He drove past her house and circled the cul-de-sac then parked a couple of doors down and glanced at his watch. He couldn’t stay parked on the street long without becoming suspect for the neighborhood watch enthusiasts, but if his hunch was right, he shouldn’t have to wait long.
A couple of minutes later, her garage door opened, and the same green sedan he’d seen at the mall backed out. He noted, with a feeling of satisfaction he didn’t expect, that she was alone. He followed her to a church of concrete and brick that looked like it had served the community for more than a hundred years. He pulled over to the curb and waited until she disappeared inside. Then he parked in the lot and entered church for the first time in eighteen years.
Kevin slipped into a back pew, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. He saw Sarah several seats ahead on the opposite side. Good, he could watch her without her knowledge.
“Welcome to our church.” A middle-aged woman with a wide smile stuck her hand in front of him. “I’m Vera Haines.”
He gave her hand a firm shake and smiled. “Glad to be here. I’m Kevin Nichols.”
“If you’re looking for a church home, you’ve found a good place.”
Kevin’s stomach tightened at the thought. “No, I’m just visiting.”
“Well, Kevin, I sure hope you enjoy our services, which I believe are about to start. Come visit anytime.” The woman smiled again and walked away as organ music began.
Kevin kept Sarah in sight throughout the opening until a voice caught his attention. “We have a couple of visitors today we’d like to welcome.” A man stood behind the pulpit looking out over the congregation. “We won’t ask you to stand, but a quick wave will help our ushers find you, as we have a welcome gift for you. Tina Higgins is here with her mother. Glad to meet you, Tina.”
Kevin watched a young lady near the front lift her hand.
“And Kevin Nichols is here visiting our church for the first time, I believe.”
So much for sneaking up on Sarah. Kevin gritted his teeth. He shouldn’t have told that woman his name. When the pastor called him a second time, he lifted his hand and caught Sarah’s glare across the church. He smiled and wiggled his fingers her direction. She swung back toward the front.
He figured he’d better get to her car before she did as soon as church ended, or she’d slip away from him. He accepted the little welcome bag from the usher and settled back to listen to the sermon.
Almost an hour later, after the last “Amen,” Kevin turned toward the door leading outside. He shook the pastor’s hand and promised to return as soon as he could. Then he headed for the parking lot.
Sarah wasn’t at her car yet, so he decided he’d wait in his. He couldn’t blame Sarah for hating him, but he wanted a chance to tell her how sorry he was for all the pain he’d caused them both. The parking lot was almost empty when he finally saw her step out the front door and walk toward her car. He met her at the front fender.
She looked up with a jerk. “What are you doing here?”
He didn’t expect her hostile greeting to hurt like it did. He’d gotten over Sarah a long time ago. He didn’t need the sweaty palms and pounding heartbeat from his teen years that hit him without warning.
“We have unfinished business. Let’s go out to eat and talk.”
“No one tells me what to do, Kevin. Least of all you.”
He took a deep breath and stuck his hands in his pockets. Okay, he could do this. He gave one quick nod. “Fine, that isn’t my intention anyway. But let’s get something straight right now. We have a past, Sarah. That isn’t going away. Sometime we’ll need to talk about it, but for now, let’s stick to the present. For some reason our paths have crossed again. You want me to do something about your girls’ home, and I’m ready to listen. What do you say? It’s up to you.”
Chapter 5
S arah looked into the adult face of the young man whose memory had haunted her over the years and knew she had no choice. No doubt she’d regret her decision by morning, but today she had no defense against the attraction that had always been her downfall. Only now she was older, without the raging hormones of her teen years. Surely she could discuss business with Kevin without buckling to his charms.
Besides, if she refused to talk to him, he’d go ahead with his plans to demolish the girls’ home. She couldn’t let that happen. By some slim chance, maybe she could talk sense into him. If not, she’d never have a better chance to tell him exactly what she thought of him.
He spoke before she agreed. “Why don’t we take your car to your house so it isn’t out in the open. I’d like for you to ride with me, if you will.”
Kevin flashed dimples at her, and she looked away. “Since you know where I go to church, I assume you know where I live, too.”
“I’ll follow you to make sure I don’t get lost.”
He walked to his car without admitting anything. Maybe she should come right out and ask how he knew where to find her.
Sarah drove to her house and into her garage without once giving in to the strong impulse to look in her rearview mirror. When she stepped outside and lowered the garage door, Kevin waited by his car parked at the curb.
He opened the passenger door for her, and she smoothed her skirt and slid in.
Being so near the one man she had vowed to never speak to again tore at Sarah’s nerves until she wanted to jump from the car. Yet here she sat, going out to eat with him. What would her mother say if she knew? She almost laughed aloud at the thought. She’d told her parents all about her visit with Trey, but she hadn’t mentioned Kevin’s unexpected presence. They never approved of Kevin. Mom especially hadn’t. She said more than once he was a bad influence on her. Maybe she was right. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone with him today.
“So you’re involved with this girls’ home.” Kevin spoke into the silence, both of his hands gripping the steering wheel. “Are you a social worker?”
“No.” She looked behind as he pulled onto the street.
