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“Settled? Nothing is going to besettledany time soon.” I want to literally growl. “You’re in a bad spot, Carpenter, and it’s time you man up and face the music.” I shoot his girlfriend a glance. “All of it.”
No wonder he’s hellbent on protecting the girl. I don’t know whether he deserves respect or an old-fashioned slap upside the head. Both?
“Why are you even here, man? None of this is any of your business.” He steps a hair closer like he wants to get in my face. “You need to leave my mom alone.”
The little puke. Closing the gap, I get inhisface. “I’m here because your mom needs someone on her team—and it’s clear you are not that person.”
“You—”
“Sorry about that.” Hollie reenters the living room, frayed, but with an air of relief.
Backing off, hoping she didn’t see, I stuff a huge sigh. Her relief will not be long-lived.
“Ben called to say the hearing has been postponed.”
“Why is that?”
Clutching her purse, she shrugs. “No idea. He said this happens all the time.”
Ben is on the money. Court dates are fluid things.
The room goes quiet. We’re a strange group, four souls, each with varied and conflicting agendas.
Hollie wriggles her fingers. “Come on, Jacob. Let’s get you back to school.”
He shoulders away. “Mom, no. It’s already noon.”
“Nonetheless, it’s where you should be.”
He holds onto his girlfriend like the bogeyman is trying to snatch her away. “But Reagan is sick.”
“She’s a big girl, Jacob.” Wincing, Hollie shifts her attention. “I’m sorry, Reagan, but Jacob has a lot at stake right now.”
I give Hollie points for civility. This girl was happy to see her son implicate himself only a short time ago.
Reagan touches the boy’s chest. “I’ll be fine, Jake. I just need to sleep.”
Unhappy yet surprisingly acquiescent, Jacob follows Hollie and me outside. With a kiss on the cheek and a few whispered words, he pries himself away from his girlfriend and walks to the ugly hatchback—never a thought to his mother’s need for transportation or anything else, the selfish little jerk.
Make that scared, trying-to-do-the-right-thing-but-in-over-his-head, little jerk.
Chapter 10
Hollie
I try so very hard not to be a pessimist, but every time I think things are turning around, something new steps up and smacks me down all over again. Why does Jacob insist on making this more difficult than it already is?
I force myself not to sigh on the outside. Inside, my exhale is gusty and long. John doesn’t need my drama. He’s not a drama kind of guy. I imagine whenever it stirs to life around him he checks out.
I don’t want to be someone who drives him away.
Which isn’t to say I want to keep him around either...
I glance at his profile as he checks the side mirror and joins the traffic flow on the freeway. Are there women in his life? An ex-wife, yes, somewhere. A mother? Sister?
Girlfriend?
If I squint hard enough, I can picture it. It’s not that he isn’t handsome—goodness, no—but he’s tough and hard as nails. Utterly no-nonsense.
