Beyond Broken(102)

       
         
       
        

Caleb looked down at the palm of his hand, thinking that the baby would fit there perfectly right now. "Is that so?"

"Yes," she said, her tone excited. Caleb listened to her talk about what else she'd read, content to simply hear her voice. Warning bells went off in his head, telling him that he was getting in too deep. For once, he ignored them.

A knock sounded on his office door and Caleb called, "Come in." Peter, looking like a scared puppy, appeared in the doorway. Into the phone, he said, "Maddie, I gotta go. Peter just got here."

"Okay," she said. "Go easy on him."

Caleb smirked, waving at the boy to come towards the desk. "I will."

After he ended the call with her, Peter spoke up, his voice a tad shaky. "Brian said you wanted to talk to me."

"Don't be so nervous, Peter," Caleb said, picking up a small booklet that he'd picked up from the DMV on his way to work. He held it out to the boy, eyeing the yellowing bruise his father left on his jawline. "Here."

"What is it?" Peter asked, his words laced with suspicion.

"A driver's manual. You'll need to study it and take an online class before you can take your permit test."

The teenage boy's lips parted. "You-I … I thought … " Swallowing, he reached out to take the booklet. He stared down at it blankly before admitting, "I thought you would kick me out of your house, for bringing Maddie with me last night."

Caleb chose his words carefully. "I'm not going to deny that I wasn't pissed. But I know how stubborn she can be and she told me what happened. Everything's fine. But in the future, I want you to tell me if you have any problems, especially if they involve your dad."

Peter nodded, still staring down at the booklet. "I will."

"You study that," Caleb told him. "And once you pass your tests, we'll talk about finding you a car."

Peter's head snapped up at that, his eyes wide. "Really?"

Caleb bit back an amused smile. "Yes. But I don't want you getting marked down for single thing, you understand?"

Peter nodded enthusiastically. "Okay. I won't. I promise."

The boy was just turning to go back down to the garage, renewed excitement in his step, when Caleb stopped him. "And Peter?" He turned. "It's your house too, you know. It won't ever be taken away from you, no matter what you do. You never have to worry about that."

Caleb watched the boy's face tighten, looking suddenly like he was about to cry and Caleb was reminded of just how young he was, how he'd never truly been taken care of. Peter nodded and turned his face away quickly. 

"Thank you," he murmured, his voice tight. Then he hurried out of the office, closing the door softly on the way out.





THIRTY-SEVEN





Maddie was on the floor in the living room when Caleb came home later that evening. Spread out before her were library books and she busy typing away at her computer, trying to finish a good chunk of a paper that was due next week. But she was all too aware of Caleb's presence filling the room and she forgot the point that she was trying to make at the end of one paragraph because of it.

The man was just too good looking for his own good.

"Hi," she murmured, still feeling a little shy. All she wanted to do right now was jump him. He looked sexy in his blue jeans and heather grey t-shirt, even with smudges of grease running up and down his forearms, like he'd only half-heartedly wiped them away. She'd been on edge all day because of their activities last night, but she knew that she was too sore to do anything about it … and he wasn't exactly helping matters looking like that.

What was it about a man that worked with his hands?

"What are you doing?" he asked, coming to sit down on the couch, his eyes taking in her cross-legged position, her messy bun, and open notebooks.

"Working on a paper."

"What about?"

She smiled, her eyes straying back to her computer. "An artifact at the British Museum."

"Tell me about it."

So, she told him about the 'Teotihuacan Ocelot,' which had been discovered at the base of the Pyramid of the Sun. And he listened as she rambled on and on about the speculation of its purpose, the research she'd done for the past few weeks, which led her to talk about the importance of their gods in religion.

Best of all, he didn't seem bored by it. He soaked it all in like the sponge he was. Maddie knew that he'd never pursued higher education. His loyalty to his uncle and his uncle's business had prevented that. But he was naturally intelligent. He would've been the kind of college kid that didn't need to study and he would've still aced all his finals with flying colors, the one that skewed the curve and left all his peers grumbling.