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“I see,” he said wearily. “What did you do with the other letters?”
There was the tiniest hesitation before Kevin said in a whisper, “I lost ’em.”
“Really? How convenient,” he said, barely controlling his temper. “Suppose you tell me what they were about.”
Kevin studied the miniature red Porsche he was pushing back and forth and mumbled, “She said she told you in this one.”
“I want to hear it from you.”
Kevin remained stubbornly silent. Todd knew from experience that getting him to talk now was going to require tact and patience. He was shorter than usual on both tonight.
“Son, she says this is the fifth note in the last three weeks. Are you sure there’s not something happening in school that you should tell me about?”
Kevin’s expression turned increasingly defiant. “I told you, Dad. She don’t like me. That’s all it is.”
“School just started a month ago. Why would you think your teacher doesn’t like you?”
“Everybody knows it, Dad. She’s always telling me how to do stuff.”
Despite himself, Todd grinned. “She’s a teacher. That’s what teachers do.”
“Yeah, but Dad, she only tells me. Even when I tell her I can’t do it, she makes me. The other kids get it, but I can’t. I try, Dad. Really.”
The tears that welled up despite the tough facade convinced Todd that his son was telling the truth, at least as he saw it. A swift surge of compassion swept through him, blotting out for a moment his need to get to the bottom of the teacher’s complaints. His overwhelming desire to protect Kevin at any cost refueled his anger at the stiff, unyielding Miss Gentry and gave substance to all of his long-standing suspicions about the school system’s ineptitude. It had done a lousy enough job with him. He’d obviously been foolish to hope that things had improved.
What kind of teacher would single out a child day after day like that? He’d tried his darnedest not to interfere, to let the school do what it was supposed to do—educate his son, but he wouldn’t have the boy made out to be some sort of freak because he was a little slower than the other kids. Kevin was smart as a whip. Anyone who took the time to talk to him could see that.
“Are you going to talk to her, Dad?” Kevin’s voice was hesitant, the tone a heartbreaking mix of hopefulness and fear. Todd wasn’t sure what response his son really wanted.
“Don’t you want me to?” he asked, though he knew there was no longer any real choice in the matter.
Kevin shrugged, but his little shoulders were slumped so dejectedly it made Todd feel like pounding his fist through a wall. “She’s made me stay after school almost every day this week,” Kevin finally admitted. “A couple of times I almost missed the bus. I think she’s real mad at both of us now.”
Todd sighed. Kevin tried so hard not to let anyone fight his battles for him. If only he’d told Todd sooner, perhaps this wouldn’t have gotten so far out of hand. The prospect of confronting Miss Gentry’s self-righteous antagonism held about as much appeal as putting in another grueling, mishap-ridden twelve-hour day at the site of his latest shopping center.
“Then maybe it’s time I have a talk with her,” he said, anyway. “Don’t worry about it, son. I’ll get it straightened out. Tell her I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon.” He recalled the string of problems he’d left behind at the construction site and the imperious tone of that note, then amended, “Or the next day, at the latest.”
But despite the reassurance, fear still flickered in Kevin’s eyes. That frightened expression aroused all of Todd’s fierce protective instincts. He remembered every single humiliating moment of his own school experience and swore to himself that Miss Elizabeth Gentry would not put his son through the same sort of torment.
Liz stared longingly out the classroom window at the swaying palm trees and deep blue sky. It was a perfect Florida day. The humidity had vanished on the breeze. She had only five more spelling papers to grade before she could leave the confining classroom and enjoy what was left of the early October afternoon. The prospect of a long swim raised her spirits considerably.
She had had an absolutely hellish day again. The school had instituted yet another form that had to be filled out, though no one knew quite why. Two of her students had been sent home with the flu, after generously sharing their germs, no doubt. She’d had cafeteria duty, which almost always left her with a headache. Today’s was still throbbing at the base of her skull. And Kevin had gotten into another fight. This time he’d sent Cindy Jamison to the school nurse with a bloody lip. She herself had gotten a lump on her shin and a run in her hose trying to break up the brawl.
Now Kevin was sitting at his desk, his head bent over another assignment as they waited for his father, who was already forty minutes late. The man probably had no intention of showing up this time, either, though Kevin had vowed that he would be here.
She heard a soft, snuffling sound and looked back just in time to catch sight of a tear spilling onto Kevin’s paper. Her heart constricted. Blast that stubborn, indifferent father of his.
“Kevin, bring me your paper.”
He looked up, his expression so woebegone that once again she felt like taking his father apart piece by piece.
When Kevin didn’t move, she said, “Aren’t you finished?”
He shook his head.
“That’s okay. Show me what you have and we’ll do the rest together.”
“It’s not very good.”
“No problem. We’ll work on it.”
Kevin approached her desk with the look of a child being told that Santa Claus was leaving him only a lump of coal. It was an expression without hope. Stoic and resigned, he placed the rumpled page in front of her. “I made a lot of mistakes.”
