Keeping Caroline. Vickie Taylor
swig. Then another. By the time the Jimmy Buffet fan at the jukebox had run through the singer’s entire repertoire and someone else had put on one of those New Age punk pieces of garbage, five empty bottles littered Matt’s table. The sixth still had a little bit left in it.
Under the bottom curve of his bottle, he saw a pair of boots. Not the work boots the farmers or ranchers in the area wore. Oh, no.
These were patent leather jobs, knee high, with heels chunky enough to block a car on. Between the top of the boots and the bottom of the miniskirt stretched a long length of smooth, slim thigh.
Slowly, Matt lowered the beer bottle.
Gem ran her tongue around her lips while her eyes laughed at him. “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Wham-bam-no-thank-you-ma’am.” She scooted her little bottom into the chair next to him.
Too next to him.
He edged to his right, away from her.
“And here I thought you were too pristine to land in a joint like this.”
“What’re you doing here, Gem?”
She reached for his beer. He swung it away. “Who says I have to have a reason?”
“Where are the twins?”
She drew back, almost a recoil. “They’re okay.”
“I’m sure they are. Caroline would never let anything happen to them.” He checked his watch. “But you’re three hours late to pick them up.”
He thought he saw a flash of guilt, of humanity, in her fine-boned features, then the tough street face covered it up. “Well, if you’re going to be that way.” She scraped her chair back and started to walk away.
He snagged her wrist. “You’re also underage and on probation.”
She struggled to pull free, but he held tight. “So call a cop.”
“I am a cop.”
The blood drained from Gem’s face. “I— She didn’t tell me.”
“Obviously. Now what are you doing here?”
“M-my car wouldn’t start. This guy gave me a ride is all. He wanted to stop here awhile, then he’s going to take me home so I can borrow a car to go pick up Max and Rosie.”
“Lame, Gem. You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“Really,” she squeaked, pulling harder on her wrist.
“Where is this guy?” Matt had a few words for any man that would bring an obviously underage girl to a bar.
“He’s not a guy, exactly. He’s just a kid. My age.” Her head swiveled, her gaze scanning the sparsely populated tables around the room, probing the dark shadows around the pool table. “I—I don’t see him.”
“Uh-huh.” Matt let go of her wrist and pushed his hand into the small of her back, turning her toward the door. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Her voice rose like a frightened child. Which, he figured, was exactly what she was.
“To get your children,” he told Gem gruffly. The farmhouse was the last place he wanted to be right now, but he couldn’t just leave Gem here. “Caroline can take you home. Have you been drinking?” he asked.
“No.”
He squinted at her in the shadows outside the bar.
“Really,” she squeaked.
“Good.” He held out the keys to the truck he’d borrowed from Mr. Johnson. “You drive.”
Despite Gem’s appearance, and her behavior, he believed Caroline was right about the girl. She had a long road ahead, as did her babies. But with Caroline’s help, she just might make it.
Caroline stopped pacing when she saw the headlights beam up from the bottom of the hill.
“Is it her?” Savannah asked.
“I don’t know.” Realizing she had chewed her thumbnail down to skin, she lowered her hand. “It must be. God, I hope it is.”
“Jeb, go into the kitchen, please,” Savannah said.
“I wanna stay and see the fight.”
“There isn’t going to be a fight. Now go to the kitchen.”
“But, Ma!”
“Go on, little rebel,” Caroline said, laughing. “There’s chocolate-chip cookies in there. In the cow jar about a foot to the left of the sink.”
Even with the cookie incentive, Jeb’s steps were slow, measured. And not because he was worried about running into anything.
Caroline nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned and saw it wasn’t Gem standing in the doorway. “Matt? What—”
He swept his feet across the Welcome mat, then pushed the screen open and stepped inside. Only after he’d crossed the threshold could Caroline see the girl cowering behind him. He reached back and pulled her inside, but he did it gently.
“Gem?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Caroline,” she said to the floor.
She stepped closer to Gem. Sniffed. “Do I smell beer?”
“It’s him, not me!”
She shifted her gaze to Matt, who just shrugged and headed for the kitchen. “Mind if I get some coffee?”
Of course not, she would have said if he’d still been in the room. She winced, remembering Jeb had been banished to the kitchen. Served Matt right, not waiting for her to answer. Besides, her husband could hold his own with a five-year-old.
She hoped.
Gem told a dubious story about her car not starting, and getting a ride home from a guy named J.J., who took her to the bar instead, then disappeared, stranding her. By the time the tale was told, Matt had reappeared, looking none the worse for wear after his latest Jeb encounter.
Maybe he’d smoothed things out with the boy. She could only hope.
Turning back to Gem, Caroline sighed, swimming in a tide of sympathy for everything the girl had been through in her young life, but knowing she couldn’t show it. “Gem, you know I’m going to have to report this to your probation officer, and to Max and Rosie’s social worker.”
Gem’s shoulders jerked. Her birdlike hands fisted. “No. Please!”
“I don’t have a choice. I’ve already taken Max and Rosie back to your foster parents for the night. You’ll have to explain why you weren’t here to pick them up.”
“But they’ll send me to juvie for breaking my probation.”
“There’ll be a hearing.”
“I’ll lose my babies.”
“That’s up to the judge.”
Gem screeched, launching herself at Caroline. Matt’s big body was between her and Gem before the girl got halfway there. Gem stumbled in her high-heeled boots. Matt caught her by the upper arms, held her upright.
Her chest heaved and her face twisted. “You can’t do this!” she screamed, clawing to see over Matt’s shoulder. “I hate you! Do you hear me? I hate you, and I’m going to get you for this.”
When Gem’s knees buckled, Matt turned her arms loose. She crumpled to the floor like a broken doll, sobbing.
Caroline would have gone to her, but Matt held her back. She slapped at him ineffectively. She was the closest thing to a mother Gem had, and damn him, he was blocking her way to her child.
Savannah restored sanity to the house.
She curled up next