His scowl grew in proportion to the blush that was creeping up his neck. If only he knew, Claire thought, how verycallow he looked. Scrubbed and serious and just a little toomature with his thick black hair and his sleepy brown eyes. Little girls had been calling her house begging for Johnny’s attention since he’d been in the third grade. Thank God forClaire that Johnny was too shy to respond in kind.
But shy only lasted so long. She had a good-looking boyon her hands. A good-looking, sweet boy with incredibletalent. She was going to lose him to one of these little girls, and she didn’t think she’d handle that well at all.
“Is it such a problem that I’d want to get started on mysummer reading list?”
“School’s not even officially out yet,” she reminded him,then lifted the wilting clump of sweet william he’d just givenher. “Besides, when it comes to schoolwork, I’m usually theone doing the bribing.”
He huffed in indignation. “Cindy,” he all but snarled. “Okay? Her name is Cindy, and she’s an honor-roll student.”
“So are you.”
He flashed her a melting smile. “Yeah, but I don’t havedimples and blond hair.”
Claire shooed him away. “Go. Attend the hormone festival. Just be careful, and bring the truck back in one piece.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “Don’t have to. Pat’scoming by with his new Beretta.”
Claire fought the urge to grab hold of her son and keep him away from fast cars and teenage bravado. He wasn’t fooled in the least by her restraint.
“Pat’s a safe driver,” he promised her. “And it’s not really a very hot car, so I don’t think we’ll take it up overninety in the curves.”
She just shook her finger at him, the rest of the speechlong since memorized by both of her children.Be careful.Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t chase balls into the street or ride a bike without a helmet. Don’t do anything a normal child would do that could take you away from me.
As long as they‘re all right...
“I know,” Johnny said, straightening, his grin impish.“If I fall out of that tree and break both my legs, don’t comerunning to you.”
Claire fought the choking fear that always accompanied the thought of how capricious children could be with theirlives. “Exactly.”
“Besides,” he said, “I think the alternator’s bad on thetruck. You might want to check it.”
Claire sighed. The alternator. It would go right on the listafter the new plumbing in the inn, the increased propertytaxes, the loan she was still paying off on the new kitchenequipment that satisfied the board of health. Salaries andSocial Security and tutoring for Jess and Johnny’s tuitionat that fancy advanced school that kept his impatient mindoccupied.
“Mom?”
“Yes, honey.”
“I’m sorry about last night.”
Claire looked up to see the sun limning her son’s hair andsmiled. “It’s okay. We’ll talk about it soon. I promise.Okay?”
He hesitated, but he nodded and Claire felt herself relax minimally. “Okay.”
“Uh, there’s one more thing,” she said, risking that senseof well-being all over again. “Tony’s agreed to stay andfinish the guest rooms for me.”
Johnny’s features tightened right into distrust, which justthreatened Claire’s fragile morning all over again.
“He’s going to do the work for cost,” she explained. “Ijust can’t pass up a deal like that.”
Johnny’s jaw worked, just as his dad’s had before he’dbreak something. But Johnny didn’t break things, except hisown heart.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked very quietly, the question as adult, suddenly, as the light in his eyes.
Claire forced a smile past the urge to apologize. “Ichecked him out this morning while the rest of you were stillasleep,” she assured him. “Tony’s accredited, he’s wonawards, and he was serious about wanting to branch out intohistoric renovation. Besides,” she offered with an offhandshrug she prayed looked real, “if he tries anything, we always have Peaches on our side.”
Johnny wasn’t convinced. Claire couldn’t help it. Shecouldn’t explain, either. Johnny slept at night, as any innocent should. He didn’t suffer sudden rages or find himself searching out a helmet he hadn’t worn in almost aquarter of a century. He didn’t know how very hard it was to go on alone because no one really knew how bad it was.
All the same, Johnny smiled back. A tentative smile thatbroke Claire’s heart all over again, but a smile nonetheless.“As badly as you want that inn finished, you’d probablyoffer room and board to Jack the Ripper, as long as he knewhow to work a hammer.”
