Page 6 of Two Hearts' Accidental Heroes

“Hopefully, you won’t have any trouble getting around tomorrow,” he said. “It’s no big deal for me, because I’ve been skiing a lot, besides playing ball.”

“We need to make a left at the next corner,” she said, motioning ahead. “Anya said that you guys have a cruiser.”

“We do. Luckily, my brothers don’t complain too much about having me along with their friends.” He gave her a side glance. “Shanna. You’re probably going to get mad at me again. But do you have any good friends to talk to?”

She closed her eyes. “No. Not anymore.”

There was something defeating about the way she spoke.

“I’ll be your friend, if you need one,” Rick said softly as they stopped near the cul-de-sac at the end of the street. He glanced at the bi-level house, which couldn’t have been built too long ago. Rick didn’t know what he’d expected, but it was surprisingly well kept. “I’ll give you my cell phone number. I don’t have my license yet, so I can’t be helpful there, but if there’s ever anything I can do, even if you need someone to talk to, I’m usually around.”

She hesitated at the foot of a driveway. “Alright.”

Rick pulled a pen and small notepad out from inside the pocket of his bag, jotting down the number and handing it over. “Have you got your own phone?”

She hesitated. “I share service with my dad, so it would be better if I didn’t give you the number. I don’t always carry it with me.”

That made a little sense, Rick supposed, since she was still kind of young. Anya worked and probably paid for her own.

“Goodnight, Rick,” she said.

As Rick watched Shanna walk along the driveway of the house and enter the side door, he realized it was the first time she’d called him by his name.

Chapter Two

After leaving Shanna, Rick decided he’d get home quicker if he biked through town instead of taking the back roads. As he sped on his bike along one of the side streets, he noticed as he rode around the corner onto Main Street that there really had been some trouble at the real estate office where Mom worked. No one seemed to be inside, but it looked like the front picture window had been broken, and a couple guys that Rick knew from Callahan Construction were over there boarding it up, and more than likely measuring the opening for a new window. Dad hadn’t been lying then when he said that something had happened at Mom’s office. Although Rick had assumed that the trouble Dad had been talking about probably had something to do with a change in management or maybe even Mom’s job.

He thought about stopping. But since Mom’s car wasn’t in the parking lot and it was rather overcast at dusk, he’d better get going so he could make it home before dark. The two-lane highways were sometimes hard to follow because of the denseness of trees and foliage blocking out whatever light was peeking through from the sky above.

When Rick arrived home another fifteen minutes later, all the lights were on in the house, and as he walked inside, he could hear Dad talking on the phone.

The conversation sounded pretty serious, and Rick could tell by the look on his dad’s face that something was terribly wrong.

Heading upstairs to his room, he stopped off at the second floor when he heard some shuffling sounds echoing from the master bedroom.

Walking to the door, he halted, watching as Mom finished packing a large suitcase before zipping it up.

“Mom? What’s going on?” Rick asked hesitantly, afraid of how she’d respond.

Her eyes softened. “Rick? I’m going to tell you something that I’m not going to tell Brian or Eric. They need to move forward, and your father is going to do everything he can to make it easier for them while I’m gone.”

“Gone?”

She sighed, opening her arms wide. “Come here.”

When he stepped into the room, Mom wrapped her arms around him tightly.

“You can’t tell Eric or Brian anything about this. But I’m counting on you to keep your dad positive about the future. Brian will probably get to enlist in the Army like he’s always wanted, and Eric only has one more year of high school. In fact, he’s smart enough to finish early and graduate in December,” Mom said, pulling away from him and sitting in the chair nearby.

She inhaled an unsteady breath before continuing, “You’re going to hear some nasty rumors about me and Mr. Mitchum, but what you need to know is that nothing that anyone says will be true. For some reason, there are some criminals who think that the two of us have something that they want, so we’re going into a witness protection program for a short while to keep all of you safe. If these people believe that Aaron and I have run away together, there’s a better chance that they’re going to leave you and your dad and brothers alone.”

Rick just stood looking at her, with his mouth gaped open.

Finally, he spoke. “Who are they, Mom? What do they think you have?”

“We have no idea,” she replied. “Jake Loughlin is going to look into that.”

Rick cocked his head. “The owner of the Dragonfly Pointe Inn?”

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