“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.”