Читать книгу Three Alarm Tenant - Christa Maurice - Страница 6

Chapter 2

“So, do you think I should go to dinner with him?” Katherine twisted her office chair back and forth. She could picture her friend Pam leaning on her kitchen counter, arms folded with the phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder, puzzling out Katherine's question. Katherine had decided a long time ago that she trusted Pam’s judgment so much because they were so different. Pam was as opposite as possible without being a man, and if she came to the same conclusion, then it was probably correct.

“Wait a minute, I thought you were about to rent the downstairs to him. Why wouldn’t you go to dinner with him? Honey, don’t do that.” Pam scolded one of her kids. “In a minute. I’m on the phone. Did you call his references?”

“Well, yes. I called his landlord. He’s been living in the same place for seven years. Always on time with the rent. Quiet, polite. No damage the landlord knows about. Usually fixes things himself when they break. The way the guy moaned about losing him, I wondered why he didn’t change his rule on pets.” Katherine tangled the phone cord around her finger.

“Did you ask?”

Katherine heard banging on the other end of the line. “Yes, he said if he bent the rule for one, he’d have to bend it for everybody.”

“Then there’s your answer. This Jack is obviously a good tenant. You said your instincts were for him. Honey, stop that!”

The banging stopped.

“He seemed like a really nice guy. And he said he works at the fire station right around the corner.”

“Really? Right around the corner? He sounds like a great catch. For a tenant.”

“I can’t go through another Gary.” Katherine's jaw tightened at the thought of living that life again. Lonely and anxious when he was on duty and lonely when he wasn’t. No, she couldn’t go through another Gary.

“So don’t. Listen, you’re renting an apartment to this guy, not marrying him. A little perspective, huh?”

“But should I have dinner with him?”

“You’re going Dutch treat, right? It’s dinner with a friend. A new friend. Honestly Katherine, you need to get out some. Meet new people. Going out for fast food doesn’t mean you’re committed to marry him or sleep with him, or even kiss him goodnight for that matter.”

“I don’t want to lead him on.”

“You’re not. Friends go out to dinner all the time. You’d go out to dinner with me once in a while if I didn’t have the rugrats to deal with. Take it easy and enjoy being single. You got engaged out of high school. Be free for a while. Gary’s been gone for a long time. You’ve got to let him go.”

“It’s not that. I mean, he's gone and nothing’s going to bring him back. I know that. It’s not Gary at all. I don’t feel strange about going out to dinner with a man. I feel strange having dinner with this man.”

“Strange like your intuition is trying to tell you something, or strange like you've lost all your one-on-one social skills?”

Katherine thought for a minute. For no apparent reason, she’d trusted Jack immediately after she’d gotten past being alone with him in the house. And she’d thought about that, too. When the door clicked closed behind him, she hadn’t been afraid of what he would do. She’d been more afraid of what she might do.

“I don’t think he's an ax murderer if that’s what you mean.”

“Okay. Just remember that this guy is a tenant, not a roommate. Get me?”

“I get you.” Katherine bit her lip. She didn’t want to get Pam, but she did.

“I gotta go before the kids tear the place apart. Are you going to give him the keys?”

“I want to call his employer first. The book said to check all references.”

“Okay, you do what the book says and call me tomorrow. I want to know what happens tonight. Bye.”

“Good-bye.” Katherine hung up the phone and finished the game of solitaire she had on her desk. She wasn’t sure she’d gotten what she wanted out of Pam. She’d called her brash friend hoping for some kind of set answer, not a ‘see what happens.’ But then earlier, when she’d called his landlord, she’d hoped to find out he always paid his rent late and trashed the place. And before calling Pam, she’d called all his personal references hoping for something she could use for a reason to keep him out of the apartment. He acted rashly, took chances, didn’t keep house well, something. Instead the first one, Kevin Marshall, had said he was solid and reliable and he knew how to do plumbing. The second had been an old lady whose plants he cared for when she went to Florida to visit her niece. She claimed her plants were healthier when she returned than they had been when she left. The last one had been Archer’s former owner who assured her Archer was well behaved, except for a tendency to tear up newspapers, and a good watch dog.

They should have been things she wanted to hear. So why was she looking for reasons not to rent to him, and even better, not go to dinner with him?

He was too good to be true. Just because he had friends who would vouch for him, and a landlord bemoaning his fate at losing him, did not change the fact that he was a glory hounding firefighter bound to get himself killed and leave her alone again. But that shouldn’t matter because he would just be a tenant, right? If something happened to him it would be sad, but not the end of the world. She’d just have to find a new tenant.

Katherine swept the cards together and rubber banded them together before dropping them into their place in her desk drawer. If she was going to dinner with a friend, she should get dressed.

She went into her bedroom and looked over her closet. Her clothing choices went straight from school clothes to weekend sweats with no lengthy stops in between. Her school wardrobe would be too dressy for fast food, even on Valentine’s Day. What would Jack think if she turned up in a dress for this not-date? She hadn’t bothered to keep a decent casual wardrobe since Gary died. As things wore out, she got rid of them. It didn’t seem important when she never went out.

