Chapter Six

On Saturday, Megan brought Sean with her when she went to cover her assignment on the community playground building project. When they got out of her car, the vacant lot was already teaming with workers and Megan saw one of the newspaper photographers, Charlie, snapping shots. It was interesting how people slipped into traditional gender roles when working on a project like this. Men did the actual building; measuring, cutting, sawing and bolting large boards together into some kind of climbing structure and a swing set. Women supervised kids in cleaning up the lot, discarding the trash and digging several flower beds. The ladies also laid out a brunch buffet on a long table off to one side.

Charlie caught sight of Megan and came toward her, snatching a muffin on his way past the table. “Hey. I’m outta here. I’ve been shooting for twenty minutes. I’m sure I’ve got something usable and I’ve got better things to do on a Saturday morning.”

“Wait. I haven’t even talked to anyone. How do I know you’ve got all the pictures I need?”

“Trust me. This is standard stuff. It really doesn’t matter who’s in charge of the project or who you interview, Rossi will always choose the ‘happy kid’ shots. See ya.” Charlie gave Sean a curious once-over, then hurried off to his car.

Megan located the contact person whose name she’d been given, Mrs. Xavier Solis, while Sean wandered over to the construction crew to see if he could help. There wasn’t really a lot to cover here, Megan quickly decided after about five minutes of questioning Mrs. Solis.

St. Gervase Church and the Corazon Community Club had joined together to raise funds for playground building materials through car washes, a bazaar and contributions from the congregation and the community. This urban renewal project was the kind of grass roots, feel-good story that Rossi loved to spotlight, but there wasn’t a lot of drama for a reporter to sink her teeth into with sunlight and daffodils.

Megan got quotes from a couple more people, observed the milling children and busy parents, making mental notes of how she would describe the scene, then looked around for Sean to tell him she was ready to leave. He held a two by four against a post while one of the other men screwed a bolt into place. She watched for a moment. He looked so relaxed and content, grinning and talking to the guy as they worked together, she decided not to disturb him.

She went over to where the ladies were transplanting flowers into the garden plot they’d created. A pair of women transporting a small tree with its roots balled up in burlap came past, laughing as they struggled to carry the awkward bundle. Megan stepped forward. “Can I help?”

Before she knew it, she was shoveling dirt and helping them wrestle the tree into the hole they’d dug. Someone connected about five lengths of garden hose until they reached a working spigot and Megan watered the sapling. Her jeans were spattered with mud by the time she’d finished.

“Having fun yet?” Sean’s voice came from behind her and the husky tenor of it raised gooseflesh on her arms.

“Loads. Gardening is my life.”

“Do all reporters get as hands-on with their subjects as you?” he asked, coming up beside her and adjusting the small tree so it stood straighter in its bed of dirt.

Both his tone and words sounded suggestive and ripe with double meaning. She was sick of him putting her on edge and making her feel lust-addled and confused. Besides which, the tree wasn’t crooked and she wanted him to quit messing with it. She turned the spray of water on him.

With a gasp of shock at the sudden burst of cold, Sean leaped back. “Fuck!”

“Language! Church group,” she cautioned, dousing him from his chest to his knees.

“Cut it out! That’s fucking cold.”

“You cut it out,” she returned, turning the spray back on the soupy mass of mud around the base of the tree. “Quit talking dirty all the time.”

“I didn’t say anything,” he protested. “Jesus Chr….” He glanced over at a group of the church ladies who watched them. He held his T-shirt away from his body and wrung out water.

“It’s not what you say. It’s the way you say it,” Megan said primly. She let go of the trigger on the nozzle and set the hose on the ground.

“Oh yeah? Maybe it’s just your dirty mind.” He grabbed the hose and Megan realized she’d made a fatal mistake in releasing control of it. He flipped it on and turned the spray on her, hitting her in the shoulder with icy water. She shrieked and ran out of range.

“Grow up,” she said from a safe distance. Sean grinned and turned off the water. Megan squeezed moisture from her sleeve as she came back over to him. “You’re setting a bad example for the children.” And even though she was only teasing, it seemed to be true enough as one of the little kids came running and picked up the hose.

“Benny! Benito, drop it!” The boy’s mother followed him, glaring at Sean and Megan and extricating the garden hose from her son’s hand before he could use it against her.

