First Comes Love

by Heather Heyford

  The server arched her brows. “I’ll be right back with your waters.”

  “Um, miss?” Kerry called after her. “I’ll have a pinot after all.”

  The weather had been unusually warm that week. Kerry had even let the girls wear shorts to school. Now she slipped out of her suit jacket to her sleeveless red blouse, folded her hands on the table, and smiled at her girls. “It’s the Memorial Day weekend. Who’s excited about going to the pool tomorrow?”

  “I am!” said Chloé.

  “I am!” Ella aped her sister, pounding the table with her spoon for emphasis.

  Shay’s eyes remained downcast.

  Kerry put her hand atop Shay’s. “The pool’s for the whole town of Newberry, honey, not just your school. Maybe you’ll meet some new kids this summer.”

  “Even if I do, I still have to go back to the same school next fall.”

  “Try to look on the bright side. Meanwhile, I think we should all go to bed early tonight and catch up on our beauty sleep.”

  “That’s not fair,” said Chloé. “You said I don’t have to go to bed till nine thirty on the weekends.”

  Kerry waited for Shay to pile on, but she surprised her with, “Coach Walker says everyone needs eight hours of sleep a night.”

  First the vegetables, now the sleep. “Well. Coach Walker is absolutely right. As soon as we get home—”

  “Look!” Shay pointed to the bar area. “There’s Coach Walker now! Coach Walker!” She waved wildly.

  “Ssshh! Hush, Shay. Don’t interrupt his supper.”

  Too late. He’d seen her and was waving back, revealing a row of straight white teeth.

  To Kerry’s pleasant surprise, he was an eye-smiler. His eyes crinkled up into slits so you could hardly see them. And his top lip rose a tad higher on one side, balancing out a nose that bent slightly left.

  “Look,” said Shay, “he’s all by himself.”

  With large hands, Alex crossed his fork and a wicked-looking steak knife on his plate, empty save for a large meat bone. His naked ring finger confirmed what she’d noticed the first night she’d spotted him in the Turning Point.

  “Why don’t you ask him if he wants to come over here and eat with us? We can scoot over and make room,” said Chloé with an innocence that made Kerry’s heart squeeze.

  “No, no. Let him enjoy his meal in peace. Besides, I think he’s already finished.”

  “He doesn’t look like he’s enjoying his meal. He looks lonely and kind of sad,” said Chloé.

  Kerry watched Alex gaze with empty eyes at the cooks working around the woodstove and the gas ranges behind the bar as he took a sip of red wine.

  He did look lonely. Or maybe it was just that his everyday frown made him look that way, compared to that 500-watt smile.

  Still. The last thing she wanted was to encourage Shay’s attachment to yet another cop.

  She looked around for the waitress. Where was that pinot?

  Ah, here she came.

  “Now. What were we talking about?” asked Kerry. Better the kids bickering among themselves than begging her to invite Alex Walker over to their table.

  But no sooner had they started doing just that than she saw a tall figure approaching from the corner of her eye.

  “Thought I’d stop and say hi on my way out.”

  Shay blushed, suddenly tongue-tied.

  Figures, thought Kerry. Shay couldn’t wait for him to come over, and now that he had, she’d left Kerry to carry the ball.

  “Hello. You remember Chloé and Ella from when I pick up Alex from boxing?”

  He nodded. “Girls.”

  “How was your dinner?”

  Alex rubbed his flat stomach. “I eat out most nights. This place has great pork chops.”

  “Don’t you have a wife?”

  Leave it to Chloé.

  “Do you have a husband?” he shot back. There was that grin again.

  Chloé giggled, her teeth clinking against the rim of her water glass. “I’m not old enough to have a husband yet.”

  “How old are you?”

  She wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “Going on eleven. How old are you?”

  “I was your age twenty-nine years ago.”

  Chloé’s lips moved as she attempted the math in her head.

  “So, that’s twenty-nine plus eleven,” said Shay, showing off in her role as big sister.

