Chapter Five

The next few days were intense for Shana. She insisted on driving Jazmine to school, and every morning she joined the long line of parents dropping off their kids at the grade school. If Jazmine appreciated her efforts to build a rapport between them, she gave no indication of it. The most animation she’d witnessed in the girl had been after Monday’s lengthy telephone conversation with her uncle Adam.

Shana, her aunt, a blood relative, was simply Shana, but Adam Kennedy, family friend, was Uncle Adam. The uncle part was uttered with near-reverence.

Okay, so she was jealous. Shana admitted it. While she struggled to gain ground with her niece, Jazmine droned on about this interloper.

Tuesday afternoon, the school bus again let Jazmine off in front of the ice-cream parlor. Her niece had dragged herself into the shop, as though it demanded all her energy just to open the door. Then she’d slipped onto one of the barstools and lain her head on her folded arms.

Wednesday afternoon, Shana watched the school bus approach and the doors glide open. Sure enough, Jazmine was there, but this time she leaped off the bus and hurried toward the restaurant.

Shana stopped and stared. No, it couldn’t be. But it was. Jazmine had her backpack. From the size and apparent weight of it, nothing seemed to be missing, either.

The instant Jazmine stepped inside, Shana blurted out, “You’ve got your backpack.” It probably would’ve been better to keep her mouth shut and let Jazmine tell her, but she’d been too shocked.

“I know.” Jazmine dumped her backpack on the floor and hopped onto the barstool with a Bugs Bunny bounce, planting her elbows on the counter. “Can I have some ice cream?”

Taken aback, Shana blinked. “Who are you and what have you done with my niece?”

“Very funny.”

Shana laughed and reached for the ice-cream scoop. “Cone or dish?”

“Dish. Make it two scoops. Bubblegum and strawberry.” She paused, her face momentarily serious. “Oh—and thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Bending over the freezer, Shana rolled the hard ice cream into a generous ball. “Well,” she said when she couldn’t stand it any longer. “The least you can do is tell me what happened.”

“With what?” Jazmine asked, then giggled like the nine-year-old she was. “I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I was pretty upset Monday afternoon.”

“Really,” Shana said, playing dumb.

“Two girls cornered me in the playground. One of them distracted me, and the other ran off with my backpack.”

Shana clenched her jaw, trying to hide her anger. As Jazmine’s legal guardian, she wanted these girls’ names and addresses. She’d personally see to it that they were marched into the principal’s office and reprimanded. On second thought, their parents should be summoned to the school for a confrontation with the authorities. Perhaps it would be best to bring in the police, as well.

“How’d you get it back?” Shana had given up scooping ice cream.

Looking more than a little pleased with herself, Jazmine straightened her shoulders and grinned. “Uncle Adam told me I should talk to them.”

Wasn’t that brilliant. Had she been asked, Shana would’ve told Jazmine the same thing.

“He said I should tell them it was really unfortunate, but it didn’t seem like we could be friends and I was hoping to get to know them.” This was uttered in the softest, sweetest tones Shana had ever heard from the girl.

“They fell for it?”

Jazmine’s eyes widened. “I meant it. At first I thought they were losers but they’re actually pretty cool. I think they just wanted to see what I carried around with me.”

Frankly Shana was curious herself.

“Once they looked inside, they were willing to give it back.”

“You’re not missing anything?”

Jazmine shook her head.

“Great.” Muttering under her breath, Shana dipped the scoop into the blue bubblegum-flavored ice cream. The bell above the door rang, but intent on her task, Shana didn’t raise her head.

“I’ll have some of that myself,” a male voice said.

“Uncle Adam!” Jazmine shrieked. Her niece whirled around so fast she nearly fell off the stool.

Hearing his name was all the incentive Shana needed to glance up. She did just in time to watch Jazmine throw her arms around a man dressed casually in slacks and a shirt. From the top of his military haircut to the bottom of his feet, this man was Navy, with or without his uniform. His arm was in a sling and he grimaced when Jazmine grabbed hold of him but didn’t discourage her hug. From the near-hysterical happiness the girl displayed, a passing stranger might think Shana had been holding Jazmine hostage.

“You must be Ali’s sister,” he said, smiling broadly at Shana.

She forced a smile in return. She’d been prepared to dislike him on sight. In fact, she’d never even met him and was already jealous of the relationship he had with Jazmine. Now he was standing right in front of her—and she found her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. He seemed to be waiting for her to reply.

“Yes, hi,” she said and dropped the metal scoop into the water container, sloshing liquid over the edges. Wiping her wet hand on her white apron, she managed another slight smile. “Yes, I’m Ali’s sister.”

