Nate regarded Harrison with interest. “Hey, you’re the guy from Albertsons.”
“Yeah, your sister and I met again at the club last night.”
“Cool.” Nate’s eyes strayed back to the television set. “Do we have to go now? I really want to see the end. It’s almost over anyway.”
Makay glanced at Harrison, and he shrugged. “Sure. Whatever you want.”
Makay kissed Nate on the forehead. “Okay, honey, we’re going to talk to Lily for a minute.”
“Uh, Makay, do you have a moment first?” Brette had been on her knees rummaging through a suitcase and now she stood, a sheaf of papers in her hand. “I’ve been looking at some of my mother’s papers and there’s some financial stuff that’s a little confusing. I was going to ask Mario, but he’s been busy with some quarterly reports for one of his clients—and getting that upstairs shower to stop leaking. I haven’t dared ask.”
“Oh, sure.” Makay reached for the papers.
“More numbers,” Harrison teased.
Makay winked. “Numbers are predictable. That’s why I like them.”
“I know what you mean,” he said. “That’s kind of how I feel about electronics.” Loud noises from the television nearly obscured his last words.
“I’ll never be able to concentrate here,” Makay said. “Not with the sleep I didn’t get last night.”
“Go ahead.” Harrison settled onto the couch kitty-corner to the one the children were on. “I need to catch up on my Tom and Jerry anyway.”
“You sure?” She looked at him, and again he had to stifle an urge to kiss her. What was wrong with him? He wasn’t usually this obsessed. He hoped it was a good thing.
The women debated for a moment before going outside on the front porch. Harrison drew out his phone and checked his email. There was a text from Tianna asking when he was going to call Makay.
I’m with her now,
he responded.
Wow, you’ve got it bad! Are you bringing her to dinner tomorrow?
He hadn’t even remembered the Sunday family dinner. Was she ready to meet the rest of them, or would that be moving too fast? It was hard to know. But maybe now wouldn’t be a good time with the blackmailer shadowing his family. He hadn’t yet heard back from whoever had taken his note from his mother’s car.
A pregnant woman appeared in the doorway of the living room. Wispy blond hair fell to her shoulders, emphasizing her flushed face. She was pretty in a wholesome, earthy way and looked a bit like her sister, Tessa.
She smiled when she saw him. “I didn’t know we had company.” She crossed the room and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Lily Perez, and you are?”
“Harrison Matthews. I came with Makayla. She’s helping Brette with some papers.” He tipped his head toward the front door to indicate where she’d gone.
Lily blinked slowly, as if surprised. “You must be the guy she met last night.” She grinned. “You don’t let any time pass, do you?”
There was a little admiration in the comment and no obvious censure, so Harrison laughed. Her words at least verified that Makay wasn’t seeing anyone else. “Why wait?”
“Why, indeed?” Lily’s eyes slid to the boys and then to the television. “Hey, boys, I have Snoop’s food ready. Don’t you think you should give it to him?”
“It’s almost over,” the younger boy said.
“I hate to tell you, but that’s the end.” As Lily spoke, the screen darkened and the credits began to roll.
“Wow,” Nate said. “You must have watched this before.”
“Only a hundred times,” Lily said under her breath. Louder, she added, “The food for your dog is on the table. He’s waiting.”
Harrison chuckled as the boys jumped from the couch and ran for the kitchen. “You can come along,” Lily said to him. “Have you met Snoop? You’d probably better get that over with. He’s . . . uh, something else. Makay will come looking for us when she’s ready.”
“Sure.”
Her stare landed on the painted teenager still lounging on the couch. “Raven, Tessa called, and she asked if you wanted to exercise Serenity for her.”
The girl jumped up, her sullen face transforming into eagerness. “Oh, yes! Right now?” At Lily’s nod, she bolted from the room, throwing a “Thank you!” over her shoulder.
A sudden nostalgia hit Harrison as he realized he’d just glimpsed into that child’s soul. No matter what she’d experienced in her life, these women would reach her because they had taken the time to understand her dreams.
Lily nodded at his expression. “You see it. Good. What do you do anyway? We can always use volunteers.”
“Makay said you’d put me to work. I’m good with electronics.”
