Turn It On

Chapter Seven

Ryan paced toward his brother’s room. The nurses at their station waved a greeting, but he barely noticed. Even the one who’d been flirting with him on a steady basis got no more than a quick nod when he passed her in the hallway.

It was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other without thoughts of Maxine interrupting his concentration. He had it fucking bad for her, and there seemed to be no relief in sight. Their weekend date had been canceled when her cousin Maxella’s kids all broke out with chicken pox, and she got called in as back-up baby sitter. Then she had an appointment out of town on Monday, and tonight he had meetings all evening. It was enough to drive a man to drink, except he’d sworn to never use alcohol to deal with stress. There was no way he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.

He stopped in the visitor’s room and hauled out his cell phone. There was enough time to spare to pin her down for this weekend. The answering machine kicked in, and Ryan heard the mind-numbing tones of automation instead of Maxine’s sultry voice. Finally—he’d been after her to change her response to a safer, more generic one.

“Five-five-five-six-one-nine-seven is not available. Please leave a message.”

“Hey, Max, it’s Ryan. Glad to hear the answering machine. While I’d prefer—”

“Hello?” Max cut in with a gasp. “Ryan? Is that you?”

“It’s me. You screening your calls or did you run for the phone?” She sounded breathless. There was a suspiciously long pause before Maxine replied, and Ryan’s curiosity grew. What was she up to? He’d never had a relationship like this before. There was something growing between them, something other than the pulsing desire he had to carry her into the bedroom and possess her for days without coming up for air.

“Someone’s fax machine keeps going off in my ear. It’s annoying, so I changed the settings like you told me. Now I can wait to see if it’s a real person before picking up.”

“Good for you. I’ve had a machine shriek in my ear before and it’s a pain. Heads-up, we’re done with most of your security install. It’ll be completed by Saturday. How about I come over Friday night to show you the ropes? I’ll sweeten the pot and bring dinner.” Between his commitment to drop in on Carl, and the family emergencies keeping Maxine running in circles, they’d canceled dates too many times. He was getting desperate to see her again.

To taste her again.

“I’d like that.” Maxine’s soft response sent a shot of lust through him. “Wait, the system is ready this soon? I thought it would take much longer for a house this size.”

It should have taken longer but he’d ridden herd on the team to get everything in place as quickly as possible. Maxine might protest if she knew he’d worked everyone overtime, but there was no way he wanted her in the house without the system up and running for any longer than necessary. Especially since someone had already broken in.

“Things worked out well and we’re done. I’ll see you…at five? I’ll be there with the crew.”

She agreed and he headed to Carl’s room with a lighter step than before.

“Hello, Ryan.”

Carl stared at the wall beside him as Ryan shrugged out of his coat. “Hey, buddy. How are you today?”

“Good. I want to show you something.” Carl wheeled over to his desk and lifted a…thing…into the air.

Ryan stepped closer and tried to figure out what it was. “Interesting.”

“I made it.”

“Right on.” Still uncertain what the object was, Ryan figured the effort was worth something.

“For you.”

Ryan nodded slowly. “That’s very considerate. Thanks.”

Carl put it back on the desk and wheeled to his bookcase. He pulled out a familiar story they’d read a thousand times already. Ryan struggled with the thoughts racing through his mind. It was difficult to go from wanting nothing to do with family to being the only family a person had. He had come to care for the youth. Hell, he certainly felt responsible for him, but he didn’t quite know how to do this sibling thing yet.

And now with Maxine… Ryan was drawn to her, in spite of her relatives controlling so much of her life. She was attempting to spread her wings, and he’d love to be the one to help her explore the world outside Turner Territory, as she called it.

But he refused to allow his growing connection with Carl to suffer. The tightness in his shoulders increased. He couldn’t bring Maxine to see Carl without worrying about the repercussions if things didn’t end up long term with her. Somehow he suspected if he mentioned Carl she’d want to meet him and that was impossible right now. Even talking about Carl seemed totally unfair to Maxine, who needed another responsibility like she needed a hole in the head.

As much as he wished he could mesh the two areas of his life where his heart and mind were focused, he couldn’t see any way to make a balance that wouldn’t hurt someone in the end. Between wanting to do what was right by Carl and wanting Max—fuck it.

He accepted the book Carl offered and sat back to finish his visit. He’d try to come up with a solution another day, right now it was Franklin time again.

Ryan was on his way out the door when one of Carl’s regular caregivers caught him. “I need to speak to you.”

