by Julia London
“You, too.”
Asher turned Levi around and started him in the direction of Riley and the blanket. “Buddy, you can’t walk up to people and try to take their dog. That’s not good.”
“I wasn’t!” Levi insisted. “I just wanted to take Molly to the water.”
“That’s not your call. That was her dog.”
“Can we have a dog, Daddy?”
A dog was the last thing Asher needed; just the thought of trying to take care of one on top of everything else overwhelmed him. “Not now. Maybe someday.” He left it at that, as Riley was standing with her arms folded.
“I want to go home,” she announced imperiously.
“I don’t!” Levi cried as he flopped onto the blanket. “I want to swim some more! Okay, Daddy?”
“No, Levi, it’s time to go,” Asher said.
“I don’t want to go!” Levi cried and rolled over onto his stomach.
“Come on, I’ll take you over to Sandy’s for a frozen custard,” Asher said as he began to gather their things, but Levi began to sob. “Grab the bag, Riley,” Asher said, and hauled Levi up to his shoulder, carrying him to the car. When he had his kids in the car—Levi on his booster, still crying—Asher jogged back to get the blanket.
As he was folding it, he saw the young woman with the chocolate Lab again, standing on the water’s edge. He suddenly had an image of him, holding himself over her, sliding into her. What would it be like? What would mindless, killer sex, no strings attached, be like? Asher hadn’t had sex in so long he guessed it would be pretty explosive. But as he looked at the woman, who was now talking to some young stud, he figured she would not want to have sex with a guy like him. She might have ten years ago, but Asher wasn’t that guy anymore. Hell, he didn’t even know what kind of guy he was now.
He picked up his stuff and walked back to the car, where Riley was sulking and Levi was whimpering.
Riley sulked all the way home, then disappeared into her room. Levi was refreshed after his car nap and wanted to play trucks. He’d built an elaborate track in the playroom and demanded that Asher watch a variety of cars speed down the track and crash into the wall, which, Asher noted wryly, had obviously been used as a crash pad for some time.
He obliged his son for a half hour or more. He even sent a few cars down and helped Levi make some track adjustments for better velocity. But more pressing things were playing at the corner of his mind and creeping into the forefront. “Okay, buddy,” he said. “I need to go check on supper.”
“No, Daddy, don’t go! I want you to stay here!”
Asher winced. “Come on, Levi. I’ve got to make some phone calls, and then I have to make dinner.”
“You don’t have to call anyone tonight! They’re not home!” Levi’s face, dirtied from a day of food and sun, was earnest. “And you don’t have to make dinner because Carla makes it all the time and leaves it!”
“What if you bring some of your trucks down to the office, and you can play with them while I do a few things?” Asher suggested.
Levi’s response was to slump onto a window seat, dejected. “I don’t want to play down there. I want to play up here. I made this track so I could show you.”
“Levi, I . . .” Whatever Asher meant to say was suddenly lost when he noticed the dark stain spreading down the leg of Levi’s board shorts. “Shit, Levi,” he said, squatting down next to his son. “Why didn’t you run to the potty?”
“I’m sorry,” Levi said, tears welling.
What was wrong with his son? “It’s okay,” Asher said evenly. “But you have to try and make it to the potty.”
“I’m sorry,” Levi said again, hanging his head.
Why did this keep happening? What was Asher doing wrong? Perhaps a better question might be, what was he doing right? How could a five-year-old be so troubled?
“Come on, buddy,” he said, taking his son by the hand. “Let’s go change.”
12
On Monday morning, Jane was the first one in the kitchen, drawn in by the smell of breakfast. “Something smells delicious!” she said as she walked in through the back door.
Carla grinned. “Huevos rancheros. I thought you especially might like them.”
“Me?”
“Oh, I’m just teasing. I just said that because you’re Hispanic, right?” Carla said cheerfully.
Who knew? “I love huevos,” Jane said and opened the fridge, pulling out the orange juice. When she closed the door, she looked right into the steely gray-green eyes of her employer.
