by Jen Talty
Andy glanced up at her as he dug a hole in the sand. The toddler jumped up and down, squealing for him to dig it deeper. Andy smiled, and Lacy could feel the tears begin to form. Andy deserved a family. She padded her way to the cabin, keeping her eye on Andy and the little girl he played with while the parents enjoyed a much-needed break by the pier.
Lacy loved Andy without hesitation. Moving back had been an easy decision and that scared her. She didn’t resent Andy, or having to be his guardian, but sometimes she wondered if she wasn’t screwing the kid up even more. She’d never wanted to be responsible for anyone other than herself. Marriage, kids, that was all for other people. “I’ll be done shortly,” she called. “Then we’ll go and do something fun.”
“We should fix the window. It’s going to rain.” Sadness appeared in his eyes, the kind of pain that no child should have etched into his expression.
“The plastic cover will hold for now. Maybe after I get my next paycheck, we can get it fixed.”
“We could use that thousand.”
She paused, just a few feet from the cabin. “We’ll return that money to its rightful owner.”
“He won’t miss it.”
“Andy, that’s not the point. I promised I wouldn’t bug you about where you got the money. I think it’s great you want to help out, but not that way, okay?” This wasn’t the time or place to bring up why Andy had the money.
He nodded. The little girl started splashing him and giggling. He smiled at her and went back to being a young boy, like he should be.
Lacy stepped into the cabin and went about cleaning. She didn’t mind her job, but it certainly wasn’t what she wanted. In October, she’d need to find another place to work. During the summer months, seasonal work was everywhere, but in the dead of winter, many smaller establishments either cut back, or closed completely. The Lake Pub alone wouldn’t be enough, and she couldn’t take on the dinner hours because of Andy. Mentally, she noted how much money she had left. Maybe five thousand, if she was lucky.
The lawyer assigned to her at the public law office seemed to be bright and gung-ho. Andy, being a juvenile, had his own lawyer provided for him by the state. She sprayed the shower and scrubbed vigorously. She hadn’t made a great first impression with Mr. Nelson, Andy’s attorney. He thought her age would be a deterrent, not to mention her lack of education.
“Yeah, well, at least I’m a decent human being,” she muttered, tossing the scrub-brush into the bucket. Taylor might have his own contracting business, but he was also a drug dealer and a Grade A asshole. He didn’t want Andy, just his money. Money intended for Andy’s education, for his future. If Taylor gained custody, Andy wouldn’t have a future.
Lacy gathered her things and headed out the door. She set the bucket down, reaching behind her to tug the cabin door closed. Dark clouds filtered across the sky and a cool breeze rippled the water. The temperature had dropped about ten degrees and she could smell the rain in the air. She glanced to the horizon. Darkness loomed behind the mountaintops.
“Thanks for playing with her, Andy,” the young mother said. “Here’s five dollars for your time.”
“Um.” Andy looked around nervously, catching Lacy’s gaze. There wasn’t a valid reason Lacy could think of to make Andy pass on the money, so she nodded. “Thanks. I’ll probably be around tomorrow. Actually, anytime you need me, I live just up the road.” Andy patted the little girl’s head. She flung herself at him, hugging his legs. “See you around, kid.”
“Help me with this stuff,” Lacy said.
He darted his gaze to the sky and shrugged. Lacy followed behind as Andy scuffed his way toward the hotel with the bucket and mop in his hands. He had grown about a half an inch since June, and she figured in a year or two, he’d be taller than her. So many things for him were going to change, and not just physically. These upcoming years were important to his development as a man. He needed a decent, kind man in his life. Someone he could look up to.
“What do you think of Frank?” she heard herself ask. She winced at her own thoughts. Regardless of how adorable Frank was, he’d been bugging her for a date for months now, which meant his motives were not completely pure.
Andy stopped short of the door. “He’s all right.”
