Out of the Shadows (Bellingwood Book 12) (3 page)

"I thought we collected insurance on it because it was stolen."

"No," he shook his head. "We didn't. We own that truck."

"Sell it."

Henry wrapped his hand around her foot and held it tightly. "Please just listen to me. Can you do that?"

"I guess," she said with a pout. "What?"

"What if Heath drove it to school? Jason and he could ride together and both boys would be able to stop riding the bus."

Polly looked off into space. "It's not the worst idea. Does he have a driver's license?"

Henry nodded. "He's driven my truck a couple of times. I wanted to make sure he knew what he was doing. He does okay for a kid."

"Jason and he don't get along all that well," Polly said. "They hang out in different crowds and Heath hasn't shown any real interest in the horses. He's down at the barn because we pay him to work with Eliseo, but I don't think he cares. He'd rather be mowing or cleaning up the yard than spend time with the horses and donkeys. Jason is pretty much offended by that."

"So, this is a bad idea? I thought maybe the boys could avoid the bus."

"How do I keep an eye on him if he's loose in Boone with a vehicle?" Polly asked. "It's not like school is here in Bellingwood. And I don't want his buddies riding with him. That whole gang mentality. That's when kids get stupid. That's when
he
got stupid. He's barely out of trouble with the Sheriff now. What if he does something ridiculous and hurts somebody with the truck?"

Henry waited quietly.

"Aren't you going to say something?"

"Everything you say is true. It was just an idea. We can sell the truck."

Polly pushed at his shoulder. "Sometimes you give up too easy. Talk to me about this. Don't just let me blather on and then agree. Tell me what you're thinking."

"Your concerns are valid. Heath has only been here a couple of months and before that he was nothing more than a common hoodlum. Nobody trusted him. Who knows if he could handle this responsibility? I certainly don't."

"We'd have to put him on our insurance," she said.

Henry nodded. "He already is. Since he has a license, I wanted him to be insured to drive our vehicles just in case something happened."

She bent over and kissed him. "You're so smart. Am I being too fearful?"

"Look," Henry said. "Nobody even knows this truck still exists in our lives except you and me. We can do whatever we want. Aaron stopped me yesterday and told me that they'd be releasing it in the next week and wondered if I knew what we might want to do with it."

"Raising kids is hard," Polly said. "How can I say that I don't trust Heath to do the right thing if I haven't given him the opportunity to make the choice? That's not fair. He's been good since he moved in. His grades are decent and he's helpful and Rebecca really likes him."

"So you want to do it?"

"You're still not talking to me," she complained.

He took a deep breath. "I hated riding the bus and as soon as I could, I talked Dad into letting me drive. If Heath's parents were alive, he'd probably have a car. It's his junior year and he's going to be seventeen. These last couple of years have stopped a lot of his social maturation and I just hate watching him have nothing. He needs something that says he's a young man. And he needs to be responsible for something."

"Will you teach him how to do maintenance on it?" Polly asked.

Henry nodded.

"Can we set down ground rules and will you back me up if I have to take the truck away because he's broken them?"

Henry grimaced. "The only thing I hate about that is we’d be responsible for transporting him again, but yes."

"I don't want him taking the kids anywhere yet. At least not until he's driven for a while. I don't want any of his friends or kids his age in the truck except Jason. Not for any reason."

"That makes sense," Henry agreed.

"He can drive it to school and back. After he drives you or me to Ames to his brother's house a couple of times, then we can talk about him driving it over there. And I want him to be responsible financially for this thing. I know we won't make him pay for insurance since it's already in place..."

Henry interrupted her. "No, if he starts driving regularly, he can be responsible for his portion. And he puts gas in the truck. If we ask him to drive anywhere for us, we give him gas money. I'll teach him how to do maintenance, but he'll pay for the supplies."

"Wow. Okay," Polly said. "Now I have one more thing to ask."

"What's that?"

"Are we doing this?"

Henry smiled as he looked up at her. "If it falls apart, we'll deal with it. I hope that he'll take on this responsibility and be successful."

"Me too. Can I tell him tomorrow?" she asked.

"Okay. Why so soon? We won't get the truck back until next week at the earliest."

"I'd like him to drive to Ames to start getting a feel for it."

Henry nodded. "Sure. You’ll have him trapped in the truck and you can scare the stuffing out of him while he drives."

"I'm good at that." Polly slid her legs back between the sheets and stretched out, snuggling up against Henry's chest. "I like keeping y'all on your toes."

"Yes you do. I'll call Aaron tomorrow."

"I'm wide awake now," she whispered. "Are you?"

CHAPTER THREE

Every day, Heath went to school and then helped in the barn during the evenings and on weekends, but he detached himself from personal involvement. He responded to Polly and Henry when they spoke to him and seemed to enjoy watching football, but there was nothing that made him interesting or unique. He’d shut every bit of his personality away from the world. He wasn't sullen, he didn't get into trouble, he wasn't happy. After he'd separated himself from the group of people he had run with, he didn't have any other friends. The poor guy didn't seem to care and wasn't about to make an effort to put himself out there again. He just existed.

