Chapter 15

 

"Hey, Cleo. Look at Scapegrace!" Gene shouted from the kitchen where he'd spread the morning paper across the table to read the comics.

Well, at least Jared's comic strip had the kid reading a newspaper, Cleo thought as she tried to balance her checkbook at the desk in her bedroom. Shoving aside the calculator, she followed the sound of Gene's voice to investigate.

She'd originally thought the strip funny, but for the last few months or more, the strip's teenage boys had become irritatingly whiny, and obsessed with girls. Still, it did have a wry wit she could appreciate, and the man definitely had a talent for depicting teenagers.

Gene grinned and pointed as she entered. "Think that's your skeleton?"

The cartoon skeleton bore a striking familiarity to the one Jared had sketched earlier. She scanned the strip and grimaced at the characters' mischievous prank to scare off their science teacher. Jared had probably gotten away with those kind of pranks as a kid. She'd have been expelled.

She hoped and prayed he didn't intend to use his experiences here to fill his strip. She'd have to maim and murder him for certain.

"He even calls this one Burt," she said. There wasn't any point in worrying the kid with her concerns. He thought Jared hung the moon, and he needed that kind of male role model.

"Yeah," Gene breathed in satisfaction. "Can I take this to school?"

"Sure. But you'd better hurry or you'll miss the bus. Where's Kismet?"

"Dawdling," he said scornfully as he ripped the page out. "I'll go get her."

Kismet seemed her normal, vague self as she drifted out the door with her brother a little while later, her arms full of books. Cleo watched from the porch as they climbed on the bus, then she meandered back into the house with her insides in an uproar.

She'd moved here to achieve peace of mind as well as soul. She'd thought she'd accomplished that. Yesterday had proved how wrong she could be.

Why the hell had she dumped all that garbage on a comic strip artist? An itinerant skirt-chaser who knew how to get under her skin? She should have shut him out like she shut out everyone else.

But Jared McCloud didn't know how to mind his own business, and for that, she had to be grateful. It grated, but she owed him for saving Kismet.

He'd found Gene a wrestling team. Maybe he could find counseling for Kismet.

What the devil was she thinking? She couldn't ask the man for anything. She'd chased him off, and he could stay chased off.

But Kismet needed counseling. His psychologist friend was right about that. She'd never placed a lot of faith in shrinks herself, but it sure helped to talk things out when one didn't have anyone else to talk to. Kismet needed someone who could keep a confidence. Not that the kid would ever speak. Maybe shrinks knew tricks to make a kid talk.

Of course, if Kismet really told her tale, the counselor would probably report Linda to the police and have the kids jerked out of their home. Double-edged sword, that one.

She was waffling. Still, it was hard making decisions for someone else. She didn't have a lot of experience at it.

She could call and ask her counselor, but he'd want to know why she asked, and not knowing if he could report her confidences, she couldn't tell him.

Could Jared tell her if a counselor would report Kismet's mother to the authorities? She knew she was paranoid about the system, for good reason, but she had to get past her own fears and suspicions for the sake of the kids. Authorities had to abide by all sorts of rules and regulations that didn't make sense in terms of real-life situations—like tearing kids from a shaky parent but providing no substitute to take her place.

A balanced mind would attempt to see both sides and not think too irrationally about do-gooders who did more harm than good, so she ought to at least consider alternatives.

That would mean tackling Jared in his den, after she'd slammed the door in his face last night. She was an adult now. She should be able to overcome her childish neuroses and deal with uncomfortable situations.

She didn't want to. The whole point of living out here was not to get involved in stressful situations, so she could straighten herself out and get Matty back.

Kismet desperately needed help.

Shit.

The phone rang, and grateful for the reprieve, she actually answered it. She regretted it immediately as Jared's chocolate-warm voice poured through the receiver.

"Got a problem," he stated immediately, before she could hang up.

Wrinkling her nose and leaning her elbow against the counter, Cleo poked at her cookie jar witch. "And that concerns me, because...?"

"It's your damned toilet and I'm no plumber. What do I have to do to make it stop running?"

"It's on a well. You could let it keep running," she suggested helpfully. "You stole my skeleton," she added, for good measure.

