“Yeah, the yellow cottage. One of Mom’s rentals. Good night.” Which was the main reason she could save a little money to pay off her debt. Her mother didn’t charge her rent, but Kathleen had insisted on paying all the utilities and other bills connected to the house.
He stood in his doorway with his dog next to him as she descended the porch steps. She felt his gaze on her the whole way down his sidewalk. Heat flared into her cheeks. She couldn’t resist glancing over her shoulder, only to find him staring at her, as she thought. He nodded, then swung his door closed.
Kathleen hurried to the foyer to answer the door. When she opened it, her breath caught for a few seconds. Although she’d found herself thinking about Gideon several times since she’d seen him yesterday, she hadn’t thought she would see him this soon. “This is a surprise. What brings you by here?”
He lifted two large pizza boxes. “I came bearing dinner. I couldn’t stand staying in my home another moment. I immediately thought of you and your sons. You were kind to want to fix me dinner. I thought I would beat you to the punch. I called earlier to see if y’all would be home and Kip said yes. I asked him if you had started dinner. He said you had to run next door and were behind schedule.” He handed her the boxes. “He was supposed to tell you I was bringing dinner.”
“A minor detail he forgot. I wondered why he kept coming up with things I had to do before starting dinner. You didn’t have to bring pizza. I owe you a dinner, not the other way around. Remember?”
“I’m not used to inactivity. It was a spur-of-the- moment decision. I figured the boys would like pizza.”
She smiled. “Pizza and just about every other junk food there is.” Stepping to the side, Kathleen opened the door wider. “Come on in.”
As Gideon entered the house, one corner of his mouth hiked up. “I was hoping you wouldn’t send me home with all this pizza.”
“You may change your mind after being here a while.” She started for the kitchen at the back of the house. “I should warn you. My sons have been fighting most of the day. At the moment they are in time-out. And we’ve only been home an hour.”
“Sounds like a few boys I have in my youth group at church.”
“Youth group?”
“I help out when I can with the group for eight- to twelve-year-olds. When I’m not working, we sometimes play a game or two of basketball in the evening at the park near the Hope Community Church. There are several courts there. By the time they go home, they’re too exhausted to fight each other. A couple of the dads have joined our little games, too.”
“Is that Broussard Park on the Point?”
“Yeah. I like to run there sometimes.”
Memories intruded into her mind. Memories of happier times before her father had been killed in an accident at the shipyard. “When I was a child, my family used to go to the Point to watch the sun set and have a picnic dinner.”
“Since I came here, I’ve seen some beautiful sunsets on the Point.”
Kathleen went into the kitchen with Gideon following close behind her. After placing the boxes on the table, she peered over her shoulder at him. “Where are you from?”
“New Orleans, originally. I’ve been here for five years.”
“How long have you been a firefighter?”
“Fifteen years.”
“Why did you decide to become one?”
He opened his mouth but a few seconds later snapped it closed. A nerve in his jaw twitched. Clasping his hands so tightly his knuckles whitened, he stared straight ahead at a spot over her shoulder. “Someone needs to fight fires.”
Behind what he’d said there was a wealth of words left unspoken, but his stiff posture and steely expression told her the subject was off-limits. What was really behind him being a firefighter? On the surface he seemed open and friendly, but deep down she felt his need for privacy as though he were used to being alone and liked it that way. She could respect his need for that.
She’d felt the same way when she’d discovered the extent of Derek’s debt and betrayal after he died. Leaving her to deal with the aftermath. Alone. So yes, she was used to dealing with her problems alone.
For a long moment an uncomfortable silence vibrated in the air between them.
Gideon cleared his throat. “I’ve filled in as a paramedic when they’ve needed me. I’m surprised I haven’t met you before at the hospital.”
Covering the distance to the refrigerator, she took out a carton of milk and a pitcher of iced tea. “That’s because I started working at Hope Memorial Hospital a little over six weeks ago. Knowing your aversion to a hospital, I doubt you hung around once you delivered your patients to the E.R.”
“Ah, you know me too well. Where did you move from?”
“Denver, Colorado.” Kathleen poured milk into two large glasses.
“Can I help you set the table or something?”
“No, I’ve got this. You brought the dinner. That’s enough, and my sons will be ecstatic they aren’t having what I planned tonight—tuna casserole.”
“I ran into your mother as I was leaving my house. She asked me where I was going when I should be resting. I told her I was feeling better and decided to take dinner to you and the boys. She gave her stamp of approval.”
I’m sure she did. Her mother was a romantic at heart and had encouraged Kathleen to start dating almost immediately after returning home. “She goes out every Thursday night with Mildred.”
“Not Nurse Ratched?”
“The one and the same.”
Gideon rubbed the back of his neck, his forehead creased. “She’s a friend of the family?”
“Yes.”
“That will teach me to keep my mouth shut.”
“She comes across tough and no-nonsense, but she really has a very loving heart. That is, once you get to know her.” Kathleen pressed her lips together to keep from smiling at the sheepish look on his face. “I tell you what. You can get the plates down from that cabinet and napkins from that drawer—” she pointed to the locations “—and I’ll go get the boys before this pizza gets cold.”
As she strolled from the kitchen, the sensation that he was staring at her sent a tingling wave through her. Goose bumps rose on her arms. She quickened her pace down the hallway to Jared and Kip’s room. She’d had her younger son go into the bedroom the boys shared while Kip was in hers. Time-out in the same room only escalated their skirmishes, which had been growing worse since they’d moved to Hope.
When she opened the door to the boys’ bedroom, Jared sat on his twin bed, chunking paper wads into the trashcan. A whole notebook, almost gone, littered the floor.
“Jared!”
