Ask Anyone

by Sherryl Woods

  “Is J.C. my son?” he asked bluntly.

  He could read the answer on her face even before she spoke. Tears welled up in her eyes.

  “Yes,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

  “And Lonnie’s known all these years?”

  She nodded.

  “Why, Ann-Marie? You could have told me.”

  “I couldn’t. I had to think about my family, about Lonnie and his pride. If anyone else figured it out, it would have killed him.”

  “So instead you let him take out his hurt pride and anger on my son?”

  “He didn’t,” she claimed, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. “It was as if J.C. didn’t exist for him, but he never hurt him. Never. He knew I would have left him if he’d laid a finger on that boy.”

  “There’s more than one way to break a child’s spirit,” Bobby said.

  “Look, I know you two have a lot to deal with,” Tucker interrupted, “but it’s going to have to wait. I need to talk to J.C. If you want a lawyer for him, Ann-Marie, call one now and have him meet us at the station.”

  “He’s your own nephew,” she pleaded, pulling out the one trump card she had now that the truth was out in the open. “You can’t take him in.”

  Tucker winced, but Bobby knew he’d never relent. It wasn’t in his nature to bend the rules. “Get J.C.,” Bobby told Ann-Marie. “We’ll go with him.”

  “No,” she said fiercely. “Not you.”

  “He’s my son, dammit. It’s a helluva time to find that out, but the bottom line is that I have a duty to be there.”

  “Please,” she begged. “If you’re there, everyone will talk about it. It will be the final straw for Lonnie. He’ll leave me.”

  Bobby gazed into her anguished eyes and knew that she was telling the truth. Her family would be irretrievably broken if he stepped into the middle of this today. There would be time enough to sort things out later in a less public way.

  “Does J.C. know about me?” he asked Ann-Marie.

  “No. He just knows that he and his father don’t get along.”

  Bobby’s heart ached for the boy, but maybe there was time left to repair that damage, too.

  “Okay, I’ll stay out of this today, but we’ll work it out, Ann-Marie. Understood?”

  “Yes,” she said wearily. “It’s past time. I know that.”

  He glanced at Tucker. “You want me to hang out here till you get him?”

  “No. You can take off. Can you get back to Daisy’s okay?”

  “I’ll walk. I need the time to think, anyway.”

  Unfortunately, there weren’t enough miles between here and Daisy’s for all the thinking Bobby had to do. For starters, he was going to have to figure out how to keep from killing King for whatever role he’d played in this disaster.

  Jenna kept stealing surreptitious looks at Bobby all during a very long dinner at Daisy’s. If it hadn’t been for Darcy and Tommy’s chatter, the meal would have been uncomfortably silent. Walker was still at the station with the bullies responsible for Darcy’s injuries. Bobby wouldn’t even glance at his sister. Daisy looked more and more miserable. It all clearly had something to do with that family pow-wow that they’d held on the front lawn before Bobby and Tucker had gone off to pick up J. C. Gates.

  The instant everyone had finished dessert, Jenna said, “I really do hate to eat and run, but I think I should get Darcy home. She’s had a tough day.”

  “Mom, please,” Darcy begged. “Tommy and me were going to see who could catch the most lightning bugs.”

  As appealing as the harmless activity was, Jenna couldn’t imagine spending another hour with Daisy and Bobby when the tension between them was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

  “Not tonight, sweetie. Maybe tomorrow.”

  “But—” Darcy protested.

  “I said no,” Jenna repeated firmly.

  “I’ll play a game with you when we get to your place,” Bobby offered. “You pick.”

  “Uno,” Darcy said at once. “I’m the grand champion at that.”

  Bobby grinned for the first time all evening. “Is that so? Then you haven’t played with me.”

  Jenna gave an exaggerated groan. “Just what I need, two people with mile-wide competitive streaks. I think I’ll sit this one out.”

  “Oh, no,” Darcy said. “You’ve got to play. It’s more fun with three people.” She grinned at Bobby. “Sometimes Grandpa played with us. I beat him, too. He didn’t like it.”

