The Prodigal's Return (14 page)

“I—”

“You can't be serious!” Jeremy said.

“Absolutely not!” Traci's father concurred, as Jenn shot Jeremy a look to get lost.

“Dad!” Traci rounded on her father as Jeremy skulked away. “If it'll keep me from making more trouble for Reverend Gardner, then—”

“You are not staying with that old drunk. Think about the safety of your baby, if not yourself. There's no telling what Cain might do.”

“Nathan Cain isn't—” Jenn began.

“He's not a drunk, Dad. He's sick.” Traci breathed in a sniffle, but she didn't back down. Holding her own against her parents was such a major victory for Traci, Jenn wanted to cheer. “And you should be thanking him instead of talking about him in front of half the town like he's a menace. He's part of the reason I came tonight. I think spending the day with him actually helped me think some things through.”

“Helped how?” Betty Carpenter asked, restraining her husband. “What is he doing…?” The woman gestured at Jenn with the hand not holding her husband's arm. “What are
she
and Reverend Gardner doing that your father and I can't at home?

“They listen to me, Mom. They treat me like a grown-up instead of like I don't have a brain in my head.” A fresh batch of sniffles sprinkled the discovery in Traci words. “And they're letting me figure this out, instead of telling me what to think, no matter how hard it's been on them to have me around.”

“It's been wonderful, honey.” Jenn squeezed her shoulder, feeling the truth of her statement. This was the payoff she fought for, when a young woman's eyes finally opened to all she could still have instead of all she'd lost. This was her reward for whatever else in life
she
couldn't have. “Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, you should be very proud of your daughter. She could have left at any time. She didn't have to stay today and help Nathan, or come here tonight worried about my father and me.”

“She didn't run away?” Bob snapped. “That's the high point of your day helping her
figure things out?
Is that supposed to reassure us?”

“No, it's supposed to show you that I'm not hopeless.” Traci's little-girl voice was back. “To convince you not to turn the entire town against the people helping me just because you can't have your way.”

She took off, running past where Jenn's father stood on the fringes of the milling crowd.

“H-has she said anything else to you about keeping the baby?” Betty Carpenter asked Jenn, her attention divided between her husband and watching her daughter disappear through a crowd of friends and neighbors.

“Just what you heard inside. That she's decided not to have an abortion.” Jenn squared her shoulders as her father and Catherine Compton stepped closer. “I think she's making real progress.”

“Progress!” Catherine repeated, wiping at the tears that had erupted at the sight of her son and Neal nearly coming to blows. “Coming from you—”

“Stop it, Catherine!” Jenn's father demanded. His biting tone was such a rarity, everyone within earshot stared. “I'm sure the Carpenters appreciate your concern, but criticizing my daughter isn't helping anyone. Bob, Betty, I'm asking you as a friend not to make the same mistake Olivia and I did. You have a chance to listen to your child before it's too late, before things are taken even more out of your hands. Don't turn this situation into a play for power, when it should be about loving your child the best way you know how.”

He turned to Jenn.

“If you think it's best to move with Traci to
Nathan's,” he said, “then you have my blessing. Assuming the man's even willing. I'll miss having you and Mandy at home while you're gone. But I trust your judgment, honey.”

The small pat he gave her before walking away had the impact of a full body hug. Whatever she chose to do, he'd support her. Period. Just when she wouldn't have minded his advice…

Move into the Cain house? With Neal? If in fact his father let any of them stay.

“Jenn?” Betty Carpenter asked. “What are you going to do?”

Jenn gave Traci's worried parents her full attention. “I'm going to ask Traci what she needs, and do whatever I can to support her. Why don't you plan on stopping by? I think she'd be more than willing to talk with you again, if it were on more neutral ground.”

“Neutral ground, where?” Betty asked.

“Does it matter?” At least Neal's impulsive offer had gotten the Carpenters' attention. “As long as you and Traci are there together.”

