by Alison Kent
He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. His lips curved upward and she watched his ego soar. “So you like my voice.”
With her chin propped in her palm, her elbow propped on the table, she nodded dreamily. “I like your mouth.”
“I see,” he said, and his grin gave a new dimension to the devastation he’d wreaked on her heart.
She nodded again. “I like the way you talk to me. I like the way you kiss me.”
“And the way I—”
The ring of the phone cut him off.
“Hold that nasty thought,” he said, and jumped up to grab the handset off the kitchen counter.
Eva didn’t even think to object. At this time the night it was more than likely a telemarketer. If it was from the shop or from Zack, Carson would let her know... otherwise, he could handle it. She was tired from the day at work behind her, tired from the night of work ahead.
And more than a little bit drowsy and dazed from Carson’s mouth.
It wasn’t until several moments later when she heard Carson’s tone of voice drop, heard him say, “Let me talk to him,” that she even bothered to lift her head from her arms crossed on the table and look his direction.
“Hey, dude. What happened?” he asked, and Eva rocketed out of her chair.
He paused. “Yeah?” He paused. “Hey, your mom’s right here.”
Finally. She’d been flagging him down like an Indy starter to hand her the phone.
“Okay. Okay.” Still, he held the handset. “You are? Yeah, I got it,” he said, ignoring Eva’s insistence that he let her talk to her son.
In seconds he was going to find her work boot grinding down on the top of his broken foot. But in the same seconds, Carson said, “All right. We’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.” And then he hung up the phone.
She couldn’t believe he’d hung up the phone! “That was Zack, right?” she demanded, knowing full well that it was. “Why didn’t you let me talk to him?”
Obviously thinking she had no mind of her own, Carson took hold of her upper arm and tried to herd her back to the table. She jerked out of his reach. “What is going on? You don’t have any right to keep me from my son.”
Carson ran one hand down his face. “Zack’s fine. He was in a hurry. He didn’t want to get caught breaking curfew. He said he’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Talk to me about what tomorrow?” And then the rest of what Carson said registered. “And what do you mean curfew? I’ve never chaperoned a trip where kids worried about curfew. Zack included.”
“He’s plenty worried now.”
“Since when?”
Carson’s brows went up. “Since he and Katie skipped the trip to Six Flags and got caught making out in the swimming pool.”
“What? What?” She couldn’t think of anything else to say because her mind was filled with the picture Carson had just painted... and with the appropriate torture she planned to inflict on her son. “I thought the whole purpose of going early was to go to Six Flags.”
“Seems Katie had other ideas.”
“Katie! That sneaky—”
Carson clamped a hand over her mouth before she said something she didn’t really mean. “She wasn’t feeling well. Or so she told her mother.”
“Let me guess. She convinced Zack to stay behind knowing full well the trouble they could get into And with Zack’s playoffs coming up.” Eva closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her temples. “He could she do this? Why would she do this? And Zack. How ... why ... what was he thinking doing something so stupid?”
“I doubt he was doing much thinking at all. Nothing about young love makes much sense.”
She didn’t want to hear that. She really didn’t want to hear that. “What did Katie’s mother say?”
“Just that she hasn’t decided yet what to do since she was responsible for letting the kids stay alone. She thought it best if the two of you talk when they get back tomorrow.”
“I suppose she blames Zack for this.”
“Not any more than she’s blaming Katie. Or herself.”
Damn her dead cell phone. “You shouldn’t have let him go early. This wouldn’t have happened if he’d gone later tonight as originally planned.”
“Uh-uh. Wait a minute.” He cut her off with a hand slammed on the countertop. “Don’t be blaming this on me, Eva. This ball’s in Zack’s court. And there’s nothing more we”—he paused, ground his jaw, amended his pronoun—”nothing more you can do about it. I’m sorry it happened. But it’s over now.”
“No, it’s not. It’s not over now.” This was serious enough to mar Zack’s record. “He should’ve called me before he left. I’d’ve reminded him to stay out of trouble.”
“And you think that would’ve made a difference? You don’t remember much about being seventeen, do you?”
Oh, she remembered. She remembered. The memories made it easy to be mad at Zack. She didn’t have trouble at all being mad at Carson. And that was trouble in itself. Because she knew she’d have let Zack go early to San Antonio, just like Carson said.
Her son had a lot to answer for.
She took a deep breath, more disappointed in her son than she’d been at any time in his life. Thoughts of placing blame battled with the logic that said Carson was right. Zack was going to have to deal with this on his own. This was a weight Eva wasn’t going to be able to shoulder for him, the way she’d shouldered problems in the past, wanting to spare him hurt.
He’d lost so much, more than any child should lose so early in life. And, admittedly, she’d overcompensated, expending her emotional energy in the only outlet she had. Yes. Carson was right. Win or lose, this was Zack’s ball to field.
Carson was also waiting. “Well?”
She released a heavy sigh. “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it tonight.”
She doubted there was much she could do with the books either considering her state of mind. Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to have a big broad shoulder to lean on?
So what’s stopping you?
