things and she had to wonder what cruelty he might have faced as a child. She wanted to ask, but she was quite certain he would brush off the question.
“Josh can handle the whispers around school,” she answered. “He’s a very strong young man.”
“He shouldn’t have to go through any of this,” he muttered.
“But he does, unfortunately. Whether he should or shouldn’t have to face it, this is his reality now.”
“I wish I could make it easier for him.”
“You are. Just by being there with him, caring for him, you’re providing exactly what he needs right now.”
He studied her for a long moment, a warm light in his brown eyes that sent those nerves ricocheting around her insides again. She wanted to stay right here in her reception area and just soak up that heat, but she knew it was far too dangerous. Her defenses were entirely too flimsy around Ross Fortune.
“Shall we go find Josh and Ricky?”
Could he hear that slight tremble in her voice? she wondered. Oh, she dearly hoped not.
“Right,” he only said, and followed her outside into the warm May sunlight, where Josh was shooting baskets by himself on the hoop hanging in one corner of the parking lot of the Foundation.
“No Ricky?” Ross asked.
“Nope. He must have gone home while I was talking to Ms. O. Left the ball out here, though.”
Josh shot a fifteen-foot jumper that swished cleanly through the basket.
“Wow. Great shot,” Julie said.
“My turn,” Ross said and Josh obliged by passing the ball to him. Ross dribbled a few times and went to the same spot on the half-court painted on the parking lot. He repeated Josh’s shot, but his bounced off the rim.
Josh managed what was almost a smile. “Ha. You can never beat me at H-O-R-S-E. At least you haven’t been able to in years.”
“Never say never, kid.” Heedless of his cowboy boots that weren’t exactly intended for basketball, Ross rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. “Julie, you in?”
She laughed at the pair of them and the suddenly intent expression in two sets of eyes. “Do I look crazy? This appears to be a grudge match to me.”
Her heart warmed when Josh grinned at her, looking very different from the troubled teen she knew him to be. “There’s always room for one more.”
“You’ll wipe the parking lot with me, I’m sure. But why not?”
She decided not to tell them she was the youngest girl in a family of five with four fiercely competitive older brothers. Sometimes the only time she could get any of them to notice her was out on the driveway with the basketball standard her father had nailed above the garage door.
H-O-R-S-E had always been her favorite game and she loved outshooting her brothers, finding innovative shots they couldn’t match in the game of elimination.
It had been years since she played basketball with any real intent, though, and she knew she would be more than a little rusty.
The next half hour would live forever in her memory, especially the deepening shock on both Ross’s and Josh’s features when she was able to keep up with them, shot for shot, in the first five rounds of play.
After five more rounds, Josh and Ross each had earned H and O by missing two shots apiece, while she was still hitting all her shots, despite the handicap of her three-inch heels.
“Just who’s wiping the parking lot with whom here?” Ross grumbled. “I’m beginning to think we’ve been hustled.”
“I never said I couldn’t play,” Julie said with a grin, hitting a one-handed layup. “There was no deception involved whatsoever.”
She had to admit, she was having the time of her life. And Josh seemed much lighter of heart than he had been during their session. She still sensed secrets in him, but for a few moments he seemed to be able to set them aside to enjoy the game, which she considered a good sign.
After another half hour, things had evened out a little. She had missed an easy free throw and then a left hook shot that she secretly blamed on Ross for standing too close to her and blasting away all her powers of concentration. But she was still ahead after she pulled off a trick bounce shot that neither Josh nor Ross could emulate.
“I’m starving,” Ross said. “What do you say we finish this another night?”
“You’re just saying that because you know I’m going to win,” Julie said with a taunting smile.
Ross returned it and she considered the game a victory all the way around, especially if it could help him be more lighthearted than she had seen him since they had found his brother-in-law’s body.
“Hey, Julie, why don’t you come to the house and have dinner with us?” Josh asked suddenly. “We could finish the game there after we eat.”
“Dinner?” She glanced at Ross and saw he didn’t look exactly thrilled at the invitation. “I don’t know,” she said slowly.
“Please, Julie. We’d love you to come,” Josh pressed her. “You don’t have other plans, do you?”
“Not tonight, no,” she had to admit.
“Then why not come for dinner? Uncle Ross said he was going to barbecue steaks and there’s always an extra we can throw on the grill.”
“Well, that’s a bit of a problem,” she answered. “I’m afraid I’m not really much of a meat eater.”
“Really?” Josh said with interest. “Lyndsey is a vegetarian.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m a vegetarian. I just don’t eat a lot of red meat.”
“Those are fighting words here in cattle country,” Ross drawled.
She laughed. “I know. That’s why you won’t hear me saying them very loudly. I would prefer if the two of you would just keep it to yourselves.”
“Okay, we won’t blab your horrible dark secret to everyone—” Josh gave her a mischievous smile “—as long as you have dinner with us.”
She was delighted that he felt comfortable enough to tease her. “That sounds suspiciously like blackmail, young man.”
“Whatever it takes.”
She returned his smile, then shifted her gaze to see Ross watching both of them out of those brown eyes of his that sometimes revealed nothing.
“I suppose we could throw something else on the grill for you,” Ross said. “You eat much fish? We’ve still got bass from the other day.”
If she were wise, she would tell Josh ‘thanks but no thanks’ for his kind invitation. She already felt too tightly entangled with Ross and his nephew. But the boy was reaching out to her. She couldn’t just slap him down, especially if it might help her reach him better and help him through this grief.
“In that case, I would love to have dinner with you, as long as you let me pick up a salad and dessert from the deli on the way over.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Ross said.
She smiled and tossed the basketball at him. “I don’t mind. It’s a weird rule in my family. The winner always buys the loser’s dessert. You can consider the salad just a bonus.”
He was still laughing as she climbed into her car and drove away.
Chapter Six
By the time she left the deli with her favorite tomato salad and a Boston cream pie, her stomach jumped with nerves and she could barely concentrate on the drive