Broken Pieces (5 page)

Mariah had spent most of Kelsey’s life fighting these impulses, knowing that her own fear could emotionally cripple her daughter if she allowed it to.

As she drove home, she wasn’t alone in the car; the ghosts of the past sat in her backseat, whispering of all the bad things that could happen to young girls.

Chapter 6

I
t was ridiculous to feel so damned nervous about a simple pizza date, Mariah thought as she grabbed first one blouse, then another from her closet. She’d already decided on jeans, but couldn’t make up her mind what to wear on top.

Whenever she was under stress, even the simplest decisions became difficult. And she was definitely stressed right now as she thought about seeing Jack Taylor again.

She closed her eyes and grabbed the first hanger her hand landed on. It was a purple T-shirt decorated with the logo of the school where she worked. It wasn’t her favorite, but without giving herself the opportunity to second- or third-guess herself, she yanked it on over her head.

“Kelsey, he’ll be here in fifteen minutes. Are you about ready?” she called down the hallway.

Kelsey had come home from the pool chatting about a handful of kids her age that she’d met. Suddenly the summer in Plains Point didn’t look so bleak after all.

She now came out of her bedroom wearing a pair
of navy capris and a matching tank top. She frowned as she saw Mariah. “Gosh, Mom, could you pick an uglier T-shirt?”

“We’re just going out for pizza. I didn’t know I needed to adhere to a dress code.”

Kelsey gave her the pained-teenager look. “Still, it wouldn’t have hurt for you to put on something a little prettier.”

Mariah gazed at her daughter patiently. “Kelsey, honey, let’s get something straight. I’m here in Plains Point to get this house ready for sale and nothing more. Tonight is a one-shot deal, an evening out with you and Jack for pizza. Don’t try to turn it into something bigger than it is.”

“Okay,” Kelsey said, obviously disappointed. “But could you at least put a little lipstick on so he won’t notice how ugly that shirt is?”

“All right,” Mariah relented, and went back into her bedroom. She held no expectations for the evening. She simply thought it might be fun to chat with him and catch up on everyone they had gone to school with.

The butterflies in her stomach were hunger, nothing more, she told herself firmly as she walked down the stairs. Tiny was in the kitchen and barked at the sound of her footsteps. She moved to the gate that kept the little pooch on the tiled floor, and leaned over to give him a pat on the head.

“We won’t be long,” she said, and laughed as he cocked his furry head to one side, as if listening intently to what she had to say. “A couple of slices of pizza, then home.”

The phone rang and she hurried back into the living room and lifted the receiver. “It’s on for tomorrow
night,” Finn said. “Barbecue and beer and half the people we went to school with, and you’d better not tell me you and your daughter can’t come, because you two are the official guests of honor.”

Mariah laughed. “What time and what can I bring?”

“Six o’clock and nothing but your gorgeous self and your charming daughter,” he replied.

“We’ll be there. Thanks, Finn.” She hung up the receiver as Kelsey came down the stairs. “That was Finn. We’re invited to a barbecue at his house tomorrow night at six.”

“Sounds like it might be fun,” Kelsey said.

At that moment the doorbell rang. Dr. Hot had arrived.

Kelsey answered the door and he walked in, imbuing the entryway with palpable energy. A pair of jeans hugged his legs and a short-sleeved polo shirt perfectly matched his green eyes.

“Hi,” he greeted Kelsey, then turned his gaze on Mariah, and she suddenly wished she’d put on something pretty and feminine. “Are we ready to go?”

“Just let me grab my purse,” Mariah said, and hurried into the kitchen. Jesus, what was wrong with her? One look at him and her stomach began to break-dance and heat fired through her.

She grabbed her purse from the table, made sure the back door was locked, then rejoined Jack and Kelsey in the living room. “Ready,” she exclaimed.

Instead of the pickup truck he’d arrived in that morning, a sleek sports car awaited them. “Wow, nice ride,” Kelsey said as she slid into the backseat.

“My truck is pretty much a work vehicle. Charlie Barclay got this in on his car lot and I couldn’t resist it.” He opened the passenger door for Mariah.

“Boys and their toys,” she said lightly as she slid onto the beige leather seat.

