Sara gritted her teeth but did her best to stay calm because of Tana’s presence.
After the phone conversation, Sara rebooted her computer.
“What’s wrong?” Tana asked.
She glanced at her daughter. “David Taylor’s run away from home again.” She transferred all of David’s information into a new case file, then sent messages to everyone else in the department about David’s renewed status as missing. After turning off the computer for a second time, she and Tana headed to the car.
She dreaded telling Adam about David. He’d feared something like this would happen. She didn’t relish the idea of trying to keep Adam from ripping the elder Taylor apart.
When they arrived at Adam’s house, he met them at the door but didn’t invite them in. Sara tried not to be hurt, but her efforts failed her.
“Your candy came in,” Tana said as she extended the box toward him.
“Thanks,” he said as he took it.
They all stood there for a few awkward seconds before Sara said, “David has run away again.”
He didn’t even look surprised. “I’ll keep an eye out for him.” Why did his voice sound so flat, so emotionless? She didn’t want to see him revert back to the detached state he’d been living in when they met.
“Please do. He could be hurt. His dad isn’t saying.”
“That’s because he’s a coward.”
The sound of David’s voice surprised Sara. She glanced past Adam to see David standing inside.
“I’m not going back,” he said.
“I’ll make sure of that,” she said.
“You shouldn’t make a promise you can’t keep,” Adam said.
She looked at him, tried to find some shred of the man she’d made love to, who’d opened up to her about his devastating past. He seemed so very far away.
“Can we come in?” she finally asked when he still didn’t offer. “You know I can’t just walk away.”
“I don’t want Adam to get in trouble. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed so long.” David sounded so forlorn as he turned and disappeared into the house that Sara’s heart broke for him.
Tana must have heard it, too, because she shoved her way past Adam and followed David. Adam stepped back to allow Sara inside. She walked into the house in time to see Tana perch on the edge of the coffee table near where David sat.
“You can trust Mom,” Tana said. “What happened before wasn’t her fault. She hated it.”
The bunched muscles of David’s body eased at Tana’s words. Having someone his own age, a peer, to talk to might make this easier. Someone he’d trust more than the adults who had failed him.
“I’ll do everything I can for you, David,” Sara said. “But I have to take you into custody.”
“No.” Adam’s answer was cold, hard, unyielding.
“No matter what’s happened, he’s still under age. It’s still illegal to harbor a runaway.”
Adam looked at David. “Those bruises still on your side?”
David glanced toward Tana, clearly embarrassed.
“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, my parents are drug dealers who skipped the country without me so they wouldn’t be arrested,” Tana said.
Sara wanted to hug Tana close for helping to ease the way with David, for using her own awful experience to make it easier for him to open up. It worked because he stood and raised the left side of his T-shirt. Sara didn’t even have to move closer to him to see the angry purple marks the size of a man’s fist.
Her anger flared. “No authority can possibly put you back with someone who has done that to you. I know you have no reason to trust me after what happened, but I promise you I will stand right next to you if I have to until a ruling is made that you don’t ever have to go back.”
“What about Adam?” The concern in the boy’s voice touched her, and in that moment she determined to try to help Adam, too. After all, he’d only been trying to protect the boy from further harm, taking on a type of responsibility he used to maintain he didn’t want. Another layer of Adam Canfield peeled back, another thing for her to love about him.
“I’ll see what I can do. I need you to get your things together if you have anything else here.”
David looked at Adam, who stood for several long moments before nodding his agreement.
Tana squeezed his hand. “Come on, I’ll help.”
When the two of them rose and started gathering David’s things, Sara walked into Adam’s kitchen, forcing him to follow her.
“What were you planning?” she asked quietly so the kids wouldn’t hear her.
“That I would keep him here until he turned eighteen if that was the only way to make sure that bastard didn’t hurt him again.”
Sara looked up into Adam’s eyes. Law or no law, how could she argue with that? Wouldn’t she do the same for Tana or Lilly if necessary? She sighed. “I don’t want you to say anything more than absolutely necessary, understand?”
“I’ll say whatever will help the kid.”
“Then say nothing you don’t have to. Trust me.” Trust me now, even if you didn’t before. “This is serious.”
“I know.” He looked over his shoulder toward the living room, where Tana kept up a steady stream of largely one-sided conversation. “I just want him to be safe.”
In that moment, Sara could see him as a father, even one good enough for her precious daughters. But would he ever see himself in that role?
“I’ll do everything I can for him,” she said.
He returned his gaze to hers, and she saw a determination there she’d never seen before.
“So will I.”
ADAM WATCHED AS Sara walked back into the living room, as she and Tana did their best to reassure David. As he watched the boy head for the door, his protective instincts, long buried, nearly overwhelmed him. He’d thought them incinerated under the merciless Middle Eastern skies, but it seemed they had a bit of life in them yet.
