All He Ever Desired (The Kowalskis) Read online

  He rolled his eyes. “Like there’s any trouble to get into in Whitford. I can’t believe you won’t let me take driver’s ed. If one of us had a car, we could actually go somewhere.”

  “If you can’t handle homework, you can’t handle driving.” This wasn’t the first time they’d had this discussion. “When I see a semester with no detentions, all your assignments done and the best grades you can achieve, we’ll talk about it.”

  “Whatever.” He got up and grabbed his backpack. “I have to write a stupid book report about some stupid book, so I’m going to go read.”

  More than likely, he was going to shove earbuds in his ears, crank some angry rock music on his iPod and stare at his ceiling, but she left him alone. If she tried to make him feel better, she’d have to make excuses for Dean and she wasn’t in the mood.

  Her phone rang and she saw the library’s number in the caller-ID window. Hailey Genest, the Whitford librarian, was not only one of her best friends, but was fun and fairly drama-free, so she welcomed the call. “The dog ate my library books.”

  “Ha, you’re funny,” Hailey said. “Though that’s actually happened. You should have seen what was left of the book. Anyway, you have to get out of work early on October fifth.”

  Lauren walked over to the calendar hanging on the fridge. “That’s two weeks from today, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Why do I need to get out of work early?”

  “I made us a salon appointment. You know, for Paige’s wedding?”

  “Is she definitely getting married on the sixth?”

  “I guess Mitch is still waiting to hear from Liz, but the rest of the family can come from New Hampshire, so they’re going to do it. Paige said Mitch will get Liz here one way or another.”

  She grabbed a pen and wrote wedding in the Saturday block. “What time is the appointment? Oh...wait. Dean’s coming on Friday to pick up Nick. They’re going camping for the long weekend, so I had to get out early anyway. What time did you make the appointment for?”

  “Two. I’m closing the library at noon and we’re heading for the city, baby.”

  “Dean’s picking Nick up at noon. It’ll be close.”

  “We’ll make it. And it’s my treat. Hair, facials, manicures, pedicures, the works.”

  It sounded like heaven. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone to a salon. Usually she ran into the barbershop during a lunch break and had Katie trim her hair. “I’m not letting you pay.”

  “You can’t stop me. It’s going to be awesome girl-time and we’ll look hot as hell for the wedding. Oh, and speaking of hot, what’re you wearing?”

  “I haven’t gotten that far. I looked in my closet, but all I have is a funeral suit and a dress with shoulder pads and sequins I don’t remember buying.”

  “Since you were still a kid in the eighties, I’m going to pretend you went on a drunken shopping spree. We’ll find you a dress on the fifth, too. Something sexy and slinky.”

  Lauren laughed. “I was thinking something warm, since Paige is getting married outside in October.”

  “Trust me. We’ll find the perfect dress. Something you can dance in, too.”

  She didn’t plan on doing any dancing. It was something she wasn’t very good at and tended to save for very dark nightclubs that served copious amounts of alcohol. “I have to go wash my floor.”

  “And I have to batten down the hatches for the homework club. Last week the homework seems to have been to sneak all the sexy romances into the Y.A. room and giggle over them.”

  “Lucky you. I’d rather mop my floor.”

  By the time she was satisfied the old linoleum was as clean as she could get it, Nick had come out of his room. “You want a snack, honey?”

  “I was thinking, you wanna watch a movie or something?”

  She didn’t, really. She needed to get started on the laundry and make a shopping list. But it was his way of reaching out, so she nodded. “You get the movie, I’ll make the popcorn.”

  * * *

  Ryan knew he should be doing the final prep work so he could pull the kitchen windows out and put the new ones in with as little inconvenience to Rosie as possible, but he couldn’t be bothered. Instead, he sat on the porch with a beer, enjoying the quiet.

  He’d always considered Saturdays just another workday, but he didn’t have a lot of ambition today. Matt and Dill had headed back to Massachusetts for the weekend the night before in one of the trucks. Rosie’s car was in the shop, so she’d taken Josh’s truck to some antique place with Fran Benoit. And because she had Josh’s truck, Josh had taken Ryan’s truck into town to do some errands.

  Ryan couldn’t go anywhere without a vehicle and he didn’t feel like working, so he’d popped a beer and sat down. An hour later, he woke up, groggy and with a stiff neck from his head flopping over in the chair.

  A sound caught his attention and he lifted his head, trying to place it. It was a weird plink, like something tapping glass, and probably what had woken him up. It wasn’t until he froze, straining in the silence, that he heard the pop of a pellet gun.

  Somebody was shooting at the new windows. No doubt the same damn somebody who’d been making a nuisance of himself for weeks.

  Ryan’s instinct was to go running out back, where the windows were leaning up against the barn waiting to be installed, but he didn’t. Instead he crept around the house and peeked until he spotted a teenage boy just in the tree line. Though it would probably cost him a pane of glass, he took his time moving to a spot where the kid couldn’t see him and sneaked into the woods. He slowly made his way through the trees and, by the time the vandal saw him it was too late.

