Fire and Rain (23 page)

“What happened?” Jos asked as Kip helped him back into bed.

“Carter called. He’s been looking into your aunt for us.”

“I remember,” Jos said as he settled under the covers.

“Well, he found something. It appears your grandfather left a trust fund for you and any other of his grandchildren. You’re old enough to claim your share of the trust. He named your Aunt Kathy as trustee. We think that if she got custody of Isaac, she planned to invest his portion of the trust in her business.”

“Oh,” Jos said quietly.

“She should have told you about the trust when you turned eighteen, but instead she kept quiet and the money away from you.”

“So what do we do?” Jos said, as calmly as anything.

“We’ll get a lawyer, and he’ll take care of it. I also think we have enough to pressure your aunt to let someone else act as trustee for Isaac.”

“Okay,” Jos whispered.

“Aren’t you mad? I mean, if you’d have had that money, you and Isaac might not have ended up on the streets. Heck, your aunt found you, and she still did nothing to help. That….” Kip stood and began pacing the floor as his anger grew fast. “How can you be so calm about this? She….”

“We knew she was up to something, and now we have our answer.”

“But if you had known, you wouldn’t have been on the street and….”

Jos sat up slowly and got back out of the bed. “I also wouldn’t have met you. So how can I get angry about that?”

“Because you deserve to be. I wouldn’t give up anything that happened. I swear I’d do all of it again, a million times over, if it meant I got to have you and Isaac in my life. You know that. But the fact that you went through all that you did—”

“I know, and I’ll probably be angry about it later. But right now I’m too tired, and I don’t want to think about her.” Jos held onto his arm. “Would you help me get my robe? I want to go downstairs. I’m tired of being in the bed.” Jos looked at him with heat in his eyes. “Unless….”

“You’re not up for that,” Kip said. “But if you promise to take it easy, I’ll take good care of you later.” Kip hugged Jos gently and wondered how on earth he had ever found a man like him on a rainy night in a doorway.

“You always have,” Jos said, resting his head on Kip’s shoulder. Kip didn’t want to let go, but he reached for Jos’s robe and helped him put it on. Then he slowly guided Jos to the stairs and down to the living room, where Isaac was sitting at the coffee table with paper and crayons, drawing away.

As soon as Isaac heard them, he looked up and grinned. “What are you drawing?” Jos asked as he sat on the sofa.

Isaac handed the page to Jos, and Kip leaned over the back so he could see it too. “That’s me, that’s you, and that’s Uncle Kip. I drawed you holding hands but not yucky kissing.”

Kip rolled his eyes, and then, just for fun, he lightly kissed Jos on the cheek. “How about we frame it, and then we can hang it on the wall?” He knew just the place for it—right next to the pictures of his mother and father. “It can be our first family picture,” he whispered to Jos, who turned, smiled, and kissed him.

“I’LL BE
right there,” Jos called when the doorbell rang.

“It’s probably Donald and Carter,” Kip said from the kitchen. “They were going to come a little early to try to help out, and we figured Isaac and Alex could play for a while.” A mild crash followed by muttering told Jos that something was giving Kip trouble. “It’s all right.”

“Okay.” He opened the door, and a streak raced past him, Isaac squealing a little as Alex came in the house.

“I got lots of Legos,” Isaac said. “Can we go to my room to play?”

“Yes. But remember you have to clean up any messes you make,” Jos reminded him.

“We will,” Isaac promised, and then the boys were off like streaks of lightning.

“Welcome to the funhouse,” Jos said, closing the door against the cold before hugging Donald and then Carter. “Kip is in the kitchen doing battle with the turkey. I think it’s winning.” He hung up their coats.

“Red and Terry said they might be a little late. Red got a call at the end of his shift.”

Jos nodded. “I planned for that.” He was beginning to understand what it meant to be in a relationship with a police officer. Kip often got home late, and more than once Jos had sat on the sofa worrying when there was a report of an incident in town.

“It’s part of having them in our lives,” Donald said as he beamed at Carter. “Wouldn’t change a thing… except the fact that he doesn’t always call home.” Donald bumped Carter’s shoulder. “Where would you like me to put this?” Donald lifted the bowl he was carrying.

“In the kitchen,” Jos said as he led the way. Kip was washing up some potatoes, and Jos figured the pan had been the crash he’d heard a few minutes earlier. Jos made room in the refrigerator and slid in the salad bowl.

Kip put the potatoes on the stove and sighed. “I think that’s the last of it for now.” The turkey was in the oven and scenting up the kitchen. The rest was on the stove ready to be started. “Anyone ready for a beer or wine? I know I am.”

“Whatever you’re having,” Carter said, and Kip went to the basement and returned with wine. Jos got the glasses, and Kip uncorked the bottle and poured. After serving their guests, he handed Jos a glass and put an arm around his shoulders.

“You went quiet,” Kip whispered.

He did that sometimes. The turns his life had taken still overwhelmed him sometimes. Mostly now they were good things, though, but he found that change of most sorts tended to make him nervous.

“I thought you might have to work today,” Carter said.

“Darryl closes on Thanksgiving. It’s a family time for them. They always spend the holiday with Billy’s brothers, and it seems like kind of a big deal.” He sipped from his glass and let the happiness in his life take over. The bad stuff was history. Sometimes it returned in his dreams, and more than once he’d woken in a panic thinking he was outside, especially during storms, but it was getting better.

“A woman and her daughter moved into your old apartment,” Donald said. “They were so happy to get it, and the landlord was really understanding.”

