Where Dreams Begin (32 page)

It was nearly ten o’clock before she and Dave could sit down to study. In his usual easy manner, he reviewed the problems that had confused her and provided solid instruction on how to go about solving the rest. Catherine was quite pleased with the way the day was going until a dark shadow fell across her book. She knew without looking up that it would be Luke.

“Are you cramming for an exam, Mrs. Brooks? You never cease to amaze me.”

Dave stood and brushed off the seat of his khaki pants. “It never hurts to hone your math skills,” he muttered. “You’ll have to excuse me. I need to get back to work across the street.”

“Go right ahead,” Luke encouraged, but he waited until Dave was out of earshot to kneel down beside Catherine. “I don’t really care what it is you’re doing,” he whispered. “But you can’t complain that Dave is bugging you one day and pal around with him the next. It’s a mixed message that’ll drive any man crazy.”

Catherine slammed her CBEST review book closed and jammed her pencil behind her ear. “I wasn’t flirting with him and don’t believe I gave him the wrong impression.”

“Did you leave the house without glancing in the mirror?” When he saw he’d merely confused her, Luke tried again. “You’re a beautiful woman, Catherine, and Dave’s lonely. The other day you understood how easily he could misinterpret your actions. What happened today?”

That she’d needed help with algebra struck Catherine as too silly an excuse to offer. Feeling trapped, she tried not to get angry, but her nerves were too frayed for her to be mellow. “I wish you wouldn’t scold me as though I were one of the kids. You didn’t stumble onto a tryst.”

She sprang from her chair, her book clutched to her chest, and then had to wait for Luke to rise. A hot lick of tears blurred her vision, and she feared hormones might be to blame. She’d once been such a calm, easy-going person, but that was before she’d met Luke.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized quickly. “I shouldn’t have been so snotty.”

“No, you’re right, I do tend to lecture at times. I’m on my way to my attorney’s office for a meeting with Melissa, so I’ll blame my foul mood on her. Maybe I’ll see you later.”

“Yes, I want to hear what happened.”

“I can tell you that now,” Luke joked. “She’ll weep into a lacy handkerchief and insist she deserves more money. I’ll disagree. The attorneys will argue as if they actually cared which side won, and we’ll either end up in court or arbitration. Still, I have to show up and play the bad guy.”

“You’re not the bad guy. Why would you say that?”

Luke offered a sad, sweet smile and shrugged. “Don’t get me started. I’ve already spoken with Melissa once this morning, so I know my role.”

He left her to swing through the yard and admire the mural. In less than five minutes, he’d crossed the street and was gone, while she was left behind to wish she could have gone along with him.

Work on the mural ended each day at four o’clock to make certain there was time to clean brushes and put everything away for the next day. Several of the kids were regulars at Luke’s afternoon session, and Catherine didn’t wish to interfere with his schedule, either. She covered a wide yawn as she leaned her beach chair against the house, and she was moving too slowly to avoid Toby when he came her way.

“The mural looks great, although it’s easier to appreciate from across the street than my front yard. The kids are really getting into it. I hope you can find other projects for them when they’re finished here.”

“So do I, but I’ll bet they’ll miss working with you.”

“They’ll know where to find me,” Toby reminded her with a mischievous wink. “I’m sorry, but I keep thinking about you and some overgrown lump of muscle from the WWE, and it just doesn’t compute. Why don’t you tell me the truth? I can stand it.”

“I wish it were that simple,” Catherine replied. She removed her hat and used it as a fan. “It’s plain you’re not used to being turned down, but my affections lie elsewhere. Whether or not my honey is a hunk with the WWE or not, really doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.” Toby kept to a respectful distance as they crossed the street to the Lost Angel parking lot. Then he stepped close, and his tone became intimate.

“Now, as I see it, if you’re in love with the guy and he’s treating you well, then I’ll stay out of your way. But there’s something in your eyes that tells me things aren’t right. If I have to start taking karate lessons to defend myself, then I’ll do it, but please come to me if you have problems with your love life you can’t handle on your own.”

