Free With a Little Help by Valerie Parv Page A

as he heard the story, Nate guessed Luke was in for a rough time. But it was rougher than Nate expected. “Josh is trying to arrange for Luke to spend some time behind bars as part of a program to head off criminal behavior,” his mother told him when father and son were out of earshot.
    Being gentle with Luke sure hadn’t worked, Nate thought. He’d heard about such programs, and asa lawyer, his stepfather had the right connections. “Tough love is sometimes the only solution,” he said.
    He saw his mother’s eyes brim. “I wanted us to be a happy family. By leaving your father, I only caused a new set of problems, didn’t I?”
    Nate patted her shoulder. “You did what you thought was right at the time. Luke’s a good kid at heart. He just needs to know the world doesn’t exist for his benefit.”
    â€œYou never thought it did. Why can’t he be more like you, helping people instead of hurting them?”
    â€œTrying to be like me is half his problem,” Nate insisted. “I’ll always have a twenty-year head start. Luke needs to find out who he is, and what he can become. It might help if you stop comparing us so much.”
    She nodded. “You’re right, and I’ll try. Thanks for getting him out of trouble tonight. If those other boys had ganged up on you instead of running away…”
    The same thought had occurred to Nate. “They didn’t.” He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. “I’d better get home. It’s been a long day.”
    â€œWere you at work when Josh called you?”
    Nate felt his face heat. “I was having dinner with a business associate.”
    She read the truth in his heightened color. “I hope she’s nice.”
    She is, thought Nate as he left the house withoutenlightening his mother any further. Emma was much too nice for the way he’d treated her tonight. Luke’s need for a sense of belonging and his mother’s wish for a happy family suggested Emma’s idea had merit. Maybe Brady Bunch families were pie-in-the-sky, but could it hurt to enjoy the fantasy for one night?
    Emma was also dangerous, he thought as he drove home. She planted ideas in his head he could do without, like sitting at a large table, a woman beside him, and a bunch of kids of different ages around them. How many times had that been reality, even just the three of them, when his mother was still married to his father? Now his family was in an uproar over Luke. And Emma herself had grown up with absentee parents. No fantasies for any of them.
    By the time Nate got home, fatigue was setting in like a drug. Joanna had left Emma’s envelope on the hall table with the rest of his mail. He resisted the urge to pick it up simply because it came from her, and headed to the shower.
    Half an hour later, barefoot and clad only in sleep shorts, he walked into the living room carrying the envelope but placed it on the coffee table. He was too wired to relax and would never make sense of anything he read. Emma deserved better.
    Thoughts of her jumbled with the difficult case he’d handled earlier today. Twice his patient had died on the table, and twice they’d brought the man back from the edge in a stressful nine hours of surgery.No wonder Nate had needed to burn off tension with physical exertion. Inviting Emma along had been a practical use of time. It had nothing to do with the fact he felt refreshed being with her.
    He stopped pacing and ran his palms over his damp hair. He’d hated sending her away, but needed to know she was safe. Nate’s blood chilled as he thought of what could have happened if Luke’s friends had taken him on. Not long ago, he’d caught Luke sharpening a large screwdriver, the gang’s weapon of choice. If the night had turned out differently, Nate could have ended up on his own operating table. Risking his safety was one thing, but he hadn’t