Dare to Love by Tara Taylor Quinn Page B

headed. He didn’t want it to bother him now.
    He forced his eyes away from the girl’s swaying back and saw the hole broken into the side of the steps leading up to the building. His stomach lurched as his eyes assessed the size of the hole—the smallness of it. He’d remembered it as being much larger. That was his hole. The one he’d found. It had been his refuge, his hiding place, his only security in a childhood from hell.
    Doug remembered crawling into that hole and hiding beneath those steps the day his mother had left for good. He’d heard her say she wished she knew where Dougie was so she could tell him goodbye. He’d watched her get into that beat-up station wagon and drive away anyway.
    The hole had seemed huge then. He’d never had any trouble scrambling into it. But now the sight of it made him sick to his stomach. It was so small. Christ, he couldn’t have been much more than a baby to have fit in the damn thing.
    Doug swallowed, and then swallowed again. But he couldn’t seem to choke back the feeling that was shooting up from someplace inside of him. He couldn’t care. He couldn’t allow himself to care. He’d have been dead long ago if he’d allowed himself to care.
    He turned his head away and his gaze fell on the girl who’d walked by him earlier. She was standing a couple of blocks down, leaning against a bus-stop sign. He stood up and headed toward her.
    She watched him approach with a welcoming smile pasted on her painted lips and a weary, hesitant look in her eyes. She didn’t back away when he stopped right beside her. She didn’t flinch when he pulled his hand from his pocket and held it out to her.
    â€œTake it.” He couldn’t keep the anger from his voice. It was the only way he could speak at all.
    The girl looked down, saw the size of the bill he was handing her and snatched it from him as if she was afraid he would take back his offer.
    â€œWhere you wanna go?” she asked, cracking the wad of gum she was chewing.
    Doug shrugged one shoulder and tipped his head. “Back there.”
    She pushed away from the sign and headed in the direction he’d indicated, not checking to see if he was following her. “You gotta place here?” she asked as she climbed the broken-down steps.
    â€œNo.”
    She stopped halfway up the stairs. “Then why’re we here?” Her eyes narrowed. “You ain’t a cop or somethin’, are ya?”
    â€œI know where to find one. Now get in there, take that crap off your face and lock your door,” he said harshly.
    She stared at him for a moment as if he’d sprouted an extra head or two, looked down at the amount of money in her skinny fingers and then bolted into the building.
    Doug listened as the door slammed behind her, and listened some more until he heard the second door—the one that meant she’d entered her apartment—slam, too.
    And then he turned back toward the Hetherington Hotel, more frightened than he’d ever been in his life. How was he going to live with himself if he was getting soft?
    * * *
    â€œH I , M A . How was your weekend?”
    â€œYour pop and I went to Barbie Leone’s wedding. You should have seen the flowers, Andrea—they were glorious. And the food! Sarah Leone outdid herself this time. She colored the pasta to match the bridesmaids’ dresses!”
    Andrea lay back on her bed, the phone at her ear, picturing the scene as her mother described it. She tried not to remember when Barbie Leone was born, that she’d baby-sat for Barbie for years, that she’d once thought Barbie would one day be baby-sitting for her.
    â€œAnd did I tell you Scotty has a new girlfriend? He and Lizzie—that’s her name—they danced all night. Everybody was talking about what a cute couple they made.”
    â€œDid anybody say anything?” Andrea asked, tense as always when she heard