His sleeves were rolled up, and for a brief instant, Catherine was sorely tempted to reach out and trace the delicate scales of the dragon’s tail curling around his forearm. “That’s very nice of you, but really, whatever problems we might have can’t be solved with karate, although I do understand it’s very good exercise,” she added flippantly.

Toby raised his hands and backed away. “Fine, I get your message, but you remember what I said. If someday you need me, I’ll be there for you.”

Completely overwhelmed by that thought, Catherine managed only a faint smile. She’d wanted to talk with Luke, but he’d be busy for the next hour or two, and she was too tired to wait.

“I better go, Toby.”

He waved and strolled off toward his house with a swaggering gait that wasn’t all that different from Rafael’s.

Before leaving his office to conduct the afternoon session, Luke had glanced out the window to check if Catherine’s Volvo were still in the lot. When he saw her and Toby standing by her car with their heads together, he was so shocked he had to stay to watch. They appeared to be discussing something more serious than the mural, but he couldn’t even imagine what that might be.

Catherine was undeniable lovely, but that she attracted such devoted male attention without the slightest bit of effort on her part annoyed him no end. He wasn’t used to feeling jealous, and yet he couldn’t rationalize it away. Then he began to worry Catherine might look up and catch him watching her.

Here he’d thought Melissa was his problem for the day, but with Dave and Toby circling Catherine like sharks, it was clear his real problem lay far closer to home.

Catherine already had the Tuna Helper cooking when Luke rang the doorbell. She welcomed him with a kiss and then took his hand. “Come on in the kitchen and tell me what happened with Melissa.”

While Luke usually refused a drink, he poured himself a scotch before sitting down at the breakfast room table. “It went exactly as I predicted. Melissa even wore a misty blue suit to highlight her deeply depressed mood. She had the linen hanky with the lace border and sobbed into it the whole time.

“To hear her tell it, I tossed her out in the snow without so much as a threadbare blanket. I did my best not to let her pathetic charade make me angry, but—”

“You failed?” She continued to rip lettuce into bite-size hunks and tossed them into a salad bowl.

“Spectacularly,” he admitted sheepishly. “I even threw my chair across the room.”

She began to chop a bell pepper. “Wonderful. Is Melissa now calling you not only cheap but abusive?”

“You got it, but thank God we weren’t in court. Unfortunately my attorney was ready to deck me for it, so we’re lucky the meeting didn’t end in a brawl. In a couple of days, the attorneys will meet and see what they can work out by themselves, but with neither of us willing to give in, we’re sure to end up in court.”

“While it’s little comfort now, I’m sure it’ll all work itself out in time. You look tired. I was hoping you’d come by for dinner.”

“Thank you, but I should have called.”

“Yes, that’s always nice, but I still like finding you on the doorstep.”

“Yeah, but for how long?” He nearly snorted. He downed his scotch in a quick swallow and then set the glass on the table with exaggerated care. “I didn’t really come here to talk about Melissa.”

Catherine had just reached for the celery but paused to give him her full attention. “What have I done wrong now?” she asked hesitantly.

He left the table and came forward to give her a reassuring hug. “You see, you expect me to lurch around in attack mode, and that’s not good for either of us. Hell, I might as well be with the WWE.”

The image of him strutting around a wrestling ring screaming insults to another wrestler was so absurd she couldn’t help but laugh. “What would you do, call yourself Dr. Fist?”

He laughed, hugged her again and lifted her clear off her feet. “Say, I like that. Maybe I’ll wear black leather into court and tell them to call me Dr. Fist.”

He kissed her lightly, then still laughing, stepped back. “You distract me every damn time, lady, and you do it on purpose too.”

“Well, of course, I enjoy your laughter a great deal more than your shouting fits.”

He leaned back against the counter. “That’s reasonable. Now what I intended to say before you got me sidetracked, was that maybe I’ve been too tightly focused on my job as director of Lost Angel and lost sight of how my decisions affect you.”

She tried to smile, but her lips froze in a questioning pout. “Oh?” Was all she could manage, but none of his decisions compared with the one she’d already made for him. He was serious now, all trace of laughter erased from his expression, and it only served to frighten her.

