Father to Be (11 page)

“You have any plans for tonight?”

She straightened, unfolding her spine one vertebra at a time, raising her arms high above her head. When finally she looked at him, her face was flushed, her hair mussed, her tank top still clinging like a second skin. His heart rate should be slowing, his body cooling now that he’d stopped moving, but it wasn’t. If anything, his pulse might have increased a few beats and his temperature climbed a few degrees.

“Why do you want to know?” She sounded aloof, wary, as if he might be asking for nefarious reasons, which was ridiculous. Not that he couldn’t think of a few wicked deeds he’d like to do with her if she were merely a woman, but she wasn’t
merely
anything. She was a social worker first and foremost—the social worker assigned to him and the kids. As long as that professional association existed, anything personal was totally off limits.

“I thought I’d call Miss Corinna and Miss Agatha, ask if we could stop by their house this evening. You can see for
yourself that they’re nowhere near too old to take care of the kids.”

“All right. You can call the office and let me know.” She pulled a key from her shorts pockets and climbed the steps of her small porch without so much as a good-bye.

“What? No invitation inside to see what you’ve done with the place?” he teased. “No ‘Thanks for the company, I enjoyed the run’? The least you could do is offer me a drink of water.”

“Would you like a drink of water, Dr. Grayson?” She gestured to the right as she opened the door. “The hose is right there.”

“You’re a hard woman, Ms. Malone.” Though she looked incredibly, womanly soft. “That’s okay. We’ll work on your manners. Bethlehem will teach you to be gracious in no time.”

Her smile came slowly, unwillingly. “Would you like to come in and see what I’ve done to the place? How about a glass of water?”

“No, thanks. I’ve got a few more miles to go.”

“Thanks for the company. I enjoyed the run—even though I normally do run alone.”

He began jogging in place, warming muscles that had started to cool. “Hey, you never did tell me. What did you use for protection in the city?”

“My neighbor’s dog—a big, mean, man-hating Rottweiler.” This time her smile was wickedly amused. “See you later, Dr. Grayson.”

K
elsey stood in front of her open closet doors, staring at the clothes hanging inside. She’d come back from a visit to Alex Thomas’s law office that afternoon to find a message from J. D. Grayson that he’d arranged a six
P.M.
meeting between her and the Winchester
sisters—a dinner meeting, no less. Though it was unusual—in eleven years she’d never been invited to dinner by a client’s baby-sitter—she could handle dinner with strangers.

But could she handle dinner with the client?

J.D. had been on her mind so much of the day that she’d even stopped thinking of him as Dr. Grayson. She had watched from the door that morning until he was out of sight, had thought about inviting him inside into her personal space. She’d considered the fact that her space had been his first—that he’d cooked in her kitchen, showered in her bathroom, maybe even slept in her bed. She’d wondered why he wasn’t married and what he’d given up in Chicago to come to Bethlehem and if he was as remarkable as he seemed.

Thinking, considering, and wondering were all right, as long as that was all she did. She wanted a relationship somewhere down the line, once she was completely settled in and had had a chance to meet some men, but absolutely not with a client, and probably not with a psychiatrist. Their fields were too similar, their work too involved.

With a sigh she reached for the navy jacket that matched the skirt she was wearing, then put it back, stripped off her blouse and skirt, and pulled on a dress instead. It was soft, summery, with a scooped neck, short sleeves, and a hem that fell almost to her ankles. The print was pale yellow flowers on a muted aqua background, and she tied her hair back with a matching yellow ribbon. The overall effect was much more casual, much more pleasing than her usual conservative suits and shirtwaists.

And it was just for her. She wasn’t looking to impress anyone.

After dumping the contents of her purse into a straw handbag, she locked up and headed for the Winchester house. It was exactly six o’clock when she parked out
front. There were kids playing in the yard—the younger three Browns, plus two she didn’t recognize. Caleb sat at one end of a glider by a tree, pointedly ignoring the pretty girl at the other end.

