Hard to Resist - By Kara Lennox Page 0,28
everything to the Salvation Army isn’t the answer. But I was wondering, could I pay for those things?”
She thought it was a perfectly reasonable request, a nice compromise, but Ethan looked pained. “I don’t even remember who gave what. But even if I did, you might hurt people’s feelings if you tried to pay them. Everybody felt good about pitching in. Why ruin that?”
She hadn’t thought of it that way. She liked helping people, too. How many times had she provided the StrongGirls with something they needed? A secondhand computer to help with their schoolwork or a new outfit for a job interview? When any of her girls shunned her help, that hurt.
“Okay,” she said. “And thank you. Please thank everyone again. In fact, I’ll write thank-you notes, and you can deliver them.”
“That’s not…” He stopped. “Okay. Kat, where’s your mother now?”
“She died when I was seventeen.”
“I’m sorry.”
She reached over and squeezed his hand, glad she’d made the effort to set everything straight. She didn’t expect Ethan to hold her hand captive. He raised it to his lips and placed the softest of kisses on one knuckle, then the next, and the next. Kat’s stomach quivered with the anticipation of each touch of his lips.
“I sh-should go.” But she made no move to reclaim her hand.
Ethan ran one fingertip along her inner arm and she shivered. What was he doing to her?
“Are we okay, then?” he asked. “You’re not angry anymore?”
She shook her head. Oh, no. She was feeling a lot of things—anticipation, some anxiety—but anger had fallen off the bottom of the list.
“So let’s talk about us. Or maybe Samantha and me. Have you told her I’m living across the yard?”
“Not yet. I will tomorrow.” If Sam happened to look out a window and see Ethan when she wasn’t expecting to, it could freak her out.
“Let me know how it goes. If she’s still afraid of me, we’ll have to work on that. I’ll do whatever it takes to earn her trust, Kat. Whatever it takes.
“Because I’m going to be seeing a lot of her mother.”
Kat raised an eyebrow at him. He was still holding her hand, still tickling the inside of her arm.
“That’s assuming her mother thinks that’s a good idea. Does she?”
Kat resisted the urge to immediately say, yes, it was an excellent idea. “I haven’t dated, at all, since my divorce two years ago,” she told Ethan. “I’m not sure I even know how.”
“It’s real easy. I ask you to a movie. You say yes. We go, we have a good time, maybe get some coffee afterward.”
Somehow, she didn’t think it would be as simple as that. “I need to take things slowly, okay?” She knew she was overly cautious sometimes, but that was the best she could do.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“MOMMY! MOMMYYYYYY!”
Kat bolted upright, ripped abruptly from a deep sleep. She was at Samantha’s bedside in an instant, relieved to find there was nothing obviously wrong. Sam was having a nightmare.
Her heart racing, Kat woke her daughter as gently as she could. “Sammy, honey, I’m right here. You’re okay, you’re safe. It’s just a bad dream.”
The little girl’s eyes opened. “Fire? Is there a fire?”
“No, honey, there’s no fire. It was just a dream. We’re perfectly safe.”
“Where’s Bashira?” She looked around frantically.
“I’m sure he’s around, somewhere. Bashira? Here, kitty, kitty.” The cat was probably in the middle of Kat’s futon, monopolizing the space. Since Samantha had shunned Bashira, the kitten had decided to sleep with Kat, and he liked to settle down right in the middle.
Bashira came trotting in to Sam’s room, meowing, expecting a treat. He jumped up on the bed, and Samantha petted him.
“Dumb cat. I dreamed he got burned up.”
“Oh, Samantha, that must have been scary. But here he is, safe and sound.”
Bashira, craving attention, rubbed himself all over Sam. Eventually, she put her arms around him. Who could resist him, even with his ragged ears?
Kat sat on the edge of the bed and cuddled her daughter. “I hear sirens,” Sam said. “I keep thinking they’re coming here.”
The sirens were loud. Kat hadn’t thought about their proximity to Station 59 when she’d moved in here. “That’s just because we live so close to the fire station. They’re not coming here. If there was any problem, our smoke alarms would go off. And I promise we’ll hear them this time.” The first purchase Kat had made was two heavy-duty extra-loud smoke detectors. She’d installed them herself and tested them. She’d let Samantha test them, too.