Always for You:Jack(16)

Had something happened to Ricky? Jack gunned the engine and turned into  the driveway with the tires squealing as he hit the brakes hard. After  snagging his duffel out of the back, Jack charged up the sidewalk and  into the house.

As soon as he stepped through the door, he bellowed, "Mom, is everything okay?"

Three people came running, all of them reaching an abrupt halt in the  foyer to stare at Jack with varying degrees of confusion and curiosity.  His mom was the first to respond. "Everything is fine, Jack. Did  something happen to make you think it wasn't?"

Obviously he'd overreacted for no reason. "Sorry, I couldn't figure out why Caitlyn would be here on a Saturday."

The person in question spoke up. "Ricky had a doctor's appointment at  our normal time on Wednesday, so we rescheduled for today. I didn't want  him to miss a lesson. I hope that was okay."

"Sure, that's fine. I should have known it was something like that." He  dropped his duffel on the floor. "Blame my craziness on crossing a few  too many time zones in a short period of time coupled with a serious  lack of sleep."

Ricky finally joined the conversation. "Man, I hate to say it, but you  look like hell and smell worse. Didn't they have showers or razors  wherever you were?"

Jack ran his hand over the three days of whiskers on his face as he  fought back the urge to flip the kid off. His mother wouldn't approve,  not to mention it would set a poor example in front of their guest.  Truthfully, though, he was too tired to care. "For that remark, kid, you  can carry my bag out to the annex as soon as you're done with your  lesson."

As he opened the duffel to pull out a plastic shopping bag, Caitlyn  stared at him, her lips twitching a bit as if fighting to hold back a  grin. "He can take it now. We were just finishing up."

Ricky groaned as he picked up the bag with his good hand and held it out  at arm's length as he walked away. "Fine, but if I get some kind of  cooties from this filthy thing, I'm not going to be happy."

Still complaining, he headed for the back of the house. Jack waited  until he was out of sight to speak. "How did he do while I was gone? Any  problems?"

His mother answered first. "None that I noticed. In fact, he stuck  pretty close to home the entire time, which I suspect was some of your  doing. He kept checking on me even when I was upstairs sewing. I finally  banished him from that room until further notice."

Personally, Jack thought it was a good sign that the boy had taken  Jack's request to heart that he should keep an eye on her. "I'm glad to  hear that he wasn't any trouble for you."

He finally turned his attention to the other woman in the room. "How has he been for you?"

Caitlyn looked pleased. "He's been working hard on all of his  assignments. I left his progress report on the table for you, but the  short answer is that he's doing great."

"Good."

There was something he meant to be doing, but his brain was so fried he  couldn't figure out what that might be. Luckily, his mother stepped up  to bat.

"Although I might have been more tactful about it, I think Ricky was  right, son. You look like a stiff breeze would blow you over right now.  Why don't the two of you go have a seat in the dining room while I make  us all some sandwiches?"

When Caitlyn looked as if she was going to protest, Jack stopped her.  "I'd like to hear more about how Ricky is doing, and it would be rude of  me to eat in front of you. If you don't believe me, just ask my mom."

It was clear she was still hesitant. "Come on, Caitlyn. You have to each lunch someplace. It might as well be here."

"Well, if you're sure I'm not imposing."

He sealed the deal by taking her hand in his as he led her back into the dining room. "Mom wouldn't have offered if she minded."

In the dining room, she tugged her hand free and took a seat on the far  side of the table. Rather than crowd her, he dropped into the chair  directly opposite of hers. At least that way he had a perfect excuse to  look at her while they ate.

"How was your trip?"

What could he say to that? It wasn't that he had to keep it a secret  that he worked for Gabe occasionally. It was the nature of that work  that he didn't feel comfortable discussing. He'd found over the years  that while civilians knew on a theoretical level what a soldier's work  entailed, they didn't much like to know the details when it came to  someone they actually knew. He'd seen a lot of combat during his tenure  in the Special Forces and wouldn't have hesitated to use deadly force to  protect Gabe's client if it had been called for.                       
       
