Kitabı oku: «Baker's Law», sayfa 4

Chapter Five

Marissa stared at Lexi. The girl had dragged Hill—and it was clear he didn’t want to be there—into her shop. Through Lexi, Hill admitted that he’d broken in, taken cupcakes and who knew what else but now he was sorry and wanted to make up for it. By working it off. Lexi wanted her to give him a job.

When Lexi and Hill had come in, the girl had bought them each a drink and a cupcake. Hill was partial to the red velvet, she’d learned from the wrapper he’d left on the table the other night. While Hill ate, Lexi had pulled Marissa aside and dropped her little bomb. But there was more.

“I know he broke into your store. But it was only on nights when it was too chilly or he had homework.” The teen worried the edge of her shirt.

“I don’t understand.”

Lexi leaned in. “He has no place to go. Like nowhere.”

There were few things in the world that could make the bottom drop out of Marissa’s stomach; homelessness was one of them. Many years after her mother left, Marissa, Marlie and their brothers had been in downtown Fort Worth with their father at the big library. It had been such an adventure when she’d entered the grand building with its white columns. Her dad had helped her get her first ever library card. She was so proud, checked out three books all by herself. As they were leaving, Duff pointed at a woman up the street. She was wearing tattered clothing, pushing a shopping cart. It was all her father could do to stop him from running down the street.

Marissa could remember Duff’s contorted face as he looked up at their dad and said, “But it’s Mom.”

Marissa had wanted to get a closer look. She barely remembered what her mother looked like. But the dirty woman, the one who was talking to herself, looked nothing like the image she’d formed from a few aging photos.

Glen Llewellyn had gathered up his children, shuttled them back to their van and driven away without so much as a comment. Later that night, Marissa had overheard him talking to Mr. Humphries. Their mother had a drug problem. When she’d run off it was to avoid going into rehab—she’d chosen God knows what over getting the help Glen was offering her. Apparently she’d come back from time to time to ask for money, and the last time Glen had refused. He’d told her no, and until that day at the library it’d been three years since he’d seen her.

Her father was devastated and so confused. Marissa had been mad at the woman for upsetting him. They’d never gone back to that library—as a family. When Marissa was old enough, she’d gone looking for her mom. She’d wanted nothing more than to find her mom, help her, get her off the streets, but no matter how many times she’d gone back to that library she’d never found her mom. She always feared her mother had finally succumbed to either being on the streets or drugs themselves.

Marissa lowered her voice as her stomach continued to pitch. “He’s homeless?” Her voice carried and the young man’s cheeks turned red.

Hill set down the drink he’d just pulled up to his mouth and gulped heavily.

A deep throat cleared from behind Marissa and she jumped. “Oh, Chief, hey.”

Hill stood suddenly as Lexi gasped. “We’ve gotta…”

“No.” Marissa held her hand up. “You’re not going anywhere.” She turned to Jax. “Was there something else you needed?”

He opened his mouth, but the cell at his hip chirped again. When he looked at the screen, he shook his head. “I’ve got to go.” He glanced back up at Marissa, then to Hill. “Will you be here a little later? I think you and I need to talk.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Marissa hurried Jax to the door. “I’m here ‘bout another hour.” Once she got him out of the shop, she turned to face the two teens.

“What’s going on?” Marlie stood behind the counter, her gaze volleying between the three.

Marissa turned to her sister but decided not to tell her who Hill was. Not until she could figure out what to do. “Don’t you have an appointment at the club?”

Marlie jumped and checked her watch. “Oh, I do. I’ll call you later with the details for the wedding—”

“I don’t know.”

“You promised you’d do it,” she said in a singsong voice as she waggled her pinky and gave Marissa the sisterly you-owe-me stare.

“We’ll see…” Marissa tried to get the words out before her sister made it out the front door, but she blew past so fast, she wasn’t sure Marlie had heard her. She had pinky sworn, though, so even though Marlie had tricked her, she couldn’t wiggle out of it.

When she turned back to the teens, they were quietly arguing over the half-eaten cupcakes. “Okay, so let’s talk.”

The pair jumped apart, both wide-eyed. And suddenly mute.

Marissa smashed her hands on her hips. “Which one of you is going to go first?” She waggled her finger between the two.

Both teens looked at their feet.

“Lexi, you seem to be the one with all the ideas and plans. You go first.” Marissa pulled out a stool and leaned up against it, then slid the one across from her out with her foot. “Sit. Start over from the beginning.”

