“Jeff said Blackie’s chain was tangled,” she rushed to explain.
“How’d you get over here?” Cole asked her son, and although he didn’t raise his voice it was clear he was displeased. “The gate’s locked and the hedge is too high for him to jump over.”
Jeff stared down at the lawn. “I came through the gap in the hedge—the same one Blackie uses. I crawled through it.”
“Was his chain really tangled?”
“No, sir,” Jeff said in a voice so low Robin had to strain to hear him. “At least not much... I just thought, you know, that maybe he’d like company.”
“I see.”
“He was all alone and so was I.” Jeff lifted his eyes defiantly to his mother’s, as if to suggest the fault was entirely hers. “I go to Mrs. Lawrence’s after school, but it’s all girls there.”
“Don’t you remember what I said about coming into my yard?” Cole asked him.
Jeff’s nod was sluggish. “Yeah. You said maybe I could sometime, but not now. I thought...I hoped that since you let me help you wax your car, you wouldn’t mind.”
“I mind,” Cole said flatly.
“He won’t do it again,” Robin promised. “Will you, Jeff?”
“No,” he murmured. “I’m sorry, Mr. Camden.”
For a whole week Jeff kept his word. The following Monday, however, when Robin came home from the BART station, Heather told her Jeff had mysteriously disappeared about a half hour earlier. She assumed he’d gone home; he’d said something about expecting a call.
Unfortunately, Robin knew exactly where to look for him, and it wasn’t at home. Even more unfortunate was the fact that Cole’s car pulled into the driveway just as she was opening her door. Throwing aside her briefcase and purse, she rushed through the house, jerked open the sliding glass door at the back and raced across her yard.
Her son was nowhere to be seen, but she immediately realized he’d been with Blackie. The dog wasn’t in evidence, either, and she could see Jeff’s favorite baseball cap on the lawn.
“Jeff,” she called, afraid to raise her voice. She sounded as though she was suffering from a bad case of laryngitis.
Neither boy nor dog appeared.
She tried again, taking the risk of shouting for Jeff in a normal tone, praying it wouldn’t attract Cole’s attention. No response. Since Jeff and Blackie didn’t seem to be within earshot, she guessed they were in the fort. There was no help for it; she’d have to go after him herself. Her only hope was that she could hurry over to the fort, get Jeff and return to her own yard, all without being detected by Cole.
Finding the hole in the laurel proved difficult enough. The space was little more than a narrow gap between two thick plants, and for a distressing moment, Robin doubted she was slim enough to squeeze through. Finally, she lowered herself to the ground, hunched her shoulders and managed to push her way between the shrubs. Her head had just emerged when she noticed a pair of polished men’s shoes on the other side. Slowly, reluctantly, she glanced up to find Cole towering above her, eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“Oh, hi,” she said, striving to sound as though it was perfectly normal for her to be crawling into his yard on her hands and knees. “I suppose you’re wondering what I’m doing here....”
“The question did cross my mind.”
Three
“It was the most embarrassing moment of my entire life,” Robin repeated for the third time. She was sitting at the kitchen table, resisting the urge to hide her face in her hands and weep.
“You’ve already said that,” Jeff grumbled.
“What possessed you to even think about going into Mr. Camden’s yard again? Honestly, Jeff, you’ve been warned at least half a dozen times. What do I have to do? String barbed wire between our yards?”
Although he’d thoroughly disgraced himself, Jeff casually rotated the rim of his baseball cap between his fingers. “I said I was sorry.”
A mere apology didn’t begin to compensate for the humiliation Robin had suffered when Cole found her on all fours, crawling through his laurel hedge. If she lived to be an old woman, she’d never forget the look on his face.
“You put me on TV, computer and phone restriction already,” her son reminded her.
That punishment could be another mistake to add to her growing list. At times like this, she wished Lenny were there to advise her. She needed him, and even after all these years, still missed him. Often, when there was no one else around, Robin found herself talking to Lenny. She wondered if she’d made the right decision, wondered what her husband would have done. Without television, computer or phone, the most attractive form of entertainment left open to her son was playing with Blackie, which was exactly what had gotten him into trouble in the first place.
“Blackie belongs to Mr. Camden,” Robin felt obliged to tell him. Again.
“I know,” Jeff said, “but he likes me. When I come home from school, he goes crazy. He’s real glad to see me, Mom, and since there aren’t very many boys in this neighborhood—” he paused as if she was to blame for that “—Blackie and I have an understanding. We’re buds.”
“That’s all fine and dandy, but you seem to be forgetting that Blackie doesn’t belong to you.” Robin stood and opened the refrigerator, taking out a package of chicken breasts.
“I wish he was my dog,” Jeff grumbled. In an apparent effort to make peace, he walked over to the cupboard, removed two plates and proceeded to set the table.
After dinner, while Robin was dealing with the dishes, the doorbell chimed. Jeff raced down the hallway to answer it, returning a moment later with Cole Camden at his side.
Her neighbor was the last person Robin had expected to see—and the last person she wanted to see.
“Mom,” Jeff said, nodding toward Cole, “it’s Mr. Camden.”
“Hello, again,” she managed, striving for a light tone, and realizing even as she spoke that she’d failed. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
“No, thanks. I’d like to talk to both of you about—”
Not giving him the opportunity to continue, Robin nodded so hard she nearly dislocated her neck. “I really am sorry about what happened. I’ve had a good long talk with Jeff and, frankly, I understand why you’re upset and I don’t blame you. You’ve been very kind about this whole episode and I want you to know there won’t be a repeat performance.”
“From either of you?”
“Absolutely,” she said, knowing her cheeks were as red as her nail polish. Did he have to remind her of the humiliating position he’d found her in earlier?