For years, he’d lived with the knowledge that he had been a miserable failure in his protector role. But so had David’s father, so had his own dad. Tana’s and Lilly’s parents. He didn’t want to be like any of those people. Maybe he didn’t have to be, if he was willing to try again. Get back up on the horse, so to speak.
When David’s eyes met his, so full of fear and doubt, the last vestiges of Adam’s reluctance to be responsible for anyone else burned away. This kid needed a protector, and damned if Adam didn’t want to assume that duty.
He rounded the end of the bar separating the kitchen from the living room and gripped David’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll be there for you, every step of the way.”
Adam caught the look in Sara’s eyes, one of admiration and bone-deep belief in his words. She couldn’t have given him a better gift.
But then she turned away without a goodbye, without any word at all.
“THINKING ABOUT ADAM?”
Sara looked up from the pot of spaghetti she was stirring, at Tana leaning against the door frame that led from the kitchen to the living room.
“David, actually.” But weren’t the two of them now tied together in her mind?
“How is he?”
“As well as can be expected.”
“They’re not going to send him back to his dad again, are they?”
Sara shook her head. “There was enough evidence to keep him in state custody this time.” The guilt over what he’d endured after his return to his father ate at her even though it hadn’t been her call.
Tana eased into the room and came to stand next to Sara. “Have you talked to Adam since the other night?”
“I’ve been busy.” Sara added a little salt to the boiling pot.
“The past four days have been so busy that you couldn’t call him?”
“He hasn’t called me, either.” Okay, that sounded more bitter than she’d intended.
Tana just stood there, staring at her as if she’d encountered the world’s dumbest anim
al, until Sara couldn’t stand it anymore.
“What?”
“You’re a detective. You figure it out.”
Sara watched Tana spin on her heel and leave the room, until the pot boiling over drew her attention back to the stove. She muttered an oath and grabbed the pot holders to move the pot to a cool burner.
Someone knocked on the door, and she noticed Tana answering it. When she tossed the pot holders back onto the counter, she turned to see Tana step back from the door and make for the hallway.
“The guy who didn’t call you is here,” she said, a wicked gleam in her eyes.
Sara gave her a hard stare, promising some sort of retribution later. But first, she had to deal with Adam—and the way her heart was thundering at seeing him again. She admitted to herself that she’d missed him, that it hurt that he hadn’t called.
But Tana was right. She hadn’t left Adam’s place with a “call me” vibe. Maybe he wasn’t cutting and running. Maybe he’d just been giving her time. Well, he was evidently done waiting.
She couldn’t seem to move as she watched him close the door and walk toward her. Even with dark circles under his eyes and an unsure expression on his face, he looked wonderful. After everything that had happened the past few days, was she crazy to think about grabbing him by the front of his shirt and dragging his lips down to hers?
“I would have called, but I seem to be the ‘drop in unannounced’ sort of guy.” His teasing sounded halfhearted, like it was no longer effortless.
Her face warmed when she thought about the last time he’d done exactly that and where they’d ended up.
“You certainly don’t play by the rules most of the time.”
He shoved his hands in his pants pockets, and for the first time she noticed he had on khaki slacks and a green button-up shirt.
“Things change,” he said.
She tilted her head slightly. “How so?”
“I’ve spent the day talking to all kinds of people with official titles.”
Sara’s breath caught. “What? I didn’t…”
“I know you didn’t say anything about how long David had been at my house. Otherwise, I doubt I’d still be walking around a free man.”
Sara shook her head. “Then who were you talking to?”
“The child advocate, a nice lady at the foster care system who sets up training and background checks, and a lot of other people who push paper for a living.”
Sara stared at Adam for a moment and realized the take-no-responsibility guy she’d talked to at the Beach Bum that day wasn’t the one standing in her kitchen.
“You’re going to foster him?”
“Going to try. Looks like these things take awhile. But, hey, I’ve been in the military. I’m well acquainted with government red tape.”
“Are you sure about this? Because David’s been through enough. He doesn’t deserve to get his hopes up only to have them dashed if you change your mind, decide the responsibility thing really isn’t for you.” She saw the disappointment in his expression, but she had to know. Not only because David would get his hopes up, but because hers were on the verge of skyrocketing, too.
“Not everyone walks away, Sara.”
She should let it go, accept this new Adam at face value, but something in her couldn’t. Some insecure part of her kept picking at the scab, wanting incontrovertible proof than he’d changed, that he was truly the man she so desperately wanted him to be.
“But you already did once. You walked away from life, responsibility, from caring too deeply because you were afraid to.”
He held her gaze for a few moments before saying, “You’re right. But I wouldn’t start this if I didn’t mean to finish it.” He paused. “I hope you come to believe that.”
She didn’t know what to say, what to believe. Had he been talking about his relationship with her as much as his plans to foster David? Even as she watched him turn and head for the door, she couldn’t form words for what she was feeling inside—that she didn’t want to live life without him in it.
When the door clicked closed softly, she jumped as if it had slammed shut on a beautiful future. Prompted to movement, she ran to the door and jerked it open. But it was too late. She watched as Adam drove away.