  “Because your grandfather hates to lose,” Jenna said. “Doesn’t matter whether it’s a kid’s game or a business deal.”

  “How about you?” Bobby asked. “Are you a sore loser?”

  “Nope,” Jenna told him. “But then, between Darcy and my dad, I’ve had more practice.”

  He grinned. “Darcy, I think you and I need to throw a couple of games your mom’s way tonight, okay? Her confidence needs bolstering.”

  Jenna frowned at him. “Don’t do me any favors, unless, of course, you’d like to throw that boardwalk deal my way.”

  “We have a date to discuss that in the morning,” Bobby reminded her. “Tonight it’s all about cards.”

  When they got to her house, Jenna insisted that Darcy take her bath and get ready for bed before they started the card game.

  “Mom, I can’t take a bath. I can’t get my arm wet,” Darcy countered with a triumphant look.

  “She’s got you there,” Bobby said.

  “Okay, but you still have to get into your pj’s. I’m not struggling to get you into them when you fall asleep in the middle of the card game.”

  “Okay,” Darcy agreed, and ran off to change.

  “Brush your teeth and wash your face,” Jenna shouted after her.

  “I know, Mom,” Darcy called back with typical impatience.

  Once she was gone, Jenna put on a pot of coffee and poured Darcy a glass of milk. While the coffee was brewing, she turned back to Bobby, who had that faraway expression in his eyes again.

  “Want to talk about it?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “Whatever’s been on your mind all night.”

  He shook his head. “Not yet.”

  “I’m a good listener. Besides, I owe you. You’ve listened to me enough the past few weeks.”

  “This is something I have to sort out for myself,” he insisted, his voice tight.

  “Sure, whatever.” Hurt by the abrupt dismissal, she turned away and started out of the kitchen.

  “Jenna.” He snagged her hand as she passed him. “I’m sorry. It’s a very complicated situation. There are other people involved. I can’t talk about it yet. And to be perfectly honest, it could influence things between you and me.”

  She stared at him. “How?”

  “It just could. You’ll have to take my word for it.”

  Her heart began to thump unsteadily. She couldn’t lose out on this deal now, not over something he wouldn’t even share with her. “Is this about the deal?”

  “Not directly, but it could affect you and me working together.”

  She met his gaze evenly and resisted the longing to reach out and console him. He looked so miserable, but this wasn’t about him. She couldn’t allow it to be. “If this could affect my future, then I have a right to know,” she told him forcefully.

  “You do and I will tell you,” he promised. “Then it will be up to you to decide what you want to do about it.”

  “Are you saying this is so big that I might pull out?”

  He nodded.

  “It will never happen,” she insisted. “I want this too much.”

  “That could change. Believe me, I’ve seen for myself today just how fast your whole life can change.”

  “But you’re not going to explain that, are you?”

  He shook his head. “Not tonight, no.”

  “Then I think you ought to go.”

  “And disappoint Darcy?”

  Jenna sighed. He was right
. It wasn’t fair to Darcy to ruin the evening she’d been looking forward to, not after the traumatic day she’d already had.

  “Okay, fine. But the minute I say the game is over, you walk out of here without another word. Are we clear?”

  “Perfectly.”

  Despite the tension between them, they managed to keep the game lively for Darcy’s sake. She didn’t seem to notice that anything was amiss. She was too busy playing a cutthroat game of Uno and laughing at Bobby’s perplexed expression as she won hand after hand. Even Jenna had to smile when Darcy was the first to slap her last card on the table for the fourth straight game.

  “Are you sure you didn’t stack the deck?” Bobby grumbled good-naturedly.

  Darcy laughed. “I couldn’t, silly. You’re the one who dealt.”

  “So I did. I must have given you my cards by mistake.”

  “Well, I think we should put the man out of his misery and let him leave,” Jenna said.

  “One more hand,” Darcy begged.

  Bobby caught Jenna’s eye. She flashed him a look of warning that had him on his feet at once.

  “Not tonight, kiddo. I’ve got to get going. Your mom and I have an early morning date to check crab pots.”

