Autumn's Shadow (12 page)

"You can't push yourself on a teen." She didn't turn to look at him. "From what you told me, you haven't been a frequent part of his life in the past, especially the immediate past." She sighed. "So you can't make up for that by getting in his face all the time."

Was that what he was doing? Getting in Nick's face?" There's no way I can reach him then?"

Turning, she gave him an easy smile. "I didn't say that. It's just that with teens you have to be gentle as a dove and wise as a serpent."

"I don't get it."

Looking up at him, she placed the coarse, heavy horse shoes in his hands. "You decided not to move out of Harlan's, right?"

He nodded. How did she always know things? "I decided we should stay. Nick's happy there."

"Wise move. You're learning to be sensitive. Let Harlan get through to Nick. And it's good to have someone else living with the two of you. Don't you realize that Nick would give you more trouble if Harlan weren't around?"

So he'd made one right decision about Nick. At last. "I hadn't thought of that." Unexpected relief shot through him, he looked away, suspicious of the sensation.

She motioned for him to try his luck with the horse shoes. "You just have to hang around Nick and watch for openings to be there when he needs you."

"Whatever you say." He didn't feel like playing horseshoes. But they were throwing off the gossips, not here to have fun. He sighted the stake, and began loosening his throwing arm. "I sometimes think it will never be right between Nick and me again."
Between my sister and my parents again
.

She touched his arm. "A time will come when he turns to you for help. Just be there and do what you can to help him. That's what will build the bridge. If you try to force it now, he'll just put it down as too little too late. He's wounded and wants to hurt you and every other adult he thinks has let him down. But he'll get beyond that."

He absorbed her touch, taking it deep inside. "Can you guarantee that?" He let the shoe sail toward the stake.

"Yes." She nodded. "Nick isn't bad. Good runs straight through him."

She sounded so confident that he started to feel it. She stood only inches from him. The pull to draw her closer, hold her against him worked its way through him. The attraction he felt toward this special lady just wouldn't go away. Did she feel it too?

Turning her head, she brushed away a mosquito near her ear. Her long slender nape beckoned him. His lips anticipated ...what it would feel like if he pressed them to the white skin just behind her ear.

"I think," she murmured, "we should let him be Jayleen's hero."

"What?" Her words broke his mood.

"You noticed Harlan taking Nick over to meet Jayleen?A good idea."

"I don't want Nick hanging around with her." He gripped the horse shoes tighter.

She frowned at him. "Just because Jayleen's father made a poor choice in the mother of his children doesn't mean that Jayleen will be a bad influence on Nick. In fact, I think helping her will take Nick's mind off his own problems."

Turning what she was saying over in his mind, he aimed and tossed another and then another shoe. Each one clanged and spun around the stake.

"Impressive," she complimented him. "We both know that Nick's doing pranks in the vain hope that you'll get disgusted with him and send him back to Milwaukee, righ? But if he's interested in Jayleen, trying to help her, it could stop that."

Her convincing explanation left him speechless. Keely, with her gentle voice and concerned expression, had the power to make matters clear ...and the power to make him want to draw near her and open up. A dangerous combination.

"One thing though," she said. "The baby's father is in custody, right?"

"Yes, on statutory rape for one thing. Jayleen was under sixteen and he was over twenty-one. As soon as Jayleen knew her baby was safe in Steadfast, she informed against him. Then the MPD caught him right in the middle of a drug deal. They'd been after him for months."

"So that proves my point about Jayleen. As soon as she could, she did the right thing, didn't she?"

He couldn't find any flaw in her logic. But experience had taught him that girls who got mixed up with drug dealers rarely had happy endings. He decided not to point this out. Maybe here with family around her, Jayleen could get off to a better fresh start. He tossed the final horseshoe, another point.

His gaze lingered on Keely. She was a risky woman for him to be around. On the first night they'd met, he'd gotten a hint of that. And today, she'd managed to pierce him with the rich compassion that flowed from her.

"We'd better go in." She helped him collect his stray horse shoes and deposit them all around the iron stake.

"So soon?" Suddenly he didn't want to go back into the loud, crowded hall. He wanted to stay out here. With her. No matter the consequences.