“I suppose.” She pulled open the screen, letting him in, then took the supplies and set them back where they belonged. Sue and Ed were not in the lobby. She figured they must have made their way down by the pier. Didn’t matter. She had completed her work and was free to leave. Regardless of how many hours she clocked, her paycheck remained the same every week.
“Why’d you ask?”
After closing up the lobby, she flung her arm around Andy’s shoulder, grateful he didn’t shrug it off. Given everything that had happened over the last couple of days, today was turning out to be an okay day. “He asked if he could take you fishing.”
Andy laughed. “I doubt he wants to spend any time with me.” He tilted his head and looked into her eyes. “Do you like him?”
“I barely know him.” She glanced over her shoulder, checking for cars. From the moment she’d laid eyes on Frank back in June, she thought he was something special, but didn’t think it would be such a good idea considering her situation. Back then, she hadn’t known his profession. Somehow that did change the stakes a bit. She tugged Andy across Route 8 and up the hill toward the trailer park. “But he seems like a nice guy.”
“He could’ve snagged my boating license the other day,” Andy admitted as they rounded the corner and strolled down the grassy road. “Lacy?”
She ruffled his hair. Not many times did he allow her to be physically close, so anytime he did, she went for it full-throttle. “Yeah?”
“Do you like my dad?”
Oh, shit. Not a question she wanted to answer, ever. “He and I don’t see eye-to-eye on a few things, that’s all.”
“But do you like him?” Andy pulled away, leaned against the small tree in front of their trailer, and fiddled with his pocketknife.
She took a moment to collect her thoughts. The shrink had told her not to push or try to pry things from Andy. He would open up over time. He needed to learn she could be trusted, but she was damn tired of biting her tongue every time Taylor was brought up. The man should be in jail. “Liking him has nothing to do with it.” She sat in the folding chair. “I’ve known Taylor since I was twelve. We have a long history, so maybe my view of him is a little tainted.”
She continued to study Andy. She’d promised herself that she wouldn’t openly bad mouth his father. Not only could that jeopardize her guardianship, but the man was Andy’s father. She shivered as she forced the memories of Taylor’s hands on her body the night she’d come back into town out of her mind. He’d been drunk and had babbled something about joining forces and becoming a family. The bastard had even said that she’d always been the one he wanted, not Hannah. Of course, that was only after she’d shown him Hannah’s will.
“Do I have to like him just because he’s my father?” Andy’s gaze remained on his fingers as he fiddled with a stick.
“No.” She tried not to smile, remembering the look on Taylor’s face when she’d landed her knee right where it counted. Her actions had made Taylor walk away that night, but now he was out for revenge. She needed Andy to tell the social worker he’d rather stay with her, without putting those words in his mouth. According to her lawyer, that was a big ‘no no’ and could be used against her.
“I miss Mom.” He flipped open the knife edge and stared at it.
Lacy hated that knife. She didn’t think Andy should be playing with it, but right now she couldn’t take it away. He was very sensitive about the knife, and she didn’t want to risk upsetting him. What she really wanted to do was go wrap her arms around him, but when he got like this it was best to leave him alone. He could clam up in seconds, and then be gone to her for hours, or even days. “She loved you very much.”
“Then why’d she do it?” Tears we
lled in his eyes.
“Do what?” Lacy leaned in, placing her trembling hands on her knees. Just then, a small pick-up turned onto the lawn used for a parking lot. Frank waved to them from inside the cab. “Great.” His timing couldn’t get any worse. She waved back, trying to smile, but Frank was the last person she wanted to see.
“I brought you two a couple of presents,” he said as he stepped from his truck. His cut-off jean shorts riding low on his hips; his white tank fit loosely on his firm frame. Even his flip-flop clad feet were something to write home about. Frank Harmon had the ‘it’ factor.
“I’m afraid to ask.” She glanced to Andy, who tried to hide his excitement. “Nothing special.” Frank smiled as he chucked his sunglasses in the truck. Mischief sparkled in his blue eyes. He pulled a square object wrapped in paper from the truck bed. “Andy, I’ll need your help putting this in.”