In the end, she chose a black chenille turtleneck and the least worn jeans she owned. This was as dressed up as she was willing to get for fast food. Running a comb through her hair, she cast a longing glance at her makeup. No, no makeup. Not for a non-date with a potential tenant. Even though the magazine she'd just gotten out of the library claimed that a little definition to her eyes would change her whole look. She reached for the eye liner.

At that moment she heard a knock at the door. Katherine glanced at the clock beside the bed. He was prompt, too. She picked up her purse and coat and headed down the stairs.

“Hey! We match.” Jack announced as soon as she opened the door.

The soft navy jacket was back over a pair of excellently fitted black jeans. The V of the jacket revealed the round neck of a gray knit shirt, making her wonder how much time he'd spent on his wardrobe. Shrugging into her black wool coat, she said, “It must be the season. I bring out the black in my wardrobe.”

“Here, I’ll get the door.” He hurried to the passenger side of the truck while she locked up the house. “So where do you want to go? We’ve got every fast food joint known to man within fifteen minutes of here.”

“Wendy’s is fine with me.” Katherine climbed in. The truck smelled Armor All clean and the dashboard gleamed in the cab light. She didn’t even see dog hair on the seat. Did it always smell that way, or had he taken the time to clean it out? And if he had, what did that mean? That she probably should have put on eyeliner.

“East or west?” He closed the door and spoke through the open window.

“West.” From that side of town, she reasoned, it would be easy to get a bus home if she needed one. She wanted to be prepared for anything.

“West.” He went around the front of the truck and climbed in the other side. “There are two out that way.”

Katherine sighed, biting back frustration. None of his references had mentioned this facet of his personality. “There are? Are you an aficionado of fast food locations?”

“I did some overtime out there, so I paid attention to what was around in case it caught fire.” He turned to her in the dark cab. “So, which one? The one that’s further away is newer and seems to have better service, but the one that’s closer is quieter. That I did learn from eating too much fast food.” He winked.

Katherine's breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t remember why his incessant questioning had annoyed her. He sat an arm’s length away. The last time she’d been in this position, she’d leaned over and kissed the driver. She bit her lip and leaned back against the door to check the impulse.

“I don’t care. Either one.”

As soon as the words were out she regretted them. She didn’t know how far out this other restaurant was, or if the buses ran there. At worst, she decided she could get a taxi, but she didn’t know how much it would cost. Assuming he would, for some reason, abandon her. Then he certainly wouldn’t get the apartment.

“So,” Jack said.

She turned to him. He sat looking at her for a minute. His hair caught the light of the street lamp. A lock of it lay oddly and Katherine had to concentrate on not reaching over to brush it back into place. She smiled tightly.

He smiled back and involved himself with backing the truck onto the street.

She sighed and waited. It wasn’t a date, she told herself. They were new friends commiserating about being alone on Valentine’s Day. But if that was the case, why were they sitting in an awkward, first date silence? Katherine shifted and tried to think of something to say before her jaw locked up and she couldn’t say anything at all. “So how was your afternoon in the park with Archer?”

“Great. He gets pretty wound up when I’m on duty. I work twenty-four hour shifts and he’s cooped up in the apartment the whole time.”

“Twenty-four hour shifts. That must be difficult.” Katherine folded her hands in her lap before she forgot herself and laid the left on the seat between them where he could lay his over it. As if he would want to.

“It’s not so bad. We’re really just waiting most of the time.”

“Waiting?”

“Waiting for runs. We usually get three or four a shift, but it’s not always an emergency. Occasionally it’s a prank, sometimes it’s only somebody overreacting. Sometimes they decide they don’t need us after all. In between, we do maintenance, physical training, and white board sessions.” He shrugged. “What about you? What do you do? Besides rent an apartment.”

“I teach high school English.”

“Oh. I guess I better watch my language.”

Katherine grimaced. Every time someone asked her what she did, and at least once every parent-teacher conference day, she heard that joke. They never seemed to understand it wasn’t funny after the first dozen times. Of course, she reminded herself, it wasn’t old to them. “Well, I promise not to grade you too hard,” she answered by rote.

He chuckled, and the sound of it banished any annoyance she'd felt. It went straight to her knees, turning them to rubber and making her glad she was sitting down. “I bet you get that a lot,” he said.

“Yes.” Katherine hoped she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt. What happened to friends? No one reacts to their friends like this. Maybe Pam was right, and she’d lost all her one-on-one people skills.

“Well, I promise not to say it again if you promise not to say ‘where’s the fire.’”

“I think I can manage that.” She opened her purse and started digging through it for Chapstick. Suddenly she felt as if she needed to occupy herself, particularly her hands. Out the window, familiar landscape slid past. It felt reassuring. Traffic seemed light for a Saturday, but then everyone probably had some place to go, and had gone before now.

