“Hmmm.” She took a drink of her water. “Where does Hollywood fit into the picture?”
“I don’t know.” He downed his water and set the glass on the counter. “I already told you what I think about my next movie.”
“You’re serious?” Katy angled her head. She was standing across from him, a few feet separating them.
“I want you to read for the part. If the director likes what he sees, you should consider it.”
Katy released her next breath slowly. “I don’t know, Dayne. I love what I’ve got here. CKT, the theater kids, and their families.”
He smiled. “God will make it clear. Whichever way it’s supposed to go.”
They heard the sound of pounding feet on the stairs, and Dayne felt a wave of sorrow. He spoke softly so the boys wouldn’t hear him. “I hope Cody comes out of it soon. I’d love to give those guys some good news.”
Katy finished her water. “For now let’s give them dinner.”
The boys came into the kitchen talking all at once. By unanimous decision, they decided on sloppy joes.
“I’ll get the mix!” BJ ran for the pantry, disappeared inside, and came out balancing four cans in his arms. “This should be enough!”
Katy laughed. “For most of the neighborhood.”
“Where’re the pans?” Dayne had washed his hands and rolled up his sleeves.
Katy pointed to a cupboard and directed Dayne to find the pan and a pack of buns in the refrigerator while she went to the garage for a frozen package of ground beef. “It’ll thaw as we cook it.” She peeled off the plastic wrap, dropped the icy block of meat into a frying pan, and turned the burner on. Bright flames licked the sides.
Dayne studied the situation. “Maybe turn it down a little. Since it’s still frozen.”
“Nah.” Katy found a lid and covered the pan. “I’ve seen Jenny do this a dozen times. The high heat thaws it.” Her eyes danced, and she gave him a look that said she knew what she was doing. “I know about cooking.”
From the other room, Justin called to them. He was the second oldest of the three boys the Flanigans had adopted from Haiti. In addition to being the most athletic, Justin was the tallest boy with the largest build of the four youngest Flanigans. Dayne had noticed that around his brothers, Justin could slip into a teasing mode that bordered on cockiness. But for the most part he was a gentle kid who took it easy on his siblings.
Today, though, he’d been beaten at football. Now he was chalking up a cue stick and standing near the pool table. “Who thinks they can take me?”
Ricky ran up to Dayne and grabbed his sleeve. “You can do it, Dayne! You can beat him.”
Dayne had heard the stories. Some days even Jim couldn’t beat Justin at pool. He shrugged in Katy’s direction. “Someone has to do it.”
They moved into the great room, and not until the game was tied with two balls left apiece did Dayne smell something burning. At the same time, Katy gasped and raced back into the kitchen.
Dayne saw a ribbon of smoke drifting from the direction of the stove. “Is it on fire?”
“Not yet. Hurry, Dayne,” Katy yelled. She sounded frantic. There was the sound of her rushing around the kitchen, then the crash of something dropping.
Dayne left his cue stick balanced against the table and jogged toward her as fast as he could, the boys close behind. As they rounded the corner, Dayne saw the problem. With the flame still on high, the bottom of the frozen block of ground beef had burned to a crisp, sticking firmly to the pan.
Katy was picking up the pieces of a large glass mixing bowl as Dayne reached the stove. “I was trying to dump it in this.”
“Just a minute.” Dayne rushed toward the open cupboard, grabbed another big bowl, and tried to grab the pan handle. But it was too hot. Meanwhile, the smoke was getting thicker. “The flame’s still on.” He flipped the burner to the off position and set the bowl on the counter next to the stove. “Where’re the pot holders?”
“Right.” Katy jumped up, darted around the corner of the island, and opened the first drawer. “Watch the glass!” From the stack of hot pads, she grabbed an oven mitt and tossed it to Dayne. “Here.”
He barely caught it, slipped it over his hand, and finally removed the frying pan from the stove. The lid was still in place, though it wasn’t enough to keep smoke from curling out around the edges. Using his gloved hand, he lifted the lid and set it down.
Ricky and BJ began coughing and waving their hands, trying to clear the kitchen air.
