His Holiday Family (8 page)

“But you are for a good reason.” She touched his cast.

He captured her hand and laced his fingers through hers. “I know, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept it. Thanks for trying to make me feel better. The department can't curtail my activities around the neighborhood, though. I can focus my energy helping people on my street. There will be a lot to do there.”

Smiling, Kathleen shook her head. “Why does that not surprise me? Just remember it has been less than a week since you were injured. Don't overdo it and make your situation worse. Promise me you'll take breaks, at least.”

The concern in her expression warmed him. She had a kind heart. From what he'd seen, that made her a good nurse. But she was able to do her job while he wasn't. He had never been an inactive person, and it would be hard to start now, especially with all that had to be done.

He cocked his mouth into a grin. “I promise. I want to get better so I can go back to work.”

She leaned across the seat and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek then opened the door and slipped out of his Jeep, leaving him to wonder about that brief touch of her lips on his cheek. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and could imagine the kiss all over again. He could smell her lingering scent of vanilla. The sensations she'd produced in him had nothing to do with friendship. Whoa! This was not good. He had no busi
ness being anything other than a friend to Kathleen. Neither of them was looking for anything more.

 

“Mr. Miller in room 320 is finally settled down. Per the doctor's orders, I increased his pain meds.” Kathleen took the chart of the older man who had broken a hip when he fell off a ladder. She made some notes, then placed it back behind the counter at the nurses' station.

“We've been so busy I never got to ask you how Ruth fared in the hurricane.” Mildred eased into a chair and massaged her temples. “I don't think I've slept in forty-eight hours.”

“Who can sleep through a hurricane?” Kathleen snapped her fingers. “Oh, I forgot. Miss Alice slept through a good part of it until Gideon and I came to rescue her. Then she was up with us in the laundry room, refereeing between her cat and Gideon's dog. Not a pretty sight. The cat kept hissing the whole time. A couple of times his banshee cry rivaled the noise of the storm.”

“Ah, poor thing. Alice Beggs can be a handful.”

“Mom!”

Kathleen peered toward the stairs and spied Jared and Kip racing toward her. She held up her hand to slow them down, but Jared crashed into a doctor coming out of a patient's room, knocking the distinguished-looking man to the floor while Kip skidded to a halt a foot from him. Not far behind the boys, Gideon came down the hall, a frown on his face.

“Sorry, Kathleen. They got ahead of me racing up the stairs.”

The six-foot-five doctor picked himself up from the floor and glared down at her sons. “No running in the
hospital. We have injured people here, and I don't want to be one of them.”

Jared leaned back and looked up at the man. “Sorry.”

“What are you doing here?” Dr. Allen set his hands on his hips. “This isn't a playground.”

“Mom works here.” Jared pointed toward her, then turned his big eyes on the man, pure innocence in his expression. “I'm really sorry, sir. I won't run again.”

And her son believed that until the next time. Kathleen quickly covered the space between Jared and Dr. Allen.

Dr. Allen straightened his white coat, saying, “I'm glad to hear that,” then nodded toward her and made his way to another patient's room.

Jared grinned from ear to ear, turning on that little-boy look intended to melt her heart. “I'm sorry, Mom. I was just glad to see you.”

“They worked so hard yesterday helping the neighbors and your mom clean up that I couldn't say no to coming with me to pick you up.”

Jared spotted the head nurse behind the counter, waved and said in a loud voice that could carry beyond down the hall, “Hi, Miss Mildred. Do you need any help? I've been helping anyone that does.”

Kip punched him in the arm. “Shh. This is a hospital. People are sleeping.”

“But it's ten in the morning.”

“Boys, why don't you go downstairs with Gideon? I'll be right there.”

“We're parked in the left lot when you come out the front entrance. The other one is still blocked with a downed oak.” Gideon grabbed Jared's hand before he shot for the stairs.

Mildred came up behind Kathleen. “Go home and sleep. Be with your sons. I'll see you in two days.”

