Harley Read online

  “And I’m sorry for that too. You were hoping to travel and to see the world.”

  “Yeah, that died a quick death with my pregnancy.”

  Harley was happy that at least there was no bitterness against her son in her voice. “Do you have any idea who it is who did this to you?”

  She shook her head. “A lot of people were at the party, when I got there.” She shrugged. “It could have been anyone.”

  “Anybody else end up pregnant after that?”

  She looked at him in surprise. “I didn’t even think of that. I don’t know. I didn’t have a whole lot of girlfriends back then, what with my parents keeping me fairly isolated—allowing only the people who they thought were worthy.”

  “And that’s a challenge, isn’t it?” he murmured. “Because you always felt like you had nobody.”

  “Of course I felt like that. They didn’t let me have sleepovers. They didn’t let me go on trips with anybody else—only the church-approved ones that they allowed me to go on. And then, when I did go someplace, it was on my own, mostly out of rebellion and hurt because you’d left me,” she explained. “And I ended up pregnant.”

  “And for that alone your father would have been incredibly angry.”

  “I don’t know if he was angry so much as disappointed. It was very difficult to tell him. As it was, I held off telling them anything, and then more or less threw it in their faces when we were having an argument.”

  “Even to have argued with them, that’s something you would never have done before.”

  “I changed a lot over that. I pretty well knew what had happened immediately when I woke up the next morning, but again I was ashamed and didn’t know who to turn to, didn’t have a support system, and sure as heck wouldn’t go to the hospital or the authorities on my own before all that. Even afterward, facing it alone, I didn’t figure the authorities would even listen to me, and when I told them, and they proved to me that they weren’t listening …” She shook her head for a long moment. “So I just hid it all and became a bit of a recluse. It wasn’t an easy time.”

  “No, of course not,” Harley was thinking about all Jasmine had been through in such a short time frame. “To lose me, to find out you’re pregnant, to lose your father, and then to have your mother in this deteriorating condition, hats off to you for even keeping your sanity.”

  “Did I say I was sane?” she asked calmly.

  He chuckled. “You still have the same dry wit.”

  “Other than my son, it’s about all I have.” She gave a heavy sigh. She looked at him. “We’re a hell of a pair.”

  “Well, it’s a case of life gives us something that we weren’t expecting. And it’s up to us to try to make the most of it.”

  “Yeah, I don’t feel very philosophical these days.”

  “Did you ever do any secondary education, training, anything?”

  “Nope, I just had courses in real life,” she replied, with a touch of bitterness.

  “Understood. Just the death of your father would have been tough.”

  “And I had to deal with Mother after that. Since then, it’s been dealing with medical bills, trying to keep the bills paid, wondering why my father hadn’t set things up better, and all that good stuff.”

  “I thought you guys were well off?”

  “No, apparently they took in foster kids, like you, to pay the bills.” He stopped and stared. She nodded. “I know. It wasn’t exactly the high and mighty role that Dad proclaimed he was doing it for.”

  “Interesting. He had a good job. He was an accountant.”

  “Yes, but for a small company that couldn’t afford to pay him more, and apparently my father didn’t do well with change so didn’t want to change companies.”

  “I’m sorry.” He frowned. “Did you ever get any other foster kids after I left?”

  “No, and it was one of the things that my dad was kind of bitter about because he figured that, at least if I were a foster kid, or they had taken in my son as a foster, as they did take him in obviously,” she noted, “Dad would have got paid for him.”

  “Ouch,” Harley murmured.

  “Yes, apparently that was a big thing for him.”

  “And then did you have any medical attention during your pregnancy?”

  “Not much.” She shrugged. “Only the absolute minimum.”

  “Sounds like you’ve had a tough time, no matter which way you look at it.”

  She smiled. “But you made it though.”

  “A little older, more battered, injured, but recovering.” He shifted his hand and rotated it so she could see. As her eye widened he nodded, looked at his truck. “I should go. I’ll take a trip north and see where this dog is.”

  “It’s a pretty rough area up there,” she warned.

  “So Daniel tells me.” He smiled, turned to face her. “You’re looking good.” And he stood and walked toward his truck.

  “Is that it?” she called after him.

  He turned. “What else would you like me to say?”

  “I don’t know. How about a coffee out?” she asked.

  He looked at her with interest. “You got a babysitter?”

  She snorted. “If anybody told Jimmy that he needed a babysitter at eleven, that would be a completely interesting scene. As for my mother, well …” Jasmine looked back at the house and then nodded. “You’re right. I probably can’t leave her.”

  “Well then, why don’t I go pick up coffee on my way back?” he suggested.

  She hesitated.

  He added, “Or not. But, if you can’t leave the house, that doesn’t leave us much choice.”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  Just then the front door opened, and a frail lady stepped out on the porch. Harley recognized her. Matilda was nothing if not always very prim and proper, but this was definitely a much more messed-up version. “Hello, Matilda,” he called out gently, as he walked closer.

  She turned and looked at him, her eyes opened wide, and she screamed. “You,” she snapped. “How dare you?”

