Headed for Trouble

CHAPTER FOUR

“I mean it, Jack.” Arlene came out of the kitchen, temper blazing. “You do not want to be here when Maggie gets home.”

Jack settled back in the chair she’d recently vacated, ready to argue, but the phone rang again.

Arlene was still holding the cordless handset, and she forcefully clicked it to talk, and put it to her ear. “I don’t care if your rehearsal’s not over yet, you get yourself home.” She looked surprised, then, as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the phone—it was probably not Maggie, judging from the heightened color along her delicate cheekbones.

She was beautiful, and Jack knew full well that the gorgeous red hair and charming freckles, the big green eyes and gracefully shaped mouth, and the lithe, athletic body were just the outer package. He’d fallen in love with the funny, sharp-witted, often sarcastic, sometimes tough, and always kind girl—and yes, Leenie had been a girl when he’d fallen for her.

And Jack had been an idiot, because he’d run away from her, because along with everything that he found attractive about her, she was also messily emotional, always getting into trouble, too much of a tomboy, too freaking independent, and yet way too vulnerable and shockingly naive.

And instead of waiting for her to grow up, and then kissing the hell out of her and marrying her ass, he’d convinced himself that Becca—cool, aloof, mature, with handbags that always matched her expensive shoes—was the kind of woman he should want.

Should.

But didn’t.

Yes, he was an idiot.

“I’m so sorry,” Arlene was saying into the phone. “No, Dolphina’s not here. She and Will were going to dinner—she was going to meet him downtown at the Globe office and …” She cleared her throat. “I have to tell you how much I enjoyed Rip Tide. And American Hero. I think that one’s still my favorite. You were amazing.”

Okay. That had to be Robin Chadwick Cassidy on the other end of the phone. And now Arlene’s cheeks were tinged with color for an entirely different reason, her anger at her daughter momentarily forgotten as she had a fangrrl moment.

And as she continued to speak to the movie star, she smiled, which made her look young and sweet, and Jack’s heart lurched in his chest, and he knew—without a doubt—that he was not going to leave here without at least a promise that she’d think about giving the two of them a solid try.

“Okay, maybe the ring was too much too soon,” Jack told her as she hung up the phone. “We’ve got a month. Let’s see each other.”

“See?” she asked, eyebrows raised. “Or have sex?”

“The two are not mutually exclusive,” he pointed out. “Frankly, I’d like very much to take you to dinner every night and then back to my place to—”

“And you seriously think it’s just the ring that’s too much too soon?”

“I’m just saying,” Jack confessed. “If I had my way, we’d be on a plane to Vegas tonight and you’d be my wife before I—”

“Stop.” She cut him off again.

“I know the attraction’s still there,” Jack pushed harder. “You can pretend all you want that it’s not, but I know, Arlene, so—”

“I’m not denying the attraction. I’m just …”

“What?”

“The timing’s not right.” But now Arlene wouldn’t meet his gaze. In fact, she turned away. “I need to call Maggie, and tell her to get home.”

“You want to take it slowly,” Jack persisted. “We’ll take it slowly. Although not too slowly, because you’ve only got a month and—”

But Arlene had apparently dialed Maggie’s cell phone, and she now spoke to the girl. “Get home.”

Jack could hear the higher-pitched sound of Maggie’s voice, coming through the speaker of the phone. Arlene cut her off. “This isn’t a game, Maggie. This is my life. And Jack’s life. And you had no business …” She shook her head. “No. No. I’m not going to argue with you. You get home and—No, you can’t speak to Jack,” she exhaled on something that sounded like laughter but was, in fact, disbelief. “Get. Home. Now.”

She cut the connection, turned back and aimed her fury at Jack. But it was mixed with despair and that was what came out when she spoke. “Please,” she begged him. “Please. Just … go.”

He nodded and got to his feet. “Can I see you tomorrow?” he asked. “See. Not have sex. Although do let me know if you change your mind.”

The look she gave him was so black, he immediately backpedaled. “I’ll stop with the teasing,” he said. “I’m kidding when I say things like that, okay?”

She shook her head, half laughing again, but also rolling her eyes in exasperation. “There’s no point in—”

“Spending a pleasant afternoon with a friend,” he finished for her. “There’s always a point to that. Let’s have lunch. We can drive out to Baldwin’s Bridge, eat down by the marina.”

“Don’t you work?” she asked.

“All the time,” Jack said. “In fact, I’m writing an article on Governor Patrick’s reinstatement of the Massachusetts Film Council. I’ll finish it tonight, have tomorrow completely free. Come on. We can walk on the beach, stick our feet in the ocean.”

