Keep You From Harm (13 page)

T
he
plan is for Lucas to meet us at the house. He and I will follow Kyle in his truck. Alec and Linda live in Fort Upton, but after Kyle tried unsuccessfully to give me directions, we decided caravanning is the best idea.

Penelope is jumping up and down, excited that she gets to wear her new red corduroy dress with the ladybugs embroidered on it. “Do you like my dress?” she asks everyone multiple times.

I hadn’t realized this was a dressy affair, and I appear in dark jeans and a black turtleneck. Chloe assures me that I look fine. I don’t feel fine though. I feel surprisingly nervous at the thought of spending the evening with Lucas and my newfound family, none of whom I knew only a month ago. It almost feels as though I’m living someone else’s life.

The doorbell rings right on time at five o’clock. I open the door to find Lucas standing there looking so pleased and perfect, I can’t tear my eyes away from him. His rich, chestnut hair is more styled than usual, but the unruly waves stubbornly remain where the overgrown ends meet his shirt collar. He’s wearing faded jeans and a navy Henley shirt that compliments his dark blue eyes. Those same eyes are traveling over me, and they sparkle with mischief when they land on mine, drawing me in with that electricity that always buzzes between us.

“Hey,” he says in a quiet voice.

I smile at him just as Kyle appears beside me. “Hello, Lucas.”

He sobers slightly as he returns Kyle’s greeting. Chloe and Penelope emerge from behind me to say hello. After Penelope elicits a compliment on her dress from Lucas, we all head to our cars.

“Relax, Ray,” Lucas whispers as we walk toward his truck.

I take a deep breath and nod at him.

“I called Grady’s parents,” he says once we’re settled inside. “They told me he’s in a coma. I guess the rumor’s true.”

“Oh, no,” I reply, sinking into my seat, picturing the way he looked as Lucas pulled him from the car.

“He’s got some brain swelling his dad told me. They still don’t know if he’s going to be okay.”

“How did his dad sound?”

Lucas shrugs. Then he slides his hand across the seat and wraps his fingers around mine. “He sounded like you’d expect—not real good.”

I move my hand toward him across the seat so he doesn’t have to reach so far to maintain his hold on me.

“So this party is for Kyle’s dad?” he asks, after clearing his throat.

“Yeah,” I nod.

“Your mom was married to him, but you never met him before you came here?”

“No. I’d never met Kyle either.” He doesn’t seem surprised by this. So, I assume he knew, probably from Chloe.

“How are you getting along with Kyle and his family?” He squeezes my hand reassuringly. I get the feeling he believes I won’t want to answer his questions. But, to my surprise, I don’t mind.

“We’re getting along fine. Kyle’s pretty decent. For some reason, I think he really wants to be my brother.”

Luke glances at me, surprised. “Why do you put it that way?”

I look down at our clasped hands, and I realize that I feel comfortable with him, safe even. It’s so unusual for me to feel this way it takes me a moment to recognize it.

“Raielle?” he prompts when I don’t reply.

I put my wandering thoughts aside. “I don’t know,” I say. “Our mom ran out on him. She never once mentioned him to me. He doesn’t owe me anything. I wouldn’t blame him if he resented me.”

“Resent you?” he asks surprised. “You had nothing to do with any of that.”

“I know. It’s just all so screwed up. I guess it’s hard to know how we should feel or what we should be to each other.”

Kyle’s brake lights flash at us, and I see that he’s parking in front of a sprawling house set back away from the road. “This must be it,” Lucas comments, peering out the windshield at the white columned entrance and the circular driveway. The yard has a rolling front lawn filled with perfectly pruned bushes.

As we’re getting out of our cars, the front door opens, and Alec steps out. “Papa!” Penelope yells and she runs into his waiting arms. I see several cars filling the driveway, and I wonder if other guests have been invited.

When we meet at the front door, Kyle introduces Lucas to Alec and then to Linda who appears in the entryway, ushering us all inside. “We have a few friends here, too. I think you know them all, Kyle.”

We walk through a bright alcove lit by a skylight in the vaulted ceiling. The noise level rises as Linda leads us into a formal living room with a fireplace and two long beige couches that face each other. An older couple stands as we enter, and I feel Lucas grow tense beside me. I glance at him curiously, but he doesn’t acknowledge me.

I nod at each person I’m introduced to, and then I immediately forget their names as I ignore the way their eyes linger on me. I imagine there must have been lots of talk about me when word got out that I was moving here.

