Quinn - Iris Johansen [65]
“But how can I do that?” he asked in wonder.
She had responded instinctively. She wanted to block out all that ugliness, but she knew she had to deal with her own horror and accept what Luke had become through those experiences. “That was stupid of me. Of course, you can’t forget it. And thank you for the offer. If I find I need you, I’ll be sure to call.” She added lightly, “But I’d rather think of you having a good time with Sam. You like him?”
“I think so,” he said cautiously. “He knows a lot.” Another silence. “He smiles quite a bit. But I don’t think he’s laughing at me.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t dare. Maybe he’s just enjoying his job. He always wanted to go back to teaching.”
“I guess that could be why.”
“Did I tell you that Kelly was coming to visit you this week?”
“No, but she called me,” he said shortly. “She told me to get ahead in my studies so that we could have some time together. She’s very bossy.”
“But you like her.” It was true that fourteen-year-old Kelly Winters could be very domineering with Luke and had been from the start of their relationship. But he seemed to accept it from her as he would not have taken it from an adult. They struck sparks from each other, but it didn’t stop them from getting along. Kelly was as mature and scarred in her own way as Luke. She had come into Catherine’s life because Catherine had been sent to rescue her and her father when they’d been prisoners in the camp of a drug lord in Colombia. Kelly had survived, but her father had been killed before her eyes. She was a genius on the scale of a young Einstein, and that had led her down another rocky path. Perhaps that was why she and Luke understood each other. “I hoped to have her with us before this, but she has to attend that think tank at that college in Virginia.”
“I didn’t miss her. Well, maybe a little. She’s kind of … interesting.”
“I’m sure she’d appreciate it if you’d tell her.”
“No, she wouldn’t. She doesn’t need me to tell her stuff.” He paused. “She won’t like it that you aren’t here. She likes you better than anyone. She told me you saved her life.”
“We’re friends. But she likes you, too. So enjoy yourselves and don’t argue too much. Okay?”
“Okay.” He added haltingly, “You know, I think I’d like it better if you were here, too.” Then he added quickly, “But I’m not like Kelly. I don’t need— You go do what you have to do.”
He would never say he missed her, but this was so close it brought tears to her eyes. “I want to be there with you, too. You know I wouldn’t have left you right now if it hadn’t been to help Eve. I can’t ever repay her for helping me find you, but maybe this is a start. Do you understand?”
“I think I do. It’s like the honor thing in all those Knights of the Round Table books. Sometimes it’s hard to connect the ideas in books with real life.”
And books were all Luke had had to go by in that barren world Rakovac had made for him. “Yeah, it’s like the honor thing. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She cleared her throat. “In the meantime get back to Midsummer Night’s Dream. And talk to Kelly about it. Maybe she’ll have an opinion that will make you see something worthwhile in it.”
“Nah, she’ll only tell me to look for the patterns in the story. That’s all she thinks about.”
Catherine chuckled. “Probably. Good night, Luke.”
“Good night, Catherine.” He hung up.
He never called her “Mother,” and she would never insist on that intimacy. Perhaps it would never happen. It was enough that he looked upon her as a friend. They were just learning each other, taking small, halting steps.
But this step tonight had been bigger and might lead her closer to him. Lord, she hoped that it would. Sometimes she ached with the need to tell him how much she loved him, how desperately she had loved him all through the years they