“Call me on my cell if someone can't come in. I don't live too far away, and we are in okay shape.” With cell reception working some of the time, she'd talked to her mother yesterday evening, and she reconfirmed what Kathleen had thought. Her childhood home didn't have too much damage, especially compared to Miss Alice's house and others she saw on the way to the hospital.

“Knowing Ruth, she has the neighborhood organized with the cleanup.”

Kathleen walked into the room behind the counter and pulled her purse out of her locker. “You know my mother well,” she said with a laugh. “The trick will be getting some rest before I'm put on a work crew. How about you? When are you going home?”

“I'm camping out here for a few more days. I don't have family and unfortunately my duplex near the beach didn't make it. Thankfully I was here, but one of my neighbors let me know when he went back after evacuating.”

“Then you need to come to Mom's. She has the room.”

“Aren't you and your sons staying with her? And how about Alice?”

“I hadn't planned on it, but with all that has happened here I haven't had time to check about Mom's rental I was living in. It wasn't as close as you were to the beach so it might be all right. Still, you know Mom will insist. You are like family.”

Mildred smiled, a tired gesture because she'd been working for two straight days. “I'll think about it. Now you'd better go before your boys overpower that nice young man and come looking for you.”

Kathleen laughed at the image that came to mind. “Don't forget there's a place for you if it doesn't work out at your sister's. The hospital isn't where you should stay. You'll work all the time.”

“We're mighty busy, but I could use a break.”

Kathleen hugged Mildred then walked toward the stairs. Five minutes later she climbed into the front passenger seat of Gideon's Jeep while Jared and Kip were sitting still and quiet.

“Okay, what have you done with my sons?” She slid a look toward the backseat.

“We're being good.” Jared folded his hands in his lap.

“Yeah, Mom. We want to go to our house, and if we don't act good, Gideon will take us back to Nana's.”

“Oh, I see.” She straightened forward, slanting a glance toward Gideon. “We're going by the cottage?”

“Your mom wanted me to check on it. We've heard that area was flooded.”

“Why didn't someone tell me?” She'd thought about it while working then another emergency had come in and she hadn't had time. That had been her past twenty-four hours—one crisis after another.

“Because your mom didn't want you to worry. We had so much to do in the neighborhood yesterday just to make it safe. We didn't have time for anything else. A couple of people have generators. One is keeping food cold. Another is where people can do their laundry. I brought mine down to your mom's since y'all and Miss Alice are staying there. Between those two generators they're cooking a hot meal for everyone on the street. Your mom has set up headquarters for the hurricane cleanup.”

“Headquarters?”

“She has organized all of us. She's very good at getting things done.”

“Miss Alice didn't demand to go home?”

“At first, until she saw her house. She may be stubborn, but she's not a fool. She's actually settled in at your mom's quite well. Now, her cat is another thing.”

“Is Butch still there?”

He turned onto the street where the rental cottage was. “I fixed my window so there won't be anymore rain damage, and Butch is happily back at his house.”

Kathleen scanned the houses where she lived, sucking in a deep breath and holding it. The sight of the destruction churned her stomach. She could see where the water had come up to houses—some over their first story. The smell of rotting vegetation and rancid water saturated the air, causing her stomach to roil even more.

Gideon pulled into the driveway and switched off his engine. The silence from the backseat spoke of the horrific sight where the cottage used to be. All that was left was the foundation with pieces of what could be their place scattered around it, but Kathleen couldn't tell for sure. The neighboring homes were gone too, as if a surge of water had focused its power on this area that dipped down. It probably had formed a river in the middle of the hurricane.

“Mom, where are our things?” Kip finally asked in a choked voice.

“I don't know, honey. Maybe we'll be able to find some out there.” She waved her hand toward the litter mixed in with the dead foliage and tree limbs. She thought she saw Kip's skateboard sticking out from under a pile of debris, but wasn't sure.

She heard the back door open and angled around. “Jared, I don't want you getting out.”

