Chapter 15 #3
This must be a taste of what parents went through with Santa and the tooth fairy.
And Kylie ate it allllll up.
Leaving teaching had been a tough choice, but Perry had convinced her it was a “dead-end” career. Working in children’s programming would be better. She had to admit, once she’d gotten into the new field, he’d been right about one thing:
While teaching absolutely was not a dead end, creating curricula and shaping frameworks for delivering important concepts to children via fun entertainment turned out to be her jam.
Which was why being fired from a job she loved sucked so much.
Her phone buzzed. She checked and found a text from Luke.
I forgot some paperwork. You guys home? I don’t want to scare you by suddenly appearing.
It’s your own house! she wrote back, walking into the bathroom and surveying her features.
Did she have a brush in her purse? And a lipstick?
Just being cautious, didn’t want to surprise you.
Are you checking up on me? Making sure I’m doing the job right?
All she got was a thumbs up icon in response, then he stopped texting.
Setting her phone on the counter, she quietly walked back into the living room, where Jester was sleeping like he was Harriet’s twin. Her purse was easy to grab and bring into the bathroom.
Score! Her brush was in there, and some tinted lip gloss, and a hair tie.
Brushing her long blonde hair into a low ponytail was easy. Calming her nerves wasn’t. As she left the bathroom, setting her purse on the dining table, the front door made four muted beeps. It clicked open and Luke walked in, a vision in red.
Red leather work jacket included.
“Wow,” she whispered, holding her finger over her lips, pointing to the napping child and dog.
Luke’s eyebrows went up. “What was the ‘wow’ for?”
“I forgot how all the cops in town look like red Twizzlers.”
“Not true. Some of us look more like red heart candies. Rusty’s putting on a gut.”
“Who is Rusty?”
“New guy. Sleeps around.” Luke gave her side eye. “Stay away from him.”
She didn’t know whether to laugh, be offended, or be grateful.
“I can’t believe you got her to nap,” he said, coming close so his voice didn’t wake Harriet. A whiff of aftershave hit her, mixed with a very masculine scent. She wanted to close her eyes and take a deep inhale, but held back.
“It was easy.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You have a skill.”
“Thanks.”
Luke smiled at her, then walked down the hall to the room with the big bed she knew must be his.
His and Amber’s, before.
He walked out holding a small folder. “Chief’s mad I didn’t file some paperwork on time.”
“Are you in big trouble?”
“No. Just missed something that turned out to be more important than I originally thought. It’s my fault.”
“You say that so calmly.”
He shrugged. “I’m human. I make mistakes. If I’m going to make them, I’d rather do it with paperwork than out in the field, or with my little girl.”
“You really work hard to be a good dad.”
“It’s my most important job. Even being a police officer comes second.”
“As it should. Priorities.”
He looked surprised. “Exactly. I take crap for it sometimes.”
“You do?”
“Some of the other guys at the station. They think I’m too focused on Harriet. That I should just let Mom, Dad, Colleen, and Kell watch her more.”
“She needs you.”
“She needs a mom,” he said softly, face tender and open. As their shared gaze lengthened, making Kylie’s throat tighten and her heart race, he seemed to pull in, shut down a bit.
Wiggling the folder, he gave her a polite nod. “Looks like you have it under control. See you when I’m off work.”
“Okay.”
“Thanks, Kylie. I really appreciate it.”
“It’s my pleasure,” she said, touching his arm. “Really. And it’s nice to have a conversation that’s not through a steel door.”
Laughing, he walked out the door, clearly trying to keep his voice down.
As he walked down the sidewalk to his pink cruiser, Kylie let herself snicker.
No matter how attractive he was, the guy her sister called “Hot Cop” was dressed in black work boots, red pants, a short red leather jacket, and wore a red police officer’s hat.
He looked like he fell upside down in a vat of fruit punch.
“Ah, Love You,” she murmured. “So much love, so much to laugh at.”
Turning her attention back to the living room, she viewed it through new eyes.
Doing housework without a six-year-old to manage was a lot easier, and an hour later, Kylie was done with everything but sweeping in the living room, kitchen, half bath off the foyer, and the foyer itself. Cleaning the bedrooms and bathrooms felt intrusive, so she didn’t go that far.
But the piles of clean clothes and towels in the laundry basket had to be folded neatly, sorted, and put in each bedroom.
Her eyes stopped on a framed picture of Amber, Luke, and Harriet a number of years ago, Harriet a toddler in a snowsuit, sitting on a sled. Amber wore a hat, but her signature dark curls spilled out from under it, long and matted with snow.
It was clear she and Luke had just been in an epic snow battle, but Harriet was pristine.
Another photo, this one at an amusement park in what was clearly Florida, was a selfie. All three were grinning, Luke eating a chocolate-coated ice cream bar, Harriet wearing a character hat.
Amber was glowing.
Radiant, even.
Kylie picked up the picture, focusing more on Amber than anyone else. They’d been good buddies for a long time, and while it had hurt when Luke had blocked her on social media, stopped sending her letters, and her emails to him had bounced, it really stung when Amber faded quickly from her life.
They were fifteen back then, though. Time and experience helped her to see it was just… being fifteen.
In fact, if Amber were alive, they’d be hugging and catching up, Luke teasing her about getting caught in the donation bin while promising to hold the secret.
Amber wasn’t alive, though.
All the shadows and questions from the past would never be answered.
With no idea how long Harriet would nap, she took another look around and decided helping Luke with dinner was next. There was a crockpot, and all the ingredients to make a fine chili and pop-the-can biscuits, with a small head of lettuce she could turn into a simple salad for him and Harriet.
But first–coffee.
She’d earned it.
Settling someone else’s home to rights felt good. When you organized your own home, you were one hundred percent responsible for every item out of place, and the cascade of decisions that had to be made, often attached to procrastination, shame, and other foibles, could be paralyzing.
That’s why it took Kylie longer than it should have to get rid of Perry’s crap.
And look how that turned out.
“Yeah,” she chuckled, low and quiet, eyes combing the clean living room.
Luke’s living room.
Single-dad, still-hot Luke.
“Look how that turned out.”