Читать книгу Lone Star Protector - Lenora Worth - Страница 13

THREE

Kaitlin had thrown her duffel bag in the spare bedroom, then immediately asked Slade if she and Warrior could go visit with Caleb. The little boy was in his room playing with his trains and trucks, according to Papa McNeal. Slade had nodded curtly, then returned to making some sort of dinner.

Now Kaitlin was watching closely while Warrior and Caleb got reacquainted.

“He’s dif-fer-ent from Rio,” Caleb said, the big word twisting up in his mind but sounding cute when he squinted through it. “And he’s skinnier than Chief.”

“Yes, he is,” Kaitlin said. If she had to be forced to stay here tonight, at least she could visit with Caleb. “He’s still young like you. But he likes little boys. And I’ve told him all about you.”

Caleb’s big blue eyes, so like his daddy’s, widened. “He knows about me?”

“Of course,” she said, her expression animated. “I told him he’d get to come and visit you soon. I’m still training him and you can help with that. I told him how smart you are and that you are very good with dogs. He needs to be gentle with children so you are the perfect person to help him learn.”

Caleb tilted his head and gave her an impish stare. “Am I gentle?”

The innocent question tugged at Kaitlin’s heart strings.

“Yes, you sure are. But you’re also very brave. That’s why I brought Warrior to visit with you.”

Well, that and the fact that your domineering father told me in no uncertain terms that I would come here tonight.

She had Caleb for a distraction, at least. A good distraction. And she’d mostly given in to Slade’s demand so she could see how Caleb was doing. She adored this little boy. He took her mind off what had happened today. He took her mind off the big man in the kitchen making sandwiches, the man who’d gruffed out an introduction when he’d brought her into the house.

“Papa, this is Kaitlin Mathers and her newest trainee, Warrior. You might remember her. She’s visited Caleb and she’s watched him for me at her place a couple of times. We had a prowler near the training yard who tried to kidnap Kaitlin. She’s staying here tonight.”

His father, white-haired and holding on to a walker, had smiled and nodded while Chief had hopped up to inspect Warrior. After the dogs had sniffed each other to their mutual satisfaction, Patrick McNeal had said, “C’mon in, Kaitlin. You’ll be safe here.”

She supposed law officers had their own code of speaking, because she was pretty sure she missed some of the undercurrents of that brief, curt conversation. She’d also heard bits of a whispered conversation when she’d come out of the bathroom.

Caleb didn’t speak a lot, either, but tonight he’d actually talked to her more than the last time she’d seen him. That had been a few weeks ago when Slade had brought Caleb to work for a couple of hours and she’d offered to take him out onto the training yard. She’d promised Caleb they’d find his friend, but Slade hadn’t asked her to talk to Caleb since then. And she’d tried to respect Slade’s decision by not nagging him too much. She always asked about Caleb, though. Now she had a chance to help him again. She intended to keep that promise she’d made to the little boy, somehow. After the incident today, Kaitlin was once again reminded of how life could change in a minute. Something she’d learned after her mother had died.

Taking a quiet minute to thank God that she was safe and here now with this little boy, Kaitlin rubbed Warrior’s soft fur, her gaze on Caleb. “So do you think you two can be friends?”

Caleb bobbed his head, his dark curls bouncing against his forehead. Then he reached up and patted Warrior on the head. “I can show him my secret hiding place. I wuv him.”

“I do, too,” Kaitlin said. She was about to ask Caleb where his hiding place was, but she looked up to find Slade standing at the door with a look of longing and regret on his face. His gaze slammed into hers with lightning-bolt precision, leaving her drained and shaky.

“Dinner’s ready,” he said. Then he turned and hightailed it back to the kitchen.

Wondering what was wrong with the man, and what was wrong with her for caring, Kaitlin gently tugged Caleb to his feet. “Let’s go see what your daddy whipped up for dinner.”

* * *

Slade ladled the vegetable soup the day nurse had made earlier into bowls to go along with the sandwiches. “Hope you like soup. Terri is a great cook. She let this simmer all day.”

