Hard to Resist - By Kara Lennox Page 0,23

bars.

“He wants to marry me,” Tati said in a dreamy voice.

Kat cringed inwardly. Where did she begin cataloging the horrors of this situation? Tati was way too young to be talking about marriage. She was only a freshman, and the chances of her staying in school if she got married and started having babies were slim to none.

“Well, this provides a perfect entré into the subject I wanted to talk about today,” Kat said briskly. “Independence.”

Now she had their attention. She had ninety minutes in which to convince Tati she had more to offer the world than just settling down and birthing babies.

“Ms. Kat,” Gwen said suddenly in a whisper. Her gaze darted toward the cafeteria door. “Who’s that?”

Kat was surprised to see a tall good-looking silver-haired man standing in the doorway, watching silently.

“Oh, that’s the same man that talked to me at the bus stop,” said Stephie.

“Talked to you?”

“Yeah. He was asking me all about the StrongGirls.”

“Really.” Was he a parent with a problem teen? A reporter? A school official checking up on her?

She stood up, intending to talk to him and find out what he was all about. But he disappeared, and when she looked outside there was no sign of him.

Just as a precaution, she warned the girls about talking to strangers, and they laughed at her. “You think I couldn’t take down some scrawny, old white guy?” Gwen scoffed.

“Yeah, well, just the same. Y’all be careful.”

By the time the session ended, she felt as if she’d made some progress with Tati and the other girls.

“You have a boyfriend, Ms. Kat?” Tati asked.

“No, not right now.” The image of Ethan floated into her imagination, along with memories of their bone-melting kiss.

“Then how do you know so much?” Gwen asked.

That was a good question. Virginia had pointed out, more than once, that if Kat wanted to be a good relationship counselor, she needed to experience some relationships. One highly flawed marriage and some teenage dating didn’t cut it.

“I was once a teenager,” Kat quipped. “I did a lot of things wrong and I learned from my mistakes, so you don’t have to.”

“Give us the gory details,” Stephie said, leaning forward eagerly. “So we’ll know exactly what not to do.”

Kat laughed as she gathered up her materials. “I’ll save that for another day.” She hugged each of the girls in turn, a weekly ritual. Some had resisted at first, but now they all hugged back. If she did nothing else, she could at least do this.

As she drove to Samantha’s after-school care, which was right across the street from her elementary school, she wondered if she should jump back into the dating pool—not just for the benefit of the StrongGirls, but for her own sake. She wasn’t afraid of being without a man. But was there any reason to be alone when she didn’t have to be? Pretending she didn’t have time was a cop-out. She could manage to make time for things that were important. It was all a matter of priorities.

She thought of Ethan again. Then she remembered Samantha’s feelings about their rescuer and her train of thought screeched to a halt. She still hadn’t told Samantha that Ethan was their landlord, living just across the yard from them. She couldn’t imagine what Sam would have to say if Kat announced she was dating Ethan.

CHAPTER SIX

BY LATE AFTERNOON, it was done. The walls were patched and painted a pale yellow; the kitchen had gleaming new appliances, attractive cabinets and counters, and a microwave, toaster and coffeepot; the twin bed now had a pale oak frame. There was also an oak table and four ladder-back chairs for the dining area, plus colorful throw rugs over the bare floors. One enterprising helper had even made curtains from donated sheets. The crisp white cotton billowed with the breeze that came in through the open windows.

“This looks fantastic,” Ethan said as everyone hurried to clean up the painting tools and the last scraps of wood used to repair rotting window frames and baseboards. The results were better than he could have imagined. “I cannot thank all of you enough.”

“We’ll find a way to extract payment out of you,” said Otis, as he headed out the door. He wasn’t smiling, so Ethan wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not. “I got some stumps that need taking out at my farm.”

“Yeah, and you can mow my grass tomorrow,” said Jim Peterson. His wife punched him, but he didn’t laugh. He just turned