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“If you want to pet her, let’s give it another try,” Jen said softly. Apparently she was no more immune to Mari’s charm than anyone in the Hollister household.
Against his better judgment, Luke let Mari slide from his arms. When Mari smacked his leg with the lightsaber, he grunted and managed to catch it before she got her second swing in. Jen didn’t laugh at his wince but some of the tension around her lips eased.
Luke crossed his arms tightly over his chest. “This is Mari,” he said as his niece inched closer to the dog. Jen offered Mari her hand and they both squatted next to the animal.
“And this is Hope. She’s pretty special.” Jen scratched under the dog’s chin before she loosened the bandanna. “She’s adopted from an animal shelter. We had to do some surgery to take out a pinch collar so she has a funny haircut.”
Mari traced the faint line around the dog’s neck and was too distracted to dodge the welcoming lick.
Luke would have grimaced, but he knew Mari would enjoy every second. His mother would have had a minor fit about dogs and dirt and germs and whatever the current scare in the kindergarten was. Years as a school nurse in Austin had given her a justified concern.
But she wasn’t here and another of Mari’s silent laughs made everything better.
The long, sad day of saying goodbye to the life he’d been building was forgotten.
“Adopted.” Mari looked back at Luke and then fiddled with the dog’s ears and scratched under her arms. “That’s the best.”
Hearing Mari repeat his mother’s comfortable saying, which she used at every holiday gathering, was enough to tug the heartstrings of even the angriest jerk in the world.
“You are so right, Miss Mari,” Jen said. “And Hope seems to agree with you.” She stood and watched Mari kneel to run her hand over the dog’s side.
The little girl and the dog got to know each other quickly. Hope, determined to get the best scratching of her life, rolled in one direction first and then wiggled and squirmed so that Mari could reach the other side, too.
“She hardly ever talks.” Luke stared hard at the child he’d grown so attached to.
“Why?” Jen asked quietly.
“She doesn’t waste any breath with words when a thwack with a lightsaber will do,” Luke said with a sigh.
“I like her style,” Jen said as Mari smoothed out the hem of her tutu. Hope had shifted to rest her chin on Mari’s leg. They seemed to fit together perfectly now. They were peacefully communicating without words. “Where did you find those shoes?”
Luke raised an eyebrow at her and noticed a wash of pink sweep over her cheeks. “You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”
“I appreciate bold clothing choices,” Jen said with a shrug. “I figured you were a clothes guy. I mean, those pants have to have some kind of designer label in them.” He couldn’t miss her cut a glance at his dark suit pants and wondered what it meant that she’d noticed what he was wearing.
Luke rubbed the ache in the center of his forehead. “Probably some no-name brand. Got them at the department store after my mother shoved them in my hands and told me they were good value. She likes value.” Luke glanced over his shoulder to his house and considered why someone wasn’t watching where Mari was. If it was supposed to be his mother, maybe she was resting? The fencing company had rousted them all out of bed earlier than necessary. “Mari, we should go. Abuela will be worried.”
He watched Mari hug the dog with all the dramatic sorrow of a little girl who was used to getting what she wanted without having to raise her voice. At some point, he was going to have to put a fence up. The Holly Heights Hollisters could have a dog where the Austin Hollisters had never been able to. That was a nice change.
But his fence would be a normal wood privacy fence, not this wrought iron monstrosity.
“So, I guess you aren’t building this to keep your dangerous dog locked up,” Luke said as he gently petted Hope. “That must mean you need to keep someone out.”
Jen’s scoff clearly communicated her disgust at his suggestion. “Why can’t I like nice things? Why does everyone want to make this into some paranoid statement of my fears?” She wrapped her arms tightly over her chest but quickly extended a hand as soon as Mari began a reluctant walk back to Luke, dragging the toes of her shoes on the concrete with each step. She picked up her lightsaber with a delicate sigh. When the little girl slapped Jen’s hand for a low five, Jen gave a curt nod. Then she caught Luke’s eye and mouthed, “Impressive.”
Mari’s shoulders were slumping but she couldn’t help stealing one last glance at Hope as she crossed the street.