"You saw that?" He sounded more pleased than irritated at her comment. "I figured not too many kids could come up with skeletons, so I was safe using that prank."

"It was a stupid prank. You've got an intelligent teenager with lots of potential, and you let him do stupid, superficial things." So, maybe she was tired of people picking on her and felt like turning the tables.

"It's a comic, Cleo, not serious literature."

"Yeah, like you're a comic, not scholar material. Excuses," she scoffed. She wondered if the silence at the other end of the line meant she'd scored a point.

"All right," he answered begrudgingly, "maybe the kid needs to think once in a while. He's not inclined toward pithy conversation."

"He can learn." She had a very odd sense that they weren't talking about the Scapegrace character any longer. Uneasy with the observation, she returned to the original topic. "I've got to get to work by ten. Did you jiggle the handle?"

"Give me a break," he said scornfully. "I knew to try that much."

"Well, if you want me to fix it, I'll have to come by now." She didn't know why the devil she'd said any such thing, but she just couldn't seem to shut Jared out. Probably because he ignored closed doors, and she admired his confidence entirely too much.

"That's fine. I've been working since six. And before you say anything, I do work occasionally. A daily strip isn't a flat-out cinch."

"Right. I'll take your word for it. I'll be down in a minute." She hung up before he could make her like him any more. The man had a real flair for that.

He'd held her when she'd cried.

Don't make anything of it, Alyssum, she warned herself as she jabbed a hair pick through her mop, then looked for her wrench. She found it in the kitchen drawer with her steak knives. Men like him probably had women weeping on their shoulders all the time. That didn't mean he wasn't a bastard out looking for sex any way he could get it.

Fixing a toilet did not equate sex.

Setting her jaw, she marched out of the house, wrench in hand. She'd fix his damned toilet, find out more about counseling—provided Macho Man knew anything about it—and be on her way.

* * *

Jared met her on the porch wearing a Hawaiian-print shirt, a straw fedora pulled down over his forehead, and chomping on a huge cigar. She'd never seen anything so sexy or so comical in her life, and the female part of her lurched happily. Damn, but he was good.

He grinned around the cigar as she approached. "Super Cleo, come to save the day! I really like that wrench as an accessory."

"Where'd you get the cigar?" She knew she sounded rude, but it was the only line of defense left to her.

"Carpenter's assistant just had a kid. He's handing them out. Want one?"

Cleo rolled her eyes and walked past him, into the house. He followed right on her heels. He'd just shaved. She could smell the lotion, and she had an irrational impulse to rub his jaw so her hand would smell like him. She desperately wanted any excuse at all to touch him. How insane could she be?

Pretty insane, if past evidence could be believed.

"Downstairs toilet?" she asked, ignoring his cheerful expression.

"Yup. Do you always wear flannel in this heat?"

"I freeze in air-conditioning." She took the back off the toilet tank and tried concentrating on its mechanics while he leaned against the vanity and watched her. It made her self-conscious that he noticed what she wore.

"I heard there's a fifteen percent chance of that hurricane in the Caribbean turning this way. Does this humidity up the odds?" he asked.

"Haven't the foggiest. This time of year, expect rain from now on." Maybe that would chase him off. Buckets of rain had a way of putting a damper on beach lovers.

"How do they warn people to evacuate the island in the event of a hurricane?"

"Don't know. I've been here less than a year, and they didn't have one last fall." She unhooked the chain, lowered it several notches, and hooked it up again. If it was something that simple, she could be out of here in minutes. The long length of lean man focusing all his charm and attention on her was more than her defenses could handle. Her hands would start shaking any minute now.

"How's Kismet?" he asked idly, but Cleo sensed the tension behind the question.

So, maybe this wasn't entirely about his toilet. She flushed the tank and watched the water level. "She seems fine. Could your friend the psychologist recommend someone around here? I figure I'll have to take her into Charleston."

Jared crossed his arms and watched Cleo's bent head warily. She'd made some damned telling points about his lack of character earlier, so he couldn't believe she was asking for his help now. He couldn't miss the opportunity to show he possessed some competence. "I'll call and ask her. Do you think Kismet would go?"

"I don't know. And if she goes, I don't know if she'll talk." She finally turned in his direction, and the defensive barrier was so blatant as to be almost visible. "She won't, if she thinks it will hurt her mother. Do counselors have to report abuse?"