Chapter Fourteen
The house’s red front door opened to reveal Elizabeth Alston, whom Sara had gotten to know through the foster care program. She and her husband were fostering David while his case worked its way through the system.
“Sara, it’s so good to see you,” Elizabeth said as she smiled and pulled Sara into a quick hug. “And Tana, girl, you are taller every time I see you.” Elizabeth ruffled Lilly’s hair before motioning them all inside. “Ben is showing David the fine art of grilling steaks out back.”
David spotted them as they neared the sliding-glass door that led to the back patio. He smiled and offered an awkward wave.
Sara touched Tana’s arm. “Go on and introduce Lilly. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Tana took Lilly’s hand and headed outside. Sara watched as the three of them retreated to lawn chairs at the edge of the patio.
“How’s he doing?” Sara asked Elizabeth as the other woman retrieved cold sodas from the refrigerator.
“Really well. Honestly, I think we would try to become his permanent fosters if Adam hadn’t already expressed interest.”
“You think he’s serious?” She really needed a third-party opinion that wasn’t one of her daughters’ or matchmaking Ruby’s.
“Judging by the fact he comes to see David every day, I’d say so. I’d also say it’s odd that the two of them bonded so quickly, but I can see how that would happen with David. He’s a great kid.”
“Yeah.” Plus, Adam and David had bonded over more than the single day she’d led everyone to believe David had been at Adam’s house. She was glad she wasn’t so by the book that the slight misdirection of the truth bothered her. Sometimes, adhering to the rules wasn’t the best course of action.
“Actually, Adam should be here any minute.”
Sara jerked her attention from where Lilly was playing patty-cake with David, who was laughing at her.
Elizabeth smiled wide. “I heard the two of you were an item.”
Sara lowered her eyes. “We…went out a few times.”
“Sara, honey, I love you, but you’re a terrible liar.”
“I’m not lying.”
Elizabeth put her arm around Sara and ushered her toward the patio. “Not technically. But there’s more to the story than a few casual dates.”
“How do you know that?”
Elizabeth stopped and took a step away to look at Sara with an amused expression. “You do remember what I do for a living, right?”
Sara sighed as she admitted she’d been accurately pegged by an ace psychologist. Elizabeth had an uncanny knack for reading people—thus the reason the police department contracted her services every now and again.
“If it helps, I’m pretty sure he’s hung up on you, too.”
Sara raised her gaze to Elizabeth’s. “What makes you say that?”
“I heard David ask him about you one day, if he’d talked to you, and I swear the man blushed.”
Sara laughed a little. “Okay, I think you’re losing your touch. Adam Canfield doesn’t blush.”
“Stranger things have been known to happen,” Elizabeth said as she opened the sliding-glass door and stepped outside.
Sara only half heard the conversations going on around her for the next several minutes as she anticipated seeing Adam again, wondering how he’d react when he saw her. After all, it’d been three days since he’d left her standing in her house, more deeply lonely than she’d ever been. She’d picked up the phone several times but never dialed his number. And this time, it should be her who made the call. What could she say? What did she want to say?
That she loved him. That she hated every day that went by when she didn’t get to hold him, touch him, kiss him.<
br />
“Sara.”
His voice, so deep and so close, startled her. Only when she forced her gaze up from the grass did she realize she’d been staring at the ground for who knew how long.
“Adam. Hey.”
“I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“Me neither. I mean, I didn’t know you’d be here.” She felt like all the wrong words were coming out of her mouth. “It’s nice to see you.”
She thought she saw him relax a little. “You, too.”
“Perfect timing, Adam,” Ben said as he placed a platter of steaks on the patio table.
Was it? Perfect timing? Sara wanted to drag him away from the others and tell him everything, but she didn’t have the opportunity.
Instead, she sat across from him all during the meal and couldn’t keep herself from glancing at him every few seconds. He finally caught her, but she didn’t look away. And she didn’t care that all her feelings were probably naked in her eyes.
Heaven help her if she was wrong, but she thought she saw them reflected back.
A giggle from the opposite end of the table drew her attention. She noticed the knowing look on Tana’s face, then on David’s. Even Lilly’s wide grin held a touch of awareness. She didn’t dare meet Ben’s and Elizabeth’s eyes.
“This was great,” Adam said several minutes later as he wadded his napkin and tossed it onto his plate. “But I’ve got to get to work. Took the afternoon shift today.”
Sara wanted to grab his arm and make him stay until they’d said everything that had been floating unspoken between them. But somehow she restrained herself. And watched him go yet again.
When she redirected her gaze to the other end of the table, Tana and David were leaning close and talking. Why did she get the feeling they were planning something?
“What are you two up to?” she asked.
Tana put on her best innocent face, and David followed her lead quickly but less effectively.
“Nothing,” Tana said.
Lilly’s giggle gave them away, but even she made as if she were zipping her lips and throwing away the key.
The Family Man Page 14
