Forever Fall (11 page)

For a long time Luc said nothing more, just gazed silently out at the lake, enveloped in memories of a loveless childhood. The nights his nanny, and not his mother or father, had read bedtime stories to put him to sleep. The holidays when his parents had been
too busy
for him to come home from military school. The meals he’d eaten alone in a big empty dining room, because his father was in some far-flung country and his mother had some charity event she just
had
to attend.

Still, he’d had the nanny, the home and the meals. Mandy hadn’t even had that much. So, in comparison to her young life, how did he have the right to complain that his childhood had been so terribly deprived?

“You could have taken that phone call.” She smiled at him. The moonlight caught in her hair and eyes. For a moment, Luc could not look away.

He finally shook his head to dislodge the varied emotions cascading through his mind and body. “It wasn’t important.”

He shook off the guilty feelings the phone call had elicited, and as if by an unseen magnet, his gaze veered back to the woman beside him. She was gazing out over the lake now, and the moonlight illuminated her face, outlining the curve of her cheekbone and fullness of her lips. The beams seemed to become trapped in her hair, bringing to life the red highlights. Her face had an aristocratic quality that belied her impoverished upbringing and her down-to-earth personality. The way she held her chin high, as if fending off anything life could throw at her, told of her strength of character. The unwavering way her gaze met and held the person on whom her attention was focused, gave testimony to her sincerity.

All in all, she was the loveliest woman Luc had ever seen, both inside and out. So why wasn’t she married? Or, at the very least, why didn’t she have a boyfriend? Then again, he knew very little about Amantha James. Maybe she did.

How foolish. Of course, she did. A woman as lovely as she was must have men chasing her down at every turn. Luc found he didn’t really like that idea one bit.

“So, who is he?” The question slid past Luc’s lips almost before it formed in his mind.

Mandy turned to him, surprise reflected in her eyes. “Who?”

“The man in your life. You’re far too lovely not to have been snatched up by some man.”

A slight hint of embarrassment colored Mandy’s laughter. “Afraid not.”

It was his turn to be surprised. “Really?” He’d been so sure she had someone. Oddly, the idea that she didn’t pleased him.

“My job keeps me way too busy for relationships. The teens I oversee need me, and I need to be able to give them my full attention. There’s no place in my life for men and
 . . . .
Well, let’s just say I can’t allow distractions.”

His elation plunged into gloom. He heard the words she spoke aloud, but what he also heard was what she didn’t say. Life with her single mother had turned her bitter on the subject of men and family and perhaps, even love.

She swiveled on the rock and faced him. “What about you? Anyone special?”

Having the tables turned on him left Luc speechless for a moment. He scoured his brain for a good reason that he was still single and, for the most part, dateless. “I guess, like you, my career has always taken center stage for me. When I became a principal, I vowed to do my very best for the kids who were looking to me for guidance. That takes time and devotion to my work.” Not a lie.

She frowned. “Then why are you against introducing something into your school that will prevent teenage pregnancies?” She crossed her arms and began rubbing the exposed flesh, presumably to warm her chilled skin.

Although by now he knew Mandy’s tendency to say what she was thinking, the question came at him like an unexpected blow to his gut. No way could he tell her about the unorthodox deal he’d made with Asa Watkins to keep his job. To appease his own conscience he told himself it would do the kids little good if he lost his job and had to leave Carson. For his explanation to her, he chose evasion.

“It’s a long, uninteresting story. And it’s getting late. It’s also getting too chilly to be sitting out here without a coat. Let’s go inside and get some hot coffee.” He slid from the rock and held out his hand to her.

Mandy glanced at the moonlit face of her watch. She’d hardly consider seven fifteen late, but nevertheless, she took his hand. Again, when his flesh touched hers, that tingle ran up her arm. But this time she was too busy trying to sort through his evasion to her question to think about anything else
.

Long and uninteresting
didn’t do it for her. So, what was Luc hiding?

Once inside, Luc,
who’d passed on the coffee and opted for a cold beer and a return to the Yankee game, had seemed very eager to leave her company. After retrieving a beer from the kitchen, he retired back to his position in front of the TV and left her standing in the hallway. As he walked away, his cell phone rang again. Stopping mid-stride, he pulled it from his pocket. After glancing at it, he closed it, did something with the side of it and then shoved it back in his pocket and disappeared inside the den.

Mandy wondered who it could be that was being so persistent, and he didn’t seem to want to talk to, but she quickly pushed that aside and instead concentrated on the way he’d evaded her question. As a social worker she recognized the same signs in Luc that she’d seen many times when parents scooted around what was really happening in their homes. But why was Luc evading her question?

Unfortunately, try as she might, she could come up with no logical reason why, if he’d sworn himself to doing his best for the kids under his guidance, he would not share his reasoning for keeping the baby simulators out of the school. Unless
 . . . .

She recalled Asa Watkin’s smarmy smile and covert glances at Luc at the school board hearing. Had Asa gotten to him? Could he be doing this because Asa had somehow threatened him if she got the simulators into the school? It seemed the only logical explanation for why a man, who cared so much about the students, would fight so hard to prevent implementing something of such benefit to them.

At the same time, she was sure Luc didn’t impress her as the type of man to be bamboozled into doing something he didn’t want to or that went against his ethics. So what was it?

When a knock sounded on the front door, she pushed aside her dilemma for the moment. After opening the door, she found Catherine Daniels standing on the porch.

“Hello, Catherine. Come in.” She laughed, hoping to hide her embarrassment. “Listen to me playing the hostess. It’s your house. You don’t need an invitation.”

“Hello, dear. On the contrary, as long as you and Luc are here, I consider it your home. So your invitation is quite appropriate,” she said as she stepped inside. “Speaking of Luc, is that a baseball game I hear?” She peeked around the corner of the den door and grinned. “I knew Luc would find that TV too tempting to resist.”

