Hometown Holiday Reunion (13 page)

When they arrived, she turned to Erin with a motherly look. “You haven't said a single word, hon. Is this your first time here?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Nervous?” Erin nodded, and the woman smiled. “I've worked here almost twenty years, and we've never had a problem between an inmate and any of our guests. Does that help?”

Erin picked up on the carefully worded phrasing and realized the guard was going out of her way to be truthful. So, strange as it seemed, the precise statement boosted her confidence a smidge. “A little. Thank you.”

Satisfied, their escort eyed Cam warily. “I don't imagine I could convince you to stay out here while the two ladies talk.”

“No, ma'am.”

“All right,” she conceded with a sigh. “Just be prepared for some gawking. We don't get many as handsome as you in here.”

“Hear that?” he whispered to Erin as they entered the visiting area. “She thinks I'm handsome.”

The delighted gleam in his eye was kind of cute, and despite the fact that she was still very much on edge, Erin managed to smile at him as they sat down. “I'm sure most women do.”

“Not you, though,” he went on in the same teasing voice. “Why is that?”

“I know you too well.”

That only made him chuckle, and she rolled her eyes at the ceiling. The man was hopeless, but there was no denying that he had his charms. After all, he'd given up most of his day to keep her company during her grim errand. In her mind, that earned him all kinds of points.

A slight blonde woman dressed in an orange jumpsuit approached the table, and Cam stood halfway up before a guard glared him back into his seat.

“Sorry,” he said, holding up a hand. “Just a habit.”

“Someone raised you right,” Lynn Smith said, giving him an approving once-over before taking the lone chair on the other side of the table.

They weren't allowed to shake hands, so Erin rushed straight into the introductions, hoping she didn't sound as nervous as she was feeling. When she was finished, she searched her frazzled brain for something else to say. She drew a total blank and flashed Cam a
help me
look.

Leaning back in his chair, he crossed a boot over his knee like the three of them were shooting the breeze over lunch at the Oaks Café. “So, Lynn, where are you from?”

“Kansas originally. How about you?”

“Kentucky, born and raised. Erin's family owns and runs a horse farm near Louisville, and mine are restaurant people.”

She gave Erin an assessing look. “You live on a farm?”

Finally, her manners kicked in, and she replied, “Actually, I moved into town recently to open a pet store. A few years ago I started a nonprofit animal shelter that rescues unwanted pets and rehabilitates other animals before releasing them back into the wild.”

“Interesting.” Lynn's tone made it clear that she was making a concerted effort to be polite, and she quickly got to the heart of why Erin was there. “Did you bring a picture of my son with you?”

In answer, Erin slid the approved photo across the table and folded her hands tightly on the scarred wooden surface. Awkward didn't begin to describe this situation, and she kept having to remind herself to breathe. Lynn studied the picture for several seconds, her neutral expression revealing nothing about what she might be feeling.

She pushed the image back toward Erin with a faint smile. “He looks good.”

“He is good,” Erin assured her. “And he's doing well in school, too.”

“What did he get for Christmas?”

What an odd question, Erin thought. What difference did that make? Being a good student was far more significant than how many video games he owned. Then again, she was here to mollify a stranger with a troubled past, not make things more difficult than they already were. “My younger brother bought him a remote control helicopter that Parker really likes, and—”

“What did
you
get him?” Lynn interrupted impatiently. “Did you buy him clothes and books, or did you get him something he actually wanted?”

“He loves science, so I gave him a chemistry set and a small telescope so we can look at the stars. Now that it gets dark earlier in the evening, we're tracking the moon's phases every night and plotting its position at an astronomy website we found online.”

Lynn blinked, then shook her head with a rueful grin. “I've got no idea what you just said, but it sounds pretty smart to me. Does he have his own room at your place?”

“Yes.”

“What's it like?”

Erin described it to her, and again Lynn seemed to approve, if a bit reluctantly. Then her eyes lit on something, and for the first time her harsh features softened. “Is that a cross you're wearing?”

“Yes.” Erin lifted it clear of her collar so Lynn could see it better. “My parents gave it to me when I was baptized, and I've worn it ever since.”

“You've got a good family. Better than the one I had, that's for sure.” She angled a glance at Cam. “What about you?”

Erin expected him to balk at the question, insist that it didn't matter because the two of them weren't a couple and his religious views weren't any of her business. To her astonishment, he quietly said, “There's better families than us, and there's worse.”

“An honest man,” Lynn commented wryly. “And here I thought they all died out a long time ago.”

“There's still a few of us dinosaurs around.”

“Not in my world.” A guard sidled over to give them the five-minute warning, and Lynn suddenly got very serious. Still focused on Cam, she demanded, “What's your involvement with Parker?”

“He's a great kid, and I enjoy spending time with him.”

“So you two aren't dating or anything?”

“We grew up together,” he replied evenly. “We're just friends.”

His answer seemed to satisfy her, and Erin wondered when they were going to get to the part where Lynn agreed to let her adopt Parker. Instead, she said, “A lifetime of bad decisions landed me in this awful place, but I found something here I'd never had before. Our chaplain is a good, caring man who's been showing me a better way to live.”

She paused, and Erin realized that she was waiting for a response. “That's good.”

Resting her hand on the table, she showed Erin the small tattoo of a cross on her left ring finger. “I'm not allowed any pretty jewelry, so I did this to show God I understand what He wants from me, and that I'm willing to do it.”

The hopeful confession should have been inspiring, but it could have horrible consequences for Parker, and Erin's heart sank to the floor. For all the mistakes she'd confessed to making, Lynn was clearly on the road to redeeming herself, at least in her own eyes. Struggling to put her own misgivings aside, Erin managed to say, “I'm glad to hear that.”

