Читать книгу The Harbor of His Arms - Lynn Bulock - Страница 10

Alex had to admire Holly’s baby-sitter. The kid looked only about fifteen or sixteen, but he seemed very protective of her. This was obviously the first time Holly had ever come home from work earlier than planned, or brought company with her, and the boy eyed Alex suspiciously.

Neither of the rowdy little boys the teenager had been watching appeared to like the idea of a strange man coming home with Mom, either. Holly paid the sitter, and Alex could hear her reassuring him at the doorway that everything was okay. While that was going on, he sat down on the lumpy brown couch in the living room. The little boys stared at him in silence.

“Who are you, anyway?” One of them broke his silence and stepped half a pace closer to Alex. There was still a coffee table between them to keep the kid brave. Alex could see a bit of Kevin Douglas in this one. His brown hair looked as if it had a mind of its own, and his challenging posture made him seem much taller than he was.

“I’m a friend of your dad’s. My name is Alex Wilkins.”

“Okay.” The answer didn’t seem to satisfy the child totally. “I’m Conor. This is Aidan.” He motioned toward his silent brother, who was slightly taller.

Alex could hear the baby-sitter ask a question, and then Holly closed the door behind him. Alex was happy to see that she locked it securely. “So you’ve introduced yourself?”

“I have. Just the basics. I told them my name, and that I was a friend of their dad’s. Anything else I should add?”

“Only that you won’t be here long, and that it’s still time for bed, whether we have company or not,” Holly said firmly. Conor seemed about to protest, but one look at his mother made him think better of it. If he’d gotten that look from a woman, Alex thought, he wouldn’t argue, either. Holly started hustling the two boys toward the hall.

While she was putting the boys to bed, Alex took in his surroundings. Everything was as neat as he’d expect a home with two five-year-olds to be, and under the clutter it was all very clean. Other than the boys’ toys and the basics, there wasn’t much to see.

Holly’s couch wasn’t the most comfortable thing Alex had ever thought about sleeping on. It beat sitting straight up in a car seat, or slouched over in one doing a stakeout, but that was about the nicest thing he could say about it. The couch was far from new, and there had obviously been a lot of kid feet bouncing on it over the years. That would account for the sagging springs, anyway.

The room was warmer than his car would have been, and it was quiet enough. Once Holly had put the kids to bed she came out of their room quietly. She went to a linen closet, got supplies, handed him a pillow and blanket and pointed out the remote for the television. “If you turn on the TV, keep it quiet. Conor’s a light sleeper. Aidan would sleep through a hurricane, but his brother hears mouse footsteps, I swear.”

“I’ll keep it low,” he promised. Holly went to bed at that point. Without another word she disappeared into the other bedroom, and Alex didn’t see her again. He wondered what kinds of thoughts were rolling through her mind.

He knew what was going through his. How could he do his job, help Holly without messing up her life, and get out of this town as quickly as possible?

In the morning he could feel someone watching him before he opened his eyes. The instinct to react was so strong that he thanked God for the foresight he’d had in locking up his automatic in the gun safe built into his car trunk.

He opened his eyes to see a short, freckle-faced figure standing in front of him, regarding him seriously. Without seeing both twins, he wondered who he was looking at. “Good morning,” he said, wondering if a kid this young knew where his mom kept the coffee. He was definitely going to have to find out.

“Hi. I’m Conor,” the boy said, ending Alex’s confusion over that point, at least. “What’s your name again?”

“Alex. Alex Wilkins.”

“Oh, yeah. You said you were a friend of my dad’s, right?”

“Right.”

Conor seemed to think about that. “From before or from now?”

That had him stumped. “From before, I think. What do you mean?”

The kid wrinkled his brow. “Well, Mom says Dad’s in heaven with Jesus and the angels now, and you’re sure not Jesus and you don’t look like any angel.”

Alex didn’t know whether to laugh or be stunned by the depth of the kid’s thoughts. “Trust me, I’m not an angel.”

“I didn’t think so. That’s too bad. We could sure use one.”

This was interesting. Maybe Holly wasn’t as independent and “okay” as she had portrayed herself. “Oh, yeah?”

Conor apparently trusted him enough to sit down on the edge of the couch next to him. “Yeah. Mom’s always talking to God and Dad when she thinks we don’t hear her. And she’s sure asking them for help a lot lately.”

Alex felt a lump in his throat. How did he answer this? “Well, like I said, I’m not an angel. But maybe I can help out some while I’m here. For right now, you could help me out.”

“Me? How?” Conor didn’t look as if he believed that for a moment.

“You could go into the kitchen with me and show me where your mom keeps the coffee. Who knows, maybe I could even fix breakfast for both of us while I’m there.”

“I’ll try. But I think we’re out of coffee. And I think we’re out of the right kind of cereal, too. I think that’s why Mom was talking to God and Dad so loud yesterday while she was getting ready for work.”

Great. Alex hadn’t talked to this kid for ten minutes yet and already he knew a lot more about Holly’s personal life than he cared to know. “Well, maybe we can do something about that. Let’s go out in the kitchen and look anyway, okay?”

