Texas Trouble

She glanced at Sean, then at Tad. “What happened here?”

“I was just kidding,” Tad said, his chest still heaving. “I didn’t mean it.”

“Didn’t mean what?”

Flushing brightly, Tad ducked his head and stared at his shoes. Whatever he’d said, he didn’t seem to have the courage to repeat it in front of the adults.

Jolie looked across the room. “Sean?”

Sean didn’t flinch away from her gaze. He met it, his jaw squared so tightly he might have been carved from marble—if it hadn’t been for his eyes, which were alive with emotion.

Jolie’s gaze shifted. “Madeline?”

The assistant shook her head. “They were playing. I didn’t hear it.”

Jolie didn’t waste time with the third degree. She obviously knew what had to be done. She walked over to Nora. Her eyes were sympathetic, but her voice was matter-of-fact.

“I’ll have to call the principal,” she said quietly, touching the phone that hung from her belt. “The rules are very clear.”

Nora understood. “Of course.”

Nodding to her assistant, a message that seemed to speak volumes, Jolie slipped back into her office to make the call. Nora moved slowly to her son’s side, sidestepping the wreckage of the guitar.

“Sean.” She knelt in front of him and took his cold, limp hand. “Honey, can you tell me? Can you tell me what happened?”

For a moment he stared at her. And then, slowly, as if his neck were a rusted joint, he shook his head.

Such an absolute silence. She looked into his eyes, where sparks of fury still flashed and simmered.

And she thought of Jolie’s comment.

Like fire, she thought with a sinking heart. Like fire behind a tightly closed door.

LOGAN’S NIGHT HAD BEEN an unexpected success. Dinner and drinks with Annie…Aden? Arden? Something like that. The office manager for one of the vets he used at Two Wings.

He’d asked her out purely because she was smoking hot, and he was bored with the book he’d been reading. But he got the bonus prize, too. She’d turned out to be witty and sensible, and extremely easy to please. She liked her steak, she liked her wine. She liked his jokes, his car, his jacket and his smile.

It was also pretty clear she liked the idea of coming home with him. It should have been a slam dunk—sex with a woman who was easy to please. And did he mention smoking hot?

But for some reason he would never understand, he ignored all the signals, kissed her politely at her door and drove back to Two Wings alone.

He didn’t try to figure himself out. He’d never been into navel-gazing self-analysis. He was tired. Her perfume turned him off. He hadn’t been in the mood for a blonde. Whatever.

What difference did it make? There was always another night. There was always another Annie.

He poured himself a glass of water and picked up the sports section, which he hadn’t had time to read that morning. He kicked off his shoes and, with a satisfied yawn, settled onto the tweedy sofa that faced the picture window. It was only eleven, but he’d been up since five, and he’d be up again at five tomorrow. He was dog tired, and he had a right to be.

When the doorbell rang two minutes later, he cursed under his breath. But he swung his legs off the sofa and tossed the newspaper onto the floor. It might be someone dropping off a bird.

When he opened the door, at first he didn’t see anyone at all. Then his gaze fell about two feet, and he discovered a kid standing there, the pale oval of his face peering out from a black hooded sweatshirt.

He wore black jeans, too, and black sneakers. He looked like a miniature cat burglar.

“Hi, Sean,” Logan said wryly. “Did we have something else you wanted to bust up?”

The boy flushed, but he covered it well with a deep scowl. “My mom says she’s going to pay you for it. She’s making me work it off. I’m going to have to pull weeds about ten hours a day for a month.”

“Good.” Logan kept his hand on the doorknob, but he scanned the driveway for a car. “Is your mom with you now?”

“No. I came alone. On my bike.”

Oh, great. The moron had ridden a mile and a half in the pitch dark. All in black. Probably didn’t even have a light on his bike.

He needed a good shaking. Didn’t he have the slightest idea what it would do to his mother if anything bad happened to him?

“Does she know you’re here?”

“No. She’s out with my Aunt Evelyn. I didn’t climb out my window this time. I went straight out the front door. Milly’s supposed to be looking after me, but she always falls asleep. She’s got blood sugar.”

“Really.” Logan fought the urge to smile. “Well, I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you back, then. If Milly wakes up and finds you gone, she’ll have a heart attack to go with her blood sugar.”

“No. It’s okay. She never wakes up. I’m not going back yet.”

Logan looked at the boy, who clearly had amazing persistence and dogged determination in that stubborn jaw.

He did some quick thinking. He didn’t want to spook the kid. If Sean decided to dart off into the night, in that outfit, Logan would have hell’s own time trying to catch him. He was tired, and barefoot, and about twenty years older than Sean. He didn’t like his chances.

“Okay.” He held open the door. “Want to come in, then?”

Sean hesitated, still frowning. He glanced into the lighted great room, as if he were checking for trap doors and cages.

“Hey, suit yourself,” Logan said, chuckling. Kids were so dumb. Sean had snuck out in the middle of the night, wandered the darkness alone, knocked on a stranger’s door, then suddenly started remembering what Mom said about safety first.

He shrugged. “I have all the snotty kid prisoners I need at the moment, anyhow.”

Sean laughed. It was an awkward, sputtering noise, as if he hadn’t expected to, and hadn’t wanted to. He caught himself and cut it off, but it had undoubtedly been a laugh.

Encouraged, Logan opened the door wider, and ambled casually toward the kitchen. “Want some water? Must have been a dusty ride. Did you come the back way, by the creek?”

Behind him, he heard the door shut softly. Then he heard it open again, and once more click shut. Too funny…the kid must have been testing to make sure it didn’t auto-lock.

The soft slap of sneakers followed him to the kitchen. Then Sean spoke, with the belligerence dialed back a notch. “Water would be very nice. Yeah, I came by the creek. It’s nice in the moonlight.”

Logan slid a filled glass across the countertop. “But it’s a long way. And I’m guessing that if you get caught you’re in a boatload of trouble. What do you want so bad you’re willing to come all this way to get it?”

Sean picked up the water and swallowed about half of it before he answered. “I want the bird,” he said. “I was going to go to the center and poke around till I found it, but that seemed babyish.”

He lifted his small, pale chin. The hood dropped off when he did so, exposing his curly red hair, still sweaty from the ride over. “And I’m not a baby. So I decided I’d come ask you for it. You can’t want it. It’s not worth anything.”