“Oh, Josh.” She had to swallow before she could continue. “Thank you….”
How long had it been since she’d been so blindly trusted by anyone but her daughter? And even Becky had had reason to doubt Amy more often than not over the last few years.
“What do you need me to do?” she heard herself ask.
“Amy, you don’t have to—”
“I know I don’t have to, Josh. But I am. What do you need?”
“What about your work?”
“Well, it sucks right now, thanks for asking. But things are under control here. Or at least they will be, once I get a little sleep and come out swinging in the morning. I was already thinking about getting away early again Friday and coming back to Sweetbrook. Would next weekend be soon enough for me to talk with Daniel?”
She’d wanted to check in on Becky, anyway. It wouldn’t be an imposition to see Daniel while she was there. Of course, that would mean seeing Josh again, too, and her pulse was already racing at the thought. But that wasn’t the point.
Becky and Daniel, two kids who needed their worlds to stop spinning out of control—they were the point. Thoughts of being close to Joshua White again had no part whatsoever in her decision.
“Are you sure?” he asked. “This may be a really bad idea.”
“No, I’m not sure.” She was scared to death of what facing Daniel’s fears would do to the ones she was trying to bury within herself. “But Daniel can’t go back to his father. I can’t let that happen if there’s any way I can help.”
Another long pause made her wonder if Josh had wised up and changed his mind.
“I…I don’t know what to say,” he finally murmured.
“Say you’ll keep doing a great job with Becky, which helps keep me sane while I can’t be there. Then say you’ll let me return the favor when I get home Friday.”
“You’re a strong woman, Amy Loar.”
She laughed at the thought. “I’m a wuss.”
“No.” His voice hardened, even as it stroked the jagged edges of her tattered self-confidence. “You’re a survivor, and I think I’m lucky I harassed you last week and dragged you back to Sweetbrook. I have no idea what I’d be doing right now without…without a friend like you to turn to.”
Amy forced herself to focus on the word friend. Because that’s all they could be to each other, and neither one of them was going to ruin things by wanting more.
His soft chuckle had her smiling. It sounded so good to hear him laugh.
“Butthead, huh?” he asked. “It’s been a long time since someone called me that.”
“Then it sounds to me like you’re overdue,” she retorted. “I’ll see you on Friday. And I’ll keep tabs on Becky through my mom. Just let Gwen know when Mr. Fletcher has the results he’s looking for.”
“You’re my angel, Amy.” Joshua’s voice held a definite smile.
And you’re mine.
“Good night,” she whispered, alarmed by the unruly, romantic thought that had almost slipped out.
“Good night,” he echoed, and the line went dead.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BECKY SET HER LUNCH TRAY beside Daniel’s. He was sitting at the end of the table, as far away from the other kids as he could get, reading one of the comic books he always had with him. She scooted in beside him and opened her own book. Liking to read was one more thing she was learning they had in common.
It was Friday afternoon, and their class had just arrived for their twelve-thirty lunch period. She’d tried to stay out of Daniel’s way all week. That hadn’t been hard, since she spent hours each morning with Mr. Fletcher, then had to catch up with what she’d missed in class once she returned. A visit to the school counselor every day had sounded like a break—until the testing started. Mr. Fletcher was nice enough, but she couldn’t do a lot of the things on his tests. She felt more stupid now than when they’d started.
She glanced at Daniel, who hadn’t even said hi yet. She should apologize for everything she’d said about his mom.
“You wanna make a break for it?” she asked instead, opening her milk and stabbing her straw into the carton.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daniel flinch, then turn to face her.
“What?” She poked at the watery mashed potatoes the lunch lady had plopped beside the block of meat loaf before Becky could say she didn’t want any. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. Don’t you want to just blow this place sometimes?”
Daniel was carving his meat loaf into chunks that looked like pet food.
“It doesn’t do any good,” he groused, drinking his milk straight from the carton. “Running away only makes it worse when you come back.”
She gave up pretending to eat. “And just how many times have you run away?” she taunted.
“Every day for the last three months.”
“Man,” she said, actually impressed. She kept threatening her mom that she’d do it, but the one time she’d tried, she’d only had the guts to walk around the block and back. “If you want out of here so bad, why do you keep coming back?”
“Where else am I going to go?” He threw his fork down. “What is this? Get your kicks talking to the messed up kid day?”
“Who else am I going to talk to?” She swallowed a spoonful of applesauce, Daniel’s screwed up life pointing a big fat finger at how hers wasn’t as bad as she’d thought. “No one else in this place is going to understand what it’s like.”
“What what’s like?”
“You know.” She looked up. “Everyone telling you it’s getting better…only it’s worse than it ever was.”
His eyes squinted at her.
“So you wanna make a break for it?” she asked again.
