The Chase (19 page)

“Why?”

He smiled, but his eyes held a hint of resentment. “You come from a different world, where you eat at fancy restaurants and drink expensive wine.”

“That’s not true, Jake,” she said, her hands on her hips. “I don’t abstain from drinking beer because I’m a snob. I just don’t like the way it tastes.”

Jake held his hands up in the shape of a
T
. “Okay, time out. Let’s not get into a fight about it. I don’t care if you don’t like beer, Kendall. I don’t like wine. Let’s call it even, okay?”

“Fine.” Kendall opened the refrigerator and took out the bottle of Chardonnay. She wished she’d refused Jake’s offer to cook dinner. What she really wanted to do was unwind with a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers, and then crash for the night.

She followed Jake outside and helped gather wood for the fire. “Where do you want to eat? It might be cooler out here than inside.”

“Outside sounds good to me. There’s a nice breeze stirring.”

Kendall set the table on the patio and microwaved the potatoes that Jake had brought. Then she wrapped the potatoes in foil and took them out to the fire.

“The steaks smell good,” she said, handing the potatoes to him.

“It’s not Oklahoma beef, but they look pretty good.” He placed the potatoes in the fire and sat down on the bench next to her. “It’ll just be a couple more minutes.”

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes; then Jake pointed his beer bottle towards her legs. “You scraped your knees pretty good today.”

“It’s not my knees I’m worried about. They’ll heal. It’s the brand-new pair of breeches I ruined that really hurts.”

Jake smiled and nodded. “They looked like they cost a pretty penny.”

Kendall just nodded and they lapsed back into silence.

After a moment, Jake reached out and ran his fingers over the scar on Kendall’s shoulder. “You get that from a riding accident?”

Kendall recoiled from his touch. “No,” she said, offering no further explanation.

Jake raised his beer bottle to his lips. “What happened?”

She didn’t respond.

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse.”

“Tell me about it.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Suit yourself.”

He rose and cut into the steaks with a knife. “They look good. I guess we can eat now.”

Kendall held the plates while Jake served the steaks and potatoes, then set the plates down on the patio table. “Do you need another beer or anything else to drink?”

“No, I’m good,” Jake said, holding her chair out for her.

“Thank you.” Kendall sat down and let him help slide her chair in. She waited until he was seated, then cut into her steak.

“This is delicious.”

“Yeah, it’s not too bad.”

They ate in silence for a few moments, then Jake said, “Is it from your ex-husband?”

“What?”

“The scar on your shoulder. Is it from your ex-husband?”

She paused with her knife and fork in midair. “I told you before that I don’t want to talk about it.”

Jake ate another forkful of steak. “My father did the same thing to my mother.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jake acted as if she hadn’t spoken. “He used to get drunk and take it out on her. When I was a little kid, I used to try to make him stop. But then I figured out that made it even worse, so I used to hide under the covers in my room and pretend I didn’t hear what was going on.”

“Jake—”

He held his hand up to stop her. “Then one day, on my sixteenth birthday, they got in a fight because of me. He beat her up real bad. I stayed awake all night, planning a way to take her away from him. Because I knew that was the only way to save her.”

He stopped talking and concentrated on pulling the foil off his potato, seasoning it with butter and salt and pepper.

“Did you?” Kendall asked when he didn’t continue.

“Save her? Yup. I scrounged up all the money I could find and bought bus tickets for my mother and myself to the farthest place I could afford. We were gone by the time he got home.”

“Did he come after you?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t find us if he did come looking, but I’ve spent the better part of the last sixteen years watching over my shoulder.”

“Are you still?”

Jake toyed with the food on his plate. “No, my mother just passed away, so there’s no more need.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.”

Kendall studied him. “You said the fight they had on your sixteenth birthday was because of you. I hope you don’t blame yourself for what happened to your mother.”

He sighed. “Aw, I don’t know. I guess I do, in a way.”

“What happened?”

He placed his knife and fork on his plate and leaned back in his chair. “Like I said, it was my sixteenth birthday. My dad was drunk, as usual, and he started in on me at dinner. He asked if I was a man yet; whether I’d ever had sex.”

Kendall glanced away.

“When I told him I hadn’t, he got mad and called me a faggot. He told me he wasn’t going to let his flesh and blood embarrass him, and he hauled me into the car and took me down to the local bar.” Jake paused and gazed off in the distance.

“But it was a slow night and there weren’t any girls there,” he continued, shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts. “Just a couple of drunks playing pool. Boy, was my father mad. He made me sit at the bar with him while he had a couple shots of whiskey, getting madder by the minute. Then this woman walked in.
A hooker
. And my father’s mood shifted. He told me to wait out in his truck, and about five minutes later the woman came out without him, dangling the keys as she climbed in the cab. She had a big smile on her face, and she told me she was taking me somewhere to give me my birthday present.”

He paused and took a long swallow of his beer. “It was some birthday present all right. She drove down to the river and pulled off the road into the woods. Then she taught me about sex in the front seat of my father’s Ford.”

Kendall felt a warm blush creep up her cheeks.
Why was Jake telling her this?

Jake shrugged. “Anyway, that’s what my parents had a fight about. My mother didn’t stand up to my father very often, but that night she summoned up the courage to confront him. Trying to protect me from his evil ways.”

Kendall didn’t know how to respond, so she just sat quietly across from him, and their silence was filled with the sound of tree frogs and crickets.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I told you that,” Jake said after awhile.

“Don’t be sorry. Sometimes it helps to talk about things.”

