His Holiday Family

by Margaret Daley

  He winced. “Okay, let’s agree to forget my name for Mildred.”

  “I don’t know. I may not let you live that one down.”

  “What can I do to change your mind?”

  “Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.”

  “When things calm down, I’ll give Kip a grand tour of Station Two.”

  “You were already going to do that.”

  “A ride in a fire truck.”

  Kathleen tapped her chin with her forefinger. “Tempting. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Gideon rose and tugged her up, her body close to his. His masculine scent surrounded her, and the gleam in his eyes warmed her as the feel of his hand on her arm sent shivers down her spine. “I’m just gonna have to persuade you I’m one of the good guys.”

  He dipped his head toward her. Every nerve became alert, anticipating the meeting of their lips. Wanting it. She leaned toward him.

  A knock sounded on the partially open door and her mother stuck her head through the opening. “I can’t find Jared and Kip. They told me they were going upstairs to play in their room for a while. I went there to get them to do something for me and they aren’t there. I’ve looked everywhere in the house and even in the yard. They’re gone.”

  Chapter Seven

  Kathleen quickly stepped away from Gideon. “Do you think they went to help someone in the neighborhood?”

  “They’ve been helping the Johnsons but they’ve been good about letting me know and getting my okay.” Ruth pushed the door open wide.

  “Would they have gone back to the cottage?” Gideon headed for the hallway. “I can go look for them.”

  “They know never to leave the block without talking to me first or Mom and that is without a hurricane.” Kathleen followed Gideon into the corridor.

  “Gideon might be right about the cottage. I heard them whispering before they decided to go play in their room. That in itself should have been a red flag, but I’ve been cooking all afternoon so people on the block can have one hot meal a day. For a while they were helping me.”

  “Since this house is in the middle of the block, I’ll go one way toward the cottage and you go the other,” Gideon told Kathleen, then strode toward the front door. “We’ll find them.”

  “Mom, you go on and finish cooking. Don’t worry.” Kathleen joined Gideon on the porch, the creases on her forehead deepening. “Now if only I could follow my own advice.”

  “Maybe they thought they could join me while I was over there. One of the neighbors helped and then I went to the fire station to see if there was anything I could do there. The boys wouldn’t have known that.”

  “I’ll go this way.” Kathleen pointed east.

  Gideon made his way to the end of the block and turned the corner, glancing back at Kathleen who’d been stopped by a neighbor. When he started down the street where the cottage was, he spied Kip out in front. He quickened his pace.

  Kip looked up from digging through a pile of trash, grinned and waved at him. Hopping up, he yelled to Jared then ran down the middle of the road toward him. The boy’s foot caught on a limb on the ground and he went flying forward, hitting the asphalt with a jolt.

  Gideon rushed to the child, who had tears rapidly filling his eyes. Kip rolled over and held up his hands. They were bleeding. Gideon knelt next to him, noticing his jeans were torn at one knee. “Are you okay?” Taking Kip’s hands, he examined the palms. “It hurts.”

  “I know. It needs to be cleansed. Let me help you up.”

  The boy pushed up to a sitting position but didn’t move any more than that. Suddenly he burst out crying and hugged his arms to his chest, rocking back and forth. For a moment Gideon didn’t know what to do.

  “Besides your hands, where else does it hurt?”

  “Everything is gone. I can’t find anything of mine.”

  Gideon settled his hand on Kip’s shoulder. “You might not be able to. I know how hard that can be.”

  Kip looked up at him, his eyes shiny, tears coursing down his face. “But your house is all right.”

  “When I was about your age, my home burned down. Everything was destroyed. All I had was the clothes I had on when I escaped from the house.”

  Kip’s gaze widened. “It did? What did you do?”

  “Exactly what you did. I got upset. Then I grew very angry at the world. In the long run, that didn’t help me at all. I pushed everyone away, even people who were trying to help me. I became so difficult that I ended up being moved from foster home to foster home. I never stayed in one place long. I was the one hurt by that.”

  “Like Mom moving here?”

  “Not exactly. You still have your brother and mother. She will provide a home for you even if that means living with your grandmother. Y’all will be together.”

  Kip dropped his head and knuckled his eyes.

  “I’m not gonna kid you. The next months will be hard. Everyone in Hope will have to pull together to put the town back even better than it was. You and your brother will have to do your part. The more united we are, the faster Hope will recover.”

  The child lifted his face, squaring his shoulders. “I can do my part.”

  “C’mon. Let’s go get Jared. Your mom is worried about you two. She should be here shortly.” Gideon rose and offered Kip his hand.

  As the boy struggled to his feet, grimacing as he put weight on his leg with the torn jeans, Gideon saw Kathleen hurrying down the street toward them. A frown carved deep lines into her face.

  “Kip, what happened?”

  “I tripped, but I’m okay,” he said in his tough-boy voice Gideon remembered using even while inside he’d been hurting.

  “I found your skateboard,” Jared shouted, holding it up.

  “My skateboard!” Kip limped toward his little brother and took it from him. He turned and grinned at Gideon and his mother. “I didn’t lose everything.”

