"Yeah, I figured that one was coming." But he didn't move. "Listen, I'm going to do something I told myself I wouldn't."

"What, stop dragging your knuckles?"

"I'm trying to help."

"Well, don't."

Shaking his head, he put his hand on the door, but then once again turned back. "I realize you probably don't hear these words very often, Ms. On Top of Her World, but trust me on this one. You are wrong."

"I can handle this."

"This? Jesus." He shook his head. "It's not a business deal, Mia. Or a guy you're stomping the shit out of. It's not a 'this' at all. It's a girl."

"And what do you know about girls?"

She knew her mistake the minute he flashed her a quick grin, showing a glimpse of the laid-back, badass biker she'd slept with last night. "I know enough."

Damn it, but her tummy fluttered. "You're acting like it's going to be hard to watch her for a night until I can get her home. I mean, honestly, how much trouble can she be?"

He stared at her, then let out a low laugh. "You're right. You handle it. Your way."

He moved through the door and she followed, getting into the hall in time to see him touch Hope's arm, leaning in to say something softly.

In turn, Hope gripped his arm. "You're leaving?"

He nodded.

"But I thought you two were…" Hope waggled her fingers back and forth between him and Mia. "You know, like, doing it."

Mia choked.

To Kevin's credit, he didn't react at all. "You thought wrong."

"But I want to stay with you," she said to Kevin.

"Uh, that's a big negative," Mia said.

Hope's bravado seemed to desert her at this unwelcome news. "Oh."

"Look, why don't we call your mom?" Kevin said quietly. "And then-"

"No." Hope shuffled her feet some, and Mia winced at the additional scuff marks. "I don't think my mom's ready to hear from me."

"I bet she is." She would be. Mia grabbed the portable phone off the small desk against the wall. "We'll just call-"

"I've changed my mind about staying here," Hope said stiffly.

"Good. But we're still calling. Number?"

Hope went sullenly silent, but Mia was unmoved. "The number, Hope."

Hope rolled her eyes.

"Could you stop rolling your eyes at everything I say?" Mia requested. "It just makes me want to put your eyeballs into a jar so that you can shake it every time you feel the need to roll them at me."

Kevin made a move as if to step in, but Mia put a hand to his chest and held him back, her gaze locked on Hope's.

"I know you know the number. Let's hear it." Damn difficult to be tough when she was distracted by the heat of Kevin's chest and all that easy strength beneath her palm. Not to mention knowing exactly what he could do to her with all that strength. "Speak up."

Hope looked at Kevin.

"It's going to be okay," he said very gently.

And Hope's tough-girl image seemed to fold in on itself. "Promise?" she whispered.

Kevin put a hand on her shoulder. "Family can get complicated sometimes, that's all."

"Is yours?"

He let out a low laugh. "Oh, yeah."

"Does your mom drive you crazy?"

"My mom is gone now. So's my dad. But my brother drives me crazy. Does that count?"

She let out a little smile that didn't last long before collapsing as she rattled off her mom's number to Mia without looking at her.

Mia punched it into the phone but didn't turn it on yet. "Is she going to be home?"

"Doubt it."

"I can take a look at your car," Kevin said to Hope. "If you'd like."

Looking at him as if he was Superman, she handed over her keys.

Kevin turned to Mia. "If you have any… issues, I teach at the high school and run the teen center next to it. We have a summer program that started up just today."

Mia nodded and waited for him to go. When he didn't, she met his gaze and felt a punch of awareness, as well as an unbidden memory of being naked in his arms. Her body actually leaned toward him for a touch, a hug…

Ridiculous. She didn't need those things. And yet… No. No, no, no. She shook herself, backed up, and gave him the room he needed to go.

He oozed virility as he turned to the door, but Mia just held her breath because it really seemed as if he was waiting for something from her.

The air sort of crackled, went still, then crackled some more.

"You're supposed to kiss him," Hope said ever so helpfully. "Guys like it when you do that."

Kevin looked at Mia, and she would have sworn there was a glint of wry amusement deep in his gaze.

"Don't you?" Hope asked him.

Kevin seemed to debate with himself on whether to answer or not. "I'm not sure where you get your perception of the male species, but some guys-"

"-are from another planet," Mia interjected dryly. "Actually, all of them are."

Kevin shot her a look. Then turned back to Hope. "You don't have to do what guys like."

"Maybe I like it, too," Hope said but didn't sound convinced.

Kevin tugged on a strand of Hope's hair. "You know where to find me if you need anything." He looked at Mia. "You, too," he said.

And then he walked out into the rain.

"He's hot," Hope said, watching him go. "For an old guy."

Yeah, well, he was gone. Hot or otherwise.

Just as she'd wanted.

So she had no idea why the sound of the door closing felt so uncomfortably… final. With a sigh, she turned on the phone and listened to it ring in a place two thousand miles east in Tennessee, in a single-wide trailer a world away.

Chapter 6

Sugar answered the phone in her soft Southern drawl. "Hello?"

Mia took a breath and said, "Sugar. You'll never guess who I've got here."

A silence greeted this. Then, "Are you shitting me?"

"Nope." Mia smiled grimly at Hope and responded in the heavy Southern drawl she'd buried for sixteen years. "Not shitting ya."

"Ah, Jesus. You still all the way out there in Cali?"

"Yep."

"Well, that sucks."

"I was thinking you could come get her-"

"Oooh, no. I've got this new job, I don't have any vacation time until September, and I'm not going to make any waves here. I'll come for her then."