She had to wonder if Neal Cain's return to Rivermist hadn't been just the shake-up their picturesque snow globe of a town needed to help everyone refocus on what was really important. And since she could still feel the feather-light touch of his kiss on her lips, clearly she was the one most shaken of all.

 

N
EAL STOOD
in his father's garage, Jenn's words ringing in his ears.

I think he's missed you…. He's kept all your things…exactly the way you left them….

He'd even kept the damn car.

Not only that, the man had rebuilt the '66 Shelby GT to vintage perfection, right down to the glossy blue top coat and center white racing stripe. It must have taken him years on his own. Neal glanced over his shoulder at his own car. He'd busted his ass doing the detailed work restoration required. Methodical work that he'd looked forward to day after day. Because doing it, and then driving the finished car, had been the closest thing he knew he'd have to sharing the experience with his father.

Nathan's Oldsmobile sat in the back of the driveway under the rusted-out basketball hoop, it's paint faded from the sun. But the Shelby, the one he'd bought for Neal, was tucked carefully away in the garage.

Headlights flashed up the drive, heralding the arrival of the woman he'd thought he'd never share anything with again, either. Certainly not the sweetest kiss he'd ever known. The woman that couldn't bear the thought of finding happiness in something as perfect as their kiss, yet she seemed at ease taking the problems of the world on her shoulders. Proving
to everyone, most of all herself, that she wasn't the miscreant this town had labeled her.

Watching her from the shadows at the church council meeting had changed him. Simple as that. He'd lost forever the ability to relegate Jennifer Gardner to his memories as a sweet, young girl. She was all woman now, mesmerizing in her passion for whatever and whomever was lucky enough to have her support. She'd blown him away, making him briefly think they could take the world on together. He'd been an ass, saying what he had in front of half the town. Stirring that snot Jeremy up. Causing a scene. But he'd meant every word. If moving in here with the Carpenter girl was what Jenn needed, then that's what was going to happen.

“Mommy!” Jenn's little girl called. She flew out the kitchen door and hurled herself into her mother's arms.

Jenn hugged her close, cupping the child's head to her breast and kissing the golden curls at the girl's temple. Neal should have left the garage's shadows and let them know he was eavesdropping, but the shadows were what he liked best—just like when he watched Stephen do his thing in court. He'd sit in the back watching, analyzing, learning. But never getting too close to the lives being played out on the courtroom's stage.

Besides, the scene before him was too surreal to
interrupt. A glimpse into Jenn's life he'd thought he hadn't wanted, but now couldn't look away from.

The daughter whose conception and birth had caused Jenn so much trouble was clearly the center of her world. The teenager whose problems had become Jenn's in a very public way tonight was by her side, where Jenn refused to let anyone tell her the kid didn't belong. And as she held those she cared for close, he realized that before his return to Rivermist all he'd known how to do was push people away. Now…

His visit to her father's last night should have been the end of it. Jenn needed him to move on. Only he'd had to see her again today. Had to help her. To touch her. To have her closer…

He thought of her letters he'd brought back from Atlanta. Letters he'd brought for her, hoping it might bring her some peace to know he'd kept them. Only he hadn't been able to part with them last night. As long as he had her letters, at least a piece of Jenn was still his.

“It's about time you got back,” his father grumbled, slowly joining the group outside. His steps dragged as if each one caused him pain. “What happened at the—”

Neal watched his father catch sight of his Mustang, illuminated by the lights that kicked on every time someone came up the driveway. Watched some of the fatigue ease from the man's body as he
stood taller, anger and maybe a little bit of hope settling on his face.

“What the hell's going on out here?”

Another car screeched to a halt at the end of the drive.

“Stop right there, Jeremy,” Jenn said as she set her daughter aside and stepped away from the group, taking the jerk on by herself.

“Where's Neal?” Jeremy demanded as he moved farther into the light shining down from the roof. “Is that his car?”

