Uncontrollable Page 3

  Gone was Beth’s sweet niece—who’d always been a little bit on the sassy side, but it was a sass filled with sugar. Gone was the girl who’d come up and wrap her arms around Beth in a good, long hug. Gone was the girl who’d curl up next to Beth on the sofa. Gone was the girl who usually had a smile turning up her lips.

  Pretty much the only affection Beth got from her niece these days was during those stormy nights when Nora was scared. Since Beth hated it when the kids were scared, it wasn’t exactly her favorite form of affection.

  Nora’s new anger-filled attitude had come with a new set of friends. Friends that Beth wasn’t a fan of in the slightest. Friends who liked to wear short skirts, and low-cut shirts that would be more accurately described as bras. And the thing was, even though Nora was on the shorter size, her chest hadn’t gotten the memo about her tiny frame. She was in the “D” range where a lot of her friends weren’t nearly as ample. What looked inappropriate on the other teenagers looked downright indecent on Nora.

  There was also the fact that Nora was getting to that age where sex was becoming a much more prevalent thing. One afternoon when Beth had gotten home early, Nora had had a friend over, and Beth had overheard a rather descriptive conversation about oral sex. When Beth had tried to talk to Nora about it later, there’d been an explosive fight that ended with Nora getting grounded for a week—not because of the topic but because of Nora screaming It’s none of your freaking business—and the slamming of a bedroom door that caused the entire house to shake.

  God help Beth when her niece started dating. She’d thought more than once about building an add-on tower to the house and locking the girl up until she was twenty-two…or thirty. Thirty was a much better age.

  If only.

  Beth slid the pizza boxes back into the SUV and dropped her purse on the seat next to them. Then she closed the door and headed across the yard and over to the O’Bryans’ driveway. Corinne got out of the car, an exhausted smile on her face, and waved as Beth approached.

  “You have a long day, too?” she asked.

  “The longest.” Corinne nodded as she walked around the car to the backseat on the passenger side. “There were three birthdays today…so we had all three of the dreaded C’s: cookies, cupcakes, and candy.”

  Corinne was a preschool teacher, had been one for almost thirty years now.

  “I can barely keep up with my three; you are Wonder Woman handling seventy of them with sugar rushes.”

  “Yes, but there are ten of us and I get to give them back at the end of the day,” Corinne said as she opened the back door to reveal Penny bouncing in the car seat.

  “Aunt B!” she exclaimed excitedly.

  Penny had just started going to preschool that year, and Corinne was kind enough to take the little one in the morning and bring her back every evening.

  The woman was a freaking godsend.

  Corinne had the little girl unbuckled in a snap, and before Beth knew it, her niece was shooting across the space, her blond ponytail bouncing as she ran. Beth kneeled down low as Penny wrapped her little arms around Beth’s neck and kissed Beth’s cheek.

  And just like that, some of the crap she’d dealt with that day melted away.

  The child had always been exceptionally affectionate, more content to crawl up into someone’s lap for a good cuddle than do anything else. The months right after Colleen and Kevin died, Beth very rarely didn’t have Penny in her arms.

  Because really, how could a person not give in to the little girl when she would look up with those pleading mossy green eyes—eyes the exact same shade as her brother’s and sister’s…the exact same shade as their mother’s had been—and hold her arms wide, saying, “hold you, hold you”?

  How did a person say no to that?

  “How’s my Lucky Penny?” Beth asked as she wrapped her own arms around her niece and stood.

  “Good!” Penny leaned back just slightly so she could look into Beth’s face. “I had a cupcake with a cookie in it.”

  “What kind of cookie?”

  Her little brow furrowed as she tried to remember. “A roreo.”

  “An Oreo?”

  “Yes, that’s what I said.”

  “You save room for dinner? We’re having pizza.”

  “With pineapples?” she asked as her eyes lit up.

  “Just for you.”