“We know Lucas,” says the woman. Her grey hair is clipped short, and she’s wearing thick glasses dotted with rhinestones. “How are your parents?” she asks him.

“Fine, thank you,” he responds in that cold emotionless tone he wears like armor. It’s the tone he used with me in the beginning and one I hope to never have directed at me again.

I settle beside him on a loveseat in a corner of the room and take his hand in mine. This time I’m the one reassuring him. He offers me an uneasy smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

I watch as Penelope runs around excited to be here, asking when we’ll have the birthday cake. Linda explains that she’s made a buffet dinner and tells us to go ahead and serve ourselves. “Are you okay?” I ask Lucas once everyone begins to move toward the dining room.

He nods.

“Who are those people?”

“They know my family from church,” he answers.

“It seemed like you were upset to see them.”

“Not now. Okay?” he snaps, releasing my hand and standing.

For a moment, I’m too shocked to move. But then I stand, too, propelled up by my simmering reaction to his tone. Lucas has undergone another mood transplant. I decide to put some space between us, and I move toward the fireplace mantle where there are several photographs displayed. I see a younger Alec standing with a gangly teenage Kyle who is holding a football. Then there’s one of Alec, Linda, and several other people standing behind Kyle who is dressed in a red cap and gown. Beside that is a photograph of Penelope hugging Alec. When my eyes go back to Kyle’s graduation picture, I look closer and gasp. I pull the framed photo down to see it better.

“What is it?” Lucas asks, moving beside me to look at the picture.

I’m staring at a smiling blonde woman standing near Kyle. “She looks just like my mother.” I turn with the picture in my hand. When I see Penelope dashing by, I stop her. “Pen, do you know who this woman is in the picture?” I point to the blonde.

She glances at it. “That’s Grams. I haven’t seen her in a long time.”

“Grams?” I repeat.

“That’s your grandmother, Raielle,” Chloe says coming up behind Penelope.

I stare at Chloe and then back down at the photograph again. “When did she die?” I ask, trying to figure out how old she is here. My mother never showed me any pictures of my grandmother.

“Go find Daddy,” Chloe tells Penelope. Penelope glances at her mother unsure. “Go on,” Chloe prods her. When Penelope runs off, Chloe turns to me. “She’s hasn’t passed on. But we don’t bring Penelope to see her anymore. She’s senile, and she doesn’t recognize Penelope. It just upsets them both.”

“She’s alive,” I whisper, and it feels like my heart just jumped up into my throat. “My mother told me both her parents died a long time ago.”

Chloe purses her lips disapprovingly.

“Where does she live?” Lucas asks.

“She’s in a nursing home.” Chloe’s eyes travel between Lucas and me. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you, Raielle. We didn’t realize you thought she was dead. She wouldn’t know who you are anyway. Her mind is gone.”

“What nursing home?” Lucas asks.

“It’s a place called Spring Valley. But I think you should really talk to Kyle about it if you want to see her.”

I nod at her, picturing the words written on the piece of notebook paper Lucas handed me in school that day. Somehow, I knew she was going to say that place. Before the words left her mouth, I knew.

Chloe smiles hesitantly and turns to go back to the dining room.

“There’s your link,” Lucas states.

I shake my head trying to process this. “She lied about so many things,” I mutter close to tears. “Why would my mother pretend not to have any family? They’ve all been here the whole time.”

“I don’t know,” he says softly.

I feel his arm come around me reassuringly.

“So now we have a link, but what does it mean?” I ask. “I need to see her. I want to see her anyway.” I turn my face up to his. “She looks so much like my mother. If she’d had the chance to grow old, this is probably how she’d look.”

His blue eyes reflect my stunned image back at me. “You should talk to your brother. Tell him you want to meet her,” he says.

I nod, feeling confused and betrayed by her all over again.

Lucas nuzzles his nose into my hair. “Have we stayed long enough?” he asks.

He’s back to himself again, and I decide not to question it as I take a shaky breath, feeling my body automatically responding to his closeness. I’m startled by the liberties he takes with me now, the way he touches me and stands so close to me. I’m not used to it and somehow even as it’s making me uneasy, I’m reveling in it. “We haven’t even eaten yet,” I say.