She was wavering. “I don’t know.…”

“Say yes,” he whispered, his hope growing into something real, taking root in his stomach, in his soul. It was that hope that made him reach for her, and he slid his hand into her hair, his palm brushing the smoothness of her cheek, her curls soft between his fingers as he held her there, leaning in to caress her lips with his own in the briefest of kisses.

He wanted, more than anything, to crush her against him, to kiss her the way he’d kissed her that magic night in Copley Square.

But he didn’t. He stepped back. He let her go.

“I’ll call you later,” he said. And he made himself walk out the door.

CHAPTER FIVE

Jack had left that stupid diamond ring behind.

As Arlene stood in Will’s living room, waiting for Maggie to come home, she knew she couldn’t leave that jeweler’s box sitting there, open like that. It would only fuel her daughter’s fantasy.

And at the same time, she didn’t want to touch it.

She didn’t want to get a closer look, and be tempted to do something stupid.

Like try it on.

She picked it up, briskly snapped it shut and was trying to figure out where to stash it when the door buzzer sounded again.

She jammed it into one of the deep recesses of her slouchy, oversized carry-all, then went to the door, hoping that Maggie had again forgotten her keys, but knowing that …

Yeah. It was Jack standing out there again. No doubt he’d come back for his ring.

But when she opened the door, he apologized.

“Sorry to … I just, uh, I wasn’t even down the stairs when Maggie called. She asked me to give you a message—to tell you that she’s not coming home, and I told her I wouldn’t, that she was going to have to talk to you herself …? But then she texted me and …”

He held out his phone.

Maybe mom wont have 2 go back if *I* get pregnant. Tell her ill b back in the morning.

Arlene shifted her horrified gaze from Jack’s phone to his worried eyes. “Oh, shit,” she said, as he tried calling Maggie back.

He shook his head—she wasn’t picking up. “She’s not serious,” he reassured Arlene. “We’ll find her—we should start by calling her friends.”

But Arlene shook her head. “I don’t … Her friends—they’re just names to me. I don’t have …”

“I’ll call Will and Dolphina.” Jack flipped through his phone’s address book. “We’re going to find her, Leen. She’s just … This is a threat—her way of holding her breath till she gets what she wants.”

“You don’t know her,” she said, and as the words left her mouth, her heart clenched because the truth was, Arlene didn’t know her own daughter anymore.

“You gonna let me in?” Jack asked, and as she stepped back, opening the door wider, she felt the last of her control slip and she burst into tears.

CHAPTER SIX

Before tonight, Jack had never seen Arlene Schroeder cry. Not like this, with deep, body-shaking sobs, as if her world were coming to an end.

He’d seen her damn near frothing at the mouth with anger. He’d seen her frustrated and humiliated and joyful and proud and giddy with laughter. He’d seen her fight not to cry, furtively wiping away any moisture, so that no one could see her tears.

He’d seen her green eyes filled with passion and, damnit, love—that was love he’d seen that night as she’d pulled his head down to kiss him, their bodies moving, straining together.

“I got maybe thirty seconds, Lloyd, so make it fast or I’ll talk to you later.” Will’s voice was loud and clear through Jack’s phone.

“I’m at your place,” Jack informed Arlene’s brother as he put his arms around her still-shaking shoulders. “Maggie’s in trouble. Arlene’s melting down. You and Dolph need to get over here—now.”

He didn’t let his old friend reply, he just hung up his phone, tossing the damn thing onto the rug, so he could wrap himself more completely around Arlene.

Who slapped him away. “Don’t touch me!” She was now trying—and coming close to succeeding—to stop her tears, to jam her emotional outburst back inside. But the look on her face broke his heart, and he couldn’t keep himself from reaching for her again.

“We’ll find her,” he promised her again. “Will and Dolphina are on their way home. We’ll make a list of all of Maggie’s friends—”

Again, she pushed him away, striding into the living room where a box of tissues sat on Will’s computer desk. “None of whom I’ve met. Lizzie, Beth, Paloma, Inez, Keisha, Jason, Mike.” She blew her nose forcefully. “I don’t even know their last names.”

“Will and Dolphina will know.”

“I’m her mother.” Despite her best efforts, Arlene’s tears again overflowed. “I should know. I should be here.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “You should.”

And there they stood, looking at each other.

“I don’t want to go back,” Arlene whispered. The tip of her nose was pink, which made her attempts to wipe away her tears rather useless. But she straightened her shoulders and kept her lower lip from trembling. “But I have to. I made a promise.”