  The rumble of an engine could be heard from the end of the street and they all turned to look in that direction. “Hammy’s home,” Penny said as a big old blue truck rounded the corner and rolled to a stop in front of the house.

  A couple of years ago it would’ve amused Beth to see Hamilton driving such a big vehicle, only because he’d been a fairly scrawny kid. Tall, yes, but a beanpole nonetheless. So him sitting behind the wheel of something that large would’ve been disproportionate somehow.

  This was no longer the case. The boy who got out of the driver’s side of the truck wasn’t a boy anymore. He was a man.

  At eighteen years old Hamilton O’Bryan was a couple of inches over six feet tall, had muscular arms that were bigger than Beth’s thighs, shaggy dark brown hair, and was always sporting a decent showing of five o’clock shadow on his jaw. He topped off the whole look with his thick, black-framed glasses, making him look like a young Clark Kent.

  Hamilton’s transformation over the last couple of years had been twofold. One, he’d hit puberty. And two, he’d been whipped into shape by his brother-in-law, Bennett Hart. Though as close as they were, that in-law part could really be erased.

  And Hamilton wasn’t the only one who’d benefitted from Mel and Bennett’s union. The slightly shorter, equally as dark-haired, and a tad bit more muscular eighteen-year-old who was climbing out of the passenger side of the truck was Dale Riggels. He’d transformed almost just as much.

  Actually, considering that Dale had been battling cancer the previous year and had lost about thirty pounds when he’d been on chemo, his transformation was just a little more impressive.

  “Hammy! Dale!” Penny squealed.

  Beth set her niece down and the little girl immediately shot off across the yard.

  “PenPen!” Hamilton said as he ran toward her, scooping her up in one fluid motion and spinning her in the air.

  The little girl’s delighted giggles filled the air as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. A moment later she was transported to Dale’s back, who started running around the yard, making her laugh all the more.

  While Penny was carted around the yard by Dale, Hamilton made his way over to Beth and Corinne. As was the usual when he saw her—and she expected nothing less—Hamilton pulled Beth into a hug.

  Despite everything that was going on with Nora, Hamilton didn’t treat anyone else differently. He was a bigger man in many ways.

  “I heard congratulations are in order.” Beth looked up at him when he let go of her and took a step back. “Your mom told me you got into five colleges. And that every single one of them has a music scholarship attached.”

  Hamilton had been playing instruments as far back as Beth could remember. She was pretty sure he was proficient in about ten at this point.

  “Yes ma’am.” He nodded.

  “You know which one you want to go to yet?”

  “Still deciding.”

  “Dale got into a number of schools, too,” Corinne called out, sounding just as proud as she did when she talked about Hamilton. “How many was it?”

  “Four,” Dale said as he came up to them. As he’d been running full tilt around with Penny it was pretty impressive that he was only slightly winded.

  “Congratulations to you, too. Any of the same?” Beth asked.

  “Three of the same,” Hamilton answered.

  “That’s very exciting.” She couldn’t help but grin at both of them. “Well, we should get going.” She nodded to her niece, who was currently sliding down Dale’s back. “I have pizza in the car that’s getting cold.”

  “Oh, pizz
a!” Hamilton said, looking at his mom. “Can we do that for dinner? I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving. And I’m making fried chicken and mashed potatoes.”

  “Ohhhhh, even better.” Hamilton groaned.

  “You staying for dinner?” Corinne asked Dale.

  “Well, I can’t miss your fried chicken and mashed potatoes, now can I?”

  “No, you can’t. Enjoy your pizza,” she said, rubbing Penny’s head affectionately before grabbing Penny’s sparkly purple backpack and handing it to Beth. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Bright and early. Have a good evening, you guys,” Beth said as she reached for Penny’s outstretched hand.

  “You too, sugar.”

  Beth headed back to the house, Penny now chattering about the “bwock” castle she’d built.

  When they got to the SUV she let go of her still chattering niece’s hand. “Can you carry this?” she asked, holding out the backpack.