“Okay. But don’t make any noise. I’m not supposed to make any noise until Mom’s alarm goes off. And no touching anything glass, or knives, or opening the refrigerator….”

“I get the picture, Conor.” If Holly was really out of coffee, he might have to break a few rules around here before the lady of the house even got out of bed.

Walking into the kitchen and having Conor show him around made Alex wary somehow. The space reminded him of something, brought a memory from his past almost to the surface. Whatever it was lay just beneath where Alex could access it as he searched the clean, bare countertops and looked briefly in the cabinets.

“Well, you’re right, Conor,” he said after his foray. “There is no coffee here, not even in the freezer. And unless the right kind of cereal is plain corn flakes, it isn’t here, either.”

Conor made a noise of disgust. “Corn flakes. Nobody but Mom likes corn flakes. And we all had them for breakfast yesterday. There weren’t even any bananas.” He wrinkled his nose and sat down on one of the worn kitchen chairs. “Mom said she was going to the grocery store after work last night. I bet she forgot.”

“If she did, it’s because of me. I kind of came in where she works and surprised her.” He sat down at one of the other chairs, sliding it out quietly to keep to Conor’s “no noise” rules. If he hadn’t woken Holly or Conor’s twin brother already, maybe he’d get lucky and let them sleep a while longer.

“I hope it was a good surprise.” Conor seemed to be accusing him of something. The serious look on the child’s face and his crossed arms brought Alex’s memory to the surface. It wasn’t a pleasant one, and he wished that he’d been able to leave it buried.

This was a replica of his kitchen when he was a kid, or at least one of them. His dad’s navy career had put them through at least a dozen kitchens by the time Alex had left home at sixteen.

It wasn’t the look of this kitchen that reminded him of his mother’s kitchens, but more the feel of it. Everything was spare and stark, clean but somewhat empty. The very basics were there, but very little else. No cute little canisters held tea and homemade cookies. Other than the kid art on the refrigerator gallery, there wasn’t much that added color to the room.

Alex wondered if there was a reason Holly’s kitchen reminded him of those his mother had tried to make into homes twenty years ago. He hoped there was little cause at all, other than the similarity of two harried mothers raising kids virtually alone under tight circumstances.

Conor definitely had the serious air he’d had as a child, protective of his mother. Alex had never felt as if he’d protected his own mother enough, even though he’d been a child at the time. But this mother he could help in several ways. “Come on, Conor,” he told his companion. “We’re going to make a breakfast run.”

Holly’s alarm beeped insistently, and she groped for it. Just ten more minutes of sleep would feel so good. Her eyes opened as her fingers hit the button, and in an instant she was sitting straight up, feet over the edge of the bed, ready to spring into action. It was much too light out for this to be her normal time to get up. She must have hit the snooze alarm without knowing it, maybe even several times already.

She could hear voices in the kitchen. At first hearing three voices, one of them a deep adult male, disoriented her. Then she remembered last night and all its surprises. Alex was in her kitchen with the boys. Knowing that was enough to get her up and out of bed all the way in a hurry. She pulled on sweatpants to go with the T-shirt she’d slept in and raced out to the kitchen, oblivious to what she must look like.

Holly wasn’t sure what she had expected in the kitchen, but she certainly hadn’t anticipated the breakfast party she found. “Hi, Mom.” Aidan backhanded a suspiciously dark milk mustache, grinning. “Alex got doughnuts. The good kind with sprinkles. And chocolate milk, but only a little bit.”

“What happened here?” Holly didn’t know whether to be stunned or gratified that Alex had gotten the kids breakfast. It wasn’t what she would have allowed them to have, but they’d have to deal with that issue later. There wasn’t any sense in forbidding doughnuts that had already been eaten.

Alex shrugged, sipping coffee out of a mug. “Just breakfast. Conor was up early and he informed me that you were out of coffee, so we made a quick run down the street to solve that problem. The closest place we could find to get breakfast stuff was the bakery. And I’m a sucker for doughnuts with sprinkles, too.” His smile was disarming.

Holly sat down, unsure where to begin the questions she had. “How did you get there? Conor and Aidan both have booster seats for the car. I’ll bet you let him ride up front without a seat, didn’t you?” She was amazed at how angry the thought made her.

“Not a chance. I may not have kids, but I know that much about safety. He rode in the back, in his own booster seat. You left your car unlocked last night when we got here, apparently.” His warning look told Holly that he wanted to discuss that subject later.

His accusation made her defensive. “Have you really looked at that car? Who would steal a twelve-year-old sedan with that kind of rust damage?”

“Nobody, especially in a little town like this. But that wasn’t what I was talking about, and you know it.” Alex didn’t say any more, just lifted his coffee to his lips. “I got you a coffee, too, by the way. And Aidan’s right—I only got one container of chocolate milk. The gallon I bought was regular one percent. I figured I had to do something to earn points with you.”

“Thank you.” Holly got up and went toward the kitchen countertop. She wasn’t sure what she was thanking Alex for the most—getting breakfast for everyone when she didn’t have the energy, giving the boys a much-needed treat that she could not have provided or not mentioning her safety in front of her children.