He gave Jane a curt nod. “Morning.” He was wearing suit trousers, a crisp white shirt, and a tie. He looked much different than he had Saturday night in the moonlight, in shorts and a polo. This morning he looked stiff. Aloof.
“Good morning,” Jane said.
“Carla, if you would, make something I can take with me. I want to be in Austin before the traffic hits.”
“No problem,” Carla said.
He turned toward the door.
“Ah . . . Asher?” Jane said.
He paused impatiently.
“Just a reminder that I’ll be off tomorrow afternoon at three.”
“I remember. I’ll be home.”
“Thanks,” Jane said, but Asher had already walked on. She glanced uneasily at Carla.
“You may as well get used to it, hon,” Carla said. “Mr. P is so busy he doesn’t have time to breathe, much less chat. Do me a favor, will you?” she asked as she shoveled eggs onto a piece of toast, making an egg sandwich. “Run this out to him, will you?”
“Sure,” Jane said.
“That’s his coffee,” Carla said, nodding toward a coffee tumbler. She wrapped the sandwich and handed it to Jane.
Jane was standing in the foyer when Asher came striding out of his office, shoving into his suit coat. He looked at her warily, as if he expected a confrontation. “Your breakfast,” she said, holding out the sandwich and coffee.
“Ah.” He looked at her again as he put his cell phone into his pocket. “Thanks.” He took the items from her, his fingers brushing against hers. “Have a good day,” he added and walked out the front door.
Aloof and sexy, she thought to herself, and watched him get in his car.
“Daddy!” Levi called from upstairs and ran down, sliding into the sidelight just as Asher’s sleek Mercedes headed up to the gate.
“I didn’t get to say good-bye,” Levi said.
“That’s okay,” Jane said and squeezed his shoulder. “You can say hello when he gets home tonight. Come on—Carla’s making breakfast.”
“Hello, Levi!” Carla called out cheerfully when Jane and Levi entered the kitchen.
“Hi, Carla. Can I have Lucky Charms?”
“You may not,” Carla said. “We’re having eggs.”
“Guess what, Levi?” Jane asked before Levi could complain. “I found an explorer camp!” She’d found the brochures in town for the daily summer camps held at one of the local parks. This one focused on exploring the flora and fauna of the Hill Country, and it included swimming, fun projects, hikes, and lunch. “See? Here are some pictures of the explorers,” she said, showing him the brochures.
Levi stared at the brochures. He didn’t seem as excited by the pictures of kids planting trees as Jane had hoped. “What do they do?” he asked.
“They . . . they dig dirt and throw rocks into water. And they get to look at lots of cool bugs.”
Levi eyed her suspiciously. “What type of bugs?”
“The biggest, hairiest ones.”
“Eeewe.” This from Riley, who had somehow managed to rouse herself before noon. She was wearing a My Chemical Romance T-shirt and Texas Longhorn pj bottoms. “Where is the camp?”
“At City Park. It sounds like fun, don’t you think, Levi?” Jane asked.
“Levi is already growing tomatoes,” Riley said as she opened the fridge. “How much more fun can he have?”
“I can have fun if I want to!” Levi protested. �
��When can I go? I want to go, Jane.”
“We’re going to talk to the camp director right after breakfast.”
“Yeah!” Levi shouted, leaping up.
Riley watched him, then leveled a superior look on Jane. “He’ll get kicked out.”
“Why would you say such a thing?”
“Because I know Levi.”
“Excuse me, but what happened to the cows?” Carla asked.
Her question surprised Jane; she and Riley both looked at Carla, who was standing at the breakfast table. “Where are the cows?” she asked again, twirling around in a circle to look around the room.
“Cows?”
“The drawing of the cows. It was right here,” Carla said, pointing to a blank spot on the wall.
“Oh, that,” Jane said. “Sorry, I forgot to put it back up. Levi and I moved it so we could put up his glue project to dry—”
“You can’t move that!” Carla said sharply. “Mrs. P made that drawing and it always hangs right here.”
