Free Homing by John Saul Page A

think she was trying to make trouble.
    But avoiding Carl Henderson was only one reason she had retreated from the party. The truth, which she knew she would rather die than admit to Kevin, was that the three girls who'd clustered around Kevin almost the the minute their parents had taken off with Molly had totally terrified her. How could she tell him she'd been afraid he might not introduce her to his friends, or even notice her if she tried to join the group?
    "There's something else, isn't there?" Kevin asked.
    Julie hesitated, but in the end she shook her head, unwilling to tell him what was wrong. Better to just keep it to herself, she decided.
    When she said nothing, Kevin stood up and pulled Julie to her feet. "Then come on," he told her. "Molly's going to be just fine. Let's go back to the house." He glanced out the open door to the loft to the yard below. "There're still some people here, and there's lots of food, and if our folks aren't here, shouldn't we be taking care of things? I mean, it's kind of like we're the host and hostess now, and our folks did get married today."
    Julie's eyes drifted toward the house. "I can hardly even remember anyone's name," she began.
    "I'll be right beside you, and I'll introduce you to everyone who's still here," Kevin told her. "Now stop worrying, and brush the hay off your dress."
    Julie gazed down at the skirt of the beautiful blue dress that had been brand new only a few hours ago. Now it was a mass of wrinkles, and covered with flecks of straw. "Oh, God, I look awful!" she moaned.
    For the first time since he'd come into the barn, a grin played around Kevin's lips. "No you don't," he said. "You look great. You're a lot prettier than any of the other girls."
    "But my dress," Julie began.
    "People will just think we've been making out up here," Kevin said, starting to laugh as Julie flushed a deep red.
    "It'll be great for me! Every guy down there will be totally pissed off! They've all been begging me to introduce you.
    "But we haven't been making out!" Julie protested.
    Kevin's grin broadened. "I won't tell if you won't tell," he offered.
    "But everyone will think-" And then she realized what he was really saying, and for a moment felt herself floundering. Her hands instinctively tightened in his. "I'm sorry I got mad at you," she said softly. "I just" Again she had that strange feeling of confusion, and when she felt his fingers pressing her hands, her heart fluttered. "I don't know what happened."
    "Well, it's okay now," Kevin told her. He chuckled. "Or anyway, you're not mad at me, and I'm not mad at you.
    But Grandpa's totally pissed at both of us."
    "Both of us?" Julie repeated. "Why should he be mad at you?"
    "'Cause I told him to cut out what he's been doing," Kevin replied. He shivered as he remembered the fury in his grandfather's eyes as he'd left the old man standing on the porch. "He looked like he was ready to give me a licking." Still holding Julie's hand, he started once more for the ladder that led down to the barn floor. "We'll just stay out of his way, and he'll cool off. He gets mad real fast, but he gets over it almost as fast. Come on-let's go find you some friends. But if any of the guys tries to hit on you, they'd better watch it!"
    As he stood aside to let her start down the ladder first, Julie wondered exactly what he'd meant by his last words.
    Did he mean they'd better watch it because he was sort of like her older brother now?
    Or did he mean it another way?
    To her own surprise, she realized with clear certainty that she hoped he meant it another way entirely.
    The last thing she wanted right now was for Kevin Owen to start acting like her brother!
    Karen Owen stood frozen with terror in the emergency room at the hospital in San Luis Obispo, her eyes fixed on her daughter. Talking to Julie on the phone, she'd forced herself to sound calmer than she really was, but now, as she gazed at Molly's unnaturally red face and her grotesquely distended leg,