“Fair enough,” she agreed, but without much enthusiasm.
Just then the living room door slammed shut and seconds later Sammy loomed in the doorway. “You’re still here?” he said, an accusatory note in his voice. The rudeness immediately made Jason’s hackles rise.
“Mr. Halloran and I are just finishing up,” Dana told him.
Looking none to pleased, but staying silent, Sammy grabbed a handful of cookies, then went to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of milk. All the while his distrustful gaze never left Jason.
Jason tried to remember all those lessons in humanity his father had preached for years during his social consciousness phase, but Sammy grated on his nerves. The kid had trouble written all over his face and an attitude that needed changing. That didn’t mean Jason couldn’t be polite to him, though. He fished around for a neutral topic.
“Dana tells me you’re a junior this year,” he said. “I remember what that was like.”
“Sure,” Sammy said skeptically. “At some prep school, right?”
Jason sensed the resentment and countered. “No, as a matter of fact, I went to school right here in the city. What classes are you taking?”
“English, history, the usual stuff.”
“Doing okay?”
Sammy looked disgusted by the whole line of questioning. Dana jumped in. “He makes good grades. Mostly Bs.”
Sammy shrugged.
“Thinking of college?” Jason asked.
“You’ve gotta be kiddin’. Where am I gonna get the money for college?”
“There are scholarships. You’ve still got plenty of time to apply.”
“My grades aren’t that good and I ain’t no athlete superstar.”
“Don’t say that,” Dana said. “You’re on the swim team.”
“Big deal. I don’t see anybody offering big bucks to people because they can swim the length of a pool.”
“Plenty of colleges have swim teams and they do offer scholarships,” Jason contradicted. Too many years of liberal dinner table conversations prompted him to offer, “Want me to look into it for you?”
Sammy regarded him with blatant suspicion. “Why would you do that? You figure if you get rid of me, you can get my sister into bed?”
Dana turned pale. Infuriated at the kid’s insulting audacity, Jason was halfway out of his chair when Dana shot him a quelling look. She leveled a furious gaze on her brother and said quietly, “I think it’s time you did your studying.”
Sammy looked ready to argue, but Dana’s expression stopped him. Finally he shrugged and left the room without a goodbye.
“He owes you an apology,” Jason said, keeping a tight rein on his temper. “For that matter, he owes me one, too. Or maybe you should just wash his mouth out with soap.”
Dana regarded him levelly. “That’s a little outdated, isn’t it?”
“It may be old-fashioned, but it’s effective when garbage comes out of a kid’s mouth.”
“Look, he didn’t mean anything by it. He’s probably just feeling threatened. I don’t usually have men coming around. He doesn’t understand that this is just business.”
Her expression dared him to contradict her. Jason ran his fingers through his hair in a gesture of pure frustration. By now his hair was probably every bit as mussed as hers. He was beginning to see how her style had evolved. Sammy seemed to have that effect on everyone.
“Dana, you can’t make excuses for a kid that age. He needs to learn that there are consequences for stepping out of line. Did you punish him when he stole the VCR? I mean did you do something more than make him give it to the church?”
Her hands were shaking when she finally looked at him. “This is none of your business.”
“It is when he makes an ugly remark about our relationship.”
“Since we don’t have a relationship, I don’t think we need to worry about any more remarks.”
“One was too many.”
“And I’m telling you it won’t happen again. I can handle Sammy.”
Dana’s tone didn’t allow for any more interference from him. Jason bit back the desire to tell her that he’d seen kids like Sammy before. Even in his circle of friends, there had been born troublemakers, kids destined to give their families a rough time. If Sammy wasn’t taken in hand now, he was going to cross too far over the line between adolescent pranks and serious criminal activity. He may have already. The VCR deal proved that.
Clearly Sammy was already more troublesome than a caring woman like Dana deserved, Jason thought. Sooner or later she wouldn’t be able to bail him out just by running interference for him. He needed firm discipline and he needed it now. Dana, however, would have to reach that conclusion on her own.
Jason sighed. “Just promise that you’ll ask if you need some help with him. All boys that age are a handful. I was a terror myself, according to my parents. They like to remind me of that periodically.”
“I won’t need any help,” she said flatly.
Reluctant to leave things on that note, but aware that they’d only end up arguing if he stayed, Jason stood up. “I’ll send a car for you tomorrow at noon.”
“I told you…”
“I know what you told me, but I need you to look things over as soon as possible. Until you’re available full-time, I’ll try to make our meetings as convenient for you as possible. Okay?”
Reluctance clearly warred with practicality. “Okay,” Dana agreed finally and gave him the address of the print shop where she’d been working.
At the door, Jason’s gaze met hers. Confusion filled her eyes.
“I am sorry about Sammy,” she said. “What he said was inexcusable.”
He touched a fingertip to her lips. “You’re not the one who needs to apologize.”
She looked so lost that something inside him twisted. Before he could think about what he was doing, Jason leaned down and brushed a gentle kiss across her forehead. As innocent as the kiss was, Dana’s breath caught in her throat. Something that might have been panic leaped into her eyes. Jason knew exactly how she felt. He felt as if he’d been slam-dunked
