“You’re welcome.” His quiet answer made Holly shiver. It was as if he’d understood all three of her reasons for thanking him. She wasn’t used to having another adult to talk to most of the time. Especially not a man, and definitely not one who understood her. She had figured she’d lost that luxury for good when Kevin died.
She hid her confusion by grabbing her cardboard cup of coffee. Opening the cabinet, she got a mug out and poured the coffee in. She took a moment to bring it up to full steam in the microwave and sat down at the table with the mug, hoping she could mask the whirl of feelings that threatened to swamp her.
“We saved you one, Mom.” Aidan pushed the box closer to her, coming perilously close to knocking over her coffee. A veteran of such encounters, Holly moved her mug in time.
“Good for you. And it’s even the cinnamon kind. Who told Mr. Wilkins that I liked those?”
It was Conor’s turn to grin this time. “I did. And he said to call him Alex, Mom, not Mr. Wilkins. Is that okay?”
“If that’s what he said, Conor.” She looked around the table at the crumbs and mostly empty milk glasses. “Now, if you guys are done with breakfast, how about going in and washing your hands and faces again and getting dressed for school?”
Aidan took one last swig of chocolate milk and the two of them were off. “I didn’t think about that much sugar in them on a school morning,” Alex said. “Hope their teacher doesn’t threaten to strangle me.”
“Don’t worry, they’ll burn it off before they get there. Fortunately sugar isn’t a problem for either of them.” Holly looked at her overnight guest. He didn’t really look as if he’d slept a lot better than she had. His hair was still a bit rumpled, and the flannel shirt he was wearing had the earmarks of having been slept in. “So, what did they ask you? And what did you tell them?”
Alex sighed and ran a hand through his sandy hair. “Conor’s sharp for five. I’ll bet you have a challenge keeping up with him.”
“I do. He’s always the one with the questions I can’t answer. Aidan is satisfied with a lot less in the way of explanations.”
“Yeah, knowing that I was an old work buddy of Kevin’s was enough for him. That and doughnuts.” Alex grinned out of one side of his mouth.
“The chocolate milk didn’t hurt, either. Smart move, Wilkins.”
The grin made it all the way to his tired eyes this time. “Guys and food bribery. It does solve a lot of problems.”
“True. But it won’t solve all the problems this time. We’re going to need to figure out something to tell them without going into the details about Rico. They know very little about Kevin’s death, and I intend to keep it that way until they’re a lot older.”
“And they’re much too young to have to deal with this situation,” Alex agreed. “Conor did mention that maybe you could use a little help around here. Maybe we could just leave things at that. Tell them that I’ve come to help out for a while.”
“We don’t need that much help.” Holly knew she sounded argumentative, but it was the way she felt. “I can take care of my kids and myself just fine, thank you.”
“I know you can. But you shouldn’t have to. Especially not in this situation, Holly.” His hand slid over the table to cover hers. “I know this has to be rough. How rough I can’t even imagine as a single guy with no one depending on me. Now Cook County has added to your burden by messing up Rico’s custody arrangements. At least let me try to make that up to you.”
Holly drew her hand out from under his. It felt too good to have that human contact, and she surely couldn’t get used to it. “There’s no way you can make up to me what Cook County did to mess up my life. But I know you’re not going away for a while, so I might as well get used to you.” She’d try to get used to him, anyway. It would be difficult to do without depending on him, but Holly knew that she couldn’t depend on anybody anymore. The past eighteen months had certainly taught her that. “What do I owe you for breakfast?”
He waved away her concern before she could reach for her purse. “Nothing. I spent less altogether than I would have for one coffee and a scone in Chicago.”
“Well, don’t make a habit of providing the groceries around here.”
“Only as long as I’m eating part of them. Will we have time for a supermarket run once you drop these guys off at school? I only got one cup of coffee for each of us, and I can guarantee that I’ll be looking for more before we go in to The Bistro later.”
Holly felt tired already. Having Alex around was certainly going to complicate her life. Maybe if she didn’t argue with him, and showed him enough of what her normal life was like, he’d lose interest quickly. “Sure. Now, why don’t you go break up the water fight that I know is going on in the bathroom so that we can get those guys to school on time and relatively dry?”
It surprised her to see that he seemed to relish the prospect. “Will do. They need any help with getting dressed or anything while I’m in there?”
Holly tried not to smirk. “Try asking them that and see the answer you get.” The ruckus that would follow that kind of question would be worth the price of admission. Maybe having Alex around wouldn’t last long after all. Surely a day or two of this would have him hightailing it back to Chicago.
He rose, grinning. “I don’t think so. You look like that would be too easy. And I have to remember they’re independent guys even if they aren’t very tall. Even at five, I don’t remember wanting help with much of anything. I’ll settle for breaking up the water fight. And once we get them dropped off, you and I are going to have a long conversation on personal safety.”
He was going to be a hard one to shake, Holly thought as he retreated to the hall bathroom. Something about watching him from a rear view made her worry about more than just getting rid of him. Seeing him in jeans early in the morning, Holly could tell that having Alex around was going to be more threatening to her personal safety than worrying about Rico out there someplace in the shadows.
Chapter Four
Grocery shopping with Alex was a nerve-racking experience for Holly. She was sure she would rather have been pushing the cart through the aisles with both boys along, and that was her least favorite way to shop. But Alex was much more adamant about putting into the cart large numbers of things she couldn’t afford and didn’t usually get. And unlike her boys, a pointed look in his direction did not make him put things back on the shelves.
In fact, no amount of arguing made him stick to her list or her budget. “You’re not doing me any favors in the long run,” she told him when he put the third expensive package of meat into the cart. “Once you’re gone in a few days the boys will only wonder why I’m not getting all this again.”
“Then they’ll be happy to have good old Uncle Alex stick around a while, won’t they?”
It was all Holly could do not to roll her eyes. “That’s what they’ll see when they look at you, isn’t it? An uncle to spoil them and let them do things that I wouldn’t on a bet. Of course they’ll be happy to keep you around.”
“Hey, I’d think you’d be just as happy. You get a little help, and Cook County pays both at the same time. If I were in your shoes it wouldn’t bother me to have them pay for a whole lot.”
Holly didn’t know how to answer that one. She’d tried hard not to blame the police force for Kevin’s death. It had been a struggle not to blame his job, or God, or even fate or whatever for what had happened. None of those alternatives seemed like the Christian