Not one for sparkling conversation, he decided to just give Kaitlin the soup and let her eat. After that scene in Caleb’s room, he felt overwrought and disoriented. Truth was, seeing his son smiling and laughing with a pretty woman tore at the hole in his heart. He really should take one of the casserole girls up on attending the church social. Just to get out of the house more. Papa was always telling him he’d never find a woman if he didn’t ever bother to be around available women. Why his dad worried about such stuff was beyond Slade.

Well, they both wanted Caleb to find a mother figure he could trust and love again. Slade didn’t think he needed to be concerned about a female companion for himself, however. His job kept him occupied.

“Smells great,” Kaitlin said. “Makes me think of my grandmother’s kitchen.”

“Where’d you grow up?” Papa McNeal asked, his hands pressed together.

“In Mesquite, just outside Dallas.” She glanced at Caleb, then lowered her voice. “Just my mom and I, but my grandmother lived close by. My father had to...uh...leave when I was a baby and...my mother...passed away when I was a teenager. Then it was just Grandmother and me. But Grandmother had a sister here in Sagebrush, so after I left for college, she moved here to be closer to Aunt Tina. They both passed away just years apart.”

Slade nodded, understanding she had chosen her words carefully because of Caleb.

“You all alone?” his son asked, clearly deciphering what “passed away” meant.

Slade hoped the boy didn’t start asking about his mother. It was hard to explain over and over that she’d never come back to them.

Kaitlin glanced at Slade before answering. “I don’t have any family nearby, but...I have Warrior and I have people I work with and go to church with. So no, I’m not alone.”

Caleb’s gaze moved from Kaitlin to Slade. “And you have us. Right, Dad?”

Slade felt as helpless as a new puppy. He grunted a reluctant, “Yeah, sure.”

Warrior, having heard his name, did a little “Yeah, sure” of his own. That dog was a lot braver than Slade right now.

Papa, looking amused, took his soup from Slade and waited for him to sit down. Then he reached for Kaitlin’s hand on one side and Caleb’s hand on the other. “We say grace before our meals,” he explained.

Kaitlin took his hand, then realized she’d have to take Slade’s on her other side. She shot him a look that shouted “Oh, no.”

So she was afraid of him? Maybe disgusted with him? She probably thought he was the world’s worst parent. Or maybe the world’s worst law-enforcement officer since he couldn’t settle a five-month-long case.

He stretched his hand toward her, all the while preparing himself for the current of awareness he always felt when he was around her. Did she feel it, too?

She took his hand, then quickly lowered her head and shut her eyes.

Slade remembered having her in his arms earlier, remembered seeing that gun pointed at her temple, too. The first memory warmed his soul while the last one stopped him like a cold bullet.

He jerked his hand away before his daddy said Amen.

When he ventured a glance at the woman sitting at his kitchen table, he saw confusion and hurt in her pretty eyes.

Well, that was the effect he had on most women.

* * *

The house was quiet now.

Kaitlin lay on the comfortable bed in the spare room and listened, unable to sleep. Every creak settling in the walls, every twig brushing against the house, caused her to wake with a start. She hadn’t tasted this kind of fear in a long, long time.

She thought about the man who’d brought her here. She should feel safe with him in the house and she did. But she couldn’t get that masked man out of her head.

After dinner, Slade told her he had to finish up some paperwork. Mr. McNeal went to bed when his night nurse, Jasper, arrived. The big male nurse apparently slept in Mr. McNeal’s room. Kaitlin, left sitting, offered to get Caleb ready for bed.

No one argued with her. She enjoyed helping Caleb with his bath and putting on his superhero pajamas. Then he insisted on showing her his favorite hiding place—a big plastic toy box that looked like a miniature house centered underneath the bay window in the dining room. Slade told her it was where Caleb and Chief apparently played and sometimes fell asleep. After demonstrating how he and Chief could both fit inside the little house, Caleb asked her to read to him. So she snuggled up against a Texas Rangers baseball pillow with Caleb and read several books. It wasn’t long before Warrior joined them, content to curl up at Caleb’s feet and stare with adoring eyes at his new friend.

A girl could sure get used to that.

But not this girl and not with this family. Slade McNeal practically shouted “Off limits” each time he looked at her. The man had pulled away from her during the dinner blessing. Did he find her that distasteful to touch? Did he wish he hadn’t brought her into his house? Kaitlin had no answers. None at all. She knew how he’d made her feel earlier today when he’d comforted her after that attack...but she’d never know how Slade felt, good or bad. That man wore a coat of armor like a true knight. And he was good at rescuing damsels, no doubt.

