The Homecoming (32 page)

“Your son has the appetite of a shark,” Sax said, deciding to help her out by changing the subject. Obviously she needed time to work up to what had actually happened.

“I had a cheeseburger at the VFW club,” Trey informed his mother. “And French fries. Then Sax’s mom made some gumbo. And bread pudding. It was really good.”

“Mrs. Douchett has always been a wonderful cook.”

“Yeah. That’s what Sax’s dad said. Then we went out on the boat. Then Sax and me—”

“Sax and I,” Kara murmured as she gingerly made her way over to the table.

Although he ached to give her a hand, not wanting to set off any more alarms with her son, Sax merely pulled out a chair. Shooting him a grateful glance, she sat down.

“Sax and I got a pizza. Loaded. Sax said Dad liked anchovies. Just like me.”

“He certainly did.” She smiled at that. Though she looked a little sad, too.

“I figured pizza might be a bit much for you to handle,” Sax said.

“You figured right.”

“So how would you like some minestrone?”

On cue, her stomach rumbled.

“Obviously, it sounds wonderful.” She glanced over at the pot he had sitting atop a camp stove. “Did you make it?”

“No. I cheated this time and picked it up with the pizza at The Gondolier.” He spooned the thick soup into a white bowl. “Mrs. Mancuso’s nearly as good a cook as Mom.”

“I know. I’m totally hooked on her clam linguini. I could probably eat it every day, if I let myself.”

“I’m partial to her scallops Florentine.”

“I’ve been tempted to try that, but I always fall back on the linguini.”

He put the bowl on the table in front of her, along with a spoon and, since he’d run out of the paper napkins his mother had stocked his kitchen with, a piece of paper towel. “We’ll go there for dinner and I’ll share mine.”

Okay, so he was pushing, bringing up that date thing again with her kid in the room, which pretty much prevented her from refusing. But Sax was encouraged when she paused, seemed to consider, and finally said, “I’d enjoy that.”

She glanced around the room at the candles he’d lit.

“This is nice.”

“The power goes out here a lot. I keep the stove for cooking and the candles for light.”

“We got some movies, too. But Sax didn’t want to turn on the generator because he didn’t want to wake you up,” Trey volunteered.

“I’m not sure a freight train could’ve woken me up. What movies did you get?” she asked as she took a tentative sip of her minestrone. Sax told himself that he was watching only because he worried that eating even soup might hurt her lips. Not because he was fascinated by her mouth.

Liar
.

“
Ice Age
and
Air Bud
,” Trey said. “
Air Bud
’s about a dog that can play all kinds of different sports. We got the one where he plays football on Josh’s—that’s the boy who rescued him—junior high football team.”

“Interesting you should choose that one,” Kara murmured.

“I like football.”

“So you keep telling me,” Kara said, exchanging a look with Sax, who knew they were both thinking about his offer to help the kid learn some football plays.

“Anyway,” Trey said, practically jumping up and down in his chair, “these two Russian dognappers kidnap Buddy because they want him to be in this Russian circus.”

“So it’s an adventure story, along with a football story.”

“Yeah. But that’s when the power went off. So I haven’t found out how Josh gets Buddy back.”

“Well, I’m sure he will.”

“Yeah. Because there are a lot of other
Air Bud
movies after that. He plays baseball and soccer, and even volleyball on the beach.”

He looked over at the dog, who, now that the pizza box was empty, which meant no more treats would be forthcoming, was lying on her back, long legs up in the air, happily snoring.

“Maybe I could teach Velcro some more tricks besides fetch,” he suggested to Sax.

“Sounds good to me. Why don’t we start with a Frisbee? I can pick one up in town tomorrow; then, if your mom gives the go-ahead, we’ll take her down on the beach after you get out of school.”

“Wow. Sweet!” That actually got him out of his chair and running over to her side. “Can we, Mom?”

“Shouldn’t you be working on Bon Temps?” she asked Sax.

“I will be. But since I’m the project boss, I figure I can give myself a little time off. Besides, all the guys were friends with Jared. They’re not going to have any problem with my taking his boy out to toss a Frisbee around for a while.”