“Really?” Lily’s head swung back and forth as she led the way from the room. “You’re not going to believe this, but only last week I decided to put in an alarm.” She glanced up at him, her voice lowering. “Not to keep people out, but to keep the girls in at night. They’re here because they want to be, but they still have a lot of bad influences working on them out there. If they know there’s an alarm we set for our protection at curfew, I think it will help them to make excuses to those influences—especially during the hours between midnight and six o’clock when inhibitions are low.”
“Makes sense. But if you don’t mind my saying so, you seem a little young to know all that.”
She laughed, tilting her head back slightly. “I didn’t come from a poor background, but I was one of these girls—abandonment comes in all forms. I know how they think. I give them a safe place, but safe places for teens mean boundaries. Most of my girls want to become something, and they understand limits. As for the others . . . well, we’ll find a way to help them.”
They’d reached the kitchen now, which was big, spotless, and more than a little old-fashioned. The cupboards were all painted white and the ancient fridge was green. The yellow paint on the electric stove was peeling, but at least it coordinated with the yellow laminated countertops. His mother would find it impossible to cook in such a place now, but she wouldn’t have always felt that way. He had vague memories of an apartment with torn wallpaper and cracks in the linoleum floor.
The room was emptied of all but one Hispanic girl who sat at a long table in front of a magazine, earbuds in her ears and an iPod in her hand. She looked up at him, her gaze frightened, but a glance at Lily reassured her. Harrison wondered what the girl might have been through to make her so afraid of a stranger.
“They’re out here,” Lily said, leading him out a back door onto a wide covered porch where a half dozen teens sat listening to music or reading. All of them looked up at him curiously, but Lily went down the stairs without introducing him. On the expansive back lawn, the two boys wrestled with a monster of a dog that was an oddly mottled black and white and brown. His hair was mid-length and he looked well fed, as testified by the empty dish on the grass. He bounded to Lily and snuffled at her, but when Harrison reached out to pet him, he barked viciously and ran away.
“Don’t be too concerned about that,” Makay said from behind them.
Great, the dog hated him and Makay had shown up just in time to witness it.
“He hated me the first month I moved to my dad’s after Nate was born,” Makay said, “but now he follows me everywhere. He has no judgment with people.”
“Thanks a lot,” Lily said. “He took right to me.”
Makay grinned. “Everyone likes you, Lily.”
That was the moment Snoop looked up from playing with the boys, caught sight of Makay, and once again came bounding toward them. He made a huge circle around Harrison, pausing to growl at him every so often, as he came to Makay’s other side, jumping up on her. She pretended to grab him and the game was on. Soon, Makay and the boys were wrestling about on the grass. Harrison wished he could join them, but he worried about the dog’s reaction. Makay played with such abandon, and he didn’t want to interrupt.
“I don’t often see her like this,” Lily said softly.
“What’s she normally like?” Makay had lived here at Lily’s House. Had it only been to get custody of Nate or had she been one of these wounded girls he’d seen here? A knot formed in his stomach at the idea.
“Makay’s had a tough life,” Lily said, “but she’s a survivor. She’s been on her own pretty much since she was twelve. And I do mean on her own—food, finding a place to sleep, getting to school. Everything. I don’t know all of it because she doesn’t like to talk about those years, but I know she slept in parks and in abandoned cars. She wore clothes she found in Dumpsters. It was really bad, as bad as any of my girls.”
Twelve? Sleeping in a park? Dumpsters? He couldn’t imagine any of that. At twelve, he’d been teasing his sisters and playing video games. His biggest decision was whether to play on a soccer team or try out for basketball. To eat a burrito or ask for spaghetti. Wear his name-brand shorts or the designer jeans. Sure, he’d always done his best to avoid Eli, and life had been tense at times, but the man had provided well for him.
“That’s really tough,” he murmured. “I never would have thought.” Somehow it felt like a betrayal for them to be discussing Makay without her knowledge.
Lily turned on him, her expression grave and her hands resting on her extended belly. “I’m only telling you this because I want you to understand that Makay isn’t like other people. She’s different. She’s special. She means a lot to me, and I don’t want to see her heart broken.”
He swallowed hard. “That makes two of us.”
She nodded but concern still creased her forehead. Harrison wanted to say more, to tell her about the feelings he had, but he was afraid of coming across like . . . well, like the stalker he and Makay had joked about.