“What is it?” Andy asked, but didn’t budge from his spot against the tree.
Progress, she thought. He hadn’t made some snide remark, nor had he stormed off to the other end of the trailer park, where he’d no doubt get into trouble.
“It’s a new window. I stopped by this morning. You two were gone so I took some measurements.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Lacy narrowed her eyes. “How much do I owe you?” she asked, balling her hands into fists. She liked Frank, maybe. He was, for the most part, kind and considerate. But just going out and getting her a window, without even asking her, just made her mad.
He blinked a few times, holding the window. “Just being neighborly.” He gave her a sideways glance as if he didn’t understand why she was upset. “Andy, why don’t you grab the toolbox in the back of my truck and take it up to the house.” Frank leaned the window against the truck tire.
“You said a couple of presents,” Andy remarked, keeping his gaze from hers. Good thing, because she would’ve ignored the shrink’s words to take it easy on him.
“I’ll get to that a little later. I need a word with your aunt.” Frank kept his eyes glued to her as if she’d insulted him or something. Who did this guy think he was?
Andy eyed them both as he walked toward the truck. He picked up the toolbox and turned toward the house. “Don’t kill each other.”
She waited until Andy ducked under the makeshift canopy and into the trailer. “You had no right to go and do this.” Her voice rose higher than normal. “We’re not a charity case.”
“I never implied that you were. If you want to pay me back, fine. The window cost me nothing.”
“What?” She glared at him, confused. “How does a window cost nothing?”
“My cousin owns Harmon Glass. I do a little work for him on the side, and if I ever need anything, well, he gives it to me.” Frank smiled. “Although, he did ask if he could hang a little sign saying his company did the work.”
“I’d like to pay him for the window.”
Frank lifted the window and started peeling back the paper. “I’m sure it wasn’t very much but do whatever you want.” He tossed the paper into the back of his pick-up. “If you want to pay me for labor…” he breezed past her, without giving her a second glance. “…I’ll take a burger and a beer when I’m done.”
She stared at his back as he walked away with her new window. Her eyes dropped to his ass. A perfect, round, tight-looking ass. If she touched it, she figured it would feel like a solid mass of manly muscle. She shook her hands out, disgusted with herself for noticing. No man should look that good in a pair of worn-out, old jean shorts and flip-flops. Since when did flip-flops on a man become sexy? And how the hell did he know she had planned on hamburgers for dinner?
She didn’t dare go into the house. Over the banging and clanging, she could hear Andy talking. Really talking. His voice didn’t tremble. He didn’t get fresh. He asked questions about what Frank was doing, and he even laughed out loud. Maybe Frank wasn’t such a bad guy.
And maybe she should be used for target practice. She wrapped her arms around her middle wishing she had her favorite fleece, even though it wasn’t cold. Frank was a cop. The man who had shot her father had been a cop. The cop had been drunk, and he’d been the one to start the brawl that night in the bar where her father had worked. She’d been five days shy of eighteen when another officer came and told her that her father was dead. There was no trial. Just a letter of apology, a few thousand dollars, and the cop who did the shooting was forced into retirement.
A loud clap of thunder roared in the sky. It grew dark and the wind howled, shaking the trees. The trailer offered little protection from the cruel world and its elements. She closed her eyes, remembering the last time she’d seen her father. He’d been a hard man. The bottle had taken over his life, but in the last few months before his death, he’d been trying. He’d even gone to AA. She’d been told that her father had stepped between two men, one being the cop. The other man drew a knife and the cop drew a gun, then he pulled the trigger, hitting the wrong man.
Andy laughed in the background, snapping her mind back to her present situation. Frank. She felt alone. Even though she had Andy, and he meant the world to her, she had no one to confide in. No one to tell her it was going to be okay. The world told her to drop it. Taylor would win. He had a stable income, a decent apartment, and bottom line: he was Andy’s father.
