Staring at her hand spread out on the table, she sighed. “When Gary was killed, I was at school. We had a couple of city cops roaming the halls at the time because there had been some trouble, and one of them came to my door. He said I was needed in the office. They didn’t tell me until I got downstairs.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why that came to mind. We haven’t had police monitoring the halls for years. And they can’t exactly come and tell me my fiancé is dead again, now can they?”
The coffee maker gurgled to a finish, and Jack got out two cups, glad to be able to keep his back to her. If he had known that, he would have taken her lunch to the office and dropped it off there. At least they had been sensitive enough to get her out of class before they told her. “Cream and sugar?”
“Please.” She sighed. “I’m sorry to dump this on you. Holidays suck for me. But you look like you had a good day. You had dinner with your family, didn’t you?”
“At my grandmother’s house. She’s pretty with it for eighty-two. She always does all the cooking herself. Bread from scratch and everything.”
“Eighty-two? Wow. I don’t know what bread looks like before it gets to the grocery store wrapped in a plastic bag. Thank you.” She lifted one of the coffee cups out of his hand. “Was your whole family there?”
“Just Grandma, my parents, my sister, and a couple of local cousins.” Like Gregory who wouldn’t treat her so gently.
“Oh, your sister.” Katherine smiled.
“Here, take these. It’ll help you stop hurting.” He dropped two aspirin in her hand. “My grandmother asked why I didn’t bring you.”
“Me?” Katherine put one of the pills on her tongue and chased it with a swallow of coffee. “Why?”
Jack wanted to kick himself but decided she would notice that. He needed a convincing white lie quick. “She knew I had moved, and she asked about my new neighbors. You’re about it.”
She dropped the other aspirin in her mouth. “We do have neighbors on either side, you know. Across the street too.”
Jack shrugged. “I haven’t met them yet.” He wanted to know more about her late fiancé, but he couldn’t think of a good way to steer the conversation back that way and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. She looked so much more relaxed and almost happy.
She giggled. “To tell the truth, I don’t know them very well either. I know their names to say hello to, but I don’t know anything about them. I’d only moved into the house a few months before Gary died, and I guess I’ve been kind of a loner.”
“We’ll work on that.”
She laughed. “Are you going to teach me to be outgoing?”
“If you like.”
She looked at him with an odd exasperation. As if she was pleased and sorry at the same time, but she was still smiling.
I would, he thought. I’ll help you with whatever you want as long as you keep smiling at me like that, or smiling at me at all. “So, what do you plan to do with your week off?” he asked before he said something stupid.
“I thought I might do some laundry, if you don’t mind. And I need to change the furnace filter. I need to get into the basement for both of those.”
“Sounds like fun. You can do it today it you want. I don’t have any plans.”
“I thought I would do it when you’re on duty Tuesday. I don’t want to be underfoot.” She sipped her coffee, holding his gaze over the rim of the cup.
“I don’t mind. Go on.” He’d picked up his coffee cup and started to take a drink before he realized she knew his schedule. It took some skill to not cough.
“Thanks.” Finishing off her coffee, she stood. “I’ll go upstairs and get my hamper. The day is getting better already.” She left the ice pack on the table.
Jack put the ice pack back in the freezer, feeling pretty pleased. He’d managed to finagle her into hanging around all evening, and she admitted it improved her day. He liked being an improvement. Walking through the living room, he made sure it was tidy. Then, he turned on the television, so she wouldn’t feel as if he had prepared the place for a date, and lit a candle, so maybe she would feel as if he had.
She knew his schedule. Why had she paid enough attention to his comings and goings to figure it out? He couldn’t keep track of trash day, and she knew his work schedule three days in advance. That had to be a good thing.
She knocked at the front door. When he answered, she stepped inside with a blue laundry basket in her arms. While she was upstairs, she'd changed into white sweats and a long green sweater and taken her hair down. “I’m back. Pretend I’m not even here.”
“It’s no trouble. I’m glad to have the company. You need some help?”
“I know the way.” She hurried through the foyer with her head down as if she didn’t want to spy and slipped around the basement door. Her feet pattered down the stairs. He already knew the sound of her footsteps from listening to them over his head for the last month. Jack went into the kitchen and looked around for something to snack on. The cupboards didn’t seem to contain the perfect food that would look impressive and not look as if he was trying to butter her up. Popcorn seemed too easy. Baking too showy.
Archer watched him open and close cupboards. Then, the dog walked to the basement stairs and looked down. He sat down at the edge of the hall where he could hear her and watch Jack.
Katherine banged around in the basement for a few minutes and then the washer started to fill. The washer lid closed with a bong, and Jack heard scraping.
Jack wandered back into the living room still pondering appropriate snack food and dropped onto the couch. He’d ended up with a political talk show on. Archer jumped up next to him and settled in for a nap. Jack started channel surfing to pass time while he waited for her to come upstairs. He’d gone through the entire lineup before it occurred to him that he hadn’t heard anything in a while.
“Katherine? What are you doing? Hanging out with the spiders?”
