Season of Redemption. Jenna Mindel

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СКАЧАТЬ made a face. “It’s like tar.”

      “Get here on time and you can make the coffee.” His voice sounded stern, but Kellie knew better. John was all bark.

      Still, she managed a sheepish smile. “Sorry I’m late. I overslept.”

      John nodded. “How’d your interview go yesterday?”

      Kellie had left early to interview with the large school district in Traverse City. One of their school counselors had tendered her two weeks’ and needed to be replaced. The school was currently interviewing. John knew the school’s superintendent and had pushed to get her in the door. She owed him big-time.

      “Promising. Very promising.” Kellie added more cream and sugar to the super strong coffee.

      Again, John nodded. “Ginny’s not here today, so I’d like you to take this morning’s assessment. It’s a court order and the guy’s waiting in the lobby.”

      Kellie peeked at the tall, dark and handsome man pacing the tiles. “You want me to take him?”

      “Yes, I do. We’re all part of a team. When one of us is missing, others fill in. Besides, you’ve done well with our teens. I think you’re ready.”

      She was ready. With only a month left of her internship, Kellie had been doing teen assessments on her own. She’d even facilitated the teen group sessions for the last few weeks. Kellie had shadowed her mentor, Ginny, for months. She knew how to conduct an adult assessment. She’d seen it done by the best.

      Still, Kellie didn’t appreciate the way her heart pounded. Was it normal nerves or something else? She peeked again at the guy in the lobby and a flutter of attraction rippled through her.

      Nope, not going there.

      The guy moved with impatient grace, like some fairy-tale prince who’d lost his way to the castle, but he was no storybook hero charging in to give Kellie a happily-ever-after. Kellie didn’t believe in fairy tales anymore. She believed in hard work and faith in God to get a person where they wanted to go.

      “Here’s the alcohol screening questionnaire he completed. Looks pretty clean.” John handed her Prince Impatient’s paperwork. “It’s his first offense.”

      “You mean the first time he’s been caught.” Kellie scanned the documents for his name. Ryan Marsh.

      John gave her a tsk-tsk of warning. “Careful, Kellie, you haven’t been here long enough to be that cynical.”

      Kellie shrugged. Her cynicism had been cultivated long ago. She flipped through Ryan’s papers. He’d been court-ordered for a substance abuse assessment as part of his conditional sentence for Operating While Visibly Impaired. A misdemeanor. It didn’t matter that he’d been hit with the lowest charge; the guy had been arrested for an alcohol-related crime. In her book, that made him a modern-day leper—treat with compassion but do not touch.

      “Okay.” The lobby seemed to shrink before her eyes. She could do this. She knew how to control her reactions and her feelings. She’d done it for years.

      Kellie glanced at Marci, sitting primly behind a sliding glass window that gave her an eyeful of Prince Impatient’s delectable pacing. “Give me a minute and then send him back.”

      “Sure thing, Kellie.” Marci snapped her gum and gave her a wink.

      Kellie took a steadying breath, picked up her doctored coffee and headed for her office. It was one thing meeting with kids, quite another to assess someone so handsome it hurt to look at him.

      After five minutes of mental prep, she looked up to see her Prince Impatient literally darken her doorstep. If a person could look like a thundercloud personified, it was definitely Ryan Marsh.

      “Come in, Ryan, please. I’m Kellie Cavanaugh, an intern here.” She extended her hand hoping he didn’t notice the way her voice had cracked.

      He briefly returned her handshake.

      Kellie didn’t cower at his strength or the fact that he towered over her. “Have a seat.”

      He sat down, his knees brushing the front of her desk. So far, he hadn’t said a word, but she could feel his frustration and something darker emanating from him like a low growl. Shame? This bear of a man had been caught in his own snare.

      “So, tell me why you’re here.”

      His eyes widened slightly, and he wiped his palms against long, jean-clad thighs as if it took considerable effort to remain seated. His impatience hadn’t cooled as he gestured toward the paperwork on her desk. “You’ve got the court order.”

      “Yes, I do. But I’d like to hear your story.”

      “It’s so stupid.” His deep voice sounded remorseful rather than defensive.

      Most stories she’d heard here were, but Kellie didn’t say that. She nodded for him to continue.

      “How long will this take? I’ve got to get to work.”

      Ryan had a job that he was worried about keeping. Definitely a good sign. Same with his questionnaire. He’d given a lot of right answers, but that didn’t mean they were true.

      “About an hour or so. I have a series of questions to ask, so you might as well get comfortable.”

      He nodded but didn’t relax.

      “You were about to tell me what happened,” Kellie coaxed.

      “I was at a party and had a few beers too many—” His gaze pierced her. “Something I don’t usually do. Anyway, a friend agreed to drive me home. While I was waiting for him in my truck, I must have dozed off. The police were called because of the noise, and the next thing I knew I was arrested.”

      Kellie studied him. Hard. Something didn’t add up. He didn’t usually have a few too many beers? Right. A person didn’t get arrested without cause. “What happened to your friend?”

      “He bailed on me.”

      Classic.

      She sat back. “Do you hang out with this friend a lot?”

      Ryan shook his head. “No. We went to high school together. I ran into him at a football game, and he invited me to the party and I went. He hadn’t been drinking and agreed to drive me home.”

      “In your truck?” Kellie had heard all kinds of lame excuses sitting in on assessments. This one was right up there.

      He ran his hand through thick dark hair that had a nice wave to it. “Yeah. I know. Stupid.”

      “So the police arrested you because...?” She wanted his perspective on why he’d gotten into trouble.

      “It was cold that night, so I started the truck to turn on the heat. I was sitting in the passenger seat, but it didn’t matter. The cops said I had control of the vehicle with the intent to drive.”

      “And did they talk to your friend?”

      “No. СКАЧАТЬ