“Stay back!” Katy ushered them into the great room. As she did, Dayne heard her slide open both patio doors.
But the fresh air didn’t come fast enough. Before Dayne could thank her, the smoke alarm went off.
The siren pulsed through the house, and the boys covered their ears. Shawn made eye contact with Dayne and said above the noise, “This happened last time Katy cooked.”
Katy put her hands on her hips and gave the boy a wry look. “Thanks, Shawn.” She turned her attention to Dayne. Her smile said she wasn’t capable of a defense. Especially over the roar of the alarm.
Dayne took the lid from the pan and tried to sweep fresh air toward the monitor. “Are you hooked up with the fire department?”
“I think so.” Katy was doing her best to fan air into the house. “What should we do?”
“Last time, Mommy called the firemen.” Ricky folded his arms in front of him. “She said you have to do it fast or they come with their sirens and everything.”
Katy dodged the broken glass and hurried to the phone at the other end of the kitchen. She opened a drawer and sifted through a stack of papers. “Ugh . . . the false alarm stuff’s supposed to be in here.”
“Is it in a folder or just loose?” Dayne moved to her side, helping look through the documents in the drawer.
“Maybe I should call Jenny. Except her cell phone’s probably off since she’s—”
She never had the chance to finish her sentence. Sirens sounded in the distance and grew closer every second.
“They’re coming!” Suddenly Dayne took stock of the situation, and he felt himself starting to laugh. The picture was hysterical. The boys covering their ears in the next room, Katy frantically looking through the drawer, and shattered glass all over the floor—while the burned block of frozen meat sat in the middle of the counter looking less like dinner all the time.
Through the front window, Dayne watched a fire engine pull into the Flanigans’ driveway.
Katy threw her hands in the air and blew a sharp breath at her bangs. “Great. Jenny’ll never let me watch the kids again.”
“I’ll handle it.” Dayne gave her a quick hug. As he walked by the smoke alarm, he fanned fresh air at it once more. This time it was just enough; the relentless siren fell silent.
“Does that mean there’s no fire?” BJ blinked, his brown eyes so wide that Dayne could see the whites all the way around them.
“There’s no fire.” Dayne looked at each boy as he passed by. “Stay here.” He ran down the short hall toward the entryway and opened the door just as three firefighters came up the tiered sidewalk.
The man at the front of the trio was Landon Blake, Dayne’s brother-in-law, his sister Ashley’s husband. “The call came through, and I figured it was a false alarm.” Landon’s face was taken up with his smile. “We’ve had a few others here.”
Dayne leaned against the doorframe. “Let me guess. . . .” He made a face that suggested he already knew the answer. “All when Katy was cooking?”
“Afraid so.” Landon stopped on the porch and peered into the house. “What’s she making this time?”
“Frozen beef.” Dayne massaged his brow with his thumb and forefinger. “Charbroiled frozen beef.”
“Mmmm.” Landon gave him a light punch on the shoulder. “Sorry I can’t make it, friend.” He looked at his watch. “We have to get back. You know, in case someone else sets off a smoke alarm.”
Katy must’ve heard Landon
’s voice, because she came down the hallway toward the open front door, her hands on her hips. “Did Dayne mention that I was distracted?”
Dayne gave a mock serious nod. “It’s all my fault.” He waved off the firefighters. “She was too distracted to remember she had ground beef thawing over a high flame.” He pressed his fist to his chest. “All my fault.”
Katy opened her mouth as if she might try to defend herself further. But then her shoulders sagged, and she gave the firefighters a sheepish smile. “Sorry, guys. At least the smoke alarm works.”
Landon laughed hard. “It was a slow day at the firehouse anyway. We needed to get out.” He patted Katy on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Here’s a tip.” One of the firefighters nodded at Katy. “Don’t use a high flame unless you’re standing right by the stove.”
Dayne wasn’t about to say he’d told her so. He only saluted the firefighter. “We’ll try to remember that.”
Landon made a few more minutes of small talk. “You and Katy coming to the big leftover dinner tomorrow at the Baxters’?”
