The Prodigal's Return

So why did the reality of finally being back here have him spinning his wheels and going absolutely nowhere?

CHAPTER FIVE

FACING THE CAIN kitchen door and the layer of rust covering its outer screen, Jenn mentally counted backward to her last tetanus shot. A ridiculous excuse for stalling, but now that she was here, she needed time. Just a moment to shut out Traci’s bombshell at lunch and refocus on the next Hallmark moment of her day.

The rickety front door had been locked and no one had answered the bell. So she’d snaked around back through the overgrown yard she’d once turned cartwheels in, and the reality of the run-down place, of all that had been left broken for too long, hit home.

Broken.

What a way to describe the chasm yawning between her and this man she’d once loved like a father. The Cain and Gardner families had shared holidays, birthdays and summer barbecues. Winter ski trips. She and Neal had run with the church youth group while their parents chaperoned—a euphemism for keeping the youngsters out of trouble while the adults acted like kids themselves. Their families had been inseparable, intertwining, planning for a shared future, right up until that night. That awful night.

A blast of wind tugged at her coat and her second thoughts. This wasn’t about what they’d had, or what they no longer meant to each other. This was about helping Nathan Cain now. Spending a few minutes letting him know someone still cared. Just a few minutes. Was that too much to ask?

She pulled back the screen and knocked. After the fifth knock, her dread at seeing Nathan again gave way to concern. She tried to peer through the curtains covering the center window. But there was nothing to see but dust and shadows. Then, from out of nowhere, one of the shadows moved toward her.

She screamed, her bags dropping in a heap on top of her foot.

“Ouch!” She leaned on the door and massaged her foot through her tennis shoe.

Okay! She got it. She wasn’t welcome here.

Then the lock clicked and the door jerked away. Her balance shifted forward. Squealing, she tipped into a mountain that smelled of stale beer and way too little personal hygiene.

“Damn it,” Nathan Cain grumbled as she righted herself.

He was dressed in the same filthy, torn jeans as the other night. No shirt, no socks, nothing to combat the morning temperatures. His blond, gray-streaked hair stuck out in more directions than should be possible in a three-dimensional world. And his brown eyes, so dark they were almost black, were swollen and bloodshot. One of his grimy hands lifted to block the afternoon sun.

He still wasn’t exactly sober.

“What the hell are you doin’ here at the crack of dawn?” groused the man who’d once led Jenn’s junior-high Sunday school class. “I’ve got a good mind to—”

“I—It’s one o’clock in the afternoon, Mr. Cain.” The stench of him made it difficult to speak. “I—I—”

“I, what?” He gave her a vague perusal, then a twisted smile. “Well, if it isn’t little miss Jennifer Gardner. Thought I’d seen the last of you when you sprinted out of here weeks ago.”

“I—I wanted to bring a few things over….” She bent to gather the scattered groceries. “I mean, when I dropped you off, the—the kitchen, it looked so…”

Repulsive?

She stooped and reached for a box of macaroni and cheese. Nathan’s hand made it there first. Hers recoiled before she could stop herself.

He crouched beside her and handed her the box.

“What business is it of yours what my kitchen looks like?” he asked in little more than a whisper, as if talking in a normal tone hurt.

“I—I just want to help.” She stood and put the distance she needed between them, a bag of store-bought guilt hanging from each hand. “Just trying to help a friend.”

“Friend?” He straightened, too, his knees cracking, his balance wavering, until all six foot three of him loomed over her. He half collapsed against the door-frame and crossed his arms over his chest. “What gave you the idea I needed help?”

He looked so much like his son even in his rundown state, Jenn caught herself staring.

“I almost ran over you the other night, Mr. Cain. And you didn’t— You don’t look well.”

“Well, isn’t that neighborly of you to notice.” His stare reinforced his sarcasm.

Then an odd sort of confusion slipped through his antagonism. He inched backward into the house, his motions unnaturally slow. Gone was the grace and coordination of the man who’d once given the teenagers in town a run for their money on the basketball court.

“If you’ll excuse me,” he said, manners from another time making a brief appearance. “I’m in the middle of something…something important.”

He began closing the door.

“But the groceries.” She shuffled the bags to one hand and laid a palm on the door, knowing that pushing him was a bad idea, but completely unable to stop. “I was thinking I could cook you something. Eating might help you feel a little better.”

“I feel just fine. And you’ve got no business here.”

His soulless eyes flicked from her hand to the pitying frown she hadn’t swallowed fast enough. She was staring at the closed door before she could say another word. Without a second thought, she turned the knob and pushed the door back open.

Nathan was standing in the middle of the kitchen, a can of beer in his hand. He didn’t look a bit surprised at her intrusion. He didn’t even look angry. Instead, he tipped the can back, happily on his way to inebriation.

“You’ve got no business here.” He drained his beer in the time it took him to reach her.

He attempted to shut her out again, but just keeping his hand from slipping off the doorknob seemed to get the better of him. Jenn had plenty of time to scoot farther inside before the door closed. Oblivious, Nathan barreled straight into her.

“Get the hell out of my house!” He jerked away. “Or I’ll call the sheriff.”

“No, you won’t. The sheriff’s probably the only person in town you want to see less than me and my father.”

Mr. Cain had nearly killed Glenn Hamilton, the former sheriff’s deputy who’d arrived at this same door eight years ago with a warrant for Neal’s arrest. That was the last time she’d stepped foot in the Cain house. The last time anyone from Rivermist had.

She juggled her shopping bags, searching for an uncluttered flat surface to set them on. Finding none, she spotted a relatively clean patch of linoleum beneath the wall-mounted phone and dropped the groceries to the floor.

“How can you bring yourself to eat in here?” The place was downright revolting.

“That’s none of your business. Now get out.” He was no longer yelling, but his eyes had filled with every awful emotion he had a right to feel toward her.

“I can’t do that.” Another glance around the room, and her resolve to simply drop off the food, reclaim her daughter and head home for a stimulating evening of worrying her heart out about Traci Carpenter evaporated.

The kitchen table seemed as good a place to start as any. She collected a stack of plates covered with half-eaten food and headed for the sink, moving a pile of empty beer cans to make room to work.

“Are you an alcoholic?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Not yet.” There was a long pause. “But I’m working on it.”

She’d been prying a burnt hamburger off a plate. Dropping it, she whirled to find him guzzling another can of beer.

“That’s not funny! You’re killing yourself.”

“Not exactly.” He saluted her with his can. “But close enough.”