  “I know!” Chloé snapped. “Coach Walker is talking to me. Let me figure it out.”

  * * *

  The first time Alex had walked into Ruddock’s Roadhouse, he was hit with the smoky aroma of grilled meat. He looked around, letting his eyes adjust to the dimness. Its high-top tables constructed of timber, concrete floors, and industrial décor lent it a definite macho feel. And the open kitchen behind the bar provided something more interesting to look at than the usual rows of bottles. Best of all, it seemed an unlikely joint for a girls’ night out or supper with young kids.

  After a couple of weeks of dining at the coppertop bar populated with other loners like himself, he’d stopped looking over his shoulder and keeping an ear out for Kerry O’Hearn’s low-pitched, self-assured voice.

  His steak knife froze over his pan-roasted pork chop when he heard not Kerry’s but an equally disconcerting voice.

  He peered into the dining room.

  Shay’s tumble of curls was easy to spot. She was sitting with a younger, blond child, a round-faced toddler whose head was barely visible above the table edge, and Kerry.

  Alex fisted his knife and fork on the bar and waited for the inevitable irritation to creep up and ruin his mood, like the delayed pain after you stubbed your toe, now that he had to find yet another place to hide out in.

  But he was surprised to feel tenderness and goodwill instead.

  In the weeks since he’d met Shay, he had gotten to know her not just as a cantankerous pre-teen but as a person. All she wanted was to belong. When it came down to it, that was all anyone wanted. And to his secret delight, Shay had taken a liking to him, too.

  He could have simply exited using the door to the bar, but he’d already been spotted. It would’ve been rude not to stop and say hi.

  But he’d paid his respects, and now he was free to go.

  “Have a nice evening, ladies,” said Alex, turning on his heel.

  “Wait!” said Chloé. “You can’t leave till I figure out how old you are.”

  Shay sighed, propped her chin in her hand, and rolled her eyes.

  Alex shifted his weight.

  Kerry sipped her wine. Finally, she asked, “Would you like to sit down?”

  He hesitated. Kerry still didn’t remember him. Maybe it was his clothes. Back then, he’d still been wearing the uniform of the Portland PD. Or maybe she was just too caught up in herself to notice anyone else.

  “Please, stay a while,” begged Chloé.

  Though Shay was too bashful to come out and ask, her eyes pleaded.

  “For a minute, and then I got to get going.”

  No sooner had he pulled over a chair, turned it around, and sat down backward in it than Chloé burst out with, “Forty.”

  “Guess I can go now,” he said, rising to a storm of objection from the kids.

  Kerry ducked her head, trying to hide her smile.

  “If you don’t got a wife, then where are you going?” asked the middle one.

  “Just because I don’t have a wife doesn’t mean I don’t have a house to go home to.”

  “Where’s your house at?”

  “Chloé,” said Kerry gently. “Not so many questions.”

  He had to admit, from what he’d seen, she was a decent mom. Her girls were a handful, but she was committed to raising them right . . . unlike the Pelletier boys’ apathetic excuse for a parent.

  On the hand dangling her wineglass, he noted her ring-free left hand. A single mom. Why had it not occurred to him before to wonder about her marital status?

  Maybe she wasn’t as selfish as
he’d thought.

  “Not far from here.”

  The server arrived with a round tray and began unloading platters of burgers and fries.

  “Just so you know, this is an exception,” said Kerry. “Shay told me you’ve been talking to your boxing students about the importance of good nutrition. We don’t eat like this all the time.”

  He waved a hand. “No judging here. You should’ve seen the size of the pork chops I just demolished.”

  “Do you have to work on the weekends?” asked Shay.

  “Sometimes. Not this one, unless I get called in for something important.” He and Kerry exchanged knowing glances. Important, in the context of his work, usually meant something unfit for innocent ears.

  “You should come to the pool with us tomorrow,” Shay said brightly.

  He searched Kerry’s face, but her eyes carefully avoided his.

  Alex noticed the silky skin on her bare arms and wondered out of the clear blue sky what she looked like in a swimsuit. “I, ah . . .”