“You’re welcome.” His quiet answer made Holly shiver. It was as if he’d understood all three of her reasons for thanking him. She wasn’t used to having another adult to talk to most of the time. Especially not a man, and definitely not one who understood her. She had figured she’d lost that luxury for good when Kevin died.

She hid her confusion by grabbing her cardboard cup of coffee. Opening the cabinet, she got a mug out and poured the coffee in. She took a moment to bring it up to full steam in the microwave and sat down at the table with the mug, hoping she could mask the whirl of feelings that threatened to swamp her.

“We saved you one, Mom.” Aidan pushed the box closer to her, coming perilously close to knocking over her coffee. A veteran of such encounters, Holly moved her mug in time.

“Good for you. And it’s even the cinnamon kind. Who told Mr. Wilkins that I liked those?”

It was Conor’s turn to grin this time. “I did. And he said to call him Alex, Mom, not Mr. Wilkins. Is that okay?”

“If that’s what he said, Conor.” She looked around the table at the crumbs and mostly empty milk glasses. “Now, if you guys are done with breakfast, how about going in and washing your hands and faces again and getting dressed for school?”

Aidan took one last swig of chocolate milk and the two of them were off. “I didn’t think about that much sugar in them on a school morning,” Alex said. “Hope their teacher doesn’t threaten to strangle me.”

“Don’t worry, they’ll burn it off before they get there. Fortunately sugar isn’t a problem for either of them.” Holly looked at her overnight guest. He didn’t really look as if he’d slept a lot better than she had. His hair was still a bit rumpled, and the flannel shirt he was wearing had the earmarks of having been slept in. “So, what did they ask you? And what did you tell them?”

Alex sighed and ran a hand through his sandy hair. “Conor’s sharp for five. I’ll bet you have a challenge keeping up with him.”

“I do. He’s always the one with the questions I can’t answer. Aidan is satisfied with a lot less in the way of explanations.”

“Yeah, knowing that I was an old work buddy of Kevin’s was enough for him. That and doughnuts.” Alex grinned out of one side of his mouth.

“The chocolate milk didn’t hurt, either. Smart move, Wilkins.”

The grin made it all the way to his tired eyes this time. “Guys and food bribery. It does solve a lot of problems.”

“True. But it won’t solve all the problems this time. We’re going to need to figure out something to tell them without going into the details about Rico. They know very little about Kevin’s death, and I intend to keep it that way until they’re a lot older.”

“And they’re much too young to have to deal with this situation,” Alex agreed. “Conor did mention that maybe you could use a little help around here. Maybe we could just leave things at that. Tell them that I’ve come to help out for a while.”

“We don’t need that much help.” Holly knew she sounded argumentative, but it was the way she felt. “I can take care of my kids and myself just fine, thank you.”

“I know you can. But you shouldn’t have to. Especially not in this situation, Holly.” His hand slid over the table to cover hers. “I know this has to be rough. How rough I can’t even imagine as a single guy with no one depending on me. Now Cook County has added to your burden by messing up Rico’s custody arrangements. At least let me try to make that up to you.”

Holly drew her hand out from under his. It felt too good to have that human contact, and she surely couldn’t get used to it. “There’s no way you can make up to me what Cook County did to mess up my life. But I know you’re not going away for a while, so I might as well get used to you.” She’d try to get used to him, anyway. It would be difficult to do without depending on him, but Holly knew that she couldn’t depend on anybody anymore. The past eighteen months had certainly taught her that. “What do I owe you for breakfast?”

He waved away her concern before she could reach for her purse. “Nothing. I spent less altogether than I would have for one coffee and a scone in Chicago.”

“Well, don’t make a habit of providing the groceries around here.”

“Only as long as I’m eating part of them. Will we have time for a supermarket run once you drop these guys off at school? I only got one cup of coffee for each of us, and I can guarantee that I’ll be looking for more before we go in to The Bistro later.”

Holly felt tired already. Having Alex around was certainly going to complicate her life. Maybe if she didn’t argue with him, and showed him enough of what her normal life was like, he’d lose interest quickly. “Sure. Now, why don’t you go break up the water fight that I know is going on in the bathroom so that we can get those guys to school on time and relatively dry?”

It surprised her to see that he seemed to relish the prospect. “Will do. They need any help with getting dressed or anything while I’m in there?”

Holly tried not to smirk. “Try asking them that and see the answer you get.” The ruckus that would follow that kind of question would be worth the price of admission. Maybe having Alex around wouldn’t last long after all. Surely a day or two of this would have him hightailing it back to Chicago.

He rose, grinning. “I don’t think so. You look like that would be too easy. And I have to remember they’re independent guys even if they aren’t very tall. Even at five, I don’t remember wanting help with much of anything. I’ll settle for breaking up the water fight. And once we get them dropped off, you and I are going to have a long conversation on personal safety.”

He was going to be a hard one to shake, Holly thought as he retreated to the hall bathroom. Something about watching him from a rear view made her worry about more than just getting rid of him. Seeing him in jeans early in the morning, Holly could tell that having Alex around was going to be more threatening to her personal safety than worrying about Rico out there someplace in the shadows.