Tears shone in his eyes. “Why not? We've got to look for our stuff.”

“Tell you what. I'll check the area out and make sure it's safe and then you all can come over and go through everything. How about tomorrow?” Gideon started his Jeep.

Jared slammed the door closed. “What if it rains today?”

Kathleen bit her lower lip, her own tears making her vision blurry. “Hon, I don't think that will make a difference. If it's out there, it has survived a hurricane. A little rain won't hurt it. Everything we had can be replaced.” Except the pictures and a few treasures, but she didn't want to say anything about them right now. It was hard enough seeing the destruction. “Let's go to Mom's.”

Gideon sent her a reassuring smile. “I'll take care of it later today.”

“I appreciate that.” The sight of what was left of her cottage drained what little energy she had. The past two days had finally crashed down on her. All she wanted to do was sleep.

 

Later that afternoon as she awakened from a long nap, the scent of coffee brewing drifted to Kathleen. The aroma lured her to full alertness. She glanced at the battery-operated clock on the nightstand and bolted up in bed. Four o'clock. She hadn't wanted to sleep almost the entire day. Now she wouldn't get to sleep later tonight. That thought broke the dam on her emotions she'd kept reined in ever since she'd seen the destroyed cottage.

Her tears finally streamed down her face, flowing freely. Could things get any worse? Hope was devas
tated. The house she'd been living in was gone. She was drowning in debt her husband had accrued. Her sons were hurting emotionally. The tears turned to sobs that shook her. She drew her legs up against her chest and clasped them. For so long she'd been desperate to hold it together. Now she couldn't.

A soft knock at the bedroom door startled her. She tried to scrub away the evidence of her sorrow as she asked, “Who is it?” If it had been her sons, they would have burst into the room.

“Gideon.”

She glanced down. Having no energy to change when she got home at ten-thirty this morning, she still wore her blue scrubs. As she swung her legs over the side of the bed, she continued to swipe at her tears.

“Are you all right?”

She stood—too fast. The room swirled before her eyes, still swimming with tears. “Yes. Be right there.”

Steadying herself, she started for the door but caught sight of herself in the mirror. A gasp escaped her lips as she stared at the hollow look in her gaze staring back at her. Other than holing herself up in the bedroom, there'd be no way he wouldn't know she'd been crying. Inhaling several times, she opened the door.

He peered at her with an intensity that robbed her of the decent breath she'd just taken in. “Can I come in? I went by your house again while you were sleeping.”

She stepped to the side and allowed him into her childhood bedroom, then shut the door. She didn't want her sons to overhear anything concerning the house. They already had enough to deal with.

“I'm glad I did. I found a nest of snakes under a pile of limbs and lots of boards with nails sticking up, but I think I've made the area safe enough for you and your
sons. There are a lot of items among the debris that might be yours. It's hard for me to tell.”

Kathleen sank down on her bed. “I don't want Jared or Kip going back there right now. I'll go over tomorrow and look around. They've lost so much. I don't want them to see their possessions destroyed. If I find any of their stuff, I'll bring it back.”

“You know they won't like that. They've been very quiet today, but when they talk, they discuss what they're going to do when they go back home.”

“Home?” The word came out on a shaky breath. Tears clogged her throat. She didn't want to cry in front of Gideon. She'd shed enough tears over the past year since her husband's death but always in private. “I don't know what that is anymore. When I came back to Hope, I felt this would be it. I wanted to make a home for my sons. I had hoped I could save enough money to buy the rental from Mom eventually. It was starting to feel like a home to me. Mom wanted to give me the cottage, but I wanted to make this work on my terms. This hurricane changed everything.”

The overwhelming sense of loss suddenly hit her. She could no longer contain the sorrow. It swelled up and spilled down her cheeks.

Gideon put his arm around her and tugged her close to him. “You aren't alone.”

Through the sobs, she mumbled, “I know the whole town feels that way right now.” She swallowed hard, trying to tamp down her tears. What good did they do?