“So do you like teaching?” he asked, a little too loud.

“Sometimes. It has its rewards and its challenges.” She found the tube rolling around in the bottom. Without flipping down the visor, she applied it. It gave her a moment to gather herself. And then he chuckled again.

“You probably have a bunch of students like I was. Bad kids who sit in the back of the room and don’t finish their homework.”

“I tend to move them up front and ask them questions. Sometimes they start doing their homework to keep from being humiliated in front of the class, and then sometimes they decide they like knowing the answers and getting good grades. Sometimes they hate me more.” Katherine closed her purse, folded her hands together and wished she’d stayed home tonight. She really didn’t know how to do this anymore, if she’d ever known.

“Really? My teachers gave up on me most of the time.” He stopped for a traffic light and looked over at her. “As long as I was quiet and didn’t interrupt the kids who were trying, they didn’t care if I fell asleep.”

“I don’t like to give up on anyone. But then that’s how I ended up here.” Katherine grumbled before she remembered where she was and who she was talking to. Her jaws clicked shut too late. Not only had he heard, but he'd been looking at her when she said it.

He blinked, a little taken aback. “Well. Seen any good movies lately?” The light changed, and he focused on the road.

Katherine stared at her hands in her lap. No wonder she never went out, she wasn’t fit company.

“Seriously, seen any good movies? We have a guy at the station who’s a big movie buff. He’ll watch about anything. Old movies, foreign movies, B movies. It’s kinda neat the stuff he brings in. I think he’s got a deal with the little video store on McKinley so he can rent a bunch of stuff and return it late without having to pay a fee. He brought this one in a couple of weeks ago…”

Katherine let him babble on about movies, half listening and glad it was dark. Did he think she meant here as in here with him? Should she explain she’d always believed the police force would bail her out if she needed them, and by the time she’d realized they wouldn’t, she’d been in over her head? Would that make her look even more silly and pathetic to someone who lived by the same code? Or would he be able to make her understand why they left her the way they had? Pam never understood why she felt so betrayed, but maybe Jack would. If she only had the courage to ask him. But how much of herself did she want to expose on this first not-date?

They passed the Wendy’s she knew. Only half the tables were taken, but she suspected fast food wasn’t the dinner of choice for most couples on Valentine’s Day. Last Valentine’s Day, she’d sat at her desk with one light on and the heat turned down as low as she could stand to save a couple of bucks while she added up the state of her debt and graphed her decline into bankruptcy.

“So.” Jack cleared his throat. “Have you seen any good movies lately?”

“I don’t see many movies. The last thing I saw was Laurence Olivier in Hamlet when I showed it to the class.” Katherine looked out the windshield at the strip malls on either side of the road. This whole area had expanded since the last time she’d had extra money to shop with. At least she hadn’t blurted out how her DVD player had started eating DVDs nine months ago, and she’d given the TV to the school janitor in trade for some work he’d done because she ran out of cash.

“Is it any good?”

“It’s restrained.” Katherine focused on the film, forcing thoughts of strip malls, cops and Jack’s easy smile out of her mind. “Olivier plays Hamlet as a very tightly controlled character. The kids have an easier time with the Mel Gibson version because he plays it more tortured.”

“Why didn’t you show that version to your class?”

“I couldn’t get a copy. The district only has one and somebody else got to it first. Fortunately, I have my own DVD of To Kill a Mockingbird for when my sophomore class gets to that point in the Spring.”

“I read that in school. It was great.”

“It’s one of my favorites. I teach it every year.” Katherine looked out her window and noted a bus stop. So buses did run out here. Now the question was, why was she so sure he would strand her?

“Doesn’t that get boring? Teaching the same book year after year?” Jack flipped on his left turn signal and angled the truck into the turn lane.

“No, I teach it to a different group of students every year.”

He turned onto the access road to the Crossroads Plaza. “I don’t read much. I used to read those military mystery novels, but they all started to sound the same after a while. You know, militant nut decides to take over the world and the hero has to find him and stop him before he can succeed. Maybe you can turn me on to a new author or something.”

“Maybe.” Katherine licked her lips, tasting the cherry Chapstick she’d put on. The phrase ‘turn me on’ caught in her mind and changed context. Turn him on? Certainly. Just say when. Then she realized it sounded as if he were making plans for the future with her. That probably meant he wasn’t going to desert.

“Here we are. The new Wendy’s.” He turned into the parking lot.

She surveyed the area. This had been an empty field the last time she came here. Now there were a couple of restaurants and a jewelry store. She felt as if, after years of living in a cave, she’d emerged into a new century. Of course large portions of last summer had been spent in the basement, which was as close to a cave as she ever wanted to get. “I didn’t know there was anything new out here.”

“It only opened last summer. Nothing but the best for us.”

“Well, it is Valentine’s Day, I guess beggars can’t be choosers.” She stepped out and took a deep breath. The air smelled like fried chicken and melting snow. A cool breeze caressed her cheeks. Suddenly her stomach growled. Jack stopped at the front fender and stood waiting for her, watching her.

