Wilhemina continued to sniffle and Katie absently patted her hand. “I already miss him,” Wilhemina said.
Chantal gave a pitiful mewl and Katie didn't know how much longer she could stand their misery.
She rubbed her forehead and Michael's leather loafers appeared in front of her. She glanced up. The grim resolve on his face made her stomach hurt. “No alternate flights?” she asked dully.
“In a manner of speaking,” he said, his gaze unreadable.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we're going to help Ivan spend some of his money. We're taking a charter.”
Wilhemina began to cry so loudly that people began to stare. Chantal mewed.
Michael clenched his jaw. “Get ready for the flight from hell, sweetheart, and this time there's no Valium.”
“
If your man doesn't dance, then teach him. If he won't try, then cha-cha on to the next one.
”
—S
UNNY
C
OLLINS'S WISDOM
“
I
need to rent a car,” Katie said to Michael as soon as they exited the death ship that had flown them from Dallas to Philadelphia through nearly continuous turbulence and nonstop sniffling and mewing from Wilhemina and Chantal. Her head was still throbbing, but she had no time to waste if she wanted to reach Jeremy before bedtime.
“I'm going to take you,” Michael said as he carried duffel bags and Chantal in her kennel.
Katie blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I said I'm taking you. Do you have an objection?”
Her heart pitter-pattered at the intensity of his gaze.
“I-uh-guess not, but don't you think you should take Wilhemina home?”
“Do you really think she should be left by herself right now?”
Katie glanced at the woman in question and saw her dab her pink nose and puffy eyes with a tissue. “I guess not,” She searched Michael's face. “Don't you need to go see about your mother?”
“I can do that later tonight,” he said.
She wanted to ask him why he would help her, but she couldn't. She sighed and decided to think about it later after Jeremy had opened his gift. “I'll need to make more than one stop,” she warned him.
“Where do you need to go?”
“I need to get a chocolate cake and Gummi Worms and I need to pick up his gift. It's at the Rasmussens’.”
“Where is the school?”
She told him and watched him shake his head. “What did you get him?”
“Computer game.”
“We should just stop by a department store on the way. You can take the other one back.”
Surprised and unsettled, she opened her mouth, then closed it.
“I'll get the car and meet you and Wilhemina outside the door.”
“Okay,” she said, not knowing what else to say. She watched him leave and felt a strange tightening sensation inside her chest. She wasn't used to being helped.” She patted Wilhemina through the next few minutes, mentally planning what she needed to get for Jeremy.
Michael appeared and she and Wilhemina got into the car. After a few minutes, Wilhemina blew her nose and looked out the window. “Where are we going?”
“To a birthday celebration,” Michael said.
“For whom?”
“Katie's little brother.”
“Brother! Katie has a brother? How many other siblings do you have?”
“One,” Katie said. “One sister.”
“Where is she?”
“I think somewhere in Texas.”
Wilhemina poked her head between the front bucket seats. “Why don't you know where she is?”
“Different fathers,” Katie said grimly. “We all have different fathers.”
“Oh,” she said, sinking back into her seat. “Your mother must have attracted men like flowers, draw bees.”
Katie nodded. “You could say that.” Other people had put it different ways.
Slut, whore, easy, trashy…
“Gosh, I've always wondered what it must be like to have men chasing after me.”
“There's a downside. Remember Chad.”
Wilhemina blushed profusely. “Ew. I'd forgotten all about him. Douglas made me forget about everyone but him,” she added sadly and began to sniff again.
Michael gave a long-suffering sigh and put a CD in the player. “No disco,” he told Katie, grinding his teeth. “Enough's enough.”
She wasn't going to protest. This man was going to get her to her brother in time. If they were lucky, Wilhemina and Chantal would fall asleep. She closed her own eyes; leaned her head back, and allowed the jazzy music to play over her. The lyrics were sweeter than the kind she would expect Michael to choose. She expected rock music so hard and fast that it prevented thought. It occurred to her that she had prejudged Michael in a lot of ways. It had felt easier that way. She wondered why she'd worked so hard to believe he was a jerk and didn't like the answer her conscience offered.
He pulled into a Wal-Mart superstore. “I'll get the computer game. You get the cake and Gummi Worms.”