Mandy forced a smile. “He’s been glued to the baseball game all evening.” Catherine had no need to know about their intermission by the lake. “What brings you here?”

“Let’s go sit in the kitchen, and, if you have some already made, we can talk over a cup of coffee.” Without waiting for Mandy to answer, she led the way to the back of the house and into the spacious kitchen.

When they both had a mug of coffee, they carried them to the breakfast nook and sat facing each other.

Catherine added cream to her coffee and stirred. “I came by for two reasons. I want to take Shannon shopping tomorrow, and I also wanted to know how she’s doing with
 . . .
uh
 . . .
Joey.”

Mandy sipped her coffee and set the cup aside. “I’ll call Shannon down here in a moment, and we can check the baby’s care monitor on my laptop. But first let’s discuss this shopping trip. I’m going to give Shannon a budget. The money will come from the cash the school board allotted us for this project. She is not allowed to go over the amount I designate. I’m also going to have her make a list of things that Joey needs—diapers, formula, etc. She is to get these things first. Whatever is left, she can spend on herself, and you are not to supplement her money.” Catherine frowned. “She has to learn that when you have a baby, his needs come before a new blouse or a new pair of shoes or a ticket to the latest movie, and there’s not always going to be someone there to dole out more money when she runs out.”

For a moment, Catherine looked taken aback, then comprehension shown on her face, and she nodded. “I understand. You can count on me. I’m just as eager for Shannon to see what a burden a baby can be at her age as anyone is.”

Anyone but Luc
, Mandy amended. She wouldn’t say anything to Catherine about her conversation with Luc and his sidestepping an answer to her question.

“What’s going on?” Both women looked up to find Shannon standing in the kitchen with Joey cradled in the crook of her arm. She looked a bit tired, and the faint evidence of loss of sleep was beginning to show beneath her eyes. Her hair, which had been stylishly and neatly arranged when Mandy first met her, was now pulled haphazardly into a ponytail with wisps that had escaped hanging listlessly around her face.

“Your grandmother came by to see if you’d like to go shopping tomorrow.”

The tiredness seemed to vanish from Shannon’s face. Her eyes lit with the eagerness that any young teenage girl would display at the prospect of a shopping trip. “Really?”

Catherine rose and hugged her granddaughter. “Yes, really. I’ll pick you up right after lunch, and we’ll drive into Charleston to the mall.”

“You’ll need to make a list to take with you of the things Joey needs.” Mandy watched the young girl’s reaction to her announcement. The light of excitement in Shannon’s eyes dimmed just a fraction. “But right now, your grandmother would like to see how you’re doing caring for Joey.”

Mandy took the baby simulator from the girl and laid it face down on the table, then set up her laptop beside it. She opened the snaps down the back of the sleepers and hooked Joey up to her laptop. Seconds later, the screen displayed the information about his care.

“Looks like you’re doing very well except for the other day when you had visitors and this one spot this morning.” Mandy pointed to the screen where a graph had appeared and showed a slight dip around seven a.m.

“I was in the shower when he started to cry, and I didn’t hear him until I shut off the water.” Shannon looked worried, but she’d skipped over any explanation about the day Jeb had come to ask her to the dance.

Mandy disconnected Joey and then re-snapped his sleepers. She closed the laptop and then handed the baby to Shannon. “No problem. Even real moms need to take a shower.”

A sigh of relief escaped the teen. “There’s one problem about tomorrow. I don’t have a car seat for Joey, so I can’t take him with me. Who’s going to take care of him?”

Catherine tightened the arm around Shannon’s shoulders. “What kind of great grandmother would I be if I didn’t come equipped with a car seat for the
 . . .
for my great grandchild?”

That was the second time Mandy’d heard a hesitation in Catherine’s voice when speaking about the baby simulator. Obviously, thinking of the simulator as a real baby was more of a problem for Catherine than it was for Shannon.

“Great.” The one word spoke volumes about Shannon’s disappointment.

From her reaction, Mandy surmised that the young girl had been hoping to get away from her mommy duties for a while. Something Catherine appeared to have noted in Shannon’s changed demeanor as well.

The older woman linked her arm with her granddaughter’s. “Why don’t we go upstairs and get caught up?”

“Sure.” Lips pursed with continued disappointment at not being able to leave Joey home, Shannon turned and left the room with Catherine following closely behind.

As she watched them go, Mandy suddenly remember the request she’d made of Becky to help her find Catherine’s daughter. It had only been a few days, but she was curious to know if Becky had made any progress in locating the woman.

She glanced down the hall to make certain she was not going to be overheard. Catherine and Shannon had disappeared up the stairs, and the sound of the baseball game still emanated from the den.

A loud cheer of “Way to go, Posada!” assured her that Luc was still riveted to the TV.

The office had been closed for hours, so she dialed Becky’s home phone number.

A male voice answered. “Hello.”

“Hi, Nick. It’s Mandy. Is your wife around?”

“She sure is. Hey, sweetie, Mandy’s on the phone,” she heard him call out.

While she waited for Becky to take the phone, Mandy thought about the wonderful relationship her boss had with the man she’d married. All one had to do was look at them when they were together to understand the kind of enduring, unconditional love they had for each other. Maybe it was possible to have a lasting relationship with a man, a man who would always be there for you to help carry the burdens, celebrate the joys and love without question. A vision of Luc as they sat beside the lake that night slipped into her mind.

She shook her head to dislodge her foolish thoughts. Maybe it was possible for anyone else, but not for her.

Seconds later, Becky took the phone. “Hi, Mandy. What’s up?”

“Nothing critical. I was just wondering if you’d found anything out about where Catherine’s daughter is yet.”