A Man She Can Trust. Roxanne Rustand

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СКАЧАТЬ the loss of both parents the year after she graduated from high school.

      Ashley seemed to melt into the soft cushions of the loveseat as she stared down at her tightly clasped hands. “We were doing okay, Ross and me. I’ve held a good job as a teacher’s assistant, and I’ve been going to night school. By summer I’ll be done with a whole year of college credits. But then…” Her eyes filled with renewed tears. “Ross started cutting class, and he got in some other trouble at school. He got suspended twice this year. The county says it will file charges against me if I don’t make sure that he goes to school every day. But I’m working, and going to school…”

      “So he’s home alone.”

      “He’s got a key,” Ashley snapped. Her gaze met Grace’s for a split second, then dropped back to her hands. She lowered her voice to a ragged whisper. “It isn’t good, I know. He’s only a sophomore, and he’s already got friends who’ve dropped out. Friends who…use.”

      “Sounds like a bad situation.” Grace thought back to some of the troubled teenagers she’d taken in over the years. She’d been younger then, able to cope and keep up, but some of those kids had been a full-time job unto themselves. Even so, the drug scene hadn’t yet swept into this part of the world.

      “I can’t be at work and school, and know where he is every minute. He’s getting an attitude like his daddy had, the just-try-and-make-me sort of sneer teachers hate. And…” She shifted uncomfortably. “He and his buddy were caught shoplifting in December.”

      “Oh, dear.” Grace glanced over at the boy slouched in the chair. He was probably a good five foot nine already, much taller and heavier than his diminutive mother.

      “A caseworker got involved,” Ashley added hastily. “Ross isn’t being sent away. Not this time. But if he messes up again, the judge will send him to a detention center. He’s only got one more chance, and I’m scared he’s gonna blow it.”

      Grace gave one fleeting thought to those travel brochures on the coffee table back home, then dismissed them without regret. “If you need money, I do have some put by.”

      A man in his early thirties appeared at the entryway of the hospital, jingled a set of keys and fixed Ashley with an impatient look.

      She nodded to him, then turned back to Grace. “I don’t want your money. Come this fall, I should have some student loans set up—me and Ross will be fine.”

      “Then…”

      “I won’t even have him by then, if he screws up any more. I need to get him out of Chicago, away from his friends—until the end of this school year.”

      Ashley leaned forward and took one of Grace’s hands into both of her own. “Please. Will you take my son?”

      “PRETTY SLICK, HUH?” Ross slouched on the couch in Grace’s living room, his mouth twisted in a sneer. “Five-minute intro, and you’re stuck with me.”

      “Stuck isn’t the word I would use. Not at all.” Grace propped her elbows on the armrests of her recliner and steepled her fingertips under her jaw.

      “Like you really wanted to find yourself saddled with a kid you barely know.” He turned his head to look disdainfully at her from the pile of crocheted pillows. “I bet you woke up this morning thinking, ‘Geez, I wish I had a fifteen-year-old hanging around. For months.’”

      “It honestly hadn’t crossed my mind. But, that doesn’t mean you aren’t welcome—or that I don’t look forward to getting to know you better.”

      “Ri-i-ight.” He drew out the sarcasm.

      “I still think your mother and her…friend should have stayed overnight. Chicago is over six hours away in good weather. Tonight, it might take twice as long.”

      “Tony owns a bar. He’d never miss being there on a weekend. And Mom wouldn’t miss her tips.”

      Surprised, Grace cocked her head. “She said she works as an assistant teacher.”

      “Part-time. Nights Thursday through Saturday, she tends bar and hangs out with Tony. She usually turns up at home on Sunday.”

      So Ross was unsupervised on weekends. Not a good thing, for a boy his age. Especially one who’d already been in trouble.

      “First thing, we’ll have to get you enrolled in school,” Grace said briskly. His jaw stiffened, and despite his bravado, she knew it had to be scary, thinking about walking into a strange school midyear. A place where he knew no one at all. “I remember there used to be quite a few families coming or going over winter vacation, so you probably won’t be the only new face.”

      “Whatever.”

      “Your mother,” she added with a smile, “must have been pretty sure this would all work out. She said she’d already requested that your school records be sent up here.”

      He snorted. “If you’d said no, she probably would’ve just taken off. You never had a choice.” He raised a brow. “She and ole Tony had it figured out before they ever left home.”

      Grace bit the inside of her cheek to hold back a tart reply. Had Ashley been that cunning? As an example to her son, it would be terrible. As an example of her love for him, it was even worse. He was young enough that it had to hurt. Deeply.

      “I think it’s good that you’re here,” Grace said simply. “So tell me, how much trouble were you in, back in Chicago?”

      “What—you gonna try to send me back?”

      Grace stood and moved an armchair next to the sofa, where she would be in his direct line of vision. “No, I’m going to enjoy your company. This place used to be a madhouse, with all the kids who grew up here. And now, it’s way too quiet.”

      She picked up a tapestry bag of knitting she’d left by the sofa and pulled out a pair of needles and a ball of soft, navy-blue mohair yarn. After casting on a row of stitches, she started knitting.

      “This will be a sweater,” she said over the soft clicking of her needles. “I could go out to a discount store and buy just any old blue sweater. Maybe pay twenty or thirty dollars. It wouldn’t mean anything to me, but it would be cheap and easy.”

      He stared up at the ceiling with a look of utter boredom.

      “Or, I can choose to do something really special. Something that takes a lot of time, a lot of hard work. Sometimes, I’ll make a mistake, and I’ll have to go back to make it right.”

      He didn’t say anything, though she could tell he was listening.

      “But in the end, I have something to be proud of, because of all the love and time that went into it. And in the years to come, I’ll remember all the good things that happened in my life while I was working on it.”

      She finished another few rows, then settled the yarn in her lap. “I can’t be your momma, Ross. I’m just your great-aunt. But I promise you that we’ll do well together, you and me.”

      “She dumped me here—away from my friends, my school,” he said bitterly.

      Grace СКАЧАТЬ