  Darcy’s eyes lit up. “You and Mom have a date? A real date?”

  Jenna regarded him with exasperation. “No, it’s not a date. It’s a business meeting.”

  “Call it whatever you want,” he said blithely. “It’s still at seven o’clock. She needs to get her beauty sleep.”

  Jenna frowned at the comment.

  “Uh-oh,” Darcy said. “Even I know you’re not supposed to tell a girl she needs to sleep to be pretty.”

  Bobby regarded her innocently. “Is that so? You think I insulted your mom?”

  “Pretty much,” Darcy said.

  “Then I guess I’ll have to fix that,” he said, his gaze locked on Jenna’s mouth. He leaned down. “Even if you don’t sleep a wink all night, I’ll still think you’re beautiful in the morning.”

  The whispered words sent a shiver racing down her spine, but that was nothing compared to the pulse-pounding effect of his mouth when it settled over hers. The kiss was chaste enough for the nine-year-old in the room. It lasted barely more than a heartbeat, but Jenna’s blood turned to liquid fire in her veins.

  “Do it again,” Darcy pleaded.

  Bobby grinned at her. “Once more, then, with feeling,” he agreed, and touched his lips to Jenna’s.

  This time it took everything in her to keep from leaping up and throwing herself into his embrace. She wanted more than that fleeting whisper of flesh on flesh. She wanted more than his breath fanning across her cheek or his heat beckoning to her. She wanted to get lost in touches that seared, in caresses that lingered.

  Bobby was nothing at all like Nick. There was no edge of danger, no sense of reckless daring. He was solid and dependable, which should have made him boring, but he wasn’t. Far from it. When he kissed her, she felt all of the wicked, dangerous sensations that her ex-husband had stirred in her as a teenager. Only now they came with the added passion of maturity. Jenna could finally admit that she wanted more from this man than a business deal. Much more.

  But Bobby was already heading for the door, delivering a smacking kiss to Darcy’s forehead, then turning back to wink at Jenna. “Seven o’clock,” he repeated.

  “I’ll be there,” she said, her voice far less crisply professional than it should have been.

  “I’m counting on it.”

  And then he was gone, and Darcy was regarding her with the happiest expression she’d worn in a long time. “Bobby’s the best, isn’t he, Mom?”

  “I suppose,” she said, careful not to show too much enthusiasm for a man who was keeping a critical secret from her.

  “You like him, don’t you? You let him kiss you, so that must mean that you like him, right?”

  “There are a lot of reasons for people to kiss,” Jenna said carefully. “He kissed you good-night, too, remember?”

  “Mom,” Darcy protested with disgust. “It wasn’t the same. He kissed me like a kid. He kissed you the way a man kisses a woman.”

  Jenna grinned at the impatient explanation. “Thanks for the play-by-play analysis. How would you know how a man kisses a woman?”

  “I see stuff on TV,” she said at once.

  “I’m throwing out our television first thing in the morning,” Jenna vowed vehemently.

  “And I saw the way Walker kisses Daisy,” Darcy said, clearly unimpressed by the threat. “That’s the way Bobby kissed you.”

  Jenna barely resisted the desire to touch her fingers to her still-burning lips. It was, indeed, the way Walker kissed Daisy, a kiss with barely restrained, smoldering heat behind it. It was the kind of kiss Jenna had envied them.

  But what were the chances it would ever lead to anything more for her and Bobby? Tonight it had been nothing more than a game played out in front of an impressionable child who was yearning for a dad who’d be more reliable than the one she had.

  And all the other times they’d kissed? Jenna couldn’t come up with an answer to that beyond the obvious. Just as Darcy had pegged it, Jenna liked Bobby Spencer. Heaven help her.

  19

  Living on a farm his entire life, King was used to getting up with the roosters, even though it was usually much later by the time he ventured into town for his morning coffee with his pals. Today, though, he had a mission. His phone had rung off the hook the night before with a whole lot of talk about the boys who’d attacked little Darcy Kennedy. The whole incident made King’s blood boil, but nothing had stirred him up more than the mention that J. C. Gates was in the thick of it. He intended to see Tucker first thing this morning and demand a few answers.

