twisted around in her chair and looked at Annie. “Can I see Ralph? I can finish coloring later.”
Annie laughed. “Honey, I think Mr. Jackson means some other day. He’s here to fix a leak.”
Her daughter’s pout descended. “We aren’t home now for me to get my puppy.”
“We’ll get a puppy later.” When she knew what was going on and she had a game plan. Tomorrow she needed to go somewhere and use a computer. Maybe if she surfed around, she could discover what had happened to Bryan.
“I’ll bring Ralph down tomorrow for you to meet him.” Caleb put his toolbox on the floor in front of the sink. “Will I interfere with you cooking dinner?”
“No, I just finished preparing the meal right before you came. Great timing.”
“I aim to please. Don’t let me stop you from doing whatever you need to do.” He knelt on the floor and opened the cabinet door, then reached in.
Annie sat next to Jayden, trying her best to ignore the police chief’s presence. Taking up the crayon nearest her, she started to color until her daughter said, “A cat isn’t blue.”
Annie glanced down at the paper and noticed what she’d done. “Oh, you’re right. Sorry, honey.”
A commotion behind her drew her attention to Caleb. He took a wrench to the faucet, his movements a study in economical action. Transfixed for a moment, she watched until he peered back at her. One corner of his mouth tilted up, a gleam in his startlingly dark blue eyes. She’d always had a thing for blue eyes. Bryan’s had been—were—blue.
Over the years her ex-boyfriend had schemed to get rich, tired of being poor, not supporting his daughter as he wanted. Going to meet his wealthy father had been his latest ploy to get rich quick. His mother’s death six weeks ago had affected Bryan. Before she’d passed away from a heart attack, he’d thought his father was dead. Not long afterward, he’d discovered he was very much alive and had lots of money. He’d intended to reintroduce himself and benefit from his father’s wealth. He’d never gotten the chance to tell her what had come of that meeting.
“I’m partial to blue,” Caleb said with a wink, drawing Annie back to the present.
Heat scored her cheeks, and she quickly returned to the paper between her and Jayden. This time she noticed the crayon she selected, making sure it was an appropriate color.
It was only because she was in unfamiliar surroundings with an unknown future stretching before her and Jayden that her nerves were frazzled. Caleb had nothing to do with the fact that her hand quivered as she grasped the crayon and tried to color within the lines and was not succeeding very well.
“I think that should take care of the leak,” Caleb said as he closed the cabinet door under the sink.
Annie knew the exact second he stood behind her and looked over her shoulder. His spicy scent vied with the aromas of the cooking meat loaf and vegetable casserole.
He pointed to the blue kitten left abandoned on the page. “There are some cats with a bluish tint to their fur.”
“There are?” Jayden’s green eyes widened.
“Yeah, Harriet, the receptionist at the station, owns one.”
“Can I see it?”
“I’ll say something to Harriet and see what I can come up with—that is, if it’s okay with your mother.” Caleb moved to sit in the chair next to Annie at the oak table.
“That’s fine.” Annie slid her gaze away from Caleb’s. “So should we finish coloring the kitten blue?”
Her daughter giggled. “I will, Mommy.” After she grabbed the crayon, she bent over the paper and concentrated on finishing the animal, the tip of her tongue peeping out of the corner of her mouth.
The sound of Sara’s cane hitting the hardwood floor in the hallway preceded her entrance into the kitchen. “I heard laughter and wanted to see what was going on.” Slowly she lowered herself in the last chair at the table.
“I took care of the leak. Is there anything else you need fixed?” Caleb leaned toward his toolbox to shut the lid.
“This place is old. There’s always something.”
“Sara, all you have to do is call.” Caleb inhaled a deep breath. “That meat loaf just gets better smelling by the minute.”
“You know you can always stay for dinner. We don’t stand on ceremony around here.” Sara hooked her cane on the back of her chair. “And I agree it smells wonderful.”
“I checked it a while ago. It should be ready shortly.” Annie turned to her daughter. “Which means you need to put your coloring book and crayons in our room, then wash your hands.”
“Do I hafta? I haven’t gotten them dirty.”
Annie took her hand and showed her the black smudges from the pencil she’d used earlier. “Go, young lady.”
Jayden leaped up from the chair and raced from the room.
“Walk. Don’t run.” Annie waited to hear that her daughter had slowed down and then said, “Running is her favorite mode of traveling.”
“Don’t worry about Jayden. It’s nice to have a child in the house again. I used to have nieces and nephews who visited all the time before they moved away and got so busy. I enjoyed watching them grow up. To this old lady—” Sara patted her chest “—seeing the world through a child’s eyes is like being young again.”
“You aren’t old.”
“Goodness me, Caleb. Have you gone blind? I’m feeling every one of my years right now.”
“Age is all up here.” Caleb tapped his temple. “By the way, how many years are we talking about?”
“That said, Annie, by one of the young,” Sara said, then shifted her sharp gaze to Caleb. “And, young man, it’s none of your business. I’m not telling, and you know that.” The stern tone belied the gleam dancing in Sara’s eyes.
“Ah, but age has nothing to do with how you look at life. And yes, ma’am, I know, but I was trying to help the townspeople.” He angled toward Annie. “Her age is a town secret many in Christmas have been trying to figure out.”
Sara’s laughter filled the kitchen. “It will go with me to my grave.”
The humor in Caleb and Sara’s exchange touched a much-neglected part of Annie. Working hard as a single mom, trying to make ends meet, had left her without much hope. And now with the threat looming over her and her daughter, she felt weighted down. If she had to disappear as Bryan had insisted, what did she know about doing that? There had been a time in her life when she would have turned to the Lord for help, but maybe the Lord had really forsaken her when she’d lost her direction as a teen.
A few hours later, after a delicious home-cooked meal, Caleb dried the last dish and put it in Sara’s cabinet. “I keep forgetting Sara doesn’t have the conveniences like a dishwasher
