At the sound of the car pulling in the driveway, Scooby barked and raced to the door. Kari glanced at her watch. 9:00. Right on time. She wouldn’t expect otherwise. She stopped in front of the mirror on the dining room wall, fluffed her hair and smoothed her soft lavender-colored sweater over her favorite jeans before walking into the kitchen to check on the girls.
Piper looked up from the cereal she was finishing. “You look pretty.”
“Thanks, sweetie.”
“Mommy! It’s Mr. Evans,” Mady called from the living room. Her voice continued to carry into the kitchen. “…and she put on her date-night earrings.”
Kari touched her right earlobe. What had possessed her to put on the sapphire earrings John had given her for their 12th anniversary, the last they’d had together? She was going to spend the day insulating the attic.
Mady chattered on. “And mascara and the sweater we gave her for her birthday. It’s the first time she’s worn it.”
“Mady.”
The little girl jerked her head around. “What? I’m not bothering Mr. Evans about taking me to the dance. And Piper told me those were your date-night earrings.”
Eli’s facial muscles worked, as if he was struggling to contain his grin.
“Go tell your brother Mr. Evans is here to start the attic.”
Mady dragged herself from the room.
Kari tried to ignore the glint of humor in Eli’s eyes. “Myles should be right down. I need to run Piper and Mady over to Piper’s scout leader’s house. Piper’s troop is going to a program at Fort Ticonderoga as part of their history badge. They’re letting Mady tag along.”
“So it’s Myles and me.”
Did she detect a note of disappointment in his voice? No. They’d had a good time bowling last night, but that didn’t mean anything. Her mind drifted to the smooth, athletic way he bowled. Eli and Myles working together without her might not be a bad idea. It would give Myles constructive male time. But what would she do all day?
“You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’ll be back in a half hour or so.”
“Take as long as you need. We should be able to hold down the fort until you get back.” He glanced over her shoulder.
“Hi, Mr. Evans.” Myles came down the stairs two at a time followed by Mady.
“Myles.”
“Want a cup of coffee or something?” Myles asked. “I haven’t had breakfast.” He glanced at her. “You did make coffee didn’t you, Mom?”
“Yes, I made coffee.” Her son had recently taken to drinking coffee in the morning.
“Coffee sounds good.” Eli shot her a warm smile before allowing Myles to lead him from the room.
“Mommy.” Mady tugged her hand, and Kari realized she was staring at the empty doorway. “Are we going or what?”
“Yes. Go see what’s keeping your sister.”
“Go here. Go there. I already got Myles for you,” Mady complained as she went to get Piper.
An hour later, Kari let herself back in the house. Stopping at the Paradox Lake General Store on her way home had taken longer than she’d expected. She put the ham and cheese she’d bought for lunch in the refrigerator, pausing to listen to the heavy footsteps overhead. What made boys so loud?
Kari closed the refrigerator and headed up to join them. She ducked into her room and exchanged her sweater for a t-shirt that was more appropriate for home repairs. She fingered one of her earrings before taking them out and putting them away.
It was foolish to have worn them in the first place. Kari drew in a deep pained breath. She’d never forgive herself if she’d lost one. They were John’s last gift to her. But they’d gone so well with her cotton sweater. The sweater she’d worn to look nice for Eli. What had she been thinking? Kari shook her head. She hadn’t been thinking, not with her head. She was a healthy 34-year-old woman who’d wanted to look nice for a man. Her throat clogged. A man other than John. A man she wasn’t even sure she liked.
The ladder steps to the attic creaked as she climbed them. When she reached the top and poked her head through the trapdoor opening in the floor, she found Eli alone.
“Hi.” She cleared her throat. “Where’s Myles?”
Eli stapled insulation to the top joist. “Over at Hill’s Garage.”
Kari ground her teeth. He’d ditched his work to go tinker with that old car? And Eli had let him?
Eli stepped back to the middle of the room where he could barely stand straight. “I hope it’s okay. Tom needed Myles’s help at the shop. I can finish this myself.”
“It’s okay, but I can help. What do you need me to do?” She motioned to the insulation.
“I’ll hold and feed you the roll. You can staple the insulation to the joists.”
Halfway across the room, her phone chimed a text. “I need to check this. It could be the center, even though I’m not supposed to be on call.”
She looked at the lit screen. It wasn’t the center. It was from Myles. Did Mr. Evans talk to you? What do you think?
Her stomach tightened. “It’s from Myles. Something about you talking with me.” She might as well get it right out. “If this is about the rifle course at the American Legion, Myles is sorely mistaken if he thinks you can change my mind.”