One thing was certain. At this very moment, she wasn’t anywhere close to thriving. In fact, at this very moment, wilted better described her state of mind and heart.
“It’s late. I’m tired. And I must be getting old because it’s Friday night and all I can think about is going to bed.” Really, really needing that shoulder, she took a deep breath and a big leap of faith. “Would you stay?”
Carson’s only answer was to hook an elbow around her neck and take her to bed.
EVA WAS STANDING BEHIND the checkout counter in Blooms the next evening when Carson walked through the front door. He sensed her immediate relief, her immediate withdrawal, followed by a quickening of his own heart. One of these days she was going to have to do a real consolidation of her feelings.
When he’d driven up and parked the Jeep next to her minivan, he’d seen Zack working in the back of the gardens. He probably hadn’t been home from San Antonio for more than an hour, but had already started in on his penance.
Carson hadn’t known Zack long at all, but wasn’t a bit surprised by the teen’s actions. This was the boy Eva had raised, the boy whom she’d feared losing. Carson could guarantee from experience that was one thing that wouldn’t happen.
He hadn’t seen much of Eva today. He’d come awake in her bed this morning. She’d slept restlessly through the night, then agitated, she’d woken. He’d whispered a soft “Good morning.” And she’d mumbled something about the hell of a day she had ahead.
While she’d showered, he’d made the pot of coffee for the kick she so depended on each morning. Leaving her all but one small cup, he’d scrounged for a pencil and notepad to let her know he’d see her later in the day, and left the note propped against the carafe.
Now he saw her. And now she saw him.
He knew it was close to closing time. And... to hell with it. He locked the door behind him and flipped the sign to closed. Zack was helping a young couple out back, but there were
n’t any customers in the store to be seen.
Carson limped up to the counter. “You need any help finishing up?”
Eva shook her head. “I’m just waiting for Zack to make his sale. Then we’re going home.”
Hmm. Was her we all-encompassing? Or limited to her and her son? “Why don’t I take you guys out for dinner?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Zack and I still have a lot to sort out.”
“You’ve talked to him?”
“Briefly. He apologized. He apparently ended up spending the night in the same room with Katie’s father. Just the two of them.”
Carson worked to hide his grin. “Not a bad start to his punishment.”
Eva rolled her eyes on a long exhaled breath. “I seemed to have some impact. He’s been fairly subdued.”
“Any fallout yet?”
“No. Linda, Katie’s mom, feels more than a little responsible. She shouldn’t have left them alone and admits it.”
That was true enough. “How’d the cheerleading competition go?”
“Apparently not well. Katie was rather... distracted.”
“Self-inflicted punishment. Oftentimes the most effective.”
Eva pulled a rather pained expression. “Zack won’t be seeing Katie for a while. Or at least that to be the outcome of his night spent with Jim Crenshaw.”
Carson shook his head. “He had to be glad to wake up from that nightmare.”
“He did tell me one thing,” she said with seeming reluctance. And though she’d been looking at him, she averted her gaze.
Interesting reaction. Carson was all ears. “And that was?”
“That all he could think about afterward was the talk he’d had with you. And the fact that he wasn’t”—she grimaced—”prepared.”
Carson avoided patting himself on the back. “I told you he’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
“Thank you.” Eva dipped her head in grateful acknowledgement. “Not just for the compliment. But for caring.”
At last she was getting it. “You’re welcome. But it really is my pleasure.”
“So.” She hesitated. Stalled. Finally found the pencil she’d been searching for when he’d walked up to Blooms’ counter.
“What?” he prompted when she didn’t pick up her train of thought.
“Have you decided anything about when you’re going back?” She lifted a receipt book, a catalog. Avoided making eye contact. “To New York?”
He fought to keep from smiling. He’d wondered when she’d ask how long he planned to stay in town. “Is there a reason I’d be going back to New York?”
“Your work.” She found the pencil, but lost the legitimate distraction. “Don’t you have to report in or something?”
He shook his head and leaned an unconcerned elbow on the counter. “I told you. I’m on vacation. And when I get ready to go back to work, all I do is make a phone call. Bailey sends me out.”
“What about your apartment?” She frowned.
“What apartment?”
“Your home. Where you live.” She frowned deeper.
Carson shrugged. This was one thing they hadn’t talked about. The fact that he didn’t have any place he called home. “I live wherever I happen to be.”
She paused for a moment, smiled to herself, then said, “So you could write a travelogue.”
“Yeah. If I wanted to.” He was curious about her private thoughts. “I’ve stayed in the finest and the worst places every country has to offer.”
“The best way to do Bangkok on a budget.”
“You’ve lost me.”
She shook her head, indicating he really hadn’t lost anything at all. “That’s okay. I was talking out loud but thinking to myself. Don’t you get tired of living like that?”
He shrugged and leaned a second elbow counter. “I’d never really thought much about it till I got here. But now, yeah. I’m getting tired.”
“Maybe you’re just getting old,” she said, and poked the eraser end of the pencil into his shoulder.
He grabbed the pencil. “Maybe you’re not old enough to play with pointed objects. Anyway. I’ll figure it out soon. I’m staying through next weekend for sure.”
