The Devil's Labyrinth

CHAPTER 38

RYAN ORDERED THE steak and baked potato, closed his menu, and handed it to the waiter. So far, the day with his mother and Tom Kelly hadn’t been as bad as he thought it was going to be; they’d gone to Quincy Market, then had lunch at Legal Seafood, which had always been Ryan’s favorite restaurant. Now they were at Ruth’s Chris on School Street, just a few blocks from St. Isaac’s, and Ryan was wondering why they hadn’t gone to some place closer to their house.

Something, he was sure, was going on. In fact, he’d had the feeling all afternoon that there was something his mother wasn’t telling him. Now, as the waiter took the last of their order, Tom Kelly stood up and laid his napkin on the table.

“If you’ll excuse me for a few minutes,” he said, leaning over to kiss Teri’s cheek. Then he nodded at Ryan, and walked toward the men’s room.

“So,” Teri said, leaning in slightly, and both her voice and expression taking on an odd anxiety. “Hasn’t this been fun, the three of us together?”

Ryan nodded uncertainly, sensing that his mother was about to tell him something that he wasn’t going to like.

“Maybe during Easter week we can go somewhere. Take a trip together.”

Ryan frowned. “We?” What did that mean? Just himself and his mother, or was she talking about Tom Kelly, too? “You mean just us?” he asked. “Or are you thinking that guy will go, too?” He tipped his head in the direction in which Tom Kelly had gone, and the flicker in his mother’s eyes told him the answer to his question even before she spoke.

“He’s not just ‘that guy,’ Ryan,” Teri said, sitting back and crossing her arms over her chest. “He’s a good man.”

Ryan shrugged. “I’m not saying he’s not. Just don’t marry him, okay?”

Again the look in his mother’s eyes spoke volumes, and for a second he had the horrible feeling that maybe she already had married him. But then she shook her head.

“I’m not marrying him,” she said.

Ryan started to relax slightly, but then she spoke again.

“But you need to know that Tom may move into the house next week.”

Anger and resentment began to boil in Ryan’s gut. “Boy, that didn’t take long.”

Teri did her best to ignore the anger in her son’s voice. “He’s a good man, Ryan, and he’s very good for me. He cares for me, and for you, too. If you’d just get to know him the way I do…” Her voice trailed off and she looked down and twisted the napkin in her lap. “And the house is just too empty with you gone.”

Ryan glared accusingly at her. “Don’t blame it on me.”

“Blame?” Teri’s head snapped up. “There’s nothing to blame. I love Tom, and he loves me, and if he makes me happy, I’d think you’d be happy for me.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tom coming back, and reached out to take Ryan’s hand, but he pulled away from her, his eyes stormy. “Please,” she whispered, “let’s not ruin the day, all right?”

Tom sat down, smiling. “What did I miss?”

Ryan took a deep breath. “Not much,” he finally said. “Just mom telling me that you’re moving in on her.”

Tom Kelly glanced at Teri, whose face had gone ashen, and raised a placating hand. “Hey, come on. I wouldn’t call it moving in on—” he began, but Ryan didn’t let him finish.

“I think it would be best for me to go back to St. Isaac’s tonight,” he said.

Tom Kelly looked genuinely surprised. “You’re kidding! Why?”

Teri shot Ryan a look, her eyes glistening with tears, and he squelched the angry words in his throat before they burst free. “I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on classes that I’ve never taken before,” he said, keeping his voice as calm as possible. “I was really looking forward to a weekend at home, but I think I’d better spend it studying, instead.” He felt Tom Kelly’s eyes on him, and met the man’s gaze with his own.

Teri McIntyre sat in frozen silence, praying that neither Ryan nor Tom would push the issue any further.

Finally Tom Kelly nodded. “You’re probably right,” he said. “At this stage, you’d probably do better to stay at school.”

Ryan nodded.

The waiter brought their meals.

Ryan looked at his steak, cooked to perfection, but his appetite had vanished. All he could think about was what Melody had intimated earlier in the day: that many of St. Isaac’s students were either troublemakers or inconveniences.

St. Isaac’s had been Tom’s idea, and with Ryan out of the house, he was moving right in.

Nor did he seem the least bit disappointed that Ryan wasn’t going to be home for the weekend.

“At least we had a good afternoon,” Tom said, and lifted his wine-glass.

Teri followed suit, and Ryan lifted his Coke.

“To many more good Saturdays,” Tom said.

“Many more,” Teri echoed.

Ryan clicked his glass with theirs, but knew that from now on he’d much rather be at school with Melody and Clay Matthews, and the rest of his new friends than be home with Tom Kelly.

For tonight, he’d just get through dinner, and be polite, and not make his mother any more miserable than she already looked. He’d think about Tom Kelly and the rest of it when he was back in his dorm room, alone.

As alone as he already felt, now that he had apparently become just one more of the inconvenient kids stashed away at St. Isaac’s.