The Happiest Season (5 page)

Maggie smiled uncertainly.  “I can’t ask you to…”

“You didn’t ask.”  He smiled.  “I will take plenty of
pictures of the damage, and give both the photos and receipts to the camel
keeper, and the folks at the church.  I have no doubt someone will make it
right.”

“But it’s not
your
job to make anything right,”
Maggie reminded him.  She tugged at her lower lip with her teeth, a nervous
gesture that made her look vulnerable—which made him want to help her even
more.     

He waved off her concern.  “I can swing by the home
improvement store, pick up materials, and have the siding replaced in no time.”

“Are you…?”  Maggie winced, as if afraid to ask the question
in its entirety.

“What?”

“I mean, are you good with … tools and … such?”

He gave a burst of laughter.  “Tools and such?”  He bit back
his laughter and nodded.  “I worked construction in order to pay my way through
college.  I’m pretty handy with tools and such,” he said, chuckling again.

Maggie watched him, uncertain what to do.  Should she let
him help her out?  It certainly wasn’t his responsibility.

Wait.  She could make the repairs herself.  How hard could
it be?  Nailing siding into place couldn’t be too difficult.  Could it?

“I really appreciate your offer to help,” she told him. 
“But I can’t ask you to give up your time.  I think I could probably do the
repairs myself.”

He appeared to force back a smile—or perhaps it was a guffaw
of laughter.  Gloria didn’t hold back her laughter, however.  “Oh, Maggie, let
the man help you!” she urged.  “It isn’t just the siding that’s damaged.  It’s
the trim too.  You need a professional.”

Maggie hesitantly raised her eyes to John.  “Are you sure
you don’t mind helping?”

“Not at all.”  He checked his watch.  “Do you happen to have
a tape measure?”  He abruptly shook his head.  “Actually, don’t worry about
it.  I need to run home and get my tool box.”

Maggie heaved a worried sigh.  “I really don’t feel right
about…”

He waved off her concern.  “Don’t worry about it.  I’m happy
to help.”  He smiled and hurriedly polished off his sandwich.  He started for
the front door.  “I’ll see you all in a while.”

Maggie sighed again, but he smiled reassuringly as he strode
out of the house.  She closed the door behind him and returned to the family
room.

Gloria left her place on the couch and joined her in the
kitchen.  She gave a cheeky smile.  “The hunk likes you,” she said in a
sing-song voice.

“What?  No,” she protested.  “He’s the police officer who
responded to the call last night.  He…”

“… Likes you…”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake.  He’s a nice man.  That’s all.”

Maggie sat down and took a bite of her sandwich.  Gloria
gave her an assessing glance.  “The man is interested,” Gloria said, pinning
her with a look.

“No, he isn’t.”

Gloria gave a dubious chuckle.  “Don’t even try to deny it. 
You two have chemistry.” 

“What’s chemistry?” Rickey asked, as he pulled up a stool
and sat down at the island. 

Maggie shot Gloria a dirty look.  The last thing she needed
was Rickey bringing up the subject of chemistry with John when he returned.  It
wouldn’t be the first time her little boy had said or repeated something
embarrassing. 

“Honey, did you finish your puzzle?” she asked, attempting
to distract him.

“No.  What’s chemistry?”

“It’s a subject in school that I flunked,” Gloria told him,
making an unhappy face.  “Try as I might, I could never understand chemistry.”

“I don’t get it,” Rickey said.  “If Mama and John have
chemistry, does that mean they’re gonna go to school?”

“No,” Maggie said crisply, giving Gloria a dirty look.

She came to the rescue.  “I wonder if John will let Rickey
help him repair the damage from that awful camel?”

Rickey perked right up.  “Do you think he will?  I want to
help!”  He slid off the stool and ran out of the room.

“Where’d he go?” Gloria asked.

Maggie shrugged and gave her a chagrined glance.  “Gloria! 
You’re in trouble.”

