Misty regarded him with surprise. Apparently Jake had both a code of honor and common sense. It gave her a whole new sense of appreciation for a boy she’d mostly thought of as an annoying pest.
J.C. had worked up a pretty good sweat at the gym. He knew he was trying to sublimate the desire to call Laura. Their date had gone a little too well. Not only had he opened up to her in ways he’d never expected to, but the attraction he felt to her had intensified. He’d resisted the urge to kiss her when he’d dropped her off at her apartment, but just barely. Something told him that once he’d crossed that line, he’d be lost, all of his resolve wiped out in an instant.
Glancing across the gym, he noticed that Cal’s workout seemed a little more intense than usual, as well. Wiping his face with a towel, he crossed the room.
“Everything okay? You look thoroughly ticked off about something.”
“You have no idea,” Cal muttered, putting the weights he’d been lifting back onto the stand. “Do you have some time? I’d like to talk this through with an objective outsider. Something tells me you’d be the perfect person.”
“Sure. I can spare some time,” J.C. said. If it would keep him from going home to an empty house yet again, he could spare a lot of time.
“Let’s grab a couple of drinks in the café and sit out on the deck. I don’t think anyone’s out there. We’ll need some privacy for this.”
In the café Cal grabbed two bottles of water. “You hungry? Want anything else?”
“Water’s good,” J.C. said, accepting one of the bottles.
“Put ’em on my account,” Cal told the young man behind the counter, then led the way outside.
Dusk had already fallen. Though the air felt more like a humid summer day than late fall, there was a faint breeze stirring the oaks that shadowed the deck. There was the scent of some sort of flower in the air, though J.C. had no idea what it might be. It smelled nice—a lot like Laura’s perfume, now that he thought about it.
“What’s up?” he asked when Cal seemed to be lost in thought.
“Just trying to figure out how much of this I can tell you.”
“I’m good at keeping secrets,” J.C. reminded him. “The whole patient-confidentiality thing is great training.”
“Right,” Cal said, looking satisfied. “I know you’ve been worried about Misty Dawson.”
J.C. paused before the bottle of water reached his lips. “I have been.”
“Well, I think it’s about to get really ugly.”
Cal described what he’d been told about an incident at school between Annabelle Litchfield and Cal’s stepdaughter. “I don’t know exactly what set Katie off like that, but it had to be really bad,” Cal said. “She’s a pretty even-tempered kid.”
“And Laura stepped in?” J.C. asked.
Cal nodded. “And apparently knew enough about what’s been going on between Annabelle and Misty to convince Betty not to punish Katie.”
“How about Annabelle?”
“She’s off the hook for the moment.”
J.C. was startled. “How can that be?”
“Annabelle’s mother,” Cal said succinctly. “The principal is not going to mete out punishment to Annabelle until she knows with a hundred percent certainty that Mariah doesn’t have a leg to stand on when she leaps to her daughter’s defense. I can’t blame Betty for that. Mariah’s a terror when she’s on a tear.”
“So I’ve heard. How’d Laura handle all this?”
“I think it shook her up, but she’s steady as a rock. She never once wavered in her belief that Katie was in the right. I have to respect her for that, especially when she knows it’s likely to make her Mariah’s first target.”
J.C. regarded him with real concern. “How bad could this get for her?”
Cal actually chuckled for the first time since the somber conversation had started. “Thought that might be your first worry. It could get bad for a time, but Laura’s tough enough and determined enough to weather whatever happens. And if these suspicions about the bullying are confirmed, the whole town would turn out on Laura’s side if necessary. We had a few incidents over the years, and the entire community has come down hard on the kids involved. Everyone wants to send the message that being bullied is not just an acceptable part of growing up. It’s inexcusable, no matter what form it takes.”
J.C. nodded. “Good to hear, and you’ve just confirmed my impression of Laura. Misty and Katie are lucky to have her in their corner.”