Always for You:Jack(9)

For certain, he'd be finding time to talk to Caitlyn Curtis alone to see  if she'd been able to coax Ricky into sharing any of his history with  her. Mrs. Harkens, the caseworker from CPS, had promised to get back  with Jack when and if she managed to track down Ricky's family and  school records. So far, he hadn't heard back from her. While the records  might prove useful in getting the boy back into the right level classes  in the fall, Jack couldn't give a rat's ass if they ever found his  family.                       
       
           



       

If Ricky wanted them to know where he was, he would've said so by now.  His refusal to mention anything about his past set off all kinds of  alarms. Ricky obviously knew whoever had put him in the hospital with a  broken arm and multiple contusions. If it had been a random attack by a  stranger, there would've been no reason for him not to cooperate with  the police. Instead, Ricky had stonewalled everybody.

So, yeah, Jack wasn't all that anxious for Ricky's family to learn his  whereabouts. They would have to be dealt with one way or another at some  point. He just wished Ricky would let him in on what was happening on  that front. At least that way they could formulate a viable plan of  action. For now, all Jack could do was keep an eye on the kid and hope  that eventually he'd trust either Jack or Marlene enough to do more than  keep a roof over his head and feed his skinny ass.

Speak of the devil, Ricky reappeared in the front door. "Hey, where's my burger? I'd rather eat it while it's still warm!"

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

Having delivered his message, Ricky retreated back into the house. Jack  managed to hide his smile until the teenager wouldn't see it. Maybe he  was grasping at straws, but he suspected that it was a good sign that  the kid felt comfortable enough around Jack to give him some  good-natured grief. Either way, he preferred that to having the kid  either cower in his room or, worse yet, lash out whenever either Jack or  his mother spoke to him.

Feeling a little better about the situation, he headed for the dining  room to hand out the burgers and shakes. But later, he'd still be having  that talk with Caitlyn Curtis.

-

"One more stop, and I can go home for the day."

It was never a good sign to be talking to herself, but Caitlyn's head  was pounding, and she needed the verbal reminder that the end was almost  in sight. The day had been a tough one so far. Unfortunately, most of  the teenagers she worked with would rather be hanging out with friends  instead of inside doing schoolwork with Caitlyn. Keeping the younger  kids focused and moving ahead wasn't any easier. Regardless of their  ages, she didn't hesitate to stand firm when she knew it was for their  own good.

At least her last student of the day was willing to do the work she  assigned him. So far, anyway. She suspected that she and Ricky were  currently in the honeymoon stage of their relationship. He obviously  liked math, and it came easy to him. That's why she'd chosen it for the  first subject to tackle.

In contrast, he hadn't scored quite as high in language arts, and his  reading scores were slightly lower than she thought they should be.  They'd be adding those two components to their agenda at the beginning  of the week. It would sure be nice to know more about the boy's  background. She suspected his problems in some of the subject areas  might be due to poor attendance, but he hadn't been very forthcoming  about his past experience with school.

She pulled up in front of the Lukash family home and turned off the  engine. As she gathered up the materials she needed for Ricky's lesson,  she tried to ignore the small part of her that was pleased to see that  both Jack McShane's SUV and the ragtag pickup he used on his  construction jobs were parked side by side in the driveway.

She had no business noticing anything about the man, even if he was the  one paying her salary. It was the boy she was there to see, and he  deserved her undivided attention. Still, there was something about  Jack's piercing green eyes and friendly smile that really appealed to  her. She also admired his determination to help Ricky. From the few  things the teenager had let slip, the two had met when Ricky had offered  to do some grunt work for Jack when he was out on a job.

So far, neither of them had explained how that had led to Ricky living  with Jack and his mother. Granted, it was Marlene Lukash who was  licensed for foster care and had legal custody of Ricky. Both of them  had made it clear that was only temporary until Jack got his own  credentials. Even now, Marlene was definitely taking the backseat when  it came to making decisions regarding the teenager's care.

The front door opened before she had a chance to knock. Once again, it  was Jack standing there, filling the doorway with his broad shoulders  and holding her captive with his direct gaze.

After a second, he opened the screen door and held it open for her. "Ms.  Curtis, come on in. Ricky's waiting in the dining room."

He stood back, giving her enough room to enter the house-barely. Even  though they never came into actual contact, she could still feel the  warmth radiating off his big body as she passed by. Or maybe the heat  she felt came from her acute awareness of him as a man, which was  nothing short of stupid, not to mention unprofessional.                       
       
           



       

At least she had enough control over her reactions to maintain a steady  pace on her way to meet with her student. She'd only gone a few steps  when Jack stopped her forward progress by touching her arm, which  startled her into dropping her papers all over the floor. He immediately  removed his hand and knelt down to start picking them up. As soon as  her heart slowed to a more normal pace, she joined him in gathering up  her things.

As he handed her the last few pages, Jack offered her a rueful smile.  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I called your name to get your  attention, but I don't think you heard me."

She forced a smile that probably stopped just shy of sincere. "You  didn't scare me. My mind was on … something else. You surprised me. That's  all."

"Right," he said, although he clearly didn't believe a word of what she'd just said.

Over the years, she'd gotten good at lying about her overly sensitive  startle reflex, which had been honed to a sharp edge by years of living  with her ex-husband. They'd been divorced for nearly five years now, and  her reactions usually weren't quite so over the top anymore. Maybe she  should share a bit more of the truth.

"I'm sorry, Mr. McShane. I've got a vicious headache, so I'm not quite myself today."

His green eyes went from doubtful to concerned. "Have you taken anything for it?"

"Not yet. I didn't have anything with me, but this is my last stop for the day."

"How about you go on in with Ricky. I'll fix you a cup of the soothing  tea my mother swears by and bring you a couple of ibuprofen."

This time her smile came more easily. "Thank you. That sounds lovely."

He nodded and started to walk away. Then he turned back. "Before I forget, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Jack glanced past her, obviously checking to see where Ricky was, before  continuing. "When you're ready to leave, I'll walk with you out to your  car."

Probably so the boy wouldn't overhear the conversation. Did he have news about Ricky's background? She hoped so.

"I'll let you know when I'm ready to go."

Jack nodded. "Meanwhile, I'll go see about that tea."

-

"Great job, Ricky! You're sailing through the algebra. Once you finish  the rest of the refresher lessons, I'll set you up with the district's  online class so you can get credit for the course. It shouldn't take you  much time at all to finish it, which means you can get placed in  geometry at the beginning of the school year."

She began packing up her stuff. "Just so you know, we'll be starting on the language arts lessons on Monday."

Ricky's shoulders immediately drooped. "Do we have to?"

"Sorry, kiddo, but we do. If you put the same hard work into those  lessons that you have into the math, you'll do fine." She mentally  crossed her fingers and hoped that was true.

"Any questions for me before I go?"

"No."

She stopped shuffling papers to really look at her student. "Ricky, is something wrong?"

"No," he said for the second time.

Caitlyn risked putting her hand on his broken arm. "Are you sure?"

When he flinched at her touch even though he couldn't have actually felt  it through the thickness of the cast, her stomach twisted in sympathy.  Obviously, she wasn't the only one who found it hard to accept a simple  gesture. It was a characteristic shared by a fair number of her students  over the years, especially the ones whose lives had been turned upside  down like Ricky's had. It took time and patience to get past their  understandable mistrust. She prided herself on her perseverance in  coaxing them into letting her do what she could to make at least one  area of their lives go more smoothly. Considering what she suspected  about how he got that broken arm, it really didn't surprise her that he  was a bit skittish. "You know you can tell me anything."