Lexi walked over to the stool and only glanced back over her shoulder at Hill once. She hopped her five-foot frame up on the tall stool, took a deep breath and the words tumbled out of her. “You see, it’s like this. Hill’s mom passed away a few years ago. He was living with his dad. Who is a real loser. Sorry, Hill—” she looked back at him for a moment “—but he is. One day, his dad up and leaves.” She held Marissa’s gaze without blinking once. “No one seemed to notice there was this kid living all by himself. Hill’s a good student so it didn’t affect school or anything. But a few months later the bank forecloses on the house. He didn’t have a way to float a mortgage on top of school and his part-time job. He did have a job.” She said it so earnestly, as if to score a few extra points in Hill’s favor. “But the company folded and everyone lost their jobs.”

Lexi took a long breath and continued. “He lived with friends here and there. And no one asked questions or seemed to notice he had nowhere to go.” She gave a quick little growl of disapproval. “I’d totally let him stay with me, but my mom’s so provincial I can’t. He’ll be eighteen in two months and then it won’t matter, but until then…” She shrugged. “He needs a little help here and there.”

Hill shifted. He hadn’t said a word. Just let his friend Lexi plead his case.

“So like I told you, he only snuck in here when it was too cold or he had a lot of homework. He didn’t really hurt anything or anyone by doing it.” She folded her hands in her lap and straightened her shoulders. She’d said her piece.

For a moment, all Marissa could do was try to catch her breath. She glanced at Hill. He stood next to the other table, his food and drink still half-finished. He’d turned three shades of red under his tan complexion and looked ready to bolt at any moment.

Marissa’s head swam with the information. The most she could muster up at the moment was a simple question. “Is that all true?”

“Yes ma’am.”

It was the first time he’d spoken. He had a deep, smooth voice that while polite held an edge of mistrust.

There were so many people who’d failed him. She didn’t know the first thing about where or how to help, but there were also services and organizations for that. None of which had come to take care of him when he needed it the most. He could have gone to them, but he was still a kid. He’d been taking care of himself any way he could. Until he’d gotten caught.

And what had she done?

Sure, she’d called the police initially, but when he’d run and she could have identified him, she hadn’t. Was she as guilty as the others? Even when Jax had come face-to-face with Hill, she hadn’t turned and pointed to him. She’d kept quiet. Now the teens trusted her for it and were asking for her help. Sort of. It wasn’t like they were necessarily asking her to help him into the system, though. They wanted her to overlook the fact that he’d broken into her shop—several times—and helped himself to her food.

Food that was going to go to waste, a little voice in the back of her head whispered.

She shook herself and asked, “And somehow all this parlays into a job offer from me to him?”

Lexi’s face brightened. “Yes. You could let Hill work here. He could clean up and maybe you could let him sleep on the sofa in your office. It’s not all that comfortable, but it beats under the bridge on the far side of town.”

Marissa let that sink in. It sucked that she’d been right. It sucked worse that Hill had been basically tossed aside and made to fend for himself. What must it be like for a teenager—whether he was soon to be eighteen or not—to be completely on his own? She’d never been alone since the moment of conception. She’d always had Marlie, her older brothers and her dad. Not to mention a slew of extended family all over Texas and beyond. She’d never once worried about being alone.

Lexi wasn’t done yet. “If you agree, it will give you an added layer of security having a warm body here at night. So no one can break in.”

“No one else can break in, you mean,” Marissa pointed out.

If Hill’s face had been red before, now it was about-to-stroke-out red. He rolled his head back and stared up at the ceiling.

“How many times have you…” Marissa motioned to the back of the shop.

“Not that many,” Lexi said at the same time as Hill lowered his head and said, “a dozen or so.”

Marissa pinched the bridge of her nose. A dozen times someone had broken into her shop. A dozen times a lone, teenage boy had slept in her office, on her sofa, to keep from sleeping under a bridge. She’d only noticed a couple of times when things seemed off, and only once was it obvious that food had been taken.

The bell over the door clanged as a woman with three little girls came in chattering away.

“How are y’all?” Marissa stood. “I’ll be right with you.” When they passed and made their way up to the counter, she turned to the teens. “I’m not done talking with you two. Sit. Finish your snack and I’ll be right back.”

She wasn’t entirely sure they’d listen to her. She half-expected them to be gone when she finished with her customers. But Lexi and Hill were at the table. Hill had finished his cupcake and Lexi sat picking at hers. Marissa grabbed another red velvet from the case and headed back over to the teens. She set the cupcake in front of Hill. He stared at it for a long moment, then peeled back the paper and took a bite.