  “How am I supposed to get angry at them when I see that?” Kathleen whispered, shifting toward him.

  “Kip and I talked. They’re scared. Everything familiar to them has been changing lately. They came over here to find anything of theirs they could cling to. I remember when I escaped the fire at my home, I grabbed my baseball card collection my dad and I started. It was my most prized possession.”

  “Do you still have it?”

  Memories washed through him, sharpening the pain of loss. “At one of my foster homes someone stole it from me. I thought I knew who had it and started a fight with him. He didn’t have it, but it got me thrown out of the house. It had been the last straw with the couple I lived with.”

  Kathleen covered her mouth and shook her head. “You never found it?”

  “No. But no one can take away the memories I have of my dad and me going to the store, deciding who to buy, putting it in a scrapbook.”

  Kathleen cleared her throat and turned back toward her children. “Do you mind if we take a little while to look around for the boys? Maybe there is something besides the skateboard.”

  “I was going to suggest that. At least until we find something of Jared’s.”

  She threw him a grin as she moved toward her sons. “Or it gets dark.”

  “Good idea. Besides, your mother was determined to fix a big batch of spaghetti for everyone.”

  Kip heard Gideon. “Spaghetti! This day is getting better and better.”

  Kathleen stopped next to Jared. “Let’s see what we can find of yours.”

  “Mom, I’ve looked everywhere. I don’t think there is anything. At least I’ve got Bubbles at Nana’s.”

  Gideon stood back for a few seconds while Kathleen and Jared went to a pile of items he’d stacked up earlier after clearing some debris and limbs away. These past few days had made him think about having a family. Years ago he’d given up on that idea. He’d been determined to go it alone in the world. But being with Kathleen and her sons revived that dream he’d had as a little boy. He’d been by himself for so long he didn�
�t know if it were possible.

  Half the neighborhood sat in her mother’s living and dining rooms. Kathleen handed the last person to arrive a plate with spaghetti. Someone else had brought a premixed salad and another person had two loaves of French bread. As she scanned the faces of the people on the street, tired expressions met her perusal but each person gave her a smile.

  When everyone was served and had a seat, her mother stood in the wide entrance between the two rooms and said, “I’d like to offer a blessing.” After several people bowed their heads, she closed her eyes and continued, “Lord, I know You are here with us even if at times it doesn’t seem like it. We need You. We need Your help rebuilding Hope. Bless this food we are sharing and the people who are gathered here. Amen.”

  A few around Kathleen murmured amen, but there were some people who grumbled. At the moment she didn’t know what to feel. She fought the urge to shut down physically and mentally, but spiritually she was teetering on a ledge—ready to fall any second.

  Gideon leaned toward her. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m still trying to sort out all my feelings. I feel like I’m at a boxing match and I’m down for the count. And it looks like most of the people are experiencing that, too.”

  “There’s a lot to do in the coming months.”

  “Jared informed me earlier today that Christmas isn’t too far away.”

  “The first of November is in a few days. I can’t believe it.”

  “I think Jared wants to start a new rock collection. He was disappointed that he couldn’t find it at the house.”

  “There’s still more to go through. It might turn up.”

  “I’m not telling him that, or he’ll get his hopes up. I don’t want him to be any more disappointed than he was when we left the cottage this afternoon.”

  “What was it kept in? That way I’ll know what to look for.”

  “It was in a wooden chest. He’d carved his name into it and about scared me to death. He’d gotten a hold of his dad’s pocketknife. I wondered why he was so quiet. When I found him in his room, he had all but the ‘d’ carved in the box. Kip had helped him. The rocks are some we found on our hikes in Colorado.” When we were a family before the trouble started. “He had a rock tumbler that polished them and made them shiny.”

  “And that’s gone, too. That doesn’t mean we can’t collect rocks around here.”

  “He already has. He found one on the ground by the cottage and put it in his pocket.”

  “Kids have a way of bouncing back.”

  Kathleen chuckled. “Probably before us adults.” Her gaze found Miss Alice sitting in a chair with a stool because her mother didn’t have a recliner like Miss Alice was used to. “I hear she threatened to go home when she discovered there was no recliner here.”

  Gideon followed the direction of her look. “I fixed that stool for her. She calmed down after that.”

  “I imagine being here with Kip and Jared is a bit much for her. She never married and had children. I don’t think she’s been around very many.”

  Kip approached Miss Alice and said something to her. Handing Kip her plate, the older lady smiled, a dimple actually appearing in her wrinkled face. He darted away and threaded his way through the crowd as the neighbors finished and began standing.

  “Mom told me that he’s been trying to help her, whereas Jared is staying as far away from her as he can living in the same house.”

  Tom Baker, who lived across the street, stopped in front of Gideon. “Some of us are going to help remove the tree and cover the hole in Miss Alice’s house tomorrow. The weatherman is saying there could be rain in a few days.”

  “Great. I want to help. What time?”

  “We’re thinking eight. It’s gonna take a good part of the day. Her house is the worst one hit on the block.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Tom nodded at Gideon. “I figured you would say that. Do you have a chainsaw?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll need it.”

  “Is there anything I can do?” Kathleen asked.