“Then let’s see what we can do about them,” she said briskly. “You know everybody makes mistakes when they tackle something new. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and it’s definitely no reason not to at least try.”
Kevin regarded her with surprise. “My dad says that, too.”
Liz was startled that they’d even discussed the subject. Her image of Todd Lewis did not include supportive father-son talks. She’d been certain that he either ignored the boy altogether or pressured him by expecting perfection.
“Does your dad help you with your homework?”
“Sometimes,” Kevin said evasively. “Mostly Mrs. Henley helps me.” Mrs. Henley was the woman next door.
“Sometimes, if Dad’s real late, she fixes dinner and helps me with my homework.”
Liz felt that familiar surge of helplessness rush through her again. For the next half hour she and Kevin worked on correcting his paper. It was a tedious, frustrating process for both of them, but Kevin’s glowing smile at each tiny success made the effort worthwhile. When he printed the last of the words on his list perfectly, she hugged him.
“That’s exactly right. I think you deserve a reward. What would you like?”
His eyes widened. “You mean like a present or something?”
She grinned at his look of delight. “A small present.”
He chewed on his lip thoughtfully, then finally said, “I’m really hungry. Could I have a hamburger?”
It wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind, but he was looking at her so expectantly, she shrugged. “Why not? I’m sure we can find someplace nearby for a hamburger and maybe even some french fries.”
“Great, but what about my dad?”
Liz wasn’t much in the mood to talk to Todd Lewis about anything, but regulations demanded it. “If you give me the number, I’ll call him at his office and get his okay.”
Kevin’s face fell. “He doesn’t work in an office. You can’t call him.”
“What about a cell phone?” she asked.
“He only uses it for work, I don’t know the number.”
She should have realized that the minute she’d made the first call last week and gotten only an answering machine. “Where does he work?”
“He builds stuff. You know, like shopping centers and things. He’s building one now that’s really neat.”
Liz made one of those impetuous decisions that occasionally got her into very hot water. She didn’t believe in breaking rules, but she sometimes bent them in two if she thought it would help one of her students. Right now, Kevin needed all the positive reinforcement she could give him. She’d brave a lion in his den, if that’s what it took. Todd Lewis seemed only slightly less formidable.
“Do you know where it is?”
“Sure. He takes me with him lots on the weekends. Sometimes we even go by at night, if he has to go back and work late.”
It didn’t sound like any sort of lifestyle for a young boy, Liz decided, and only added to her conviction that Todd Lewis was treading dangerously close to being an unfit father. Yet Kevin always spoke of his father with such obvious pride. He clearly idolized the man. That intrigued her.
“Come on, then,” she said to Kevin. “Let’s go see him.”
When they found Todd Lewis, he was standing with one dusty, booted foot propped on a steel girder that was about to be hoisted to the third level of a future parking garage. A yellow hard hat covered much of his close-cropped brown hair and shaded his face. A light blue work shirt was stretched taut over wide shoulders. Liz found herself swallowing hard at the sight of him. He was bigger—at least six-foot-two and probably two-hundred pounds—more imposing and more masculine than she’d imagined. He made her feel petite and fragile and very much aware of her wrinkled shirt, the run in her hose and the fact that she hadn’t stopped long enough to put on lipstick.
His eyes, when she got close enough to see them, sparked with intelligence and curiosity. At the sight of his son running toward him, those eyes filled with something else as well, a warmth and concern that startled her and made her wish for one wild and timeless moment that the look had been directed at her.
“Dad, this is Mrs. Gentry,” Kevin blurted with a wave of his hand in her direction. Something in Todd Lewis’s self-confident demeanor seemed shaken by that announcement, but there was no time to analyze it because Kevin was rushing on. “We came to see you because we’re going to celebrate, but Miss Gentry said we had to get your permission and we couldn’t call you, so I showed her where you are. Is it okay?”
There was another flash of amazement in those clear hazel eyes. An errant dimple formed in that harsh, tanned face. “A celebration?”
“Yeah. I got all my homework right. Mrs. Gentry helped me while we were waiting for you. I told her you were coming, but that sometimes you got really busy and forgot things. You know like you did when you had that date last week and she came to the house all dressed up and you were working on the car.”
Liz noted that Todd Lewis nearly choked at that. She figured the revelation served him right.
“Sorry,” he said. “I told him to tell you I’d be there today or tomorrow.”
He didn’t sound the least bit repentant. Before she could stop herself, she reminded him, “And I asked you to come in today. I’m sure if you’d explained things to your boss, you could have arranged for the afternoon off.”
“I am the boss,” he said matter-of-factly. “And I can guarantee you that I didn’t get the title by walking off the job in the midst of a crisis just because of some damned whim.”