  “Yes,” Penny nodded simply, grabbing the bag and pulling it onto her tiny shoulders as she switched topics. Now she was telling Beth the story she’d heard before nap time about an alligator in high heels.

  Beth grabbed the pizza boxes and her purse, hitting the automatic locks before they headed for the house.

  The auditory assault happened as they stepped onto the porch, the windows barely containing the loud bass. When she opened the front door hip-hop thumped through the speakers, a female voice rapping about a sexual act that even at thirty Beth had never heard of.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She stopped by the kitchen first, setting the pizza on the counter before making a beeline for the entertainment center in the living room. Nora’s iPhone was plugged into the speakers, and Beth pulled it off the chord, plunging the house into silence…for about a second.

  “Hey, I was listening to that!”

  Beth spun around to find Nora laid out on the sofa, her computer in her lap and a massive frown on her face. The overjoyed enthusiasm that Penny had shown upon seeing her aunt was not matched by Nora.

  Not in the slightest.

  Beth missed the days when she and her older niece didn’t have the most caustic relationship known to man. Missed them dearly.

  “The entire neighborhood was listening to that, Nora. You are not allowed to play music like that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they’ve said about nineteen inappropriate things in the thirty seconds that I’ve been in the house and certain ears”—she pointed to Penny, who’d followed her into the room—“should not be listening to it.”

  “You guys weren’t even here.”

  “Yeah, but your eight-year-old brother is.”

  “He’s outside,” Nora waved carelessly behind her. “He’s fine.”

  “Have you even looked outside? There’s a massive storm coming this way, Nora!” Beth’s gaze followed the motion of Nora’s hand. As she looked out the windows, a bolt of lightning struck in the distance. Seconds later a rumble of thunder rolled through the air.

  It was then that Nora’s head popped up to look over the back of the sofa and her mossy green eyes went wide. “It’s still…it’s still far enough away. And he’s probably on the porch.”

  “He shouldn’t be outside at all,” Beth said as she headed for the back door and pulled it open. “Goose!” She called out Grant’s nickname as she looked at the very much empty porch. “Goose!” she called, louder, her eyes scanning the backyard. “It’s time for dinner.”

  No answer.

  “Grant!” She pushed the wooden frame of the screen door, stepping out onto the patio. The massive hundred-year-old oak tree that stood tall in the center of the yard moved with the wind, the leaves rustling on the branches that held them.

  “Aunt B?” Beth turned around to see Penny standing in the doorway, her eyes wide and her bottom lip trembling.

  “Sweetie, get back inside.”

  “Come here, Pen.” Nora came up behind her little sister and picked her up just as another flash of lightning split the sky. Penny cried out as she wrapped her arms around her sister’s neck. “Maybe he snuck in when I went to get a drink or something. Let me check his room.”

  Nora and Penny disappeared inside the house, the door closing with a snap as Beth turned around and made her way farther into the yard to do a loop around.

  “Come on, Goose. You need to get inside, buddy.” Something unpleasant settled low in Beth’s belly. Out of the three kids, he was the most affected by storms. There was no way he would’ve missed what was rolling in, and he wouldn’t linger outside. Not for a second.

  As she got closer to the house the back door opened again and Nora stood on the threshold, chewing on her bottom lip. She dropped her lip from between her teeth and shook her head. “He isn’t in the house.”

  Beth spun back around and called out again. “Grant!”

  Then her eyes moved beyond the backyard and to the lake that spread out for about two miles. She spotted her brother-in-law’s little green rowboat a hundred yards away, bobbing along while its two paddles floated out across the water in different directions.

  Her shaking hand came up to cover her mouth. “Oh, God,” she whispered through her fingers.

  Chapter Three

  How to Save a Life

  The continuous high-pitched whining coming from Duke was like nails on a chalkboard. Tripp had been home for about two hours and for the last hour the dog would not stop. He sat by the French doors that led to the backyard, looking through the glass, his long fluffy tail thumping out a steady beat against the hardwood floors.