On closer inspection, she saw that he was tall and apparently very fit. Some might find his looks appealing, but Shana decided she didn’t. Brad was just as tall and equally fit—from spending hours in a gym every week, no doubt admiring himself in all the mirrors. Adam’s hair was a deep chestnut shade, similar to her own. No. Not chestnut, she decided next, nothing that distinguished. His was plain brown. He might’ve been considered handsome if not for those small, beady eyes. Well, they weren’t exactly small, more average, she supposed, trying to be as objective as she could. He hugged Jazmine and looked at Shana and—no.

But he did. He looked at Shana and winked. The man had the audacity to flirt with her. It was outrageous. This was the very man Jazmine wanted her mother to marry. The man whose praises she’d sung for two full days until Shana thought she’d scream if she heard his name one more time.

“I’m Adam Kennedy.” He extended his free right hand.

She offered her left hand because it was dry and nodded politely. “You mean Uncle Adam.” She hoped he caught the sarcastic inflection in her voice.

He grinned as if he knew how much that irritated her. Okay, now she had to admit it. When he smiled he wasn’t ordinary-looking at all. In fact, some women—not her, but others who were less jaded—might even be attracted to him. That she could even entertain the remote possibility of finding a man attractive was upsetting. Wasn’t it only a few days ago that she’d declared to her sister that she was completely and utterly off men? And now here she was, feeling all shaky inside and acting like a girl closer to Jazmine’s age than her own. This was pathetic.

In an attempt to cover her reaction, Shana handed Jazmine the bowl of ice cream with its two heaping scoops.

“Uncle Adam wants one, too,” Jazmine said excitedly, and then turned to him. “What happened to your arm?” she asked, her eyes wide with concern. “Did you break it?”

“Nothing as dramatic as that,” he said, elevating the arm, which was tucked protectively in a sling. “I had a problem with my shoulder, but that’s been taken care of now.”

Jazmine didn’t seem convinced. “You’re going to be all right, aren’t you?”

“I’ll be fine before you know it.”

“Good,” Jazmine said; she seemed reassured now. Taking Adam by the hand, she led him across the restaurant to a booth.

Shana could hear Jazmine whispering up a storm, but hard as she strained, she couldn’t hear what was being said. Working as fast as her arm muscles would allow, she hurriedly dished up a second bowl of ice cream. When she’d bought this business, no one had mentioned how hard ice cream could be. She was developing some impressive biceps.

She smiled as she carried the second dish over to their booth and hoped he enjoyed the bright teal-blue bubblegum ice cream. After she’d set it down in front of him, she waited. She wasn’t sure why she was lingering.

Jazmine beamed with joy. Seeing her niece this happy about anything made Shana feel a pang of regret. Doing her best to swallow her pride, she continued to stand there, unable to think of a thing to say.

Her niece glanced up as if noticing her for the first time. “I was telling Uncle Adam about my backpack. He’s the one who said those other girls just wanted to be friends. I didn’t believe him, but he was right.”

“Yes, he was.” Shana might have been able to fade into the background then if Adam hadn’t chosen that moment to turn and smile at her. Ignoring him would be easy if only he’d stop smiling, dammit.

“The girls gave it back?” Adam’s gaze returned to Jazmine.

Her niece nodded. “Madison asked me to sit next to her at lunch today and I did.”

Adam reached across the table and the two exchanged a high five. “That’s great!”

“Can I get you anything else?” Shana asked, feeling like a third wheel. These two apparently had a lot to discuss, and no one needed to tell her she was in the way. Besides, she had a business to run. Several customers had come in; at the moment they were studying the list of ice-cream flavors but she’d have to attend to them soon.

“Nothing, thanks.” He dipped his plastic spoon into the ice cream. Then, without giving her any warning, he looked at Shana again and their eyes met. Shana felt the breath freeze in her lungs. He seemed to really see her, and something about her seemed to catch him unawares. His brow wrinkled as though he was sure he knew her from somewhere else, but couldn’t place her.

“How long can you stay?” her niece asked.

Adam turned his attention back to Jazmine.

Shana waited, curious to know the answer herself.

“Just a couple of hours.”

“Two hours!” Jazmine didn’t bother to hide her disappointment.

“I’ve got to get back to base for a meeting.”

“Right,” Shana said, diving into the conversation. “He has to go back to Everett. We wouldn’t want to detain him, now would we?” She didn’t mean to sound so pleased about sending him on his way, but she wanted him out of there. Shana disliked how he made her feel—as if…as if she was on the brink of some important personal discovery. Like she’d told her sister, she was off men. For good. Okay, for a year. It would take that long to get Brad out of her system, she figured. Now, all of a sudden, there was this man, this uncle Adam, whose smiles made her feel hot, then cold. That wasn’t a good sensation for her to be having. It contradicted everything she’d been saying—and it made her uncomfortable.

“I’ll stop by again soon,” Adam promised, looking directly at her as he said it.

“I want to know what happened to your arm,” Jazmine insisted.