“Not unless he’s got you chained up. Does he?” she asked, looking at the teen’s face.
“No,” Elena mumbled. “But—”
“Okay,” Shania told her, “since your brother doesn’t have you chained up, my suggestion is that you start acting like a model prisoner and he’ll slowly start to trust you and give you back some of those privileges that you’re missing.”
Elena’s face clouded over as she snapped, “No, he won’t. He’s stubborn and pig-headed and he’ll just go on treating me like I’m this kid—”
“I think he’s probably fairer than you think,” Shania countered, assuring the teen. She could see by the look on Elena’s face that she needed something more. Shania searched her brain to come up with something. “And until then,” she told Elena, “why don’t you think about everything that your brother gave up for you just so that he could make sure you’d be all right.”
Elena looked at her as if she had suddenly lapsed into a strange language that didn’t make any sense to her. “What do you mean what he gave up? He didn’t give up anything.”
But Shania had done her homework when it came to Elena’s background. She’d had a feeling that she was going to need all the help she could get. “Your parents are gone, right?” she asked the teen gently.
Elena’s back instantly went up. “That’s not my fault.”
“I didn’t say it was your fault,” Shania replied calmly. “But your brother is taking care of you, isn’t he, Elena?”
Elena kept glaring at her. “So?”
Shania’s eyes met Elena’s. “He doesn’t have to.”
“Sure he does,” the teenager insisted. “There’s no one else to take care of me. Daniel’s my brother. He has to take care of me.”
“Elena,” Shania said gently, “people don’t always do the right thing, even if they’re supposed to. People have been known to just take off when they don’t want to face up to their responsibilities. I know a lot of people who would love to be in your place and have an older brother to look out for them, to turn to. You might not think so, but you are very lucky to have someone who cares enough about you to put up with everything you’re dishing out and still trying to get you to do the right thing. There are those who, given the circumstances, just might shrug their shoulders and shine you on, letting you do whatever you wanted to.”
Elena clearly didn’t see that as being a bad thing. “Sounds good to me.”
“Maybe,” Shania allowed, then pointedly emphasized, “If that person is lazy. Otherwise, it’s called not caring.”
Elena frowned because her point had somehow gotten away from her. “You just like to twist things around, don’t you?”
“No,” Shania contradicted, “I like to make things clear. You’re smart, you’re pretty and you have a great deal of potential. You’re luckier than most, Elena. You have it all.” She looked into the teen’s eyes again, appealing to her common sense. “Don’t waste it.”
“I’m not wasting it,” the girl said stubbornly. “I just want to be able to enjoy it while I still can. While I’m still young,” she stressed. “I want to have fun, Ms. Stewart. You remember fun, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. I also remember working hard and being proud of myself for doing a good job. There’s no other feeling like that, trust me. Don’t rob yourself of it. That kind of ‘fun’ you’re talking about lasts maybe a few hours. On the other hand, what you’ll accomplish by applying yourself and putting in all that hard work will last you a lifetime.”
“Maybe it just feels like a lifetime,” Elena quipped.
“I tell you what, Elena, why don’t you give my way a try for a couple of weeks? If, at the end of that time, you find that you’re not feeling better about yourself, then you can just go back to phoning it in for the rest of the semester.”
Elena’s brow furrowed. “Phoning it in?”
“Yes. It means just barely squeaking by,” Shania explained,
“And no more lectures?” Elena asked, watching her for her reaction.
“It won’t be easy, but no more lectures,” Shania agreed.
“And you’ll talk to my brother and get him off my back?” Elena asked.
Shania thought about the tall, dark, handsome stranger she’d encountered at Murphy’s last night. He didn’t strike her as someone who welcomed unsolicited advice.
“I’ll talk to your brother,” she agreed, “but I doubt if my suggesting that he ‘get off your back’ is going to be well-received.”
“But you will talk to him?” Elena pressed, her dark, expressive eyes pinning her teacher down.
Shania nodded. “I’ll talk to him. And you’ll apply yourself?”
Elena frowned, then said grudgingly, “For two weeks.”
“That’s all I ask,” Shania told her with a warm smile. Hopefully, she thought, two weeks would be enough to do the trick.
Elena muttered something under her breath as she blew out a long-suffering sigh. Shania decided it was best if she didn’t ask her to repeat it. Some things were better left unknown.
Chapter Five
Short in stature, large in reputation, Miss Joan had been part of Forever for as long as any of its present citizens could remember, as had the diner that she both ran and owned.
Gruff and abrupt on the outside, soft and understanding on the inside, Miss Joan was also the person that many of the local people went to for advice and guidance when they had nowhere else to turn. On occasion, she was known to take in people, as well as hire them when they found themselves penniless and desperate with no immediate way to rectify that.
What Miss Joan didn’t do was coddle people. Instead, she was just as likely to give someone a well-needed kick in the posterior region to get them moving in the right direction. She didn’t hold anyone’s hand—she didn’t want to add to their sense of helplessness. What she did was steer them in the right direction.
In short, due to a variety of different reasons, everyone thought of Miss Joan as the glue that held the town together.
