by Cathie Linz
“He donated catering services for two of our library events this year,” Chloe replied before giving Patrick a smile of gratitude.
Steve was not so easily impressed. “So he supports libraries. What else do you know?”
“That we get a lot of calls in the reference department from patrons at his tavern with bar bets, guys wanting to know how many calories are in beer or who invented the helicopter, things like that. But Mr. O’Hara is standing right here, so if you have personal questions, why don’t you just ask him whatever you want to know?”
Steve shifted his attention back to the older man. “Have you served in the military?”
“United States Army. Four years. Korea.”
The information made Steve relax a bit. The army wasn’t as good as the Marine Corps, but still…The guy was a war veteran. “So you want me to put in a good word for you with my grandmother?”
Patrick nodded. “That’s right.”
“I suppose I can mention the fact that I ran into you this evening and that you asked about her. That you seem to run a tight ship in this eating establishment. You don’t have a criminal record, do you?” Steve narrowed his eyes at him, sending him a warning look that had made young recruits tremble in their boots. “Because I have friends on the Chicago police force, so I can check that out.”
Patrick showed no signs of bending, let alone trembling. “I have three sons and four grandsons on the Chicago police force. And no criminal record.”
“That’s good.”
“Maybe you could put in a good word for me as well,” Patrick suggested to Chloe. “Women tend to listen when other women talk to them.”
“I’m curious, Mr. O’Hara.” Chloe had to ask the question. “What makes you think that you need all this assistance before approaching Wanda yourself?”
“Well, we may have gotten off on the wrong foot.”
“How so?” Chloe asked.
“There was this community thing. Some kind of spring fair several months ago. They had a bake-off and I was the judge in the dessert division. Wanda was a tad upset that I didn’t give the blue ribbon to her kolachkis.”
“That could be difficult to overcome,” Steve told him. “Her kolachkis are famous.”
“Mrs. O’Flaherty’s brownies were better. In my opinion.”
“Mrs. O’Flaherty, huh? Wouldn’t be a case of you going with the Irish entry instead of the Polish one, now would it?”
Patrick drew himself to his full height and glared at Steve. “That’s what your grandmother accused me of, and the answer is no. I didn’t care who made the brownies.” He paused, his irritation turning to exasperation. “Trust me, that’s the last time I ever judge anything like that. Females tend to take things so personally.”
Steve nodded in commiseration. “That’s true.”
“Hey!” Chloe kicked him under the table, not hard enough to do much damage but enough to get Steve’s attention. “That was a totally sexist thing to say.”
“But true,” Patrick noted sadly.
“Maybe we should continue this conversation another time,” Steve suggested with a pointed look at Chloe.
Patrick nodded. “Enjoy the rest of your dinner.”
“I can’t believe you said that,” Chloe said once they were alone again.
“I can’t believe you only left me one piece of pizza.” He put it on his plate.
“Me? You asked me if I wanted another piece.” Then it hit her. He was doing it again. “Don’t try to distract me. It’s not going to work this time.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Meaning it’s worked before?”
“Once or twice. But I’m recognizing your modus operandi now.” He seemed to enjoy goading her. She wasn’t about to let him get away with it. But she couldn’t let his comment go unanswered either. “Getting back to what you said earlier, women do not take things more personally.”
He gave her a look that spoke volumes.
“Hey, we can be just as analytical as men. There are women in the Marine Corps now,” she reminded him.
“Affirmative.”
“Are you insinuating they aren’t as good as the men?”
“I would never say something like that.”
“Just think it, hmm?”
“No, not even think it. But female Marines have been trained to be tough.”
“You want tough, try having a baby.”
“I don’t deny that women have their strengths.”
“How generous of you.”
“I meant to tell you that you showed some great interrogation techniques when you were talking to Patrick,” Steve congratulated her. “You’d be good in intel.”
“I wouldn’t be too emotional?”
Steve sighed. “You’re not going to let me hear the end of that, are you?”
“You’re going to have to earn your way out of this one.”
“And how do you suggest I go about doing that?”
“You’re a creative guy.” She took a bite of her pizza. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”
“I suppose trying to bribe you with chocolate would be useless?”
“You’re welcome to try. But I don’t intend to make it easy for you.”
His wickedly disarming grin made her heart melt. “That’s fine. Marines aren’t into easy.”
She wasn’t about to let him off that quickly. “Neither are librarians.”
“Yeah, I’m discovering that.” His gaze now held an admiration that really did funny things to her insides.
“So maybe we are well matched after all.”
“I’d say so.”
“Which is good for Team Alpha Libras.”
“Absolutely.”
“And what’s good for Team Alpha Libras is good for both of us, right?”
“That works for me.” The humor in his green eyes belied the solemn expression he was attempting to keep on his face.
“Good.”
A second later they were both laughing. Chloe wasn’t even sure why. And she didn’t care. She was having a good time. And as long as she kept her focus on the fun and not the romance, she’d be just fine.
Two days later, Steve stood in Chloe’s foyer. “You’re not nervous are you?”
