Treasure and Protect

by Lori Ryan

  “I like Ethan,” Cora said gently. “I’m going to dinner with him tonight.”

  Justin nodded. Right. Sushi Guy it was.

  6

  Cora watched Justin walk away, then kept going toward her house. She was a block behind Alice and the boys. They were stopped as one of the boys looked to be trying to get a rock or something out of his shoe. She thought about catching up, but didn’t. Alice and she had been friends in high school, but when Cora went to college, Alice had stayed here and met her husband, Tyson Burke.

  Cora had reached out a few times to Alice, but they’d just been at different points in their lives. Alice was juggling kids and a family and Cora was still trying to find her match.

  Cora turned into the library parking lot and cut across toward the back doors of the building.

  Ashley’s face lit up when she saw Cora push open the door. Cora was younger than Ashley, but she’d been adopted by the Walkers first. When Ashley came into their home, Cora had been a bit like a puppy, always trying to get Ashley to play with her. Ashley hadn’t been remotely interested in having a sister. It took time, but now, the sisters were probably closer than they would have been if they’d been biological siblings.

  “Hey,” Ashley said, leaning on the circulation desk. “You headed home?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact. I have to get dressed.” She grinned. “As it turns out, I have a date tonight.”

  “Nice! Not Lice Man?”

  “No. I think he was embarrassed. He blocked me on MatchMeUp and hasn’t called.”

  Ashley frowned. “No big loss. You’ll find someone better.”

  “Ethan Knight asked me out.”

  Ashley’s brows rose. “Wow, talk about taking the plunge. Going right for the bad boy, huh?”

  Cora laughed. “I don’t really remember him from back then, but I do remember the legend that trailed him at school. He was infamous.”

  Ashley frowned. “You do get that he was more than just a trouble maker? I mean, I got into trouble, but he took things a hell of a lot further than me.”

  Cora squirmed. “Well, like, what? What kind of stuff was he into? Drugs and stuff?”

  Ashley shook her head, a slow movement that showed she was thinking. “I don’t know about drugs, but he drank and I know he and Derrick Ayers stole a car more than once to race it. I think he was into gambling and stuff.”

  “Well, he must have gotten past all that. He moved home to take care of his dad, and look at you. If we judged you by what you were like in high school…”

  She didn’t finish the sentence because Ashley had raised her hands up, palms to Cora. “Hey, I wasn’t saying he isn’t a great guy now. You know me. I think everyone deserves a shot.”

  Cora hesitated.

  Ashley reached out to touch her sister’s arm. “Hey, really, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come down on him. I’m sure he’s a great guy now.”

  “I met him at his dad’s house. Ron Knight has been really sick lately and I’ve been taking muffins and lunch to him sometimes.”

  Ashley nodded. “I know. Haddie mentioned it. He’s the one who says Caufield’s Furniture company poisoned his well, right?”

  Haddie was Ashley’s best friend and co-troublemaker. She was some forty or fifty years older than Ashley, but the two were as close as if they’d been born on the same day and raised together.

  “Yes. I don’t know all the details of his illness, but he said there’s no treatment for it.”

  “I heard his case is very weak, but I’m not sure if that’s just what people want to believe or if it’s true. It has to do with trying to prove the chemicals got into the well because of Caufield instead of in some other way.”

  Cora shook her head. “I have no idea what the case will involve, but I can tell you, he’s really sick. He’s getting weaker by the day.”

  Ashley made a show of putting on a smile. “Okay, enough of that. It’s sad. Tell me about your date with his son.”

  Cora grinned. “Dinner tonight. We’re going to a Japanese place.”

  “You hate Japanese.”

  “No I don’t. I hate sushi. I’m sure there’s something I’ll like that doesn’t involve raw fish and seaweed.”

  “Is he hot?”

  Cora tilted her head. “I’m not sure I’d say hot. He’s cute. Good looking.”

  “Why don’t I know him? I know everyone in town.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not true.” Cora said it, but she might be wrong. If anyone could get close to claiming to know everyone in town, it was Ashley. She was the town librarian but she was also a busybody who made it her business to know everyone else’s business.

  “He just moved back to town to help his dad. He had to close his business to do it, but I think Mr. Knight is really glad he did. I mean, he griped about it, but it’s got to be good to have family nearby when you’re that sick.”

  “Oh,” Ashley tilted her head. “That’s sweet. Ethan gets points for moving home.”

  “I know, right?”

  “What are you gonna wear?”

  Cora sighed. “I have no idea. Julia and I are officially saving up for a makeover weekend in Austin over the fourth, but until then, I have to make do with what’s in my closet.”

  “Does any of it not scream elementary school teacher?”

  “Maybe.”

  Ashley gave her a look.

  “Okay, probably not.” Cora waved a hand. “I’ll dig around in the back of my closet. There must be something there.”

  Ashley waved at a group of women walking in the front door of the library. “I have to run. The coupon clippers are here.”

  The library hosted what seemed like an endless stream of meetings in its back rooms. One of the most faithful was the coupon clippers. Each week, they got together and clipped coupons and compared their savings from the week before.