Luke straightened his tie and then met Jen’s eyes. Both of them had twitching lips.
“You seem pretty good with kids.” Luke shook his head. “Want to take a budding actress under your wing?”
“Nah, I like them older. Mouthier. With graduation and the end in sight.” Jen sighed. “Little kids are too...fragile.”
Mari violently thrust her lightsaber at the bushes lining the small porch. “Right. So delicate.” Luke wondered if his mother had seen the torn leaves and missing branches yet. When she did, she would not be happy.
“I don’t think she’s got what you’d call ‘natural landscaping ability’ but she’s got something.” Jen smiled up at him and then, almost as if she realized she was doing it, the smile slipped away to be replaced by a serious frown. “Sarah’s a friend. You get her the answers she needs and we don’t have a problem.”
Luke tipped his head back and studied the clouds drifting lazily overhead. Even the blue sky seemed bluer here. “I’m out of options on her dad’s case. A hearing will be set. If the judge determines there’s enough evidence to proceed with a criminal trial, and he will, Bobby will get jail time. Then there will be civil cases, too, on behalf of his employees.” He stared at Jen. “She’s going to have a long, hard time with him. Might’ve been better if he’d stayed gone.”
“Then why did you hound her the way you did?” Jen challenged, her shoulders square. She was ready for a fight. Under normal circumstances, he could take a petite female with one hand tied behind his back. In her case, he wasn’t so sure. She almost vibrated with the power of her conviction. She’d battle until she was out of breath. For the right thing, she’d battle until she was spent, or worse.
In this case, the right thing was friendship. That was attractive, even if she appeared to be considering his jugular in a worrisome fashion.
So, he answered slowly, “It. Was. My job.” He held both hands out. “I’m going to do my best to get the answers I need. I have to. Justice is what’s important.” He stared hard at her. “And sometimes justice means doing the tough things to get those answers I need. The people I serve depend on me to do that. She had the answers. That’s all.”
Jen narrowed her eyes. He expected her to hit him with angry words. Instead, she tightened her lips. “Use that focus for her now. Get some answers on the shelter break-in and we might let you live.”
Luke snorted. “Threatening an officer of the law?”
“I’m rich. I’ll hire a very good lawyer and make sure he can get in behind my fancy fence while you’re stuck on the outside looking in.” Then she slipped the leash she had hanging off the mailbox onto Hope. With one last glare, she turned and marched down the long driveway that led to her nice house.
“If I’m looking in, does that mean I’m not dead after all?” he muttered. Luke tried to calculate the square feet of calm and silence that a house like that would hold and then sighed as he crossed the street.
Back in the Hollister house, Mari had wisely taken her weapon with her and disappeared. Joseph was sprawled in front of the television playing some space game, keeping up a running commentary through his microphone with whoever he was competing against. His sister Renita’s head was bopping along with the pop song she had blasting through her headphones as she studied. Renita was all boy bands while Camila preferred hair bands, but both of his sisters liked the volume turned up. How his mother could stand it so calmly was a mystery he was going to investigate one day for his own sanity.
Luke bent over Renita’s shoulder to read the title. “British poets of the twentieth century.” The idea of having to wade through that sent a shiver down Luke’s spine. He’d scraped by in school, but his sister was going to graduate at the top of her class or die trying. When she brushed her braids over one shoulder and pulled her headphones away to ask, “Did you need me?”
Luke squeezed her shoulder. “A little light reading?”
She rolled her dark brown eyes. “Paper due next week. Since I plan to be babysitting for the Monroes every night and their twins prefer to talk to me, rather than sleep, I need to get a head start.” She tapped her pen on the paper in front of her. “Notes for the organization of my soon-to-be brilliant exploration of the effect of war on poets.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Even Mrs. Jones was impressed with my topic and she’s heard them all.”
Luke bet she had. “And how’s math?”
Renita tipped her chin down. “You mean, how is trigonometry?” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m pretty sure Mr. Wilson thinks girls should be learning how to cook or something.” This time she didn’t roll her eyes. Luke knew she’d heard worse.
“Must eat him up that you aced his test.”