He sighs dramatically, but leads me toward the dining room. I don’t have much of an appetite, but the food looks really good. Linda can cook, and she obviously went to a lot trouble for Alec. I learn that Alec turned fifty-six yesterday, which makes him almost a decade older than my mother. She was only twenty when she married him and twenty-one when she had Kyle. She was so young when she started her family here and then walked away from it.

We end up staying until after Penelope and Alec blow out his number five and number six candles. Penelope puffs out her cheeks and funnels air through her rounded lips, clapping and screeching when the bright flames dissolve into tendrils of smoke. As the applause dies down, Linda jokes that she couldn’t find a cake big enough to hold fifty-six individual candles. After pieces of cake are passed around, Lucas and I say our goodnights and head out into the chilled darkness.

“I had a plan for tonight, but I’m calling an audible,” he states once we’re on the road.

“Okay,” I answer, peering out the window, smiling at his football-speak, wondering if this is some kind of test. My mom dated enough football fans that I inevitably absorbed some useless knowledge, although, it’s coming in handy now. “What was the original plan and what’s the new one?” I ask.

When he doesn’t answer right away, I turn to see his stunning smile. “What?” I ask, innocently.

“You know what calling an audible means,” he says, clearly impressed.

I chuckle, figuring I was right about the silly test. “You’re such a guy.”

He points at me. “Don’t you forget it.”

“So, those plans?” I ask, rolling my eyes. “Are you going to tell me about them?”

“No. I’m going to save my first plan as a surprise for another time. Tonight, I want to take you somewhere I like to go.”

“Where?”

“You’ll see.” He glances at me and his eyes shine in the darkness. A few miles later, Lucas turns onto a dirt road and comes to a stop behind a chain link fence. When I look out the windshield, I see a field with a baseball diamond. I give Lucas a curious glance.

“This is it,” he says. Then he reaches in back and grabs a blanket before getting out of the truck. I’m just stepping down onto the dirt when he comes around and takes my hand.

“This isn’t where your team plays, is it?” I ask. I thought the high school had its own baseball field.

Lucas laughs. “No. This is a little league field. This is where I played as a kid.”

I glance at the low bleachers behind first and third base and I try to picture Lucas as a child swinging a bat and running the bases. “What position did you play?”

“First base, then and now.”

“I didn’t get the feeling you were that into baseball,” I comment as he leads me down a small grassy hill.

“I love it. We just don’t have much of a team here. Hockey is a big deal at our school. Baseball isn’t even a close second.”

He directs me to the bleachers and once we’re both seated on the cool metal bench, he reaches around and settles the blanket on my shoulders. I still beneath it, wondering how many other girls have made use of this conveniently located backseat blanket. But the warmth settling in helps me to push those unfair and unwanted thoughts aside. “Won’t you be cold?” I ask as I pull the blanket around me and hunker down.

He seems surprised by my concern, but then his lips turn up. “I don’t have your thin west coast blood.”

“Hey,” I feign offense before offering a sincere thank you. Then I glance up at the canopy of stars twinkling overhead, and I’m drawn in by the quiet beauty of this place. “This is amazing. In the city, you never see stars like this,” I say, my voice quiet with reverence.

Lucas inches closer to me so that our shoulders and legs are touching. A shiver runs through me, and I’m hyper aware of every place his body meets mine.

“I owe you an apology,” he says.

I turn toward him and look into his eyes. I see the same intensity that always seems to be there, but tonight it’s tempered by a gentleness that surprises me. His gaze is filled with a tenderness I know he doesn’t display often, and I can’t help but wonder why it’s there for me. I wonder how I’ve earned it.

“When you asked me who those people were at the party, I shouldn’t have shut you down that way,” he continues.

“Apology accepted,” I say without hesitation. His sincerity is too obvious and the night is too beautiful to wreck it by holding a grudge.

He seems surprised. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.” I tilt my head at him. “Am I so combative that you expect a fight on everything?”

He grins at me. “Basically, yeah.”

I lean further into him and laugh. “Shut up.”

His arm comes around my shoulder, and he pulls me against him. After sitting quietly this way for a moment, Lucas says, “Those people at the party know my parents.”

“From church, you said.”

“Yeah.” He lets out a deep breath.

I sit up again and angle toward him. “Just so you know, I doubt there’s anything you could say that would shock me or make me feel differently about you.”

He brushes his hand across my cheek. “I don’t talk about my family. People in town either know the story or they don’t, but no one ever hears it from me.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me, Lucas.” Despite his calm exterior, I see the struggle in his eyes. “I’m sorry if things are rough at home.”