  Ashley leaned over the desk and hugged Cora. “I want all the details when you get home.”

  Cora walked away, doing her best not to skip and jump like a kid. She just hoped there were good details to tell Ashley later.

  7

  “Thank you,” Cora murmured as Ethan pushed in her chair at the restaurant.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, leaning over closer to her as he spoke.

  The hostess waited for him to take his seat before handing him his menu and then left the table. Once they’d ordered their food and handed over their menus, Ethan looked at her across the table.

  “I’m glad you could make it tonight. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to come out on a school night,” he said, his grin telling her he enjoyed the insinuation that they were sneaking out.

  “I think if I went out late every weeknight, I’d be too tired to tackle the kids most days, but once or twice a week isn’t too bad. Honestly, though, a lot of days, I’m ready to drop into bed at eight o’clock. The kids kind of run me ragged.”

  “Do you have heavier and lighter times of the year, or is it all pretty even for a first-grade teacher? I mean, I guess it’s not like you have heavy exam times or anything, right?”

  She shook her head. “No major exams, but at this age, we have assessments we do quarterly and those can be pretty time consuming. There are also parent-teacher conferences. The prep leading up to those, as well as the actual days when they’re going on, can be long. Most of the time, though, I spend my afternoons and sometimes evenings writing lesson plans, grading work, adjusting lesson plans, and doing things like individual assessment plans.”

  “I guess I just tend to think of the time you’re in school.”

  “Hmm,” she murmured as she put down her drink. She hated this part of a date. The idle small talk. “It’s not like daycare where you show up at a certain time and get a paycheck. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into it.”

  He seemed like he was struggling for something to say, so Cora decided to take over on the questions.

  “So, what were you doing in town today?
” He’d been coming out of Jansen’s Feed Store when they’d set up the date.

  He coughed a little, then took a sip of his soda. “Oh, uh, I just picked up a little work there while I get my promo business going here. With the move and all, I lost some of my customers and had to pass some jobs I had committed to off to other people to handle. I used to work summers at Jansen’s so he’s always happy to give me work.”

  “Oh yeah, that makes sense.”

  Ethan shrugged. “He’s not bad to work for. It’s just a few hours so it doesn’t cut into my other stuff. Do you have something you do for work over the summer, or do you just take the summer off?”

  Cora swallowed the sip of club soda she’d just taken. “I wish I made enough during the school year to take the summer off. I always need to take on a part time job.”

  “What kinds of things have you done in the past?”

  “I’ve worked at the book store, an art supply shop a few towns over, and as an online teacher for a homeschooling summer program.”

  “And this year?”

  “I’ll be doing some tutoring and teaching a summer robotics class for some of the school kids.”

  They were quiet while the waiter brought out their meals. When he’d walked away, Ethan picked up the thread of the conversation. “Robotics?”

  Cora nodded. “It’s kind of cool. By the end of the summer, I’ll break the kids into teams and they get to build a robot and we have a battle royale.”

  Ethan laughed. “Sounds bloody.”

  “Figuratively speaking, only, thank goodness. But, yes, there are robot casualties.” Cora focused on cutting her Teriyaki Chicken trying to think of a question to keep the conversation going.

  She went with the work angle again, this time turning it toward him. “It was really good that you were able to move your business here. I’m sure your dad appreciates having you back at the ranch.”

  Ethan’s face fell. “I need to try to help him.”

  Cora was an idiot. She shouldn’t have brought up the issue of his father’s condition. Before she could pull back from the topic, Ethan went on.

  “My dad started selling off pieces of our land a long time ago. My mom and him only had a chance to have me before she died, and I guess running a ranch without a ton of sons around as free labor is tough.”

  “I’m sorry about your mom,” Cora said. “Were you young when she died?”

  He nodded. “I was four. I don’t remember much about her.”

  He’d been younger than Cora was when her mom had left her. She never knew her dad and wasn’t even sure her mom had ever told him she was pregnant. There’d been no name on her birth certificate, so the state hadn’t had any way to know who he was, much less contact him.

  “It must be hard watching your dad sell pieces of the land. It’s been in your family for a long time?” Cora was making a guess. Many of the ranches in the area were passed down from generation to generation.

  Ethan shook his head. “I never minded, and I don’t honestly think he did. Neither of us liked the ranching life. I guess it’s too bad we didn’t figure that out earlier and do something else with the land.” He looked up at her. “My dad loved me, though. I always knew that. He did the best he could.”

  It broke Cora’s heart that he had come home for what would probably be the end of his father’s life.

  “I just want to be there for him now. I need to do all I can to make this right for him. I’m hoping to convince my dad to move into town. I can get us an apartment.” He looked up from his food. “It has to be a good idea to get him away from the soil and the well as long as those chemicals are still out there, you know?”

  Cora’s brows drew together. “He’s using bottled water, though, right?”

  “Yeah, but I figure it can’t hurt to get him out of there. He’s not sure he wants to leave the house, though. He’s lived there all his life.”

  “It must be hard on him.” Cora wiped her mouth and put her napkin back in her lap. “And on you.”