“But when’s your debt repaid?” Jack asked her quietly. “This war’s gone on too long. And I’ve read the reports. Your being over there—our being over there … It isn’t making things safer here, for Maggie, for any of us. How do you reconcile that?”

“I don’t,” Arlene admitted. “And I hate being there. I hate it, Jack. But I made a promise. If called upon, I would serve.”

“The government made a promise to you that they haven’t kept,” he pointed out.

“That’s a matter of opinion,” she countered. “For the sole sake of argument, let’s assume—I don’t believe you are, but let’s assume—you’re right. They broke their promise, not just to me, but to everyone in the Reserves and the National Guard, by extending our tours, by creating the stop-loss program that says we can’t leave, even if we want to. Okay, great. It sucks. I’m with you there. But nearly everyone overseas has someone who is growing up without them, Jack. Everyone has someone they miss with all of their heart. Every one of us wants to come home.” She shook her head. “I made a promise to serve,” she said again, her green eyes filled with conviction.

And now Jack was the one fighting his tears. He held out his hand to this woman who awed him despite their disagreement, this woman who took the lofty ideas of honor and duty and lived them, every day, with every breath she took.

“Will and Dolphina will be here soon,” he tried to reassure her. “We’ll find Maggie.”

“And then what?” Arlene asked, sadness in her eyes. “After we find her? How do I make her understand that I have to go back?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

They were four blocks from home, stopped at a traffic light, when Robin’s cell phone rang.

“Hey, thanks for calling me back,” he said, and Jules knew it was Dolphina, his personal assistant, on the other end. “You changed the password on the office computer without telling me—” He laughed. “No, I’m not going to go in there and mess up your organizational—No, I just needed to check my schedule because I got asked to fill in, last minute, as the host of Sundance Channel’s indy film awards and … Yeah. No, Art called me directly. They called him and … It’s two weeks from Saturday and … Yeah, I want to do it.”

The light turned green and Jules tried not to burn rubber as he hit the gas.

But then Robin said, “Oh, crap. She’s not serious, is she?”

Jules glanced at Robin, who mouthed the word Maggie, then We need to go to Will’s, then said into the phone, “No, we’re still in the car. No. No, Dolph. Really. Jules won’t mind—he loves Maggie, too. This falls under emergency. The more people you’ve got looking for her, the better. We’ll be right there.” He snapped his phone shut as their driveway came into view.

And Jules did indeed love Maggie, too, but damn.

“What’s going on?” he asked as he drove past their house and headed west, to Newton.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Will and Dolphina were helping—and yet really not helping.

Jack watched Arlene as Will pulled a list of Maggie’s friends—full names, cell phone numbers, parents’ names and phone numbers and addresses—up on his computer. She was beyond grateful that her brother had kept such close tabs on Maggie while she was gone, but Jack knew that she also hated the fact that Will had the information that she clearly felt she should’ve known.

They went down the list quickly—with Will and Arlene calling the parents and Dolphina, who’d recently taken Maggie and her friends out for pizza and a movie, calling the kids.

Jack took the opportunity to send another text to Maggie. He’d been firing them off ever since he’d gotten her alarming message, hoping to get a response.

Halfway down the list, Jules and Robin Cassidy showed up and joined the effort—Robin helping with the calls, and Jules doing his best to hack into Maggie’s email account out on the living room computer.

But none of Maggie’s friends knew where the girl was. Even more disturbing was the fact that there had been no play rehearsal scheduled for today.

“When did she start lying?” Arlene asked her brother, who shook his head.

“Maggie doesn’t lie,” Will said.

“Well, she did today,” Arlene pointed out sharply. “Clearly you’ve been setting a great example.”

“You have no idea how hard it is.” Dolphina was quick to defend Will. “How hard Will works to—”

“I have no idea how hard it is?” Arlene bristled, her fear for Maggie combining with her frustration and, yes, her jealousy, and expressing itself as anger at Dolphina—this stranger who she felt knew her daughter better than she did.

Jack was on the verge of throwing himself on that grenade when Robin beat him to it. The movie star slipped into the seat next to Arlene at the kitchen table.

“She’s an amazing kid,” Robin told her. “I think we’re all in agreement about that, all right? And okay, maybe she went a little too far, drama-wise, tonight. A little too Parent Trap, but you’ve got to give her props for creativity. And you’ve got to love her ability to hope. She still believes in fairy-tale happily-ever-afters, but she’s also willing to fight—a little dirty, okay, that’s true—but remember she’s trying to win that perfect happy ending. Not just for you, Arlene, but for herself, too.”