  “Pleeeze?” asked Chloé.

  “Pleeeze?” asked Ella, with no concept of what she was asking for.

  “I’m sorry,” said Kerry to him.

  “Girls. I’m sure Detective—Coach Walker—has lots of things he needs to do tomorrow, and so do we.”

  She was still making him pay for that lawyer joke at the Turning Point. Who could blame her?

  But he couldn’t bear to shoot Shay down without at least a bit of effort. “The Community Pool?”

  Shay’s grin lit up her whole face when she nodded enthusiastically.

  Talk of the pool had recently come up at work. “That’s right next to the empty lot where the parade forms and ends.”

  “A parade?” shouted the two younger girls. “Let’s go. Can we, Mom?”

  “It’s an antique car parade. Not sure it’s something you girls would be interested in.”

  Kerry’s mouth twisted into a smile. “Parade detail, huh?”

  He stood up a little straighter. “Don’t mind doing my civic duty.”

  To the girls, he said, “I’m not promising anything. Depending on how my day goes, maybe I’ll stop by when the parade’s over.”

  The kids erupted in a chorus of cheers.

  “Now I got to get going and let you guys eat.”

  “Bye! Good-bye!”

  He left Ruddock’s with a bounce in his step, wondering when he had decided he was definitely going to the pool. It was nothing, really, just a matter of walking an extra fifty yards, saying hi to make the girls happy, and that would be that.

  But it was also the first time since he’d hit town that he’d made plans to do something social in his time off and, he had to admit, that was something.

  Chapter Nine

  Alex approached the Newberry Community Pool, his easy strides belying his anticipation at picking out a slender woman with three cute kids.

  A pop song blared from the vicinity of the snack bar, and the shouts and splashes of children echoed from the water. With the sharp smell of chlorine, he recalled his own childhood summers, and his excitement built.

  He spotted Kerry first, sitting along the edge of the baby pool with one knee bent, arms locked behind her, hands flat on the pool deck for support.

  When he reached the chain-link fence, he folded his arms across the top of it to take full advantage of being able to watch her for a bit, unobserved.

  A band of flowered material wrapped around her chest, flattening the two smallish mounds of her breasts. Strings went up from her cleavage in a V to tie behind her neck. Instead of matching like a typical bikini, her swimsuit bottom was turquoise and cut like a pair of stretchy shorts, highlighting a narrow waist. She looked like a model in some vintage fashion magazine.

  Her head was turned away from him toward the wobbly blue disc of the baby pool, where a few other mothers waded, clinging to the hands of their little ones. Kerry raised a hand to shade her eyes from the glare of the sun on the water. He followed her line of vision and saw Ella hinged at the hip, reaching for a bobbing orange toy.

  The innocuous splash of another child was enough to startle Ella and she fell face forward into the water.

  Alex’s hands clenched the chain link, instinct preparing him to hurl himself over it.

  But Kerry rose languidly to her feet and was soon righting the child, smiling reassuringly into her face.

  Ella gasped openmouthed as she tried to catch her breath. Kerry waited until she had wiped her eyes, then retrieved the toy that had floated out of her reach and calmly handed it to her.

  Then she rose to her full height and propped her hands on her hips and watched her daughter continue to play.

  The water sparkled in the sun and shade from the tree branches overhead, already fully leafed out.

  “Coach Walker!” From out of nowhere, Shay was running across the grass toward Alex, followed close behind by Chloé.

  “You came! Mom,” she shouted over her shoulder, “it’s Coach Walker!”

  Alex inhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and broke out in a grin.

  “I almost didn’t recognize you in those bug-eyed sunglasses. How come you’re wearing a vest?” panted Shay.

  “I just came from work.”

  “How come you don’t wear a uniform?” asked Chloé.

  “This is my uniform,” he said, looking down at his jeans and faded blue T-shirt. He turned around so she could read POLICE on the back of his vest.

  “Cool,” said Chloé.

  “Are you going to come in?” asked Shay, squinting up at him in the bright sunshine.

