A Life Rebuilt

by Jean Brashear

  She got mad all over again that the officer had squealed on her.

  “I know that look. You’re lucky Vince hasn’t heard about this episode yet. He still might.”

  Jenna groaned. “I am so eternally sick of everybody treating me like I’m ten.”

  “Then stop acting like it.” He held up a hand. “Okay. Not lecturing.” His gaze softened. “You’re really okay? No nightmares? No flashbacks?”

  “None.” But she couldn’t meet his eyes and lie.

  “You can come to me, you know. I’ve been there.”

  “So I can be treated to another lecture?”

  “Jenna, you’re the light of all our lives. You’re important to a whole lot of people. We worry.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  His skepticism was clear.

  “I can,” she insisted.

  “If that guy hadn’t shown up…” he reminded her.

  She blew out a breath. “So who are you calling first? Dad? Jesse? Who?”

  He studied her. “I’m not telling anyone if—” He held up a hand as she smiled. “If you promise never to do something so stupid again. I mean it, Jenna. I’ll babysit you myself if I have to.”

  Jenna was torn between gratitude and anger. Did none of them understand how humiliating it was to be treated as though she had fluff for brains? Granted, that night things had gone wrong, but she’d been living by herself in the city ever since college, and she’d had her own apartment her junior and senior years. She wasn’t a stupid woman—and she was a woman, not a child—but good luck getting any of them to believe that. Her mother was the only person in her whole family who gave her credit for being an adult.

  But she saw the worry in his eyes, and she knew, too, that what he said was true. However unfair their treatment seemed at times, she understood that she did occupy a special place in her family, that she was cherished.

  Being cherished sometimes felt more like being suffocated, however. She was so blasted tired of having to struggle for autonomy. She headed an organization, for Pete’s sake, and she did a good job of it.

  “I can see the steam building in your head.”

  Her head whipped up. “It’s not funny, JD.”

  He sighed. “I know. Believe me, if I never heard the names Pretty Boy and Romeo again, I’d be one happy man.” He took her hand. “But there’s love behind those names, too, just as everyone’s concern for you is motivated by love. You’re irreplaceable, Jenna. Your dad had it right—you are our sunshine.”

  But I’m tired of being everyone’s sunny girl.

  She didn’t say it, though. He was right that no one meant anything but the best for her. “I just wonder when I’ll ever be seen as an adult.”

  He sat up straight. “Well, I might be able to help you with that. I didn’t just come to chew you out—actually, I didn’t intend that at all, but once the guys at the department told me…” He held up a hand. “Forget that. Over and done. I know you’re a smart woman, and I’m trusting you to be careful. I mean that.”

  She settled a little. “Thank you.”

  “Actually, you being smart is part of what brought me here.”

  She cocked her head.

  “I want to offer you a job.”

  Jenna blinked. “A job?”

  “Yeah, and you’d actually get paid more than peanuts for a change. I want you to be the Executive Director of the Meryem Foundation.”

  “The Executive Director?” she echoed. “Me?”

  “Can you think of anyone better?” He held up a finger. “One, you’re a born organizer—also known as bossy.” He grinned when she spluttered. “Two—” another finger held up “—your compassion is part of the reason for the lecture we’re going to forget about. Three, I respect you and what you’ve accomplished and I’d like to turn that formidable energy toward my cause. Four—”

  “Wait. Back up to the I respect you part. Seriously?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? You’re transforming a whole neighborhood, one house at a time, one family at a time, most of it through sheer will.”

  “But—” She fell silent. He looked absolutely sincere. “You think we could work together?” They were best friends, but he was still a big brother by inclination if not by birth. Plus, she liked the autonomy she had now.

  “Sure.” He shrugged. “You just do everything my way, and we’re golden.” The twinkle in his eyes gave him away.

  “Yeah, that’s gonna happen.” But her mind was already spinning off in a thousand directions. “Isn’t the office in L.A.?”

  “We set one up there, yes, because it’s a great place to raise money, given Violet’s connections, but that can just as easily be a satellite. I don’t want to live in L.A. permanently, and neither does Violet. She has to spend time there, so I will, too, but she’s fallen in love with Austin. The reality is that in this mobile computing world, you could work from here as easily as anywhere else—though if you’d like a fresh start, L.A. is there for you to conquer.”

  A fresh start. Being somewhere that she was taken on her own merits, not as someone’s kid sister. And L.A.…wow.

  Then she remembered the Marins and the Fosters and the Delgados. Who would take care of them if she left? “Oh, JD, I don’t know. How soon do you have to decide? I really can’t right now—this isn’t a good time. We’re about to start two more houses.”

  “At the risk of making you feel even more indispensable than you already may, you’re the one I want for the job, Jenna. Don’t say no yet. The organization’s only just starting out, and I’d rather have you on board yesterday, but I can wait—for a while at least. Not forever, but until the end of the year maybe. I’ll manage that long if I need to.”

  Then he named a salary that had her eyes widening. “That’s too much overhead, JD.”