“It’s still warm. I feel as if something’s terribly wrong if I’m not wading though knee deep snow until April. We’re on parole from winter,” she announced to cover her odd pause. She hurried to the building, hoping the latest blush would fade before he noticed.

“I know what you mean, this weather has been really weird. Not that I don’t like it, I’m waiting for the blizzards to come back.” He opened the door for her.

“I hope this doesn’t mean it’s going to be a hundred and ten all summer long. Last year, I spent most of the summer in the basement battling the spiders and working on the foundation. I don’t have another job like that to keep cool this year.” She fought the urge to touch his coat as she passed him. It looked almost too teddy bear soft to resist.

“What’s wrong with the foundation?” he asked, following her inside, almost on her heels.

“Nothing now.” Katherine stepped into the queue. She knew what she was going to get. She always got the same thing so she would know how much it cost. “The mortar between the cement blocks had started to rot and I had to scrub it out and replace it. I warn you, the basement is inhabited by giant, fast, black spiders that are almost impossible to kill.”

“Impossible to kill?”

She shivered. “Unless you smash them between two hard surfaces like a concrete floor and a big dictionary, they keep running. And they crunch if you step on them.”

“Maybe I’ll have to get a dictionary.”

“I don’t think they bite. They’re just scary.” Katherine hugged herself more to keep track of her hands than to secure herself.

“You really hate those spiders, don’t you?” Jack grinned at her.

“Well, let’s just say if you hear a lot of screaming and banging from upstairs, assume the spiders have moved in with me.”

“I’ll protect you.”

Katherine studied him dispassionately. He looked so good and seemed so nice, why did he have to keep reminding her how inappropriate he was?

“I knew you would,” she grumbled.

She stepped up to the counter and ordered. She held out the exact change before the cashier gave her the total. Jack ordered while other employees got her food, and she used the opportunity to study him out of the corner of her eye. He chatted with the cashier who, of course, glowed under his attentions. Then he started digging through his pockets for money. He pulled out a Swiss army knife, a set of keys, a dog whistle, two mangled Band-Aids and a handful of change. Frowning, he patted his other pockets.

“It’s here some place. I had it when I left the apartment.” He started through his pockets again. “Ah ha. Here it is.” He pulled a battered wallet out of his fleece jacket and, grinning at Katherine and the cashier, sorted through his money.

Katherine collected her tray. She stopped at the condiment station to survey the seating choices while Jack gathered up his belongings and joined her.

“So, you have a firm idea on where you want to sit?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.” After the litany of questions on where to eat, she wasn’t leaving this to debate. She picked up her tray and headed for a corner table by the window.

He followed, sitting across from her at the two person table. “Good choice. What do total strangers talk about over dinner?”

Katherine unwrapped her sandwich. “I have no idea. This was your suggestion.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot. Well, what did you do this afternoon?”

“I called your references.” She focused on arranging her fries on her sandwich wrapper and getting her straw unwrapped and into her cup. She didn’t want to look up at him, because if she did, he might smile at her, and then she would lose her resolve to not be attracted to him. She felt like a moth telling itself ‘don’t look into the flame, don’t look into the flame.’

“And they told you I’m a serial killer wanted in seventeen states?” He looked at her for a moment before leaning across the table. “It was a joke.”

She cocked her head to one side and studied him. He had a faint smile on his face that almost enticed her more than the serious stare he’d been giving her when she showed him the apartment. As she watched, his expression turned a little uncertain, as if he'd realized he’d gone a tad too far. The longer she hesitated, the more uncertain his smile became and even that was endearing. “I know. I was trying to decide if it was funny enough to laugh at.”

Jack cringed. “Ouch.”

Katherine smiled. She’d forgotten how it felt to chat. “They were all complimentary. I want to contact your employer before I make any decision.”

Jack shrugged. “Okay. I’ve worked for the department for twelve years. They know who I am. How long have you been a teacher?” He bit into his burger.

“Five years. I was engaged for eight.” Katherine bit her tongue. She hadn’t meant to say that. Why wouldn’t Gary stay away?

He nodded as if she hadn’t answered more than he asked. “Did you always want to be a teacher?”

“Yes. It’s a very reliable, safe profession. Society will always need teachers.”

“And it doesn’t involve burning buildings,” he added, dipping a French fry into her ketchup.

“Most of the time, no. We frown on burning down the school. I think that would result in a lot of detention. Possibly expulsion.” She tried to remain serious and thoughtful, but part of her wanted to giggle over the fact that he’d stolen her ketchup. Pam was right. She had lost her one-on-one people skills.

He laughed. “I bet. I don’t think I’d mind detention though.”

“Why?”

“If I got to stay after school with you.” His molten eyes turned very serious, sending a thrill down her spine.

Katherine looked down at her fries to hide her blush. “You must want that apartment quite a bit.”