The comment about having a hamburger at the VFW had flown over her head in the vast litany of other meals her son had managed to consume in a single day. But now the relevance sank in. Obviously the other vets, who’d known Jared, had shared stories with Trey. Stories that helped keep his father alive for him. Something she admittedly hadn’t been doing. And with Jared’s parents having moved to Nevada, the responsibility had fallen on her.

In the beginning, it had been just too hard and he’d been too young. Later, she’d worried she’d only bring up memories of that day their lives had changed so horribly. Now she realized that she’d been remiss. If even
her
memories were fading after all those years together, how must it be for Trey, struggling to keep an emotional connection with his father?

She turned from Sax to Trey.

“So you met some of your father’s friends?”

“Yeah, and it was really great, Mom,” he said, confirming her thoughts. “Did you know Dad was an Eagle Scout?”

“I did.”

“And that he saved a little kid from drowning?”

“I remember that well.” And she should have shared it with her son. But, given that they lived near the beach in California, while she’d taught him about the dangers of riptides, and going out into the surf without an adult present, she also hadn’t wanted to make him overly afraid of the water. One of the problems with being a single mother, even during her married years, was concern that she would, as her father would have so bluntly put it, “sissify” her son.

“And that he was in ROTC? Just like I wanna be when I get to high school?”

Kara decided this was no time to remind him that was a topic they’d tabled for later. “He looked very handsome in his uniform,” she said instead.

“This one guy told me that apples don’t fall far from the tree. Which means I’m just like Dad.”

“You are.” She bit her lip, then realized her mistake as it hurt like hell. “I have some pictures of your father when he was your age. And I think one of him in his Boy Scout and ROTC uniforms. I’ll have to get them out. Maybe we can put them in an album together.”

“Okay. Guess what else I did?”

“Go hunting sharks?”

“Nah. Though I did go out on the
Kelli
. That’s Cole’s really cool fishing boat. And me and Sax went to the lumber store and I helped pick out the paint color. We chose Cajun Red.”

“That sounds perfect for a Cajun restaurant.”

“Yeah.” He nodded vigorously. “That’s what Sax said. Then I came up with the idea of decorating it with beads and stuff, you know, like at the Mardi Gras celebration we went to back in California?”

He had, for the longest time, called it “back
home
in California.” Kara was pleased that he apparently was now thinking of Shelter Bay as home.

“I do.”

“Sax said it wasn’t like his parents used to have it, but that it was a perfect idea. And
I
thought of it. All by myself.”

“It’s brilliant,” Sax said. “Gonna really make people want to pass themselves a good time.”

“That’s what Bon Temps means,” Trey said. “Good times.”

“I always had a great time there,” Kara said. “Everyone in town did. It’ll be nice to have it back up and running.”

“Yeah. We’re in a hurry because Cole’s getting married soon, and Kelli—the lady the boat’s named after?—really wants to have her party there. It’s a real mess, but Sax and the guys are going to get it done in time, huh, Sax?”

“Wouldn’t want to let a lady down on her wedding day.”

“She’s having cupcakes. Sax’s grandmother brought some back from the store, so we took some out on the boat with us. I had red velvet. It was really good.”

“It sounds like it. I’ll have to stop in to the store and try one out.”

“That’s a good idea. We could buy a whole box so Grandma could have some, too. Sax’s grandma said they have lots of different flavors, so we could get, like, a selection. Like we used to do when we went to Dunkin’ Donuts to get a box to go meet Dad whenever he’d come home.”

“Sounds like a plan.” The pain and fatigue were coming back. She could hear it in her voice and hoped Trey hadn’t.

Apparently he had. Trey tilted his head and studied her. “You must have really tripped hard over that chair.”

“It was a nasty fall,” she allowed. She looked over at Sax, viewed the encouragement in his eyes, and decided just to go for it. “Actually, I was sort of knocked down.”

Sticking to the story of the burglar, Kara made the incident sound as benign as she could, unable to tell if his silence the entire time was a good sign. Or bad.

“But as you can see,” she said with forced enthusiasm, “I’m doing okay. It’s not nearly as painful as when you fell off your bike and broke your wrist.”