She gave an unconcerned shrug in return.  “I call it like I
see it,” she said.  “That man is interested.”

“Yeah, sure,” Maggie said with a snort. 

Rickey suddenly charged into the room, wearing a toy tool
belt but carrying a real hammer—albeit a small one.  “I have a hammer!” he
cried eagerly.  “I can help Officer John.”

“Sure you can,” Gloria said.  “I just bet he’d be glad for the
help.”

“Mama, do you have a nail so I can practice before he gets
here?”

Maggie shook her head regretfully.  “I’m sorry, honey.  I
don’t.  I’m sure … John … will have all the, er, nails we’ll need.”

“I’m sure he will,” Gloria said, nodding in agreement.

“Okay, well, I’m going outside to see what all needs to be
done,” Rickey said importantly.

“Did you finish your sandwich?” Maggie said mock-sternly.

“Almost done,” he said, and hurried to pick up the peanut
butter sandwich.  He wolfed down the remaining bites and then washed it down
with apple juice.  “Done!”  He hurried outside and the women heard what sounded
like a soft tapping on the siding.

“Oh, I hope he doesn’t damage the siding more,” Maggie said.

“Sounds like he’s showing real restraint with that hammer,”
Gloria observed.

“Arrrggghhh,” Maggie said with a wince, as she hurried to
poke her head out the back door.  “Honey, please don’t pound on the back of the
house with that hammer.”

“I’m done anyway.”  He pointed to the damaged areas.  “A lot
of this needs to be replaced,” he said, attempting to deepen his voice.

“You’re right.  Why don’t you come inside and you can
discuss it when Officer … er, John, gets back.”

“Okay, Mama.”

He stepped into the house.  “Officer John and I have a lot
of work to do out there,” he informed Gloria seriously.  She nodded gravely in
reply, and then slapped her thighs with her hands and slipped off the stool.

“It’s about time I got moving.  Thank you for lunch,” she
said.

“And thank you for all the goodies,” Maggie said.

“We never did taste that fudge that Gloria brought us,”
Rickey reminded them.

Maggie dug through the package and pulled out a plate of
fudge.  She pulled back the plastic wrap and passed her son a piece.  He
stuffed it into his mouth.

“De-li-cious,” he enthused.  “Can I have another?”

“May I have another?”

“You haven’t even had one yet, Mama,” he said, giving her an
odd look.

She chuckled.  “I was pointing out to you that when you ask
for something, you need to say
may
, rather than
can
.”

“Oh.  May I?”

“Just one more,” she told him, wagging a warning finger at
him before escorting Gloria to the door. 

Once there, her friend watched her speculatively.  “I like
Officer John,” she observed.  “He seems like a good man.”

Maggie inhaled deeply and gave a neither-here-nor-there
shrug.

“Yeah, you just keep on pretending you don’t notice his dark
good looks…  His bulging biceps…  His long lashes over those soulful brown
eyes…”

“See you Monday!” Maggie said, giving her friend a
frustrated glance as she gently shoved her out of the house.

“See you Monday,” Gloria parroted, and chuckled all the way
to her car.

John searched through his tiny apartment, struggling to
remember where he’d stowed his tool box.  He finally remembered he’d shoved it
to the back of his bedroom closet.  He hadn’t anticipated doing any home repair
living in the apartment complex, and kept a small tool kit in his truck in the
unlikely event it broke down.

He tugged the large box out of the closet and headed out of
the apartment.  It was actually a relief to have somewhere to go.  He spent the
majority of his days off from work holed up in his apartment, watching
television or napping.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t sleep a full eight hours at night. 
He spent so much time napping, he didn’t require it.  Maybe he was depressed…

He considered the possibility.  Maybe on some level he might
be, he acknowledged, though a part of him had to concede that Kim had done him
a favor by dumping him.  Time and distance from her had shown him they were mismatched
from the get-go. 

