She turned to look at him, her eyes distant. “The matter?” Her tone had the effect of a cold shower. At least he didn’t need to worry about her noticing his, ah, reaction.
He shook his head. How could he explain that for a minute he thought she might be interested and now? Now, she still stood close enough he could smell her shampoo and feel her body heat, but she was gone. As if something inside her had snapped shut. It was Maureen again. End of discussion. Closed for business.
“Never mind. It’s not important.” He started gathering up his tools.
She folded her arms. “Well, I need to get a lot of work done this evening. Good night.” The gate closed with a snap behind her.
Jack listened to her door shut. She had to have something against the department. Every time it came up, she froze solid. He put the last of his tools in the case and as he latched it closed, he heard a car in the drive.
The blond guy’s battered truck rolled to a stop in front of the garage behind her car. “Hey!” He waved as he jumped out. “How’s it going?”
“Just fine,” Jack said. What was he doing here? He heard Katherine’s door open.
“Randy, you’re here. Come on up.”
Katherine’s voice sounded warm and friendly. Jack ground his teeth. Why did she sound so inviting to this guy when she frosted him out?
“Hey.” Randy headed for her door, grabbing a gym bag out of his truck. “What’s up?”
“Oh, Randy.” Katherine sighed.
Jack walked to the edge of the house. She must have been standing in the doorway because he couldn’t see her. He watched Randy leap up the stairs two at a time before disappearing around the edge of the house. Jack scowled as the door slammed closed. Maybe it wasn’t the department. Maybe she’d realized blondie was on his way, and she wanted to be ready for him. Jack felt his lip curl in disgust. The competition seemed to be winning. He wasn’t sure he could take it if Randy’s truck was still parked in the driveway in the morning.
* * * *
“Thanks pal. I didn’t think I could stay there tonight.”
“So was it worth skipping out on the poker game?”
Jack groaned.
Kevin handed him a pillow. “I knew it was a bad idea for you to get involved with her.”
“We’re not involved.”
“Exactly.” Kevin folded his arms. “You’re not even involved with her, and you're torn up about it.”
Jack sank down on the couch he’d just made up. “I don’t get it. One minute she’s happy to see me, and the next she’s avoiding me for days. Then she’s acting kinda weird and happy Leia is my sister, and then that idiot is getting a warm welcome. What does she see in him?”
Kevin sat down in his chair and got comfortable. “Maybe he’s easy to handle.”
“I’m easy to handle.” Jack rubbed his fingers through his hair. “It’s just—she seems so happy to see me sometimes. I get the feeling this is what real love is. You know, when you come home from work and there’s a smiling face waiting for you. When you need somebody to understand, she’s always there. When you need a good laugh, she knows it. When I’m with her, I feel as if it’s where I belong. Like when I’m eighty years old waking up beside her, I’ll be thinking, this is right. You know?”
Kevin laughed. “You are the last guy in the department I ever thought would be sitting around waxing poetic about being married. Well, maybe Danny’s a little behind you, but you’re right near the end of the line.”
“She said her fiancé was killed.”
“Sounds violent.”
“That’s what I thought. I didn’t want to ask, but most people say someone died, they don’t say that person was killed. And she didn’t say he was murdered. She’s an English teacher. You’ve gotta think she’s using exactly the word she wants.”
“I don’t know her well enough to make that call. She probably is the type who uses exactly the word she means. Her fiancé didn’t just die, and he wasn’t murdered. He was killed.” Kevin shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her.”
“Are you sure you don’t remember a Gary in the department who died? Even a volunteer or a dispatcher or something. Somebody at a scene even.”
“Positive. The only deaths in the department in the last fifteen years have been retirees and Tony Wells, five years ago. And if it was a civilian who died at a scene, and she still blamed the department, do you really think she would have rented to you in the first place?”
“I guess not.”
“Maybe whatever happened to him was in the papers and I read about it. Ask your sister, maybe there was a court case involved.”
Jack snorted. “I’ll search back issues of the paper at the library first. I’m not desperate enough to ask Leia for help yet.”
“You’re getting there.”
“You know,” Jack said. “If it was in the paper it would have to be pretty violent. I wonder what happened and how long ago. It would take time to get over something like that.”
“It would. The violent death of a spouse takes a little time to get over. He wasn’t quite her spouse, but close enough.” Kevin heaved himself out of the chair. “But it shouldn’t be you anyway. You shouldn’t be chasing your landlady. Widowed one year or ten. Good night, lover boy.”
* * * *
Katherine hovered near her kitchen window listening to the faucet drip and watching for Jack’s truck when he pulled in. She bit her lip. Where had he been all night? And why? He climbed out and started pulling large, awkward, plastic wrapped bundles out of the truck bed. She couldn’t make out what the packages said, but she guessed they were roofing supplies. He also had a couple of sheets of thick plywood with him that he hauled around as if they weighed next to nothing.
He was so good looking. So nice. Handy around the house. He even smelled good. They had been having such a great conversation last night. It had been years since she talked to anyone about her dad. And the five seconds she’d spent with Archer leaning against her legs on one side, pressing her into Jack on the other side had woken her up three or four times last night.
