Full Circle Read Online Free

jeans getting tight. "Are you seeing Jimmy, again," he asked.
    Josie laughed. "Jimmy has been married since he was eighteen years old and straight out of high school. He has five boys." She measured out marks indicating heights with her hand—"two, four, five, seven and ten. They're like stair steps and as cute as can be. Jimmy married Mary Anne Shearer. Her parents moved here when she was in her first year of high school. She was in the class below mine. You had left town by the time her family moved here. Jimmy and Mary Anne have been busy. The rumor grapevine says she's pregnant again, but they haven't made it official. Both of them wanted a big family, and they're certainly going for it." Josie stepped on a piece of rug at the back door, carefully wiped her boots and took them off. "Rule of the house," she said bluntly. "At least until the construction and outside painting is completed. I don't want that mess tracked inside."
    Jack complied and followed her across a screened-in back porch. He understood why when he stepped into the house. The ancient mix of changing decades over a hundred years plus was gone. The peeling wallpaper, rusting metal kitchen cabinets and ancient appliances were all gone. There was no more hoarder's garbage stacked everywhere. Now, a sophisticated showroom kitchen opened up into a family room. He could see beyond that to an elegant curving stairway. The basic bones of the house were still there, but the downstairs was an open floor plan with one room easily blending into the next.
    A skinny towheaded boy of eleven or twelve with large blue eyes was sitting at a stone countertop bar with his head leaning on one arm as he flipped through a schoolbook. When they came through the door, he sat up and frowned.
    "Having problems with the math?" Josie guessed.
    "Some," he mumbled.
    "I'll help you later," she promised, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "Alex Carter, this is Jack Rawlings. They named the town for his family way back in 1895 when the town was founded. Jack is a Navy SEAL."
    "Yeah? How do you know, Josie," the boy demanded.
    "We grew up in this town together," he said, looking over as the woman in question was pouring coffee. "I've known Josie since she was seven or eight years old."
    "Yeah?" the boy said, perking up and looking interested.
    "No telling tales!" Josie laughed. "You don't want to give Alex any ideas. He needs to be on his best behavior for a while."
    "I'm going to my room to finish my homework," the boy said. "You're missing something."
    Josie looked around the kitchen quickly, but the boy grinned and took off up the stairs.
    At Jack's questioning look, Josie shook her head and rolled her eyes upward.
    "It's a game we play. He picks something of mine and moves or hides it in plain sight . It can't be my keys or my cell phone. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what is missing before I can even attempt to find it. When I do find it, I turn the tables on him." She laughed. "It took me two days to find the computer mouse. It was sitting on the kitchen counter by the phone charging station. It's all about paying attention and being observant."
    "Your kid," Jack asked.
    "Hopefully, he will be," Josie said, passing a mug of coffee to him. "Do you need that doctored?
    Jack shook his head. He drank his coffee black.
    "I'm his foster mother for the time being." Josie gave a quick look to make sure the boy wasn't in listening range and lowered her voice. "Alex's mother has drug problems, and she's being evaluated as to her fitness to remain his parent."
    "That sounds rough on him," Jack said.
    "It is. I know what he's going through, having lived through it myself with my uncle."
    "Mason Ramsey wasn't on drugs that I ever heard about," Jack said.
    "Same scenario, a different choice of drug," Josie said dismissively. "Mason used alcohol. Marcy Carter uses alcohol, cocaine and anything else she can scrounge up enough money to buy. Neither of them was fit to raise a child. No one