He shrugged and didn’t answer.

* * * *

“That was stupid,” Kevin announced resting one hip against the bathroom counter.

Jack leaned out from under the sink, wiping off the wrench. “Why?”

“What were you trying to do? ‘If I got to stay after school with you.’ It looks like a line. It sounds like a line. It must be a duck. Have you ever been subtle in your life?” Kevin shook his head.

“I like her.”

“You like her, or you like her apartment?”

“I like her,” Jack repeated. He’d spent most of last night dwelling on that question. He wanted to believe he loved the apartment and liked the landlady, but he hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night with the bright, airy foyer on his mind.

Kevin brushed his hand through his dark hair. Jack knew that gesture usually indicated a lecture on the way. “Are you about done there?”

“I've been done for fifteen minutes. You're the one who wanted to hang out in the bathroom.” Jack closed the tool box. He’d have preferred to have something else to work on, both to avoid the lecture and to keep his mind off Katherine Pelham. “Besides, it couldn’t have been that bad. We had a great time. She's really funny, and really smart. I don’t know. She runs hot and cold, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“When she found out I worked for the department she closed up, but then she went out with me, and we had a great time.”

“But, she paid for herself. You didn’t exactly get a date with her.” Kevin walked out of the bathroom. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be trying to date a woman who might end up as your landlord.”

“Might save time. She’ll already have a key to my place.”

“Ha ha. What if it ends badly? You’ll be out a girlfriend and a place to live. Your track record isn’t great. Remember Cynthia?”

Jack shuddered. Cynthia had been fun and a little wild. He hadn’t realized her ‘little wild’ would turn into ‘little crazy’ on such short notice until too late.

“You still have scars from the ashtray she threw at you.”

“So I stopped dating smokers.” Jack fingered the crescent shaped scar on his chin.

Kevin grumbled, leaning into the fridge to fish out two cans. “And Evelyn who kept ‘visiting’ you at the station.”

“She was obsessed. I broke up with her because she was suffocating.”

“And Maureen.”

“Hey,” Jack shook his finger at Kevin. “Maureen dumped me.” Then he paused, realizing that might not be a selling point. Being dumped by Maureen had been awful. He’d thought she was the one, and she’d thought he was the one of the week. She had been the first and last time he’d thought he found true love. At least until yesterday. Evelyn hadn’t been the one even though she thought she had been. Cynthia just liked to fight and throw things. He couldn’t imagine Katherine screaming or pitching glassware at his head.

Jack popped open the can Kevin gave him without looking at it. He smiled thinking about her laughing over dinner. Her eyes twinkling at him across the table. That big black sweater she’d worn made her look very dramatic. The sexy curves revealed by her sweater had been intriguing, too. And she had a nervous habit of licking her lips that was cute and sexy at the same time. Once she relaxed she was fun. Quick witted, throwing back snappy comment for snappy comment. Except for that one about detention. Then she’d coughed and become very interested in her sandwich. And even that seemed cute and wonderful.

“Wipe that silly grin off your face,” Kevin ordered. He walked into the living room, leaving Jack in the kitchen.

Jack followed Kevin and dropped onto the couch next to Archer. Archer lifted his head long enough to look at Jack and yawn before flopping onto his side to go back to sleep.

“Listen. I’m your friend, and I don’t want to steer you wrong, but I think it’s a really bad idea to date the landlady, no matter how sexy her voice is.” Kevin settled into the easy chair. “It might be fun, but it’s going to end, and when it does you’re going to be back where you started. Looking for an apartment that’ll take Archer because you won’t buy a house.”

Jack wondered what her voice sounded like over the phone, but in person, the sound of it made his temperature rise. “So you think she has a sexy voice?”

“Did you hear a word I said?”

“I heard you.” Jack frowned. He respected Kevin’s opinion. Kevin was his superior at work, and he wasn’t dim. Generally, once he’d thought something through, he had good advice. And he was right. There was more at stake here than a couple of dates. If she was an Evelyn, he couldn’t make her stop hanging around him if they were living in the same house. If she was a Cynthia, she could really give him scars. And if she was a Maureen? Could he stand seeing her every day, knowing the relationship wouldn’t progress beyond fun? He’d had to stop going to the places he’d gone with Maureen because the memories were too painful. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am. And that doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with her.”

“Yeah,” Jack muttered.

“Stop mooning like that.”

“If I didn’t need the apartment so much, I’d just try for her. She’s so much fun.” Jack combed his fingers through Archer’s fur, dragging it against its natural grain so it stuck up. “But that apartment is great. Good size, big yard, basement, she even said there’s a washer and dryer in the basement I could use. She also told me I could park in the garage. And it’s so cheap. I’m worried somebody else is going to snatch it out from under me.”

“You said she was going to call the department tomorrow.”

“She has some book on being a landlord, and it says to check all references, so she is. She probably would have given me the keys last night if it wasn’t for that.” Jack put his feet up on the coffee table.

