"Agreed." Jack pretended to shudder. "Just the thought is scary. The last thing we need is for the pair of them ganging up on us."
"So true. At least your mom just makes quilts. My folks bought me a gift certificate for a week at a resort with a friend. You know, the kind of place that caters to singles. I think they were hoping I'd meet the perfect guy there and bring him home."
Jack's eyes turned hard, his mouth a straight slash. "And when are you going on this trip?"
"No need to get all bent out of shape, big guy. I'm not planning on going." She kissed him on the cheek. "I told Mom that when she first told me what they'd done, and that was before you and I started seeing each other."
"Glad to hear that." Then a whole different expression lit up his handsome face, one laced with humor and a dash of heat. "But just out of curiosity, does the gift certificate specify if that friend has to be female?"
She really did like the way this man thought. "Why, no, it didn't. Isn't that interesting?"
Jack stood up and tugged her up into his arms. "I'm just saying that if you need someone to play the part of the perfect guy, I'm willing to give it my best shot."
Caitlyn wrapped her arms around his neck, liking the surge of heat the full contact gave her. "Do you have any special talents that would qualify you for the role?"
His grin kicked it up another notch. "None I can demonstrate out here on the beach."
He paused to glance around at the surroundings before making eye contact with her again. He was right. The beach was a favorite hangout for families and groups of teenagers. Not the most private place they could be.
"If you're willing to go back to your place, I'd be glad to audition." He nipped at her nose and then kissed her, his tongue darting in and out of her mouth in a rhythm that had her about to drag him down right there on the beach, crowds be damned.
Before her last drop of common sense evaporated in the heat they were generating, she broke off the kiss. "I'm willing, Jack. But before you do a formal audition, I think you should rehearse the part … maybe even several times."
"Great! This could be the role of a lifetime." Jack swept her up in his arms and swung her around, laughing as he spun them in circles.
Surely he was only kidding, or at least he didn't mean that the way it sounded. Now wasn't the time to worry about it. Instead, Caitlyn clung to his powerful arms and laughed with him. No matter what happened, she would enjoy the ride while it lasted.
-
"That's it, kid, give it another good turn."
Ricky gave the wrench another yank and then tested the fan belt the way Jack had showed him. "It feels tight enough to me."
Tino reached around him to check it, too. "Yep, right on the money. Good job."
He ruffled Ricky's hair before stepping back. They'd already changed the oil and spark plugs. The two brothers had let Ricky do most of the actual work. They'd started him off checking the air in the tires and then moved on to the engine. He'd never helped with a tune-up before, but it was fun. When he put the wrench back in the tool chest, Jack handed him another package. "Next up, the air filter. All you have to do is take off that cover, remove the old filter, and then drop this one in."
The job took two minutes start to finish. "That was easy."
"Yeah, but it's still important. A dirty air filter really screws up an engine's performance." Jack wiped his hands on a rag. "That should do it for now. The only thing left to do is make sure the engine is running better. You heard how it sounded when the spark plug was misfiring. Let's see if we fixed the problem."
He tossed the keys to Ricky. "Start it up and then come give it a listen."
Okay, cool. Something else he'd never done. He'd been too little when his dad died, and his mom had given up the family car when she couldn't afford either the insurance or gas to keep it running. He turned the key and gave the truck a little gas. It started on the first try. Once he was sure it would keep running, he joined Jack and Tino by the front fender.
Trying to sound as if he knew what he was talking about, he gave the engine a satisfied look. "It's not missing anymore."
"You did good, kid." Jack bumped his shoulder into Ricky's. Then he looked across at his brother. "How many hours did we spend out here with Dad working on this old truck?"
"More than I can count." Tino ran his hand along the top of the fender. "He also taught all of us how to drive with this old beauty. I'd like to tell you that all these dents and dings came from Dad using it on the job, but that would be a lie."
He pointed to a sizable dent on the fender. "I put that one in it the first time I tried to parallel park."
Not to be outdone, Jack walked around to the tailgate, dragging Ricky in his wake. "That one happened when I backed into a telephone pole that jumped out and attacked me."
Ricky grinned. "How did you miss seeing a phone pole?"
Jack wiggled his eyebrows up and down. "As I recall, I was busy looking at a girl wearing tight jeans and an even tighter T-shirt."
They all laughed at that. "How about your other brother? Did he leave his mark on the truck, too?"
Tino smiled. "Yeah, he did. The first time Dad let Mikhail take the truck to his baseball game, he left it parked next to the fence by the outfield. A ball that got hit out of the park landed on the hood there and then cracked the windshield."
Jack reached over to trace the dimple in the metal. "I'd forgotten about that. Dad was so proud."
Okay, that made no sense. "Don't you mean he was pissed?"
The two brothers grinned at each other. "You'd think, but he wasn't. Not when Mikhail was the one who hit the three-run homer. Joe couldn't very well ground the idiot when he was the hero who won the game for the home team."
All of a sudden, Ricky didn't want to hear any more of their family history. He couldn't imagine a future where he'd be standing around with these two swapping funny stories. Right now, he didn't have any siblings of his own, but his mother had made it clear that situation could change at any time. The thought left him queasy, but only because of who their father would be.
Not that it would matter. His mom had also said that Lawrence thought it was better that any children they had not be exposed to a troubled kid like Ricky. Yeah, right. Lawrence didn't want anyone around who might stand up to him.
"Look, if we're done here, I've got stuff to do."
He walked away without giving Jack or Tino a chance to stop him. Once he was in his room, he locked the door and flopped on the bed. Burying his face in the pillow didn't help; rolling over on his back wasn't much better, but at least he could look out the window. From his room, he could see the treetops in the backyard and just the corner of the garage roof.
By now, Jack and Tino were probably back over there, sharing a beer and yucking it up over all their adventures. No doubt Jack thought Ricky owed them an apology for charging off without helping them clean up the mess they'd made working on the truck.
Too bad. He had his own problems to deal with right now. First off, he'd dial his mother's number again. A few seconds later, he tossed the phone aside in disgust.
"Why did I even bother?"
There was no good answer to that question. Maybe some little part of him still hoped that he mattered to her. Maybe he'd really wanted to believe that it was only a system glitch that kept him from being able to reach out to her from the safety of his room here in Jack's house. And maybe it didn't matter at all why he wanted to think there was still hope that somehow the two of them could go back to how things were before his dad had died, and she still loved him.
Come tomorrow, he'd settle the matter one way or another and then get on with his life.
Chapter 18
"Mom, have you seen Ricky this morning? I thought he was going out on the job with me today."
Marlene popped her head out of the kitchen. "No, I haven't seen him since right after dinner last night. Are you sure he's not up in his room?"
Damn, Jack had a bad feeling about this. "I knocked a couple of times, but he didn't answer. Have you heard him at all?"
By now, his mother was looking worried, too. "Yes, I heard him moving around early this morning around five or five thirty. You know, like he'd had to use the bathroom. As far as I know, he went back to his room afterward."
Jack checked the time. If he didn't leave soon, he'd be late. "Maybe he's a little under the weather or something. Let him sleep in. If he wakes up and wants to come hang out with me, tell him to give me a call."