Liz had to do some quick revising. She glanced around at the sprawling mall with its Spanish-style architecture, man-made lakes and fountains already bubbling. Even weeks away from completion, it promised to be spectacular. How on earth could a man in charge of all this run a business without an office? Perhaps he was one of those laid-back eccentrics who delighted in going his own way and was talented enough or wealthy enough to get away with it. She, however, didn’t operate that way.
“It was hardly a whim, Mr. Lewis. If I hadn’t thought it extremely important, I wouldn’t have requested the meeting.”
“Demanded.”
“Semantics, Mr. Lewis. The point is that you did not come. Again,” she added.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, this time sounding genuinely apologetic. “Your earlier notes…” He gazed pointedly at Kevin. “They seem to have gone astray.”
She felt some of her tension and antagonism begin to ease. That put things in a slightly different light. She should have guessed that Kevin hadn’t passed them along to his father.
“And the phone messages?”
He stared at her blankly. They both turned to gaze at Kevin. He was staring at his shoes.
“Sorry, Dad. I guess maybe they got erased.”
Todd Lewis sighed wearily. “We will talk about all of this later, son.” He smiled at Liz and shrugged. “I guess that explains that. I really am sorry. No wonder you had such a lousy impression of me.”
Liz blushed as she thought of the barely veiled charges she’d leveled at him in her last note. She probably owed him an apology of some sort. Still, he had ignored that one. He wasn’t entirely blameless. Or was he?
“You did get the note I sent yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Well…” If she’d expected to intimidate Todd Lewis with a cool stare and an unyielding attitude, she’d vastly underestimated him. Those hazel eyes pierced her without once wavering.
“It is nearly five o’clock, Mr. Lewis,” she stated pointedly, not sure why she felt the need to attack rather than be conciliatory. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t one bit happy about the way her pulse had been skipping erratically ever since she’d gotten within five feet of Todd Lewis.
He grinned. Her pulse leapt. She wanted to attack. Yes, indeed, that was it. An instinctive and vitally necessary response.
“Thank you for enlightening me,” he retorted. He held out his hand, displaying a forearm that was bare to the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt. “I don’t wear a watch on the job. I don’t like clock-watchers.”
She wasn’t sure whether he was referring to himself, his employees or her. Either way, if he’d hoped to rattle her, it was working. She couldn’t take her eyes off that muscular forearm. If the man weren’t quite so large or quite so masculine, she’d be tempted to grab it and experiment with that self-defense technique she’d learned at her last karate lesson. The prospect of flipping him onto his backside cheered her considerably.
“You know what I meant,” she said stiffly. “I expected you at 3:30.”
“And I had hoped to be there,” he said so solemnly that she knew he was mocking her. “You know Miss Gentry…”
He made it sound as though she were some dried-up old prune. “Mrs. Gentry,” she retorted.
He shrugged indifferently. That faint suggestion of amusement continued to play about his lips. “You may be in charge of your classroom, Mrs. Gentry, but I’m in charge around here. Unfortunately at a construction site things are apt to go wrong according to whim, rather than your rigid schedule. If you can think of some way to make these girders do your bidding, more power to you. I’ve had a helluva time with it.”
This time he waited expectantly. Liz felt her insides quiver. Possibly with fury. More likely with something entirely less rational. The man was positively maddening. And far too attractive. She suspected the two characteristics were probably related. She realized she was gripping the handle on her purse so tightly the leather was biting into her flesh. She tried to relax. When that didn’t work, she went for the jugular.
“You’ve already explained that you run the company, Mr. Lewis. You don’t strike me as the sort of man who’d be foolish enough to believe he’s either indispensable or indestructible. I’m sure you have assistants who could handle any crisis that occurs in the brief time it would have taken for you to keep an appointment with me.”
He simply scowled at the note of censure. “That’s not the way I do things,” he said with finality. “Now what was so all-fired important that it couldn’t wait another twenty-four hours?”
She glanced at Kevin and hesitated. She’d already said far more than she should have in front of him. What on earth had gotten into her? “I don’t think this is the time or place to be discussing this.”
“You picked it,” he reminded her.
“Mr. Lewis!”
He stared at her intently, then finally nodded. “Kevin, go into the trailer and ask Hank if he’ll take you to the top of the garage. It’s another story higher since the last time you were here.”
“Oh, wow! Great, Dad. Thanks.” He bounded off without a second glance at either of them.
Todd Lewis watched Kevin until the door of the construction trailer slammed behind him. Then once again he propped his foot on a pile of girders, put his elbow on his knee and said, “You were saying…”
Liz sighed at the challenge and tried very hard not to stare at the way his jeans stretched across his hips. “Mr. Lewis, I did not come here to argue with you. I came to ask permission for Kevin to have a hamburger with me as a reward for working so hard this afternoon.”
“Are you sure you didn’t just want to check out his irresponsible father firsthand?”
The teasing glint in his eyes unnerved her. Again. “I’m sorry for some of the things I suggested in the note.”
“But not all?”