His eyebrows lifted when he shot a quick glance at her. “You aren’t a housemother, are you?”
She couldn’t stop the quick laugh that brought a smile to his lips. “No, I’m not a housemother. I work at a hospital.”
“You’re a nurse?” If anything, his eyes widened even more. “I have a hard time seeing that. I bet your male patients never get well.”
“Why not?”
His intense look traveled through her heart and stopped in her stomach, causing an unsettled feeling that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. She averted her eyes and waited for his reply.
“Any conscious male would love having a nurse with your looks.”
“Even if he’s only seven years old?” Sarah’s heart fluttered from Kevin’s words. Harold’s flattery never affected her this way. She stared through the windshield at the traffic, as Kevin took an on-ramp to the freeway. “I work in a children’s hospital.”
“Aw, that ain’t fair.” Kevin whined so well, she almost laughed. “Here I was wondering how I could get admitted into your hospital.”
“I’m not a nurse, Kevin.”
He frowned. “Well, if you’re none of the above, what are you? A housewife? No, you work in a hospital. So what is it?”
While they talked, they traveled several miles east until Kevin took the next exit. Sarah waited to answer his questions until he stopped beside a restaurant called the Summit.
He shut off the engine and spoke first. “Okay, Sarah, let’s do some catchup. Are you married? Ever been married? Divorced? Engaged? Spoken for? Got a serious boyfriend? What?”
Sarah caught her breath from the shock of his questions. Hadn’t they been talking about her livelihood? Why would he care about her marital state? He sat across the car, watching her with a serious expression.
She shook her head. “I don’t know anything about you either.”
He shrugged. “I’m single. Unattached.”
What did that mean? Had he been married? Did he ha
ve children? Why should she tell him anything? She owed him nothing.
She let her mouth curve slightly while her hand found the door handle. “Then we’re even. I’m also unattached.”
She opened the door and stepped out before he spoke. She bent over and saw he hadn’t moved. He stared at her. Did the same thoughts clamoring in her mind run through his also?
She smiled sweetly. “Well, aren’t we going inside? I don’t think they have curb service here.”
Twenty minutes later, they’d been served and were well into a delicious meal. Sarah took a sip of water and looked about the busy restaurant. “Are you aware this place sits beside Route 66? There’s a sign on the street right out in front. I wonder if they were in business back when the road was in its prime.”
Kevin glanced around. “Looks like they might’ve been. Anyway there’s some Route 66 memorabilia on the wall. Are you a history enthusiast?”
“Not really.” Sarah smiled. “Do you remember Tessa Stevens from school?”
Kevin looked blank a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, vaguely. Wasn’t she the one who looked like she’d crawled up from the underworld? Never wore anything with color except her lipstick? Black clothes and black hair.” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “You were friends with her in junior high before she got all crazy.”
“Actually, I’ve never stopped being friends with her. Amanda Davis and I made a vow to never give up on her. We never did. You remember Amanda, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “She was your best friend. How’s she doing?”
“Fine now.” Sarah played with her water glass, turning it with her fingers. “She went back to school for her degree. She quit when she married. It shouldn’t be long before she finishes now. But I was telling you about Tessa.”
He nodded, watching her as if he was really interested. It could be an act, but she didn’t care at the moment. If anyone had told her a week ago she would enjoy Kevin’s company, she’d have thought they were crazy. Now she believed she could sit here all afternoon, as long as he kept watching and listening like she was the most important thing to him. She felt like a child starved for love and attention, ready to gobble it up from the first person who offered. But that couldn’t be true. Not when she ran from Harold’s attention. A person could think too much, trying to analyze every emotion. So what if she shared some weird chemistry with Kevin? That didn’t mean a thing. She’d already found that out the hard way.
She took a sip of water and thought about Tessa. “She lives in Texas now, but we keep in touch. She came up here before she married. She and her three boys traveled Route 66 on their vacation.”
“And you’re interested in the Mother Road now.” Kevin grinned at her and then changed the subject before she spoke. “So tell me, what is it you do at the hospital where you work?”
“I’m the personnel director. I usually sit at a desk and shuffle paperwork, plus a few other fun things. But you haven’t told me what you do for a living.” Sarah tried to shift the attention from her.
“You went to college, then?” Kevin looked across the table with an intense expression, as if her answer mattered somehow.
She nodded.
He visibly swallowed and looked down at their empty plates. “That’s great. Are you finished?”
She smiled. “With college? Sure, that only took four years. I finished a long time ago. It really wasn’t that hard.”
He laughed. “Cute. I meant with your meal.”
She couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling to mingle with his. “Oh that! I will be as soon as you tell me about your job.”
His smile deepened. “No big mystery. I’m an accountant.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows rose. “You aren’t a contractor?”
“Nope.” Kevin placed his napkin on the table. “But I do buy and sell real estate on the side. Mostly old buildings in bad shape. Some of those I sell to be replaced. Others I sell to be repaired. All of them so I can get a profit.”
“Which brings us to the reason we’re here. You obviously intend to demolish Marilee’s Home for a profit.” Sarah leaned back in her chair, ready to do battle.