“Definitely.” It occurred to Dayne then that Landon might not know about Cody Coleman. He allowed a few seconds for the silliness to fade. Then he explained about the boy and his drinking and how Jim and Jenny and Bailey were at the hospital.
Landon’s face lost some of its color as the story sank in. “I’m sorry. Please . . . tell them Ashley and I’ll be praying.”
“Us too.” The quieter firefighter raised his hand. “If he pulls out of it, pray it’s the last time he does something like this.”
After the conversation ended and Dayne and Katy bid the firefighters good-bye, Dayne hesitated just inside the door. “You’d never see that in LA, not for a minute. Firefighters come to the door, laughing about a false alarm and sticking around to shoot the breeze?” Dayne reached out and pulled Katy to him. “I love this place. I love everything about it.”
“Dayne? What about dinner?” Shawn peered into the hallway. “Me and the brothers are hungry.”
Katy laughed. “Dayne’s going to think up something this time.”
As it turned out, the beef was salvageable. Dayne sliced off the burned bottom and finished the job, slow cooking it the way he’d suggested in the first place. Every time his eyes met Katy’s, they laughed again.
“It’s not funny.” Ricky was still concerned about the fire truck coming to the house. As the youngest Flanigan, he acted brave for his brothers. But his concern showed now that the danger had passed. “The whole house coulda burned down.”
“I know.” Katy put her hand over her mouth. “It’s my nervous laugh. Used to drive my parents crazy.”
Dayne slipped his arm around her waist. “I know the feeling.” He leaned in close to her ear. “Everything about you drives me crazy.” He kissed the tip of her nose and winked at her. “But in a different sort of way.”
Katy managed to pull off a salad without dropping anything or slicing her fingers. BJ prayed for the meal, and the sloppy joes tasted only mildly like smoke.
All through dinner Dayne kept reminding himself that he wasn’t on the set of a movie. This was real life for the Flanigans—a houseful of kids with merriment and boys teasing each other while they ate. Yes, they would have to deal with their concerns about Cody Coleman at some time, but for now the dinner was full of life and love and everything Dayne had always thought a family should be about.
“Hey, let’s play the Three!” Shawn raised his fork.
“The Three?” Dayne gave Katy a look. “Help me out.”
“It’s a dinner game the Flanigans made up. Someone picks a category, and we go around the table. Everyone has to say three answers.” Katy shrugged. “Simple.”
“I called it. I get the topic.” Shawn grinned at the others. “Three favorite moments of all time.” He went first, naming the time he’d scored the winning goal in a championship soccer game, the day he arrived in the United States from Haiti, and the afternoon a year ago when their dad took them to get Mandy, their yellow Lab puppy.
Ricky went next. “Christmas mornings and birthday mornings and every time we go swimming!”
“No, no.” Justin leaned his forearms on the table. “That’s tons of moments. Shawn was talking about three moments.”
“Those are three!” Ricky halfway stood at his place. He held up one finger. “Christmas mornings.” The second finger. “Birthday mornings.” And a third finger. “And every time we go swimming.” He looked at his three fingers. “See, three moments.”
“I think we can call it three.” Katy dabbed her mouth with her napkin and smiled at Ricky. “Very good, buddy. I like the same three.”
And so it went. Finally it was Katy’s turn. She looked at her plate for a moment as a soft laugh came from her throat. “I have about three million.” She glanced at Dayne. “In the last few years, anyway.”
“But you need three exact ones.” Justin was still defining the rules, keeping them on task.
“Hmmm.” Katy tilted her head. “Okay, looking across the theater during opening night and seeing Dayne there, knowing that he had come to see me when he should’ve been in LA. And the second, when Dayne pulled that dusty old Christmas tree off me after I fell on the stage, and then he took out a ring and asked me to marry him.” She looked deep into Dayne’s eyes. “And the third was when we came home a few days before Thanksgiving and found half of Bloomington had fixed up our house. Even Dayne’s brother, Luke.”
“Your turn.” Ricky pointed at Dayne. “Three best moments.”
