Bayview Heights Trilogy (55 page)

“Why wasn’t any legal action taken against
Taylor?”

“Taylor’s attorney contended that a lot of
students got into fights, so Johnson’s actions weren’t that out of
the ordinary. He also showed that Taylor had set up several
counseling sessions for the boy, which Johnson skipped. The lawyer
did a pretty good job of showing Taylor in a good light, and by
then the district was in such an uproar, they decided to let Taylor
go. The girl’s parents, who wanted it over too, settled for
that.”

“No wonder he didn’t put his teaching
experience in Carson City on his application.”

“You can bury him with this, Mr. Cartwright.
He lied for the kid, then lied again on his application. Make this
public and he’s ruined.”

Philip said, “I was right. The man shouldn’t
be working with kids. He’s got to be stopped.”

o0o

LACEY DREADED coming home. At six o’clock on
Friday night, she let herself into the house with the same clutch
in her heart that she’d had since she’d run into Philip’s private
investigator on Wednesday. Not only was she walking on eggs,
fearful that he’d told Philip she’d been with Seth and wondering
why Philip hadn’t confronted her, but she was worried about Seth
and what the investigator might have found.

By tacit agreement, she and Seth didn’t
discuss the private investigator. Instead, they’d played with the
baby for a few hours, then taken him home to Mrs. Cornwall. They’d
spent a little time with the older woman...

“My boy loves you, Miss Cartwright,” she’d
said. “Are you goin’ to give him foster care?” The old woman rubbed
her injured hip, her eyes muddy with pain. “I’d feel better knowin’
he wasn’t with strangers.”

Lacey had hugged Josh, who sat on her lap.
“Yes, I’m going to apply for it. Seth is sure I’ll get him.”

“He needs you,” Mrs. Cornwall told her.

Lacey had brushed her lips across Josh’s
silky head. “I need him, too.”

Once they were back in his car. Seth held
Lacey for the first time since the night Kevin died.

“I’ve missed you so much,” she’d said, her
words muffled by his coat.

“I’ve missed you, too.”

She looked up at him. “I meant what I said.
Seth. I don’t blame you for Kevin’s death.”

His face was taut, his eyes wary. “Tell me
how you feel again. He grasped her shoulders. “I need to hear
it.”

“I love you. I’ll always love you.”

He’d returned the sentiment, over and over
again. Then he nodded to Mrs. Cornwall’s house. “Josh could be
ours, Lace. Permanently.”

Lacey sucked in her breath. “What are you
saying?”

He smiled and her heart stuttered. “I want to
marry you. I know this has happened fast, but I don’t care. I want
you to be mine for the rest of our lives.” He hugged her to him,
resting his chin on her head. “And Josh, too.”

When he raised his hand to brush her cheek,
she took it in hers, kissed it gently. “I want that, too. I want to
be your wife.”

His heavily expelled breath told her he
hadn’t been sure of how she felt. It made her ache for him. She
continued kissing him, tiny little pecks on each knuckle, the
outside of his hand, his fingernails. “We’ll have to go slowly, of
course. Because of Grandpa.” She scowled. “It could take a long
time for him to accept us, after Kevin’s death.” Even saying her
brother’s name caused the pain to surface.

“I’ll wait however long it takes,” he said.
“I won’t make you choose between us, Lacey, but I won’t let you go,
either. When things settle down, when Phillip’s stronger, we’ll
find a way to work it out.”

Before she’d left Seth, she’d mentioned the
private investigator. Seth had hugged her again, told her not to
worry, nothing could hurt him, but there’d been a tension in his
face, and a catch in his voice that had made her anxious...

That anxiety was still with her as she closed
the door behind her. She stopped in the dimly lit foyer, shed her
coat, gloves and boots and walked in stocking feet into the living
room.

The house was eerily quiet. No television or
radio playing Christmas stories or songs that made her miss Kevin
more. The decorated Christmas tree stood in the corner, but the
festive little bulbs had remained off since Kevin’s death.

Philip’s light was on in the den. A good
sign, she thought. Mostly, he just sat in his recliner and stared
into space. Lacey headed toward the room.

Her grandfather slouched behind his desk, his
eyes closed, his hands crossed over his stomach. There were papers
spread across his desk. Only a small reading lamp illuminated the
dusky atmosphere. A tingling sense of foreboding skittered through
Lacey. Because of it, she came fully into the den instead of
leaving Philip to doze. She crossed to the desk and stood on the
other side of it.

