“Surprise. Dinner is served.”
Stephanie closed the register and glanced at her son with a questioning smile. He smiled back. His eyes gleamed with pleasure. His sunny nature had returned. She realized how much she had missed it.
“Dinner? Wow, I’m impressed,” she said as they walked to the back of the store. “I hope you remembered the jelly. I’m starved.”
His grin widened as she teased him about the dinner he’d planned and executed all by himself when he’d been four. She and Clay and Doogie had sat on the living room rug and eaten the meal, which consisted of peanut butter sandwiches, chocolate milk and two cookies each. Halfway through, he had remembered he hadn’t put any jelly on the sandwiches. He’d taken the remains to the kitchen and added the jelly before he let his parents finish. Remembering the jelly had become a family joke.
“Actually,” he told her as they entered the hallway, “Nick got everything.”
“Nick?” Her steps slowed. “Is he in the office?”
“Yeah.” Doogie’s expression became anxious. “Is that okay? I didn’t think you’d mind.”
What could she say? “Of course not. I was just surprised, that’s all.”
“He picked me up at Mrs. Withers today. We kicked some balls around at the field. He gave me the team shirt. I get to sit on the bench at the game tomorrow.”
Stephanie digested all this news. She felt danger closing in around her like a smothering fog. She couldn’t figure out the nervy way Nick made her feel.
Once he’d been the hero in her world, but that was long ago. Now…now he was just a man, a cop like her husband had been. Nothing special in that.
Except that lately he made her nervous. Since that kiss under the mistletoe, she’d felt off balance around him, and she didn’t like it. She kept remembering things she shouldn’t. She thought he was, too. His eyes, when he looked at her…
She paused to collect herself before entering the office after her son. The desk was covered with napkins acting as place mats. Paper plates held curly fries and sandwiches still in their wrappers. Bowls of salad and fruit completed the meal. Nick sat in a straight chair at the corner of her desk. The wing chair was pulled up to the other end.
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