He cocked his head in contemplation.  No, he wasn’t
depressed, but he was bored.  Maybe it was time to consider getting out of the
apartment and into a home of his own.  Only, he didn’t want to make a mistake by
rushing into something.  Particularly since he was alone, and really didn’t
require a lot of space. 

He decided to leave making the big decisions for later.  He had
a job to do now, and was actually glad for it.  Knowing he was about to help
out Maggie and her son gave him something to do, but would also enable him to
get his mind off of his own troubles.  He found he was actually looking forward
to spending time with them, despite the reason for it. 

By the time he arrived in Maggie’s neighborhood, however, he
was beginning to think he’d been hasty in offering to help.  Maybe she didn’t
want his help.  It wasn’t as if he’d given her much of a choice.  He heaved a
sigh.  Maybe he should have left well enough alone.

But when he pulled up to her house, and spotted Rickey peering
out a front window, and then breaking into a huge smile when he saw him drive
up, he cast the worries aside.  He was simply doing a good deed—helping someone
in distress.

He climbed out of his truck, and then rounded the bed.  He
pulled the tool box out and strode up the path to the front door.  Rickey
pulled it open.  “Hi!”  He held up a hammer for John’s inspection.  “I have a
hammer too!”

“I see that,” he said.  “It looks like a good one.”

“Are we starting now?” Rickey asked eagerly.

“I think we need to have a look first,” John told him.  “And
then we’ll do some measurements, so we’ll know how much lap siding we need to
buy, and then we’ll head to the home improvement store…”

“
We!
” Ricky cried.  “I get to go with you?!”  He
abruptly spun around and ran into the family room, where Maggie was sitting
with a cup of coffee.  “Mama!  I get to go to the store with Officer John!”

John stepped into the room, his face registering concern. 
He hadn’t meant to invite Rickey to the store, but the little boy had
apparently read an invitation in his words.  He didn’t want Maggie thinking
he’d stepped outside the bounds when it came to her child.  They had really
just met him.  Frankly, he wouldn’t trust a stranger with his child—if indeed
he had one.

Maggie appeared to read his discomfiture.  “Honey, I think
John would probably like to go to the store by himself.”  She met his gaze over
the top of Rickey’s head.  “Oh, shoot, I’m going to need to go by a cash
machine, to pay for the materials…”

“Mama, I want to go,” Rickey said sadly, his shoulders
drooping.

John hated disappointing the little boy.  Who knew a trip to
a home improvement store could make a kid light up like a Christmas tree?  He
gave Maggie a hesitant look.  “Maybe we could all go together?”

She appeared uncertain, but relented with a smile.  It was
actually only fair she go too.  It wasn’t appropriate to expect John to go to
the store to pick up materials he needed to fix
her
house.  “Are you
sure you don’t mind all this?” she asked, searching his face for any sign they
were imposing on his time.

“Not at all,” he assured her.  “Let me just step outside for
a minute and I’ll do some measurements, so we’ll know how much siding we need.”

She glanced at her son’s eager face and then back to John. 
“Okay, and thank you.  Rickey, get your coat while I turn everything off in the
house.”

She hurried to shut down the lights, and to assure Pocomo
was happy on his doggie bed on the sofa in the family room.  Suddenly, she
realized that Pocomo hadn’t barked crazily when John had entered the house. 
That was so odd.  The little dog always howled when a stranger entered the
house, or even stepped on the property.  Obviously, the dog liked him, which
became apparent when he left his place on the couch and trotted over to John,
who had just stepped back inside.  Pocomo raised himself up on hind legs and
patted John’s pant legs with his front paw.  John smiled and scooped up the
puppy. 

“Pocomo likes you!” Rickey cried, surprised.  “He usually
doesn’t like anybody until he gets to know them.”  He patted the little
Chihuahua on his head.  “You probably know John saved us from the camel—huh,
Pocomo?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” John said, smiling.

“Pocomo wants to go too, Mama!” Rickey said, and to John
said, “He loves going for rides.”