“Why’s that?” she asked, and stole the pencil from his fingers.
Uh-oh. “I guess Zack hasn’t told you.”
The pencil stilled, then fell from her fingers to the floor. “Now what hasn’t he told me?”
“He made a decision about taking the prom portraits.”
“He did?”
Oh, man. This was going to be good. “He’s not going to do them.”
“Good. Good for him. Maybe he does have that head on his shoulders after all.” She stacked the receipt book and the seed catalogs. “Of course, now he probably wishes he’d decided to take them. I doubt he’ll be doing much dancing with Katie. Or not without being scrutinized by my eagle eyes, and that of her parents.”
“I’ll be there, too.”
“You?” She frowned. “Why?”
“I’m doing the portraits.”
Chapter Twenty-three
EVA HAD NEVER HAD A real prom night. She was as giddy and excited as the members of Lake City High’s junior class. The dress she’d decided to wear she’d thought too sophisticated for high school. But then she’d seen Katie’s and Courtney’s formals and had to change her mind.
In comparison to the ankle-length, sequined, backless, sideless, and in Courtney’s case, very near frontless gowns the teenagers had chosen, Eva felt completely overdressed.
Giving into Judith’s urging on the recent and fateful trip to New York, Eva had splurged on the sale of the designer label. The dress was simple, a gorgeous, straight and slimming cherry-red silk that skimmed her knees.
The neckline was a standard collarless minimal scoop, and it had no sleeves to speak of. She’d found a pair of red heels in a shade so close to perfect she couldn’t pass them up, and had finished off the look with sheer red stockings.
The bright red set off her dark hair, hair over which she’d primped and fussed like she hadn’t primped and fussed since her modeling days. She had to say the result was sexy and hot, with a crown of spiky tips and ends slicked to her nape.
For the first time in their history, Carson was picking her up. Like a real date. Standing in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom, Eva laughed. Arms spread wide, head back, she spun in a circle and laughed. She looked good. She looked hot. And she was going to the prom.
A knock on her bedroom door had her stumbling for balance and nearly spraining an ankle in the process. She was way too used to work boots. “Come in.”
“Uh, hi.” Zack glanced around the room. “I was looking for my mom.”
She smacked his shoulder, then straightened the lapels on his tux. “You are a funny boy.”
“And you...” He stood back, taking her in with a wolf whistle and a disbelieving shake of his head. “You are all that. You’re the one who’s going to need a chaperone tonight. No. You’re going to need a bodyguard.”
“Why, thank you very much, kind sir.” She started to curtsy, then decided she’d better master standing in one place first. “And you look totally... I don’t even know the word. Hot just doesn’t seem like a thing a mother should be saying to her son.”
“I don’t think a son should be saying it or even thinking it about his mother, but man.” Zack shook his head again. “You look like nothing I’ve ever seen. You look like the model in those pictures Dad had hanging in the hallway. But you look even better because I know you’re the mom who made me cinnamon toast for breakfast when I was a kid.”
She needed to make him cinnamon toast again. Soon. “That was so long ago, wasn’t it? It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since we left Kansas.”
“I hated it here at first, you know,” he said, tossing back lanky strands of hair. “I kept waiting for the Wizard to come with his hot-air balloon and take me back with Dorothy and Toto.�
��
Eva’s smile was tender. “Oh, Zack.”
He shrugged off her concern. “But things have worked out. And now I have a mom who doesn’t burn my butt when I screw up the way I did last week. I’m really sorry for all of that.”
“You were really fortunate, you know.” They’d been through and rehashed the San Antonio episode more than once already. “Mrs. Crenshaw would’ve been well within her rights to go to your principal. Or to Coach Walters.”
“I know. She called this my second and last chance. If I mess up after this, I won’t be seeing Katie again ever.”
Eva gave her son a hug. “This won’t be the only mistake you make in your life. Just make sure you learn from it. Now,” she said, and stepped back. “Are you ready to go?”
Zack was taking the minivan to Katie’s. From there they’d head to the prom in her car. “Yeah.” He shuffled from foot to foot. “But I have something to give you first.”
Eva grinned. “It must be good if it’s making you that nervous.”
Zack rolled his eyes. Then he thrust out the hand in which he held a florist’s box.
“What’s that?”
“It’s for you. I figured Carson would buy you flowers, but I asked him if I could.”
“Oh, Zack.” Eva’s eyes misted. “I might just have to keep you.” The wrist corsage of red-tipped white carnations and rosebuds in both colors was perfect. A simple gift from son to mother.
He shuffled again. “I knew your dress was red. I just hope it matches okay.”
“It matches perfectly. Here. Help me tie it on.” She slipped her wrist through the elastic band and Zack’s big broad hands fumbled with the ribbons, managing a clunky bow. Eva wouldn’t have retied it for the world.
He stepped back and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I guess I better be going.”
“All right. I’ll see you later.”
“Oh, yeah. You’ll see me.” He rolled his eyes. “Every chaperone will see me.”
“Try to have a good time.”
“I’ll have the best time I can considering my mother’s going to be there.”