  He was waiting for his son when Tucker walked into Earlene’s for his first cup of coffee.

  “Over here,” King barked in a tone that dared Tucker to defy him.

  Tucker slid into the booth opposite King. “You’re out early, old man. Something on your mind?”

  “As if you didn’t know,” King shot back.

  “You heard about Darcy?”

  King nodded. “I heard about what happened to her. Also heard she’s going to be fine. Now what I want to know is what’s happening with those hooligans who attacked her.”

  “We’ll find out in court today. I have to get over there as soon as I’ve had my coffee. They’re all being arraigned this morning.”

  “Including Ann-Marie’s boy?”

  “Absolutely,” Tucker said without hesitation. “He was the ringleader. The kid has a mean streak. He didn’t show the slightest evidence of remorse when I questioned him yesterday. If it were up to me, I’d see him charged as an adult, but the judge is likely to be more lenient since this is the first time his actions have actually landed him in court.” His gaze clashed with King’s. “But it isn’t the first time he’s been in trouble, and something tells me it won’t be the last. He’s a kid with a lot of problems.”

  King’s gaze narrowed. “You say that as if you think I had something to do with them. The trouble with you, Tucker, is you have a hard heart. You lack compassion. Other than that, you’re a darned fine sheriff, and I’m proud of you, but you need to get a little perspective when it comes to kids. Take Tommy—”

  Tucker held up a hand. “Whoa! You were just as opposed to Daisy keeping that boy as I was.”

  “But I saw the good in him sooner than you did,” King said triumphantly.

  “I had no idea we were having a contest.”

  King frowned at the sarcasm. “Bottom line, Daisy was right. Tommy’s a good boy, and now she has a fine family. Even Walker’s shaping up real nice.”

  Tucker chuckled. “Thanks to you, I suppose.”

  “Well, no, I have to give Daisy credit for that,” King conceded with some reluctance. “But you’ve got to admit, they’re all happy, and Tommy hasn’t been in any mischief lately.”

  “True.”

>   “Then isn’t it possible that with a little guidance, these boys who hurt Darcy will turn out just fine, too?”

  “Anything’s possible, but I’d rather not take chances,” Tucker countered. “The next time somebody could wind up dead, instead of having a broken arm and a few cuts and bruises.”

  “These are children,” King said, appalled by the idea that things would ever go that far.

  “Who do you think did the shooting in those school killings in Colorado and California?” Tucker retorted.

  King fell silent. He’d come here hoping to exert a little subtle influence to get Tucker to go easier on those boys—all of them, since he could hardly single out J.C. without explaining why. But what Tucker had to say put a different spin on things. He wasn’t going to be the one responsible for turning a boy loose to do even more serious harm to another child.

  “You do what you have to do,” he said at last.

  Tucker regarded him with that even, penetrating look that had shaken King, even when his son was just a boy.

  “Is this about J.C., Daddy?”

  King tried not to let him see just how startled he was by the question. “Why would you ask that?”

  “I know you know—or at least think—that he’s Bobby’s son, your grandson.”

  Years of keeping the secret to himself lifted off King’s shoulders. “You know?”

  “Over the years I’ve heard a few things you’ve said and put two and two together.”

  “Dammit. I thought I had a better poker face than that. Does Bobby know?”

  “I told him what I suspected yesterday. I thought he had a right to know before I hauled J.C. in for questioning. He confronted Ann-Marie, and she confirmed it.”

  “Blast it all, Tucker, why’d you go and stir things up?” King demanded. “He didn’t need to know, especially not now when there’s finally a decent woman in his life.”

  Tucker frowned at him. “This isn’t about Bobby and Jenna, or even about Bobby and Ann-Marie. It’s about a boy who’s spent his whole life wondering why his dad and he don’t get along, a boy who’s been acting out to get his father’s attention or at least the attention of the man he thinks is his father.”