  Until Tripp figured out the escape route Duke was using, the doggy door was going to have to be closed up. He knew the dog didn’t need to use the bathroom as they’d spent about thirty minutes out there, Duke doing his business before a round of fetch had been played.

  Damn, did that dog love balls. Tennis, baseball, rubber, blue, red, squeaky, anything. Maybe it was because Duke no longer had any that he was so obsessed with them.

  Another long whine came from the dog, and this time he stretched his paw up and scratched at the door.

  “Duke,” Tripp snapped his fingers, immediately drawing the attention of the dog. “No.”

  Tripp really didn’t understand why the dog was so damn anxious to get outside at the moment, because he hated storms. Maybe he was too upset with the freedom that had been taken away from him to be concerned with the storm brewing on the horizon.

  Duke turned away from Tripp then stood up and started pacing, and the whining turned to keening.

  “What’s going on with you, buddy?” Tripp asked, crossing the room and crouching down to rub the dog’s neck. Duke gently butted his head against Tripp’s chest, the next whine coming out low and painful-sounding.

  Tripp moved his hand to Duke’s head as he stood and looked out the back doors, his gaze immediately landing on the lake. Normally at this time of the day the sun was setting and the water was a riot of colors. Today it was black and churning.

  The doorbell rang, vibrating through the air, before a hurried knock followed. Duke bolted for the front door, letting off a series of booming barks.

  “Shit,” Tripp groaned.

  He crossed the room and grabbed Duke by the collar before he opened the door, not even bothering with the peephole. What was the point? He knew exactly who it was based on that damn knock.

  What the hell did she want now?

  But as the woman on the other side of his door came into view, he knew this wasn’t about her complaining. Her face was white, her blue eyes filled with terror, and her hands were shaking.

  “I-I need to borrow your boat. It’s Grant; I think he’s out on the lake. The rowboat is out there and he isn’t answering. I can’t…I can’t get to him. I don’t know if he…”

  She couldn’t finish the sentence, but he knew the end anyway. Beth wasn’t sure if Grant had fallen in.

  “Come on.” Tripp went into action mode, gr
abbing Beth’s hand and pulling her into the house. He shut the door behind them, letting go of Duke’s collar and Beth’s hand simultaneously. The dog immediately bolted for the back door while Beth followed Tripp into the kitchen.

  “I got home five minutes ago and couldn’t find him, and then I saw the boat out there, and…and I kept calling his name but he didn’t answer…and…oh, God.”

  The keys to his bass boat were on a hook inside the pantry. He wrenched them from where they hung and was pretty sure he’d ripped the hook out of the wall in the process. Beth held her shaking palm out in front of Tripp.

  “You aren’t going out there,” he said as he stepped around her and paused for a second, slipping on his deck shoes in two quick movements.

  The second the back door was opened, Duke sprinted off to the lake and Tripp followed. Beth was at his heels, which was more than a little impressive as he had about a foot on her in height.

  As he opened the latch on the gate Beth made a move to follow him through but he held his hand up to stop her.

  “Stay here.”

  “No, I’m going with you.” She shook her head stubbornly.

  “Beth, if lightning strikes the lake, there are going to be much bigger problems. Stay. Here.” If lightning did strike the lake it would travel across the top of it, a big problem for the metal-bottomed rowboat.

  The gate snapped shut behind Tripp and he quickly moved to the end of the small wooden dock where the motorized bass boat was moored. He untied the rope from the post within seconds, and once he was standing securely in the boat pushed off from the dock before moving to the wheel. The motor came to life with a turn of the key and then he was steering the boat through the water.

  There were fifty or so yards left to get to the rowboat when another bolt of lightning cracked the sky in half; the thunder that followed ripped through the air. Duke was barking like mad—a whole new level of freaking the fuck out that Tripp had never before seen from the dog.