Dayne held Katy’s gaze a little longer. He loved her so much, and she was right. It was impossible to limit the number of amazing moments to three. Each of hers was still very much alive in his heart as well. But the boys were waiting, so he needed to give an answer. He gave Justin a silly look and jabbed his thumb in Katy’s direction. “She stole mine.”
“You have to think of different ones then.” Justin nodded at his brothers. “Right, guys?”
“Yeah.” Ricky giggled. “Stealing doesn’t count.”
“Okay.” Dayne sighed and looked at the ceiling for a moment. “The first time I saw Katy—the time when I walked into the theater and heard a bunch of kids singing a song from Charlie Brown, and then when the show ended, Katy climbed onstage and thanked the kids and families.” He looked at her. “I haven’t been the same since.”
“What’s the second?” BJ bounced in his seat. The boys clearly had no time for mushy stuff.
“Second, when Katy and I walked to the top of the Indiana University stadium. We were all by ourselves, and at the far end of the football field the band was practicing.”
“There was a breeze, and it was the first time—” Katy stopped short, as if she suddenly realized it wasn’t her turn. She put her finger to her lips. “Oops.”
“Yeah, come on! Dayne isn’t finished.” Justin gave Katy a pretend look of warning.
Dayne chuckled, but he shot Katy a look that said he knew what she was about to say. It was one of the first times they’d ever kissed, a moment when their feelings for each other had never been more clear—even with all the obstacles that stood in their way.
Dayne cleared his throat. “And the third—” he felt his smile fade—“was when I was working myself as hard as I could in rehab, and something inside me snapped.”
“Like your arm?” Ricky’s eyes grew wide.
“No . . .” Dayne kept himself from laughing. “Something inside my heart. I stopped working out for a minute and talked to Katy, and I knew—from that moment on—that nothing would come between us ever again. No matter how things worked out or where they worked out, the two of us would be together.”
Ricky made a face. “That’s yucky girl stuff.”
“Yep.” Justin gave Dayne a knowing smile. “But Dayne’s old. That’s okay for him and Katy.”
“I’m old, yes.” Dayne put his arm around Katy’s shoulders and grinned at Justin. “But this old guy
just beat you in a football game.”
They all laughed, and Ricky pointed at Justin. “Oooh! You got served!”
“Yeah, okay.” Justin held up his hands in Dayne’s direction. “Tomorrow we get a rematch.”
The upbeat atmosphere continued while they cleared the table and washed dishes and counters. The boys were upstairs brushing their teeth when Katy took a call from Jim Flanigan. There wasn’t much news. Jim and Jenny and Bailey were staying a little longer at the hospital. There had been a few changes in Cody’s vital signs, but nothing drastic enough to be a real encouragement. Jim asked them to keep praying.
When the boys came down in their pajamas, Dayne and Katy cuddled with them on the leather sofa in the great room, and they watched the Indiana Pacers take on the Cleveland Cavaliers. The boys were immediately glued to the action, cheering whenever LeBron James did a monster dunk.
“I thought you’d be Indiana fans.” Dayne loved their enthusiasm.
“We are.” Justin didn’t take his eyes from the screen. “But we’re LeBron fans first.”
The game came down to the final minute, when LeBron led the Cavaliers in a surge that gave them the win. The boys celebrated by reenacting LeBron’s dunks and talking all at once about how they were going to play like that one day.
When the energy died down, Katy made the announcement. “Okay, guys . . . time for bed!”
“Can you read to us?” Ricky took Dayne’s hand as they walked up the stairs.
The feel of Ricky’s little-boy fingers stirred the strongest feelings in Dayne. Feelings of fatherhood and family and all that he wanted to share with Katy in the years ahead. He looked back at her, bringing up the rear next to BJ. “Do we have time?”
“Sure.” Katy put her arm around BJ’s shoulders. “Your mom reads to you, right?”
“Almost every night.” Justin went ahead of the group.
The boys’ rooms were at the end of the hall—Justin and Ricky’s on the left and Shawn and BJ’s on the right. They settled on reading in Shawn and BJ’s room, since everyone agreed it was their turn.
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