Dillon caught her by the shoulders as she dashed toward the door again. “Jade, he’s fourteen years old. Boys that age are easily distracted and lose track of time. Graham can take care of himself. Don’t panic.”
“He’s too afraid that this privilege will be revoked to waste time getting here. Something’s happened to him.” She worked her shoulders out of his grasp and left the portable building. She had no specific plan in mind. She was propelled by adrenaline to act, to move, to locate Graham immediately.
“Where are you going?”
“To look for him.” She climbed into her Cherokee.
“You can’t go chasing around aimlessly,” he argued. “If he shows up, how will we know where to find you?”
“Let’s worry about finding him first.”
As she was reaching to close the door, she spotted the El Dorado turning in off the highway. Recognizing it instantly, she sprang from her car.
Before Neal had even come to a full stop, Jade had her hand on the passenger door, pulling it open. “Graham!” Her knees almost buckled with relief. She drew him out of the leather seat and wrapped her arms around him. Loner ran in crazy circles around them, barking gleefully until Dillon ordered him to settle down.
“Mom, you’re smothering me,” Graham muttered with adolescent embarrassment.
Holding his shoulders between her hands, she thrust him at arm’s length away from her. “Where have you been?”
“My bike had a flat on the way. Mr. Patchett picked me up and took me to the garage to get it fixed, then we came straight here.”
She cast a murderous glance toward Neal, who was smiling at her from across the roof of his car. “You should have called me from the garage, Graham.”
“I didn’t think about it,” he mumbled.
“Where’s your bike now?” Dillon asked him.
“It’s in my trunk.” Neal moved to the rear of his car and used his key to open the trunk. Loner was sniffing at him suspiciously.
Dillon pulled the bike out and said a terse, “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank him,” Jade spat out viciously, almost too angry to speak.
“Mom, he gave me a ride.”
She wanted to shake Graham very hard for jumping to Neal’s defense. To keep herself from doing that, she held her arms rigidly at her sides and dug her nails into her palms until they hurt. “You know better than to accept a ride from a stranger, Graham.”
“But he’s not a stranger. You know him. And he knows you. I thought it would be all right.”
“You thought wrong!”
“Jade.”
“Shut up, Dillon. This is my affair. I’ll handle it.”
“Well, you’re doing a damn poor job of it.”
Cathy prevented any further discussion when she sped up in her car. She hastily alighted. “You had your mother and me scared out of our wits, Graham Sperry. Where have you been?”
Jade said, “He’ll tell you all about it on your way home.”
“Home?” Graham wailed. “I have to go home?”
Jade gave him a hard look that squashed any further argument. Even Cathy didn’t dare pose another question. She threw her arm across Graham’s shoulders and walked him to her car.
As soon as they were on their way, Jade rounded on Neal. “I ought to have you arrested.”
“You threatened that once before, but chickened out, remember? When are you going to learn, Jade, that if you take me on, you can’t possibly win?”