money. I have lots though. I gots me a trust fund from Mom’s dad who died afor I was ever born. I don’t mind sharing with you,” Will offered.
“I appreciate the thought—” Caleb smiled at his son “—but you can’t spend your money until you are of age.”
“I got age, six years of age,” Will insisted. “And Mom said I can spend my money just as I please.”
“I am not your mother,” Caleb said.
Not hardly, Julie thought with an appreciative glance at Caleb’s very masculine body, her eyes lingering on his muscular forearms beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his pale blue denim shirt.
“But—” Will began.
“Shall we get started,” Julie interrupted before the argument could escalate.
“Will, you sit there.” She pointed to a chair.
Reluctantly Will sat down. “I hate tests.”
“Really?” She sounded mildly curious. “If you haven’t been to school, how do you know about tests?”
Will opened his mouth, closed it again and scowled at her.
“Please sit down there, Caleb,” Julie said, hoping that having the distance of the table between them would help her to ignore him. It was a tactical error. Across from her, he was directly in her line of sight, and her eyes kept straying to him.
You are a teacher, she reprimanded herself. You are here to evaluate a child, not fantasize about the child’s father.
“What’s them?” Will pointed to the deck of cards she was holding.
“These are to test your ESP, because if you really are an alien in disguise then I can’t teach you. Aliens are outside my area of expertise,” Julie said seriously as she dealt ten of the cards facedown in front of him.
“Cool! Just like on X-Files!” Will scooted around on the chair in excitement. “Do you find many aliens?”
“Nary a one,” Julie said.
“Aw, sh—”
“William Alister Tarrington!” Caleb bit out.
“What?” Will gave his father a confused look.
Julie looked from Caleb’s furious features to Will’s confused ones and stifled a sigh. From the look on Will’s face, she had the discouraging feeling that the boy had no clue as to why his father was so mad. It would appear there was a cultural gap a mile wide between father and son.
“I absolutely forbid—” Caleb began.
Julie hastily reached across the small table and touched Caleb’s shoulder, intent only on stopping him before the whole situation exploded into anger on Caleb’s part and tears on Will’s, which would ruin any chance for her to evaluate the child today. Her fingers involuntarily twitched as she felt the warmth of his body beneath the soft cotton of his shirt.
Her touch felt like a live wire had been laid on Caleb’s bare skin. It scorched his flesh and raced over his nerve endings, speeding up his heartbeat. He took a deep breath, hoping to regain control of his senses. It didn’t work. The faint scent of the perfume she was wearing drifted into his lungs, deepening his sexual awareness of her.
Damn! Caleb thought with black humor. Of all times for his body to indulge in a sexual fantasy. When he was lecturing his son about inappropriate social behavior!
“Why can’t I say sh—that word?” Will substituted at Caleb’s glare. “Everybody says it. Mom does and all Mom’s friends, and in the movies and—”
“What kind of movies do you see?” Caleb demanded.
“We seem to have wandered from the purpose of my visit,” Julie interrupted, despite her sympathy for Caleb. He was really going to have his work cut out for him. Not only was the poor man going to have to try to forge some kind of relationship with a child he had never laid eyes on before two days ago, but he was also going to have to teach that child what was and wasn’t allowed in normal society. A task that was bound to initially earn Will’s resentment.
To Julie’s relief, Caleb subsided without another word. Almost as if he was relieved to have her deal with the present problem.
Julie turned to Will. “I want you to close your eyes and concentrate on the number that is hidden on each of the ten cards. Tell me what you think each one is.”
Will, with a cautious look at his father, obediently squeezed his eyes shut and caught his lower lip between his small teeth in concentration.
“The first one is six,” Will decided.
“Am I right?” He opened one eye and peered hopefully at her.
“I’ll tell you at the end,” Julie said. “Guess the rest.”
Will quickly guessed the remaining cards and then she flipped over the cards. “Aw, sh—damn!” he quickly amended.
“God give me strength,” Caleb groaned.
“I guess I ain’t no alien,” Will lamented. “I only got two of the ten right.”
“Oh, well, not everybody is lucky enough to be an alien,” Julie sympathized.
“Yeah.” Will looked morose for a second and then suddenly brightened. “Maybe I can get possessed.”
Caleb grimaced. “Maybe you already—”
“Since you’re a human, let’s test some human skills,” Julie hurriedly said. She didn’t want Caleb giving Will ideas. The kid had enough already.
Handing Will a small beginning reader, she said, “Would you see if any of that looks familiar?”
Will opened the book and flipped through the pages.
“Nope,” he finally said.
“No, what?” Julie, wise in the ways of kids, sought clarification.
“No, it don’t look familiar. Ain’t never seen it before,” Will said.
“A literalist yet,” Caleb said. “He sounds for all the world like his great-grandfather.”
Will peered uncertainly at him. “I gots me a great-grandfather?”
“You had,” Caleb said. “He died when I was a teenager. He was a judge, and you had to be really careful what you said to him because he took everything literally.”
“A judge?” Will looked intrigued. “Did he hang anyone?”
Caleb chuckled, and the sound slipped through Julie’s mind, soothing her sense of frustration at the way this session kept going off on tangents. Caleb had the most attractive chuckle. It made her feel warm and excited. As if something exhilarating was about to happen.
“Not that I know of,” Caleb