“I’ll look into your alarm,” he said instead.
Lily relaxed, her hands falling to her sides. “I have enough budgeted for the parts if I buy them online, but getting something installed is like ten times more, so that’s what I’m looking to avoid. My husband would like the kind that sinks into the window frames instead of the ones that attach with stickers. Less chance of falling off or being tampered with. He can help with the drilling, but he doesn’t know much about electronics. Will you let me know what kind I should get?”
“They’ll just have to be wireless.” Harrison didn’t really have experience with alarms, but he was confident he could make it work. The biggest challenge would be placing the sensors. After that, it would be a simple matter of reading the manual to figure out how to program the control pad. They talked about how many doors and windows for a few minutes until Makay joined them.
“Okay, I think we’re ready.” Makay was breathing hard, and the sleeve of her sweatshirt had fallen down to reveal her tank top and a bare shoulder. Moisture beaded on her forehead. Harrison felt hot in his short sleeves so he could imagine she must be boiling. “Thanks so much for watching Nate.”
“He was perfect,” Lily said. “He kept Jonny occupied all night and all morning. Let’s do it again soon.”
Makay nodded. “Sure.”
“Yay!” shouted the boys in unison.
“You can even bring that mutt,” Lily added with affection in her voice. “I do believe he chased away that hedgehog we’ve been having trouble with. At least for today.”
Nate snapped a leash onto Snoop’s collar, and they made it back to Harrison’s car without incident. Just as he was getting worried about Snoop’s nails digging into his leather seats, Makay spread out the blanket she’d tossed in the back earlier. The dog bared his teeth once at Harrison before hopping delicately onto the blanket as if he’d done it a million times.
Harrison grinned at Makay. “Thanks.”
“Better than using it for a picnic?”
He hesitated. “Well, that would be fun, too.”
“Oh, boy! A picnic!” shouted Nate. His joy only lasted a few seconds. “Aw, but I promised to remind you about getting my haircut.”
“That’s right.” Makay ran her hands over his blond hair. “It’s long overdue.”
“Oh, and I thought he was trying out for a rock band or something.” Harrison started around the car.
“Can I?” Nate looked pleadingly at Makay.
She laughed. “Maybe in a few years. Now get in.” Over the hood of the car she mouthed at Harrison, “A rock band? Really?”
“Hey, I’m still going to be in a band someday. Guy’s gotta have his dream.”
She rolled her eyes. “Puleeese.”
Inside the car, Harrison noticed that Makay wrapped her arms around herself. “You cold?” he asked.
“Yeah. Weird, huh? Such a nice day, too.”
Harrison agreed. In fact, it was such a nice day that he didn’t want it to end. Well, who was he kidding? He didn’t care what kind of a day it was, as long as he could figure out a way to extend their time together. “I know a place that does great haircuts,” he said. “We could stop on the way back.” Afterward, it shouldn’t be too much problem to convince them to share a picnic lunch with him.
“What about Snoop?”
Harrison looked around at the dog, who growled deeply. “Right. Back to your apartment then.” Leave it to the dog to destroy his plan. At least he seemed to be behaving in the backseat with Nate.
“There’s a place in Mesa we go to,” Makay said. “They don’t mind if Snoop comes and waits outside. There’s a pole where we can tie his leash. They’re really fast and you don’t need an appointment.”
“Makay used to cut my hair herself,” Nate said, “but it looked kind of funny.” Before either of them could respond, he continued, “Hey, this car is like ours. Can we have the top down?”
“What about Snoop?”
“Oh, he loves the wind. Just like me.”
Harrison glanced at Makay for approval and saw that her head lay against the back of the seat and her eyes were a little glazed. Probably the lack of sleep coming back at her with a vengeance. He took her silence as an okay and lowered the top.
The mid-September day was gorgeous—just enough breeze to make it more pleasant, but still warm enough to do anything they chose. Harrison’s mind raced. Maybe he could take her out on Eli’s boat or to a park for a real picnic. Or maybe they’d go to an amusement park.
“You up for lunch afterward?” he asked.
“Yeah. Sounds fun.” Her smile warmed him clear to the tips of his toes. Once he was on the freeway, he reached out and took her hand, holding it in his own. Her skin was warm and oh-so-soft.