“My laundry,” she answered.
“Well, yeah, but what are you doing right now? It sounded like you got a load in.”
“I did.”
“You’re allowed to come upstairs.”
There was a long pause, and Jack considered going down after her.
“I didn’t want to be underfoot.”
He rubbed his hand through his hair. Hanging out in the basement would improve her day? Maybe appropriate snack food wasn’t as big a question as he thought. “You don’t have to sit in the basement while you wait. Come on upstairs and watch some TV.”
She appeared at the bottom of the steps. “Are you sure it’s not a problem?”
“I’m sure. Come on up. I was thinking about making some popcorn.”
She smiled.
Jack went toward the kitchen, listening for the sound of her footfalls in the stairs. He got out the air popper and the popcorn before he turned around to check that she had made it upstairs.
She stood at the edge of the hall, poised as if to flee.
“Popcorn?” He tried to sound light, but he couldn’t tell if he’d succeeded. She leaned against the edge of the stove with one hip, reminding him of how curvy she was under her sweater.
“Sure.” She smiled again and hugged herself.
Jack dumped a little more popcorn in the popper and switched it on. He stepped back and leaned against the counter with his hands behind him. It seemed like the safest option. The green sweater she wore seemed to draw out the color in her eyes. Her lips shone. She was the only woman he’d ever seen who looked great in Chapstick, and he felt pretty sure he’d never look at lip balm the same way again.
Archer stationed himself between them and in front of the popcorn popper.
Her eyes swept down to the dog when he moved and then up Jack’s body to his eyes.
Jack froze for a moment. He’d been staring, and she’d caught him. He took a deep breath. “Doesn’t look like there’s much on TV. I’ve got a couple of movies around. Unless you have something in mind t
o watch.”
“No.” She drew a deep breath. “Whatever’s on is fine. I haven’t watched TV in months.”
“Why not?”
“I had to trade it for some maintenance. The DVD player broke months ago, and the TV was the only thing I had to trade.”
“So you don’t have a TV at all? Do you read all the time?”
The popcorn popper blew a kernel out of the bowl. It skidded across the counter and Archer snapped it up as it dropped off the edge.
“Yes. The librarians all know my name.” She rolled her eyes. “I walk in and they all whisper ‘Katherine!’ Kind of like Cheers, only quieter.”
“Well, feel free to come down here to watch.” Jack peered into the popper. When she’d first said she didn’t have a TV, he’d worried she was one of those intellectuals who disdained television. That would have been very uncomfortable. He’d have to reassess his entire view of her. But if she’d had to trade it away in lieu of cash for work on her house that made his heart ache more. “Do you want something to drink? I’ve got beer, soda, water, milk and iced tea.”
“Just water. I can get it. Where are your glasses?”
“Second cupboard next to the fridge.” He pointed.
She opened the cupboard and took out two glasses. “What did you want?”
“Get me a soda. Thanks.”
Leaning into the refrigerator, she took out a can of pop and the water jug. He thought she was watching the glasses too intently, but wasn’t sure why. Did she feel as nervous to be with him as he did being with her? Replacing the water jug, she said, “All set. How’s the popcorn coming?”
“Fine. Why don’t you take the drinks and surf around on the TV until you find something. I’ll only be a minute.” He busied himself getting butter out of the refrigerator and melting it in the microwave. He heard her switching channels looking for something to watch. So far so good. He drizzled the butter over the popcorn and carried the bowl out to the living room.
Katherine sat in the chair inside the archway with her feet curled under her, balancing a box in her hands. She looked up. “Your assessment of the options was correct. Nothing on worth watching.”
He glanced at the TV. A nature documentary about sharks. At least it wasn’t politics. “What’s that?”
She held up the box. “A game. I noticed it under the table.”
“Oh, I stuck it under there when I moved in and never put it away.”
“I’ve never played this one.”
Jack looked at the box. Jenga. Leia had given it to him for Christmas a couple of years ago. It had looked like one of those ‘I didn’t know what to get so I grabbed this’ gifts, but after he’d played it a couple of times, he’d decided he liked it and decided maybe she had put some thought into it. It also took time. Time that might keep Katherine hanging around. “It’s fun. You want to play? You’ve got time while you’re waiting on your laundry.”
She shrugged. “Sure. If you like.”
Jack put the popcorn bowl on the magazine stack and dumped the box out on the table. Archer positioned himself next to the popcorn bowl. Jack scooped up a handful of fluffy white kernels and tossed one to the dog who snapped it out of the air, unfortunately he nearly crashed into the table in the process. Katherine knelt next to the table and watched Jack set up the game. “My mother and I used to play Yahtzee a lot.”
“My family went through a Monopoly phase when I was in high school.” Jack leaned back from the table when he placed the last block in place. “We must have played Monopoly every weekend for six months.”
“All the way through?”
“All the way through.”
“Monopoly isn’t a game, it’s a commitment.” She leaned forward and scooped out a handful of popcorn, which she ate one piece at a time.
“I’ve got that too. Monopoly,” Jack added when she turned to look at him.