She raised both hands and clapped. “Yes. It does.” Her eyes sparkled as she brushed each shoulder defiantly. “So I’ma keep doing it.”
Luke motioned toward Joseph who was now shouting into the microphone attached to his headphones. “Think you could help the runt with whatever he’s got?”
“I tried.” Renita shrugged a shoulder. “Couldn’t hear me over the chip on his shoulder.” She stared up at Luke, her genuine concern easy to read. Renita had been with the Hollisters for almost five years, long enough to understand the difference between fosters and family. “Kid’s mad about the move.”
That was his diagnosis, too. They’d all been through it. He, Camila and Renita had all learned what real family could be. Joseph would, too. “Know anything about a Ms. Neil? A teacher at your school?”
When Renita straightened in her seat, he knew he’d made an error. “Why? Is she hot stuff?”
A big error. “Only if you count her temper. She’s our neighbor.”
Renita tapped her pen on the table. “She must teach geometry, maybe algebra. Only Wilson teaches trig. Too bad. I could have put in a good word for you.” She waggled her eyebrows at him again.
“There are no good words strong enough to sway her, I’m sure.” Based on his few encounters with Jen Neil, Luke would say she had backbone and enough loyalty for a dozen people. “Still, it’s helpful to know the neighbors.” Luke pointed at his sister’s headphones. “No rest for the brilliant. Back at it.”
She winked. “Sorry about leaving my bike out on the driveway. Won’t happen again, bro.” She pulled his hand until he leaned down so that she could hug his neck. “I forget sometimes.”
If there was any sign that Renita had crossed over, become a full Hollister, that was it. Forgetting as if she truly were Connie’s baby.
Luke patted her back, awkward with the hugs as always, and tapped her book. When she stuck her nose in between the pages in an exaggerated move, he wagged his finger at her and then followed the quiet sound of running water into the kitchen.
His mother was bent over the sink, washing dishes. “We have a dishwasher for that.”
“I’m better at it than any machine.” His mother handed him a dripping plate. “And now I have you to dry. We’ll be done in no time.”
Since he’d been heading to the peaceful deck that lined the house, Luke was less than thrilled, but he refused to sound like Joseph.
“Have you missed Mari?” he asked casually.
“She was with you. Said very clearly Luke before she hit the door at a dead run. Now she’s under the table.” Connie motioned with her chin. “I assume she’s waiting to defend herself against whatever you’re going to tell me she did.”
Luke bent his knees to stare at his niece. She was pretending not to listen but not well.
“Introduced herself to the neighbor at a dead run.” Luke opened the cabinet to stack the dried plates inside.
They both turned to look at Mari, who said very clearly, “Dog.”
His mother sighed. “Of course. I should have known that she’d be unable to resist for much longer. Every day when the crazy rich lady comes out to get her mail, Mari watches the window like her favorite cartoon. Kid’s dog crazy.”
Luke continued to dry and stack as he thought about how to bring up the subject. With Mari listening, the whole conversation could be dangerous.
“I guess it’s time to think about adopting a c-a-n-i-n-e,” his mother said, spelling out the last word. They both glanced down at Mari. She was watching them suspiciously but she hadn’t learned to spell that well. Dog would have been too easy.
“Your father always wanted one. I told him no, no, no.” She didn’t tear up as she’d been doing every time she’d mentioned her husband, a sign of progress, but the grief was still so close to the surface.
“The house in Austin wasn’t good for canines, Mama. You were right about that.” Luke tossed the towel over the dish drainer and leaned against the counter. “This place? Perfect.”
She glanced down at the little girl, who was intently listening. “You are right. And this family could use a new member, one who doesn’t have homework to fight over.”
Luke smiled. “We’ll figure that out. He’ll figure it out. You know that.”
She smiled back. “I do. I’ve fought harder battles than this.” She poked his arm. They’d had some legendary shouting matches when he’d first arrived at the Hollisters’ house.
Until his brother, a brawny kid named Alex, had taken him outside, hung him up by his jacket and made some very creative threats. That was all it had taken for Luke to get the picture. From that day until his brother had been shot by a stray bullet during a street fight, he’d done his best to follow in what had been his cooler older brother’s footsteps.