“I wasn’t until you asked me that,” Chloe retorted.
“My parents aren’t intimidating.”
“You didn’t have to come get me.”
“I was afraid you might get cold feet.”
Cold? There wasn’t a single chilly cell in her entire body. On the contrary, she was all hot and bothered. And something inside of her was powerfully drawn to him, as if she were a magnet and he were true north.
Focus, she ordered herself. Stick with the program here. “Umm, I have some wine and some flowers. What did I do with them…?” Still distracted by how good Steve looked in his dark pants and crisp white shirt, she looked around the foyer for the hostess gifts she’d purchased. “They were here a minute ago.”
“You look more upset than you did last night at that sushi bar.”
Chloe wrinkled her nose at him. “I’m not that adventurous where my stomach is concerned.”
“You did okay.”
“I didn’t expect a Marine like you to like sushi.”
“I developed a taste for it when I was stationed over in Okinawa several years ago.”
“Aha, there the flowers are. And the wine.” She’d left them on the coffee table when she’d heard Steve at her front door. She reached for her coat. “I guess I’m ready to go then.”
Steve took her coat from her. She wasn’t accustomed to his old-fashioned manners. But she liked the way it made her feel. Special. Like she mattered.
She slid her arms into her wool coat and then shivered with unexpected pleasure as Steve freed her hair from the confines of the coat’s collar. The brush of his fingertips against her nape created a jolt of awareness. Startled, she almost dropped the bottle of wine before regaining a bit of her composure.
“No, and you don’t have to.”
“Hey, I say what I mean and I mean what I say.”
She looked down at her outfit doubtfully. “I don’t know. The skirt is kind of short….”
“That’s why I like it.” Steve’s grin was deliciously wicked.
“I figured as much,” she noted dryly.
It was the same black skirt she’d worn when they’d gone to dinner in Lincoln Park. This evening she’d teamed it with a red silk blouse. Red was a power color. Or so Lynn had told her that day she’d come over to help Chloe with her wardrobe.
“Let’s go. We don’t want to be late.”
“Are we late? Why didn’t you say something?” Now she was the one who hustled him out of her house.
“I’m so glad you’re not nervous,” he teased her.
“I just want to be punctual.”
“Of course you do. It’s what we all want, along with world peace.”
She blew a raspberry at him.
“What?!” His astonishment was dramatically delivered by stepping back a few steps, jiggling the wine to clutch a free hand to his chest. “What is the world coming to when a librarian acts so recklessly?”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she assured him with a sexy sashay.
“So I’m discovering.”
Chloe’s burst of confidence lessened as she entered Wanda’s house and met Steve’s parents. Not that they did anything to make her feel unwelcome or uncomfortable. On the contrary, Angela Kozlowski went out of her way to put Chloe at ease. She had vivid green eyes, so like Steve’s, and short brown hair.
Wanda took the flowers and wine off to the kitchen in search of a vase and a corkscrew.
“I apologize if we seem a little out of it,” Angela said. “My husband and I just returned from a trip up to Alaska yesterday.”
Chloe had always wanted to go to Alaska. It was up there on her list along with going hot-air ballooning. “Did you go on a cruise?”
“No, we drove our RV. We’ve been going all over the country with it, but this was our longest trip so far.”
“Do you live in the Chicago area?” Chloe asked before realizing she already knew the answer. Wanda had filled her in on everyone in the Kozlowski family over the years.
Angela nodded. “When we’re not living in the RV, yes. We have a house a few miles from here which we’re actually having major renovations done on right now. That’s why Steve is staying here with his grandmother instead of at our house. But we’ve lived all over the country. It was only after Stan retired from the Marine Corps that we could think about the idea of settling down.”
“They still don’t have the concept down pat yet,” Steve inserted. “Not when they’re off gallivanting all over the country.”
“It sounds like you lead an adventurous life.” Chloe hoped she didn’t sound too envious.
“I guess we do,” Angela replied.
“It really got adventurous when we got a flat tire on the Alcan Highway and there wasn’t another vehicle in sight for miles and miles,” Stan said.
“I thought it was more adventurous when you tried to take that photograph of a bear and got too close,” Angela teased her husband. “We brought a few pictures.”
Chloe smiled. She could see the affection in their teasing. “I’d love to see them.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t bore you with tons of snapshots.”
“I wouldn’t be bored,” Chloe assured Angela.
“No, I don’t suppose you would be.” Angela gave her a direct look, as if she had the ability to see into Chloe’s very soul. “You don’t seem like the kind of person who gets bored easily.”
Chloe laughed self-consciously. “Just put a book in my hands and I’m a happy camper.”
Angela nodded. “I know what you mean. I’m a reader myself. So is Stan.”
“I raised my boys right,” Wanda stated as she joined them in the living room. “Books are precious and are to be celebrated.”
“I meant to tell you, we ran into someone the other night who asked about you, Busha,” Steve said.