He nodded. “Yeah, it does sometimes.”

“
C
ome on, kids, the bus is here,” Kendall said, motioning for Elizabeth and the campers to follow her. “Who needs to go to the bathroom before we get on the bus?”

She heard a chorus of “I do” and saw several hands shoot up in the air.

“Okay, let’s line up out here in the aisle, and three of you can go in at a time.” She stopped in front of the door to the girls’ bathroom.

“I’ll go in and help them,” Elizabeth said, herding the first three girls into the bathroom.

The door to the office opened and Margaret leaned out. “The bus is here, Kendall.”

“I know. We’re just making one last potty stop.”

“All right. By the way, do you mind if Todd tags along on the field trip?”

“No, of course not.”

“Great! I think he’ll enjoy it. Let me find him and tell him you’re about ready to go,” Margaret said, closing the door.

Elizabeth came out of the bathroom with the first group of girls. “Okay, next three.”

Kendall gave her a smile. “Margaret just asked if Todd could come along on the field trip.”

“What did you tell her?” Elizabeth crossed her fingers and held her hand next to her heart.

“I said yes.”

“Thank you.” Elizabeth beamed as she opened the bathroom door. “Come on girls, let’s hurry up.”

Samantha was one of the girls who had already visited the bathroom. “Kendall, I’m thirsty. Can I go in the office and get a drink of water?”

“Yes, you may. Wait for me in there. We’ll be there in a minute.”

“Can Emma come with me?”

“Sure.”

The girls took off for the office and Kendall leaned against the wall and stifled a yawn. She hadn’t slept well last night. The heat had been unbearable, and even though she’d gotten up around midnight and turned on the air conditioning, she’d still tossed and turned most of the night, unable to get her mind off what Jake had told her about his mother.

“Okay, we’re all ready,” Elizabeth said, coming out of the bathroom with the last group. “Let’s go see those cute little beagles.”

“Samantha and Emma are waiting for us in the office. I’ll go get them and meet you at the bus.”

Kendall opened the office door and saw Jake spinning around in a circle with Samantha and Emma, each holding on to one of his hands.

Samantha giggled. “Whee, I’m getting dizzy.”

“Me, too,” Emma squealed.

Jake looked at Kendall and smiled as he swung the girls around one more time before dropping them on the couch. “Okay, that’s enough. I’m getting dizzy, too.”

Kendall laughed. “Come on, girls. That looks like fun, but we’d better hurry, or we’ll be late for the field trip.”

“Where you going?” Jake asked.

“We’re going to walk the beagles.”

“Are you dog-sitting for someone?”

She smiled. “No. We’re going to exercise the hunting beagles.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember Samantha saying something about that. It’s a foxhunt for kids, where they hunt with beagles instead of foxhounds, right?”

Kendall nodded. “It’s geared towards teaching children about foxhunting.”

“Sounds like a fun field trip.”

“It is really fun,” Emma said. “We get to ride on a bus and everything.”

“Do you want to come along, Jake?” Samantha asked. “They allow grown-ups to come as long as they are with a kid. My daddy’s going to be there.”

Jake glanced at Kendall.

“Why don’t you come along? Todd’s coming, too,” she said.

“Sure, why not?”

“Yay!” Samantha jumped up off the couch. “Let’s hurry. We might miss the bus.”

“Okay, all aboard,” Kendall said, opening the door that led outside. The guard Doug had hired to look after Samantha was already in his car, parked behind the waiting bus.

“What’s the Greenfield Academy?” Jake asked, pointing towards the lettering on the side of the bus.

“It’s a local private school. Since they’re not in session during the summer, they let Margaret use the bus for the horse camp’s field trips.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “That’s a good deal. Do they provide the driver?”

Kendall nodded. “Mrs. Parker. She’s wonderful.”

Samantha and Emma skipped ahead, and by the time Kendall and Jake climbed aboard the bus, the girls had filled the last two of the six rows of seats. Elizabeth and Todd were seated next to each other, one row ahead of the girls.

“Let’s count heads,” Kendall said, tapping each girl on the head as she counted to eight. “Everyone needs to have a partner when we get to the kennels, so I want each of you to pair up with who you’re sitting next to on the bus. We went over the bus rules at lunch, so I know I can count on you to behave. If you’re really good today, that means that Mrs. Parker will come back again and drive us when we go to see the horses swim later this week. Okay?”

“Okay,” the girls cheered.

Kendall gave a thumbs-up to Mrs. Parker and sat down across the aisle from Elizabeth and Todd. Jake hesitated for a second, then chose the seat ahead of her, sitting sideways, with his long legs stretched out into the aisle.

“Did I hear you say that you take your horses swimming?” he asked, turning to face her as the bus lurched forward.

She nodded. “There’s a swim center near the training track. It’s a wonderful way to condition your horse, or to provide therapy after an injury.”

“Sounds interesting. I’d like to see that.”

“You can come along on Thursday, if you want.”

“I might just do that. Do you go on two camp field trips every week?”

“Actually, we go on three. We walk the beagles and see the horses swim, and then we end up the week of camp on Saturday by going to the Land of Little Horses, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.”

Jake arched an eyebrow. “Really? That’s quite a trip.”

“It’s about an hour-and-a-half drive. But the kids really enjoy it, and it’s a fun way to wrap up the week.”

“Do you ride on the bus when you go up there?”

“Yes, so it’s a relatively easy trip for me.”

Jake nodded and turned away, staring thoughtfully out the window.