She blinked. “How—why—”
“It'll be faster,” he told her. “Are you okay? You seem kinda out of it.”
You keep surprising me,
she didn't say. She moved her head in a circle. “I'm still coming down from the flight. Let's go,” she said, then opened her car door.
“Can I come too?” Wilhemina asked.
Katie glanced over her shoulder in disbelief. “You want to go to Wal-Mart?”
Wilhemina shrugged. “It's gotta be better than sitting here. When Chantal whines, it makes me feel like crying too.”
Katie held the door. “Then you're welcome to come along.”
In short order, they gathered their assigned items and converged at the checkout line. “Ice cream?” Katie said as Wilhemina put it on the counter.
“And decorator frosting so you can draw his name on the cake.”
“Thank you,” Katie said. I wouldn't have thought of that”
Wilhemina sighed. “I wish I had a brother and two sisters.”
When Katie started to pay, Michael stepped in front of her and pulled out his wallet. She frowned, not wanting his charity. “I can cover this. It's my brother.”
“No problem,” he said.
“I insist Jeremy is my responsibility.” She tried to elbow her way in front of him.
Michael ignored her, shoving a wad of bills at the clerk.
Katie's temper spiked. “I'm not a charity case,” she whispered to him in a voice that sounded more like a hiss even to her own ears.
He threw her a look that mixed frustration and anger. “I never said you were.”
They gathered the bag and Wilhemina picked up the cake. “Then why are you acting like it?” Katie asked.
“I'm not It was just something I wanted to do. Don't get your panties, in a twist over it. You can pay me back later.”
As soon as Wilhemina scooted into the back seat, Katie slammed the door closed and rounded on Michael. “Okay, what's going on here? Why are you being so damn nice to me? If you think I'm going to have sex with you because you paid for my brother's birthday, you're wrong.”
Michael looked at her as if she'd completely lost it, then closed his eyes for several seconds. He had the look of a man who was counting to bring his temper under control. “I have no interest in using your brother's birthday as a seduction.” He opened his eyes and met her gaze. “I'm not that hard up.”
Katie immediately felt like a crazy person. What had possessed her? She wasn't sure she wanted to answer that question. She took a quick breath. “That was pretty ridiculous, wasn't it?”
He nodded.
“Sorry,” she said in a low voice. “I'm just used to having to do everything myself.” She paused. “Thanks.”
He gave another brief nod, then opened the passenger door for her. “We need to go.”
Katie slid into her seat and wrapped Jeremy's gift while Wilhemina added Jeremy's name to the cake. Michael pulled into the drive just as the sun began to set. A group of children burst through the front door onto the porch, curious to see the visitors.
“If you can remember to make sure that Jeremy can see your mouth when you're talking to him, please do. He can't hear hardly anything, but he's determined to be the best lip reader in the world. He speaks well because he lost his hearing two years ago in an accident,” she said, dropping the bomb, then scooting out of the car.
“Priss!” Jeremy cried, pushing through the crowd on the porch.
“Priss?” Wilhemina echoed.
“Family pet name,” Michael said.
“But Katie isn't prissy.”
Jeremy flew down the steps and threw himself in Katie's arms. “What took you so long?”
“Airplane problems,” Katie said, hugging him to her. “How has your birthday been?”
“Okay. I'm glad you showed up.”
Katie's heart twisted. “I wouldn't miss it.”
Jeremy looked past her. “Who's carrying my cake?”
Katie chuckled. “How do you know it's your cake?”
Jeremy rolled his eyes. “Because it's my birthday and you promised and Priss always keeps promises.”
Katie squeezed her brother again for the gift of his belief in her. She only hoped she could live up to it. “This is Wilhemina. I work for her dad.”
Jeremy's eyes widened. “You're Ivan the terrible's daughter. But you look nice.”
Wilhemina smiled, one of very few today. “Thank you. Happy birthday, Jeremy.”
“Thanks,” he said, then looked at Michael. “Who are you?”
“I work with your sister,” Michael said.
“For Ivan the terrible?”
Michael nodded, his lips twitching.
Katie touched Jeremy's shoulder to signal that she was going to say something to him. “Michael fixed things so I would be able to get here tonight. He drove me here and he fixed things with the plane.”