The best conversations he had were with Rebecca. He was quite taken with her and treated her exactly as a big brother should. He was polite with her, responded to her questions with actual conversation and it was only because she pressed him about it that he did any school work.

It broke Polly's heart that she couldn't find a way to break through his shell, but Henry told her to be patient. That wasn't one of her best things, but she knew he was right. After losing his parents, Heath had been thrown into a less-than-loving situation with his aunt and uncle, so he'd never been allowed to grieve. His older brother was too caught up in his own grief as well as worrying how to stay in school. He'd hoped that Heath would be safe, but had no way to make things better for the boy.

Heath loved his brother. They hadn't spent any time together after school started, so she was glad Hayden invited him to spend the weekend. When Heath asked Polly and Henry if it would be okay, it was the first time she'd seen any sign of life in him.

Polly held her hand over the plate of brownies to see if they were cool enough to slip into a bag. There hadn't been much going on downstairs, so she'd spent the entire day cooking and baking. Lydia would be proud. She'd made cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies, lemon-poppyseed muffins (something she'd discovered Heath liked by accident), blueberry muffins, brownies and cream-filled cupcakes. Then, she'd gone up to Sweet Beans, purchased a pound of ground coffee, a loaf of Sylvie's sourdough bread and a half-dozen French rolls. She hadn't packed it all, there was plenty left in the house, but this was her first opportunity to mother Hayden and she was going to attack it with all she had. Heath would probably kill her.

The kitchen was a mess, but Polly didn't care. If she had to spend all day Saturday cleaning, this would be worth it.

Both dogs jumped up from their pillows on the floor in the dining room and Polly glanced at the clock. It was time for Andrew, Kayla and Rebecca to be home. She arranged the goodies on a plate and put it on the dining room table.

The three kids barreled into the dining room, faces flush with excitement and pulled up short when they saw what she'd done.

"Are you impressed with the food or the mess?" Polly asked.

Andrew was the first to speak. "What did you do?"

"I baked. A lot."

"For us?" he asked.

Rebecca swung her backpack at him. "It's for Hayden Harvey, you dope." She took in the variety on the table. "Did you lose your mind or find a new recipe website?"

Polly pursed her lips. "Maybe both. I couldn't stop myself once I got started. Cookies weren't enough and then I had time on my hands while the dough mixed up for the cinnamon rolls, and then I went on a tear. But there's plenty for everyone."

"Have you taken any of this down to Eliseo?" Kayla stepped closer to the plate on the table. "You should work at the bakery."

"Not me," Polly said. "I do this once in a blue moon. And no, I haven't taken any of this anywhere." She pointed at the containers on the counter. "If you want to share, that would be wonderful. I'm driving Heath over to Ames, so I can't help, but take a plate to Evelyn and Denis and another to Stephanie and Jeff. Eliseo and his crew would probably like a break, too. Mix and match and share. We certainly don't need all of this in the house."

Andrew dropped his backpack on the floor and pulled out a chair at the table. "I'm starving," he said. "Do you care what I eat?"

"I don't care. But will your mother?" Polly asked, scowling at him.

"I won't tell her. As long as I eat my supper, we're cool."

Polly chuckled. "Just be careful. It will still be here tomorrow."

"Is it supposed to be a nice day tomorrow?" Rebecca asked quietly. She slipped past Polly into the kitchen and took down three glasses from the cupboard. Kayla took them out of her hand and Rebecca opened the refrigerator.

"It should be beautiful," Polly responded.

"Can we have pop?" Rebecca asked.

Polly shook her head. "There's lemonade, milk and juice in there. No reason for pop."

Andrew gave a loud sigh. "Mom doesn't let me drink it either. And I like that Mountain Dew. You drink it all the time, Polly. Why can't we?"

She lowered the lids of her eyes at him and said, "Seriously?"

He thought about it, his eyes darting back and forth and then he said, "Yeah. Seriously. Why can't I if you do?"

"First of all, you don't get to do everything that adults do. I won't be pushed into that game. Secondly, your body is still trying to figure out what comes next. The less garbage you put into it while you're young and adapting to the world, the better. Your brain is building connections that will serve you over a lifetime. Thirdly, it's a rule in your house and you know that, too. Would you like me to keep going?"

He had hung his head while she spoke. "No, that's good. It isn't fair that you get to have something and nobody else does."

"Do you see me drinking pop right now, Andrew Donovan?" she asked firmly.

"No, but you probably did earlier."

"And because I put a bra on this morning, does that mean you should do that too?"

He looked up at her, his face twisted up in shock. "No!"

"Exactly. And by the way, whoever told you that your perception of fair was how life was going to be lived, lied to you. Fair has nothing to do with life, no matter what you might think. Are we done with this conversation yet?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

Rebecca and Kayla had stood stock still through that encounter. Rebecca finally made a noise in her throat and said, "Lemonade?"