So, whether it was by design or just subconscious motivation, when Daniel felt that he was utterly confused by his teenage sister’s rather mercurial behavior, he found himself stopping by Miss Joan’s diner to grab a late breakfast—something he very rarely did.
The thin, titian-haired woman, who could make grown men tremble by merely raising a sharp eyebrow, glanced in Daniel’s direction the moment he walked in through the diner’s door. Topping off a customer’s coffee at the far end of the counter, Miss Joan began to move toward the deputy the moment the door closed behind him.
The thin lips curved minutely in greeting. “Well, if it isn’t the strong arm of the law.”
Daniel took a seat at the counter. “I hate to correct you, Miss Joan, but I think you meant to say the ‘long arm of the law,’” Daniel told the woman politely.
Hazel eyes swept over his face. “For your information, Deputy, I always say what I mean,” Miss Joan told him. The hint of a smile was gone. “Have you taken a good look at yourself in the mirror lately, Deputy?” she asked.
Despite the concerns that were weighing on him lately, Daniel asked, “Are you flirting with me, Miss Joan?”
The woman didn’t answer his question one way or another. Instead, she said, “At my age, Daniel, I get to do what I want.”
“What would Harry say?” he asked, referring to the man Miss Joan had finally agreed to marry six years ago after being courted by Harry Monroe for what seemed like an eternity.
“Nothing, if he knows what’s good for him,” Miss Joan deadpanned. Filling the cup she’d placed in front of him, she got down to business. “So, what brings you here, Deputy? A sudden desire for a home-cooked meal?” she asked, although one look at her face told him that wasn’t what she was really thinking.
He wasn’t comfortable admitting that
he had sought her out, so he said, “I skipped breakfast and realized that wasn’t a smart move.”
Sharp eyes took slow measure of him, telling him that the woman was totally unconvinced.
“That doesn’t sound like something you’d do, Daniel. What’s the real reason you’re here?” she asked. Then, seeing him looking at his coffee, Miss Joan asked, “Black, right?”
“Right as always, Miss Joan,” he replied.
A spasmodic smile crossed her thin mouth. “Now, we can continue this little stillborn charade and I can get you a plate of scrambled eggs,” she said, mentioning the way she knew that he preferred his eggs, gleaned from the few occasions that he had come in for breakfast, “or you can just get down to business and tell me what’s causing that deep furrow between those deep, soulful eyes of yours.” She looked at him intently. “It wouldn’t have something to do with your sister, would it?”
Though he had always been excellent at maintaining a poker face, when Miss Joan’s guess was so on target, Daniel couldn’t immediately suppress the surprise that flashed across his face.
Belatedly, Daniel managed to recover and murmured, “Yes.”
Pleased with herself, although not surprised, Miss Joan nodded. “I thought so.”
Daniel paused, looking down at his coffee again, wondering if he’d made a mistake coming here after all. And then he raised his eyes, looking directly into the woman’s deep, penetrating hazel orbs.
“You know, someday you’re going to have to tell me just how you wound up getting that unnerving sixth sense of yours.”
“No mystery, handsome,” Miss Joan assured him. “It’s just intuition.”
“It’s a hell of a lot more than that, Miss Joan,” he told her.
He had to admit, albeit silently, that he did find it more than a little unnerving at times just how accurate she could be.
Miss Joan waved her hand at his words. She had little time for flattery, even if it was sincerely voiced. “You were going to tell me what’s troubling you about your sister.”
The word everything flashed through Daniel’s mind, but he kept that to himself. He’d never had any use for complainers and he wasn’t about to start sounding like one himself.
For now, he decided to give the diner owner a little bit of background before getting to the heart of the present problem.
“Elena’s been going through this rebellious stage,” he began.
Miss Joan looked completely unmoved. “She’s sixteen, Deputy. It’s to be expected.”
But he hadn’t expected it, Daniel thought. Elena had always behaved herself. Her sense of self-discipline had been inherent.
And then everything changed.
“Until this summer, she was quiet, studious and as close to perfect as anyone could possibly hope for,” he told Miss Joan, keeping his voice down so that she was the only one who could hear him. He took a breath and then gave voice to the problem. “And then she changed.”
“Because she’s sixteen,” Miss Joan repeated, stressing her words pointedly.
The look on Daniel’s face told Miss Joan that he didn’t view what she’d just said as an explanation or an excuse. “The thing is, just as suddenly a couple of days ago, Elena goes back to being the way she was before all this flared up.”
Miss Joan waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, she posed the logical question to him. “Well, did you ask her about it?”
The memory of that particular exchange was very fresh in his mind and he felt another wave of anger pass over him. “I did, but Elena just rolled her eyes at me and said she didn’t have time to talk.”
“Let me get something straight,” Miss Joan said. “Are you upset that she went back to her previous behavior?”
Her question caught him totally off guard. He was surprised that she would ask something like that. “Of course not.”
“Then what’s the problem?” she asked, not clear why he seemed so out of sorts.
“The problem,” he explained as patiently as he could, “is that I want to find out what happened to change Elena’s mind and make her go back to her old ways. This way, I’ll know what ‘buttons’ to press to make her revert back to the studious Elena instead of the party girl mode she was in a week ago.”