“He can fix a plane?”
Katie laughed. “No, he found another plane for us to take when ours was broken.”
Jeremy frowned. “I'm glad you didn't fly on a broken plane.”
“Me too,” Katie murmured, remembering the turbulence during the flight.
Jeremy looked up at her and squinted his eyes. “You look different. Prettier.”
She smiled, feeling a little rush of pleasure at his approval. She had been so determined to be plain and invisible for so long that she hadn't known how nice it could feel to look like herself. “Thanks. Don't you want to open your gift?”
“Yeah, come inside. Some of my friends will want some of the cake too. They didn't believe you were coming, but I knew you would.”
Katie looked at Michael. He had made it possible. She wondered if he had any idea how important this had been to both her and Jeremy. His gaze met hers and she saw a light of recognition. He knew. What a strange connection she felt with him.
Jeremy tore open his gift and gave approving sounds to the cake. There was a moment of panic when Katie realized she had forgotten to buy candles. Wilhemina had not. Katie impulsively hugged Ivan's daughter in gratitude.
While Jeremy showed Michael the new computer game, Katie spoke with one of the staff who repeated Jeremy's request to spend the summer with her. As much as she would love seeing her brother every day, she wanted a better environment for him. Her apartment was cramped and she worked long hours. Jeremy deserved better.
A staff member gently reminded her that the time for lights out was past and Katie looked for Jeremy. She found him talking with Michael on the front porch. Clearly unaccustomed to speaking to a hearing-impaired person, Michael turned his head at times during the conversation.
She watched Jeremy catch Michael's jaw between his hands and position it directly in his eyesight. “I want to hear what you're saying. Keep your mouth right there.”
Katie held her breath wondering how Michael would react to Jeremy's directness.
Michael laughed and ruffled Jeremy's hair. “You're going to have to remind me.”
Her heart swelled at the sight of the two of them. She hadn't expected Michael to be so generous. He was a busy man, a man with a mission, almost a vendetta. No time for little boys with hearing problems.
“Can we really go to a baseball game sometime this summer?”
She caught the look of delight on Jeremy's face and heard an alarm bell go off in her mind. She didn't want Michael making plans with Jeremy that he wouldn't keep. She quickly stepped onto the porch.
“Sure if—”
“We need to leave,” Katie said.
Jeremy swung his head toward her seconds after Michael did.
“We need to leave,” she repeated for his benefit.
Jeremy scowled. “But you just got here.”
“I know. I'm sorry, but it's not fair for us to foul up everyone else's schedule.” She leaned down to kiss his cheek. “Happy birthday.”
He gave her a hug and they walked toward the car where Wilhemina waited. “You should take me with you,” he said.
“You would be bored. My apartment is small. I'm gone all day long and the computer at school is much much better and newer than mine,” she said and tried to sign the words.
“You just signed that whiskey is great for video games,” Jeremy told her.
Michael appeared to cough to cover a chuckle.
Katie threw him a chastising glance before she turned back to Jeremy. “Sometimes I think you're pulling my leg because you don't want to spend a lot of time on sign language.”
“You signed whiskey.”
“If you say so. I'll bring you to my apartment for as many weekends as you can stand this summer. How is that for a compromise.”
His eyes lit up. “Great!”
She smiled and her heart squeezed tight. “I love you.”
“Me too,” he said and gave the sign for
I love you.
It was one of the few phrases he'd willingly incorporated.
Jeremy turned to Michael. “Thanks for bringing my sister.”
“My pleasure,” Michael said. “We'll have to try to go to a baseball game sometime this summer.”
“That would be great.” Jeremy peered into the car at Wilhemina as she stroked Chantal. “What is that?”
“It's a cat. Her name is Chantal.”
Jeremy frowned. “Cat! She doesn't look like a cat. What did you do to her?”
“Nothing,” Wilhemina said, giggling. “She's a hairless cat.”
Jeremy shook his head and made the sign for ugly. Chuckling, Katie kissed him and got into the car. Michael slid behind the wheel, started the engine, and pulled away. Katie waved even though she knew Jeremy probably couldn't see her, then sank into her seat. “Thank you both very much.”