Polly burst out laughing and put her arm around Rebecca's shoulder, then took the pitcher of lemonade out of the refrigerator and put it in Rebecca's hands. When she looked back up, Heath was standing in the dining room door.

"There you are," she said. "Do you want anything to eat before we leave?"

"No, I'm fine," he responded. He nodded to the plate of goodies on the table. "Did you make all of that?"

"Maybe." She pointed at the two grocery totes. "Those are for you and Hayden."

"It's only two days," he protested.

"You can leave the rest with him. He should have home baked goodies every once in a while, don't you think?"

"Well yes, but, all of that?"

"She lost control," Rebecca said. "You just need to go with it. How did your test go?"

Heath shrugged. "It was okay."

"What about your speech?" Rebecca asked. "Wasn't that today?"

Polly had no idea any of this was happening in his life, but Rebecca didn't miss a beat.

Heath shrugged again and turned to leave. Rebecca jumped out of her chair and ran to catch up with him.

"It's a good thing he's her brother," Kayla said in hushed tones. "Or Andrew would be way jealous."

Andrew opened his mouth to protest, but since it was full of chocolate cupcake, he waggled his tongue at her.

"You're gross," Kayla said.

Rebecca and Andrew had finally dealt with their relationship in time for the first dance of the year. The three of them had gone together that night and the teachers had been ready for the kids, teaching line dances and even dragging out a few square dance routines. There hadn't been much opportunity for the girls and boys to dance together, much to Andrew's relief. Rebecca confided in Polly that she had worried about it all week long. She wanted to dance with Andrew, but wanted to have fun with everybody else, too. It had all worked out.

There were two more dances to come. One in January and one last dance in April. Polly knew they had more consternation on the way, but the longer she could put it off, the better.

Heath and Rebecca came back into the dining room. She sat back down with Kayla and Andrew. "Polly, do we have plans for tomorrow?"

"No," Polly said. "Why?"

"Kayla and Andrew and I want to do some exploring. Since it's going to be such a nice day, can we take a walk?"

This was highly suspicious. "Where do you want to walk to?" Polly asked.

"Just around," Andrew said.

Polly glanced at Heath. He gave his signature shrug.

"Around where? You guys never want to just explore."

"Well..." Andrew started and then he looked at Rebecca. Kayla bent over and picked up her backpack, busily taking things out. That too, was suspicious. They knew they didn't have to do homework on Friday afternoons.

"Fine," Rebecca said. "We want to go to the cemetery. Somebody said they decorate it for Halloween and we want to see what they do."

"Nobody decorates the cemetery for Halloween," Polly said. "Where did you hear that?"

"Just kids at school. Can we go, please?"

"We'll talk later. I need to get Heath over to Ames."

"But if we don't make a plan, Stephanie won't let Kayla come over and Andrew might have to stay home with Padme," Rebecca pleaded.

"Uh huh," Polly said. "Both of them are over here every Saturday afternoon. You'll have to do better than that. I promise, though. We'll talk about and if you're worried that they won't show up, you can call them tonight."

Rebecca dropped her hands on the table, making a loud sound which startled the dogs.

"Do you have everything you need, Heath?" Polly asked. It was better to ignore whatever Rebecca was doing.

Heath held up his bag.

"I know I'm going to sound like a mother hen, but you and I haven't talked much about this weekend."

His shoulders went up and Polly continued. "Are you sleeping on the floor, on a couch, in a bed? Do you need a sleeping bag or an air mattress?"

"That's what you wanted to know?" he asked, surprise evident on his face.

"Sure. What else is there?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe you were going to tell me not to drink or anything like that."

"That’s a given. You're only seventeen and Hayden isn't stupid. He's got a scholarship to maintain. I don't need to tell you not to do things that you're already not going to do."

Confusion was evident in his face. That had obviously never occurred to him.

"So where are you sleeping?" she asked.

"I don't know. It doesn't matter."

"We have a sleeping bag if you want to take it."

"Nah. It's fine. He has one."

"When you get back on Sunday you’ll tell me if you guys need anything to make your next trips easier, okay?"

"Yeah. You want me to carry those?" He nodded at the tote bags.

Polly handed one to him and took the other. "You three have fun. I'll see you later."

When they got into the truck, Heath said, "You didn't tell them to take the dogs out. Will they remember?"

"I hope so," she replied. "They do it every day after school whether I'm upstairs with them or not. I don't have to micro manage every part of their lives."

He pulled his seatbelt on and sat back in the seat, his body stiff as a board. "Thanks for letting me do this."

"You and Hayden should spend whatever time you can together," Polly said. "Someday your lives are going to be too busy and you'll be glad for these memories. Have you spent much time with him in Ames?"

"This is the first time," he said.

Polly took a deep breath. The poor kid. There had been many times she wanted to knock his aunt and uncle's heads together. This was just another on the list. "What are you doing tonight?"

He shrugged again. "I dunno. He said we might get pizza. There are some parties we might go to." He put his hands up quickly. "I promise, though. I won't drink. And neither will Hayden. We're just going so I can meet his buddies."