And the last of Arlene’s anger deflated, leaving behind only sadness. “I’m sorry,” she said to Dolphina. “I really do appreciate everything you’ve done for Maggie. I do. I just—”

“It’s okay,” the younger woman reassured her. “I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for you. I do know how rough it is for Maggie, though. I can tell you with complete conviction that she would never do something like this when you’re gone. She lives each day, trying so hard to make you proud of her. She’s careful never to do anything that might even remotely get you upset. She doesn’t want you distracted when you’re out there.”

“She crosses off the days on the calendar,” Will quietly told his sister, coming out of Maggie’s tiny bedroom, holding a Battlestar Galactica calendar—Lieutenant Starbuck on the front in a devil-may-care pose. “Like she’s in prison, counting down the hours until the end of her sentence—until the day you get to come home. Only here it is. You’re finally home. And look.” He opened the calendar to May—holy shit, was it already May?

“She’s still crossing off the days,” Will continued, “but now she’s counting down to the day that you’re going to leave again. You’re safe—but it’s not going to last. There’s an end date, Leenie, and she’s gotta be dreading it. God knows I am.”

“Let me tell you what it’s like,” Robin told Arlene, taking her hands because, once again, her eyes had filled with tears. “Jules just spent over a week in Afghanistan, and while he was gone, Arlene, I swear to God, I didn’t breathe. There was not a single second of that entire time that I wasn’t hyper-aware that he was someplace dangerous. I didn’t even escape it at night, because when I finally did fall asleep? I dreamed about him being in danger. Eight days, and I’m ready to tear my hair out.” He touched the top of his head. “Not that there’s a lot left right now to tear, but you know what I mean.”

As Jack watched, she nodded.

“And I was in Kabul, which is a relatively safe part of the country,” Jules said, and they all looked up to see him standing in the doorway, a piece of paper in his hands. He held it up. “Got her. According to an email she sent at 1500 this afternoon, her partner in crime is someone named Lizzie. She’s over at her house.”

“Liz Milton,” Dolphina said, whipping out her cell phone and dialing. “That girl lied, right to my face.”

“Wait,” Arlene stopped her. “Maggie told me about Lizzie in one of her emails. Doesn’t she live nearby?” She looked from Dolphina to Will.

Will answered, “Her parents have a condo across the street.”

“I don’t want to call and have Maggie leave and go somewhere else.” Arlene turned to Dolphina, and swallowed the last of the lingering jealousy she had to be feeling for the younger woman. “Please, she admires you so much. Will you go over there, and … and talk to her?”

Dolphina nodded. “Of course.”

“It might not be a bad idea,” Will suggested, “for you to go over, too. Meet Lizzie’s parents.”

“I want to get Maggie safely home first,” Arlene said. “Believe me, I’ll be meeting Lizzie’s parents in the very near future.”

“Maybe Jules should go with Dolphina,” Robin suggested. “In case Maggie’s uncooperative. He could play the FBI card.”

Jules was shaking his head. “I’m not here in an official capacity,” he said as Jack opened his cell phone, checking to see if Maggie had texted him back. His last text should have elicited some kind of response from her.

“Yeah, but Lizzie and Mags don’t know that,” Robin countered.

“I’ve kinda already played that card,” Jack spoke up, and everyone turned to look at him. “I’ve been texting Maggie,” he explained, “telling her that she better get home, stat, or else—” but he didn’t get any further, because the front door opened, and Maggie herself burst into the apartment, followed by a dark-haired girl who no doubt was Lizzie.

“It’s all my fault,” Maggie announced. “Don’t arrest Will.”

“No one’s going to …” arrest me, Will started to say, but Jack kicked him in the ankle. “Ow!”

Jules Cassidy was on the ball, good man. “It’s lucky you came back when you did,” he told the girl in what had to be his official FBI agent voice, crisp and cool. “Or I would have had to bring Will in.”

“For what?” Lizzie apparently wasn’t as gullible as Maggie, attitude dripping off of her. “No one’s done anything wrong.”

“For neglect of a minor,” Jack supplied the made-up excuse he’d texted to Maggie several minutes earlier, before Jules could answer.

Lizzie crossed her arms. “Then maybe you should arrest Maggie’s mom. Talk about neglect.”

Ouch. Arlene flinched as if the girl had struck her across the face.

Maggie looked stricken, too. “No,” she told her friend, “you don’t understand.”