Kelsey stopped on the sidewalk to watch the kids for a minute, long enough to catch the attention of one of their playmates. The girl slid to a stop in front of her, pushed her blond hair back from her face, and stuck out her hand. “Hi. I’m Josie Dalton. Who’re you?”

“Kelsey Malone.”

They shook hands, then Josie bluntly asked, “Are you the welfare lady?”

“I’m a social worker. I work for the Department of Family Assistance.”

“You’re here ’cause of them and not us, aren’t you?” She gestured to the Browns with an outflung hand. “ ’Cause the welfare lady with the orange hair an’ the judge said we can stay with Aunt Emilie and Uncle Nathan till our mama’s well enough to take care of us herself, even if it is a long, long ti—”

The girl on the glider had gotten up, walked over, and slipped her hand over Josie’s mouth. “You talk too much, Josie.”

Josie wriggled free. “I do not. Miss Agatha says I talk just the right amount,” she said indignantly before running off to play.

“Just the right amount for three kids,” the girl murmured. “Hi. I’m Alanna Dalton.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Alanna.” Kelsey lowered her voice. “Are you a friend of Caleb’s?”

Alanna glanced over her shoulder at him, then shrugged. “Sort of. At least, I was until I saw him when he got caught … you know. Stealing.” She whispered the last word. “I don’t think he wants to be friends anymore.”

She looked hurt—another female learning the power of
males, Kelsey thought. She smiled gently at the girl. “I think he’s embarrassed about that, and probably a little frightened by being taken from his home. He needs a friend though. Maybe if you give him a little time … An awful lot has changed in his life, you know.”

“I know,” Alanna said solemnly, and Kelsey thought she probably did. After all, she was living with her aunt and uncle instead of her parents.

“Dr. J.D. and the rest of the grown-ups are inside. You can just go on in.”

“Thank you.” Kelsey went to the top of the steps, then turned back to watch a moment longer. Alanna didn’t return to the glider and Caleb. Instead, she picked up Gracie and swung her around in circles, making her giggle delightedly, until they both collapsed to the ground.

Smiling, Kelsey turned to ring the doorbell, only to find that the door was open and J.D. was standing there. “This is a pleasant surprise,” he said through the screen door.

“I
was
invited.”

“Actually, I was referring to the dress. For once you don’t look like you raided a prison matron’s closet.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at him. “I beg your pardon.”

“Oh, you don’t have to beg—not for that. You have to admit, that brown suit you had on yesterday and that navy blue thing today are—”

“Professional,” she interrupted.

“Severe.”

“Conservative.”

“Lacking in style.”

“Simple.”

“Plain. Ugly enough to scare the kids.”

She gave him a narrow-eyed scowl. “I bet you wear shorts to work, and shoes without socks, and you probably don’t even own a suit.”

His grin was supremely smug. “I own
two
suits—one for summer and one for winter. You saw me in one Sunday.”

She’d thought he didn’t remember their brief encounter in the courthouse parking lot Sunday afternoon. He’d certainly given no sign of it on Monday. “You weren’t wearing a tie.”

“I took it off before I was tempted to hang myself with it.” He offered another of those grins, so arrogant that part of her itched to slap it away while part of her wanted only to smile in response. The smile was winning out, when a woman appeared beside him.

“J.D., don’t keep our guest waiting on the porch. Heavens, what kind of host are you?” She was slender, white-haired, with a warm welcome in her smile and her voice. “You have to forgive the boy. Sometimes he forgets his manners. You must be Kelsey. We’ve been waiting all day to meet you. Come in, dear. Let me introduce you around.”

This time the smugness was all hers as she slipped past J.D. and let the older woman guide her into the living room, where the others waited. Her escort was Corinna Humphries. Her sister, Agatha Winchester, was plump, also white-haired, and almost overwhelmingly friendly. The other guests for the evening were the Daltons’ aunt and uncle, Emilie and Nathan Bishop. He was the police officer, Kelsey recalled, who had brought Caleb’s family to her department’s attention, and she mentioned this.