“I’ll get it, Carla!” Levi said and darted into the utility room, returning almost instantly with the framed drawing. “Here it is.”
Carla clamped a hand over her heart and sighed with relief. “Thank God. Mr. P would never forgive me if I lost it.” She gestured for it. As Carla hung the drawing again, she actually looked a little shaken.
“I’m sorry, Carla,” Jane said again.
“Please don’t move anything. Everything in this house is where it is for a reason,” Carla said curtly, and she looked at Riley, who gave her a halfhearted shrug. “Come and get your plates,” Carla said.
She banged around the kitchen while Jane and the kids ate breakfast. Jane thought Carla was being a little ridiculous. Mrs. Price had been dead a year and a half now, and moreover, there were more drawings and paintings than anyone in this house could count. But Jane had learned her lesson: Susanna Price wasn’t going anywhere. It was little wonder Levi thought he heard her in the attic.
After breakfast Jane took Levi upstairs to get him dressed. They were picking up his room when Riley appeared in the doorway. “What am I supposed to do while Levi is playing with bugs?” she asked.
“You can go to camp with me,” Levi offered.
“Here, Levi,” Jane said, handing him clean clothes. “Go in the bathroom and brush your teeth and wash your face, then get dressed, okay?”
“Okay,” Levi said. Taking the clothes, he frog-hopped into the bathroom. “I have a few ideas for us,” Jane said to Riley. She had great ideas. Ideas that were guaranteed to wow her young charge into utter devotion.
“Please don’t say I have to go to camp.”
“No camp,” Jane said cheerfully. “Much better than that. I thought we could make an appointment to get your hair cut and maybe some highlights. Highlights are cool, right?”
“I guess,” Riley said, glancing at herself in the mirror above Levi’s dresser.
“Then, while Levi is at explorer camp, you and I can do something I think you will find really fun. I thought we could go down to the hidden springs and open up the little playhouse and do some painting.” She grinned, waiting for Riley to proclaim it a great idea.
Only Riley didn’t do that. She seemed more astounded than surprised. She gaped at Jane, her blue eyes wide. Then the girl paled, anger washing over her features. “You went down there?”
“I found it when I was out for a run,” Jane said, her smile fading.
“You didn’t go in, did you?”
“No, I didn’t go in,” Jane said. “But I—”
“I can’t believe you went down there,” Riley said coldly. “That was mine and my mom’s private place. I don’t want you in there.”
So much for Jane’s brilliant, I’m-such-a-cool-nanny ideas. “I didn’t go in, so calm down,” she said evenly. “I happened across it, that’s all.”
But Riley’s eyes flashed with anger. “This isn’t your property, Jane. You can’t just walk around wherever you want. You’re supposed to be with us or in the guesthouse.”
Jane had to draw a breath to keep from saying something she’d regret or get her fired. “Okay, I get it is obviously someplace that is very special to you. I just thought that maybe, now that a little time has passed since your mom died, we could go down there together and you could take up painting again.”
Riley turned back to the mirror. “Don’t try and act like you know anything about me, because you don’t. It’s not special to me. That was my mom’s studio and it’s where she painted and I just don’t want you to ruin it.”
By the strength of her protestation to the contrary, Jane gathered that it was a very big deal indeed. She watched Riley fidget with her hair a moment. “I know you must really miss your mom,” she said quietly.
Riley snorted. “Now you’re like the school counselor. What do you think?”
“I think that you do miss her, Riley. And I am only trying to help.”
Riley sighed and turned around to Jane. “I don’t need your help. And besides, you would never understand because you have a mother. My mother was . . . she was . . .” Riley shook her head and looked away from the mirror. “You wouldn’t understand.” She tried to pass Jane, but Jane put her hand on Riley’s arm.
“You don’t know me very well, either, Riley. The thing is, I understand maybe better than you know.”
“Oh yeah, like your mom was killed in a car wreck,” Riley scoffed.