He laughed, shut her door, then walked around the front of the car to the driver door. There was a quiet confidence in the way he held himself, as if he was a man who knew and liked his place in life.

As he slid behind the steering wheel, the car filled with his scent, a minty soap coupled with a spicy cologne. “Looks like somebody has been making headway on your yard,” he said as they pulled away from the house.

“Joel Clarkson. I’ve hired him to do some work around the house,” she said.

“He likes to drink, but I’ve heard he’s pretty handy when he’s sober. I just wouldn’t expect much from him on the weekends.”

“That’s what Finn told me when he recommended Joel,” she replied.

“Speaking of Finn, I’ve been invited to a barbecue tomorrow evening in your honor.” Jack turned left on Main.

“Yes, he called right before you came to pick us up, and told me he’d invited a bunch of the gang we went to school with. It sounds like it should be fun.”

Jack laughed, the sound deep and so pleasant it wove a wave of heat through her. “Finn’s barbecues are legendary here in town. Everyone eats too much, drinks too much and talks about old times.”

“I’d like to hear some of the gossip from when my mom was in high school,” Kelsey said from the backseat. “You know, maybe gather some blackmail information for the future.”

Jack laughed once again along with Mariah. “I’m afraid you’re going to be out of luck. As I remember,
your mother wasn’t one of the wild ones at school. You’ll be hard-pressed to find blackmail material in her background.”

“That’s what I keep telling her,” Mariah said.

At that moment they pulled up in front of Ken’s Pizza Buffet and Arcade. “Hey, this looks pretty cool.” Kelsey was the first one out of the car.

Jack turned and looked at Mariah with a hint of apology. “This isn’t the usual place I take somebody, but I thought your daughter might enjoy it.”

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “It looks like fun.” And that’s what she wanted. Not candlelit dinner and romantic music, not soft glances and the promise of something deep and lasting. She just wanted an evening of fun.

Together they got out of the car and joined Kelsey on the sidewalk just outside the restaurant. As he opened the door, the robust aroma of tomato sauce and garlic spilled out, making Mariah realize she was starving.

Jack paid and they all went down the buffet line, filling their plates with pizza and salad. Then they found a booth not far from the entrance to the arcade room.

“Now, I want to know where you’ve been and what you’ve done since you just disappeared from school,” Jack said.

“Left town, got married, had Kelsey, lost my husband and became a teacher.” Mariah smiled. “That’s the short version.”

He raised a dark eyebrow. “There’s a lot of living in that short version.”

She shrugged, picked a piece of pepperoni off one
of the slices and popped it into her mouth. “What about you? What’s your short version?”

“Went to college, became a vet, got married and got divorced.”

“Did you marry somebody from here in town?”

“No, I met Rebecca in college. She was from Kansas City. After our marriage I started a clinic there, but when we divorced four years ago, I decided to move back here. I like the small-town living.”

“I’m still trying to adjust to it,” Kelsey said as she dug her fork into the salad on her plate.

“I’m sure after spending your whole life in Chicago, Plains Point probably seems like a pioneer town,” Jack replied.

“It’s not that bad,” Kelsey conceded. “At least I met some kids at the pool today and they all seemed pretty cool.”

“How long do you think you’ll be here in town?” he asked Mariah.

“I’d thought just for a week or two, but that was before I saw the condition of the house. I’m thinking now it will take at least a month, maybe two, to get everything done.” She looked down at her plate, finding it easier to look at her pizza than into the evocative warmth of his green eyes.

For the next few minutes Jack and Kelsey chatted about movies and video games and music. He was good with Kelsey, not talking down to her in a way some adults did with teenagers. He seemed genuinely interested in her opinions and Kelsey responded easily.

Mariah found herself staring at him. His facial features radiated strength. A lean face with a well-defined
jawline, a straight nose, dark brows that slashed straight and even over each eye. The only thing that softened him was the slight curl of his dark hair and the warmth that radiated from his gorgeous eyes.

“Mom?” There was just enough exasperation in Kelsey’s tone to let Mariah know it wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get her attention. With a flush of heat in her cheeks she pulled her gaze away from the man across the table and to the teenager seated next to her.

“A couple of girls I met at the pool today just went into the arcade room. Can I go, too?”

