Whispering Rock (Virgin River #3)(78)

Mike could have gone back into the school and asked Mrs. Bradford to call Tom Booth to her office for an interview, but before he had much time to consider that the last bell rang, and he watched students pour out of the building and migrate to cars and buses in the parking lot. Paul had mentioned Tom was helping out at Jack’s homesite after school, and he wondered if he might run into him there.

And he’d also run into Jack out at the job site. In thinking about it, he might be able to take care of two delicate situations at the same time. Brie had spent the night in his bed, in his arms—it had been a lot more intimate than a trip to the coast, or a dance at a festival. If Jack was going to have an issue with that, he’d rather they get beyond it without Brie being present. He was aware that she’d seen her brother that morning and had said the reunion was uneventful; Jack hadn’t seemed to have had any bone to pick. However, that didn’t cover the territory between two men who loved Brie—a protective brother and a lover.

Tom’s little red truck wasn’t there when Mike arrived at the building site, but the place was alive with activity, a lot of noise coming from inside the structure. Jack’s truck was parked near the house.

Inside, Mike found a lot of men at work and Jack in the kitchen on his knees, working baseboards into place around newly installed cabinets. He watched him work for a moment and then said, “Looking real good out here, Jack.”

Jack leaned back, sitting on his heels, and looked up at Mike. He pulled a rag out of his back pocket and mopped the sweat and sawdust off his face. Then he stood. Jack had a lot of expressions—there was the good buddy, the comrade, the steely-eyed killer, and there was one that he seemed to reserve for his role as commander and leader. It was not unlike the expression a father would bestow on the beau of a daughter—not quite deadly, not quite docile, but something in between. Purposely unreadable, giving away no emotion. “Thanks,” he said simply, responding to the compliment.

“I thought if you had anything you wanted to say to me, I’d give you a chance to do that while Brie’s occupied with other things.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “Yeah, I have something to say. We’ve been over this, but just let me say this once more, so you know where I’m coming from. She’s real special to me and I’ve seen her hurt. Jesus, worse than hurt. You know what I’m talking about.”

Mike gave a nod. “I know.”

“This thing that’s going on with you and my sister, I fought it. It really scared me, got under my skin….”

“I know,” Mike said again. “I under—”

“Because I’m a fool,” Jack said, cutting him off. He shook his head in frustration. “Christ almighty, Valenzuela—you’ve had my back how many times? You’d fight beside me in a heartbeat, put yourself in harm’s way to protect me or any member of our squad. I don’t know why I got my back up like I did. When a woman in your family gets hurt like that—you just want to put her in a padded box with a lock on it so no one can ever get to her and hurt her again, even if that’s the worst thing you could do.” He shook his head again and now his expression was readable. He was open. “I apologize, man. I thought of you as my brother before you even glanced at Brie. I know she’s safe with you.”

Mike found himself chuckling. “Man,” he said. “Mel must have held you down and beat you over the head.”

Now the expression got surly. “I’d just like to know why Mel always gets the f**king credit when I start to make sense. What makes you think I didn’t just think it through and—”

“Never mind,” Mike said, sticking out a hand. “I appreciate it.” Jack took the hand and Mike’s smile vanished. The look on his face became earnest. “Jack, I give you my word. I plan to do everything in my power to make your sister happy. I’ll protect her with my life.”

“You’d better,” Jack said sternly. “Or so help me—”

Mike couldn’t help but smile. “And we were doing so good there for a minute.”

“Yeah, well…”

“You won’t be disappointed in me,” Mike said.

Jack was quiet a moment, then said, “Thanks. I knew that. It just took me a while. Guys like us…”

“Yeah.” Mike laughed. “Guys like us. Who’d ever have thought?”

Jack rubbed a hand across the back of his sweaty neck and said, “Yeah, well, look out. You bite the dust like I did and all of a sudden you’re breeding up a ball team.”

“I’ll be on the lookout for that,” Mike said. “Show me the house, Jack. Looks like it’s coming along real well.”

“Yeah, we’ll find Paul to give us a tour. I was going to make it good—he’s going to make it a masterpiece.”

After about thirty minutes of looking at every detail of Paul’s work, Mike saw Tom Booth’s truck pull up. Tom parked, got out and dug into his job of cleaning up and hauling trash. Mike timed his approach; he shot the breeze with Jack and Paul as the sun was sinking. Jack finally left to get a quick shower so he could help serve dinner at the bar, and Paul went back into the house to check on the crew as they were finishing up.

Mike made his way to Tom. “Hey,” he said. “Could you give me a minute?”