  Cora didn’t have to think twice about whether she would do that for her parents. They had adopted her when she had no one. They’d given her unconditional love, siblings, a home. They’d given her a place to belong.

  She searched for a way to pull him back from the hard topic of his father’s condition.

  “So, um, do you like to read?” She almost cringed at the question. It was so first-dateish.

  Ethan pushed his plate back. “I don’t read much. I watch movies. I have an old car I like to work on.” He grinned. “I read manuals and car magazines.”

  “What kind of movies do you like?”

  “Action movies, sci-fi.”

  “Do superhero movies fall in there somewhere?”

  His smile was slow. He was leaning back in his chair now, and she could see heat in his eyes as he watched her. She had that jittery first date feeling in the pit of her stomach, but it was a good kind of jittery.

  “Sure. Superhero movies count.”

  Cora raised a hand as if swearing an oath. “I swear. I love super hero movies. And I know it’s probably sacrilege to say it, but I don’t care if it’s Marvel Comics or whatever that other one is. I love them equally.”

  That brought laughter from him but there was definitely an edge of incredulity to his expression. “That other one is DC Comics and it’s clearly superior. It’s Justice League. How can you not see the supremacy?”

  She waved a hand. “I’m an equal-opportunity viewer.”

  He egged her on. “All right, we need to have a Justice League marathon so I can convince you to come over to the right side of the light.”

  “You’re on. As long as there’s popcorn and ice cream, I’m there.”

  Cora’s nerves were beginning to wane as they talked. Ethan was nice. He didn’t give her the full-on butterflies doing jumping jacks and setting off fireworks in the stomach thing that Justin did, but he was good looking in his own way. She liked his crooked smile and the way he seemed to stick by his dad even though the two seemed to fight like cats and dogs. Or like father and son, she supposed.

  Their conversation went to town gossip and updating Ethan on the major developments he’d missed in town over the past five years when he’d been living in San Marcos.

  “It’s still hard to believe your sister married the Chief of Police.” Ethan shook his head. “I was a senior when she was a freshman in high school, but I could tell even then she was going to keep Sheriff Bowden busy.”

  Sheriff Bowden had been sheriff in the town when she and Cora were in school. He’d brought Ashley home more than once when she got into trouble.

  Ethan must have noticed her expression because he rushed to smooth over her sister’s past. “She wasn’t too bad. From what I’ve heard, she only caused a little innocent trouble here and there. After what I’d put him through, she was probably a walk in the park.”

  Ashley had been brought home in the Sheriff’s custody when she scaled the town’s water tower and got stuck, and another time when she’d spray painted the windows in the principal’s office. There’d been one time, though, that she’d been caught drinking. That had sent their parents over the edge.

  Cora cleared her throat. “What kind of trouble did you cause?”

  Ethan’s brows rose. “You didn’t hear stories about me?”

  She flushed. “I heard a few.”

  Ethan reached across the table to run his finger lazily over her hand. “Nothing major. Just kid stuff.”

  Cora wasn’t sure that was true. She’d heard he once stole a car and ended up driving it off the road into a field. Another story said he’d been arrested at a raid on an illegal gambling house, but he’d been let off with community service because he was a minor. She didn’t know which stories were true.

  They passed on dessert and Ethan paid the bill.

  As they walked back to his car, he told her more about his plans to expand and build a website to sell promotional goods instead of openi
ng another storefront. Less overhead meant a more stable business and he could stay in town as long as his dad needed him.

  When he dropped her off at her house, would he kiss her goodnight? She hated the fact she was obsessing over that question. He was talking as they walked to the car, but she’d gotten so focused on whether he would kiss her goodnight, she’d lost track of what he was saying.

  Then he was opening the car door for her and she slipped into the seat, letting him shut the door for her.

  He came around to his side and sat, looking across at her before he started the car. “I’m glad we did this tonight.”

  Cora bit her lip, but then smiled. “Me, too. I had a really good time tonight.”

  It was true, she realized.

  He leaned across the car and slid one hand around the back of her neck, pulling her toward him. His mouth was soft and gentle on hers. She kissed him back, tilting her head when he deepened the kiss.

  He stopped before long, and she let her eyes fall to her lap. The kiss had been nice. The perfect length. Not too intense but just right for a first date. And she liked that she didn’t have to spend the whole car ride home wondering if he’d kiss her goodnight.

  It was like that scene in Good Will Hunting where they decide to get the kiss out of the way before the end of the date.

  “I’ve been wanting to do that from the minute I walked into my dad’s kitchen and saw you there,” Ethan said.

  Cora flushed, her eyes shooting to meet his gaze. “Really?”

  “Really,” he said, his crooked smile was broad as he started the car and pulled out of the spot.

  And, yes, he kissed her goodnight again on her front steps.

  8

  “So?”

  Cora looked up from her lunch to see Julia standing in her doorway. Her friend held out a cookie wrapped in a napkin.

  Cora took the cookie and waited for Julia to sink into the chair next to her desk that was usually reserved for students who needed a little extra focus.