"I don't know. I'll have to ask."

She nodded curtly. "Do that. She definitely won't talk otherwise."

A word from the wise, he figured. He attempted to look at her sturdy, flannel-clad figure as nothing more than his mechanically-inclined landlady, an ex-addict, ex-con, hard-talking piece of Southern culture, but he failed dismally. He saw her tears and caring and lonely defensiveness and had to fight the urge to cuddle and comfort her. She'd probably rap his skull with the wrench for his efforts.

He didn't have time to get involved. The deadline loomed closer, and all he had was a bunch of rough sketches and even rougher ideas. And he still had next week's strips to put together. He was getting further and further behind. He couldn't afford to lose his syndication on top of everything else. He'd been insane to offer his last few thousand for the wrestling team.

He saw her off with no more than a casual wave. He needed to plant his ass in a chair and get some work done. No wandering beaches, watching waves, waiting for life to happen. He'd had about enough life for the moment.

The phone rang a little after noon and Jared knew he should ignore it. He hated writing, but he'd managed to cram together enough words to present half an idea to George. If he could pull together the rest—

He grabbed the phone off the hook. He deserved a break.

"What?" he demanded rudely. He'd purposely given only immediate family and his agent this number so he'd have peace and quiet. Normally, they never bothered him.

"Obviously, island life isn't suiting you," a lazy drawl declared.

"Doubting Thomas," Jared mocked, while internally groaning. What had he been thinking? His family always bothered him. "What can I do you for?"

"Not a thing, bro, but our mutual broker is frantically trying to track you down. I don't suppose you've been paying any attention to the market today, have you?"

Oh, shit. He didn't have cable internet out here. He couldn't even go online until he got his brother off the phone. He never followed the market, didn't understand any of it. He just knew he had a lot of money in it, and right now, he couldn't get online to see what was happening.

"Get off the phone, and I'll check," he growled, refusing to ask.

"Well, all I can say is, I told you not to buy on margin. How's the work coming?"

He loved his brothers when they were a thousand miles away, and he couldn't break their heads through a brick wall. "Swimmingly," he replied. Tom would never catch the sarcasm.

What in hell was "margin," exactly? He vaguely remembered the broker mentioning the term in the same relation with "leveraging" and "risk." The only part he'd really grasped was "more money."

"We going to see your name in Hollywood lights?" Tom asked with interest. "Is that program I wrote helping with the graphics?"

Oh, hell, the kid meant well. Just because he should have been strangled at birth... "Yeah, it works far better than Microshit. I'll endorse it when you're ready to market it."

"'Hollywood screenwriter Jared McCloud swears by his brother's graphic software.' Yeah, that works. So, what's the script about?"

As if he knew. "Look, I gotta finish this. I'll tell you all about it later, okay? Thanks for passing on the message." Jared pried his younger brother off the phone and punched in the buttons for his broker. He had a feeling he didn't want to hear this, but he'd lost his train of thought anyway, and he didn't need the question nagging him.

"Hey, Caleb, Tom says you're looking for me. What's happening?"

Caleb was one of those old high school comrades who'd once ragged on Jared for his artistic inclinations. Caleb had followed his stuffed-shirt father into the brokerage and now lived in a mansion in Schenectady, of all places.

His broker sounded tired and anxious as he answered. "Market's down three hundred already this morning, and plunging fast. I've got to cover your margins on the tech stocks. If you wire me a hundred right now, maybe things will turn around before the day ends, and we won't have to sell. I've been making calls all morning and people are going crazy on me, but I figure you're good for it, at least."

He might have been good for it before Jag, beach house, and the loss of royalties on hick newspapers, not to mention the end of the TV money. Jared winced as his house of cards slowly but surely tumbled. "A hundred?" he inquired cautiously. He could manage a hundred dollars without a problem. He had a nasty feeling Caleb wasn't talking a hundred dollars.

"A hundred thou," Caleb confirmed. "That covers the outstanding debt and should keep you in the market until it turns around."

"Sell," Jared ordered wearily, sinking his head against his computer and wishing he dared bang it a few times.

He couldn't afford a new computer if he smashed this one.