“Sorry.” Megan apologized for creating a scene and inciting misbehavior in a minor. She walked back toward Sean and, as she passed the tree she’d helped plant, slipped in the puddle of mud and fell square on her ass.

Sean laughed aloud as she cursed. She glared at him, not truly angry. His face was so open and happy, his laugh deep and full, she was thrilled to hear it. He went to help her up. His warm, strong hand seized hers and pulled her to her feet, then he held on longer than necessary. He stared into her eyes, and time froze for a moment.

Heat radiated from his body, bathing her in warmth. A sheen of sweat slicked his face and arms and she longed to lean in and lick the salt from his skin. He smelled so good, like fresh sweat and soap. Megan breathed him in deeply. In her mind she heard his words from the night she’d brought him home, “With you—well, it wouldn’t be a chore.” A picture of entwined limbs and thrusting bodies swirled in her head and she felt suddenly short of breath.

Then Sean dropped her hand and stepped away.

Megan’s skin burned even after he’d let go. She turned to examine the seat of her jeans. “Oh, great!” She glared at Sean again. “Okay, we’ve done the good deed thing and helped out for almost two hours. Can we go home?”

“Your call,” he said, smiling once more at her misfortune.

“Ms. Lennox,” Mrs. Solis called as they walked past. “You and your boyfriend must have something to eat before you leave.” She gestured to the buffet table.

“Oh, he’s not…” Megan began, then realized it wasn’t worth correcting the woman. “Sure. We’d love to. We’re starving.”

They loaded up a pair of plates with homemade enchiladas in several types of sauce, salads, side dishes and desserts. Then they sat in the dirt at the edge of the lot with and watched the workers carry on with construction. The sun shone hot and quickly dried their clothes.

Megan thought about the continual surprises Sean brought to her life. If she’d been here on her own today, she never would have stuck around to help, but it really had turned out to be fun.

“This is nice,” Sean said after a bit, “building a playground. Although it’d be better for the older kids if they made a skateboard park or something.”

“Maybe in the next vacant lot. Why? Do you skateboard?”

“It’s been a while.”

“How do you feel about rollerblading? We could go home and get cleaned up, then I’ll take you to the park where I like to go. I’ve got my blades and we could rent some for you.”

“Sounds like fun. I’d like to see you fall on your ass again.”

“Never happen. I’m a great skater.”

“Well then, I guess I’d just like to see your ass, period.” He gave a lascivious glance at her rear.

“Never happen,” she repeated dryly.

He leaned in close. “I bet you look real cute skating around in cut-offs—all that long leg showing.”

“Keep teasing about it and you’ll never find out.”

He laughed again, a warm chuckle that felt like the sunshine on her skin. Leaping up, he took her by the hand and pulled her to her feet. “Come on. I want to race you. See how good you really are.”

He didn’t let go of her hand all the way to the car, and she didn’t pull away.

 

 

 

On Sunday morning, Megan was clearing the plates after breakfast—insisting, for once, on doing the clean-up—when the doorbell rang.

“What the hell? What time is it?” she called out to Sean from the kitchen.

“I don’t know—11:30, I guess?”

“Who the hell comes round at this time of the day on the weekend?” Megan wondered aloud. Apart from her mother, or one of her siblings maybe, but they tended to warn in advance. Maybe it was just some Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses doing door-to-door evangelism.

She went to open the door, drying her hands on a dishcloth, only to be confronted with the grinning faces of her two best friends. James had one arm hidden behind his back and Sasha was trying not to laugh.

“Surprise!” they crowed in unison, and James thrust the bouquet of flowers he’d been concealing into Megan’s face. She smiled weakly. Shit. This was so not how she wanted to introduce Sean to her friends. Still, she couldn’t see any way of avoiding it now. At least time played on her side—after a week, the likelihood of him murdering her in her bed would have receded, even for her suspicious buddies.

“Thanks… Come in, guys.” She held the door open. “So what’s the occasion?”

“You’ve been out of contact for more than a week. I thought Sasha must have spoken to you, but then I find out she hasn’t heard from you in ages, so we figured it was time to come snooping.” James took off his leather jacket and hanging it on one of the hooks. He ran a hand through his spiked blond hair and smiled at Megan. “So, is it a new boyfriend?”