“Yeah, and while I can still justify not telling anyone that you and I are a couple, you were right about my choice putting you in too awkward a place. I’m going to come clean with Dave and Toby and tell them you’re seeing me. No, that’s still too damn arrogant, isn’t it? I’ll say we’re seeing each other. Is that better?”

When she couldn’t find the words to respond, she kissed him instead, but it was a desperate ploy rather than sincere affection. She’d disliked having to be evasive at the center, but now Luke had seen his way to tell the truth, she hated herself for not being able to do the same.

Chapter Sixteen

“You’re not eating,” Luke observed between bites of his second helping of Tuna Helper.

With her stomach twisted in knots, Catherine had found it next to impossible to swallow, but she hadn’t wanted him to notice how little she ate. “I’m not very hungry.”

“Come on, I’m not going to force you to eat, but you’re putting in pretty long days with the mural, and I don’t want you to get sick.”

She was extremely uncomfortable under such close scrutiny but tried to remain civil. “Is there any real scientific evidence that people with little appetite fall ill more often than those who gobble up everything in sight, or is that just an old wives’ tale?”

“Catherine,” Luke cajoled. “What’s wrong? If something’s bugging you, tell me about it rather than go on a hunger strike.”

She searched her mind for some problem, no matter how minor, to avoid mentioning her true concern. At the point of desperation, something of real significance finally occurred to her. “Now that you mention it, I was studying for an exam this morning. I plan to take the CBEST test and look for a full-time teaching position for the fall.”

He paused in mid-bite. “Really? When did you make that decision?”

She twisted her napkin in her lap. “Actually, I’d made it before I met you at Lost Angel. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to relate to teenagers anymore, and if my volunteer work there had been a disaster, I wouldn’t be thinking about teaching again.”

Luke laid his fork very carefully on the side of his plate and sat back in his chair. “Wait a minute, let me see if I have this straight. When you came to Lost Angel, you weren’t interested in volunteering with us per se but simply in working on your rapport with teenagers?”

His expression wasn’t nearly as harsh as his question, but Catherine could see he was disappointed in her. “No, my motives weren’t entirely selfish. I really did want to volunteer with homeless teens. It’s a huge problem, and I believed I might be able to help. The fact that I had to fight you for the privilege should convince you of my sincerity.”

“Yeah, you convinced me, all right. When did you plan to tell me about your plans for the fall?”

Again, the sarcastic edge to his voice sliced her sore conscience, but certain she deserved worse, she shrugged. “I don’t know, after the mural is finished I suppose. Of course, if I don’t pass the CBEST test, and Dave was helping me with the algebra portion, then I won’t be going anywhere until I do. Besides, it’s a long time until fall, so I’ll still be volunteering for several more months.”

“Well, it’s nice to know we’d still fit into your plans.”

“Luke, I’m not leaving you, but I would like to teach again, and as you pointed out, there would be enormous problems associated with setting up a volunteer tutoring program at Lost Angel.”

“True, but rather than discuss this with me,” he asked pointedly, “you went to Dave for help?”

“You’re awfully busy, and I was just trying to be nice to Dave. But you were right, I probably gave him the wrong idea. He was very helpful, though.”

Luke stood and rested his hands on the back of his chair. “Well, that’s just great. I’ve already told you this wasn’t the best day of my life, but I try not to get into more than one fight per day with a woman, and Melissa used up my quota. Now I’m going to be really rude and walk out without helping with the dishes, but I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I’ve got the day off, and there’s nothing I’d rather do than work on the mural.”

Catherine left her chair with sufficient speed to overtake him before he’d left the kitchen. “You invited me to confide in you, but now you’re angry. I have every right to plan for my future. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Fine, you got me, but I’m not your therapist, Catherine. You’re not paying me to respond with sympathetic questions, and I gave you my honest reaction. We’ve got nothing if we can’t be honest with each other, and springing a major decision on me like that wasn’t fair. After all, if you’re teaching, we’ll have a lot less time to spend together, and that will affect me too.”

The knot in her stomach tightened to a gut-wrenching clench. “I know, but I’m trying to get my life together. Going back into teaching will be a big step for me. I need your support.”