           



       

He settled for saying, "It was fine. I was helping out a friend. I  would've been home sooner except my original flight, which was nonstop,  got canceled. The replacement flight had two stopovers and wasn't the  most direct route home."

"Sounds like you had a rough time of it."

"I've had worse."

Although now that he thought about it, Ricky hadn't been wrong. Jack was  in bad need of that shower and a shave, not to mention some clothes he  hadn't been living in for the past two days. "I do apologize for my  appearance, though."

The color of her eyes heated up to the hue of molten silver as she  stared at him. "No need for that. A little scruff looks real good on  you."

Okay, then, maybe the attraction wasn't all one-sided. Just as quickly  as the small surge of heat between them came, it disappeared and Caitlyn  was all business again. She smiled and reached for a paper next to  Ricky's textbooks on the far end of the table and held it out to him.  "Here's my weekly report on Ricky's progress."

He quickly scanned the report and then went back over it a second time more slowly. "So he's doing all right?"

"He's doing fine. I introduced two new subjects this week-language arts  and geometry. So far, he's keeping up with the assignments and working  hard."

Then she lowered her voice. "To be honest, he's just about been my best  summer student ever. I'm amazed that he hasn't complained even once  about the workload."

"That's good to hear." Jack leaned back in his chair and crossed his  arms over his chest. "I can't promise that will always be the case, but I  figure we should be grateful for his good behavior for as long as it  lasts."

Caitlyn immediately nodded. "Amen to that. I work with a lot of at-risk  kids and know that it can be a bit of a roller-coaster ride."

"That's true enough. A rough home life combined with surging hormones is  a volatile mix." It certainly had been that way for him.

She tilted her head to the side as if to study him. "Are you talking about Ricky or from your own experience?"

What had his mother been telling Caitlyn? No matter. As always, he  reminded himself how far he'd come from those days. "A little of both.  He and I have a lot in common."

He hated the pity in her gray eyes. "Don't feel sorry for me, Caitlyn.  Thanks to Marlene and Joe, my brothers and I are among the lucky ones."

His mother walked into the room carrying a tray heaped high with  sandwich makings. "Don't sell yourself short, Jack. I won't deny that  your father and I offered the three of you a helping hand, but never  forget that all of you were smart enough to make the most of it."

Jack hurried to take the tray from her, stopping long enough to kiss his mother on the cheek. "I'll take this."

She protested. "Don't be silly. You're the one who's exhausted. Go sit down before you fall down."

Using a stage whisper, he said, "Nothing like making me look weak in front of Caitlyn, Mom."

His mother rolled her eyes and immediately surrendered the tray. "Fine. You carry it the remaining four feet."

When he sat it down on the table, Caitlyn grinned at him and fanned  herself with her hand. "Whew, that was an amazing display of manliness!"

His mother laughed. "Wasn't it, though?"

It was nice seeing Marlene enjoying herself. Time to call in the  reinforcements. "Hey, Ricky! Get in here. These women have got me  outnumbered, and I'm too tired to defend myself."

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

The kid appeared in the doorway to the kitchen with a second tray  balanced on his one good arm. This one contained glasses filled with ice  and several cans of soft drinks. It looked like a disaster waiting to  happen, but Jack hesitated before offering the kid a helping hand. He  held his breath until the teenager got within reach and then took the  tray from him.

While Ricky set about handing out the drinks, Jack said, "Caitlyn says you're doing great with your schoolwork."

The kid flushed a little red. "I like math."

"Nothing wrong with being good at math. You'd be surprised how often it comes in handy."

When Ricky looked a bit skeptical, Jack said, "Seriously. The army uses  math in a lot of ways. It takes math to read latitude and longitude on a  map. Army engineers need it to build stuff like bridges or to blow them  up, for that matter. Hell, snipers use geometry and other calculations  to determine the right angle for taking a long-distance shot."