Eli let the insulation drop and hang from the ceiling. “That’s not what we were talking about.” He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I know he’s still grounded except for work, but the 3Ts are meeting Friday for pizza and practice.”
Kari curled her fingers until her nails dug into her palms. Myles was grounded, and the meeting was technically a social event. “Does Liam Russell belong?”
“No.” Eli’s expression turned guarded.
“He’s been a bad influence on Myles.” She breathed in the warm, dusty attic air. “I guess I don’t see any reason why not.”
Eli blinked away his stare. “That’s great.”
Kari uncurled her fists, uncertain about her snap decision. She hadn’t given in to Myles and Eli, she argued with herself. Not really, if it was for Myles’s good. Her stomach still churned. “You wanted me to staple the insulation?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He pulled his hands from his pockets and looked over at the dangling insulation.
She took the opportunity to pick up the stapler while his gaze was elsewhere, so he couldn’t see her hand shaking.
Eli watched Kari bend to pick up the stapler. He ran his gaze over her unruly curls and down the straight line of her back. She’d changed from the pretty sweater she’d had on earlier to a baggy t-shirt.
She rose while he was still staring at her, and he turned his concentration back to the insulation. He blanked the picture of the way the sweater had fit her womanly curves, along with the thought she might have dressed up for him from his mind and went back to work.
A while later, Kari lifted her forearm and wiped it across her forehead. “What do you say we take a break and have lunch?”
“I’m with you there.” He motioned to the stair ladder. “After you.”
Kari hesitated. “Could you go first? It’s silly. I’m fine coming up the steps, but I like to have someone hold the ladder when I go down.”
Eli warmed at her admitted imperfection. “No problem.”
“I fell off a ladder when I was little. Or more precisely, I fell with the ladder when it tipped over. I wasn’t supposed to be on it. Dad had looked away for a minute. I sprained my wrist and broke my leg.”
“A little impetuous, were you?”
“Sort of like Mady.”
He grinned, letting his amusement show.
“Okay, a lot like Mady. So are you going to humor me and hold the ladder or not?”
“There’s nothing I’d rather do.” He lowered himself through the floor, except put his arms around her while she made her way down the ladder.
“All clear,” he said when he reached the floor below.
He watched Kari lower her right foot to the first step keeping her hands firmly planted on attic the floor for balance. This wasn’t a bad view, either. As her head cleared the ceiling, she looked over her shoulder into Eli’s eyes, her gaze unreadable to him. With his hands on either side of the stairs’ frame, he had her boxed in. Her foot reached for the floor. Eli swallowed and placed his hand on the small of her back for support.
She turned and smiled. “I’m down.”
Eli stood motionless, staring at his hand still on her back. Chest tight.
“Right.” He dropped his hand, and the tightness evaporated.
Kari brushed a curl back from her face. “I’m fine with the regular stairs,” she said filling the growing silence. “I mean I can go first.” She scuffed her sneaker against the hardwood floor.
“Hey, it’s okay. We all have our insecurities.” And right now, one of his was being alone and so close to Kari.
“I guess.” She shrugged.
He stepped back. “I’ll wash up and run out to the General Store for sandwiches.” Put some distance between us for a while.
“You’ll need to clean up downstairs. There’s no bath up here. And I stopped and bought ham and cheese for sandwiches on my way back from dropping off Piper and Mady.”
“Great. I’m starved. Tell you what. In return, I’ll buy you the cheeseburger special at bowling next Friday.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.” He hoped he didn’t sound pushy. He didn’t know the last time he’d felt this uneasy with a woman.
“Okay.” She agreed. “A cheeseburger special on Friday. Let’s get washed up. All of this talk of food has me starved.”
As Kari led him down into the living room, he caught her looking in the mirror decorating the wall next to the open stairway. She ran her hand over her hair. The humidity in the attic had turned it into a tousled riot of curls. His hand moved instinctively forward to touch those curls. He forced it to his side.
“Hi, Mommy!” Mady greeted them from the front doorway.
Kari stopped in midstep, and he almost crashed into her. His gaze flew to the clock on the DVR following hers.
“Hi, sweetie. I didn’t expect you yet. Is everything okay?” Kari descended the last three stairs. She looked past Mady for Piper.
“Everything’s fine.” Charlotte Russell followed Mady in with her daughter, Katy, and Piper.
Eli stiffened.
“The presentation at the Fort was shorter than expected. Sonja called all the parents. She didn’t get an answer here,” Charlotte said.
“She must have called the house phone,” Kari said. “We were in the attic putting up insulation.”
“I see.” Charlotte’s gaze moved from Kari to him still on the stairs.