Kevin glanced around the dining room. “You know, this place is filling up. Why don’t we go somewhere quieter to talk? There are a lot of things we can say, but mostly, Sarah, I’d like to know about you. I think we could spend hours talking and still just brush the surface of everything that should be said. Demolishing your home is just one in a long list of topics.”
When Kevin stood, Sarah knew she’d have to wait to talk to him. Maybe he was right. This wasn’t the best place to carry on a conversation that could get emotional on her part. Besides, she had an idea. She let him pull her chair out as she rose, and together they left the restaurant.
When they reached the car, he asked, “Where would you like to go now?”
“My home?” The idea of taking Kevin to see the home he would be tearing down came to Sarah as they left the table. She still wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
“Your house?” His eyes lit up while his dimples flashed. “Now that would be a private place to talk, wouldn’t it?”
She gave a short laugh. “Forget it. You know perfectly well that’s not what I meant. You’ve been calling Marilee’s Home my home, so I did, too.”
His eyes widened. “You’re talking about giving me a tour of your girls’ home so I’ll change my mind, aren’t you?”
“Of course.” She smiled across the car at him. Then she shrugged. “I think you should see what you’ll be tearing down. I bet you’ve never been inside, have you?”
He glanced at his watch. “No, but I’m willing to take a look. Will a ten-minute tour satisfy you? I’ve got something I want to do afterward.”
She nodded. “Okay. That’s better than I expected anyway.”
Kevin couldn’t keep his eyes from straying toward Sarah while he drove to the home. He’d been completely aware of her since she backed her car out of her garage that morning. He didn’t look forward to this day’s end.
At Marilee’s Home, Kevin parked near the old dilapidated white frame building and wondered how anyone could become attached to such a place. A patio of sorts in the back with a privacy fence gave the only access to the outdoors for the girls. Wouldn’t they prefer a yard to plant flowers and maybe even a vegetable garden? The area might have once been residential, but businesses had sprung up on both sides of the street. This would be a perfect place for a mini mall. He couldn’t imagine anyone choosing to live here.
Once they were inside, in the short ten minutes he’d allowed Sarah, he saw a clean, comfortable-looking home just as Sarah had insinuated. The housemother was a little withdrawn when Sarah introduced him as Kevin Nichols, the new owner. Not that he could blame her. He was, after all, the enemy.
“This is Darlene,” Sarah said with a warm smile for the woman who appeared to be in her forties.
She didn’t offer her hand, so Kevin simply smiled and nodded. “I’m pleased to meet you, ma’am. Sarah informed me of your plight, and I want you to know I’ll be glad to help you in any way I can. Turning you out on the street, as Sarah so colorfully put it, is not my intention.”
Darlene’s eyes lit up. “Then you’ve reconsidered? You won’t be tearing our home down after all?”
“Why don’t we show Kevin around before we talk?” Sarah touched the other woman’s arm and motioned toward the next room.
Darlene led the way through café doors into a large dining room. Kevin followed Sarah. Two girls sat at the table, apparently studying from textbooks. They called a greeting to Sarah and gave him an appraising look. The scene appeared as a normal home, except both teenagers were several months’ pregnant. In the next room, three more girls lounged on a sofa and chairs watching TV. One of them held a tiny baby. Again, when they glanced up and saw him, he felt as if he’d been judged and condemned. All the girls called a greeting to Sarah. They seemed to accept her in their home almost as if
she belonged or was a frequent visitor.
Sarah introduced him to the girls. When she came to the one holding the baby, she said, “This is Kayla. She’s holding Emmie, her daughter who is only two months old. Kayla is attending work skills classes as well as parenting classes while she works part-time and finishes her senior year of high school. She has a full load now, but plans to attend junior college this fall.”
Kayla gave a shy smile. “I’m no different from the others. We owe a lot to this place, and we all work hard because of that. But mostly to make a decent life for our children.”
Kevin nodded but didn’t speak. He knew Sarah was trying to convince him to save the building. More than once, he wondered how she felt after giving up their baby. Even he had felt the loss as a heavy ache gradually lessening through the years. But Sarah had nurtured Trey with her body. She’d carried him for nine months. Surely her loss had been so much greater than anything he’d suffered. Now he knew how she dealt with her pain. No wonder this place was so important to her. Giving time, support, and probably money to help other girls keep their babies and learn job skills most likely helped her deal with her loss.
He listened to their statistics of success and saw the evidence in the girls who were there, but his visit didn’t change anything. Before the day ended, he’d have to tell Sarah.
When they left the home, Sarah thought Kevin would say something promising to Darlene. Instead he gave her a tight smile and said, “Thanks for the tour. You have a nice home here.”
Sarah didn’t know what to do. Should she let him think about what he’d seen first before she pushed him? Not wanting to do anything that might jeopardize any progress she might have made, she simply walked with him to his car and let him open the door for her.
When he slid behind the wheel, she said, “I didn’t keep you too long, did I?”
His grinned as he started the engine. He looked out the windshield and shook his head. “Nope. We have plenty of time for one more thing before I take you home. Your dad isn’t visiting this weekend, is he?”
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