They sat in the small reception room at the front of the home, cheerful pictures and bright pillows contrasting with the gloomy expression on Shannon’s face. She hemmed and hawed a few times then sighed. “I’m sorry to tell you I’ve given my notice. I’ll be leaving in two weeks.”

The pit in Ryan’s stomach yawned deeper. “I thought you were on a four-year contract.”

She shrugged. “I’ve had to break it. I realize this is going to be troublesome, but I have no choice. We’ll do the best we can in the next two weeks to prepare Carl for my departure in the hopes he will be able to handle the change better this time.”

Ryan eased open his fists, fighting the tension that had wrapped around him instantaneously at her words. “I made special arrangements that all caregivers for Carl were to be long term and committed. Do you understand what your leaving is going to do to him?”

Shannon frowned. “Mr. Claymore, I understand the issues Carl faces better than you, but I also have personal commitments. I regret the trouble my departure will cause, but this is the best I can do. Over the next weeks Marie will do a co-shift with me to allow Carl to get used to her presence—”

“So that when Marie decides to up and leave she can tear my brother in two as well.”

The nurse stood. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing further that I can say that will make this any easier. I’ve become attached to Carl, as I have to all my patients, and I never intended to hurt him.” She stepped quickly out of the room, closing the door firmly behind her.

Ryan saw the tears in her eyes before she left, but hell if he was able to reassure her. Having to watch his brother go through the pain of another caregiver not showing up limited his sympathies. He dropped his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes in frustration.

Maxine raced in and snatched up the phone, dropping the grocery bag in her hand to the floor to juggle the receiver. “Hello?”

“Fucking bitch.”

She froze. “Who is this?”

Rough laughter followed and the line crackled like there was interference or a weak connection. “You live alone.” The whispered words scratched in her ears and she fought to remember if she’d ever heard the voice before.

“What do you want?” she demanded.

The dial tone rang in her ear and Maxine shuddered. She phoned the police and waited anxiously until a marked car pulled into her driveway. An hour later when they left she was still shaking and now spitting mad. She was in the middle of calling Natasha when she realized the last thing she needed was family getting involved. They were already upset enough that she chose to live in the house by herself. There would be no chance she’d be able to fight off their objections if they found out she had a crackpot calling her. And while Natasha wouldn’t tell the family, she’d tell Junior, and that would be as bad as the whole clan knowing.

Maxine paced, putting away her groceries and swearing into the air, wishing there were some way to make sense of it. The police offered nothing more than a promise to do the occasional drive-by and to get her phone records checked. They figured it was likely a prank call. Their suggestion—go on with your life, but keep your eyes open.

Another mouse scrambled across the floor and Max threw a can of soup at it in frustration. She’d been emptying traps for the past week and there seemed to be no end to the mouse hoard.

After putting away her final purchases, Maxine collapsed into her favorite couch in the living room with a cup of tea and tried to relax. All the strange occurrences jumbled together in her brain. The water damage, the phone calls—first the fax machines and now some prankster. Junior had told her he thought whoever put up Gramma’s shelf should be shot, since they’d used smaller screw sizes than building code called for. Even the mouse invasion seemed wrong.

The rest of the house repairs were complete, but there was a sense of unease hanging over her like she’d never felt before. Like something watching her. Waiting.

She snorted into her teacup at her overactive imagination. There was no reason to feel like this. The security system was going in. The police were alerted so if she did have any disturbances she’d be on the quick response list. She lived in Thompson, not New York, for heaven’s sake. This was small-town America, where people looked out for each other.

Still.

She made a face at herself as she wandered down to the basement, looking for where the game equipment was stored. She’d just pulled a baseball bat from the pile when the scent of something rotting hit her. Following the aroma, she ended up at a stack of boxes near the furnace. It took a few minutes to check through them all, but when she opened the right one her eyes watered and her stomach turned over in protest. Whatever had been in the box was in the advanced stages of decomposition, and the stench made her gag. Maxine quickly tossed it into a plastic bag and sealed it tight.

It took another hour to get the putrid stuff to the garbage, and the remaining boxes back in order. She picked up her bat and headed up to her bedroom. She propped the solid wood club in the corner of the room, feeling a little silly. Then she crawled into a tub full of bubbles to try and rid herself of the sensation of the filth that clung to her. Thank God she’d found the box before the furnace had turned on and sent the smell throughout the whole house.

Time to make some plans. The weekend approached and she swore she’d get to see Ryan. No one in her family was going to mess it up this time. Chatting on the phone with him daily was nice, but getting to see him in person? She relaxed into the warm water and sighed. A dose of Ryan was totally what she needed right now to chase away the rest of the gloom and doom hanging over her.