Mariah wanted to tell her absolutely not, that she needed to sit in the booth and not leave Mariah alone with Jack for one minute. But even as she thought this, she knew it was crazy. “Okay.” She opened her purse and pulled out a ten-dollar bill. “Here. I imagine none of the games in there are free.”

“Thanks.” Kelsey grabbed the ten and shot out of the booth.

Jack smiled at Mariah. “She seems like a good kid.”

“She’s so good it’s sometimes scary,” Mariah admitted.

“It must have been tough, being a single parent.”

“She’s made it pretty easy by being such a great kid. Of course the worst years are just ahead.” She smiled ruefully.

Jack leaned back in the booth. “I imagine you’ve laid the foundation right so that the teen years will be a snap.”

“From your lips to God’s ears,” she replied. She’d hoped that some of the simmering tension inside her
would dissipate as they chatted, but it hadn’t. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so nervous around a man.

“I always wondered what had happened to you,” he said. “One day you were sitting at your desk in front of me and the next day you were gone and never came back. The gossip was that you’d run away, but nobody knew why.”

“My father used to beat me.” The words fell from her mouth before she realized she was going to speak them.

His eyes widened, then narrowed. “The good Reverend Sayers was a child abuser?”

She reached for her water glass, needing to moisten her dry mouth as she thought of her father. “He’d preach charity and love on Sunday, then beat the hell out of me the rest of the week.”

“What about your mother?” he asked.

Mariah shrugged. “She bought into the ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’ theory.”

Jack’s features tightened at once. “Nobody knew? Nobody could help?”

“Finn was the only person who knew and he had enough problems of his own.” A new flush filled her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to get into all this. I left the last time my father took a switch to me. I decided that night that he would never hurt me again. I took a little money, a few clothes, and caught a bus to Chicago.”

He leaned forward, the warmth of his gaze washing over her. “You are an amazingly strong woman.”

She released an embarrassed laugh. “Not really. I just did what I thought I needed to do to survive.”

He shook his head. “I always knew there was
something sad about you. Even though you smiled and laughed and on the surface seemed like a normal teenager, there was something in your eyes that made me sad for you.”

She looked at him in surprise. He certainly had paid more attention to her in school than she had to him. She didn’t know whether to feel flattered or uncomfortable.

He seemed to sense her discomfort. “I was an observer in high school. Nobody paid much attention to me, so that made it easy for me to see things that others didn’t.”

“You’ve definitely changed since high school,” she replied. Talk about stating the obvious—could she say anything more stupid?

He smiled. “My mother tells everyone I was a late bloomer. My first year in college I shot up four inches and gained some weight.”

“Finn told me that half the women in town went out and bought dogs or cats when you started your clinic here.”

He laughed. “It’s amazing what a difference a few years can make in the way people see you. Girls who never looked my way in school are suddenly bringing me casseroles and dropping off perfectly healthy animals who they think need my attention.”

“Hmm, I guess I should feel privileged that you asked me out for pizza,” she said lightly.

“I guess you should,” he agreed teasingly, but with a bold hot light shining from his eyes.

A crazy breathlessness swept over her. She’d have to take care. She had a feeling Jack Taylor had the potential to rock her world and that’s the last thing she wanted or needed in her life.

*     *     *

It was back.

The hunger.

The rage.

The ravenous need to feel the potent power of ultimate control. He’d managed to keep it at bay for almost six months, but now it was back, burning in his gut, tearing apart his brain.

He knew how to sate it. It had all begun so long ago with her. With Mariah. That was the first time the rage had become so great he’d felt he’d die from it. That night he hadn’t known where to find relief, what would stop the maddening demons from screaming in his head.

He’d scarcely remembered leaving his house with a garbage bag wadded up in his pocket. He’d run like a wild animal being chased by a predator, only for him the predator was an unrelenting growl inside his head.

Then he’d seen her. Standing in the grove of trees by her house. She was all that was good, all that was kind, and he wanted to smash that goodness and destroy as he’d been destroyed.

And he had. He’d taken her with a brutality that later would make him puke. But in her terror, in the very act of dominance, he’d reached a place he’d never been before, a place of utter and complete nirvana.