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“How did Rex Winters do this much damage?” Holly asked.
“It wasn’t Rex.”
“I thought Simon said—”
“Simon?” Luke interrupted. “How does Simon know what happened?”
“He said he was riding by the community center on his bike and saw you putting Rex into Fletch’s car. He said you were covered in blood and could barely walk.”
Luke tried to remember seeing Simon when he and Fletch had pulled up to the station. He couldn’t. The last time he’d seen Simon had been at the diner with Charlie.
“It wasn’t Rex who hit me,” Luke told her. “It was Kyle.”
“Oh, no.” He understood the sympathy now and shared it. To a point. “Why would he do that?”
“Hang on. Fletch!” Luke carried the garbage can to the door as Fletch opened it. “Toss this in the trash outside, will you? The smell’s making me sick.”
“Gray always said smelling alcohol made him want a drink almost more than drinking it,” Holly said as her eyes went wide as he closed the door. “Sorry. I don’t know why I said that. They say scent memories bring on the strongest reactions.”
“I’d agree.” But since she’d brought it up... “I don’t remember Gray being much of a drinker.” An occasional beer here and there, but it wasn’t as if he was hanging out at the beach drinking himself stupid like so many of the rest of them, Luke included.
“Yeah, well. He was really good at hiding it.” She sat on the edge of his desk and hugged her arms around her torso, as if keeping a chill off. The pale green shirt she had on today reminded Luke of summer grass, freshly mown and smelling of fresh air and promise. “He was good at hiding a lot of things. Until he couldn’t. Gray could go weeks without touching a drop but then he’d see something, smell something, and the next thing I knew, he’d be gone for days. I guess we were lucky that he did try to stay sober.” Holly let out a sad laugh. “How’s that for a silver lining?”
“You have to find them where you can.” He was still trying to process the fact that do-no-wrong Gray Campbell had been anything other than the perfect husband. He’d had everything Luke had ever dreamed of—a loving wife, a great kid, a home... More proof you never knew what was going on behind closed doors. “I take it he never got sober?”
“Given his blood alcohol was twice the legal limit the night he died? No.” There was regret in her eyes, but the anger sparked over it. “I lost track of how many promises he made. I think in some ways, he felt stuck here. As if he wanted something more he’d never had a chance to pursue. I felt guilty about it, after he died.” She swiped her hand across her forehead as if catching a stray hair. “That maybe it was my fault he drank. He knew I’d never leave Butterfly Harbor and Dad. I used to think maybe by loving him so much I’d crushed any dreams he might have had. I finally asked him one too many times and we had a huge fight. I didn’t ask again. After that, I stopped.” She shrugged. “We stopped. A few months later he was gone.”
“You must still miss him.” Luke peered into her face, trying to figure out exactly what her expression said, but he may as well have been looking at a stone wall for all she gave away.
“I miss what could have been. I miss the dreams we had that never had a chance to come true.”
Her lips curved into the saddest smile he’d ever seen and for a moment, all he wanted to do was stretch out his arms and hold her, tell her there was living to do even after life dumped all over you, but who was he kidding? How could he convince Holly Campbell when he didn’t believe it anymore himself?
“Gray was big on promises he couldn’t keep. The day finally came when I stopped believing anything he said. By then there wasn’t anything left. What about you?”
Luke shook himself out of the burgeoning hope that maybe he was wrong, that a friendship could be salvaged between them. “What about me?”
“Obviously you got sober,” she said. “How long has it been?”
“Since I had a drink?” It never occurred to him to lie. “Twelve years. Give or take.”
“Twelve years?” Was that shock or disbelief on her face? “You mean you haven’t had a drink since—”
“The night of the accident.”
She frowned, as if unwilling to believe, but then her expression turned quizzical. “Because of your dad?”
“Because of yours.”
Holly stared at him. Luke could see she was struggling with whether to believe him or not; probably in the same way she’d done with Gray.
“I don’t know what to say.” She didn’t move, but something shifted between them, a charge in the air. A glimmer of understanding, perhaps. Or maybe gratitude. Or maybe Holly was finally beginning to understand he really had turned his life around.
“There’s nothing to say.” Luke gave her the out for the conversation they probably never should have started. “It is what it is. Did you really come all the way down here to check on me, Holly?”
“Why else would I be here?” Was that surprise on her face...or guilt?
“To talk about Simon.” Luke’s eyes skimmed the window ledge as he put the pieces of the station’s invasion together. He really wanted to be wrong about her son. “I thought I saw something that said he’d gotten into some trouble a while ago.” So much for not lying to her. He hadn’t found any reports. What he had heard were rumblings around town stating Simon had a penchant for getting into sticky situations, and while he was certain Charlie had been either in or near his office today, the little girl didn’t have the computer knowledge to hack into their system and install a malware program. Since he and Holly had declared a sort of truce, he didn’t want to break it by prematurely accusing her son of breaking and entering.
“Oh. That.” Holly shoved her hands into her hair that for once hung loose and curled around her shoulders, the way he preferred. She was so pretty with her hair down. Without the harsh control the ponytail evoked. “I didn’t realize Dad had put anything in writing.”
“I’d like to hear your side.” It was then he realized he could listen to her all day. Talk to her all day. Look at her all day.
She shook her head, her expression shifting between frustration and helplessness, and for an instant, Luke regretted having to ask. “I don’t know why he does what he does, what goes on in his brain. Maybe it’s those superhero comics he’s always reading. Believing he can be just like them, helping people, but those synapses of his fire constantly. Personally I think the fact he could hack into almost anyone’s computer is pretty amazing—don’t tell him I said so,” she added with a warning look.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Luke drawled. Little did she know she wasn’t helping her son’s case.
“He won’t tell me why he did it,” Holly continued, “but he piggybacked onto the neighbor’s Wi-Fi and changed all their computer passwords and then renamed all their files after supervillains.”
Despite her confirming Luke’s suspicions, he pressed his lips together to stop from smiling. Man, Simon had flair.
“I know.” She pressed her palms against her flushed cheeks and shook her head. “I know! He’s like a supervillain in training and far too smart for his own good. I’ve already had to have a meeting with his new principal and school hasn’t even started yet. If he gets into any more trouble, they’re going to revoke his admittance and I’ll be out his first semester’s tuition.”
“That’s why you’ve been watching him constantly.” He couldn’t fathom how much attention of hers that took. When did she get a break?
“But he’s doing better,” Holly insisted. “Now that he has Charlie around, I don’t think he’ll be getting into much trouble.”
Oh, if only that was true. “Tell me about his new school.”
“It’s a charter school about twenty miles north. TrueLane Academy. They cater to gifted kids. Beyond gifted, actually. And they do specialized curriculums for each student, playing to their strengths and interests. It’s costing me a small fortune, but what else are second mortgages for, right?”
Luke’s amusement faded. Holly taking out a second mortgage for her son’s education shifted her son’s potentially criminal situation into an entirely different arena. “I’m guessing they have a pretty strict behavior policy.”
“Kids like Simon are part of the reason they have a behavior policy. He steps one foot out of line, ends up in any kind of trouble, and he’ll be kicked out in a heartbeat. No three strikes and you’re out. It’s one and gone. And in Simon’s case he’s already had his one. This school is the best chance of finally getting him focused on something for his future. If I have to sit on him every hour he’s not in school, I’ll do it.”
