Wishes At First Light. Joanne Rock
bitterness came through every word, although it wasnât clear if he was more upset with himself or his father. âI guess I resented the old man so much that once I was done with that job, I didnât look back. Didnât visit. Didnât write. Didnât ask how many other kids he planned to shove out into the world with no means of support before he finally kicked the bucket.â
With that, he pushed away from the porch rail. Straightening, he walked away from the cabin, out into the moonlit parking area. She watched as he sucked in one long breath after another, before turning on his boot heel to stalk back toward her.
She waited until he was close enough to hear before she spoke.
âIâm glad to know that Mia has you now.â She reached over the rail to take his hand, willing him to look at her. âIâm sure she felt alone and reached out to me because she didnât know she had you. But things must have changed for her since you came into her life.â Gabriella had been frightened at the references Mia made to much older men back in the days when she was under her motherâs care before social services stepped in. The girl had joined the support group after that, to ask for help dealing with a teenage boy at her first foster home, but she had wound up resolving the issue and moving into a better home before Pete got himself together enough to get her out of the system.
Or so she said.
Still, Gabriella got the impression that Mia had enough dealings with her mother where she was still exposed to some unsavory types.
âThatâs kind of you to think, Gabby.â Clay squeezed her hand where sheâd taken it, his warm, callus-roughened palm sending a surprise thrill through her despite the grave nature of the conversation. âBut since I havenât even met Mia yet, Iâve been exactly no help at all to her.â
âYou said you found out about her weeks ago.â She slid her hand away from his, regretting the loss of warmth but wondering how well she knew Clayton Travers after all. Protectiveness for Mia rose inside her, and yes, a sense of identifying with the confused teen. Gabriella knew how it felt to be abandoned by a parent. âI guess I thought you would have already gone to see her.â
âI needed some time to research more and find out if Pete had any other offspring Iâd overlooked.â
âAnd?â
âMia is the last oneâthe only one Iâd missed. She lives with my father. And while I resent the old man bitterly, I thought they had a peaceful relationship if she chose him over the stability of a foster home. I figured he must have mellowed with age and his illness since the hospital forced him to get sober,â Clay explained. âBut if sheâs still reaching out to a victimsâ support group, maybe life in the Yancy household sucks as much as ever. Iâll make sure she knows that there are good homes in the foster system that will give her more stability.â
There was a cold finality to the words.
âYouâd send her back into foster care?â She couldnât believe the boy she once knew could have grown so heartless. âWhat about you? You could take her in. You would be a good role modelââ
âMe?â He sounded shocked she would consider it. He shook his head. âIâve made enough of a mess of my own relationships. I wouldnât be any help to a girl her age.â
âYouâve dealt with so many of the same things and gone on to be a successful adult.â
âBecause I broke away from my messed-up family.â The jut of his chin told her how much he would stake on that belief. âI wouldnât be doing Mia any favors to invite her back into the screwed-up legacy that is her genetic birthright. Better for her to find a good foster home like I did, with people who are committed to understanding at-risk teens.â
âShe had very different experiences in the foster system than you. Itâs hard for her to trust anyone.â Gabriella understood that much about the people who called her hotline or emailed her privately looking for help. Victims of stalking and bullying were less inclined to trust.
And although Mia wasnât currently being bullied, that was the situation in her first foster home when her foster motherâs teenage son had tried to coerce her into sex in exchange for extra privileges in the house.
Of course, Gabriella couldnât share any of that with Clay. It was information protected by the privacy policies of her support group. And although the policies were more flexible where the underage participants were concerned, Mia had shared the information with her caseworker. And for her part, Gabriella would do what she could to protect Miaâs privacy for as long as she could.
âThat, I understand. But I will explain to her how getting out from under the dark cloud of the Yancy influence helped me.â His dark eyes glittered with determination, his square jaw set. âSheâll be far better off in the system with experts watching out for her.â
Standing, Gabriella realized their conversation had come to a definite stalemate. Sheâd worked through enough of her past tonight without taking on Miaâs future, too. She would save that for another day, when she had time to think over her best course of action.
Besides, she wanted to talk to Mia and make sure she was okay.
âIt seems we did a good job of surprising each other tonight.â She slid off his jacket and laid it gently over the wooden railing for him, the scent of the leatherâof himâlingering along with the warmth. âYou had no idea I was baring my soul to you online ten years ago. And I had no idea you were the kind of man to return a teenage sibling to the foster system.â
She walked away without waiting for a response. She heard him call out to her, but she was too tired and upset to continue a heated discussion tonight. Not with the trial starting tomorrow.
Besides, if Clayton Travers wasnât concerned about Mia going back into state custody after Peteâs death, that was his business. But for her part, she planned to call the girl and see if she could help.
Gabriella understood all too well what it was like to have the people you counted on abandon you.
MIA BENSON CROSSED her fingers against the worn leather bench seat of Davis Reedâs vintage Ford pickup truck as he slowed down on a gravel back road and pulled off to one side of a hayfield on the way home from their first date.
Davisânot Dave, as he made clear to everyoneâwas a band geek. A tall, skinny drummer who wore a plumed hat at halftime during the football games at Crestwood High where they both went to school. Surely a band geek with enough guts to strap on that loopy hat every week was not stopping at an obvious hook-up spot to do anything more than...kiss?
Sheâd had a decent time on this first date so far. She wasnât falling for Davis Reed or anything. Obviously. But she also hadnât spent the last three hours plotting how to get away from him, which had happened enough times in her dating career that most girls would have just given it up as an exercise in futility. But what else was there to do in a small town on a Sunday night? Sit at home and watch her dying fatherâs jaundiced skin turn a deeper shade of yellow?
Mia was grateful to the old guy for bailing her out of the foster system and everything, but she wasnât his caregiver. Eww. Bad enough she had to think about what would happen to her once Pete Yancy croaked. But she would not complicate her messed-up life even more by getting too attached to the father who hadnât wanted her for the first thirteen years of her life.
âNot much of a view, is it?â She hid her crossed fingers under a filched makeup bag of her motherâs that Mia had used for a purse ever since leaving the Drunken House of Horrors that was her motherâs