“You’re nuts. We can’t just walk out of here.”
“Why not? You said you do it all the time.”
“Not in the middle of school.” He tapped his finger to his forehead. “You really are nuts. My uncle’s the principal.”
“So?”
“So! We’re going to get caught!”
“So?”
Everyone was trying their best to help her. She understood that now. And she’d been trying as hard as she could this week, too. But she couldn’t take this place anymore.
“Forget it!” She stomped to her feet.
Daniel’s hand jerked her to a halt. The shocked understanding in his eyes had her sitting back down and pretending to play with her napkin so he wouldn’t see how relieved she was.
“You’re really up for cutting class the rest of the day?” he asked.
She nodded.
“We’re going to get in trouble.”
She shrugged. Her mom was supposed to be back in town by the time the school bus got home, and she’d be angry when she heard about this. But what was her mom going to do, ground her? It wasn’t like Becky ever left the house, anyway.
“You know somewhere to go, don’t you?” she asked. Someplace where she wouldn’t feel like such an idiot.
“Yeah, I know a place.”
“Good.” She grabbed her lunch tray and walked away without checking to see if he was following.
And suddenly she didn’t care. He could come with her or not. Either way, she was out of here.
She scanned the cafeteria for teachers, but they all seemed to be eating in the staff lounge. She located one of the monitors who kept the kids under control while the teachers took their break, an
d asked the elderly woman if she could go to the bathroom. The monitor nodded, only half listening because a group of second-grade boys a few tables over had launched into a food fight.
Over her left shoulder, Becky saw Daniel slip around the woman while Becky distracted her, then he headed for the side door that led to the hall. He jerked his head for her to join him, then he was gone.
Her heart beating so fast she felt it throbbing all over her body, Becky left the lunchroom behind. She’d pay for this later, but it was going to be worth it.
* * *
“ALREADY?” Josh barked into the phone.
Edna Lyons popped her head through the open doorway. He held up a hand to stall her. He’d finally gotten Barbara Thomas on the phone, and the news wasn’t good.
“Jenkins’s lawyer filed the papers to gain custody. Be expecting a call from your lawyer about a hearing.”
Josh sighed, motioning Edna into the office. “How long do you think before Daniel will have to talk to a judge?”
He initialed the expense forms in the folder Edna shoved under his nose, and handed them back to her. She made no move to leave.
“If you file for an extension, and you get lucky and catch Judge Hardy in a good mood, you can buy yourself a few more weeks,” Barbara estimated.
“Are we going to get lucky?”
“I’ll do everything I can.” She sounded less than encouraging. “Any progress with Daniel?”
“He’s sitting through the sessions with Dr. Rhodes now without acting out. Rhodes says it’s a sign that he’s finally beginning to trust me.”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah, except now Daniel doesn’t say anything at all.” In fact, they hadn’t spoken since their cryptic conversation during the ride home Monday night.
“Mr. White?” Mrs. Lyons interrupted.
He’d forgotten she was still there. And the woman looked ready to rip the phone out of his hand.
“I’ve got to go, Barbara. Do the best you can with the judge.”
“What is it, Mrs. Lyons?” he said, louder than he’d intended as he hung up the phone.
“Mrs. Cole stopped by a few minutes ago. She and her class were returning to their room after lunch and…” The normally direct woman hesitated. She was actually wringing her hands.
Josh sat silently, waiting for the details of Daniel’s latest scuffle. The kid had been lying low this week, his increasing withdrawal concerning Dr. Rhodes. It was almost a relief that there had been a new outburst.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Lyons,” he said. “Just tell me what Daniel’s done, and I’ll have a talk with him.”
“Well, that’s the problem.” The woman worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “Mrs. Cole was wondering if Daniel might already be in here with you.”
“What?” Josh pushed himself from his chair.
“He wasn’t there when Mrs. Cole returned to take the kids back from lunch. She didn’t think too much about it at first. She had one of the boys check the bathrooms, then thought maybe he’d headed back to class early. But…”
“But what?”
Curtis Jenkins wouldn’t have the nerve to try and take Daniel from the school, would he?
“Becky Reese seems to be missing, too,” Edna said. “Mrs. Cole’s checking with the other teachers, but she was wondering if it’s possible they might have run off somewhere together.”
* * *
JOSH WAS WAITING when Amy pulled to a stop outside the school at one-thirty. She’d just turned off the highway when he’d called her cell with the news about their kids. Instead of driving on to her mom’s, Amy had given Gwen a quick call to let her know what was up, then she’d headed for the school.
She rolled down the window. Josh braced his forearms on the roof as he bent to talk with her.