He gritted his teeth. Besides him and Charlotte having a history, his mother had said Charlotte was one of the biggest gossips in Essex County. He hated to think what the woman might be making of Kari not answering the phone and the two of them walking down the stairs looking somewhat disheveled.
“Since you picked up Katy this morning at her father’s house, I figured I’d bring the girls home.”
“Thanks,” Kari said in a controlled voice, making Eli think she shared his concerns about Charlotte.
Mady broke the silence that enveloped the room after Kari’s thanks. “This is Mommy’s friend Mr. Evans. He likes to come over and help us with things.”
Kari cringed along with him. Mady was not helping the situation.
“I know Mr. Evans.” If the silence in the room a minute ago was disconcerting, the chill taking its place was almost paralyzing.
“Charlie.” Eli used a nickname Charlotte went by in high school.
“Eli.”
He moved down the stairs to stand with Kari, positioning himself slightly ahead of her to relieve his compulsion to put himself directly between Charlie and Kari.
“We’d better get going,” Charlie said.
“Mom,” her daughter Katy whined. “I thought you were going to check with Piper’s mother about letting me stay here while you go grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping.”
“I’m sure it’s okay,” Piper said. “Right, Mom?”
“Not today.” Charlotte turned Katy toward the door and hustled her out.
Eli had a sinking feeling not any other day, either, as long as Kari and he were friends.
“Are you hungry?” Kari asked with a forced cheerfulness that from the looks on their faces, didn’t fool Piper and Mady any more than it fooled him. “I bought your favorite cookies this morning. There’s one for each of you in the bakery box in the upper cupboard.” She gave the doorway a pointed look.
“Okay. Come on, Mady.” Piper shot Kari a befuddled look.
“I’m sorry.” Eli repeated himself. “Old bad feelings I thought Charlie had gotten over.” And had thought he’d moved past, as well.
Kari bit her lip and nodded. “I need to see to the girls. The bath is down the hall. I can clean up in the kitchen.”
He took his time walking down the hall. He’d forgiven Charlie for her lies. But when he’d seen the look of panic on Kari’s face and Piper’s disappointment, he’d almost lost it. Fortunately, his rational side had prevailed.
Eli turned the water on full force and lathered his hands. Charlie could be vindictive as well as a gossip. The last thing he wanted was for Charlie to shred Kari’s reputation to get back at him. He’d done a lot of things he wasn’t proud of when he was a teen but not what Charlie had accused him of. He shut off the hot water and splashed cold on his face. It didn’t even begin to cool him down. He dried his hands and face and mentally armed himself to face Kari.
“Mr. Evans.” Mady skipped up the hall to him. “I made you a sandwich. All by myself. Right here.” She motioned to the table as they entered the kitchen. “You can sit by me.” She hopped up on a chair.
Eli’s gaze went to Kari. Her back to the table and him, she busied herself wiping down the counter in short, fast swipes.
“Come on,” Mady urged. “Try your sandwich.”
He bit into his sandwich and chewed. “Mmmm.”
Eli looked back at Kari, who was wringing out the sponge so hard he expected her to tear it in half. “Aren’t you going to join us?”
She placed the sponge on the back of the sink in a precise line with the corner. “I’m not hungry.”
“After all the hard work we did upstairs?” he teased.
She exhaled. “A glass of milk will be fine.” She walked to the seat opposite him and filled a glass.
“I already poured your milk,” Mady pointed at the glass in front of Eli.
“Thanks.” He hadn’t even noticed it.
Kari sipped her drink. “Did you have a good time at the fort?”
“Yes!” Piper said. “We got to go on a special tour, not the lame one we went on with school.”
Kari focused completely on Piper as the little girl relayed her morning detail by detail. And he focused on Kari. The stiff way she held herself. The smile that didn’t reach her eyes when she commented on Piper’s description of the morning. His anger simmered. They hadn’t done anything wrong.
He washed the last of his sandwich down with milk. “I’d better get back to work.” He pushed his chair back.
“You really don’t need to.” Kari ran her finger up and down her empty milk tumbler. “I mean, we made such good progress this morning. You probably have other things you want to do today.”
The camaraderie they’d shared this morning had vanished.
“I could finish it myself this afternoon.”
“No, really, Myles and I can do it.” Kari’s gaze flitted from him to Piper to Mady and back to him.
He took that to mean end of discussion. “I’ll be going, then.”
“Bye, Mr. Evans,” Mady and Piper said.
“Bye.”
Kari walked him to the door. “Thanks for all of your help.”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “See you Friday. Bowling.”
“Yeah, if I can make it. With kids, you never know.”
As he walked to his truck, he had a gut feeling something would come up, which bothered him more than it should.