Page 74 of Serenity Harbor

What had his childhood been like? He had given her hints here and there, and her imagination had filled in some of the gaps. She wanted to know more, though.

“Was yours really so bad?” she finally asked.

He said nothing for a long moment, so long she thought perhaps he would ignore her, then he turned and looked out at the lake. “Plenty of people had it worse than I did.”

But plenty had it better. He didn’t say the words, but she guessed them, anyway. He confirmed her suspicions a moment later.

“My mother was a sixteen-year-old runaway when she had me. I have no idea who my father is. I doubt even Stella knows.”

“That explains how a man in his thirties could have a six-year-old brother.”

“Right. She was sixteen when she had me, in her early forties when she had Milo. As far as I know, she didn’t have any other children in between.”

She couldn’t imagine it. Sixteen, the same age as sweet Lizzie Lawson, barely a child. “How did she take care of you?”

“She had an insurance settlement from her parents, who were killed in a car accident before I was born. Before she ran away from foster care herself. It paid out a small amount monthly—though she usually blew it all by the second day of the month on booze or drugs.”

“What about the rest of the month?”

“Stella was a survivor. I’ll give her that. She was very much into doing her own thing, living without rules and not being responsible to anyone. Somehow she had a knack for finding others who shared her counterculture ideas. She would glom on to anybody who could take care of her. Us, I guess. One guy after another—or woman, depending on her mood. Sometimes we lived in a commune-type situation. It wasn’t what you might call a traditional childhood.”

She couldn’t imagine it, especially coming from her sheltered, traditional small-town background with a mother and father who had adored each of their five children.

“With that much insecurity, I’m surprised you weren’t taken away and shuttled through the foster care system.”

“I was, a few times, but she always managed to play the game enough to convince the family court she was competent to care for me. Those times were rare. More than likely, if child welfare services came sniffing around because a teacher or a neighbor reported something, we would just pick up and leave.”

Oh. Poor boy. That must have been so hard on a kid, never settling in one place long enough to grow roots. No wonder he loved this beautiful house on the lake so much.

Katrina gazed at him, feeling that tug and pull of her heart again. Some part of her wanted to tell him to stop talking right now, aware that with each word she was coming to care for him more. At the same time, she wanted to know everything about him, all the pieces of the puzzle.

“You said you hadn’t had contact with your mother for years. How old were you when you...parted ways?”

“I started making plans to leave when I was about thirteen. It took me about two years to put my strategy into action. I taught myself to use computers, earned my GED and got into MIT.”

She stared, astonished at the sheer depth of accomplishment behind those simple words. “How can you say all that in the same casual tone I use to tell Sam I picked up new mascara at the grocery store today? You should be yelling it from every rooftop!”

His jaw tightened. “No. I shouldn’t. I don’t pat myself on the back at all. I did things I’m still not proud of. I was a hacker, Kat. I lied, I stole, I cheated my way into MIT. I learned Stella’s lessons well and went after my goals without regard to the consequences.”

“Nobody can cheat their way into MIT.”

“They can when they have my particular skills,” he said, with no trace of ego in his voice.

“Were you caught?”

“I would have been, probably. Instead, the guilt became too overwhelming and I came clean to the dean of my college a month into my first classes. I was lucky. The school could have pressed charges and made it so I couldn’t be admitted into another computer science program in the country. Instead, they took pity on me and gave me a chance to prove myself.”

She could picture him clearly—young, driven, brilliant. How could MIT not have recognized his genius? He had proved himself and more.

“Anyway, after I left for MIT, I didn’t hear from Stella again. I looked for her a few years ago, but apparently she changed her name and moved to another state. The trust fund had run out years before, and I couldn’t even trace her that way. She might have changed her name, but I don’t think she changed her lifestyle at all.”

“That’s why you don’t know anything about Milo’s background. Because he basically grew up off the grid like you.”

“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “I hate that I couldn’t help him to have a better start in life.”

A better start thanBowiehad.

Unable to help herself, she reached between them and rested her hand on the back of his in a gesture intended only for comfort. After a surprised moment, he turned his hand over and intertwined his fingers with hers.

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