"Yes, unless we want this horse shoe game to be Monday morning's gossip." She folded her hands and looked up at him with a wry expression.

"I'll never get used to small town gossip," he said. He had intended to steer clear of being alone with Keely. But he resented others thinking of his being associated with her. He wasn't being consistent; he knew it and it made him cross. "Don't people have anything better to do around here?"

"Let's go back in and mingle." She led him to the rear entrance. A thick line of fir trees ran along the lot line near it. A group of men had come outside to smoke and were shielded by the trees.

"Did you see how that new deputy's headed straight for Turner's daughter?" one anonymous voice asked in a sly tone.

Someone chuckled dryly. "He's not letting any grass grow under his feet. That's for sure. Maybe he came up here because he was tired of being a cop. Being a rich son-in-law might suit him better."

Burke took a step toward the voices.

Keely stopped him with a hand on his sleeve. She said nothing, just shook her head and walked inside.

Burke quelled the urge to walk over and shove the slimy words down the throat they'd come from.

"Hello, Ms. Turner."

Keely was kneeling on the floor of the Family Closet a week after Ma's wedding. She was in the midst of refolding a stack of crib sheets that customers had left rumpled. Keely looked up. "Hello, Patsy. Hello, Jayleen."

"Give us those sheets," Patsy ordered. "I'll refold them. Jayleen needs some clothes and won't let me spend much on her." Patsy sounded grumpy and proud at the same time."Says secondhand will do."

Keely had been hoping Patsy would bring Jayleen by. She relinquished the stack of sheets to Patsy, knowing that the older woman was always pleased to help. Also this would make Jayleen's first visit here go easier, seeing that her family was already a part of the Family Closet team.

"We have some like-new things," Keely said. "What do you need, Jayleen?"

"School clothes mostly." Jayleen didn't lift her gaze from the floor. "Just jeans and a winter jacket."

"No!" Patsy objected. "That will be new. I seen a down-filled one in a JCPenney catalog that will suit you to a T. And no arguing. Now let Ms. Turner help you pick out a few things. She knows the stock here." Patsy ambled over to the counter, turned her back, and began carefully refolding the small bundle of sheets.

"Our jeans are over here." Keely led her to a long shelf of folded denims. "Let's see, this stack should be your size. Oh, here, these still have the original tags on them. Why don't you try them on first? The fitting room is—"

Nick walked in from the garage. "Someone's here with another donation," he announced, sounding put out by this imposition.

"Good, Nick." Keely noted that his eyes lighted on Jayleen and lingered. "You know where the charitable receipt pad is. Just fill one out and sign it for them."

Nick rummaged behind the counter. "Hey, Jayleen!" he called out in an offhand tone. "Thought that was you I saw come in."

"Hi, Nick," Jayleen replied without turning to look at him.

But Keely noted a change in Jayleen's voice. Evidently, Nick had made an impression on her. Yes!

"Did you take notes in history yesterday?" he asked in a studied nonchalant tone.

"Yes." Jayleen looked down.

"Can I come over and check mine with yours later?"Nick asked on the way out. "See if I missed anything?"

"I don't—," the girl began.

"You come right over," Patsy chimed in. "I baked chocolate chip cookies today. Jayleen's friends are always welcome."

Jayleen hung her head, her cheeks pink.

Nick mumbled an okay and escaped to the garage.

Though Jayleen might be embarrassed by her grandmother's offer, Keely thought Patsy's welcoming attitude and cookies would only help. At least, Patsy was behaving just like her good self.

"Keely?" Penny Weaver with baby Rachel in her arms walked in. "I just found the match to that sock I brought in—" At the sight of Jayleen, Penny froze just inside the front door. "Oh."

Keely hadn't foreseen this and couldn't think of a thing to say.

There was an awkward silent moment; then Jayleen speed-walked into the fitting room and shut the door firmly behind her.

Penny looked crestfallen, as though caught doing something wrong. Complaining loudly, Rachel twisted in her arms, trying to get down.

Patsy broke the awkwardness. "Oh, let me hold her." She hurried forward, arms open in welcome.

Keely felt Penny's distress as her own.

