Free Can't Stand the Heat? by Margaret Watson

alone.”
    Walker stretched his legs out in front of him. “So why were the three of you running around last night?”
    He blushed. “Her brother wasn’t home. He was having a sleepover.” He picked up another rock and heaved it toward the water. “Some kid who just moved to town. His parents don’t know about the Meltons yet.”
    “And…?”
    “And nothing. We were goofing off.”
    “You’ve done that before.”
    He lifted one shoulder. “Sometimes. We like being out when no one knows we’re there.”
    “Are you peeping?” Walker asked sharply.
    “Of course not!” Nick turned red. “That’s gross.”
    “Then what are you doing?”
    He crushed a twig beneath his shoe. “You know. Hiding from each other. Night games.”
    Night games? What was that? Walker hadn’t run through the town at night with his friends when he was Nick’s age. But then, he hadn’t done a lot of the things typical teens did.
    “Are you drinking?”
    Nick looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “Promise you won’t tell my mom?”
    “I can’t do that, Nick.”
    The kid threw himself onto the ground. “We did once. Dave took some of his dad’s beers. We all got sick.”
    Maybe it was normal for Nick to be goofing off with his friends. Trying beer. But what did Walker know about raising kids?
    “You should tell your mom what’s going on with Stevie. She’ll help you figure out what to do.”
    “Don’t you get it?” He jumped up again. “She told me to stay away from Stevie. But she’s not the one selling weed.” He threw his cola bottle toward a garbage can, and it bounced off. “She hates what her parents are doing.” Nick shrugged one shoulder. “So I watch out for her.”
    Uh-oh. He recognized that gleam in Nick’s eyes. He was sure he’d had the same expression on his face when he was that age.
    About Nick’s mother.
    So much for trying to act like a parent. Walker had no experience handling this kind of problem.
    But Nick was trying to do what he thought was right. Would most fifteen-year-olds take responsibility for protecting a friend? Walker had no idea, but he wanted to help. He liked him, this boy who might be his son.
    “It’s dangerous to be out after dark.”
    Nick snorted. “You sound like my mom.”
    “Think of another way to help your friend.”
    “This is the only way.”
    Nick was determined. Stubborn. Just like Walker at that age.
    Was Nick his son? He turned and studied him, searching for the resemblance he’d seen earlier. Today the kid just looked like himself. As Walker watched him brood, he thought of all he’d missed.
    If Nick was his, he’d missed his childhood. Half of his teens.
    “You’re giving me a weird look,” Nick said.
    “Just thinking about you and Stevie and Dave.”
    “Are you going to tell my mom?”
    He should. It sounded as if Stevie and her brother weren’t safe. “I’ll think about it. I’ll talk to you before I do anything, okay?”
    Nick stared at him, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “You’re going to ruin everything,” he said, then turned and ran out of the park.
    Walker watched until he disappeared. What had he expected? That Nick would welcome a stranger’s interference in his life?
    As far as the boy was concerned, Walker was just some guy butting in when it wasn’t his business.
    Maybe it was his business. It was time to find out.



CHAPTER NINE
    T HE DOOR TO THE STORAGE unit creaked as Walker rolled it up, and stale air drifted out. According to Mary, it hadn’t been opened since she’d filled it, four years earlier.
    “I couldn’t throw all your mother’s things away, dear,” she’d said. “Not all those pictures and books that she loved so much.” There had been a long pause. “I wouldn’t want my memories tossed into the garbage.”
    Apparently, Walker had been paying rent on this cubicle ever since. His assistant had told him she’d done it without talking to him. That was why he paid her the big bucks,