“Sure.” He turned back to the stove. “Tell him, I did my best.”
“He knows that you would.” She smiled back at him. “And you’d better be quick about getting him very good at that karate. I don’t know how many of these sessions I can take.”
“An eternity,” he said softly. “I know you, Eve.”
He was right, she thought. There were no limits for her where Michael was concerned.
She went out on the porch. “Okay, Michael. Come out and face the music. Your father has given me the lowdown and he tried to—” She stopped. Michael was not in the Jeep, and there was something about the way he was standing on that bottom step that was … odd. “Michael?”
He turned and gave her a radiant smile that lit his entire face. “I’m coming, Mama.” He turned and ran up the stairs. “I was just looking out at the lake. It’s pretty tonight, isn’t it?” He hugged her. “I’m hungry. Can we eat before you yell at me about Gary?”
She held him close for an instant. “That might be possible.” She released him and opened the front door. “I thought you might want to stay out here on the porch and have it out first.”
“Nah.” His smile took on a hint of mischief. “I know Dad made sure that you wouldn’t be too mad at me. He’s a guy, too. He knows about these things.” He glanced at the lake and woods, then turned and headed for the door. “I don’t want to stay out here. I’d rather go in with you and eat supper…”
*
“Okay, talk to me,” Eve said as she cuddled Michael closer to her on the couch after supper. “I told you that if you couldn’t handle Gary yourself, you were to go to your teacher. Why didn’t you do it?”
“He would have got in trouble.”
“Exactly.”
“And he didn’t hurt me that bad. He was just scared.”
“He didn’t act very scared,” she said dryly as she touched his bruised cheek. “And your dad said he’s much bigger than you.”
He nodded. “But he’s still scared.”
She looked down at him with narrowed eyes. “Why?”
“Because I’m not afraid of what you do, and he is,” he said simply.
She stiffened. “That ghoul name he called me?”
“His dad was killed in a car wreck last year. Gary’s all confused, and he doesn’t like to think about it. I make him think about it. All those skulls that you work on bother him.”
“No, I make him think about it.” Her arm tightened around him. “I was wondering if it was my fault. I didn’t know about his father. Maybe I should go talk to his mother.”
He shook his head. “It would only make her feel bad. Sometime, Gary will let me talk to him about you. Then it will be okay.”
“But it’s not okay now. And what can you say to him that will make it okay then?”
“I’ll tell him that you work on those skulls to bring those people home. That they’re lost, and you have to help them.” He looked up at her. “That’s what you told me that first time I asked you. Remember?”
“I don’t remember you asking me.” She smiled. “But maybe you did. You always seemed to understand my work and why I was doing it.” She did remember Michael coming close to her worktable when he was only a couple years old and touching the skull of a young girl she was reconstructing. There had been such gentleness, such intensity of thought in his expression that she had been stunned. Then, after a moment, he had smiled and gone back to his toys across the room. “I don’t like the idea of waiting around until this Gary comes to his senses on his own. I may have to take action if you won’t.”
He nodded. “I know. But I think it’s going to be okay. He doesn’t like what he’s doing to me. It scares him almost as much as the stuff he won’t ask me about your skulls and the people who are dead like his dad.”
And how had Michael realized that? Eve just had to accept that he did. She had stopped trying to understand where those flashes of deep understanding came from. Even before the moment of his birth she had known that Michael possessed a kind of psychic connection with her, and who knew what other depths he might have? She didn’t believe he wanted her to know, or maybe he didn’t know himself. Either way, most of the time Michael appeared to be just a bright, happy six-year-old who was perfectly content in his life. It was only with her and Joe that he let his guard down and was totally honest.
She hoped. There were moments when she wasn’t certain that Michael was entirely open even with them. It didn’t matter as long as she knew that Michael loved them both, they could work on everything else. “It’s bad for Gary to think he can hurt you. I don’t want him to turn into a bully or you a victim. So you’ll try one more time, then I’ll have a talk with him.” She held up her hand. “Not his mother. Okay?”
Michael nodded. “He’s close to it, Mama. It’s the death thing. He’s missing his dad. It scares him.”
“Then we’ll try to explain and make the fear go away.” She gave him a kiss on the forehead and got to her feet. “Now go take your shower and get to bed.”
He grinned as he jumped to his feet. “Soon as I say good night to Dad.” He headed toward the back of the house. “And tell him that you didn’t yell too much at me. He’ll want to know.” He turned back. “Did Cara send me that CD of her last concert that she promised me last week?”
She nodded. “Morning mail. It’s on your nightstand. You can play it through once. Just once. Then you turn it off and go to sleep.”
“Once is enough. After that, it will play in my head until I fall asleep. It does that to you, too, doesn’t it, Mama?”
“Yes.” Cara Delaney was Eve and Joe’s ward and one of the most magnificent violinists Eve had ever heard. She was only eighteen and a student at Carnegie Tech in New York, but she had already been a guest artist at several venues, and this CD was the one from a benefit concert at the university in Phoenix. She had been with them since before Michael was born, and Eve could not have wanted a more devoted or loving sister for her son. The two talked every week on the phone, and when Cara managed to come home, they were practically inseparable. “She texted me and said she might have a break next week or the week after.”
“She’s coming home?” His face lit up. “That would be great. When will she know?”
Eve shrugged. “Soon. She’s trying to arrange things. We’ll know when she does. She asked if Jane was going to be able to get away at the same time. She might be trying to coordinate her time with Jane’s.” But Jane MacGuire, her adopted daughter, had a schedule that was almost tighter than Cara’s. She was an artist and her agent had her constantly making public appearances at galley exhibits in London. “I don’t think she has a chance. Jane’s supposed to be in Paris all this month.”
Michael looked disappointed. “Maybe.”
Eve nodded. “Maybe. But at least we’ll have Cara. You know Jane gets here whenever she can.”
“Yes. I just miss her.” He turned and started back down the hall. “It would be nice…”
More than nice, Eve thought. She believed in family and having Jane and Cara out in the world and not being able to see them as much as she’d like brought a constant ache. But she was being selfish, she couldn’t have everything. Life was so incredibly good these days with Joe and Michael, and the occasional visits from Cara and Jane were like additional jewels in the crown. So she would accept what she was given with thanks and enjoy every single minute.
She flipped open her computer on the coffee table and checked for recent requests from police departments around the country. She usually did that on the day she sent the latest reconstruction back to its originator. She had a tremendous backlog of requests, but if anything appeared urgent that couldn’t—
“Be back in ten minutes or so.” Joe had come out of the bedroom and was slipping on his jacket. “Just want to check on something.”
“Check on what?”
“A bear.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“Michael thought he saw a bear earlier tonight in the woods on that west bank.”