Megan shook her head. “No. It’s mainly work, really…”

“Mind if I get myself a glass of water?” Sasha asked, yawning. “I haven’t quite mastered this hangover and I am so damn thirsty. Oh, and Stevie sends his love but you know him, he has work to do, on a Sunday morning no less. I swear I’m an office widow.” She strode off toward the kitchen without waiting for Megan’s okay, and nearly ran into Sean, who’d been drying dishes at the sink, and who was coming out.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

“Oh, sorry, I…” Sasha trailed off, obviously embarrassed. “I didn’t realize you had company, Megan, otherwise we wouldn’t have…”

“What, turned up on a Sunday morning? Like you weren’t trying to catch me at something?” Megan snorted.

James and Sasha exchanged a guilty look, which wasn’t lost on either Megan or Sean.

“Anyhow, I guess you struck paydirt. This is Sean. Sean, these are my very rude friends, Sasha and James, who make it a mission to try to run my life. Sean is a friend, who’s crashing here, on the living room couch, for a few days.”

“Really.” Sasha’s eyes widened. “Nice to meet you, Sean.”

Sean seemed nervous to Megan, but she didn’t think it would be obvious to either of the other two.

James narrowed his eyes at Sean then looked at Megan with an unspoken challenge. She could hear him in her head. No boyfriend, huh?

The next few minutes were awkward. Sean was evidently ill at ease and busied himself in the kitchen making coffee. James and Sasha clearly burned with the desire to interrogate Megan, but did their best to restrain themselves and be polite. Megan desperately tried to figure out how much of the truth she was going to tell them. She went into the kitchen with a couple of stray cups as a pretext to talk to Sean.

“I’m sorry about them,” she whispered. “I really had no idea.”

He nodded, silent.

“Listen, they’re like, my two best friends.” There was no need for him to know James was occasionally more than a friend. “I’m going to have to tell them something about how we met. I can’t really lie to them. They know me too well.”

He looked at her through his lashes, and again Megan saw a vulnerable youth rather than the self-assured young man she’d grown used to. “It’s okay. They’re your friends. You tell them. I’ll go buy some milk.” He flashed her a small smile.

After Sean left the apartment, Megan took a deep breath and braced herself for the onslaught from her friends.

“Well, he’s tactful,” James remarked.

“Not to mention extremely hot!” Sasha exclaimed. “Megan, who is this guy? Where did you meet him? And, more importantly, are you having a fling?”

“No!” Megan exclaimed. “I told you, Sean’s crashing here while he gets something else figured out. I’m not… No. Absolutely not.”

“Whoa! Okay. Although I’d want to ask you why not, because, yum,” Sasha said, her green eyes twinkling.

“Sash, cut it out,” Megan snapped, sitting on the couch next to her.

James looked thoughtful. He was always good at analyzing situations and reading the subtext in a conversation. She could virtually see the cogs whirring in his head. “So where exactly did you guys meet?” He stared at her suspiciously.

Megan blinked and looked away. “We met when I was doing some research for a piece…”

“I fucking knew it,” James shouted. “He’s one of those kids, isn’t he? You picked him up on Santa Monica Boulevard?”

Damn, he was quick! Megan bit her lip and nodded.

Sasha’s eyes opened wide. “One of the street kids? The hookers?”

“How did you…?” Megan started.

“How did I guess? You look guilty as hell, you sure weren’t happy to see us turn up and you’ve been acting squirrelly for a while.” James paced up and down the room, scowling. “You’re fucking crazy, Meg. You brought back a whore to your apartment. Have you got any idea what kind of risk you’re putting yourself in?”

“James, stop it. He’s been here a whole week and the main change it’s made in my life is that the place is tidy. He cleans up after himself and me, he’s been cooking dinner and he’s been doing all the chores,” Megan snapped. She felt compelled to defend not just her decision, but Sean’s reputation, too. “Besides, if he was going to stab me in my sleep, I think he’d have already done it.”

“But…you invited a stranger into your home, Megan,” Sasha said. “He could beat you, rape you, steal your stuff. You have no idea.”

“I took a gamble, I know. But I—I got to know Sean over the past few months. It’s not like I picked him up blindly. He kind of looked out for me when I was researching that piece.”