“I was just a little kid,” Trey informed Sax. “In first grade. But I didn’t hardly cry, did I, Mom?”

“No.” She ruffled the corn-silk hair. “You were very brave.”

He puffed up his thin chest. “Like Dad.”

“Exactly.” If her father had been alive, he could have filled in for Jared, teaching Trey about manly things, and giving him someone to talk about guy stuff with. Then again, if her father were alive, she and Trey would probably still be in California.

Perhaps she should have returned home to Shelter Bay right after Jared’s death. But she hadn’t wanted to take Trey away from friends and out of a school where he was doing so well. Then there was the disconnect she’d always felt with her mother. The fact was that she’d always felt as if she’d never quite lived up to Faith Blanchard’s high standards, so it had been easier just to avoid the situation entirely.

“The burglar got away?” Trey broke into her thoughts.

“Just for now. The state police have a lot of clues. We’ll get him.” She could tell that he still wasn’t quite buying into that probability. Then an idea occurred to her. “Sax volunteered to help.”

That was all it took. “Hooyah. The guy’s toast,” Trey said as he flashed a thumbs-up at Sax. Who flashed one back. “We got a movie for you, too,” he said, appearing ready to move on now that he knew SEAL Sax Douchett was in their corner.

“Did you?”

“Yeah.
Casablanca
. Sax says it’s kinda a war movie, but there aren’t any bombs or anything in it. That it’s mostly a love story.”

“It is.” She looked at Sax, who was sitting across from her, elbows braced on the heavy wooden table, chin resting on the back of his hands, looking at her in a way that caused her once romantic heart, which had been locked away for so long, to stutter. “That was very thoughtful.”

“Trey said you liked romantic movies,” Sax told her. “Plus, a reunion plot seemed appropriate. Under the circumstances.” He lifted his own mug, which held coffee. “ ‘Here’s looking at you, kid.’ ”

Maybe it was the drugs still in her system. Maybe it was the hot, sweetened tea, Mrs. Mancuso’s comforting minestrone, and the flickering candlelight, but for some reason, despite all she’d been through today, the classic line made her chuckle.

Then laugh.

And laugh.

It had been so long since Kara had had anything to laugh about, she couldn’t seem to stop. Tears began flowing from her eyes even as she doubled over from the pain.

“Mom?” Trey went from laughing along with her at the joke he couldn’t possibly understand, since she didn’t even herself, to near-panicked concern.

“It’s okay.” Sax stood up and put a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. “The doc at the hospital gave your mom some happy pills. Guess they just kicked in.

“Let’s get you back to bed.” Sax lifted her up from the chair as if she were as light as thistledown. Then, with seemingly not a bit of effort, he scooped her off her feet and into his arms.

“Storm’s let up,” he said to Trey. “About time Velcro took care of business. How about you do me a favor and take her outside? But stay on the porch while she runs around, okay?”

Worried eyes went from Sax to Kara, then back to Sax again. Kara could see the wheels turning in his young head as concern for her battled with boyish trust for the man who, like his father, was a bona fide hero. With medals to prove it.

“Okay,” he said. “Come on, Velcro.”

The dog rolled over. Stood up and stretched. Then looked up at Sax, as if questioning whose authority she was supposed to obey.

“Go on,” Sax said with a wave.

Claws clicked on the hardwood floor as she followed Trey out the door.

“He trusts you,” Kara said as he carried her effortlessly into the bedroom.

The myrtle-wood furniture was simple, almost Shaker style. The walls had been painted a soft white with framed oil scenes of the beach and Shelter Bay she knew had been painted by Sax’s grandmother hanging on the walls. She suspected the gauzy curtains hadn’t been his personal choice, but had been left behind when his grandparents had moved into town.

“Like I said, he’s a good kid. And he seemed to have a great day.”

“Like Disneyland, Sea World, and the San Diego Zoo all rolled into one,” she said. “I owe you.”

“Since you’re on mind-altering drugs, I’m going to ignore that ridiculous statement.”

“But—”

“You don’t owe me a damn thing.” He laid her on the bed.

“Because we’re friends.” Hadn’t she been the one to suggest watching out for each other?