“The last anyone saw of them was about an hour ago, so I’m pretty confident they’re together.” His expression was a mixture of apprehension and frustration. “One of the lunch monitors remembers Becky asking to use the restroom. No one saw Daniel leave.”
“Why would they cut school?”
“Beats me, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Doug Fletcher said Becky was agitated this morning. The last of her testing took longer than usual. She was pretty frustrated by the time she left his office, and she was late meeting her class at lunch. My guess is she and Daniel got together and decided an afternoon off sounded like fun.”
“Any ideas where they might be?” Amy had taken a full day’s work with her when she’d left the office that morning. Neither Hutchinson nor Thomas Fuller had been pleased that she was taking more personal time. She’d left them e-mail messages that she’d check in as soon as she arrived in Sweetbrook.
Guess that plan was moot.
“I have one idea,” Josh responded, a half smile forming on his gorgeous face.
“Of course!” she exclaimed, reading his mind as easily as when they were kids. “The tree house.”
“Give me five minutes, and we’ll head over together.” But he didn’t immediately step away from the car. His smile grew softer as he studied her. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
Nerve endings sang to life at the memory of his kisses. Regardless of the circumstances, it felt good for her to be there, too.
Maybe too good.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“THERE IT IS,” Daniel said as they stopped on the road next to the Millers’ pond.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Becky gazed at the ancient fort perched in a tree down by the water. “I’m not climbing up there. I’ll fall and break my neck.”
“Don’t be such a baby,” Daniel sneered. She’d been so cool ever since they’d left the school. Now she was acting like a girl. “It’s safe. Besides, if your mom could climb up there, you can.”
“My mom?” Becky stared at him as if he had snot running out of his nose. Then she blinked in recognition. “So this is the tree house she told me about when I was little. Hey!” Becky’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know she used to climb up there?”
“Never mind.” He turned away, wanting to kick himself. Why, why, bring up her mother? Next, maybe they could have a nice long chat about his uncle. “I’m going up. Stay here if you want to, I don’t care.”
“Now who’s being a baby?” she grumbled. “Are you always—”
“Well, if it isn’t a couple of the county’s finest youngsters,” a deep voice said from the road behind them.
The hair on Daniel’s arms rose in recognition, even though it had been years since he’d heard that voice. He turned, pulling Becky a step or two away from the beat-up black truck they hadn’t heard stop a few feet away. The man was smiling from behind the wheel, his arm propped on the open window. His grin showed off the gap between his two front teeth, and his nose was crooked.
Funny how the face looked like a stranger’s, but the voice stunk of home.
“Aren’t you kids supposed to be in school?” the man said, setting the hand brake. He slipped out of the truck, closing the rickety door and leaning back against the dusty metal.
“What do you care?” Daniel demanded.
Becky’s arm trembled slightly, and he looked sideways long enough to catch the worry in her eyes.
“You know who I am, don’t you, boy?” The man’s smile looked even phonier when he winked.
Becky pulled against Daniel’s grasp, as if she were planning to run. He
held tight to her arm. Running wouldn’t do any good with this guy. Daniel should know.
“If you think I care who you are,” he said, “you’re crazier than my mom said you were.”
“Now is that any way to talk to your daddy?”
Becky flinched, then shrugged off Daniel’s grip. She eyed his father up and down. “So you’re the one Mr. White said would never lay a hand on Daniel again.”
She turned up that snooty nose of hers. In the past, that same look had angered Daniel. At the moment, he wanted to applaud.
“Well, aren’t you a little angel?” The way Daniel’s father snarled the endearment had Daniel yanking Becky back another couple of steps, until she was slightly behind him.
The man’s eyes honed in on him. “Your uncle tell you I’m here to take you home?” he asked.
“He told me he’d never let you take me anywhere.” Daniel lifted his own chin, mimicking Becky’s stubborn stare. Inside, he felt himself coming unglued. The storm was building, the anger and the hurt. The panic. The memories. “My uncle’s got a lot of clout around here. He won’t let you hurt me.”
“Now, what makes you think I’d hurt you?” His dad stepped away from the truck.
Becky began inching back, pulling on Daniel’s T-shirt for him to follow.
Daniel couldn’t move, even though he felt like he was flying apart. The roaring in his ears drowned out every sound except the voice of the man walking toward him.
“Why don’t you hop in my truck, and we can talk about it real civilized-like,” the man said, easing closer.
“Don’t touch me,” Daniel whispered, while the words screamed in his mind.
The man’s hand closed around his shoulder, and the dam broke.
“Don’t touch me!”
Kicking, screaming, fighting, Daniel didn’t care who he hit as long he got away. He had to get away. But his legs wouldn’t run. So he kept on hitting.
Fight him off. Make him stop.
“Don’t touch me!”
A Sweetbrook Family (You, Me & the Kids) Page 16