August 14, 2000. That was the day everything had changed.
Luke had become the older brother. And he’d decided then and there that he’d spend the rest of his life doing his best to make sure criminals ended up behind bars.
No matter what it took.
Did that make him popular? Not always.
But it was satisfying at the end of the day.
“What did the crazy rich lady have to say?” his mother asked absentmindedly. She washed and rinsed in a comfortable rhythm. Maybe she was better at this than the dishwasher.
“She wanted to know about Sarah Hillman. They’re friends.” Unless he concentrated, he’d fall behind in his drying duties and his mother would frown. Luke quickly opened cabinets and put things away.
His mother hummed.
“She didn’t seem all that crazy.” Luke wasn’t exactly sure when his mother had started calling Jen crazy. It had been before the fence people showed up at the crack of dawn, though, and that was the only real sign of psychosis he’d seen. “Turns out, she’s a teacher. She might have a suggestion to help Joseph. Renita thinks she teaches math.” The unease he’d felt ever since he’d moved back in and been cast in the role as head of the family lightened a bit. Having something to do instead of a list of worries was good. He waited for his mother to say it was a good idea, a bad idea, or...something. She was the real head of this crew. He wanted her to be in charge.
“Pretty. If you like that sort of thing.” His mother cut a sly glance at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Angry redheads aren’t my type,” Luke answered, although in Jen Neil’s case, that wasn’t strictly true. Something about her was impossible to ignore.
His mother’s forlorn huff was the first warning that he’d strayed into dangerous territory. “You need to find someone nice, Luke. A woman who might distract you from your job.”
Jen Neil wasn’t nice. Nice made him think of puppies and daisies.
Jen had a rescued pit bull and plans for a spiked fence. In the garden of life, that woman was a cactus.
Nice? No. Interesting? Yes. Maybe even exciting. She had personality to spare.
“Holly Heights is an excellent place to raise a family. You told me that yourself, remember?” she sang in a teasing tone.
While it was good to have a touch of the old Connie Hollister back, this wasn’t the subject he wanted to stick with for long. If he told her he wasn’t sure he wanted a family, she would wilt completely, and lying to her was next to impossible.
“I remember.” Luke took the last dripping plate from her and listened with relief as the water drained. He could make it out of there.
“Being a police officer is a wonderful thing, son,” she said as she cupped his cheek, “but you were meant to be a father, too. You wait and see. She’s close, whoever she is. I can feel it.”
Luke didn’t have the right words so he smiled at his mother and watched her bend to speak to Mari. “Come with me, young lady. We have some bushes to trim the right way.”
After they left the kitchen, Luke stepped out on the deck that had sold him on the house. Here, all there was, was the faint sound of birds chirping and the breeze rustling through the trees. He took a deep breath as he braced his hands on the railing. “One year. You do this for one year and everything will be fine.”
A boring job. A cluttered, cramped house. All the problems that came along with angry teenagers.
He could do anything for a year.
CHAPTER FIVE (#ubfd31712-645a-50a8-91f4-44513ce7c533)
“THE FIRST WEEKLY MEETING of not talking about Paws for Love can come to order. All discussion is postponed until our next board meeting or else,” Sarah said as she banged the salt shaker on the table for emphasis. Rebecca had gotten to the diner early and claimed the best table in Sue Lynn’s. The rest of the Wednesday dinner crowd flowed around them, but the three of them were tucked away in a corner booth with a good view of the sidewalk.
Which was helpful. Without the shelter to talk about, conversation might be sparse. They could do a running commentary of everyone who walked down the street if worse came to worst.
Jen patted the purse she’d settled carefully next to her in the booth. Her whole life, she’d lived with second or thirdhand things from her mother and thrift store finds. She’d gotten good at that. Having money was taking some adjustment. This brand new purse? It cost four student loan payments.
As soon as she’d collected her lottery winnings, she’d paid off every cent of debt she’d been carrying for years, but it was difficult to get out of the habit of measuring everything in terms of those payments.