“Really?” Wanda set down some stuffed-mushroom hors d’oeuvres, moving aside one of her ceramic turtles from the coffee table. “And who might that be?”
“Patrick O’Hara. He owns—”
“I know what he owns and I know he has no taste!” Wanda stated emphatically.
“He was afraid you might still be holding a grudge about that blue ribbon.”
Wanda lifted her chin with regal displeasure. “I do not hold grudges. I am simply stating facts. The man has no taste. He didn’t like my kolachkis.”
Steve wrapped an affectionate arm around her. “I think he likes you, Busha.”
Wanda sniffed, clearly unimpressed. “A man who doesn’t like my kolachkis cannot possibly like me.”
“He did like them—”
“Then he should have given them the blue ribbon and not to that Irish hussy who batted her false eyelashes at him and waved her brownies under his nose.”
“Waved her brownies?” Stan was clearly lost.
“It was a bake-off contest,” Steve explained to his dad.
“Oh.” Stan nodded sagely. “Women get emotional over those kind of things.”
Angela socked her husband’s arm in exasperation. “How can you say that, Stan?”
He was unfazed by her reaction. “Because it’s true.”
Steve’s look in Chloe’s direction clearly said, See? I told you so.
“No more talk of this,” Wanda stated firmly, smoothing the apron she wore. “You do not want to upset the cook before dinner.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Chloe offered.
“You could try to convince my son and grandson that women are not emotional but I fear it would be a losing battle.” Wanda paused a moment. “No, now that I think about it for a moment, we should not have to apologize for emotions. Emotions are a good thing.”
“Not if you’re a Marine,” Steve said. “You check your emotions at the door and you do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
“You don’t think women can do this as well?” Wanda retorted. “Of course they can. How do you think your mother managed all those times your father was deployed overseas and she was left with five children to manage by herself? She checked her emotions and got the job done. Then she cried. There is nothing wrong with crying. You should try it some time.”
Steve and Stan looked at her, clearly appalled by the very idea.
“It’s okay.” Angela patted her husband’s hand. “We poor little emotional women won’t make you cry tonight.”
“Unless it’s with pleasure at how tender my pork roast is.” Wanda laughed, the sound ricocheting around the room.
The meal was a lesson in how the Kozlowski family worked. They didn’t stand on ceremony. And for all their disclaimers about emotion, they did feel strongly about one another and about the things they cared about. The Marine Corps. Their country. Their honor. Their proud Polish heritage.
Added to the mix was the humor and the respect that clearly came across. Chloe could only sit back and admire it all. She’d never been a part of something like this before. A family.
Well, actually she had been part of a family, but then it had all gone away when her parents had died. The memories were bittersweet. The flash of her mother’s smile, the deep rumble of her father’s laugh.
She’d tried to hang on to the memories, clutching them like a lifeline as she’d lie awake in the narrow bed in her aunt’s spare room. She’d take them out like treasured belongings and reverently explore them—her sixth birthday party with the balloons and clown, the platinum-blond-haired doll her father had given her “just because,” the anticipation of waiting for Santa to come Christmas eve and leaving cookies and milk by the tree.
&n
bsp; “Have some more potato pancakes.” Wanda held the plate out for Chloe.
Chloe blinked and returned to the present. “No, thank you.”
“You looked sad for a moment,” Wanda noted in concern. “Is everything okay? No problems at work?”
Chloe shook her head. “Everything is fine.”
“You enjoy working at the branch library, yes?” Wanda continued.
“Yes, I do. Every day is different. You never know what questions will come up, what patrons will ask. I’m a reference librarian, by the way,” she added for Steve’s parents’ benefit.
Angela said, “You must be able to work well with people then.”
Chloe hadn’t really thought about that. “On a good day, hopefully I can do that.”
“Wanda tells us you live next door?”
“That’s right.”
“These traditional Chicago-style bungalows are great,” Stan noted. “I grew up in this house. My brothers and I had a great model train setup down in the basement. My dad worked for the railroads. A real blue-collar kind of guy. Very different from my wife’s family and the way she grew up, on a huge ranch in Texas.”
Sensing something in Stan’s voice, Chloe didn’t know what to say.
“And our sons grew up in ten different states,” Angela said.
“But mostly in a state of chaos,” Stan mocked.
“Chaos? No way. Not allowed in a Marine household. One thing all those moves did do was teach me how to pack efficiently,” Angela noted with a laugh.
“I still haven’t unpacked all my books and I moved in three years ago,” Chloe confessed. “I’ve run out of space to put them all.”
“You should have Steve help you put together some more bookcases. He did those for me.” Wanda pointed to the wooden furniture in the corner of the dining room. “For my turtles.”
“That’s okay. They’re very nice, but, really, I don’t want him going to any trouble.”
“Steve.” Wanda nudged him with her elbow. “Tell her it would be no trouble.”
“Has she always been this bossy?” Steve asked his parents.
“For as long as I can remember,” Stan replied with a grin that matched his son’s.
The rest of the evening went smoothly and Chloe enjoyed being part of a family, even if only for a short time.