“No, my mother is alive and well,” Jane said. “But I have another mother who gave me away when I was a baby, and I know what it’s like to miss her.”
“What?” Riley looked up, clearly confused. “What do you mean? Either you have a mother or you don’t.”
“I mean that I was adopted. So I know what it’s like, because I miss a mother I never even knew. I know it’s not the same,” she said quickly before Riley could argue. “But I do understand a little of what it’s like not to have your mother around.”
Riley frowned. “Why’d she give you away?”
“I don’t know,” Jane said. “I hope to find out.”
“Where does she live?”
“I don’t know that, either, but I think maybe somewhere around Austin.”
“At least she’s alive.”
“But that doesn’t change the fact that in some ways, both of us are missing our mothers.”
Riley looked at her appraisingly, as if she was seeing Jane through some new lens. She looked at Jane’s hand, which was still resting on her arm. Jane silently removed it, prompting Riley to look up again. “Where am I going to get a haircut?” she asked.
It was only a tiny step of progress, but it was a step just the same, and Jane smiled faintly. “Let’s check some places out after we sign Levi up at camp.”
13
Asher had agreed to giving Jane Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, meaning that through the summer, he would work at home those afternoons unless he made alternative plans. It wasn’t ideal, but Tara had said it was a deal killer, and Asher had desperately needed Jane.
He desperately needed her to come home Tuesday night. An impromptu, but important, meeting with prospective clients from AT&T had cropped up, and Asher was expected at Steiner Ranch Steakhouse near Lake Travis at seven. The client had agreed to see Asher for drinks.
At ten until six, Asher was wearing a sixteen-hundred-dollar Italian suit, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids. It seemed easier than baking the meat loaf Carla had made for them, which would have required firing up the monstrous Viking stove Susanna had insisted upon installing (Asher’s preferred method for food preparation was the microwave). He didn’t have time to prepare anything else. He needed Jane to come walking through that door right about now. In fact, he kept walking to the window and peering out at the drive, hoping to see the red Honda.
“Does Jane have a cell phone number?” he asked Riley.
“Are you serious?” Riley picked up a neon pink Post-it from the kitchen desk and held
it out to him. “She left this in case we went to the bathroom and couldn’t find our way out.”
Asher smiled. Riley had painted her toes and fingernails bright pink, perhaps in silent protest to the loss of her pink hair. He’d been informed, the moment he’d walked through the door yesterday, that she had a hair appointment Thursday and she was getting highlights. He was not fool enough to come between Riley and her highlights.
He checked his watch again. He could be at the Steiner Ranch Steakhouse in twenty minutes; he still had time.
“Guess what, Riley? We painted alligators today!” Levi said. He was on his knees on a stool at the kitchen island, where he was playing with a pair of Transformers. He had them locked in a deadly grip.
“I know, doofus, I was with Dad when he picked you up.”
“Then we made a volcano and blew it up,” Levi continued. “It blew all the way to the sky!”
“Dad, where’s my laptop?” Riley asked, lazily looking around.
“I don’t know, Ri. Where did you put it?” Asher asked as he dialed Jane’s number.
“Alligators can eat you!” Levi informed them both, opening his mouth as wide as he could, then snapping it shut.
“Hello, you’ve reached Jane Aaron,” Jane’s softly husky voice said from somewhere in cyberspace. “Please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as I can.”
“Jane, this is Asher Price calling. I’ve had something come up and I need you back at the house. It’s almost six—please call and let me know when we can expect you.”
“Stop, Levi!” Riley shouted.
Asher looked up; Levi was on the floor now, trying to bite Riley’s leg like an alligator. “Levi, no one likes an alligator clamped to their ankle. Leave your sister alone.” Asher closed his cell phone and tossed it aside to continue with the sandwiches.
Levi climbed back on the stool and picked up one Transformer. “Daddy? Was Mommy crazy?”
Asher paused with the knife in the peanut butter jar and stared at his son.
“Dad,” Riley said, clearly horrified.
“Where did you hear that, buddy?” Asher asked calmly.