  He looked at her in surprise. “How dare I what?” He looked from Matilda back to Jasmine in confusion.

  “You’re supposed to mow the lawn and didn’t!” she screeched.

  He looked at her with even more surprise, back at Jasmine. “Wow.”

  “I told you.” She reached out on arm for her mother, but her mother was having nothing to do with it.

  “How dare you let him on this property,” she snapped, staring at Jasmine. “I told you last time no way he was allowed to be here.”

  “It’s not the lawn-mowing guy, Mom.”

  Her mother looked at her in shock and again at him. “Of course it is.” But a little bit of doubt was in her voice.

  “No. No, it isn’t. This is Harley.”

  “Harley.” She frowned.

  Jasmine nodded. “Yes, Harley. Remember? You had him as a foster son for many years.”

  “No, that boy was nothing but trouble. We had to be really on his case to keep him out of trouble all the time. That was a very hard-earned paycheck.”

  At that, Jasmine looked at Harley and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  Harley snorted. “Oh, I know. It wasn’t easy being here as part of the household from my side either.”

  “Hey, you at least got to leave.”

  He winced at that. “That’s a very good point.” He looked at Matilda, who, just as if a switch had turned on, pivoted to him and smiled.

  “Hi. How are you? What’s your name?” And she reached out a hand to shake his, even though she was at the top of the steps, and he was at the bottom. “My name is Matilda.”

  “Hi, Matilda. My name is Harley.”

  “Ah. I used to have a son, … a foster son, you know. That was his name too.”

  “Yes, that’s me. I was your foster son.”

  She smiled. “Nice to meet you. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” Then she looked at the glass in Jasmine’s hand. “Oh my, did you make lemonade?” Jasmine held out her glass. Her mother took a sip and spat it out and immediately turned into another personality. “Oh, this is terrible, absolutely terrible. I’ll make some good stuff.” She waved at the two of them. “Now you just wait here, and I’ll go get my famous lemonade.” And she disappeared inside.

  Harley stared at the door. “How long will that conversation remain in her head?”

  “Five minutes maximum, maybe even only five seconds,” she said, fatigued. “Sometimes she’s better than others.”

  “Like all of us, I imagine. … She is quite a challenge for you, isn’t she?”

  “She is, indeed. I’ve been wondering if I need to look at putting her in a home, but it’s hard for me to do that. Plus, I’m not sure I can afford it.”

  “She’s still healthy though, physically?”

  “Yes. So the only reason to put her in a home is if I can’t look after her.”

  “And, of course, that’s a very difficult decision to make, isn’t it?”

  Just then a crash came inside the house. Jasmine looked at Harley in shock and bolted indoors. He raced up the steps behind her, and they found Matilda on the kitchen floor, shattered glass from a pitcher still in her hand, water everywhere. She lay here dazed, staring up at the ceiling.

  “Don’t move, Mom. Don’t move,” Jasmine ordered. “Let me get some of this glass away from you.”

  But the older lady struggled to put her hands down and to get up and seemed to be completely unaware that she sat amid shattered glass.

  Harley stepped in, picked her up under her arms, and lifted her ever-so-gently out of all the glass, while Jasmine grabbed a broom and tried to clean up the mess. Matilda looked at him and burst into tears and collapsed into his arms. He looked o
ver at Jasmine.

  She nodded. “Can you take her into the living room and sit her down in the big chair?” she asked softly. “I’ll clean up this mess.”

  Chapter 3

  Jasmine quickly cleaned up the glass but was a little confused because there was so much of it. Her gaze went around the windows, and then she called out urgently, “Harley, come here. Quick.”

  He immediately popped around the doorway. “What’s the matter?” And she pointed. He stared and frowned. “Good Lord.” He stepped carefully around the glass on the floor and took a look at a piece of glass still in a pane in the window frame.

  “That’s a bullet hole, isn’t it?” she whispered.

  He nodded, his face grim, as he stared silently around the backyard. “Have you been shot at before?”

  She snorted. “What kind of question is that?” she asked. “Of course not.”

  He turned to look at her. “So what’s changed?”

  She shrugged and shook her head. “Nothing. Nothing’s changed. Nothing here ever changes. It’s the same damn town. It’s the same damn life that I was living before. Nothing’s changed.”

  But his gaze wouldn’t let her off the hook.

  She raised her eyebrow, still shaking her head. “The only thing that’s different is that you walked into my life.”

  Immediately his brows drew together, with a harsh peak in the center. “And why would that cause something like this?” He waved his hand to the window.

  “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” She asked, “Is there any chance he’s still around?”

  “Of course there’s a chance, but it was your mother here in the kitchen at the time.”

  “Yes.” And then she took a slow deep breath. “But we also have the same blond hair. And we’re both the same height. And I don’t know if somebody would have recognized that it was her or me in the kitchen. Depends on how far away they were.”

  “So you’re thinking that bullet might have been for you?” Immediately his gaze went to the opposite wall.

  “Or it was a warning. I don’t know.” She started to shiver. “I don’t know what to say.”