“But he’s a rat-bastard,” she said under her breath.
“Who?” Frank questioned, his deep voice rumbling through her body. He waved a Diet Coke under her nose.
“Men in general.” She snagged the soda, cracked it open, and then gulped as she tried in vain to stop her body from reacting to Frank. She wanted to hate him for making her feel like she might have a friend.
He chuckled. “I guess I’m a rat, then.” He swiped his brow. “Look, I know you’re not interested in me, but—”
“No buts. Not interested.” She fiddled with the tab on the soda can.
He sat on the grass in front of her, toying with a few blades. “I get it. But this is about Andy.”
“What about him?”
“You have to trust me on some things.”
“I don’t trust you.” She looked at him dead on but blinked. She wondered if he knew she was lying. The bottom line was that for some god-forsaken reason, she did trust him.
“Trust that I believe Taylor is no good, and I’d like nothing more than to be the cop who gets to handcuff the sorry rat-bastard.” He gave her a slight smile. “But I have to work within the system, which means there are things I can’t tell you.”
“I don’t get it.” What she really didn’t get was why Frank cared so much. He had nothing to gain by being around them, unless he was hell-bent on getting to her, but even that didn’t make much sense. A guy like him could get any girl he wanted, so why would he want her so badly?
“I just need you to trust me when it comes to the predicament you and Andy are in. It can only help you to have me hang around every so often.”
She stood and turned her back to him as she looked at the trailer. Andy was obviously doing something Frank had told him to do, and it looked like he was enjoying the task. “You don’t know anything about my situation.”
She heard him move right before she felt his breath against the top of her head. His smell intoxicated her. She couldn’t place it, but it was uniquely Frank. His fingers gripped her shoulders. She wanted to pull away, but it felt good to connect with another person.
With him.
“I know you’re fighting a system that you don’t understand. I do.”
She shook her head unable to say anything. It wasn’t just the system. It wasn’t just a world that said the biological father had rights, no matter what.
“Do you want to raise Andy?” he asked as if he just read her thoughts.
She gasped and spun around. No one had ever asked her that question. She’d always wondered what she’d say when a judge asked her. From the moment she’d come back home, it had been a given that she w
ould take care of Andy. Be his guardian. His protector. She didn’t think she had a choice, but did she want to?
“Yes,” she whispered, clasping her hands over her face and allowing the tears to fall for the first time in a long time. “Yes,” she repeated as Frank’s strong arms came around her.
“Then trust me.”
3
Frank ran his hands up and down Lacy’s silky arms. With her face buried in his chest, his T-shirt muffled her soft cries. He got the impression she didn’t cry much, or let people in often, something Frank understood. Frank wasn’t sure he’d ever cried, except for that fateful afternoon when he’d pulled Hannah’s body from the cold waters of Lake George.
Lacy’s body pressed into his and he could feel her heart hammer against his chest. She wrapped her arms tight around his waist. He wanted to tell her what he knew, what he suspected. “I want to help,” he whispered against her temple, feeling the slight tremble in her body. He liked holding her.
She stepped back from him and wiped her face. Her soft hair flowed in the breeze as the first few drops of rain began to fall. “Why?” She stared at him, adjusting her hair and acting as if she hadn’t just fallen apart in his arms. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Hannah.”
“You didn’t even know her,” she said suspiciously.
The wind swirled. Tree branches flapped and snapped in the gusting wind. “We should go inside.” It wasn’t just the weather he wanted cover from. How long could he continue to lie to her?
Lacy pushed her hand hard against his chest. “Did you know my sister?”
Yeah, I knew her. She’s dead because I couldn’t do anything to help her. “No.” He tried to rid his mind of the memories of the dark water surrounding him. Being a part of the Scuba Squad had been a dream come true. His dream when he’d joined the New York State Police Department, and now he couldn’t even go under without panicking.