There were so many things she could do. The least of which was nothing and tell the kids to skedaddle. One thing that played over and again in her head was the fact that Hill had admittedly sneaked into the shop so many times and—other than the food—he hadn’t taken a single thing. He could have cleaned out the money from the cash register. Not that she kept more than a few dollars in the drawer when the store was closed. Not to mention, there were any number of pawnable items in the shop and on her desk and he’d never once filched anything. That should count for something. And while she did want to help him out, she wasn’t ready to invite him to her small two-bedroom townhome. Nor was she ready to thrust him upon a system that as of yet hadn’t even noticed he needed help.

“If I say yes, there will be some strict ground rules.”

Lexi squealed at an ear-piercing decibel, then launched herself from the stool to give Marissa a bone-crushing bear hug.

Hill dusted the crumbs from his fingers and wiped his mouth with the napkin.

Once Marissa peeled Lexi’s arms from around her shoulders, she ticked off her rules one finger at a time. “This is temporary while I try to figure out what to do.” When Lexi opened her mouth to comment, Marissa held up her hand. “Let me finish. You are not to have anyone else in the shop after hours. And no one in the back at all.” She shifted her gaze to Lexi for a moment then back to Hill. “If I find anything missing, I immediately go to the chief. You can work after school on the weekdays and a few hours on the weekends. We’ll set up a schedule for your hours.” She paused and neither spoke. “Lastly, I’d like to see your report cards.” She wasn’t entirely sure why she’d thrown that last stipulation out there. It seemed like a parental thing to do. It was clear no one else was giving him guidance. “How does that sound?” She held out her hand to him.

Hill stood. For a moment he hesitated then finally shook her hand. “Sounds pretty good.”

* * *

Marissa flopped onto the sofa in her small house. It seemed like she’d spent less and less time there in the eight months since she’d opened her shop. She took a long sip of a much-needed glass of red wine—her typical Friday night. Not that she’d had a typical week. So many things had happened it would take the entire weekend and several bottles of wine to decompress and figure it all out. Then she groaned. She didn’t have all weekend. First thing the next morning she was due to meet her sister, then later that evening she’d promised to go with Cherry to the Blue Spur.

To top it all off, her weekend had already started off with a whimper. She’d waited around the shop for an hour after close, thinking Jax might come back. He’d intimated as much as he’d walked out. She’d even gone through three batches of cupcakes trying to perfect the maple bacon she’d told him about earlier in the week.

By nine o’clock, though, she’d decided to call it a night and left. Left a teenage boy to sleep in her office after he’d gathered his meager belongings from the bridge and returned to clean up the back as his part of the bargain. She’d even given him a spare key for the back door after she’d made a point to say that she’d be in by eight the next morning to get the shop ready for the day. She hadn’t meant it so much as a warning, just as a way to let him know business would go on as usual.

If—when—if he remained, on school mornings he’d be leaving just as she would arrive. He could start out the morning unafraid, and she’d see to it that he wasn’t hungry. Then school would let out at four. She wasn’t going to give him a curfew per se. Anyone who slept under a bridge had enough responsibility—not to mention the much-desired shelter—to get in at a decent time. If he kept up his end of the bargain for a week, she’d give him a small paycheck. And then try to figure out her next step.

Not that she had even the slightest idea of what that might be. Maybe she was crazy to even agree to it. Hell, he could wipe out her entire kitchen—which thankfully, was covered by insurance. Something in her gut, though, told her he’d hold up his end. He had determination in his eyes despite the slump of his shoulders. Really, he reminded her a lot of her dad.

Thinking of her dad and the fiasco at the club years ago, she tried to call her sister so she could weasel out of her morning meeting. When she’d come in from work, there’d been a message on her machine telling her she needed to be there bright and early at seven. Every time she called, though, she’d just get Marlie’s voice mail. Marissa’d have no choice but to go up to the country club in the morning—which was probably why her sister wasn’t answering. It would be the first time she’d been back there since she and her father had picked up their last paychecks, minus the damage fee for the towels.

A heavy knock at the door stopped her before she could travel very far down the self-pity lane. With her wine in hand, she opened the door. Jax was the absolute last person she’d expected to see standing on her welcome mat. “What are you… How did you…” When she finished stammering, she took a long sip of her wine. “Jax.”

“Marissa.” A smile quirked up the corner of his mouth. He was out of uniform wearing a pair of jeans and a light blue T-shirt. His hair was wet on the ends as if he’d taken a shower before he came over. “May I come in?”

Marissa moved aside from the door and motioned him in with her wine glass. After she shut the door, she downed the remainder of her wine. “Please, have a seat. Can I get you some wine?” She scooted around him and moved into her small kitchen.

“Sure. Thanks.” Jax didn’t sit, only stood rooted in her living room.