  “What did I tell you? Bossy, bossy.” He shook his head, but he was grinning. “Violet seems intent on beggaring herself so that I’ll quit complaining about her luxurious lifestyle. She’s set aside a fund for overhead, so no donations will be used to pay for any of that. We want those to be spent on behalf of the victims only. Salve your conscience, Sunshine?”

  Jenna stared off into the distance, trying to absorb how much her life would change—had changed—in the past hour. She didn’t know what her answer to JD would be, but she’d certainly not awakened expecting anything like this to happen today.

  For sure not after last night’s disaster. Her thoughts drifted back to Freddie, shoveling in soup as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks. And to the brusque, somber man who’d insisted on cleaning her kitchen.

  Then threatened to out her to her family. Well, too late for that threat, Roman.

  He was her savior, the man who’d rescued her when Mako had been willing to do worse than he had.

  Then he’d vanished. Why? What was his story?

  And how could she leave them now, when Freddie was out there somewhere and this mysterious man had such haunted eyes. And then there were Teo and her families.

  “Oh, JD.” She sighed. “I’m incredibly flattered, as well as interested, but—”

  “No buts right now. I get it. You’ve poured your heart and soul into what you’re doing. You’re one big walking heart, and every person you help has a little piece of that heart that stays connected to them from that moment on.” He placed a hand on hers. “Maybe I’ll have to take no for an answer down the road, but I’m not accepting it yet. Just think about it. You know how to reach me if you have questions.” He rose. “You’ve got things to do and I do, as well, so I won’t keep you. But let me say one last thing. The Meryems of the world, who are bought and sold like cattle, who live short miserable lives before they die…they need you, too, Jenna. I’m not giving up easily.” He bent and kissed her cheek. “Bye, J.”

 
Jenna walked out with him until they parted as he went in a different direction toward his car.

  Then she walked right past her office door, lost in thought, and didn’t realize it for another block.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “NEITHER OF THEM showed up at the site?” Jenna listened to Teo when he’d finally returned her call late in the afternoon. “Oh, Teo, I’m so sorry.” She sighed. “It’s my fault.”

  “Yours? How?”

  Her mind was a jumble, trying to sort out her feelings about JD’s job offer, about this organization that she loved, about how alone Freddie might be and, okay, about the man who’d saved her but seemed bent on avoiding her now. “Roman and I don’t see eye to eye on what to do about Freddie.” That was about as succinct as she could make it.

  “Girl, you cannot save the whole world.”

  “I’m not trying to.”

  “Yeah, right.” He snorted. “It’s just as well that Freddie’s not here. Beto is really upset.”

  “I’ll come talk to him. Freddie is a mixed-up kid, Teo. He wasn’t there that night of his own free will.” Besides, Beto might know where to look for Freddie.

  “I’m assuming I can’t stop you.”

  “Why would you want to?”

  “Tell me you need to take on one more battle.”

  She pinched the bridge of her nose. Not really but… She sat up straight. “I’m fine, except I still have no idea how to help you ease your load. Roman has no right to take it out on you because we had a disagreement.”

  “Whoa, girl, taking this a little personally? He never made any promises. We don’t know what else he’s got going on in his life. In fact, he said he had his own work to get back to.”

  True. But she thought of how haunted he looked, the unease he had in dealing with others. And how, for a very short time in her kitchen, she’d seen a glimpse of him without those walls.

  He was a good man, that much was obvious. And one who drew her more than was probably wise. But he was also a very unwilling hero, sort of rusty at dealing with people. That he wanted to be left alone couldn’t be more clear.

  She needed to talk to Diego. He was former military, just as she suspected Roman was. Maybe Diego could help her understand what Roman was facing.

  But he’d also want to know the background of Jenna’s relationship with Roman.

  “You still there? We done?”

  She yanked her attention back to her conversation with Teo. “I’m coming by the house. I want to talk to Beto. See you in a few minutes, okay?”

  “Can I stop you?”

  She grinned. “What do you think?”

  A gusty sigh. “You need a cape and a mask, Crusader.”

  Jenna was chuckling as she said goodbye.

  * * *

  BETO’S BUILD WAS similar to Freddie’s, yet where Freddie’s face had the pinched look of someone who seldom had enough to eat, Beto’s face had the rounded contours of someone who not only had enough food, but enough love. Lucia worked hard and had many expenses to meet, but her children never went hungry for either.

  Jenna wondered why when she’d first met him she’d never realized that Freddie was not naturally lean as a stray cat, why she hadn’t paid enough attention to ever consider that the boy might be homeless. If anything, she’d barely noticed him in her zeal to help the Marins—not until she’d caught him stealing from them.

  But now she had witnessed Freddie eating as though food was a luxury and understood that it likely was. If she could get him to go to school more often, he’d be able to get breakfast and lunch, at least.

  Good grief, Jenna. Think of the paperwork involved. The boy clearly operated under the radar, that much was clear from his terror of the shelter.

  She recalled some sad figures she’d learned from Chloe, whose practice focused on abused women and teens, and from Vince, who had done a lot of work with gang members. They’d gotten themselves licensed as foster parents as a result of the heartache they’d witnessed. They had two girls with them right now, in addition to their own two children.

