Chapter 2
Harrison
I watched her walk out the door without responding to my parting words. I wanted to grab her and force her to respond. I wanted to…she was not what I’d expected. I’d known the adoptive parents had died. My investigator was able to uncover impressive details on Dale and Robin Monroe with what little information Julia managed to get from the adoption agency, earning much more than the outrageous fee he charged. Within weeks of learning I had a son, I had pictures and addresses and credit scores and death certificates. Everything I needed to locate him. I’d been ready to march in and claim him as my own. I never signed adoption papers. I never gave up my parental rights. A good lawyer, and I could have been awarded custody in a matter of weeks.
But Libby wouldn’t allow it.
He’s fifteen, Harrison. He’s grown up with this identity, as Jonathon Monroe. You march in there and take him away, and you’ll destroy the one thing that we all hold dearest: his identity. You have to do this slowly, let him adjust to the idea of having you in his life before you steal him away from the only family, the only life, he’s ever known.
That was the problem with Libby. Her arguments were always so logical that there was no arguing with her. So, I decided to come to this little town to meet him. But I needed a reason to be here, an excuse to make myself a part of his life. It was a happy coincidence that the school had just lost their freshman English teacher and I happen to have a master’s degree in literature. It was a simple thing to arrange to become a Texas certified teacher and simpler yet to get hired on at a school where few of the teachers had better than a bachelor’s degree.
The first time JT walked into my classroom…seeing photographs of him were nothing like seeing him in the flesh. I recognized myself more in him than I thought I would. He had Julia’s blue eyes, but the dark hair, the heavy jaw, that was all me. It surreal, really. I was a little afraid that he would take one look at me and know who I was. But he barely looked at me, more interested in the blond cheerleader who sat in front of him than anything else.
He got that from me, too.
It’d been more than a month now. A month of frustration as I tried to get him to pay attention, to stay awake, without seeming to single him out. I didn’t want any of the other students—or teachers—to think I was treating JT with any sort of preference. But it was driving me crazy, watching him destroy every opportunity that appeared before him without thought to his future. If he slept through all his classes like he did mine, he’d never make the grades required to get into a good college. And then where would he be.
And then it bugged the crap out of me that I was beginning to think like my own father.
It was frustrating having no control. So I thought, calling in his sister, suggesting a few ways to help out, perhaps it would make a difference.
But then she walked in here, all covered in flour, looking incredibly sexy…I wasn’t expecting the perfect curves hugged by low rider jeans and that simple cotton tee. Or the exhaustion in her eyes that made them seem bigger and greener than they looked in pictures. And the way her wavy mahogany-colored hair sat askew in its ponytail only made her look more vulnerable, more innocent, in a most alluring way. I couldn’t hardly put two thoughts together from the moment she walked through the door. And then she got mad—as if she had a reason to get pissed off—and that just set me off.
I hadn’t meant to make threats. But watching her storm out of here like that loosened my tongue.
I cursed under my breath after she’d gone, aware that I’d just opened a door that should have remained closed a little while longer. I gathered my things, shoving student essays into a leather case that was meant to carry million dollar business deals rather than badly written essays on Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and stormed off to the tiny house I was renting six blocks from the house where JT lived.
Everything in my life right now seemed to be measured by how it related to JT. How far my house was from his, how long until he was scheduled to sit in my classroom, how many days until I could sit in the stands and watch him dominate on the football field. At least when he played football I could take pictures to send back to Libby without someone thinking I was some sort of pervert, or something.
I walked into the house, dropped my case on the floor, and wandered into the kitchen, pouring myself a glass of rather expensive bourbon. A swallow or two and the uneasiness that had settled in my chest began to dissipate. My first instinct was to call my lawyer. That woman was clearly in over her head. All it would take was a petition by my lawyer in the local courts, and I could get custody of JT. The paperwork was already in order. My lawyer put it all together weeks ago when my investigator presented him with a DNA test done with a blood sample stolen from JT’s doctor’s office—JT had to have a physical at the beginning of the school year to play football; it was a cinch to steal a blood sample and have it tested in an independent lab with a stellar reputation.