  “I don’t know.” He was just fine here, on the other side of the fence. Going in was a whole different thing.

  “How come? Didn’t you bring your swimsuit?”

  She had unknowingly handed him the perfect excuse. “No,” he said apologetically.

  Chloé shrugged. “Oh, well. I’m going to go get back in.”

  He didn’t blame Chloé. He hoped he was never too old to forget the magical allure of a newly opened pool, before you started taking it for granted in August.

  Yet he held greater sway on Shay than the pool did. She didn’t seem to want to leave him yet.

  Alex didn’t want her to either. He tried to think of something to talk about to prolong their visit. “Coach Lovatt said something about doing a boxing demo here at the pool this summer.”

  “What do you mean? What’s a demo?”

  “That’s short for a demonstration. Something to show the other kids what we do in class, to drum up interest. Sound like something you’d be interested in?”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you. You’re progressing really well.”

  Kids were so refreshingly transparent. Alex could see the pros and cons flicker across Shay’s face as they occurred to her.

  “But what exactly would I be doing?”

  He dug his fingers into the chain link. “Now don’t get too excited because it’s not a done deal yet, but Coach Lovatt’s talking about maybe getting you guys some headgear so we can do a little mitt work.”

  “You mean, like, instead of just punching the bags, we’d be punching each other?”

  Alex nodded. “You’ll partner up with someone your size—you’ll have to partner with a boy, because there are no other girls—Coach will call a combination, say jab-right cross and jab-jab-cross, and you’ll demonstrate what that looks like, using the in and out footwork you’ve been learning.”

  Realization washed over Shay. “Me, fighting against a boy, in front of everyone at the whole pool?”

  “We’ll see. It’s still in the planning stages.”

  Now Kerry was strolling toward them with long, easy strides of her bare legs. She had donned sunglasses and a big floppy hat. This swimming pool–mama Kerry was virtually unrecognizable from the tough-as-nails attorney he had thought of innumerable times over the years. She looked soft and approachable. At her side, Ella toddled as fast as her
chubby legs would carry her. Her sunglasses had slipped sideways on her head, their cloth strap hiding her eyes. But that didn’t stop her from stooping to examine every dandelion in her path.

  At the sight of her, Alex couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

  “Mom! You’re not going to believe this!” said Shay. She related Alex’s idea and then ran off toward the pool, yelling, “Chloé! Guess what!”

  “I really appreciate everything you’re doing for her,” said Kerry.

  “She’s a great kid.”

  “Moving’s been hard on her. She came from a big school, where there was a clique for everyone, to one where, months later, she’s still considered the, quote, ‘new girl.’ ”

  He huffed a laugh. “Believe me, I get it.”

  “I’m sure you do, being the new guy yourself,” she said, smiling wryly. She took off her glasses and licked her lips.

  Alex was glad he didn’t have his board shorts on. Its lack of, er, structure always made him feel somehow overexposed.

  “So,” he asked, watching sweet Ella shred a dandelion to smithereens, “is it just you? Are you all they have?”

  A shadow crossed Kerry’s face. “I’m perfectly capable of raising my daughters myself, thank you very much.” Just as suddenly, the shadow evaporated. “Sorry. When it comes to my kids, I sometimes overreact.” She looked down at where she wriggled her bare toes in the grass. “Don’t hold it against me for being a little defensive.”

  A little? thought Alex. Ya think?

  * * *

  Maybe it was because it was the first official day of summer, or the barefoot setting, or her girls’ innocent infatuation with Alex. Whatever it was, Kerry let down her guard.

  “Shay’s biological father was a state trooper. I fell in love”—Kerry sighed, standing there on the other side of the fence from Alex—“let’s be honest, lust—with him during my second year of law school. We met—where else? In a bar . . . the same bar where I found him a few months later when I went looking for him to tell him I was going to have his child.”

  Chris had taken a swig from his growler and muttered that any girl smart enough to get into the University of Oregon Law School was smart enough to know what to do with an unplanned pregnancy.