despite the reassurance, fear still flickered in Kevin’s eyes. That frightened expression aroused all of Todd’s fierce protective instincts. He remembered every single humiliating moment of his own school experience and swore to himself that Miss Elizabeth Gentry would not put his son through the same sort of torment.
Liz stared longingly out the classroom window at the swaying palm trees and deep blue sky. It was a perfect Florida day. The humidity had vanished on the breeze. She had only five more spelling papers to grade before she could leave the confining classroom and enjoy what was left of the early October afternoon. The prospect of a long swim raised her spirits considerably.
She had had an absolutely hellish day again. The school had instituted yet another form that had to be filled out, though no one knew quite why. Two of her students had been sent home with the flu, after generously sharing their germs, no doubt. She’d had cafeteria duty, which almost always left her with a headache. Today’s was still throbbing at the base of her skull. And Kevin had gotten into another fight. This time he’d sent Cindy Jamison to the school nurse with a bloody lip. She herself had gotten a lump on her shin and a run in her hose trying to break up the brawl.
Now Kevin was sitting at his desk, his head bent over another assignment as they waited for his father, who was already forty minutes late. The man probably had no intention of showing up this time, either, though Kevin had vowed that he would be here.
She heard a soft, snuffling sound and looked back just in time to catch sight of a tear spilling onto Kevin’s paper. Her heart constricted. Blast that stubborn, indifferent father of his.
“Kevin, bring me your paper.”
He looked up, his expression so woebegone that once again she felt like taking his father apart piece by piece.
When Kevin didn’t move, she said, “Aren’t you finished?”
He shook his head.
“That’s okay. Show me what you have and we’ll do the rest together.”
“It’s not very good.”
“No problem. We’ll work on it.”
Kevin approached her desk with the look of a child being told that Santa Claus was leaving him only a lump of coal. It was an expression without hope. Stoic and resigned, he placed the rumpled page in front of her. “I made a lot of mistakes.”
“Then let’s see what we can do about them,” she said briskly. “You know everybody makes mistakes when they tackle something new. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and it’s definitely no reason not to at least try.”
Kevin regarded her with surprise. “My dad says that, too.”
Liz was startled that they’d even discussed the subject. Her image of Todd Lewis did not include supportive father-son talks. She’d been certain that he either ignored the boy altogether or pressured him by expecting perfection.
“Does your dad help you with your homework?”
“Sometimes,” Kevin said evasively. “Mostly Mrs. Henley helps me.” Mrs. Henley was the woman next door.
“Sometimes, if Dad’s real late, she fixes dinner and helps me with my homework.”
Liz felt that familiar surge of helplessness rush through her again. For the next half hour she and Kevin worked on correcting his paper. It was a tedious, frustrating process for both of them, but Kevin’s glowing smile at each tiny success made the effort worthwhile. When he printed the last of the words on his list perfectly, she hugged him.
“That’s exactly right. I think you deserve a reward. What would you like?”
His eyes widened. “You mean like a present or something?”
She grinned at his look of delight. “A small present.”
He chewed on his lip thoughtfully, then finally said, “I’m really hungry. Could I have a hamburger?”
It wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind, but he was looking at her so expectantly, she shrugged. “Why not? I’m sure we can find someplace nearby for a hamburger and maybe even some french fries.”
“Great, but what about my dad?”
Liz wasn’t much in the mood to talk to Todd Lewis about anything, but regulations demanded it. “If you give me the number, I’ll call him at his office and get his okay.”
Kevin’s face fell. “He doesn’t work in an office. You can’t call him.”
“What about a cell phone?” she asked.
“He only uses it for work, I don’t know the number.”
She should have realized that the minute she’d made the first call last week and gotten only an answering machine. “Where does he work?”
“He builds stuff. You know, like shopping centers and things. He’s building one now that’s really neat.”
Liz made one of those impetuous decisions that occasionally got her into very hot water. She didn’t believe in breaking rules, but she sometimes bent them in two if she thought it would help one of her students. Right now, Kevin needed all the positive reinforcement she could give him. She’d brave a lion in his den, if that’s what it took. Todd Lewis seemed only slightly less formidable.
“Do you know where it is?”
“Sure. He takes me with him lots on the weekends. Sometimes we even go by at night, if he has to go back and work late.”
It didn’t sound like any sort of lifestyle for a young boy, Liz decided, and only added to her conviction that Todd Lewis was treading dangerously close to being an unfit father. Yet Kevin always spoke of his father with such obvious pride. He clearly idolized the man. That intrigued her.
“Come on, then,” she said to Kevin. “Let’s go see him.”
When they found Todd Lewis, he was standing with one dusty, booted foot propped on a steel girder that was about to be hoisted to the third level of a future parking garage. A yellow hard hat covered much of his close-cropped brown hair and shaded his face. A light blue work shirt was stretched taut over wide shoulders. Liz found herself swallowing hard at the sight of him. He was bigger—at least six-foot-two and probably two-hundred pounds—more imposing and more masculine than she’d imagined. He made her feel petite and fragile and very much aware of her wrinkled shirt, the run in her hose and the fact that she hadn’t stopped long enough to put on lipstick.
His eyes, when she got close enough to see them, sparked with intelligence and curiosity. At the sight of his son running toward him, those eyes filled with something else as well, a warmth and concern that startled her and made her wish for one wild and timeless moment that the look had been directed at her.
“Dad, this is Mrs. Gentry,” Kevin blurted with a wave of his hand in her direction. Something in Todd Lewis’s self-confident demeanor seemed shaken by that announcement, but there was no time to analyze it because Kevin was rushing on. “We came to see you because we’re going to celebrate, but Miss Gentry said we had to get your permission and we couldn’t call you, so I showed her where you are. Is it okay?”