  Homeless teens, both runaways and the abandoned, were prey to so much. The numbers were staggering: 1.5 million teens homeless at any given time, 25,000 of them coming out of foster care each year due to passing the age limit; 10,000 of those added to the homeless ranks. Besides all the terrors waiting out there—sexual predators, prostitution, substance abuse, mental illness—simply obtaining enough food was an enormous challenge all by itself. Jenna thought of how Cade and Zane could plow through double—and triple-size meals when they’d been teens. Walking stomachs, she’d heard her mother say of them on more than one occasion.

  So what chance did one homeless boy have?

  She had to find Freddie. Had to convince him to let her help. She remembered the look on his face before he’d fled last night and it broke her heart all over again.

  Are you that naive? He’ll run the first chance he gets, and we’ll never see him again.

  But look how well you did, Roman. I gave you your way, and you still scared him off.

  Still, the thought that he was right, that she’d never see the boy again, of having no idea if he was safe or even alive…

  Jenna counted the blocks left until she could find Beto, and when she made it to the house, she practically ran.

  “Hey, Miss Jenna,” greeted Beto’s sister Lili. “Come see my bedroom—it’s painted now!”

  Urgency was a hive of bees beneath her skin, but Jenna forced herself to follow the shy girl instead. These moments are why you do this work, she reminded herself.

  But now that Freddie’s plight had focused her thoughts on homeless children, she was mentally beginning to frame a proposal for Violet and JD. Even if she didn’t take the job, the victims their foundation was trying to help often began as orphans and runaways.

  “Look!” Lili twirled in the center of the room. “My bed will go here, and Mr. Teo says he can build me a desk for over there.”

  Jenna listened, spending precious minutes discussing Lili’s room with her, how Lucia had promised they would make curtains to match the bedspread Lili was saving for, the shelving Teo had promised to help Lili make by herself.

  “Beto will share with the other boys, right?”

  Lili shook her head. “Mami says we should both have our own rooms until we graduate. Abuelo has volunteered to share with Joey until I go to college, and baby Marisa will sleep in Mami’s room.” It was so typical of Lucia to give up her own privacy so that her children could have some.

  “Is Beto here?” Though Jenna knew he was. “Maybe he’d like to show me his room.” That way she could talk to him in private.

  “You never know with my brother, but I’ll ask.” She left the room.

  Beto arrived alone, his forehead wrinkled. “Miss Jenna? You asked for me?”

  Jenna smiled. “Let’s go into your room. Show me around, okay?”

  “It’s just a room. Not that big, either.” But pride was in his gaze as he led her inside.

  “So have you thought about how you’ll decorate it?”

  Beto shrugged. “I got some posters.” He frowned. “But Mami doesn’t want me putting holes in the brand-new walls.”

  She laughed. “Sorry—not making fun of you. You just made me think about my brother Zane’s first dorm room.” At Beto’s curious glance, she continued. “The students weren’t supposed to put holes in the walls, but Zane was a real geek, and he rigged up this elaborate system using fishing wire and pulleys. Most of the guys on his floor had a couple of posters taped up, and those kept falling to the floor when the tape came loose. Zane’s room looked like a museum exhibit—okay, that’s completely wrong. A museum of messiness, maybe. But as far as the walls were concerned, he could display whatever he wanted.”

 
; Beto grinned. “I still can’t believe your brother is Zane MacAllister. Wicked cool. He wasn’t really a geek, right?”

  “He absolutely was. He was slow to mature and always had his nose in a book. To me, he’s still just that pain in the rear who read my diary or threatened my dates when I was old enough to go out on them.” Not much had changed on that last point.

  Beto laughed. “Yeah, but he’s crazy famous and rich.”

  “Would you like to meet him next time he’s in town?” She seldom made such an offer because Zane treasured his privacy, but Beto was beginning to give Lucia some problems, and Zane would be a good influence. A word from him might go a long way.

  “Sweet!”

  Here was her opening. “Maybe Freddie could come, too.”

  Beto’s brows snapped together. “No freaking way.”

  “Why not?”

  His head whipped to hers. “You know what he did. He’d better stay away from me and mine.”

  “Beto,” she began carefully. “Can you tell me where he hangs out?”

  “Why? You gonna sic the cops on him? You should. My mom is killing herself to make this house happen, and that cabrón breaks in and steals—”

  “It wasn’t his idea. He was scared of Mako.”

  “Mako’s crazy scary, but still…Freddie was supposed to be my friend.”

  “He’s done a lot of work on this house,” she reminded him. “Yesterday he spent all day hanging your cabinets.”

  “Don’t care. Gonna kick his tail when I see him.”

  “Where would you look?” she tried to ask casually. “Do you know where he lives?”

  “You gonna turn him in?”

  “No, Beto, I’m not.” She decided on candor. “I’m concerned about him. I don’t think he has a place to live. It’s dangerous out there for a boy alone.”

  “Freddie takes care of himself. Damien, too.”

  “Who’s Damien?”

  “Freddie’s little brother. Sometimes Damien’s mama leaves him by himself. He’s only six.”