Obviously forcing a smile, Penny let the eager great-grandmother take Rachel, and then she walked over to give Keely the sock. "I didn't know," she said. "I didn't think."

"That's okay," Patsy said loudly. "No use trying to avoid each other. Everyone knows you're taking care of Jayleen's baby. It's best to keep things plain and honest," Patsy went on. "And this little sweetheart looks like she's as happy as a clam. Though how a person knows when a clam is happy,  I don't know." The woman grinned.

Keely tried to think of something to say to help lessen Penny's discomfort. What was going to happen to the baby? Would Jayleen reclaim her child or not?

Penny walked over and held out her arms. "Sorry, Patsy. Can't stay. I'm on my way to pick Zak up from a play date."

Patsy gave Rachel a hearty kiss and returned her to the pastor's wife. Tears moistened the older woman's eyes.

Penny made her getaway.

Nick walked back in. Looking unhappy, Carrie Walachek trailed in after him. Where had she come from? Was she here to sign up for their pre-motherhood classes?

Keely hadn't spoken directly to the girl since the night at her trailer. She sighed, feeling overwhelmed.

Nick put the receipts back into the drawer behind the counter. I need backup. Keely called to the other volunteer, who was in the kitchen making iced tea, to come out.

Then unexpectedly, Grady slouched in the front door, looking sullen as usual. He carried a large cardboard box.

Keely frowned. How had the small thrift shop suddenly become Grand Central Station? "Grady?"

"Mom told me to drop this off." Dramatically, Grady dropped the box on the floor and turned.

"Hold it!" Keely ordered.

Jayleen stepped out of the fitting room and paused to look at herself in the long mirror on the fitting room door.

In unison, both young male heads swiveled to view the pretty girl.

Grady wolf-whistled. "You're hot, babe."

Patsy launched herself at him. "I don't care if you are Franklin Turner's son. You keep a civil tongue in your head. Now pick up that box and take it into the garage where donations belong."

Keely was taken aback by Patsy's tirade.

So was Grady, but only for a moment. He cursed Patsy. Then he turned on his heel and left, slamming the door.

"Jerk," Nick pronounced. He went over and picked up the box and headed for the garage.

Mortified, Keely glanced at Jayleen, who had frozen in front of the mirror. "Those look good on you," Keely said, making her voice as normal as possible in spite of her embarrassment. "I apologize," she murmured to the older woman.

"Not your fault." Patsy slapped wide a sheet and began folding it.

The other volunteer came out and approached Carrie, who wore a peevish expression and glared at Jayleen.

Embarrassment over Grady's behavior warmed Keely's cheeks. But all the troubled currents swirling around her, here, at school, at home, threatened to throw her off balance. Not for the first time, she felt the strain. Maybe she was trying to do too much, spreading herself too thin. Being principal was much different than being a teacher, especially with Grady as a student.

She took a deep breath. Lord, I love my job. I love the ministry of working here at the thrift shop. But I'm running out of patience with my family, especially Grady. Am I trying to help someone who won't be helped?

The image of Burke in his suit, tossing horse shoes at the reception, came back to her. He'd been responding to her, not just as a confidante but as a man noticing a woman. And she'd felt the same attraction. His every move, every expression had taken its toll on her heart, her peace. Lord, I can't handle all this at once.

Less than a week later, Keely's urgent voice repeated in Burke's ear: "Come quick. There's a fire on the athletic field." Siren blaring, passing yellow school buses, he zoomed into the high school parking lot. Jumping out, he headed straight toward the entrance ticket booth area of the football stands. Fire engines had beat him and still flashed the red and white lights. A fire. What next?

Bull horn in hand, Burke shoved his way through a thick cordon of kids gawking at the fire engines. "Fall back," he demanded as he shouldered his way through them. Most looked surprised, some resentful, but they all moved away from him. He glimpsed Keely's blonde-streaked topknot and headed for her. He reached her side. Frenetic activity of the volunteer firefighters churned around them. He demanded, "What happened? Was anyone hurt?"

Keely whirled around. "They don't think so. Someone set the bleachers on fire."

"Probably his flaky nephew!" a student shouted above the hubbub.