“Hey, I did my best. I didn’t tell her what a dingbat you are, or that you’d forget your head if it wasn’t screwed on. I hope I don’t go to hell for the lies I told her.”

Jack glowered at his friend. “Why do I hang around with you again? I forget.”

“To fix my plumbing.” Kevin grinned and took a swig out of his beer can.

* * * *

Katherine hung up the phone and stepped out of the privacy booth in the gloomy, airless teacher’s lounge. Her search to find a reason not to rent to Jack had been fruitless. He was the nicest guy on Earth, polite, handy, and heroic. Worst of all, heroic. Pam was sitting at the table slurping her soup and waiting for Katherine to deliver the verdict. Katherine crossed the room and sat down in front of her own lunch. “He's an exemplary employee. He was even decorated for something. Although the first person I talked to said ‘Oh him’, before she connected me to the right office.”

“What was he decorated for?”

“They didn’t say. I guess the record only said he was decorated two years ago.”

“So he gets the apartment.”

Katherine shrugged and studied her sandwich as if it might start talking back. “I guess so. Nobody else has stopped to look at it or called, and I really need the money.”

“Yesterday you said you had a great time with him. You said he was funny and sweet. Saturday you called all his references, and they love him. You just called his employer, and he’s been decorated. Why don’t you want to rent to him? What is the problem? If you don’t eat that now, you’re going to be down here in your free period digging change out of the couch for a candy bar.” Pam nudged Katherine's lunch closer.

Katherine picked up her sandwich and bit into it. What did she have against Jack? He was funny and sweet, handy around the house, decorated. He was even prompt.

He was also a firefighter-slash-hero, and the first man in years to make her heart do handsprings.

The school janitor dropped into the seat next to her and flashed his former football star grin at her.

“You wanted me,” he said in a low tone she assumed was meant to be seductive.

Katherine felt her shoulders tighten. “Your temporary fix on the garage roof is coming undone. I need you to come by the house and fix it.”

Randy seemed to think she would eventually bend to his boundless charm. The fact that she hadn’t in the entire time he’d been hanging around her house doing the remodeling didn’t sway him at all, even though she'd insisted on paying him market value for the work.

“Is that all?”

She raised one eyebrow. “Yes, that's all.”

Randy leaned back in his chair, shaking his blond hair off his face. “I was thinking about that apartment. It’s a pretty nice place. I might be interested in it.”

“You have an apartment.”

“Yeah, but your apartment is bigger and nicer, and has such quality workmanship in the remodeling. We could commute together.” He winked at her as if his double entendre was clever.

“She already has a tenant, Randy,” Pam announced, packing her Tupperware in her lunch bag.

Randy sat up. “No way. How’d you do that?”

“Someone stopped to look at the place right after I put the sign in the yard Saturday. He seems reliable, so I think I’m going to give the place to him,” Katherine said.

“Him? Oh. Well, great.” Randy’s mouth twisted with what looked like disgust. “So when do you want me to come over and fix that roof?”

“I want you to fix the tarping. I can’t afford to fix the roof right now.”

Randy leaned toward her, smiling. “I work for trade.”

“I have nothing left to trade. You already have my TV, and I don’t think you’re interested in my hardback mystery novels, are you? Just stop over as soon as you can and fix the tarp.”

Randy stood up sighing. “All right. I can’t come over tonight, but maybe Wednesday. Will that work?”

“As long as it gets done before the garage roof collapses.”

“I told you. Your joists are fine. You’ve got a long way to go before the roof caves in.” He shoved the chair under the table. “You worry too much, Kath.” He swaggered out of the teacher’s lounge.

“So, do you think he’s ever going to get the message?” Pam asked.

“I don’t think his receiver is working.” Katherine glanced over her shoulder. He might be thick as a plank, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings if she didn't have to. “He wouldn’t be so bad if it weren't for that raging ego. He’s not bad looking, and he is kind of handy to have around.”

“You forgot dumb as a post.”

“Oh yeah, raging ego and dumb as a post.”

Pam slid her lunch bag into her book bag. “So what is wrong with Jack the fireman? He doesn’t sound stupid, rude or egotistical. What’s the catch?”

“I don’t want to get mixed up in another Gary thing.”

“So don’t.” Pam shrugged as if it wasn’t so difficult to resist Jack. “It’s probably a bad idea to date your tenant anyway. Doesn’t it say something in that book of yours about not dating tenants? What if you get into a fight, and he stopped paying the rent? What if you split up, and he wrecked the place for revenge?”

“Oh. I didn’t think of that.” Katherine shuddered. She couldn’t afford to get the place fixed up again. She had maxed herself out on all sides just getting by for the last few years and she owed Randy money, yet.

“Hey, snap out of it. This is all going to work out great. You’re going to have this nice guy living downstairs with a great dog. You’re going to catch up on your bills and who knows, maybe you’ll be able to get a TV in time for summer reruns.” Pam pulled out her lesson plan book and fished out a couple of worksheets to copy before class. “This is going to be great.”