He shifted the baby he held to his other shoulder. The nieces and nephew outside bore a strong resemblance to their aunt, but the baby—Michael—looked just like his father. “It’s a tough situation,” he replied, and the sisters murmured their agreement.

“Why, if it was work he was looking for, Ezra Brown could have found it right here in town,” Agatha declared. “All he had to do was let someone know he was in need.”

“Did you know Mr. Brown?” Kelsey asked.

“Only to say hello to,” Agatha replied. “He and his family moved in out there … oh, six or seven years ago. They pretty much kept to themselves—didn’t come to church, take part in any of the holiday festivities, or send the children to school very regularly. That’s how Caleb wound up in Alanna’s class. He should be a year ahead of her, you know, but he got held back.”

Kelsey made a mental note to check Caleb’s school records, to identify his deficiencies and get him whatever help he might need. In the easy chair across from her, J.D. looked as if he were making the same note.

Corinna picked up where her sister left off. “We occasionally bumped into Mrs. Brown at the store. She was never particularly friendly. She always seemed rather distracted. Then suddenly we began seeing Mr. Brown. Later we heard that she had gone away.”

“Actually, we heard that she had run off with another man.”

Corinna frowned severely at Agatha. “That’s gossip.”

“It’s information, and Kelsey’s looking for information, aren’t you, dear?”

Holding back a smile, Kelsey nodded. “You said Mr. Brown could have found work here in town. Are there jobs readily available?”

“Not many,” Emilie replied. “But Bethlehem takes care of its own. Somebody would have
found
a job for him.”

“Maybe he was too proud to admit that he needed help.”

“Or maybe looking for work was just the excuse he gave the kids for leaving,” J.D. said flatly.

“It
wasn’t
an excuse.”

Everyone’s gazes shifted toward the door, where Caleb stood, his face white with anger, his thin body shaking.
J.D. grimaced, then took a deep breath as he stood up and walked toward the boy. “Caleb—”

“My dad’s coming back. He said he would.”

“I hope he does.”

“Of course you do. Then you won’t be stuck with us anymore.”

“I’m not stuck with you. If I didn’t want you—”

“Liar.”

There was a moment of heavy silence. It seemed that even the kids outside had gone silent. Then J.D. reached out one hand. “Caleb—”

The instant his fingers made contact, Caleb spun around and darted away, the screen door banging behind him. Kelsey went to stand beside J.D.

“Not one word,” he muttered in warning. It wasn’t necessary. She didn’t have a word to offer.

Alanna appeared on the other side of the screen. “I’ll talk to him,” she offered anxiously. When Kelsey nodded, she raced down the steps and across the yard.

“Welcome to the world of foster parenting,” Kelsey murmured. “It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.”

J.D. scowled at her before turning away, leaving her alone at the door.

Chapter Five
 

C
aleb was halfway down the block by the time Alanna caught up with him. He was walking too fast, but she could keep up if she skipped along. She waited for him to say something, but when he didn’t, she did. “Where are you going?”

He didn’t answer. He just shoved his hands in his pockets, hunched his shoulders, and walked faster.

“You might as well go back. You don’t have anyplace to go except Dr. J.D.’s or Miss Corinna’s.”

He started across Fifth Street even though there was a car coming. Alanna waited until it passed, then ran to catch up with him. “You can’t just keep being angry and running away, Caleb. Everybody’s sorry that your daddy left, but—”

He wheeled around and shouted right in her face, “He didn’t
leave
! He went to find work, and he’s coming back, and I’ll be angry if I want! I’ll do whatever the hell I want!”

She took a step back, her eyes wide, her heart thumping. If she yelled like that, or used bad words like that, Aunt Emilie would … Well, she didn’t know what Emilie would do. Be angry, she supposed—or, worse, disappointed. Just like
she
was disappointed in Caleb. “I know how you feel,” she said timidly.