Then, he had to go and spoil it all by pausing in mid-sentence because he heard a siren. Smacking her in the face with the fact that he was a hero for a living.
She watched him slide the pieces of plywood off the truck.
He was already acting like a husband. Fixing the back door Gary always told her couldn’t be fixed. Fixing the garage roof. Having conversations with her. Gary hadn’t been a bad guy, he was just always wrapped up in his work. The whole duty, honor, pride of being a police officer. It had never been quite what she expected, but she’d been more than prepared to settle into it. She could have been happy having more meaningful conversations with her friends than her husband and spending time at the bookstore because he was either on duty or hanging around with other off duty cops.
Then along came Jack who woke her up at night in a way Gary never had. Who raised her pulse by smiling. Who listened to her. Who made her feel more comfortable with herself than she ever had felt in her life. Who stayed home for the sole purpose of staying home.
But where had he gone last night?
She set down her coffee cup in the sink under the dripping faucet so it would fill up again. It didn’t matter. He was the tenant, and she was the landlord. She pulled on her coat. He was also a hero for a living, and she couldn’t do that to herself again. She hurried down the stairs. Never mind the fact that she’d spent most of the evening in the yard playing with Archer, waiting for him to come home, and never mind that she'd been awake most of the night listening for his returning footsteps. She threw open her door as he opened the back gate. The weather had turned cold again and in her hurry, she’d forgotten to put on shoes.
He stumbled back a step, startled, pulling the gate open.
She opened her mouth before she realized she was about to demand to know where he was all night. “You—got the stuff for the roof?”
He glanced back at the closed g
arage door. “I picked it up this morning. I talked to a couple of guys, unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to get to work on it until the week after next. They’ve all got Easter stuff going on this week.”
“Easter?” Katherine shivered as the wind blew through her wool socks.
“Next Friday is Good Friday.”
“I know.” She stood on the landing, staring at him, willing him to tell her where he spent last night. Even if he was with another woman. It would be better to know than to guess.
“Is that okay?” he asked. Archer tried to push open the gate, getting his head and shoulders through before Jack penned it with his leg.
“That next Friday is Good Friday?” Katherine asked. Where were you last night?
He frowned. “That we’ll start next week. It should only take a day, but you’ll want to have your car out of the garage. In case something falls through.”
“Falls through?” Katherine knew she should be alarmed, but all she could think of right now was that Jack had been gone all night and wasn’t volunteering where he’d been.
“Tools. Drop a hammer, you don’t want it going through the windshield.” He paused watching her face. “Is it okay?”
“Sure. That’s fine.” She clenched her hands. “What do I owe you?”
“I’ll figure it out when we’re done. I like to overbuy and return what I don’t use instead of having to make a supply run in the middle of the job.”
“That makes sense.” She pulled her coat tighter. “Well, I’m going to go back inside now.”
“Okay.” He smiled. “Anything else?”
“No.” She heard herself whimper and hated it. Where were you last night? Who were you with?
“Well, you better get inside before you catch a cold.”
“Do you have duty tomorrow?” She knew he did.
“Yeah.”
“Be careful.”
He chuckled. “I can’t be careful. It’s my job.” He started maneuvering Archer back into the yard. “Come on, animal. Let’s go inside. It’s almost lunch time.”
Katherine stood on the porch and listened to Jack herd his dog into the house and close the back door. When the sound faded, she went back inside her own apartment, cursing herself for acting like a teenager. What had she been thinking running outside like that? He had to think she was crazy. Asking him about Good Friday? And telling him to be careful? What did that mean? She hung up her coat and retreated to the living room and her book, which she didn’t think she’d be able to concentrate on anyway.
* * * *
How often did she fall asleep after her alarm went off? How was it fair that she’d been awake since four-thirty only to drift off the moment she turned her alarm off? Katherine yanked a comb through her hair with one hand while gulping down a cup of coffee with the other. The combination of coffee and the toothpaste made her pucker, which seemed to be the perfect expression for the morning. She abandoned the cup in the bathroom and raced through the apartment trying to collect her book bag and lunch and get her arms through the correct sleeves of her coat. She ran out the door and had turned to lock it before she realized she didn’t have her keys.
She dropped her book bag and lunch on the porch and ran back inside to the kitchen where her purse, keys inside, hung on a kitchen chair, very glad Jack was on duty this morning and not home to hear her thundering around like a herd of bulls.
She ran out the door and jerked it shut. Her keys seemed to have vanished. “Oh for heaven’s sake. Where are they?”
Archer barked at her.
“Archer, hush.” She found the key ring at the bottom of her purse and scooped it out. Locked the door. Grabbed her book bag. Ran to the garage.
Archer ran up and down the fence, whining with his ears pitched forward.
“You are not missing anything, you silly pooch. I’m late. I can’t play with you this morning.” She heaved up the garage door, jumped into the car, started it. Then, after she backed out, she hopped out again to pull the door down.
Archer had given up racing up and down the fence and plopped himself in front of the gate waiting for her. He’d come to expect a few rounds of fetch before she climbed in her car and drove away on the mornings Jack worked. He flattened his ears to his head.