“He seemed nice when I talked to him.” He and Isaac had officially moved out of the apartment and in with Kip just a few weeks ago. The things with his aunt were still up in the air, but the lawyer was handling it, and Jos was more than happy to let him. It didn’t sound like Aunt Kathy had much fight in her, and it was only a matter of getting all the paperwork done. He had his money, and Kip had helped him get an account set up for it. He was determined to live on what he made and leave that money for emergencies and Isaac’s future. There was no way he and Isaac were ever going to end up on the streets again. That alone gave him peace of mind.

The doorbell rang. “That must be Red and Terry,” Kip said.

“I’ll get it, I’m closest,” Carter said and left the kitchen. Jos set down his glass to follow him. He heard Terry and Red laughing and then was hugged by both of them. He took their coats and the bottles of wine before leading them all into the kitchen, where they got glasses and conversations built.

“Jos,” Red said as he came into the room. “Kip asked me to give this to you. We spoke to the judge, and he agreed to release it as long as you agree to return it if needed.” Red dropped a gold coin pendant in his hand. “He said it was important to you.”

Jos nodded and looked at it. His mother’s necklace, the only thing he and Isaac had left of her. He honestly hadn’t expected to see it again. He swallowed as he slipped the gold chain around his neck. “It is,” he whispered.

Jos excused himself and went upstairs, saying he needed to check on the boys. While he did, he also needed a few seconds to himself. Even now, Kip’s thoughtfulness and the kindness of his new friends sometimes took him by surprise.

The boys had been quiet, which was not necessarily a good thing. He found them in Isaac’s room on the floor with every Lego in the house piled around them. Goodness knew what they were building, but they seemed to be having a ball. “We’re going to put out snacks, so come down in a few minutes if you want some.”

“Strawberries?” Isaac asked. He’d seen the packages earlier and had his eye on them.

“Yes,” Jos answered, and Isaac looked at Alex, licking his lips.

“Uncle Kip got a chocolate cake, too,” Isaac shared. They were still trying to figure out the whole thing around what to call Kip, and Jos figured he’d let Isaac choose. For now he was Uncle Kip, but who knew what Isaac would call him in the future.

“And Uncle Terry brought pumpkin pie,” Jos said.

Isaac made a face. “I only like Halloween pumpkins, not eating pumpkins,” he said, and Alex nodded. They were obviously chocolate cake guys.

“You can have whatever you want after dinner. So finish up here, and then you can join us.” Jos smiled and went back downstairs. The television was on, the announcer already starting on the first game of the day. Kip was in the kitchen working on dinner, which was coming along amazingly well. Everything was cooking now. Jos got the appetizers set up and carried them into the living room before calling the boys to come down. They sounded like a herd of elephants on the stairs.

The guys helped them with the food, and Jos went back into the kitchen so Kip wouldn’t be in there all day.

It took an hour, but dinner was finally on the table: carved turkey, potatoes regular and sweet, beans, cranberry sauce, salad, gravy, and stuffing—from a box, but he wasn’t telling anyone else that. The candles were lit and the nice glasses held wine and water. Jos called everyone in, and he and Carter got the boys settled into their special places at the end of the table. Everyone took their places, and the food was passed around until they all had some of everything.

“Can you believe we pulled this off?” Kip said, and everyone at the table nodded. It had been a miracle that Carter and Kip had managed to get the holiday off and that they had been able to schedule dinner around Red’s shift.

“Miracles do happen,” Red said, looking straight at Terry.

Donald and Carter nodded at each other, and Carter leaned close to Alex, taking his little hand for a second.

Jos did the same thing to Isaac and swallowed hard. In a way, they had all gotten their own brand of miracle. Jos certainly counted himself lucky each and every day that he had Kip.

“Is Mama watching us from where the angels are?” Isaac asked.

“You bet she is,” Kip answered, “and I think she’s smiling.” That seemed to be the answer Isaac wanted, and he grinned and went right back to eating. Kip shared a smile with Jos and took his hand under the table.

“You were our miracle,” Jos said quietly.

“I was just about to say that you and Isaac were mine.”

Jos swallowed hard and reached for his glass. Kip did the same and then stood. “I promise to make this short and sweet so we can all eat—won’t that be a treat?” Everyone groaned, and Jos rolled his eyes. Sometimes Kip could be too cute for words. “All right, then, how about this…?” He raised his glass. “To family.” Everyone stood, and six glasses met in the center of the table.

Carlisle Cops: Book One

Officer Red Markham knows about the ugly side of life after a car accident left him scarred and his parents dead. His job policing the streets of Carlisle, PA, only adds to the ugliness, and lately, drug overdoses have been on the rise. One afternoon, Red is dispatched to the local Y for a drowning accident involving a child. Arriving on site, he finds the boy rescued by lifeguard Terry Baumgartner. Of course, Red isn’t surprised when gorgeous Terry won’t give him and his ugly mug the time of day.

Overhearing one of the officers comment about him being shallow opens Terry’s eyes. Maybe he isn’t as kindhearted as he always thought. His friend Julie suggests he help those less fortunate by delivering food to the elderly. On his route he meets outspoken Margie, a woman who says what’s on her mind. Turns out, she’s Officer Red’s aunt.

Red and Terry’s worlds collide as Red tries to track the source of the drugs and protect Terry from an ex-boyfriend who won’t take no for an answer. Together they might discover a chance for more than they expected—if they can see beyond what’s on the surface.