Upside down, she could see that the papers
scattered across the surface were from Adams Private Investigation.
Lacey’s stomach knotted painfully.

“He’s not a good man.” Philip’s voice
penetrated the fear that enveloped her.

Her gaze locked on her grandfather’s face.
“Yes, he is.”

Rousing. Philip straightened in his chair.
“Sit down, honey.”

She sat, her legs suddenly so weak she had no
choice.

Philip picked up the papers. “He taught
somewhere else before he came to Bayview Heights. Did he tell you
that?”

Woodenly she shook her head. He hadn’t.
Why?

As if reading her mind, Philip continued, “I
know why. He made a mess of things his first year of teaching. He
took some troublemaker under his wing. Got him off the hook with
the law, I understand. Then the kid went out and raped a girl.”

Lacey swallowed hard. “Oh, God. Poor Seth.
That must have killed him.”

Philip slapped the papers down on the desk.
“What about the girl?”

“I’m sorry for her, too. And her family. But
the boy’s actions weren’t Seth’s fault.” She raised her chin. “Just
like Kevin’s weren’t, Grandpa.” She leaned over and reached out for
his hand. He didn’t give it to her. “You’re too biased to see that
Seth isn’t to blame in either case.”

“Aren’t you upset about this at all?”

“Of course I am. I hurt for everyone
involved. But it’s still not Seth’s fault.” She softened her voice.
“Grandpa, he was so young. Almost a kid himself. He made a
mistake.”

Her grandfather flung back the chair and
stood. “He made an even bigger one by lying—first on the stand
about the kid’s violent behavior, then to the school district here
that he’d had no previous teaching experience.”

Lacey sat up straighter.

“That surprises you, doesn’t it? Well, not
me. He’s a con man and a menace to young people.”

Slowly Lacey shook her head. “No, Grandpa,
he’s not.”

Philip stared at her for a long time. She
didn’t flinch or release his gaze. Finally he sat back down. “I’m
going to make this public, Lacey. I’m going to run a full exposé
and hopefully it will end in Taylor’s dismissal from Bayview
Heights High School. I wanted to discredit him in your eyes, and
thought this would do it. But even if his reprehensible actions
don’t turn you against him, I’m going public. I’ll smear his
reputation so badly, he’ll have no choice but to leave Bayview
Heights.”

A chilling cold seeped into every pore of
Lacey’s skin. It raced through her body, making her shiver. She
banded her arms around her stomach as the realization sunk in.

She’d been a fool to think her grandfather
could accept Seth. She stared at the man she’d loved for all her
life. And she was grateful for one fact: she didn’t have to choose
between him and Seth.

Philip had just taken that choice from
her.

She stood, her hands tight around her waist.
“No, you won’t do that, Grandpa. I won’t let you.”

Fear—clear and potent—suffused his face.

“I want you to destroy those documents. Get
the originals from the private investigator you hired and destroy
those, too. I won’t let you hurt Seth.”

With the intuition of the star newspaper
reporter he’d been. Philip asked, “And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t, I’ll go back to California and
never see you again. I love you more than I can say, but I love
Seth, too, and I’ll do anything to keep you from hurting him.”

Philip’s body sagged. His face was a mirror
of the night he’d found out Kevin was dead. Gently she circled the
desk and put her arm around his shoulder. “But if you stop this
vendetta against him, and leave him alone, I’ll stay here, Grandpa.
I’ll run the newspaper and stay with you.” She waited a meaningful
moment, then said achingly, “We’ve lost Kevin, let’s not lose each
other, too.”

Philip stared up at her with eyes so old it
made her throat clog. “You’ll have to give Taylor up, Lacey.”

Her grandfather’s face blurred, and Lacey
grasped the back of his chair. “I will. I won’t see him or have any
contact with him at all.”

“You’d do that for me?”

She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I’d
do it for you both.”

o0o

SOMETHING WAS WRONG With Lacey. Something
more than Kevin’s death. Seth studied her from across the room
Saturday morning at the Franklin Street Day Care, as the
much-awaited children’s Christmas party got under way. They’d made
special arrangements to have all the kids in attendance today to
culminate weeks of preparation.