  The kid made a break for it, but Ryan had momentum and took him down to the ground. The pellet gun went flying and he hauled the boy to his feet by the back of his collar.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  The kid squirmed, trying to break free, but Ryan had been in construction a long time and had a strong grip. With his free hand, he slipped his phone out of its holster and dialed the Whitford Police Department.

  “Please don’t call the cops,” the boy pleaded, but Ryan wasn’t screwing around. The Northern Star Lodge had enough woes without some punk kid making it worse.

  After the dispatcher promised to send an officer, Ryan marched the kid around the house and told him to sit down. “What’s your name, kid?”

  He got no response, but the sullen disrespect the boy was going for didn’t mask the fear on his face. He was probably so afraid he couldn’t talk if he wanted to.

  “Suit yourself. I bet whoever shows up to cart your sorry vandalizing ass to jail will know who you are.”

  Ten minutes later, a cruiser pulled up the drive and Drew Miller got out. Mitch’s best friend was the police chief now, which boggled Ryan’s mind, and they shook hands before Drew turned his attention to the vandal.

  “What’s up, Nick?” The kid shrugged one shoulder, staring at the police chief’s shoes. Drew pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. “I have a list here of all the incidents Rose and Josh have reported for the last few weeks. You know anything about them?”

  The one-shoulder lift again, and Ryan had to give him credit for not lying outright, at least. “You know how much those windows cost? Bet your parents are going to love paying for those.”

  Nick got pale and finally looked up, locking his gaze on Ryan. “I’m sorry. I’ll pay for the windows. And for the other stuff.”

  “Have a lot of money stuffed under your mattress?” Drew asked.

  “No. I can work it off. I can mow and split wood and do whatever you need me to. Please don’t make my mom pay. She’s trying to save up for new tires before winter and she just had to spend a bunch of it on school stuff for me and she works really hard....”

 
; Ryan forced himself to keep the stern look going when the kid’s words tapered off. He was obviously choked up, but there were going to be consequences one way or another. “After all the damage you’ve done, why would I want you on the property? I have expensive tools and trucks, and the supplies aren’t cheap.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry you got caught. You didn’t think anybody was home and, if I hadn’t been, you’d have come back and trashed something else when you got bored.”

  Drew cleared his throat. “Nick, what’s your mother’s cell number?”

  He punched it into his cell phone as the kid mumbled the digits, then stepped away to make the call.

  “I’ll work it off,” the kid said again.

  Ryan shook his head. “You sneak around, destroying our property, and now you expect me to believe you have a work ethic? And the integrity to stick it out?”

  It was too bad, though. The kid was young, but looked fairly strong. And, if nothing else, he could pick up after he, Dill, Matt and Andy Miller—who was Drew’s dad and had been working around the place for a few weeks—were done for the day. Cheaper than paying his guys to pick up tools. But the kid was trouble and he didn’t need any more of that.

  Drew walked back over, putting his phone away. “Your mom’s on her way.”

  Nick’s shoulders slumped and he stared down at his feet. Ryan decided to leave him to his sulk and turned to Drew. “You have that list?”

  Drew handed him the paper and a pen. “He’s never done anything like this before. He’s always been a good kid.”

  Ryan went down the list, putting estimated dollar amounts to each incident. He wrote in the cost of the windows at the end, but a quick glance had shown him that only two were damaged. The total wasn’t huge, just a few dollars over nine hundred, but that wasn’t counting the aggravation, either.

  He handed the list back to Drew and, with nothing else to do until the kid’s mother showed up, decided on small talk. “How are things going?”

  “You probably heard Mallory and I split.” Ryan nodded. “Other than that, everything’s the same old shit. My dad said you run a tight ship over here.”

  Ryan let him get away with the swing in subject. Divorces sucked. “Dill and Matt are good guys, but if I didn’t have my thumb on them, they’d be on those damn phones all day.”

  “Did you ever find out what happened between Rosie and my old man?”

  Rose Davis hadn’t spoken to Andy Miller in almost thirty years and nobody knew why. She’d thrown a fit when Mitch and Josh had hired him to work around the lodge, but something had happened and she’d forgiven him, apparently. For what, none of them knew.

  “Nope. I’m not sure if anybody knows but them, and they don’t seem to be telling.”

  Drew went on to say something else, but Ryan’s attention turned back to the boy. His name was Nick. He looked to be about sixteen. He was kind of tall, with dark hair and light brown eyes and a nose just like Dean Carpenter’s. Oh, shit.

  “Tell me that’s not Lauren’s kid,” he said, interrupting Drew in midsentence.

  “You didn’t know that?”

  “I haven’t seen him since he was a baby.” When he’d tried to talk Nick’s mother into leaving Nick’s father and running away with him.

  Great. So much for keeping Lauren out of sight and mostly out of mind. She was pulling up the driveway.

  * * *

  Lauren pulled up behind the Whitford PD cruiser and unclenched her fingers from the steering wheel so she could put the car in park and shut it off. Of all the stupid crap Nick had ever pulled, this was the worst.

  Vandalism. Damages. Possible criminal charges. And of all the windows in all the world, he had to break Ryan Kowalski’s.