“That's none of your business. Nothing that happens here, to me or Traci Carpenter or Neal and Nathan Cain, none of it is any of your or your mother's business. So stop butting in. Stop trying to protect me from something you don't understand. Stop following me all over town, or I swear—”

“Following you!” Nathan, his knees cracking, his head clearly aching, stepped between Jenn and a man more than twice her size. Neal, who should have been intervening, could only stare, mesmerized, at the sight of Jeremy Compton cowering away from Nathan's imposing height. “Are you part of what's had this girl spooked the last couple of days? Then let me tell you what's going to happen the next time you get anywhere near her—”

“Nathan, please. I'm fine.” Jenn gave the best imitation of “fine” Neal had ever seen, catching
Mandy to her side as the little girl crept closer. “I can handle him.”

“You think so?” Jeremy's smile was all bully. “You and Neal, you gonna handle me together, is that it?”

“I don't need anyone's help to handle your messed-up infatuation with me, just because we knew each other as kids.”

“Knew each other?” The man's laugh raised the hair on the back of Neal's neck. Jenn stiffened, but she didn't back down. Her courage was the only thing that kept him in the shadows. No way would he take away her chance to verbally kick Jeremy Compton's ass to the curb. “Is that what we were doing your senior year in high school—getting to know each other? You ever tell your kid there just how well you
knew
half the boys in the county? How any number of them could be her daddy, even me? Is that what you're going to be doing with Neal tonight—getting to know him all over again?”

“Mommy?” Mandy asked, when Jenn couldn't seem to form a comeback.

Jenn lifted her hand to her throat as if she were about to vomit.

“You better get that filthy mouth of yours back in your car and the hell out of my driveway.” Nathan shoved the kid's shoulder, knocking Jeremy backward. “Go on, get!”

Whether from shock at Nathan's strength or satisfaction at finally blasting through Jenn's defenses, Jeremy backed away. But he threw himself into his car with the air of a man who hadn't had his last say.

“Are you okay?” Traci slipped a supportive arm around the woman who'd just done the same for her at the church.

“Mommy?”

“I…I'm fine,” Jenn croaked, coming out of her trance. Nathan grunted as he stepped toward her, but before he could speak she crouched and pushed her daughter's bangs from her eyes. “Really, sweetie, I'm fine.”

Only her voice still sounded too far away. Too broken by the sickening idea of Bobby Compton's brother possibly being her child's father.

“Jenn?” Nathan persisted. “What—”

“Why don't you take Traci and Mandy inside?” she asked. Her voice trembled only slightly. “I picked up some ice cream at the grocery this morning. Chocolate. Mandy's favorite.”

“Jenn.” His father hesitated, the compassion in the single word filling Neal with envy.

“Please.” She was pleading now, where she'd been nothing but piss and vinegar with Jeremy. She glanced to where Neal still stood inside the garage, then back at his father. “I—I need to be alone for a few minutes.”

Nathan eyed Neal's car again, looked around the yard and then at the garage. Then he shook his head and started back toward the kitchen.

“I suppose you'll want ice cream, too,” he groused at Traci. “While you eat, you can damn well tell me what happened at the church.”

Jenn started to say something to their retreating backs, but she let them go. Walking a few short steps, she eased onto one of the benches beside the picnic table that had been the first thing Neal and Nathan ever built together.

His mom had always loved picnics.

“How much did you hear?” she asked without turning in his direction.

“All of it.” He stepped out of the shadows and sat beside her, propping his arms on his thighs and locking his fingers together. How else was he going to stop himself from pulling her into the hug he just might need more than she did? “Could Jeremy be your daughter's father?”

He hated the way she flinched. But if she didn't want to talk about it, why had she stayed outside when she knew he was there? Once upon a time, they'd been able to talk about anything.

“I suppose it's possible, but…” She looked up at the stars. “He's never said anything about it before. He's always been a little too interested in hooking up, but nothing this aggressive….” She spread her hands
in front of her, as if to ward him off again. “Nothing this possessive, not before…”