Katherine swallowed hard. Great. How could it be great when the only man on Earth she shouldn’t date was the same man who gave her butterflies every time he looked at her?

* * * *

Katherine ran through the door, dropped her bag at the top of the stairs and checked the answering machine. The light blinked with one message. She’d been playing phone tag with Jack since Monday. Now she was it. She looked at her watch. She had exactly thirty minutes to eat dinner and get back to school for parent-teacher conferences. If she wasn’t so broke, she’d have gone to dinner with Pam and a couple of others. Monday evening, she’d called Jack to let him know the place was his, and he could pick up the keys and drop off a check for the first month’s rent and the deposit after five. Tuesday morning he’d left a message saying he couldn’t make it, but he’d come by Wednesday around five and did she want to go to dinner again? Nothing fancy, he knew a Lebanese deli by the mall that he liked but wasn’t too expensive. Tuesday afternoon Pam had reminded Katherine about parent-teacher conferences Wednesday evening, so she left Jack a message saying she wouldn’t be home Wednesday night, but someone would be there with the keys and the lease. She pressed the play button.

“Kate, it’s Jack. I’ll come by for the keys tonight. I’m on duty tomorrow, but if it’s okay with you I’d like to start moving stuff in over the weekend if the weather’s good. Sorry you can’t do Lebanese tonight. Maybe some other time. See ya.”

See ya. Katherine stood with her finger on the play button staring out the window, debating whether or not to play the message again just to hear his voice. And he called her Kate. She shivered. My God, she thought, I’m starting to sound like one of my students mooning over a cute boy. Spinning around, she hurried into the kitchen to open a can of soup for dinner.

The kitchen faucet was dripping again. Randy said he’d fixed it last time. Scowling, she fiddled with the knob until it stopped before getting her dinner ready. While she ate, she heard a vehicle in the driveway and absurdly hoped it was Jack picking up the keys earlier than expected. She peered out the window, smoothing her hair off her face.

Randy jumped out of his truck and grinned at the second floor. There was no way he could see her through the glare on the window. He did it because he was confident she would be waiting for him. She didn’t like to encourage that confidence.

Groaning, she went down the stairs to open the door.

“Hey Kath. I told you I’d be here to fix that tarp.”

“I need something else, too. The faucet in my kitchen is leaking again, and my tenant is coming by to pick up the keys.”

Randy shrugged. “I’ll hang around and wait for your tenant. Don’t know why that faucet's leaking.”

“Well, can you please look at it again?”

He shrugged again. “Yeah, I’ll take care of it. Don’t you worry about a thing. You just go to the parent-teacher conferences, and I’ll take care of everything,” he promised.

Katherine walked back up the stairs grumbling under her breath. By the time she headed out the door to go back to school, Randy was strolling around on the roof of the garage straightening the tarp as if it were the level and solid gym floor at school. “Randy!” she yelled. He continued to wander around as if she hadn’t spoken, let alone yelled. She walked closer to the garage and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Randy!”

He spun around and started flailing his arms to catch his balance. Katherine held her breath as he struggled to keep his feet on the sloping, half rotten garage roof. He dropped to his knees with his hands outstretched for balance. “Jesus. Don’t sneak up on a guy like that.”

Katherine frowned. What was she supposed to do? Throw rocks at him? Men so rarely knew what they needed, though the idea of throwing rocks at Randy did have a certain appeal.

“You need to get your hearing tested,” she snapped. “Listen, I left the keys and the lease in an envelope on the stairs right inside the door. He just needs to sign the lease and leave a check for first month’s rent and the deposit. Okay? Everything’s written on the envelope. And can you pull up the sign in the yard?”

“Whatever. I’ll get it.”

“And don’t forget about the faucet. I’ve got it jerry rigged right now, but it’s going to get worse.”

“I’ll get it!” Randy yelled down.

Katherine turned to get into her car. She really didn’t want to get into another long argument with Randy right now. He treated her like a beleaguered husband one minute and tried to charm her the next. As she put the key into the door lock, she looked around. Randy had parked right behind her in the middle of the driveway, blocking her in. She stalked back to the garage. “Randy!”

“What!”

“You have to move your truck. I’m blocked in.”

Randy sighed as if she’d asked him to pick up his truck and carry it to the street. He climbed down the ladder, muttering, and backed his truck out of the driveway.

Katherine drove to the school taking deep, even breaths.

* * * *

Jack parked in the driveway behind a rusted out yellow Ford pickup. The truck was almost centered in the driveway. It looked a little possessive. He’d left Archer at his apartment because Katherine said she wasn’t going to be home and a friend would be waiting, but who did she know who drove a junker like that? He had a suspicion in the pit of his stomach that the driver was male. He knocked at the door and waited impatiently. It shouldn’t matter if another man had keys to her apartment. She hadn’t declared undying love for him. Technically, she wasn’t even his landlady yet. They weren’t an item. He could barely call her a friend. Still, the fact that there might be another guy in her apartment burned him a little more than it should, and Jack couldn’t stop himself from wondering what kind of man had keys to Katherine’s place. He squared his shoulders and knocked at the door, aware he was preparing to size up the competition.