  She was so angry she could barely think and she hadn’t even heard the entire story yet. Through the windshield, she could see her son sitting on the front porch of the lodge, looking thoroughly ashamed of himself. Not that it was going to save him, because he’d put her in one hell of a bad position, but at least he wasn’t copping an attitude. Taking a deep breath, she got out of her car and walked to the two guys.

  “Hey, Drew.” When he raised an eyebrow, she rolled her eyes. “Chief Miller. Hi, Ryan.”

  “Hi, Lauren,” Ryan said, and she tried not to think about how much she loved the sound of her name on his lips.

  She shook off the momentary distraction. “I’m really sorry about this. I have no idea what got into him. Was Cody with him?”

  “I didn’t see anybody else,” Ryan said.

  Drew shook his head. “Nope. This was just him.”

  She pointed at Nick and then at the ground in front of her. He got out of the chair and walked over like a condemned man on his way to the gallows. “What were you thinking?”

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, looking at the ground.

  He didn’t know it yet, but he hadn’t even begun to be sorry. She didn’t have the extra money to spend on something like this and neither did Dean.

  “How much do I owe you?” she asked Ryan. She wished she could mumble and look at the ground like her son, but she forced herself to look the man in the eye. God, he had gorgeous eyes.

  “Nine hundred sixty dollars.”

  “Jesus, Nick.” She glared at her son, not even sure what to say. He’d done almost a thousand dollars’ worth of damage to somebody else’s property. Screwing up in school was bad enough, but this... She was having trouble wrapping her mind around the fact Drew wasn’t there on a social visit. He was there as the chief of police. For her son.

  “Mom, I—”

  “Don’t say a word,” she snapped. This was the closest she’d ever come to totally losing her temper with her son. “Don’t even open your mouth, because there’s nothing you can say that’s going to fix this. Over nine hundred dollars, Nicholas.”

  “He’s going to work it off,” Ryan said.

  Nick’s head jerked up. “But you said—”

  “I know what I said. But I’ve had a few minutes to cool off and the chief says you’ve never been in trouble before.”

  “I can pay,” Lauren said. It would be a sacrifice, but it was only right. There went her snow tires. She’d just have to nurse the ones she had through another winter. Leave herself extra time and pray a lot. She could forget a new dress for Paige’s wedding, too. Her shoulder pads and sequins would be quite the conversation starter.

  “By the time I’m done making him sweat, he’ll never do something this stupid again.”

  He had a point. Mom writing a check was a punishment too easily forgotten. But the logistics of Nick working off that kind of money made her head hurt. “He can’t miss school, and he has to do his homework. By the time I get home from work and drive him here, it would be almost suppertime. And he goes with Dean on the weekends, but I’ll just have to tell him it’ll be every other weekend until this is done.”

  It was odd, mentioning Dean to Ryan. It made her think of the day he’d shown up at the crappy apartment she and her husband lived in. She’d had Nick on her hip and he’d been fussy that day because it was hot. Ryan had promised her a nice house with a backyard, and he’d told her he’d love her the way she deserved to be loved. She’d said no because she loved Dean.

  That worked out well.

  Ryan shook his head. “I don’t want to cut into his time with his dad. We can figure something out. The bus goes by here, so maybe it could drop him off.”

  Drew nodded and tapped his pen on his notebook. “If he takes the bus here after school, he can do his homework in the kitchen, if it’s okay with Rose, and then get right to work. If you don’t mind eating just a little later than usual, he could work a couple of hours before you pick him up.”

  She just wasn’t sure. On the one hand, she didn’t have almost
a thousand dollars to pay for her son’s stupidity. On the other, that would be a pretty grueling schedule for Nick. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t want him too tired to pay attention in class.

  This was serious, though, and even if she had to be in contact with his teachers every day to make sure he was keeping up, he had to learn this lesson. What he’d done was criminal and she wanted to make sure he didn’t forget it for a good, long time. “That would work. I can make it work.”

  “I think Tuesdays and Wednesdays would be enough,” Ryan said, looking at Nick. “Mondays always suck enough, and Thursday you’ll need to hang with your mom and get your stuff ready to go to your dad’s Friday after school, right?”

  Nick nodded. “Yes, sir. But I’ll come Mondays, too. It’s a lot of money and I’ll do the three days a week.”

  “Fine. I’ll see you Monday after school. Make sure you’re here.”

  “I will be.”

  Lauren would make sure of it, no matter how much it messed with her schedule.

  “I’m going to temporarily file this as resolved,” Drew said. “But if you don’t get off that bus here on Monday afternoon, Nick, I’ll be knocking on your door.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  Drew left then, and Lauren told her son to go sit in the car. Once he’d closed the door, Lauren faced the lodge and blew out a breath. It was such a pretty house—a huge, white New Englander with a deep porch and dark green shutters. It was definitely looking a little ragged around the edges, though, and she was so disgusted her son had been sabotaging their efforts to restore it.

  “I know it seems bad,” Ryan said. “And it’s not good, but it’s not like he kicked my dog and set the house on fire, either.”

  “Do you have a dog?”

  “No. Do you?”

  As if it mattered. Here they went with the awkward conversation again. “I’m really sorry he did this, Ryan. I don’t know where it came from.”