“I don’t think the laundry is going to take that long.” She leaned on the table. “So how does one play this game?”
“You have to move the blocks from the bottom to the top without knocking over the tower. Like so.” He nudged one block out of the bottom level and set it on the top at a right angle to the level below. “You’re only allowed to use one hand at a time, and you can take blocks from any level below the top completed level.”
She nodded. “So it’s my turn.”
“Go ahead.”
She studied the tower, and Jack used the opportunity to study her. Her shoulders weren’t drawn up to her ears and her face wasn’t set with helpless pained lines. She didn’t have her jaw clenched, wrecking the elegant shape of her mouth. Even her eyes seemed brighter. A few strands of hair slid over her shoulder and lay against her sweater.
“What?” She touched her cheek as if she thought there might be something on it.
“Did you take your turn?” Jack looked at the tower. There was a block missing from one of the middle levels and placed beside his at the top.
“Did I do it wrong?” she asked, frowning at the tower.
“No. I wasn’t paying attention.” Or I was, but not to the game.
She climbed to her feet, careful to not bump into the table.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“The washer’s done.”
“It is? You need any help?” He started to stand.
“I’m just switching things from the washer to the dryer.” She raised one eyebrow. “I’ll be right back.” Jack could only stare after her as she left the room. Standing, he carried his drink to the kitchen. Archer followed him. The glass was over half full, but he needed to move around and clear his head. Pacing would feel good about now, but he was pretty sure she would be able to hear him through the floor. He had to get a grip on himself before he said or did something stupid. Surprisingly, he hadn’t done anything yet. This might be a record, the longest time they’d spent together without him making her freeze up. If he could keep not doing whatever it was he did until she finished her laundry, next time would be easier. But since he didn’t know what not to do, he didn’t know when to stop himself. Returning to the living room with the dog on his heels, Jack took his seat by the coffee table.
By the time she came back upstairs, he’d pulled himself together, but he fell apart again the moment she sat down. Wafting around her was the scent of laundry soap which, for some reason, smelled heavenly.
“Did you take your turn?” she asked, settling into her seat.
“No.” He knelt next to her.
“Why?”
“Why?” He had deteriorated from not being able to pay attention to not being able to think at all. With her so close, he wanted to touch her, hold her. Confirm she was here. He still hadn’t recovered from the desire to hug her earlier.
She selected one kernel of popcorn from the bowl and tossed it in her mouth. “Why didn’t you take your turn?”
Did she know how dumbfounded he felt to have her sitting next to him, playing a game like an old married couple? “I didn’t want you to think I was cheating.” He picked a block at random and moved it to the top of the stack.
When she nudged a block with her finger, the whole tower shifted. “Oh. Now I see the challenge. This is going to get worse, isn’t it?”
“Only until it collapses.”
“This isn’t for people with unsteady hands.” She tested another block. It started to slip free and then snagged. Growling, she leaned across his lap to get a better angle on the piece. A lock of her hair curled across her shoulder. The light from the candle caught in it bringing out tiny sparks of red. For an instant he considered wrapping it around his finger to see if it was as soft as it looked. She wiggled and tugged the block free, barely avoiding bringing the entire tower down, and placed it on top.
Jack looked over the tower, picked a block, pulled it out and put it on top.
“How did you do that?” she wailed.
“I looked for the one that would slide out easiest.”
“So did I.
”
He shrugged. “I guess I’ve had more practice than you.”
“You fink. You tricked me into playing a game you’re good at so you could trounce me. Well, we’ll see.” She leaned her chin on her hands and studied the tower. She was quiet for so long, Jack started to wonder if he should tell her about the time limit when she spoke softly.
“So you’re a firefighter.”
“Yeah.” His heart squeezed at the tone of her voice. She sounded so sad. Almost as sad as when she’d been talking about her husband. He’d never questioned his profession before. Not when his parents were horrified and frightened. Not when his sister graduated law school with honors and started making twice as much money. Not even when the victims screamed at him because he didn’t get there fast enough. But the tone of her voice made him do it now.
“Why?”
He looked over the tower and tried to think of an acceptable answer. Any other time dozens of answers would have come to mind. Now, nothing. “It's where I belong.”
She glanced up at him. “Of course.”
He tested her tone for anything. Was she disappointed with that answer? With him? Was she proud? She sounded resigned. Like she knew all too well why he did what he did. “Why did you ask?”
“I don’t know.” She chose a block and slid it free. “Your turn.”
He reached out and tugged on the first block his hand found. The entire tower shifted and gracefully tipped over.
“Oops.” She pursed her lips. “So I guess that’s how the game is played, huh? What do I get for winning?”
Jack turned toward her. Her bright eyes rested on him and her hand lay on the coffee table between them. He moved his hand so his fingers covered hers and studied the way his hand looked, lying across hers. Her thin delicate fingers were hidden by his. He looked up and met her eyes. Now they seemed unguarded for the first time since he’d known her.
Licking her lips, she left them parted.
Three Alarm Tenant Page 10