The guy who answered the door was good looking with shaggy blond hair and bright blue eyes. He had a smear of grease on his left cheek. “Yeah?” he said.

“I’m here to pick up the keys to the apartment.”

“Oh!” The blond guy grinned. “So you’re the tenant, huh? She left the stuff here someplace. Wait a minute.” He jogged back up the stairs and Jack heard him rummaging around. Then he saw him walk across the hall and begin rummaging again. This guy was the competition? He was pretty good looking, but kind of scrawny. He didn’t seem very bright, but she might like that. If she did, his opinion of her was about to take a plunge. He hated women who only liked dumb guys. It narrowed the pool of acceptable dates, since he didn’t think he was Einstein, either. Still, after the conversation over dinner, he didn’t think she had much patience for the truly slow witted. Which the blond guy seemed to be, based on how long it was taking him to find a piece of paper and a couple of keys that the efficient Katherine had to have left lying in plain sight.

“Do you need help?” Jack asked. He might get a look at her place this way. All he could see from this vantage point was a wall with a couple of framed photos he couldn’t make out, and a sliver of hall.

“No. She said she left it out someplace.”

Jack stepped inside the door and closed it behind him, telling himself he was keeping the heat in. The entrance way seemed cramped and narrow. It must feel confined to her after walking into that big bright foyer. He tried to imagine the foyer intact, with this dark stained, pine banister visible from the door. Could the blond guy be the other half of the ‘we’ she kept mentioning? He seemed familiar with the layout of her place. But if he was the other half of ‘we,’ why weren’t they living here together? Why had she split her big house into two apartments? Jack glanced at the bottom step. A large manila envelope with printing on the outside sat on it, propped against the next step.

Jack cocked his head to the side to read the printing. Contains keys to front door and back door. Two copies of lease. Have him sign both copies of lease. Keep one, give him the other. Collect check for first month’s rent and deposit. $1200 total.

Jack picked it up. That handwriting and the instructions could only belong to Katherine, so formal and elegant, clear and concise.

“I found it,” Jack announced.

The blond guy stepped into the hall and paused as if he wanted to set off to another room. “You found it?”

Jack held up the envelope.

“Oh yeah. She said she left it on the stairs.” The blond thumped down the steps, reaching for the envelope.

Jack opened it and dropped the two keys into his palm before the blond guy could get his hands on them and drop them through a crack in the floor. There were two copies of the lease so he skimmed the top one. Pretty standard. The text bent along one edge of each page as if it were photocopied right out of her book, or a book at any rate. Her signature already graced the bottom of both copies. He pulled a pen out of his jacket, glad he didn’t have to rely on the blond guy for that, and signed both copies. Tucking one into his pocket, he folded the other around the check he had ready before putting it back in the envelope.

“All set.” Jack held out the envelope wondering how well the blond guy would lose it before Katherine got home. “So you must be a friend of hers.”

The blond guy grinned. “You could call me that.”

Jack filed the comment for later consideration. “What’s she up to tonight anyway?”

“Parent-teacher conferences. She forgot about it until yesterday. She forgets stuff all the time.”

“I see.” Jack smiled and held out his hand. “Well, good meeting you.”

“Yeah, hey. Don’t be a stranger.” The blond guy pumped his hand.

Jack’s mouth did not drop open through sheer force of will. Don’t be a stranger? He was moving in downstairs. How could he be a stranger? “See ya.”

He pulled the door open with numb fingers. Did it mean he would see a lot of that truck? Did the blond guy live here with her?

Couldn’t be. She didn’t have plans on Valentine’s Day. If she was living with someone, wouldn’t that imply automatic plans? Unless the guy worked long shifts. That would also explain why he hadn’t been home all that day. But the garage fit two cars. If she had a car and the blond had the yellow junker, why would she tell him he could park in the garage? Unless they weren’t living together, and he only came by occasionally. That thought unsettled Jack more.

Jack stopped before he opened his truck door. He considered going into his new apartment to eavesdrop. He might even want to stall long enough for Katherine to come home. He looked at the front yard and noticed the For Rent sign still there. He walked over and pulled it up. He turned it over in his hands. She never had put the phone number on it. That had helped his chances a lot. He propped the sign against the wall in the garage and took a minute to check it out. The two and a half car garage had a nice deep worktable along one side and a neat array of tools hanging from the peg board above it. Were those the dumb blond’s tools? Jack shuddered and retreated to his truck after closing the garage door.

As he backed out of the driveway, he spared one last look at the battered truck. He hoped he wouldn’t be seeing much of it. If Katherine liked him, Jack had misjudged her. He grinned at his refection in the side mirror. It also meant the competition wouldn’t be able to out think him. Even if he wasn’t supposed to date the landlady.