“She’s never home,” Lizzie argued. “You know, this is the first time I’ve met your mom? I mean, God, Mag, your mother’s supposed to take care of you, and all I ever see is you taking care of her, sending her packages, worrying about her …”

“You don’t understand,” Maggie said again.

“You’re my best friend, and you live your life in total terror,” Lizzie said just as hotly. She turned to Arlene. “No one should have to live that way. You joined the Reserves, not the Army. This wasn’t supposed to be your career, and you shouldn’t have to go back. And you don’t have to. All you have to do is—”

“Lizzie,” Maggie said. “Stop.”

“Have a baby,” Lizzie finished.

“It was stupid,” Maggie told her friend, “thinking I could set my mom up with Jack, thinking she would just … fall in love with him.” She turned to her mother, with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be in love to make a baby,” Lizzie said, disgust in her voice. “My little brother’s proof of that. People have kids for stupid reasons all the time. Why not have one for a good reason?”

“Liz, just go home.” Maggie was defeated. “You’re making things worse.”

“If you die,” Lizzie told Arlene, “when you die, you won’t have to be here to see what it does to Maggie. Or maybe you’ll come home without your legs, and Maggie will have to take care of you for the rest of her life and—”

“Lizzie, go home!” Maggie shouted.

And everyone leapt into action. Dolphina grabbed the outspoken Lizzie with one hand and Will with the other. “Will and I are going to walk you across the street.”

Jules and Robin were right behind them, going out the door. “Call if you need anything,” Robin told Arlene, who wasn’t paying anyone any attention. She was looking at her daughter, tears in her eyes.

Jack alone hesitated as the door closed behind them all.

“I’m so sorry, Mommy.” Maggie started to cry. “Liz doesn’t understand. Her parents are rich. They don’t—”

“It’s okay, baby.” Arlene wrapped her arms around her daughter.

“And I’m sorry about emailing Jack,” Maggie said through her tears. “He was just so nice when I met him at the wedding. When he talked about you, and he told me he’s been madly in love with you since you were like, sixteen, and all I could think was …”

Maggie kept talking, her words punctuated by her sobs, but Jack stopped paying attention to what she was saying, because Arlene lifted her head and looked at him, surprise in her eyes. Surprise and disbelief.

Great.

Yeah, it was definitely time to go.

But now Maggie was speaking directly to him, pulling free from Arlene to face him. “I’m so sorry,” she told him, tears running down her face. “I just wanted …”

“It’s okay, honey,” he told her. “I know. I got a little caught up in the fantasy, too. But you can’t just snap your fingers and make someone change everything they believe in. Your mom, she’s one of the heroes and … I had a shot at making her fall in love with me a few years ago, and I screwed it up. I wish I hadn’t, because I’m pretty sure that I could’ve talked her into marrying me and … Having a baby right now might’ve been the right choice for all of us.” He shook his head. “But she and I, we’re both different people now and … And you can’t just make someone fall in love with you, especially after letting them down in the past. Life doesn’t work that way.”

Maggie nodded, subdued. “I know.”

Arlene spoke. “You’ve really been in love with me for seventeen years?” She was standing with her arms crossed, looking at him as if he were roadkill.

“Something like that,” he said, through a mouth that was suddenly dry. “I know you don’t believe me, but—”

“It never occurred to you to tell me that? To say the words? Hey, Arlene. How have you been? I’m kinda in love with you …?”

Yeah, like he was going to walk in here, cut open his chest and toss his heart onto the floor? “I asked you to marry me.”

“Out of pity,” she countered.

“What? No,” Jack said. “I asked for the reason most men propose marriage to the woman that they …” He had to clear his throat, and even then the word came out on a croak. “Love.”

“You asked her to marry you, but you didn’t tell her you love her?” Maggie was deeply unimpressed. “What are you, an idiot?”

“Apparently,” Jack said.

Maggie turned to her mother. “He loves you. Madly. He told me. I asked him how he knew it was really love, and he told me he knows because he’s felt it forever and it won’t go away. He said he dreams about you, and that’s the only time he’s ever really happy and—”

“Maggie.” Jack cut her off. “That doesn’t change anything. Except it maybe makes me feel like even more of a loser—”

“Because you love my mom?” Maggie asked. “Why?”

“Because I’m nearly forty years old,” he told her, a tad impatiently, “and I should know when it’s time to give up and go home.” He met Arlene’s eyes again. “But every time I look at you,” he whispered, “I find myself thinking, How can I leave when I’m already home?” He took a deep breath, and said it. “I love you, Leenie. I always have, and I always will.”