Mia's eyes cut to the wall calendar. "It's June."

"That's right."

"That's unacceptable."

"Hey, tell it to the girl. She's the one who ran away from home. Sixth time this year, too. Says no one understands her. Says no one cares. Well, no one understands or cares about her need to cut school or about the lipstick that just found its way off the Piggly Wiggly shelf and into her purse!"

Mia looked at Hope. "So she's in trouble then?"

Hope looked away.

Sugar sighed mightily. "Trouble is as trouble does, and that little thing is full of it, no ifs, ands, or buts."

"You have to come get her."

"Uh huh. Listen, I know we haven't exactly stayed close, but I could use an itty-bitty favor here."

Mia's jaw tightened because she could already smell the con.

"I know you don't miss us little ol' folk."

Laying it on thick. Nice touch.

"But I've been raising that child all alone, on a low, single income. It's rough, you know? I mean, I couldn't get there sooner than the weekend anyhow… and trust me, the girl could use a role model. Someone who got somewhere in life, someone to show her the ropes on how to succeed, how to get what she wants without stealing it, you know?"

"I work, too, Sugar."

"Right. You work your fingers to the bone, barely scraping by."

Mia turned in a slow, frustrated circle, then caught a glimpse of Hope standing there, her face tight, closed off.

No missing the resentment, the feeling that no one wanted her, not even family.

Ah, hell.

"I'm outta here," Hope said and turned to the door.

Mia reached out and wrapped her fingers around the kid's arm. God, she was thin, so very thin. And still and chilled, despite the warm air driving the wet storm. "Wait, Hope. Sugar, listen-"

"Look, the truth is, you were always so much smarter than us, we never knew what to do with you, Apple."

"Mia."

Sugar laughed good and hard over that, in her craggy voice that suggested she'd been smoking her entire life. "Fancy name or not, you're just the person that kid needs to motivate her back into school."

"She left school?"

Next to her, Hope closed her eyes.

"Got herself kicked out," Sugar said. "And arrested. She still owes me two grand for that whole mess."

Clearly able to hear Sugar, Hope's mouth went grim and she tried to tug free, but Mia held on. "You need to come and get her now," Mia said into the phone.

"Ship her back the way she came."

Mia shook her head. "No. I won't do that. It's a miracle she made it here in one piece."

"One week," Sugar said. "Surely you can handle it for a week."

"Her," Mia said softly, mirroring Kevin's words, which was how she knew she was screwed, that she was going to do this. "It's a her-" But she was talking to a dial tone. "Damn it."

"She had a date," Hope said.

"How do you know?"

"Just a guess."

Probably, but the way Hope said it, as if she understood and accepted how much more important a date would be than her… Mia wanted to strangle Sugar. Instead she set down the phone and drew a deep breath. "All right. Let's get settled until we figure out what we're going to do."

"Hey, if you're thinking of kicking me out, just tell me now and I'll be gone."

"Really? Where?"

Hope jerked her shoulder again. She was good at that. "I've got plenty of places to go."

In spite of herself, Mia was fascinated by the bravado. She'd once been in Hope's shoes, or close enough, but she'd had strong grades behind her- not to mention no police record-and had landed a scholarship to college. "Name one."

"Hollywood is only a few hills over. I saw it on the map."

"No one's going to Hollywood tonight. I'll show you where you can sleep, and tomorrow morning we'll-"

"What, send me back then?"

"You keep saying that, and I'll think you're eager to get home." Mia smiled grimly when Hope scowled. "So sleep first. You think you can manage to do that without getting into trouble?"

"Funny."

"You hungry?"

"Always." They went into the kitchen, where Hope looked distinctly unimpressed with Mia's sparsely filled refrigerator and cabinets. Mia didn't eat here often, and when she did, it was usually something she'd picked up on the way home. Hope wrinkled her nose at the leftover Thai. "You need to go food shopping," she said.

Mia was brought back to her childhood, when they might have always struggled to get the rent paid but there'd always been plenty of fat and carbs in the fridge. "We eat differently here in California."

"Looks like you don't eat at all."

They made do with low-fat cheese and stone-wheat crackers; then Mia took Hope to one of the two spare bedrooms, which was decorated with a dresser, nightstand, and four-poster bed she'd gotten in San Francisco, and pale silk linens from Brunschwig & Fils. The two Pacific Ocean prints on the walls added serenity and beauty to the space.

Hope stood in the doorway looking staggered. "Wow. Sugar likes white, too."

Mia resisted telling her the difference between her linens and Sugar's linens was at least a thousand thread count. "That door leads to your bathroom."

"My own?" the girl asked in hushed awe.

Something deep in Mia's belly tightened. "Yes. Your own."

"This room is as huge as our whole trailer."

Mia remembered with painful clarity the life Hope had run from, the desperation, the despair, the need to get the hell out no matter that there was nowhere to go. "Look, about the fact that we've never talked before…"

Hope looked at her.

"I'm sorry. Just because Sugar and I aren't close is no excuse. I should have called you. Checked in."

Hope lifted a shoulder. No biggie. "How did you do it?" The kid walked the length of the room, reverently touching the polished dresser, the tray on top of it that held five white candles. "How did you get all of this?"

"Well, I didn't get myself arrested, for one. And I stayed in school, for another." Mia looked over the girl with her ragged black pants, black tank top, large black overshirt, black boots, and the studded belt and bracelet that looked dangerous to her health. "And I was far too busy planning my escape to be worried about goth getup."