parking space and handed her a key card. In spite of her earlier worries, she was disappointed that he held another key, to his own room.
They made a run for the entrance through the rain, crossed the lobby and entered the elevator. On the third floor Jeff stopped in front of her room, across the hall from his.
She slid her card into the lock, opened the door and turned to him. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“This will do.” Before she could react, he pulled her into his arms and lowered his lips to hers.
Chapter Twelve
Jeff awoke with his face buried in Jodie’s magnoliascented hair, her back spooned against him, his arm encircling her. He inhaled the light fragrance and held it, not wanting to let her or even the scent of her go.
He’d meant only to kiss her good-night, but when her supple body had arched against him, and her soft lips had yielded to his, reason and discipline had failed. He’d swooped her into his arms, kicked the door closed and carried her to the king-size bed.
With desire he couldn’t rationalize away or resist, he’d tugged off her clothes with the desperation of a man dying of thirst seeking water. Caught in his
frenzy, Jodie had helped him undress, the fire in her hazel eyes and her sweet smile urging him on, burning away all conscious thought.
Sprawled beneath him on the oversize bed, the warmth of her soft, bare skin against him, their arms and legs entwined, she’d hesitated only once.
“There’s something you should know.” Her face flushed with an endearing mixture of innocence, shyness and desire.
He nuzzled his lips against the pulse throbbing in her neck. “I want to know everything about you.”
She moaned softly at his touch and twisted her fingers through his hair. “If you keep that up, I won’t be able to talk.”
He’d lifted himself on his elbows and gazed into her eyes. “You haven’t changed your mind about this?”
With a fervor that gripped him at the deepest level, he hoped not, but he wouldn’t force himself on her. If she wasn’t one hundred percent willing, he’d reluctantly settle for a cold shower and his own room. He loved her too much to do anything she didn’t want.
Jodie shook her head but lowered her eyes, as if afraid to face him. Long, dark lashes fluttered against her flushed cheeks, sending another current of longing through him like an electric shock.
“You can tell me,” he encouraged softly. “I’m listening.”
She opened her eyes wide, and the green-brown swirls drew him in like a whirlpool that reached to the bottom of her soul.
“I’ve only done this once,” she admitted with a hesitancy that twisted his heart.
“Gone to a motel with a man?” he asked.
She shook her head but kept her gaze locked on his as if braced for rejection. “Made love.”
“Ah, Jodie.” In his heart, he cursed Randy Mercer, who’d stolen her innocence and her confidence.
“Ridiculous, isn’t it,” she said with a wry smile.
He wrapped his arms around her, rolled onto his back, and pulled her gently on top of him. “Not ridiculous. It’s wonderful.”
She tossed her hair out of her eyes and looked at him in astonishment. “Why wonderful? I’m totally inexperienced, inept—”
“—and completely mine.” He cupped her face in his hands. “This isn’t about skill or experience. I love you, Jodie, and as long as you love me, everything will be all right.”
One Good Man Page 14