It was all falling into place for her, Miss Joan thought. “My guess is that this all might be the influence of one of her teachers,” Miss Joan told him. She let the words sink in and then went on to suggest, “Why don’t you try talking to her teachers?”
He knew that made sense, but he had never been the type to seek out a teacher for the sole purpose of having a conference with him or her regarding his sister’s progress. Up until now, Elena had been doing just fine and there’d been no need to attempt to “get her on the right path.” The extent to which he got involved in her schoolwork was signing her report cards, which had always been stellar.
Maybe he should just let it all just ride, Daniel thought. Maybe Elena would just continue on this path now that she’d gotten back to it.
“That would be butting in,” he told Miss Joan, finishing up his coffee.
“Some people would call that taking an interest in Elena’s education,” Miss Joan corrected. She topped off his cup, then shrugged. “You do what you want, Deputy. But if you really want answers instead of floating along blindly, I’d suggest looking into all the possible influences in Elena’s life. If nothing else, that way you could find out if there’s any way you could encourage your sister on the home front.”
Daniel laughed shortly under his breath, thinking of the recent clashes that had taken place between Elena and himself since school had started this year. Instead of a docile little sister, he’d found himself dealing with a spitfire that challenged everything he said.
“The best way I can encourage Elena to do well,” he told Miss Joan, “is to pretend I don’t notice she’s doing well.”
Miss Joan looked at him, something akin to pity entering her eyes. “Trust me, Deputy. Every female wants to be noticed.”
“Maybe,” Daniel responded, not wanting to contradict the woman outright. “But that rule doesn’t apply to sisters.”
Miss Joan lowered her head slightly, allowing her eyes to be level with his. Her gaze held him prisoner. “Is your sister a female?”
Daniel looked at the older woman, thinking he had to have heard her wrong. When Miss Joan continued looking at him, apparently waiting for a response, he finally said, “Of course she is, Miss Joan.”
She nodded, a triumphant expression crossing her face as she told him, “Then it applies.”
Daniel sighed. Miss Joan had a habit of always being right. He saw no reason to think that this time might be different just because this was about his sister who he’d once thought he knew better than anyone else in the world. It was now obvious to him that he didn’t.
Daniel shook his head. “Why are females all so complicated?”
“Because otherwise we’d be boring—and men,” Miss Joan answered, softly chuckling to herself. “Now stop wasting time standing here and go call that girl’s teachers. When you narrow down which one has been influencing her, ask for a conference. That way you might be able to get some clarity on what’s going on with your sister.”
It didn’t strike him until later that in the space of a few minutes, Miss Joan had taken all of Elena’s teachers and zeroed in on just a single one.
As if she knew something he didn’t.
But then, he silently admitted, somehow the woman always did.
Right now, however, Daniel was keenly aware that he needed to get going. Just to make sure, he glanced at his watch.
He was right.
It was getting late. He’d wasted enough time trying to get insight into the workings of his sister’s mind. If he didn’t get going, he was going to be late getting to work.
“Thanks for the help, Miss Joan.” Standing up, he dug into his pocket, simultaneously nodding at the empty coffee cup. “What do I owe you?”
“A lot more than you could ever repay me,” the woman answered simply. And then, knowing his sense of honor wouldn’t allow him to accept a cup of coffee on the house, she told him, “A dollar’ll more than cover it.”
He placed a five-dollar bill beside his plate. “Consider it a down payment on that debt,” Daniel told the older woman as he headed for the door.
“What was all that about?” Cassandra, one of Miss Joan’s newest waitresses, asked. She gestured toward the door in case she was being too vague.
“My guess is that we’ve just witnessed the awakening of Deputy Daniel Tallchief,” Miss Joan said. “Now, why don’t you follow in his footsteps and get busy with all those dishes?” she told the waitress, gesturing toward the tables that still needed to be bussed.
Cassandra knew better than to sigh. “Yes, ma’am,” she answered as she got to work.
* * *
Despite what he had said to Miss Joan about being curious about the actual reason behind his sister’s sudden reversal in behavior, Daniel was undecided whether or not to take the woman’s advice.
Maybe he shouldn’t seek out any of Elena’s teachers. Talking to them might just be inviting trouble or, at the very least, rocking the boat.
The old adage about leaving well enough alone flashed through his mind.
That was cowardly, he thought the next moment. And he had never been a coward, not even when he’d been a young boy and had stood up to that bully who had been twice his size.
Besides, he’d been serious when he’d said that if there was anything he could do to encourage Elena’s sudden renewed interest in studying, he was more than willing to do it. He just needed to be shown the way.
Studying was far preferable to spending time with that Matt kid. That would be a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
“You’re looking more pensive than usual,” Joe Lone Wolf commented after fifteen minutes of silence had gone by. Daniel wasn’t known to be talkative, but he usually had a few things to say when he came in. This morning the junior deputy had been as silent as a tomb. “Something wrong?”
The Lawman's Romance Lesson (Forever, Tx. Series Book 20) Page 5