  Tom peered at her. “We could use some people to help haul the branches away.”

  “I can do that. Does Miss Alice know?”

  The man stared down at the floor for a moment, dragging his hand through his hair. “I figured you could tell her. You two have a way with her.”

  Kathleen pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. Miss Alice’s reputation was far worse than the woman really was. “I will.”

  “Good. We aim to help everyone on this street, even Miss Alice.”

  When he left, Gideon shifted toward her. “What about your house?”

  “It’s gone. There isn’t much we can do now but look for some of our possessions. If we have time, we’ll do it tomorrow afternoon.”

  “We? You mean Jared and Kip?”

  “Yes, today I realized they need to do that. They need some closure. We’ll be staying at Mom’s for a while. I think it will help them to understand the why of the tragedy by helping others and cleaning up the mess at the cottage.”

  “Besides, it will keep them out of trouble if they’re working.”

  “Well, that, too. At least until school resumes.”

  “At the fire station I heard that might not be for a couple of weeks. Some of the schools sustained serious damage. The one on the Point flooded. They’re going to have to find another place for the children to go to school—at least for most of the rest of the school year.”

  “Mom!”

  A silence fell over the room at the sound of Jared’s yell.

  “Mom! Cottonballs is gonna eat Bubbles.”

  All gazes turned to her. She rose. Miss Alice struggled to sit forward in her chair.

  “I’ll take care of this, Miss Alice.” Kathleen hurried from the room and up the stairs with Gideon following.

  Upstairs in the room Kip and Jared shared at her Mom’s, she found Jared holding a dripping wet white cat. Kathleen immediately looked at the goldfish, which was swimming around the bowl as though nothing had happened.

  “He’s a menace. We need to lock him up until he leaves.” Jared’s forehead was scrunched, his eyebrows slashing down. He held at arm’s length a wiggling Cottonballs with his claws out, waiting to sink into something soft like flesh.

  Gideon crossed the room and gingerly took the cat from Jared. The beast kept squirming, determined to get back to his food in the bowl. “I’ll take him to Miss Alice.”

  After Gideon left, she shut the door and turned toward her son. “Let’s keep this closed while Cottonballs is staying here.”

  “Why is he, Mom? Miss Alice is always frowning at me. She doesn’t like me.”

  “Have you tried to talk to her?”

  “Well, no. What do I say to her? She isn’t like Nana. I’ve heard her yell at kids in her yard.”

  “I don’t think she is used to kids.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Kathleen sat on the twin bed nearest her. “She isn’t around children much.”

  Jared gave her a confused look.

  “Sometimes kids require a certain kind of patience not everyone has.”

  “I was thinking the same thing about Miss Alice.”

  “Hon, it won’t be too long. Once her house is livable she’ll want to leave. Put yourself in her shoes. She has always lived alone. Now all of a sudden she is living with two children and two adults. She knows Nana, but she really doesn’t know us well. We’re all family. She isn’t part of our family and may be lonely. Maybe she feels left out a little. And she can’t do much to help everyone with cleanup.”

  “Why not? She could help Nana fix the meals.”

  “You’re right. I don’t think anyone has asked her. But remember, Jared, she’s a guest in our home.”

  “This isn’t our home. It’s Nana’s. We don’t—” His voice caught. “We don’t have a home.”

  “Yes, we do. Home is where we are together even if it i
s at Nana’s. We might not have a house or apartment for a while, but we have a home.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “Why can’t we?”

  “Because we were not the only ones who lost their house. There will be a shortage of places to live until people can rebuild. That will take time.”

  “Like Miss Alice’s house?”

  “Yeah. Her place will need extensive work to be livable again.”

  “While Nana’s and Gideon’s don’t?”

  “You’re right. We only sustained minor damage compared to others.” Kathleen shoved to her feet. “Now I need to go help Nana clean up. Are you coming downstairs?”

  “No, I need to make sure Bubbles is all right.”

  Kathleen hugged Jared. “I love you. Everything will be all right in time.”

  As she left her sons’ room and descended the steps to the ground floor, she wondered if everything really would be all right in time. She hoped—prayed—it would be, but she felt buried under a pile of rubble the storm created.

  Seeing the house cleared of neighbors now that darkness was settling outside, Kathleen checked in the den where the sleeper sofa was set up for Miss Alice to see if she needed anything. The woman wasn’t in the room. Voices coming from the kitchen drew her toward it. When she entered, she found Miss Alice drying the dishes while her mom washed and Gideon put them away in the cabinets.

  “This is an efficient team. I guess you all don’t need me.”

  Gideon slanted a look over his shoulder then continued to stack the glasses into the cupboard. “Yeah, we’ll have this cleaned up in no time. Miss Alice was telling us about her first job when she was a young girl. She was a dishwasher in a fancy restaurant in New Orleans. I’ve eaten in the place a couple of times.”

  “You lived in New Orleans, Miss Alice? I thought you’d lived here all your life.”

  “Child, I lived all over the world until I was thirty and retired to Hope.”

  “Retired? At thirty?” Kathleen bridged the distance between them and made herself busy putting away the rest of the food.