Katherine hesitated in her car door. “I’m already late.”
He stared at her.
“Oh, all right. Just one.” She grabbed a stick lying in the driveway and threw it over the corner of the garage. Archer set off after it, and Katherine dove into her car.
She managed to get to her classroom before the first bell rang. The halls were already crowded with kids, making the trip to her classroom more of an obstacle course than she liked. She wished she had time to stop in the office and check her mailbox, but that would have to wait, along with the few other things she did in the morning, like photocopying and gossiping over coffee with Pam and Kitty.
Pam walked in as the first bell rang. “I thought you were starting Spring Break early.”
Katherine frowned. Pam had been teasing her about all the late hours she’d been putting in to stay away from Jack. She’d speculated Katherine was working ahead so she could skip out to spend time with her firefighter. This wasn’t going to help.
“I overslept.” Katherine hung up her coat.
“I heard.”
The vice principal poked his head through the door. The relief on his face would have been comical on any other day. “Oh good, you’re here. We were beginning to worry about you.”
“I’m here, just a little later than usual.” She toted her book bag to her desk. “I shut off the alarm and fell asleep. I’ve never done that. I don’t even have time to take my lunch to the refrigerator.”
“I’ll take it after homeroom,” Pam offered.
Katherine sighed. “Good. Thanks. Now where is my lunch?” She opened her book bag and took out her grade book and the stack of homework papers she’d taken home to grade. “It’s not here.” She went back to her closet and opened the door, checking the pockets of her coat.
“Is it in your car?” Pam asked.
“No, I remember looking at the seat when I picked up my book bag.”
“Did you leave it at home?”
Katherine searched her closet even though she knew it wasn’t there. “I left it at home. And I don’t have a dime on me for lunch.” She rubbed her temples. “I don’t believe this.” The second bell rang and the classroom filled with students.
“Don’t worry about it. If you can stomach the cafeteria food, I think I have a couple bucks you can have.”
Katherine closed her closet door. “Thanks. Hey, you guys know the drill,” she yelled over the noise of her homeroom class. “In your seats. Whose turn is it to take attendance?”
* * * *
Jack walked down the block toward the house. Katherine's Easter break should be starting tonight, so she’d be home for the next week. Kevin had talked him out of inviting her to Easter dinner on Sunday, but hadn’t been able to talk him out of making sure he was home every off duty hour. Jack had been in such a hurry to get home he hadn’t even bothered to change out of his uniform, even thought he knew she’d be in school until evening. Maybe with repeat exposure, her resistance would wear down and he’d be able to get some answers, like what happened to your fiancé? How long ago? And, when do you think you're going to start dating again? He’d decided during the last shift that he could wait. If she said five years, he could wait. And in five years, he could have found a house of his own and acquired a puppy she wouldn’t be able to resist. He started up the driveway toward the front door.
After that conversation Saturday morning, he felt pretty sure something was up. After all, she’d run out of the house without shoes in the middle of March to talk to him about nothing. And she’d looked so worried and confused. He decided the blond hadn’t stayed that night. He didn’t know for sure how he figured in the picture yet, but it wasn’t as her overnight guest.
Jack changed course and headed for the back yard. As he passed Katherine's porch, he noticed an insulated bag sitting off to the side. He stopped and picked it up. It looked like one of those freebie lunch bags companies gave away, but he couldn’t read the faded lettering on the bag through the cracked plastic. He’d seen it peeking out of her book bag every day when she came home from school. He opened it. It sure looked like a lunch. A small one anyway. Sandwich, apple, peanut butter crackers. He carried it to the fence. “So, dog, was Katherine in a big hurry this morning?”
Archer barked and then lolled his tongue out.
Jack looked at the garage door and noticed it was open about two inches, as if she’d pulled it down and not bothered to make sure it got all the way. Or pulled it so hard it bounced back up. “So she was running late and dropped her lunch. Is that what you're trying to tell me, Lassie?”
Archer barked.
“You wait here. I’ve got an errand to run.” Jack went in the house for his keys. He knew which school she taught at, and thought he could find the classroom based on the way she described it last weekend when she'd stopped at the fence to chat on her way to the grocery store.
A sign on the door told him to go to the office for a visitor’s pass, but he didn’t think he needed one. He was only dropping something off. When he passed the office door, the kid monitoring the desk looked a little wide eyed, but didn't challenge him. It felt a little unnerving to be in a high school again. The whole building smelled like chalk and floor wax, and he would have sworn the floor was the same tile as his old school. In the stairwell he hesitated, trying to recall the bits she’d told him. Her room was upstairs so he walked up to the second floor. It faced west because he remembered her mentioning that she always looked forward to spring with mixed emotions—what with summer-crazy kids in a hot room at the end of the school year. The first west facing room at the top of the stairs was a disaster of paint splatters, long chipped tables and paper littering the floor. Then he noticed the door plaques on the walls. He sighed. It had seemed an impossible task once he got inside the building, but if they labeled all the rooms… Ms. Pelham: English was the third door on the west side of the hall. Inside, he could hear a burble of voices, but couldn’t see anyone. He knocked.
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