Megan frowned at James as she went on. “That’s why I felt fairly safe hanging out there and why I didn’t call you up every night. He helped me out. A lot! We kind of became friends. When he was badly beaten up and his shit stolen, I offered him a place to stay.”

“So does he bring clients back to your apartment?” James asked blandly.

“Fuck you!” Megan shot back. “He’s stopped that. He’s trying to get his GED and get himself out of that shit, all right? He’s working his ass off and you have no right to talk about him like that.”

Anger surged through her. James objected because he was worried about her, but she also knew he had a tendency to be possessive toward her because of their on again, off again sexual relationship. He never really warmed to any new guy she brought into their group.

Megan paused to compose herself. “Listen guys, give him a chance. He’s a nice kid and he needs a break, that’s all.”

“When you say ‘kid’, Megan, do you mean he’s actually a kid?” Sasha said.

Megan closed her eyes and took another breath. Fuck coffee, she needed a real drink to continue this conversation.

“He’s nearly eighteen, okay? The system treats the kids like shit and for older kids, it’s a real mess. He’s… Look, can you just let it be? Accept it? He was in trouble and needed help. If I’d called Social Services, he just would have run away to find another place to work the streets. Now he’s looking at getting his diploma and a proper job and…please, guys?”

She stopped, overcome by emotion. They’d better listen to her, because otherwise she was going to have to ask them to leave. There was no point in arguing the issue and she didn’t want to risk Sean coming home in the middle of the scene.

“Couldn’t you be in trouble for harboring him here?” Sasha twisted a lock of her curly red hair around her fingers.

“It’s not like anyone’s looking for him. He slipped through the net a while ago, Sash. This is as stable as he’s known, God, I don’t even know for how long, but he’s had a hard life. And he really is a decent guy.”

“If he touches a hair on your head, I will kill him,” James said suddenly. And although he was smiling, Megan had no doubt he was, in fact, entirely serious. He’d always been protective of her, sometimes to an irritating extent.

She got up and walked over to him. “I promise he’s not a bad guy, James.” She put her hand on his arm. “Trust me. I’ve seen him interacting with kids, I’ve seen how he is with me. He’s a good person caught in a shitty life and trying to get out of it as best he can. I’m simply giving him a helping hand until he can manage on his own.” The fact she wanted to jump his bones was not their business, nor was the fact he was hetero and clearly attracted to her, too. Some things were best left unsaid.

James looked at her, then at Sasha and sighed. “Okay. I’ll be civilized to him. But he better not turn out to be a psychopath.”

Megan smiled and turned to Sasha, who rolled her eyes. “Yes, all right. I will say, he’s easy on the eyes. He doesn’t look like the hopped-up kids on meth I’ve seen around the city.”

“That’s because he’s not a drug addict. I am not that stupid, thank you very much.”

The atmosphere had eased back into something closer to their normal interaction by the time Sean returned carrying a gallon of milk. They all drank coffee and chatted about the unseasonably warm weather and last night’s TV. Sean was fairly silent but not completely withdrawn, and Megan was proud of him for mixing with her friends, knowing they knew about him.

Once Sasha and James left and they were putting things away in the kitchen, Sean turned to her. He was back to his usual cocky self, with a slight smile playing on his lips.

“So I bet you got told off for having me here, right?”

“A little.”

Sean laughed. “Yeah, sure. I don’t think your friend James likes me much. I think he’s into you.”

“No. It’s not like that with us. James is a friend like Sasha is a friend only with… I mean, yeah, occasionally we hook up, but it doesn’t mean anything.” Megan’s neck burned and wondered why she was telling him this. “It’s like a convenience, really.”

“Friends with benefits.” A smile still curved his mouth, but his eyes were unreadable.

“Anyway, as a friend, he’s simply being protective,” Megan said.

“He’s right, you know. If I was him, I’d kick my ass out of your house, and I’d sure as hell tell you off for doing something as crazy as taking in some punk you don’t know.” Sean actually sounded serious.

Megan frowned.

“From where I’m standing, though, I just want to say thanks for giving me a shot.” He no longer looked cocky, just a little shy.

“You’re welcome.” A happy glow pervaded her. She’d done the right thing. She had no doubt about it.