The guard strolled over again, and Lynn sighed before standing up. “That's my cue. Thanks for coming to see me.”

“What about Parker?” Erin blurted in desperation.

“I'll have to pray about that. You understand, don't you?”

She most certainly did not, but Erin knew only too well she'd get nowhere trying to bully someone whose violent past had landed her in prison. Summoning the professional but friendly expression she'd perfected for use on demanding attorneys, she nodded. “Of course.”

“I'll be in touch.”

With that frustratingly vague promise, Lynn gave Erin a wan smile and followed the guard through a door on the far wall. While it was open, Erin glimpsed a long, antiseptic-looking hallway with two long rows of metal doors and nothing else. Despite the roller-coaster ordeal she'd just been through, knowing that Lynn would be spending years more in that stark environment made her sad.

But not half as sad as being escorted from the facility with no concrete answer about Parker's future, she amended bitterly. What on earth was she supposed to do now?

Back in Cam's truck, she stared out the window to make it plain to him that she didn't want to talk. In usual Cam fashion, he honored her unspoken wishes, but after half an hour, he said, “I'm starving. How 'bout you?”

“Not really.” Checking her watch, she added, “Parker will be home from school soon. It's his first day back after vacation, so I want to be there.”

“For him or for you?”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“He didn't know where you were going today, or why,” Cam reminded her gently, acting as if she hadn't just bitten his head off. “He doesn't strike me as the kind of kid who needs babying, but if you want to see him to make yourself feel better, I get it.”

Delivered with a strong dose of sympathy, the logical explanation soothed her nerves a bit, and she admitted, “You're right, it's for me. And I'm sorry I barked at you. It's been a long, stressful day.”

“After not much sleep last night, I'd imagine.” Angling a grin her way, he winked. “Don't worry, bug. I can take it.”

“I really wish you'd quit calling me that.”

“I know.”

He gave her an unapologetic grin that made her laugh in spite of herself. “You're hopeless.”

“I've been called worse.”

“I don't doubt it.”

“Y'know,” he began, resting his arm across the back of the old bench seat, “I've been mulling over how this all went down, and I've got a theory. Wanna hear it?”

Figuring he knew a lot more about the seedier side of people than she did, she swiveled to face him. “Sure.”

“I think Lynn is coming up on some kind of review that will either set an early release date or force her to serve her full sentence.”

“So you don't believe she's going to pray about it?”

“Not hardly,” he scoffed. “I believe she's gonna pray that she gets released early, but the legal system might have more to do with that than she wants to admit. At least to you.”

“That's a pretty cynical attitude.”

“I've worked with ex-cons who had a real gift for lying to themselves and everyone around them. How 'bout you?”

Erin had never met anyone who'd been in such serious trouble with the law, and she acknowledged that she'd have to take his word on this one. “So, if she's getting out soon, she'll want Parker back?”

“And if she's gonna be in there for a few more years, she might decide that by the time she gets out, he'll be a teenager who hates her for abandoning him.”

Erin acknowledged that Cam knew what he was talking about, from the kid's perspective. “Do you think things would've been different if your dad had come back earlier?”

He didn't look over at her, but she noticed the firming of his jaw and how his hands gripped the wheel a little more tightly. Reining in his infamous temper instead of letting it fly, she mused. Interesting.

“I'm not sure,” he confided in a thoughtful tone. “A few days ago, I would've said no. Seeing Mom and him together the other night made me furious, but once I calmed down, I realized I can't keep her from loving him. But that doesn't mean I have to forgive him for what he did to us.”

“I'm confused. You told him he could come by.”

“I didn't think he'd drive right over to visit her when I was gone.”

“With all the health problems she's had recently, I could understand him being anxious to see for himself that she was doing better,” Erin pointed out. “Maybe he wanted to see you, too, but you weren't there.”

“Don't be getting all logical on me,” he growled. “I know it's stupid, but that's how I feel.”

“What about Natalie?”

He shrugged. “She thinks Mom should do whatever she wants. Nat doesn't remember him all that well, so it's not like she missed him or anything.”

“But you did.” Erin filled in the very large blank he'd left hanging in the middle of their conversation. She had wonderful memories of her dad, and she couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Cam to know he had a father who'd chosen not to be part of his life. “Maybe part of you still does.”

“Whatever.”

The simple, careless response did nothing to mask how he actually felt. He'd done so much for Parker and her, she wished there was a way she could help him come to terms with the unwieldy position his family was in. Since there wasn't, she opted to end the discussion by turning on the radio.

As they turned off the highway and headed for Oaks Crossing, he surprised her once again. “I'll try.”

“Try what?” she prodded.

He groaned. “Are you really gonna make me say it?”

“You're a man of your word. If you say it, I know you'll do it. If it helps any, I honestly believe putting away the past is what's best for all of you,” she added in a gentler voice.

“You're a real pain, you know that?”

“Isn't that why you started calling me ‘bug' in the first place?”

“Yeah, but you do have a point. This time,” he added with a scowl. When she didn't reply, he heaved a long-suffering male sigh. “Fine. I'll try to be more open-minded about my dad. Happy?”

“Yes. And I know your mom will really appreciate you doing this for her.”

His dark look mellowed into the kind of smile that reminded her that under all that bluster was a great big heart of gold. “If you keep telling me that, I just might be able to stand having him around again.”

“Deal.”

* * *

On a chilly afternoon in late January, Cam was double-checking the most recent shipment the contractors' supply store had dropped off at the storefront that a huge sign hanging on the door proudly identified as The Future Home of Pampered Paws. Strolling around the impressive stacks of lumber and Sheetrock, he counted items and checked them off before moving on to the boxes of nails and other hardware. To his amazement, everything down to the last screw was accounted for. He wasn't a superstitious guy by nature, but he couldn't help thinking this was a promising way to start the new year.