But he needed to work on the Prince Charming factor a little more. Not that it mattered to Kaitlin. She’d given up on men a long time ago, since her work took up most of her time. She poured all of her love on the animals she trained. Maybe she was a lot more like Slade McNeal than she realized.

Now, wide awake and restless, Kaitlin got up and tugged her terry cloth robe over her flowered pajamas. Her throat burned like a parched desert. She needed a glass of water.

Opening the door slowly, so she wouldn’t wake the whole house, she sent Warrior a command to stay. The big dog gave her a reluctant look, then curled back into a ball of fur.

Moonlight guided her up the wide hallway toward the kitchen. Remembering where Slade had put the glasses, Kaitlin found a juice glass in the cabinet and then ran some water from the sink. She quenched her thirst and turned to stare over at the big plastic storage box under the window.

And heard a definite clearing of someone’s throat behind her.

* * *

Slade watched as Kaitlin pivoted, the glass in her hand, and stared out into the darkness. “Who’s there?”

Hating the quiver in her voice, he pushed away from the rolltop desk in the corner of the den and stood. “It’s me. Slade. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

He heard her inhale a breath. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.”

“I didn’t. I was sitting here in the quiet. I didn’t know anyone else would be up.”

She walked into the moonlight and his heart stopped.

Her hair was down and tumbling in a shimmering honey-colored ribbon. Her robe was white but her pajamas had some sort of flower sprigs all over them. She looked young and vulnerable and beautiful.

But he didn’t come out of the darkness to tell her that.

He couldn’t move. He didn’t know how to begin to flirt with a woman. He was old and bitter and washed up.

“What are you doing?” she asked. Then she drained the glass of water.

“Well, I was sitting here at my desk in my house, minding my own business.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it.”

He stood up and caught her before she shot back up the hall. “Hey, are you all right?”

She looked down at his hand holding her wrist. “I thought I was. But...I keep seeing that man’s eyes. I keep remembering that gun at my head.”

Slade didn’t stop to think. He tugged her close. “You’ve been through a bad experience. It’s just nerves. You know you can talk to a counselor, right?”

She backed up and stared at him. “Yes, I know that. And that’s very good advice.”

He let her go. “You mean for myself, too, right?”

“And for Caleb. It might help.”

“We’ve been that route,” he said. “But when he’s with you, he seems better.” He didn’t dare move any closer. “I’ve always wondered how you two bonded so fast, but I think I understand now. You lost your mother, too. What happened?”

A deep sigh shuddered through her. “She was a veterinarian and she was working late one night, sitting with a sick animal. A drug addict managed to talk his way in the back door. He attacked her with a surgical instrument after she didn’t give him the kind of drugs he wanted. She bled to death right there on the floor.”

Slade let out his own wobbly sigh. “Goodness. I had no idea.”

“I don’t talk about it much.”

And Slade had specifically asked her to help his son. “I would have found someone else if I’d known—to talk to Caleb. I mean, it has to be hard for you—”

She backed up, shook her head. “I like being around him, letting him get to know the animals. I don’t mind at all. Talking to him makes me feel better, and I just want to help.”

“I know you do. And you’re very persistent about such things.”

She pushed at her hair, tugged at her robe. “I should just mind my own business.”

He didn’t agree with her, but he didn’t encourage her, either. She was right. But he was glad she pushed at him. Somebody needed to hold him accountable. “I don’t mind you helping Caleb. It’s not that—”

“I’m going back to bed now.”

Slade felt the rush of air as she moved away from him.

“Hey, wait a minute.”

“You seem to want to be alone,” she said, her voice a sweet whisper.

“Not tonight,” he replied. “C’mon and sit with me awhile.”

She stood there, hesitating. He could almost feel the conflicting thoughts rushing through her head. He felt the same kind of warning each time he was around the woman.

But she moved, finally. She went to the kitchen and put the glass in the sink and stood there for a minute staring out the window. Then she let out a gasp. “Slade?”

“What?”

“I—I think there’s someone out there.”