“Isn’t this cool, Mr. T.?” Nick came up
beside him, his hand linked to a small boy who gnawed on a Rice
Krispies treat. The child had wrapped a red ribbon around Nick’s
neck. The sight of the big football player tending to the little
boy reaffirmed once again how positive the entire Christmas Good
Deeds Project was. Seth had done something right. He’d been
thinking about all the things he’d done right here in Bayview
Heights, especially since he expected to hear from Albany about the
State Ed. job at the end of the week.

“Mr. T.?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s a great party, Nick. You did
a good job with this committee.”

“Nah, we all did it.” His eyes strayed across
the room and stayed there. “Darce is great with kids, isn’t
she?”

“Yeah.”

“Who would’ve thought?” Seth smiled at the
adolescent chagrin on Nick’s face. “I’m going to ask her to the
Winter Ball.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Seth told
him.

“Yeah, well, not to my buddies. Nobody can
believe I’m interested in her for anything but—” He broke off, his
face reddening, and made a project out of bending over to wipe the
little boy’s mouth.

“You are, though, aren’t you, Nick?
Interested in her as a person,” Seth said smoothly. “I can
tell.”

“Yeah.” Nick crossed his arms over his chest
and continued to stare at Darcy. “But the odds are against us.”

“You can beat the odds,” Seth said, staring
at Lacey across the room. She sat on the floor with Josh and a
little girl as they both ate doughnuts and Lacey played mop-up.

“Maybe. The toddler Nick was in charge of
darted away. “Oops, see you later.” Nick raced after the boy.

Seth mulled over his own words, using them to
comfort himself as he watched the woman he loved. Two days ago,
Lacey had agreed to marry him. He’d talked to her every night, but
hadn’t seen her since. Last night, he’d almost gone over to her
house when he heard the absolute despair in her voice.

Seth understood grief. He knew you went in
and out of it; some days were better than others. Nights were the
worst. He wished he could have held her last night. She obviously
hadn’t slept. Though she looked great in her bright red
sweater—that hugged her curves nicely, he noticed—and jeans, her
face was too pale. He hadn’t seen her up close yet, so after
perusing her at a distance, he sauntered over to where she sat.

He dropped onto the floor next to the two
toddlers and across from Lacey. “Hi.”

Before she could answer, Josh looked up and
grinned at him. “Se...Se,” he babbled.

Lacey watched them. The brief flare of
anguish in her eyes alarmed him. But she covered it with a smile.
“Hi.”

“Enjoying yourself?”

She nodded.

“You okay?”

She wouldn’t look at him; she just nodded
again. With strained precision—as if she was thinking about her
every move—she smoothed a hand down Josh’s hair. The boy grinned up
at her and mushed part of the doughnut he was eating into her
mouth. She laughed and Seth’s stomach relaxed.

“Can I see you for a few minutes after the
party?” he asked her.

“Sure.” Still she kept her eyes on Josh.

He was just about to call her on her evasion,
when he heard Nick say, “All right, guys. Guess who’s here?”

Everyone in the place turned toward Nick.

“Santa Claus!” the children squealed in
delight and scrambled to their feet.

“Stay where you are now, and Santa will sit
in the middle,” Nick told them.

Lacey grasped Josh, and Seth pulled the other
child onto his lap. Over the little girl’s head, he caught Lacey’s
gaze. His said,
This can be us. Forever
.

Her eyes glistened but she gave him a weak
smile.

The children tore into the presents Santa
distributed. Lacey held her breath with each package Josh opened.
Her eyes sparkled when he kept touching the Tonka truck she’d so
lovingly purchased.

Inside Josh’s stash was a small gift. Lacey
frowned when Josh picked it up. “What’s this?” she asked. “We
didn’t buy anything this small and soft.”

Seth smiled. “I got it for Josh. It’s a
special present.”

Before she could comment, Josh had ripped it
open. Lacey chuckled when she saw the bright blue and red colors of
a pair of superhero pajamas. Josh grinned and stood up. “On,” he
said to Lacey, shoving the pajamas—complete with a bright red cape—
at her.

She took the outfit with trembling fingers
and held up the top while Josh poked his head and hands through it;
then she fastened on the cape. Flinging his arms to the side, Josh
said, “Rmmmmmmm…” and took off across the room, with the little
girl following.