She eyed him over the half-wall that separated the two rooms as she got down another glass. Her home wasn’t tiny—the two-story, two-bedroom, one-bath townhome was old but in good shape, with the living room and kitchen taking up the whole bottom floor. But Jax’s tall, muscular frame shrunk the room almost in half.

She turned her back to the opening, poured a drink-full, downed it, then filled both glasses. He was standing in the same spot when she handed him his wine. “So…long day at the office?” Marissa didn’t wait for him to sit, but sat and curled her feet under her at the end of the sofa.

He could stand and be unsociable, but she might as well get comfortable. After a long minute, Jax sat at the opposite end. He kept his gaze riveted to his wine. “There was a six-car pileup on Highway Nine. The county sheriff needed a little extra manpower so my office was busy all afternoon and into the evening.” He lifted his gaze. “No fatalities.”

Marissa released a pent-up breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “That’s good.”

Jax took a sip of the wine then narrowed his eyes at her. “So that was the boy who broke into your shop, wasn’t it?”

“I, uh, I…” Marissa tried to hold his gaze but couldn’t as the lie rolled off her tongue. “He’s my stock boy and it was just a misunderstanding. I’m so embarrassed to have called you out so late at night for that.”

* * *

“A misunderstanding. Huh.” Why would she lie to him? And there was no doubt that he was the young man was who’d broken in. To her shop at least. Why would she protect him? And why had he felt compelled, after the long, hard day he’d had, to run up to the office, look up her address and show up unannounced on her doorstep?

He’d been in Oak Hollow long enough to reconnect with the old friends he’d cared to reconnect with. Still, he was lonely rumbling around his house all by himself. Him and Soldier. And as much as he loved that dog, Soldier lacked the conversation that Jax craved. And as of late, there was only one person he sought out. He looked at Marissa all curled up in the corner of the sofa. Why did she draw him to her?

“Did you eat dinner? I could fix you something.” Marissa quickly changed the subject and set her wine glass down before she started to get up.

“I had a bite a couple of hours ago. But thanks.”

She sat up straighter. “Did you have dessert?” She bounced up from the sofa. “Remember that maple bacon cupcake I was telling you about? I think I perfected it. I made another batch just before I left the shop.” She disappeared from sight for a moment then came back with a little white box. “Will you try one?” She popped open a box and held it out to him.

A bacon and cupcake combo was not his first choice. His culinary tastes ran to home cooking. But he’d hurt her feelings if he said no.

He peeled back one corner of the paper and took a tentative bite. The rich maple flavor played across his tongue first, then he got a bite of the salty bacon. Pretty good.

She stood waiting, still holding the box open.

“I like it.” He took another bite and swallowed.

“You’re not just saying that?”

“Not just saying that. I promise.” He finished off the cupcake, not to be polite but because despite what he’d told her, it’d been hours since he’d grabbed an energy bar and a bottle of Gatorade. And the cupcake was good.

“I’m glad. I’ve been working hard to get this one right. I need something to draw more male clientele into the shop.”

More guys in her shop? It startled Jax how much he didn’t like the idea of men coming into her shop. And flirting with her.

He had zero right to be territorial where Marissa Llewellyn was concerned, though. They barely knew each other. He wanted to get to know her better, sure. Wanted it more every time he ran into her.

He was, however, hesitant to even try to start anything up so soon after moving back to Oak Hollow. Not to mention the fact that this particular woman had lied to him.

“Well, then.” She flipped the lid closed on the box and set it on the coffee table in front of him. “The rest of these are yours. To take home with you for later.” She sat back in her spot at the other end of the sofa and picked up her wine glass. She twirled it in her hand, not quite looking at him.

She looked uncomfortable. Was it general nerves from being around a new person or was she feeling guilty about lying? Other than leaving, Jax couldn’t do anything about the first but he could pursue the second. “I told you about the other break-ins, right?”

Her spine stiffened and she gave a quick nod. “You did. But as I said, the trouble at my shop was a misunderstanding. Not a break-in. No worries about us.”

“Marissa.” Jax scooted forward in his spot and set his glass on the table. “You can’t honestly tell me—”

“Look, Chief, I’m telling you, when I called the other night it was a mistake. I am ever so sorry to have bothered you with the call.” She set her glass down with a little too much force, then stood. “It’s getting late. If there’s nothing else…” She picked up the box of cupcakes, thrust them into his hands then walked toward the door. “Thank you for stopping by.”

Jax had to pick his battles. He strode to the door. As he drew even with her he stopped and stared until she met his gaze. “I’m not going to let this go. There are other businesses at stake.”

“I understand that. But it has nothing to do with mine or my employees. Good night, Chief.” She gently pushed him out the door.

“We’ll see about that,” he said to the closed door.