  He immediately walked over, pulled her into his arms, and just held her close. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

  “Thank God that Jimmy wasn’t here. And I’m safe at the moment, but that was a bullet.”

  “And not likely a stray bullet either, not given how it came through into the kitchen.” As he stood here, he saw a direct line of sight to the street on the far side of the property fence line. “Have you had any problems with anybody in town?”

  “No.” She frowned. “Remember? This is just some small town outside of Eureka. A town where nothing happens. I got pregnant, and that has been the most exciting thing for people to talk about for more than a decade now.” Enough bitterness was in her voice that she knew she hadn’t quite dealt with it. She stepped back. “Let me finish cleaning up the glass. I don’t want my mother coming back in here just yet.”

  “She’s sitting in her recliner and not moving.”

  “She gets like that sometimes. Right now it’s a blessing.” She quickly scooped up the rest of the glass, casting one more glance over at the bullet hole in the window and shook her head. “I don’t even know what to do now.”

  “Well, we need to clean the glass off the counter. If you’ve got some plywood around here, I can nail it up to seal off that window—until you can get the pane replaced. And I suggest you call the sheriff.”

  She looked up at him in surprise and then nodded. “I guess that’s the most sensible thing, isn’t it?”

  “When people start shooting, then that’s generally what the most practical response is, yes.”

  She quickly cleaned up the countertop, as he lifted items off the counter, and then wiped it into the garbage can. Afterward, she took a wet paper towel and wiped down the counter again, looking for little bits of shards. And finally, with that all cleaned up, she walked into the living room, Harley following her.

  There was Mom, still sitting in the chair where Harley had placed her. “Mom, are you okay?”

  Her mother looked up at her, smiled. “Hi, how are you?”

  Her heart sank. “I’m fine, Mom. How are you?”

  “I’m just fine, dear.” She patted the seat beside her. “Just sit down and relax. You work so hard.”

  “Yes, I do.” She sagged into the chair. She stared with deep sadness at her mother. “Do you know who I am?”

  “Yes. You’re the lady who cleans up for me. I do appreciate the hard work you put into it.”

  “I’m not the cleaning lady, Mom. … I’m Jasmine, your daughter.”

  “No, no, no. My daughter died many years ago, in childbirth.”

  As that was the first time she’d ever said something like that, Jasmine felt her jaw drop. She looked over at Harley.

  “Any chance that’s how she felt about it?”

  She stared at him, looked back at her mother, her own heart starting to break. “It’s quite likely, yes. … They were very much about appearances. Doing the right thing but not necessarily for the right reason.”

  She stared at her mom, feeling tears in the back of her throat. Had her mother always felt like that? Was the truth just coming out now that there were no filters? But then, at the same time, there was also no logical sense to make of the way her mother’s brain was working right now either.

  “If she doesn’t know who you are, it might be easier to reconsider a home.”

  “Every day.” She nodded. “Every damn day. I want to help her. I’m just not sure that I’m capable of doing it the way it needs to be done.”

  “And, if she doesn’t recognize who you are,” he noted quietly, “she won’t notice if she’s in a home.”

  “But I will. I was raised to be a dutiful daughter.”

  “Duty isn’t the same as love.”

  “No, it isn’t,” she agreed, “and I’m not sure I have the money for her to go into a home.”

  “Did they not have enough for themselves to look after them in old age?”

  “Those homes are expensive.” She shrugged. “I’ll have to look into her health care plan and at the options. I’ve been meaning to do it for months, and I keep putting it off. She’ll have several bad days, and I start in that direction. Then she has a good day, and I stop.”

  “You need to be easier on yourself too. Not everybody is capable of looking after their mother when they get in this condition.”

  “I just don’t see her improving,” she added sadly. “She could be like this for another thirty years or more. She’s only turning sixty this year. If she fits the guidelines, she might get more government assistance.”

  “And alternatively, which is where your concern is, she could be thirty more years in a home, if there’s money to pay for it.”

  “Yes. Although maybe I have to sell the house first. I just don’t know. It’s like a life sentence in some ways.”

  “You love her.”

  “But this isn’t the woman I know.”

  “Not to mention this one isn’t exactly a woman you have been terribly close to.”

  Her mother’s future was something that deeply troubled Jasmine. Her father had passed on early, and her mother had declined very quickly after that, but then she hit a plateau, where she seemed to live in her own world. Nice for her but not so nice for everybody around her. At least she was still fully functioning healthwise, so there wasn’t any home care required.

  Not yet.

  But, other than that, her mother had to have a babysitter all the time, which Jasmine was, and since she had an eleven-year-old, that was fine. She would be housebound anyway. She wasn’t sure what she would do when Jimmy hit sixteen or eighteen though because that would be a whole new change for all of them. She didn’t want to see her entire life at home being solely looking after her mother.

  As it was, Jasmine felt like she’d missed a turn in the road somewhere along the line, and she didn’t have anybody to blame but herself. But, when she was really at her lowest point, it was easy to turn against Harley. She reached out a hand to her mom. “Are you feeling okay, Mom?” Her gaze searched her mother’s face, looking for any sign that glass had hit her.