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Maybe that's what this whole Eva thing was about-wanting to feel. He was grasping at a way to do that, and Eva was the closest person to grab on to. Clint looked up at him. Jake met his eyes, trying like hell to communicate something. Anything. His friend shook his head and then maneuvered his chair, rolling back on the stone patio, heading toward the French doors and the sanctity of a silly birthday party.
Jake stared out at the shadows shifting with the wind over the manicured yard and thought about bumming a cigarette from the produce guy at Maggio's, who stood hidden behind a statue of David. The reproduction sported one notable alteration, and if anyone knew Hilda and her sense of humor, they'd know why she'd added a few inches. The produce guy didn't seem to care. He looked as lonely as Jake felt, so Jake decided not to bother him. Maybe the patio was the perfect spot for lonely losers.
And maybe Jake needed to fix that about himself.
If he needed distraction, if he needed to get his mind off Eva, he needed to be proactive.
One sure way to distract himself was to call Kate. The sexy librarian knew just where to scratch an itch... and she loved to have sex in the stacks after the Magnolia Bend Library closed for the night.
Maybe it was time for Jake to return the last book he'd checked out at the library. And since it was late, he'd have to pay a penalty- a kinky, toe curling penalty.
He pulled out his cell phone. Yeah. That would fix things. Or not.
He looked at his phone, at Kate's number in his contacts, and then tucked the phone back into his pocket. Kate wasn't an answer. She couldn't drive this thing with Eva out of his head.
7
EVA TOOK CHARLIE'S hand and led him carefully down the steps of the government office building. The Superdome threw its shadow on them as people hurried to and fro on the busy street in the Central Business District of New Orleans.
Chris had just said his goodbyes after Eva signed papers granting her temporary custody of her brother. But Charlie had yet to say a single word to her.
That morning Eva had attended Claren's hearing before the judge. She'd met the foster care worker who'd be monitoring Charlie's case, and she got to thank the temporary foster parents for taking care of her brother. After the judge heard the recommendation of CPS, she was granted physical custody of Charlie. Claren had cried the entire time. Hadn' t been the easiest hour Eva had ever spent.
"It's been a long time since breakfast. Let's grab something to eat. What sounds good to you, Charlie?"she asked, turning toward the large parking garage sitting beside the Civil District Court Building. Charlie didn't say anything. Just stared straight ahead, his Captain America backpack over one small shoulder.
"Oh, I know," Eva said, forcing cheerfulness into her voice. "How about pizza?"
He gave a noncommittal shrug.
"Okay, pizza it is."
Eva tried not to panic at the thought she was now responsible for Charlie ...at least until Chris returned from England. But even so, she may not be able to just hand him over to her older brother. And that wouldn't necessarily be fair to Charlie.
His mother would be in court-ordered rehab for eight months since she was a repeat offender ...and that wasifthe nutcase stopped fighting against being an addict and started making a true attempt to kick her addiction to the curb. At present Claren was too busy making excuses for her actions.
Eva hated moving Charlie to Magnolia Bend when he'd already started his first grade year at St. Matthew's, but she had no alternative since Chris would be out of the country. And even if he weren't in England, her brother's life was too untethered to provide stability to a small child. Claren's parents lived in Ohio and were currently in a senior care facility. They definitely weren't capable of taking care of a six-year-old. So it was either take Charlie in and do the best she could or surrender him to the foster care system. And though the two people she'd met earlier seemed perfectly nice, she thought she could do better than placing him with strangers.
But she wasn't sure.
The foster care worker assigned to Charlie's case hadn't been keen on Eva taking Charlie so far away from his normal setting, but Eva had been adamant-she'd take care of her brother, but she wasn't moving back to New Orleans. At least in Magnolia Bend she had a support system. Fancy Beauchamp had volunteered to care for Charlie when Eva was on duty and Jake's brother Matt, the principal of St. George's Episcopal, had found a place for Charlie in Mrs. Snyder's first-grade class room.
When they reached her car, she opened the back door. "I got you a booster seat. Um, I think you're supposed to use one, right?"
Charlie dropped her hand and climbed inside, settling into the booster seat, clicking the seat belt into place. He didn't say a word.
"Okay, then," Eva breathed as she closed the door, making her way around the car, sending up a prayer that she could do this.
Please help me do this. Please help me not screw him up. Please help his dumbass mother to get better so she can be the one he goes to therapy to complain about.
Therapy.
The social worker said she'd push through the paperwork necessary to acquire a therapist, but since Magnolia Bend had only one mental health professional, Eva would have to call Macy Hebert at the local women's shelter and see if she could provide what Charlie needed. Obviously, her brother had some issues. The poor thing had been left by himself for almost twenty-four hours while his mother partied, got high, and then tried to charge a NOPD undercover vice cop a cool hundred for a blow job. Her brother had survived on dry cereal, soured milk, and the Disney Channel. According to the foster care worker, Charlie had been plagued with nightmares, had wet the bed every night, and hadn't talked beyond muttering directives.
Yeah, Eva wasn't equipped to handle a normal kid, much less a kid with emotional trauma.
"Okay, off we go," she said, cranking the engine and eyeing her brother in the rearview mirror.
He stared stoically out the window, his sandy-blond hair falling into a perfect bowl cut, his brown eyes so emphatically sad. She knew Charlie had always been a shy child, but he'd always had a smile for his older sister when she came to take him to the zoo or to a movie. They hadn't been close to one another since Claren divorced her father a few months before he'd passed away, but they'd always known they were family and thus fell into an easy way with one an other. Not so this go-around.
